Work
Work continues to take up most of my time; I went to Ulearn 2013 in Hamilton in October which was great on many levels. I met up with lots of people I had only known online, I scored some freebies from exhibitors and I came away with the realisation I am not as dumb as I sometimes think;) I also presented there on why and how to connect with learners. I am very passionate about the topic, but I did some key mistakes with assumptions about the participants - a big learning curve! You can read more about this on my other blog, thebelbird.blogspot.com. You can also find me on twitter regularly - well maybe lots? or - ok then, almost always! @BeLchick1 is my twitter handle, but only follow me if you are interested in future-oriented teaching and learning, e-learning or game-based learning, otherwise you might find me very boring!
We had a couple of f2f events over the last 6 weeks which are always great, tiring and a mission to juggle with DH's work roster and the kids' schools. One of the coolest experiences was when one of the guest speakers tweeted about our event that she was meeting with the 'who is who in NZ e-learning'! She surely must have meant everyone else there?
Then there was the big data day last Wednesday where we had to have loads and loads of documents and evidence submitted. This was my first experience of this, I can see how I could improve this for me for future occasions.
On top of that I took on a few other work related commitments, such as presenting at another conference in January, signing up for the Google Summit in Auckland next April, dabbling with offline Minecraft servers and setting up a Google site for it...
Did I mention that in between I did my actual work like in-class modelling, online tutorials, workshops and staff meetings??
Jobs
As usual for this time of the year, there was worry about jobs. My contract is due to expire on 31 December so I had to go looking for jobs. While I love what I do (and I think I am not too bad at it either ;D), I find I quite hard to juggle the kids with it. I seriously looked into going back teaching but have not been accepted in a position locally yet. I even made a digital CV for my applications! In the meantime my contract has been extended by 12 months, so the whole scenario will repeat next year. In addition we will be working with more schools, further away from each other. I am really not sure if I can do the kids and the job justice?!
Schools
Middle DS is finishing primary school and has been accepted at the high school we had hoped - yay! Oldest DS unfortunately has not been accepted there. We will have to make some serious decisions, he will be in Y10 next year and it is very important that he can take the subjects he needs for his chosen career (programming) as well as a broad range of other subjects. At least the youngest boy will be fine for another couple of years!
That finally brings me to sewing!
I have actually made some progress:
I have also pieced the back, but it is a bit short (no photo yet, sorry). With a little bit of help from my friend Suz I will have enough pheww. Threads have arrived at the Country Yard and should be here some time this week so I can start quilting!
I have also worked on the Tokyo Subway Quilt, we were doing blocks 19 & 23 in October, and 24 & 25 in November. I laid mine out in a different order, so 19 and 25 are done, and 24 is under way:
Suz and I have had numerous discussions about the new AQC Challenge, "Ten". I just need to find that mojo somewhere... By the way, my Frei quilt is on the way home now, will be interesting to see how it has lasted...
On the hunt for that mojo Suz and I had a play with scraps yesterday. Inspired by a recent post on "Me and My Quilts - Exploring Possibilities" we made some cards. This is my finished collection:
With summer just around the corner and beautiful sunny days as of late, DH and I have been busy weeding and mulching, alternating with dips in the pool which today was at 31degC! I better go out and water the garden tonight!
Christmas will be over if I wait another 6 weeks to my next post, I better get onto it! Love reading everyone's posts, though!
Happy sewing!
Nice to catch up with you, Monika! Thought you might have disappeared down the rabbit hole. It's a crazy time of year, and for you it sounds even crazier than for most. I've briefly thought about the TEN challenge too, but I'm already doing the Dorothy Collard challenge for the Auckland guild, some blue quilts for the 12 x 12 BLUE exhibition, finishing quilts for the Kerikeri exhibition and want to enter the Living Colour challenge too. I think that's enough for now!
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