Today we had an inspiring meeting with a group of people interested in our wiki - the wiki reference group. Trish was introduced as the new project worker. She doesn't officially start until mid January, but she was good enough to come in for the morning because a lot of people will be on holidays in January.

We brainstormed a wiki wish list and came up with a broad range of categories. It remains to be seen if they are perhaps too broad - there is a bit of a balance between optimistic and realistic. But the great thing about the wiki is that it can continue to grow. We hope to make a lot of new networks and collaborators at the same time.

All suggestions for our engaging students wiki are welcome!

Yeterday I went to the Doxa School in Bendigo to make a podcast of the students talking about their “Doxa school” experiences. We then made another where Principal, John Russell and graduate teacher Beck talk about the challenges and rewards of teaching students who as a general rule would prefer not to go to school at all. The unanimous opinion was that if you are not enjoying school and probably not attending then Doxa just might be the place to turn that around. Both teachers and students believed that this was because:

• classes were smaller allowing a stronger teacher/student relationship,
• learning was done in groups with students at the same learning level,
• there was lots of fun as well as work,
• students felt that they were treated with greater respect.

Peter Maher, a regular radio presenter on 3AW was kind enough to agree to conduct the interviews and they are well worth listening to. (Ready in a week or so). Unfortunately, a technical hitch meant that we had to record the students twice and second time around Tom, (who was brilliant) had to go to the dentist so he missed out. The students were great value and I thank them for their sincerity and honesty (and patience!)