June has been a very lean month for this blog but not without good reason. This month has seen the writing of mid year reports followed by this week's full schedule of three way interviews  (parents/ student /teachers) which has sucked up most of my free planning and writing time.  I've also found myself chasing a whole bunch of Between Module Activities from a whole staff TESMC (Teaching ESL Students in Mainstream Classrooms)  course that I've been involved in. I have one more of these to do to meet minimum requirements for my certificate before the end of June, so it may well be July and the CEGSA Conference before I have the time and opportunity to write some more here.

But the interview process has been very interesting - by this time tomorrow, we will have held over thirty earnest conversations with parents and caregivers. There have been promises to strive for goals, observations shared, disappointments voiced and just occasionally that golden moment when a student shows that real sign of a self motivated, initiative seeking learner.  Thank, to Darren Draper, I re-discovered Christian Long's "Future of Learning Manifesto" (wow, I wish he was still  blogging) with my favourite extract that describes my role with these students:

Keep in mind, I may be young so I may have a hard time with that "r-tickle-a-shun" thing. That's your job. Give me the words. Give me the tools. Give me the examples. And then get out of my way.

But the second you see my passion start to go from curious lit match to smoke-jumper forest fire, stop giving me handouts and worksheets and become my Jerry McGuire.

I've got to remember to not be the wet blanket.