Who knew that February was a month full of events.
* Kiwi Foo was in Warkworth 11-13 February (sorry to have missed that one but have heard it was the best Kiwi Foo ever)
* Webstock was in Wellington 14- 18 February
* Music in the Park (well actually that runs January to April)
* Lantern Festival in Auckland 18-20 February (which I wanted to go to and that is what prompted me to blog)
We have attended a big family reunion and there were also a lot of birthdays in the last couple of weeks, even a trip on a boat that involved swimming. There are a few February anniversaries to be observed at home as well as Valentines Day (I am not one for the flowers and chocolates delivered to the office trick, much happier with some quality time together at home).
We decided it was time to start the kitchen and laundry renovations so we have had the demolition work started and are now short two walls and two doorways, our oven is on a temporary stand above a hole in the floor, and there are piles of wood all over the deck and lawn. We have measurements under way and initial plans have been drawn so are almost ready to get our kitchen cabinets made. We have investigated the options for new appliances and I hope we can get these ordered this week. Some of our kitchen cupboards have even been emptied into boxes in preparation.
At Unitec we have had Kick Start – a two day conference for Faculty of Social and Health Science staff that went very well – and we have had our directorate strategy day (we had the opportunity to get to know better other people in our directorate, recap on last year, hear how wonderful each team has done, rate ourselves on where we are at, and in small groups create representations that show how we as a directorate contribute to Unitec – quite fun). We are ending February with an elearning community 3 day event for about fifty or sixty people, including a play with ipads as well as some workshops on topics like portfolios, Google apps and Moodle tools, but probably the most interesting bit for me is the review of what we have achieved as a community in its first year and planning the community focus for this year.
All these events in the busiest time of the year, first semester enrolment and classes starting. To be sure I filled in every spare minute I also enrolled in a course myself which has meant a few late nights writing up the learning contract and starting on an action research project plan. I have been to a one day event run by Eileen Piggot-Irvine (thanks Mark) to get some help getting started with the project and that was very helpful.
All in all, a busy month. It would have been nice to have had a day off for Waitangi Day to give a bit of a break. Though this year it looks like we don’t get many holidays actually as Easter and Anzac day have been combined.
* Kiwi Foo was in Warkworth 11-13 February (sorry to have missed that one but have heard it was the best Kiwi Foo ever)
* Webstock was in Wellington 14- 18 February
* Music in the Park (well actually that runs January to April)
* Lantern Festival in Auckland 18-20 February (which I wanted to go to and that is what prompted me to blog)
We have attended a big family reunion and there were also a lot of birthdays in the last couple of weeks, even a trip on a boat that involved swimming. There are a few February anniversaries to be observed at home as well as Valentines Day (I am not one for the flowers and chocolates delivered to the office trick, much happier with some quality time together at home).
We decided it was time to start the kitchen and laundry renovations so we have had the demolition work started and are now short two walls and two doorways, our oven is on a temporary stand above a hole in the floor, and there are piles of wood all over the deck and lawn. We have measurements under way and initial plans have been drawn so are almost ready to get our kitchen cabinets made. We have investigated the options for new appliances and I hope we can get these ordered this week. Some of our kitchen cupboards have even been emptied into boxes in preparation.
At Unitec we have had Kick Start – a two day conference for Faculty of Social and Health Science staff that went very well – and we have had our directorate strategy day (we had the opportunity to get to know better other people in our directorate, recap on last year, hear how wonderful each team has done, rate ourselves on where we are at, and in small groups create representations that show how we as a directorate contribute to Unitec – quite fun). We are ending February with an elearning community 3 day event for about fifty or sixty people, including a play with ipads as well as some workshops on topics like portfolios, Google apps and Moodle tools, but probably the most interesting bit for me is the review of what we have achieved as a community in its first year and planning the community focus for this year.
All these events in the busiest time of the year, first semester enrolment and classes starting. To be sure I filled in every spare minute I also enrolled in a course myself which has meant a few late nights writing up the learning contract and starting on an action research project plan. I have been to a one day event run by Eileen Piggot-Irvine (thanks Mark) to get some help getting started with the project and that was very helpful.
All in all, a busy month. It would have been nice to have had a day off for Waitangi Day to give a bit of a break. Though this year it looks like we don’t get many holidays actually as Easter and Anzac day have been combined.
