I’ve had a very productive day! After an impatient wait, I got the log-on details for the MAV website. It’s got so much there I’m really glad I signed up last year. This meant that I could do lots of work on my product/resource/thing that I am developing for EXE assignment 1 (I’m not very good at choosing names for things so any suggestions are welcome!). It’s now uploaded to the site and I will be publicizing my blog to education students and other people to get some feedback.
I also have to catch up on reflections – I’ve done a lot of work today! One thing I do need to do is get some help with the tech stuff – there are some things with edublogs that I need to learn how to do. I’m sure if I ask very nicely Cam should be able to help 
Aside from achieving the main aim of this project, that is to investigate the VELS in Unit Planning, I have discovered a lot of very useful resources, mainly in the Maths and Indonesian areas. There are links to these on my Ideas/resources document, and my references page. Not wanting to rave too much, but the MAV website is FABULOUS. I especially like the Curriculum Planning section (at http://mav.vic.edu.au/curriculum-planning/), as evidenced by the number of times I refer to it! Ian Lowe has put together such a comprehensive resource for teachers I can see myself using a lot in the future. I also love the way Ian’s focus is on moving away from textbooks to more realistic uses of maths, which corresponds to the Interdisciplinary approach of VELS. Aside from being the official emphasis of the Education Department, I believe that this approach would be far superior in both educational outcomes and engagement levels, which would lead to less classroom management issues.
Hey!
I like what you’ve done with the site, very good. What do you want help with, I’ll see what I can do for you…
Back to work for me, I’m currently typing the code for my site. I really have to learn to get used to simple formatting, don’t I!?!?
~cam
Hi Erin,
I agree, finding help with VELS is not always straight forward and you can find that you lose focus while getting lost in the labyrinth of links. As such, my only suggestion is therefore to be focused. Choose a particular strand or domain which you will be focusing on. Print it out, familiarise yourself with what is expected at that level. It also helps to have the one before and after your level. This makes It easier to identify students who may be below their year or those who are advanced…will also come in handy with marking using progression points. Obviously, once you have found your target, you can aim for it. With the standards handy it makes unit planning a lot easier as you can decide to focus on particular points so that over a period of time your students will have had an opportunity to demonstrate everything that it required of them. Well that’s my two cents. Hope this helps. Best Regards, Miriam