I have worked in and out of education for the last 15 years. My first foray was in my early thirties, when, upon discovering I was going to be a single parent, I thought I’d better do something “practical” with my Arts degree (apart from serving fries with that!). I’d always enjoyed school, and was good at it, and what with the school holidays and civilised hours, teaching seemed like a natural fit for a soon-to-be single parent. So I signed up and completed my Graduate Diploma in Education, teaching English and Studies of Society and Environment (SOSE). In my
Continue reading...I like to think I’m pretty innovative in how I approach my teaching. I lecture in marketing at TAFE, and my background and area of expertise is corporate communications, so it makes sense that I am enamoured with how Web 2.0 and social media (SoMe) can produce a rich, engaging and relevant learning experience for my students. Most of my students are Gen Y, and while we generalise about how their technologically brilliant they are, in my experience, it’s generally limited to MySpace (then) Facebook (now) and MSN and texting (still). So with the push for businesses to become more
Continue reading...I have noticed a strange phenomenon since (some) plastic bags are no longer: whenever I buy a couple of things from the supermarket, and I pull out my green bag to put my purchases in, the checkout chicks/chaps leave me to pack my own stuff! They usually turn their back and have a scintillating conversation with the chick or chap next door, leaving me holding the groceries, and literally fumbling to get them into the bag. Is it that packing is now my responsibility because there was no formal bag handover? I think there needs to be a new checkout
Continue reading...The other night I was Facebook, and was fascinated by an invitation to participate in a discussion about Jennifer Aniston, the perfect size and being comfortable in your skin. As you can see, nearly 100 people commented. Views ranged from just be happy with yourself regardless of the size to anyone over size 12 is a loser to you can be big but also healthy. I couldn’t help myself. I had to comment. And this is what I said: This is just another insidious way that society tries to control women. Think about it. If we are using all our
Continue reading...Lately, I have been thinking about (or is that reviewing?) the nature of friendship, and how we make (and keep or let go) friends is very much linked and related to the friendships we cultivated as children. When I was a kid, we moved around a bit: Adelaide to Millicent to Mt Gambier as my mother’s marriages went pear-shaped. I started primary school in Millicent: went first to a public school, then a private. Then in around Grade 5 or 6, we moved to Mt Gambier, and another private school. My high school (which I didn’t move from) was in
Continue reading...It is becoming increasingly clear that “nice” is, like, so yesterday. Especially in shops. The pretty, young things manning and womanning the cash registers of our nation think that customer service is beneath them (once I finish Uni/Tafe/Business College/Beauty School, you can bite me, ‘cos you’ll never catch ME behind a counter serving the general public! Yuk! How degrading!). Except. It doesn’t matter what business you are in, you still have to deal with people. And the better you are at it, the better you’ll be able to navigate all those pesky career landmines (and people that plant them) that
Continue reading...On Facebook, I enjoy having debates about current issues with friends. The Australian Government’s proposed filter (aka internet censorship) was one of those where a number of views were put forward. In one sense, the proposed censorship reminds me of the old argument about school libraries banning certain books! We worry about our kids not being able to read, and then we worry about them reading too well! And given KRudd is spending billions on a faster broadband system for Australia, it seems illogical that from the same portfolio, the new system will be slowed down by a filter (even
Continue reading...I read Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth last year, mainly because Oprah said it was required reading. Being an admirer of Oprah for some time (did you know we have the same Myers Briggs personality type: ENFJ?) I of course had to read it. As luck would have it, one fell into my lap and I skirted around the edges, finding it quite a challenge. It was only with the death of a my friend Dave Fitzsimons from non-Hodgkins lymphoma, that I really got into it. After his funeral, I cried a lot, and read A New Earth in one
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Daughter is turning 16 next week. “When did that happen?” I asked her. She looked at me disparagingly. “1993, Mum!” The first thing she will be doing is getting here Learner’s Permit. Yikes! My baby driving a car! But it’s not her I worry about (although, of course, I will worry) – it’s the other idiots on the road. And there are a lot of them. Going on my estimation, which is based on thorough, valid and rigourous research (i.e. my experience), around 99.9% of people driving on the roads today are morons. She asked me if I would give
Continue reading...Teeny and I adopted Bella from the RSPCA in July 2007. We saw her picture on their “Adopt A Pet” page on their website. She was 6 months old at the time, and we didn’t think she’d been mistreated, because when we went to meet her she was very friendly and did a whole lot of leg rubbing and purring. Not sure of her breed, but we think she’s an Oriental, with some Siamese, although she doesn’t talk that much, which is symptomatic of the Oriental. We think she is the smartest cat in the word. She knows about physics
Continue reading...There is a line out of the movie He’s Just Not That Into You that resonated with me. It went something along the lines of that you have to keep checking a whole lot of different portals just to get rejected and it’s exhausting! While I’m not getting rejected, I do think keeping up with all the social media is quite an effort. Here’s an inventory of all my online stuff that I’ve got to keep checking and updating on a regular basis – some more than others: Blogs – three of them Websites -two of them Facebook – one
Continue reading...I went with my sister to see Dan Willis. He was part of the Adelaide Fringe Festival line-up. The brochure looked promising: “Crowd Pleaser” it said. He was British, and generally British comedians are quite funny, so I thought it would be a pretty safe bet. After all, the Brits brought us The Goodies, Blackadder and Yes Minister! Wrong! While he was funny in bits, I ended up gritting my teeth and feeling really uncomfortable and quite squeamish. He talked about sex ALOT. It reminded me of when I used to teach high school, and I used to say to
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