“Finally” getting back here. Been otherwise occupied over the last few days.
Got my classroom pretty much sorted. Filing more or less done. Stationery list made up – will go shopping for it tomorrow or Friday. New sign made for the door. Computer time organised for two afternoons per week. Must remember to take a new battery for the wall clock!
No new student referrals, but am going to speak to two staff groups tomorrow, at the main referring organisation. Have been allotted time to address all staff there, to encourage referrals, explain what we do, and answer questions. Have some new flyers to hand out there, which I think will be effective - because they are desk calenders, so will hopefully remain within sight, ensuring easy access to our referral phone numbers and so on, throughout the year.
Have to give thought to specifically how I am going to cover the first week, in which I want to focus on learning skills: how learning occurs…because I think I have a predominance of learners who are possibly under the mistaken assumption that simply by attending, the ‘learning’ will jump off the page and into their heads.
I also want to address the issue of the new curriculum, but am undecided as to how much information it is actually productive to share with the learners. I am wary of boring or scaring them with detail. Yet, I want them to feel empowered, by what I see as the positive aspects of it. And before they can each individually assess what difference it may make to themselves, I need to assess each one’s current status within the ‘old’ curriculum, and work out what transferable credit they will get (in the new system).
That is actually a very important aspect of preparation which I had totally forgotten about – so I had better get on with that, tomorrow. I think the reason I ‘forgot’ it is that it’s a bit daunting…but like many other things, it may be OK once I get into the swing of it. SO: no more procrastination: getting started on that must be ‘the task of the day’ for tomorrow morning.
With regard to other plans: On Tuesdays afternoons, we are going to focus on computer skills – the basics, ranging from ‘Turning it on” to MS Word – and other software if it’s desired and if we get that far.
On Thursday afternoons we are going to use the Internet for learning activities or for “research” (i.e. task-focused productive websurfing) or for communication skills such as ‘penpal’ type activities with a similar cohort of students at other venues – including one group in England who have approached us. They wanted to use Facebook, but I think this is rather a complicated way to go about it. And anyway they have discovered that they can’t access Facebook at their college site. So I have found a simple forum which will be suitable. It just needs a bit of finetuning to be ready to use.
Have got one mature volunteer lined up. He phoned in to confirm, today. I must access the necessary paperwork, so I have it ready for him to deal with, when he comes in on Monday.
So, all in all, things are ‘on track’ – but I have to use the next two days in a fully focused fashion, to get the maximum amount of work completed, before everyday realities take over.
