Top Notch Teaching begins to take shape

Well it’s been a busy couple of weeks, not only am I super busy at work and with spending time with Emily and Stephen, but I’m also madly trying to set up my new blog.  I have so much to do and so little time!

But instead of complaining ;-P I thought I would share with you some of the things I’ve been working on in the past couple of weeks.

I have been learning how to use Paint Shop Pro (this is similar to Photoshop), which has been a pretty steep learning curve.  I didn’t really know too much about layers and vectors and rasters, but have slowly bumbled my way through. 

I have wanted to know how to use a product such as this to help with my drawings.  All of the lessons, posters and worksheets I design as part of Top Notch Teaching (TnT) I want to add my own graphics, rather than using Clipart or mass produced graphics.  So I have been playing around with a hand drawn picture, and then adding the colour etc in Paint Shop Pro (PSP).  I’m not really having too much luck yet though!

I have however used PSP to make a very simple banner for my new blog (see below).  It’s nothing flash, but I thought I would go for the clean, simple look.  I also designed a welcome landing page for my TnT Facebook account.  Again, it’s quite basic but gives people an idea as to what I’m all about. 

Banner

Facebook Landing Page

So if you’re interested in education and/or teaching then please follow me J.  You can follow TnT on Facebook here and Twitter here.  I’m also more than happy if you want to share these links with any other people you think may be interested.

It’s only 29 days until TnT launches.  I have a countdown clock at the web address: http://topnotchteaching.com, with links to my Twitter and Facebook accounts.  However, you may be wondering; ‘why on earth would I be interested in following Top Notch Teaching’?  Well.....

Because Top-Notch Teaching will provide you with practical, time saving tips and resources so that you feel inspired, empowered and willing to build a richer learning environment, thus making a better classroom.  

Because Top Notch Teaching will:

• Write about being a reflective teacher;
• Write about the importance of developing planning skills;
• Share lesson ideas and lesson plans;
• Delve into the various teaching strategies that teachers use and how these can be practically implemented in the classroom; and
• Explore management skills.

If you have any other ideas about what you think would be good to include, please feel free to share.

If you want to see what my goals are for the next fortnight, then check out my Accountability Journal.