Assistant Principal / Leader of Pedagogy
Mr Stephen Chapman
Holidays? Learn something new!
It’s HOLIDAYS!!!!! Yes!!!!!! Fair enough, some students still have Term 5 to go for the last three days. But it’s close enough for my holiday message.
Students and teachers are celebrating alike. This is the best time of the year! It’s now that we can spend time with family and friends while we relax and recharge after a challenging year. In fact, it's been a challenging two years. It’s fair enough for people to want to kick back, relax and do nothing.
Eventually, the relaxing will most likely morph into boredom. The tick-tocking, Instagramming, Snapchatting, Netflix binging and gaming will lose its appeal. When that happens, consider LEARNING SOMETHING NEW!
This is the ideal time to learn how to do something you have never done before. In our modern world, it’s easy to learn how to do something. You just have to Google it! If reading and following diagrams don’t quite do it for you, watch a YouTube clip. There are 500 new hours of videos uploaded every minute to YouTube, so there will certainly be something there that will help you with whatever you are interested in. For me, I have been trying new things in my building work that I have never done before. On the weekends, I never have my phone far away from me in case I need to find out how to remove the battery from a tool or replace the blade on a jigsaw. Just before I wrote this article, I bought a replacement screen and battery for my Apple Watch from eBay. I’ll enjoy (hopefully) having a go at replacing them on my old one watch. I’m always learning, and it feels so satisfying!
Use the holidays, and the time together with family and friends, to have a go at something. The choices are endless.
Here are a few ideas.
- Build a guinea pig cage
- Change the battery in your old phone
- Make a garden bed
- Grow vegetables
- Make a compost heap
- Learn how to tie new knots in ropes
- Make real ginger beer
- Learn a new language (well, make a start at least)
- Learn how to dance
- Make a web page
- Learn how to knit or crochet
- Fix your bike
- Change the oil in your car
- Learn how to drive a manual
- Get your boat licence (or Jetski licence)
- Make some presents for Christmas
- Learn origami
- Learn how to ride a motorbike
- Learn how to draw animals
Of course, the choices are endless and depend on your interests and resources. My point is, we are all life long learners and this doesn’t stop when school stops. The best time to learn is when we are interacting in the real world. Be brave and have a go. The connections we build with each other during this time is an added bonus.
Before I finish, I need to pay tribute to Ms Menz. Regina has been putting her heart and soul into O’Connor for 16 years. She started in 2003 as a casual teacher and finished with five years as principal. She worked at the CSO for three years in between. She has given the school a Vision which can be summarised as everyone working together so that all students can move their learning forward. Her care for everybody, our students in particular, has been inspirational for those of us who witness it daily. She won’t be far away as she continues her work at the CSO. The college gave her a Guard of Honour the other day which showed her how grateful we all are.
Good luck, Regina. Thank you for all the care you have given.
Merry Christmas everybody. Have a great holiday.
Mr Stephen Chapman
Assistant Principal - Leader of Pedagogy
Never stop learning; for when we stop learning, we stop growing - Jack Lewman
