The 2011 School year has begun for teachers in Victoria, Australia, with three Pupil-Free days of Professional Development before the students arrive tomorrow.These sessions are often a good opportunity for us to reflect on what it is like to be a student in a large class. On the first day the emphasis was on Literacy and we are pleased to welcome a new Literacy Coach, Sue Costelloe, from New Zealand. I’m hoping to convince her of the value of Class and Individual Blogs as valuable learning tools for  all the Literacy areas. The school’s wireless network refused to work yesterday leaving us without a good portion of our Ultranet instruction. The warm up games were fun  in the Performance and Development Culture session  and the Anaphylaxis Training was very thought provoking and practical.Today’s Maths sessions should be practical and leave teachers feeling ready for the students tomorrow. Meanwhile I’m still reflecting on my holidays and learning in general. I took this  photo on the Murray River at Barmah, NSW.The paddle boat seems to be abandoned.