literacy week

It has been a long and tough week. It has also been very rewarding and fun. In fact I have noticed a hint of change in the air at school lately, as if the feeling (a vague notion, of course) is changing.

Litearcy week went off a major success. KB was the lynchpin of course - as always, and has worked tirelessly over the last couple of months to get the whole shebang up and running. We ran heaps of different activities through the week - the most successful being our dress-up day, 'Wear Red or Be Well Read' where everyone had the choice of coming dressed as a character in a favourite book or film. Some kids went to a lot of effort. We had writing and spelling competitions, problem solving (we combined Litearcy week with Numeracy week!) a special literacy component to all lessons across the school where teachers were asked to make explicit the 'literacy aspects' of their particular subject area.

To finish off the weekend we organised a Trivia Night. We decided to get someone professional to come and run the thing and he was fantastic. A great night. A week ago we thought of cancelling as we only had 25-30 names and needed at least 50-60. In the end we had about 80! My sister-in-law gave me some prizes (she works at a film distributor/marketing place) and we also encouraged students to come along. In the end a group of senior girls and a couple of mums won! The English faculty may not be able to show our faces at school for a while! Needless to say, the girls who won were very excited at beating us and I'm sure we'll hear about it for months to come.

In speaking to KB about it, we both agreed that the week has been a huge success. We both worked hard on this one, in fact part of the reward for me has been working closely with KB. She's a great friend (thanks). Despite that fact that its the end of term 3, and we are all walking around with large bags under our eyes, the faculty is doing really well - especially in terms of our collegiate and professional relationships. We have had some excellent and positive successes this term.

Pictures to follow ...