Moving back to just a week ago- the trip to Penang

Well it looks as if we just arrived in Penang and started teaching...well its almost true however I did not want to miss an opportunity to perhaps put the journey getting to RECSAM our current resting place into a better perspective.

I have not got a shot of us at Sydney Airport however that's where it all began. Saying bye to friends, family and significant others. We then did the first leg of the journey Starting at 2pm MH122 on the 28th July 2012. We did finally get to Kuala Lumpur Aiprot in the middle of the night so that we could board the next flight to Penang at 2350.

 The girls of course a fairing better than the boys by then. As you can see we have Kelly, Jessica,  Eliana & Abbie awake and smiling. Below we have Joanne, Carmel and Emmy ready for the next leg. 

 however we have to report that the boys - Jacob & Ryan were beginning to faulter early on.

Moving right along we arrive at Penang airport to the delight of our Recsam staff who had 2 busses and the van ready to transport us to RECSAM.Well if the students thought that there PE3 tour included sleep they were unfortunately unable to grab more than 5/ hours. It was up Bright and early to get on the bus to visit see where everyone's school and who was being placed where.

Most faces were happy despite the lack of sleep but as for knowing/(reading the OPEP Tour booklet that colin had prepared so well) It had basically been treated by the majority of the group as any UWS learning guide- read only when the assessment item is due :-)

 Well it did not take too many rides round to schools before you notice the eyes being hidden by glasses and Bianca grabbing a few short power naps in.

Finally who ever said the naughty studnets sat at the back  of the bus...as you can see all the back of the bus are alert and 'on task'. so is this big (E) or little (e) being displayed. That is, the daily ‘e’ngaging experiences in classrooms (THE TOUR) that provide opportunities and support for students to think hard (high cognitive), feel good (high emotional) and actively participate (high behavioural) build to the more powerful “school is for me” (TOUR IS FOR ME) relationship.The second level is big ‘E’ engagement (‘E’ngagement), a wider relationship with school and education. ‘E’ngagement is a sense among students that “school is for me” (Munns, 2004b, Fair Go Team, in press). I could not miss an opportunity to get some referencees in and make sure everyone is reading and reflecting on wht really is happening here on the tour.
More reading re engagment  http://www.aare.edu.au/05pap/mun05400.pdf .
Now for the micro lesson: remember the second meeting and I mentioned this:  
While students are processing and taking up positions within the powerful school and classroom message systems they are also negotiating with their teachers “discourses of power”: knowledge, ability, control, place and voice. Issues such as –
o what counts as knowledge and who has access to really useful knowledge?
o who has ability?
o who controls the teaching space?
o who is valued as an individual and a learner?
o whose voice is given credence within that space?

Enough of the lecture materials and trying to get you to read whilst your on tour but I have to try to really get people to reflect on what they are seeing and what they might learn from this experience.

We moved from the bus to a quite formal session later in the day where we meet with the schools their Principals and they finally got to put faces to the various names they had been given on lists.

 Mr Zamani MC'd the event and it was really good. Represetatives from the 10 schools were there, many for the first time and students interacted in very positive ways with their new peers. Straight away many schools took advantage of this event to also ask the UWS participants to various Saturday sports and carnival events that were to happen the very next day. Again early starts for most and a chance to meet with their studnts in infomal ways before the school week began. There were so many excited UWS partipants on the saturday afternoon I think those of us left behind were a bit envious to such a positive start to the session.

Finally the group got a bit of R&R time before some of the team set out for the Nasi Kandar restaurant AKA Jaya (Gelgour) for the famous banana leaf curry.