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.

Photo Shoot

I decided that as I will now have an online presence through my blog etc, I needed to also have a better picture of myself.  I looked through all of my photos and couldn’t quite find what I was after.  So I arranged a bit of a photo shoot with my sis Shells over the weekend.

This was pretty good fun, and little Em also had a ball.  She loves getting her picture taken and as I posed for shots she did as well.  So below I have the best couple of pics Shells got of me that I will use and also some of Em, cause I think they’re sooo cute J.

This one is okay, but looks a bit formal!



I like this one better, looks a little less formal with the greenery! Although Stephen thinks I've got a cheesy grin :-)



Maybe not...



She loves wearing her Dad's shoes!

It’s so exciting…..I have a name!

Well at long last, after much procrastinating and being indecisive with my new blog name, I have finally settled on one that I really like.  It’s funny how you can play around with so many different names and be unsure, but when the ‘one’ comes along you just know it’s a good fit.  So introducing:

‘Top Notch Teaching’.  I have bought the domain name and have a web host.  So if you type in http://topnotchteaching.com/ you will find my new blog!  I’m so daggy as this was just so exciting for me ;-)

I didn’t actually come up with the name myself.  I follow a blog called ‘Passive Panda’ and in the last week they wrote a post about coming up with the perfect name for your business.  It was really good timing for me, as I have been struggling with this for quite some time.  After reading through all of the suggestions and playing around with a few different options, I decided to leave a comment to see if anyone reading could help.  James Clear, the author of the article wrote back with a few suggestions, one of them being my name.  As soon as I heard it I knew it was just right!  If you want to check out the post or my comment and the reply, click here.

I still have no tagline.  I’ve had a few people suggest some different options, but I’m not really sold on them yet.  Stephen thinks that I should try not to be too clever and go for something that is a little more descriptive. When searching, the tagline will come up with the name and it will describe what the site is about and hopefully encourage people to click through J. 

Possible taglines that have been suggested so far include;

- Top teaching tips for the truly awesome teacher

- Teacher's tools a notch above the rest

- Top notch tools of the trade

- Tools of the trade for any teacher

- Total tool packages for the top teacher

- Online tools to support your teaching

- Online tools for tip top teaching

- Burst to the top of the teaching ranks!

- Dynamite teaching tips (so good, they're almost dangerous.)

Do you like any of those, or do you have any other possibilities for me?

I have much to do, but am looking forward to really getting to work to get it all up and going.  I’m hoping to launch the new site before Easter, but we’ll see how I go.  If you want to know what my goals are for the coming fortnight then check out my Accountability Journal.