The Podgorani

Stand By Your Man

2011-10-24T00:49:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure if I've blogged about this before but i will have another go at it. Graham Henry was the coach of our national rugby team who were expected to be world champions in 2007, he had had four years, no expense spared and access to the worlds best players. He famously said when challenged "judge me by my results". The team were out at the quarter finals stage and the hatred of a country were all over this man, they wanted blood. Henry also seemed to say that he didn't make any mistakes, and then he put his name in the hat for reappointment for another four years. The NZ rugby union amazingly re-appointed him.

I was the biggest supporter of the re-appointment of Graham Henry as All Black coach. This is where the gold comes from.

It's about failure and success. Sports teams, schools, staff members, teachers, children, parents, we all go through these tough times, we make mistakes. The key is to learn from your mistakes and not to make them again. Over the four years from 2007 to 2011 Henry used hindsight, and adjusted and learnt, he planned meticulously, and brought redemption in 2011.

So what can we learn from this little ditty.

Making mistakes happens to everyone we must learn from them and take action.

Standing by your man is important especially in tough times.

Believe in yourself.

Be prepared to take a good look at yourself.

Trust in others but don't surround yourself with "yes men".

Challenge your ideas, have others you respect challenge you.

Don't get ahead of yourself.

Experience is really valuable.

Have the guts to make a tough decision.

Thanks Ted.

#ulearn11

2011-10-19T18:27:00.000-07:00

A tweet fest is lots of fun and following a conference from afar can be good solid stuff. But when you get the obvious stuff tweeted and retweeted you start to doubt the quality of the tweeter. Nothing more obvious than a punter tweeting from a keynote with comments like "children need technology access" or "teachers should be facilitators/floaters".

The reality is that "opinion" is often left out of tweets and direct quotes seem to be the etiquette. I remember a ulearn from a few years back, when we were early to twitter, and the tweets were about the peoples opinion of the keynote speaker, how good bad they are/were. This was embarrassing as the keynote speaker got a bit of negative stuff, we have grown up, but now seem to stick to very safe statements.

Twitter can come back and bite you if you tweet negative stuff, but i think opinion is ok if its clear that its your opinion. So come on guys give us your feelings and opinions. If someone was awesome let us know, send us the link, feed the backs.

Of course there is nothing better than actually being there and networking, thats where the discussion is at its best. Enjoying the conference.

Ten Questions

2011-10-12T02:12:00.000-07:00

Q: Is it really John Keys fault that a boat hit a reef and he personally didn't drive out a boat and start pumping the oil off Rena by hand?

A: No but it's great watching him squirm around and finally not win votes from a disaster.

Q: Who do you blame when your hard drive plays up now that Steve has gone?

A: Is it Hank? or just look for some guy in San Fran in a black turtle neck and jeans.

Q: Are schools mad buying technology for kids and not sending the devices home?

A: Yes its a personal device the whole 24/7 thing is the only way to go.

Q: Are the warriors fans a bunch of low life bogans, homies and riff raff?

A: No but one of those bastards nicked our warriors flag from the front of the school and we want it back. I know, get over it!

Q: Is your twitter stream needing a makeover, are you sick of the same tweets from the same bastards?

A: Yes, but any addiction is hard to kick, and i'm still interested.

Q: Are you concerned that the national standards were changed and no one told us?

A: Annoyed yes, concerned maybe. Do I care - no

Q: Is Lion way better now you've been running it for two months?

A: I turned all the new "features" off and its like I'm running snow leopard so who cares.

Q: Is anything good about Lion?

A: Yes i found a feature from OS9 days that they have re-established. Click once on a file or select multiple files and then "command-P". You guessed it, they print. Thanks Hank (see above).

Theres one for your sMACdown.

Q: RWC is anyone feeling sorry for South Africa?

A: No, not today, not tomorrow, not next week, month or year.

Q: If you were told that the national standards helped you inquire into your own practice would you be more forthcoming or positive toward them?

A: No not really?

Q: How good is having the short term 4?

A: Real good, these holidays are brilliant and with only 8 weeks. Kapow.

Blinded by the data?

2011-10-10T12:39:00.000-07:00

It seems like every piece of quality teaching has to be backed up with evidence and data. Every decision we make has to have measurable outcomes. After spending a few hours at the NZPF education summit it became a little more obvious that there was some discourse around what truly is measurable. Several comments around measurable success: is it really about PISA and OECD or is it something less measurable but more tangible. Sometimes as a teacher we have the gut feelings and gain lots of success but not necessarily in a reading age or maths score/stage. Sometimes its an innate knowledge of where to go next, we must always have these opportunities open and celebrated.

A challenge laid to teachers around Maori and Pacifika learners is that without identity and relationships then academic success will not happen. Seems simple and obvious but do you measure identity and relationships. Are they measurable? If you don’t measure them then have you critiqued what they are, broken them down and set a plan for implementing them. Ka Hikitia is not a strategy, its a philosophy/framework, schools need to devise a strategy, make a plan for all students and implement it. Schools have break down what works for their learners and set some reachable goals and scaffold these on their values and beliefs. Its not all about data or test results there are other more important things. Define them, articulate them, do them.

So i’m going to ask, what does your living local curriculum look like sound like smell like?

What are the non negotiables ?

Sports and Life - Parallels

2011-10-07T01:23:00.000-07:00

This rugby world cup has ignited a few memories of children who I have taught or coached, so I will pause and go back through the short list for you. Kevin Mealamu (All Blacks) from Tokoroa then Aorere College, he was a good keen flanker and a tough player. James Arlidge (Japan) went to Dillworth had a good kick and was a tidy player. Khan Fotualii (Samoa) went to Onehunga High, couldn't make the top team was a good reserve, lacked a few skills, but loved playing with his mates. Samiu Vahafolau (Tonga) went to Onehunga High, was a giant at school but relied on his size too much. The thing is that these guys didn't attend the elite colleges, they had to work hard to get where they are today and they are scattered in all parts of the globe. None of them were the childhood stars, they we good keen players without being anything special. It's a good message to us all that hard work and dedication pays off no matter what field we are in.
In 2003 a boy who I taught was playing at the rugby world cup for Tonga. He was a New Zealand age grade player and had been a schoolboy star in New Zealand. After playing overseas he was selected for Tonga and played at two rugby world cups. They played the All Blacks and lost by plenty. After the game he rushed into the opposition changing room to see his friends who were now All Blacks, he took with him a bag to fill up with freebie All Black gear, jerseys socks, shorts, some stuff for his mum, after all these were his childhood friends. Sadly those 2003 All Blacks just looked straight through him, they said "hi" and turned back toward their teammates. He knew at that time, that things had changed. He was telling me this story when he said "they will lose, they will get what they deserve". It has stuck with me and he was right. I watched it repeated in 2007 when the All Blacks holidayed during the world cup and capitulated in Cardiff. Wind the clock ahead 4 years and how they have learnt. They have reached out to the country, many many children have met their heroes, they have signed everything, turned up to everything and they even went to Kaeo! They may not bring home the bacon and win this cup but in my eyes they have done what is right, they have kept their feet on the ground and stuck to their values. This has been highlighted this week with photos that parents have shown and sent me of their children with the men in black. I think that as parents and as a community it is important to keep the values that are important to us no matter what our status, fame, or salary because in the end as my friend Sililo said "you get what you deserve". When I look at the our schools values this little story reminds me about integrity, being truthful to yourself and others.

Do we really have to make lemonade?

2011-10-06T15:46:00.001-07:00

WTF, we have Student Achievement Practitioners who are lemons. An ex cop a dental assistant and a (apparently) failed unregistered Principal. I was told the other day that the MOE forgot to check registration status. Anne says differently but she would.

My question is who do you put in front of your staff to lead PD?

Do you do your homework?

Do you ensure they are of the highest quality?

Do you have the right to check the CV's and teaching records, and registration status of any PD provider?

Do you have the right to ask for someone respected?

Where is the list of the 47 SAP's and their credentials?

Do you care?

Bring on Cambridge High all over again.

2011-09-20T15:37:00.000-07:00

Nothing to fear ? I believe articles like this will bring about massive distrust, hatred, and divisiveness in education. Add to that the schools that end up with the wealthier parents, the gap between "have" and "have not". AND those tossers out there who actually want their schools to top these results and who believe in nationals standards, the liers, the result fudgers, the over inflaters, the schools who wouldn't know moderating from guess work, the teacher who hides can now hide behind judgements and false results- IT'S ALL ON. I've met em, it's happening, prepare yourselves for the bagging of each other to begin. The rat race has begun in earnest.

Rugby World Cup

2011-09-01T18:51:00.000-07:00

Watch these in order and tell me the RWC aint gonna take off - Brilliant!

Bourne Again

2011-08-01T02:12:00.000-07:00

I am pretty stoked to hear someone so passionate about education

What do you reckon?

check out this awesome reply from Damon when questioned after the speech

Lion 10.7 should You ?

2011-07-28T03:30:00.000-07:00

So uncle Steve says we have to work with a different workflow, we have to use gestures and we will invent a few new names and yee all shall follow.

So what is OK and what is just plain stupid, and what is just brilliant.

No question they want to get the iOS and OSX similar, so they made a few changes.

Stupids

So some smarty pants decided that when you quit something next time you open it the last 50 things you had open will still be there. Example: I had 20 PDFs open and were printing them, I quit preview and the next time I opened preview the 20 PDFs appeared again, QUIT means QUIT apple, I am in charge, not some smarmy exec in cupertino. Safari : if you have ten tabs open it used to annoyingly say "are you sure you want to close all them tabs when you quit", and you knew that quitting meant just that,. Now when you open safrai all ten tabs are still open, just like all 20 PDFs - so now you have to slow your workflow and use the bloody mouse to get rid of tabs or windows by clicking endless x's or red dots in the corner ITS LIKE A BAD WINDOWS dream. Turn this off real fast in system prefs/general.

Scrolling in the same direction the new thing is, to move down a page you move two fingers up (that just doesnt feel right, very un-apple like). I never found it an issue changing between two fingered scrolling on the air and using the finger on ipad/iphone, however Steve found it an issue. Turn that off immediately.

Mission Control: maybe this was launched (excuse the pun Barb) so that people who never used hot corners now get an app to clog up their dock and do exactly what hot corners did, but we do have a gesture for it now. My suggestion, learn the gesture, keep your hot corners and send mission control out of your dock FOREVER.

The four fingered swipe used to bring up the floating opaque window with all the apps that are open, command/tab still works for that, but i loved showing that off during presentations especially when you had hidden the app and brought it forward when needed. Steve felt that wasnt used much and basically put spaces into the swipe process and gave apple apps a full screen mode. Not bad, but how about a gesture for the command/tab thing.

Some absolute egg at apple decided that the four fingered swipe takes you to a page that has dashboard/widgets WTF... Turn that off immediately (disable dashboard) or you will be banished to a place when MC Hammer plays endlessly and you will be told that you cant touch this or any other mac again.

The last clanger is auto correct in typing. I'm an average typist but i automatically hit the space bar after every word i type. It is just not going to work, check out these clangers on the iphone and tell me you want this on your laptop when you are in workflow mode. Dumb IDEA.

So the full screen mode is pretty handy and i reckon it will be brilliant for the attached monitor, will have a crack at that next week when back at work. Its really spaces but with a 4 fingered swipe, OK steve I will give it a go. I wouldnt mind finding out how to keep my favourites bar in safari when in full screen without having to scroll up. and i'm not sold on losing my menu bar at the top of the mac it is only millimeters wide.. the jury is still out.

I was happy with the buy and download and install thing, but how do we install a mac thats had a hard drive meltdown without a dvd. I know you have a plan but bloody hell, its a fidget, my air shipped with a usb drive with the system on it, sell them as an extra option, would keep a few muppets happy.

Notes in mail. I know you are trying and it's cute but notes in mail, really! (it's so 10.3.9) thanks but i was able to quickly get rid of that notes icon and i'm feeling good about that. The world uses evernote now Steve, in fact you should have put a send to evernote tab in mail/everything.

Launchpad- i dont get this one, why have an app in the dock for it, learn the gesture if you want this or get quicksilver and open apps you hardly ever use in seconds - this one is for beginners and although i still have the gestures activated its a never use unless you have forgotten what apps you have or you are looking for something to delete to get more space.

Brilliant

Safari the back to previous page is awesome (three fingered swipe), shame you have to scroll in an unnatural direction but its awesome. The downloads window is tidied up, nice steve.

Mail, the changes are great particularly the threaded mail with the messages all in one, smart and very cool.

Its a solid upgrade, runs at good speed and is a nice interface. Apple didn't get to where its at with one giant leap, great things evolve, look at Manchester United. look at the first ipod with the huge firewire cable and compare it to the ipad2. Its another small step for man, and thats all.

What can we glean from this OS to get some predictions for the future?

Steve wants us to scroll in the same directions as a book: Hint - the touch screen laptop thingie will be the predominant navigator. ie the touch screen laptop is close.

Steve said no DVD with Lion: Hint - why do we need the CD drive anyway? nobody wants to see slim shady no more the CD/DVD is chopped liver.

Please tell me the features you like/love/don't get....

ipads ipods androids and Orewa

2011-07-26T17:07:00.000-07:00

The Orewa College scenario (all kids get ipads, its a stationery item) happened at a slow news time in the NZ school holidays but it certainly highlighted a few different issues within education. Paying for our own technology seems very anti “free education” however we seem to be increasingly paying for everything, and if this has benefits for our childrens education then can we afford not to. Some schools have creatively solved this issue by making the device and the internet affordable and children are able to work to pay for there own technology. Factors might be how long will your iPad/netbook last? Imagine asking parents to pay between $400 & $1000 and you need a new one in 24 months. How about all this purchase/investment in technology only to discover that your school has no idea how or what to do with the hardware. Imagine schools wasting kids time with digital portfolios of kids that teachers spend hours on, only to discover they made no impact on learning. Or doing electronic worksheets because you can. The worry could also be schools just wanting to keep up with their neighbours by jumping on the band wagon.

So we need to know what actually does make a difference and then make a plan for how. Nearly every school I talk to have an ipad trial, I'm wondering how they sync, what apps they use and importantly what is at the center of their decisions schoolwide and in classrooms, no question its piecemeal.

I have been lucky enough to get an opportunity to actually do some research into mobile learning. I have been granted the Auckland Primary Schools Association Traveling Fellowship Award. This means that in 2012 I have been granted two terms leave to travel the world to look at mobile learning. My goal is to shake aside the rhetoric and schools wanting to buy gear without making good decisions, replacing them with decisions that put learning in the center.

I will be asking my twitter, Principal and ADE networks for help with finding time to talk and share with me. It will mean lots of NZ travel as well as looking across the pond (Cadel country) the USA and beyond. It should be exciting and probably about three years too late in terms of 1 to 1 mobile devices but regular schools will be taking a bit of time. The early adopters are already over the line, and I hope they are starting to provide the evidence later adopters need.

A few years back I had a friend ring me asking if I wanted to be a millionaire, I said yeah mate, turns out he was selling Amway and wanted me to join him in the money. I said I would wait three years and when he was millionaire he could ring me and I would start then, I was happy to wait. So if you are waiting a bit to see what happens with these ipads then a few months more wouldn't be too long (he never rang back, some mate).

If you are a school or district or cluster who have the mobile devices rampant and are making connections beyond the classroom then I'd love to hear from you. I'm interested in sync, infrastructure, apps, research and more importantly learning/teaching/kids.

I wouldn't mind hearing from people about their thoughts on having a device on their stationery list.

Make the right call

2011-06-20T02:53:00.000-07:00

I had a meeting with this guy from the council about sporting facilities for our school. I want a massive 300,000 dollar multi purpose arena and no-one is wanting to fund any part of it. I was trying to explain why the simple things are easy to do and that schools cant sit back and do nothing. So take this as an example of why we cant sit there and do nothing.

Several years ago we bought 6 outdoor basketball hoops and backboards (10k) for school. We made sure the hoops were low, so that 5 year olds can throw a hoop. As we only go to year six we didn't need to go to ten foot hoops, but we made sure they were removable so that the vandals wouldn't ruin our gear. Here we are 8 years later with about 5 teams playing regularly and hundreds of kids have put in thousands of hours of games/fun/practice over the years. My son and his mates are all still playing basketball regularly for their high schools. I go watch his games and kids from all sorts of schools and backgrounds are all over basketball.

Six years ago a young guy who arrived at school saw the older boys hooping and decided that he wanted to play. This young boy is on the short side and when he started it was quite cute to see someone even holding a ball that seemed so big. Obviously with the low hoops and smaller balls the game became achievable. Now six years on Tauhir is a very very good player, he isn't the tallest about but he can play. So much so that he is going to a worldwide basketball training camp in Florida sponsored by IMG. His family are digging into their pockets, raising cash and helping their young fella chase a dream. If he went to a different school would he even be playing basketball?

I'm not patting our school on the back here, i'm saying that without opportunity kids wont play or participate.

Ever wondered why NZ doesn't produce tennis players, it's a dead sport in NZ because the kids don't play it. Softball is dead. Cricket is dying. Hockey, partially dead. The list goes on, don't get me wrong your school may be going great at hockey, seems everyone in Palmerston North has hockey (insert weird here) but Tennis, it's all over, you once were brilliant but now you are custard.

So get the facilities and let the kids decide what gets kicked for touch.

So answer this: why don't the sports do something? Soccer NZ had a team at the world cup, the all whites were famous for 6 weeks. Now 1 year later what have they done to promote soccer, to deliver the knockout punch. Here is what they did. Play two crap games against Mexico and Australia and lose 3-0 twice, then moan about why the shouldn't have played.

Why didn't they set up a mini soccer field at every school, put in posts with nets, kids crave facilities, they want to put the ball in the back of the net (who doesn't). Lets get this straight, i can't stand soccer but i do love sport and i recognise the importance of all sport, so I built two mini soccer fields with post and nets, because kids come first.

Maybe my next Tauhir will play at a world cup.

Will yours kids play anything without opportunity?

Stop spending your money on admin blocks!

The value of sport

2011-06-02T00:43:00.000-07:00

Sport : It keeps you healthy, having fun, learning skills, building co-ordination, creating teamwork and lots of other educational winners. Ask any old timer for the memories sport has given them and it always ends up with friendships. I remember some great games, and amazing moments but more than that I remember what people said, what they did, how they reacted, and the stories that followed those games. I remember the people, the laughs, giving your mate a bit of stick, stories of who scored the best try, and even who didn't pass me the ball in the final at Okara Park when I was certain to score and you dummied and got snotted (insert Lee Tamaki here). My friends, Lo, Ace, Dana, Pops, Smokey, Fili, J, Nail, Baldie, Smelly, Raenuts, Mew, all the Sionies the list is endless, they are the reason we play sport. The thing is that sport, even from a very young age builds these moments, these events, things that stay with you for a lifetime. A few years back there was a brilliant team, the Otahuhu College 1stXV, they were absolute underdogs, they played an entire season undefeated and went on to win the Auckland Championship for the first time in many many years, it was amazing to see this small school do the damage. They had a world class player, Orene Aii he was sublime, sensational, and has gone on to be a terrific player with a successful career all over the world. Ask Orene if he ever got a match winning drop goal and he will smile, not for the fact that they won the final with a miracle drop goal those many years ago, but for the boys who played in his team, his schoolmates.

This week at school I have been following the rivalry that two lads have been talking about, Saturday will be a step in a friendship that might be blogged about in 40 years or more, talked about between mates for yonks. The two of them aren't interested in anything but this game, guarantee the teacher will be getting the post-mortem next week on how the game went, god knows shes heard all the banter this week.

Waitakere White vs Waitemata Black Under 8's, 9.15 Saturday, tickets available on tiketek.

This is one I wont miss!

Thats the value of sport.

Oh and Lee Tamaki you owe me bro, 2 crayfish and a few woodies and we are all square, but I probably (definitely) wont forget. My idol Sid Going scored tonnes of tries at Okara and I was denied my first one by you cuz, damn right I'm still spewing, even though we won the final.

Latest pictures in the Waitakere win 12 tries to 8.

Who motivates the motivator?

2011-05-30T01:45:00.000-07:00

Aren’t leaders supposed to motivate the team, have the staff firing? Who motivates the motivator? As a principal, you are it, so who or what gets your juices flowing?

I reckon its important to think this one through.

I have a few theories, some ideas and possible answers but I wouldn’t mind your 50c worth, please contribute.

So before you can answer who or what motivates you, you may have to understand where your staff are coming from. The lowest level for staff could be survival mode, they have a job but lots of things are going on, stress comes from every side, they worry about everything, the kids are hard work, they aren’t well organised, the rent is hard to pay, negative mind set, “leadership is doing things to me”. Next comes safety mode, you are a solid teacher, you have job security, no risks, the boss is ok - a bit fickle but ok, mindset steady, leadership is mixed, things are steady. Then you have belonging mode, teamwork, mostly motivated but needing someone to motivate you, enjoying being at school and appreciative but on their own terms, part of a team but sometimes a click, sometimes even teaming up against the boss, but usually this mode is a very positive environment. Probably strolling. After this is achievement mode, I reckon this is the time when you move out of that stoll and fink “strolling” mode, people are motivated to move past and really achieve, teamwork and self motivation, ownership and belonging are inherent, staff are celebrating achievement, genuinely happy for others, collaborative.

You can be achieving at survival mode, and indeed in all of them, but if you want to get results back you must get to achievement mode.

You may ask what this has to do with the motivating the motivator, but it is actually the staff that motivates you. They are the people who get you rocking, they are the ones who boost those around them. I know that I feed off staff who get on a roll, staff who go that extra mile. I pick up their vibe, I love it when they achieve. I love it when they celebrate kids learning, celebrate discoveries they have made. Those stories of kids achieving just keep you bouncing. Yes I am motivated by wanting to do things really well, to turn out the best possible performance. I love working things out and doing a great job of it, seeing it through, but these things pale in comparison to when a staff member nails it. When a staff member gets it, when a staff member makes everyone proud.

So the key for me is to make sure you know what mode your staff are at, and help them get to achieving mode, there may have to be some challenges, some awkward conversations and some uphill battles but if you aren’t motivated then it all goes flat.

So it seems that if you want to be motivated you have to do the motivating, and get staff through those modes and over to achieving.

Most good leaders who stay in their schools are motivated from within their school.

The other muppets who stay (too long) have staff in safety mode, they are in safety mode.

15 Reasons Why Leadership Works

2011-05-26T00:23:00.000-07:00

Looking back always helps looking forward. Last November we attended the ACEL conference in Sydney. Apart from the odd laugh and ale the focus was on leadership. I hung out for something decent and Hargreaves delivered at the last minute. I was a little disappointed in the conf up until then, but our redemption was gr8.

He has now published the whole presentation "Performing Beyond Expectations"and you guys can read, so click on the link above for the facts and stuff like that. Its important that you read from the source at some stage. It's a real goodie. If you want the executive summary with the half truths thrown in for free then i've attached my very boring notes, they have attached audio files which you wont get (pay for the conference you slackers), you just get the scribbled notes:

What was great was, he followed what made good leadership change looked like and then gave this gem.

THE FALLACY OF LEADERSHIP CHANGE

1 Speed

2 Replacement

3 Data / Numbers

4 Prescription / Standardisation

5 Competition

3 show stoppers

2011-05-04T03:09:00.000-07:00

1 Sandwich Chillers, you know the obligatory steel food cabinet.

2 The "tuck", the "Jerry Seinfeld", the man with the shirt tucked in.

3 Don Brash and his ungainly gait, yes his walk.

Sandwiches, lets get to the nitty gritty here. Bread is a nice wrapper, it sits in a bag for a few days without going stale, it can be heated to make warm welcoming toast, or it can wrap those lovely fillings and hold together a very satisfying lunch. Thats two states of niceness, warm or room temperature. When EVER is it ok to eat cold or chilled bread. It's downright wrong. So why do we have to buy our sandwiches from coffee shops etc from those bloody chillers. What happened to those veneer coated sandwich racks, with the plastic doors that you opened, and you used the tongs to put your selected treat on your own plate. These sandwiches were especially a treat as a kid when on the top floor of the Farmers building. Oh the selections were endless, salad sandwiches which specialised in iceburg lettuce, cheese and onion, egg with parsley. The real clanger for me was that the ladies who made these culinary delights did so with love in their hearts and fags in their mouths, and not within a bulls roar of a chilled cabinet. Harden up New Zealand, bring back the veneer.

So Greg Norman did it, Jerry Seinfeld specialised in it, and now men who really should have learnt from the 80's are still doing it. It's not OK, its downright not on. I don't care what the excuse is, the tuck is the tuck, stop it right now.

Ok so why is Dons gait such a show stopper. Well firstly he walks upright, OK thats fine but when he turns to address others he has the stiff neck, and then he has that sort of protruding foot gait where the foot isn't sure if there will be ground under it as it's about to land. When you add the turning stiff body and the unsure stride, its all over. Did anyone see him get in and out of the midget a few years back. Sorry Don it's all over, put the slippers on and get a blanket over the knees, find the lazy boy and take the 430pm Nursery Dinners.

Life cant go on while society accepts this sort of behaviour.

3 characteristics of a leader

2011-04-20T16:07:00.000-07:00

Following all those conferences from rural northland: google teachers #gta2011 - apple educators #adeanz - #nappgen2011 aspiring principals - #slide2learn australian mobile learning.

It was quite a disruption to the first week of the holidays. Fishing, lawnmowing, watching sport on sky, and these bloody conferences, there I was thinking i'm missing everything, something.

After favouriting tweets I went back and read through the links. I couldn't help but think Derek was onto something.

The quote that bit me on the backside was this “there are three characteristics of a leader, they have vision, they are able to articulate that vision, and they engender the trust of others to pursue that vision.”

This came from Leadership for 21st Century Learning Don Hanna.

I was asked a question in tweet form from Julie.

So why wouldn't I use dereks quote as my answer?

Problem is, what does this vision look like and sound like on a daily basis and how do you get to the stage that its being actioned ?

A leader has to have a vision but it needs to be shared, it needs to be owned by all those on the staff, and it needs to make sense, not some airy fairy crap. The vision cant be just about data driven educational outcomes. It has to include a philosophical synthesis of teachers, expectations around hard work, expectations around empathy, and a whole school approach to not just students but their whole family.

After that paragraph is ticked the action of the vision and the trust of others to deliver on it is paramount. So what should leaders do to help others deliver the vision?

They have to live the vision themselves through action. Taking the time to help teachers and staff deliver to children and families in and beyond the classroom. Backing your staff in your community, supporting them when the gossip is running. Giving staff opportunities to lead, being there to support them after hours and in class. Celebrate the success of teachers and kids. Thanking them publicly in speeches, newsletters etc.

The list could go on, let me know your essentials for engendering the trust of staff to implement the shared vision.

If you expect pathetic you probably will get it

2011-04-13T02:34:00.000-07:00

Recently heaps of fellow principals attended the NZPF conference in Wellington. I got a few tweets coming from there from @carolynstuart . @lenva was also in attendance but she doesn't have the principals funded 3g coverage and there was no wifi available to get her thoughts out there. So I made some sarcastic remark about NZPF being old farts not knowing about twitter and carried on with my day. I suppose that some principals can take the attitude that twitter is for people with too much time on their hands and is a load of crap, fair point. I suggest most however don't even know what it is and how it could be used. Still it shouldnt be a judge of a good conference. I'm just using it as a small measurement tool of digital principals. However it begs the question as to weather Principals are in touch with their digital side when wifi isn't a priority at their conference and no-one cares or comments. Then you also ask if we see it as essential in our own learning.

So I digress. A colleague of mine subscribes to the eAdmin training from the MOE. She sent me through the latest offer of professional development for leadership teams and principals. This is really funny, embarrassing and somewhat insulting. I reckon it could be one of those secret stings, you know those FBI tricks where they send wanted criminals free tickets to NBA basketball games and tickets for their kids, when they turn up they are arrested. Maybe if you go on this course with the eAdmin team you get ERO, National Standards visitors, and letters from people wanting charters and more grief.

So read below and be insulted, but also remember that you can't throw stones if I use the "conference without wifi and no-one cared" as a digital gauge.

I have run workshops with over 50 principals in the last 6 months and all have left setting up and using their own wikis, most have gone away using the cloud as a default. What are the eAdmin Team doing? Give yourself an uppercut guys! File structure OMG.

Sorry eAdmin Team I don't mean to offend but this is not what should be being taught to Principals. (feel free to use my sting theory)

Oh and all NZPF people, you aren't old farts, you are great people doing a brilliant job and I tip my hat to you. BTW no chance of offending anyone enrolled on the course, they probably haven't seen the interweb yet.

Just trying to get a point across thats all. If you expect pathetic you probably will get it.

PS How funny is the Macintosh line at the end - MACINTOSH ha thats so 1997. Wellington now has saturday shopping incase you didnt know.

Kia Ora _______
We would like to invite you to make a booking for the Managing Your Computer Files e-workshop running in term two: 2nd-27th May.
"Do you have problems finding the file you're looking for?"
"Are your folders a mess?"
If you answered yes to either of these questions then this 1 hour online interactive e-workshop is for you. Managing Your Computer
Files e-workshop is designed to teach you the concepts of good file management and give you practical examples and techniques on
how you can achieve this in your school.
In this e-workshop our trainer will show you:
How to create folders and subfolders
How to move a file/folder to another location on your PC
The recommended way to Naming your electronic files - we will share with you some recommended tips!
How to use one of windows search features to find your saved files
How to create shortcuts to the files that you use regularly
The Managing Your Computer Files e-workshop is designed for:
principals
deputy principals
administration staff
Note: This session is not suitable for users of Apple Macintosh computers.

iPod iPad iCant be bothered, iM in denial ?

2011-03-28T18:06:00.000-07:00

The stories from people who have heard their ADE Joe Morelock speak are impressive. I think this is a good example of ipods ipads being done well. Read the links, click through, interesting stuff.

Canby School District have an iPod touch & iPad 1:1 Programme

Every 3rd grade child gets an iPod Touch/ iPad.

They have shown some huge increases in literacy and maths scores.

Main wiki on iPod use.

Using iTunes as a Digital Portfolio.

The teacher action research blogs - the stuff that is actually happening.

Using voice memos for reading fluency.

Geeky stuff on syncing.

They are not electronic worksheets.

Q & A

2011-03-23T01:56:00.000-07:00

Question : Is Mary Chamberlain not renewing her contract with the MOE because she sees what is on the horizon and just cant stomach it?

Answer : You bet ya.

Question : Why has it taken Pat Lam two seasons to finally put pressure on Joe Roks.

Answer : He now has an assistant coach who isn't a "yes man".

Question : Why do i cringe and hide when i hear eportfolios ?

Answer : The teachers do hours and hours of work and the leaders take all the glory and the kids couldn't really give a shit especially in two years time.

Question : Why is the labour party such a load of shit ?

Answer : Because Phil Gough is as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike.

Question : Have Auckland University sold Astlle to the ministry of Education?

Answer : Who knows but its a bloody good rumor, and we will all be forced to do eAstlle as national testing kicks in.

Question : Does anyone actually give a shit about facebook privacy settings anymore?

Answer : No not really.

Question : Does Ken Robinson have anything else to say other than, education was built on an industrial model and now times have changed but education hasn't?

Answer : No, but he is very charming and witty.

Question : Will anyone run an educational conference where the social networks will form the guts of the conference?

Answer : Not while we bow and hail international peddlars selling their glossy crap.

Question : How long will it be until schools run real coffee shops?

Answer : It depends if you are an inner city tosser school, or does it?

Question : Is twitter for twits.

Answer : Shit yes.

Question : Should schools be operating without Facebook and Twitter?

Answer : Not really, but the tweeter will have to be a twit, see above.

Question : Was that bad shit in Japan or what?

Answer : Unbelievable.

Question : What do all the high school teachers doing Cambridge exams do after September 3?

Answer : Tutoring of course ($$ kaching), at "some" schools they even tutor kids they teach, using the school as a base! tut tut, wheres your ethics?

Question : Who can actually hear Stewie Griffin?

Answer : Brian (the dog, thats for you mumbleboy) and then after that its situational.

Sweating the small stuff

2011-03-14T01:25:00.000-07:00

Talking with a Christchurch Principal we chatted about the change of thinking in staff. Things that were trivial and unimportant have been placed in the trivial and unimportant box. This has been the default stance by so many people, including the many teachers in the christchurch area. People have been forced to take things the way they are and to not sweat the small stuff. I remember having a long conversation with my sons high school principal about how his school had travelled to India and worked with schools in the poorest parts of Delhi. When he returned to school he had a saying that was called "A I" which stood for "After India". The things he saw, the hardship, the poverty, the loss of life, the living conditions, brought so much reality and balance to his outlook. He believed this experienced was life changing stuff.

Recently the same Principal wrote in their newsletter about how wearing a neck tie was :

"about being aspirational in dress standards"

"boys gain confidence and are simply more teachable once they adopt aspirational and clear dress standards"

and this classic was that, wearing a tie :

"is seen in the minds of boys as being aspirational and being serious about their exam marks"

Clearly this Principal has completely forgotten his "after India" experience.

Often we have special needs students and they are very hard work. Over the years I've seen these kids come and go, they provide a massive challenge to schools. The parents can often be stressed, many times I have heard people judge these parents. I always pause and take a dose of reality, imagine being that parent, they have that special needs child forever. These people live with a massive dose of reality.

My questions are -

How long does this dose of realism remain ?

How can teachers, school leaders and parents not living in situations of true hardship get a dose of realism ?

Who is a true realist on your staff, and do you admire them ?

How do they act, and what can we learn from them ?

Is it fair to fob things off that is the small stuff, but is important to them ?

Seems its a juggling act sweating the small stuff as well as avoiding sweating the small stuff.

Nothing needs to be said

2011-02-28T17:32:00.000-08:00

Boston Legal - Alan and Denny come to NZ

2011-02-21T15:30:00.000-08:00

Surely everyone is a fan of the ever smarmy Alan Shore and our cherished red neck Denny Crane. Well let me paint a scenario, an episode of Boston Legal that just has to happen. Some of the jokes spilling from my somewhat childish mind are too rude to say but im sure HBO wouldn't hold back aka shirley schmito. However I digress. Alan Shore always needs a formidable challenge, a fight against the government would suffice, how about a cause, say the dumbing down of education, how about a fly fishing trip squeezed in for Denny? Are you starting to get the picture. It may be time for another SLEEPOVER. what about a road trip? or even better a visit to the colonies.

Alan : "Denny we are going to New Zealand"

Denny : "don't they shag kangaroos there Alan"

Alan : "they fish"

Denny : "Ive always wondered what happens in the pouch"

Alan : "they fish"

Denny : "do they shoot"?

By now friends of boston legal are salivating, and the rest of you have clicked "next blog" hoping for "extracting-teeth.com - a do it yourself guide".

So Alan and Denny head to NZ to take up the cause of the Boards Taking Action Coalition, he is taking the govt to court. Alan is somewhat bemused how the govt can legislate Nag 2a and have the first educational goal of NZ as "Realise the full potential of every student". Alan plans to fight the law, the law is an ass and he will proove it as he always does in a nice 51 minute slot + advertisements. However Denny is along for the trip, he discovers the lakes, mountains, and is loving it, only distracted slightly by the court stuff and the occasional "denny crane" quote for the media. Now you could only imagine the conversations in the back rooms talking about education, the double breasted suit, the calm folding and endless buttoning of Alans jacket.

Of course Alan plans to call John Key and Anne Tolley to the stand... the ending is all too beautiful, the sharp witted Shore making mince meat of a crime against kids. And Crane, not liking Alan's anti government stance, but the audience loving his endless quips, growls, whistles and looks at Aunty Anne.

GOLD - Denny Crane

Home School

2011-02-07T22:52:00.000-08:00

I have a few issues about the ability of parents to home school kids.

Its a parents right !

Well I've got a few "What ifs".

What if the parents aren't capable ?

What if the kids are chronic truants and the parents have supported them to miss school ?

What if CYFPS have a long history with the family and they now want to homeschool the kids ?

What if there isn't a single book in the house ?

What if the kids are miles behind at their current school ?

So here is what I have discovered. The MOE helps families write their plans (application) and teaching programmes. They approve nearly all applications (schools get a say but rarely is the information enough to stop the parents rights). ERO visits about 8 kids per year as a "check up". ERO give the usual three weeks notice (time enough to buy some books) when they visit. No families have home visits before allowing home schooling. Checks with CYFPS are not done. The only paper work they need to do once approved for home schooling is a Justice of the Peace declaration that says "we are doing the work". No national standards here, actually no standards at all. Parents get paid in two installments the $700 odd dollars for home schooling (fair enough if the system is not being abused). Some facts above are subject to the podgorani exaggeration methodology however they are believed to be accurate at the time of writing.

So there are a few concerns, no blame here, just concerns. If you want to build a kitchen, move toilets, build a garage, you have to jump through many hoops with the MOE. However a kid can be removed from school to vanish from the system to hide from authorities, deprived an education without a home visit. It needs sorting. I did a quick email around and all of my "what ifs" are true stories that came from my colleagues. Food for thought.

Epic Fail

2011-01-27T14:24:00.000-08:00

I’ve been stewing on this post for a while. So do we sit back and say nothing or do we just accept the case, close our eyes and get on with our lives. I’m talking about the kid who was found in a cupboard after Cypfs returned the kids to their parents. They were taken away from the family for seven years, then returned after someone/group of people said these parents were now fixed and fit to have kids. They then tortured and beat the kids and one girl seemed to get the worst of it.
Every school has sorry cases, I have seen some really bad shit when it comes to kids. Stuff that made me so angry, mainly because I was powerless. However there were people that held power in this case and they failed the children.
I know the school and teachers didn’t beat the kid, but they more than anyone should, and will be, asking themselves “could we have done better”.

Maybe we should all ask, what can we learn from this?

Every teacher can take a lesson from this: stand up for kids when no-one else will, trust your gut feeling, say something, take special interest in those children without friends, listen, get to know your kids, get to know the families of your children.

Every leader can learn something here: trust your staff, listen, get to know your families, make it your business, don’t accept peoples word - actions are far more trustworthy.

I know that over the years I have hesitated over Cypfs and making that phone call, only to find out after making the call that the family has a track record as long as your arm. It’s a bit like accepting bad behaviour and then putting your foot down, if you were vigilant all along you wouldn’t need to shout or even raise your voice, it’s about setting standards and maintaining them.
I cant blame people for this sad shit, I don’t know the truth, but I can and will learn from it.
I know NZ wants the best for these poor kids. I hope they are with a great family enjoying life. And want to say how sorry we are for what happened to you guys!

NCEA- My 50 cents

2011-01-27T01:42:00.000-08:00

I'm a bit bored of the whole debate with Auckland Grammar choosing to go with Cambridge int exams and not doing the new zealand curriculum. However I have looked at the calendar for 2011 and I note that the last day for kids doing CIE exams is October the 7th. They then have two weeks holidays and the first day back after the holidays the CIE exams start.

So if i teach say, History for Y11, 12 ,13 at Grammar/any cambridge school, I don't have any classes after October the 7th, I have no marking either. I will however teach again in early February 2012. Possibly getting nearly 4 months out of the classroom. So if they are on an average salary of about 80k ( a unit of two) then they are getting about $1000 a week in the hand for 4 months of what.

Yes this is a simplistic view, but its getting quite laughable, its not Grammar here, its every Cambridge school.
No moderation, no marking final exams, a three term year, 4 months non contact.
Who is really getting the advantages?

Vodafone or Bust

2011-01-12T23:20:00.000-08:00

We all know that the smartphone market is all about data, something the telcos didn’t get right when the first plans came out. Now the data is coming and we are eating it up, unless you have an iphone on vodafone.

So iphone is going to be a wifi distributer, great news you say. Well here is the first thing you need to do. GET OFF VODAFONE NOW. I had 4 years of vodafone on 3g and then 3gs and Voda kindly gave us 3gig per month. So in 4 years the most I used in a month was 240mb, here’s why, the network is so slow that it crawls, forget youtube it just spins, forget app store for anything of a decent size (5mb) and basically wait ages for mail and twitter to refresh and safari to load. If you are in denial then sit beside me and we will speed test, you will lose!
So I went to iphone 4 and went to Telecom XT, the hated network with the bad reputation. Result ? = unbelievable

I’m in rural northland tethering to my Air and internet sharing, son on ipod using Vonage talking to his mate in Wales, wife on ipad getting email and clicking through to links to online shopping, daughter on macbook (god knows what she is up to) me using the air to bet on the TAB and send texts on the iphone while thethering. The pages are loading with a snap.
In exactly the same spot using 3gs with Vodafone I couldn’t use the browser on the iphone because it timed out. It was slower than dial up !

I speed test from rural northland on the iphone and get 5.4mb down and 1.2mb up. I go to Waitangi, same news, Whangarei marginally slower but blistering compared to that other nonsense.

The answer is in the bandwidth that vodafone (900/2100mhz) and telecom (750-850mhz) networks run on. The iphone is built to run on Telecoms 3G (850mhz) frequency, it can run partially on Vodafones 3G frequency. So this is a known fact but that doesnt mean anything, it’s just a sales pitch. Well you carry on with Vodafone and your 2 and a half G network and I will blister away with endless mobile broadband in my hand. Oh there is a possible savior on its way for the vodafone iphone users, the new phones for Verizon may have a different mhz, but you would need a new iphone and a long wait (something you are used to if you're on Vodafones network).

Good luck suckers, enjoy your iphone at half speed.

Our forgotten 15-year-old classroom stars

2011-01-03T00:13:00.000-08:00

I read the latest report and wanted to write a blog about the OECD scores and reports, however the fishing, drinking, golf, sun, beaches, food, dog, family got in the way, so I copied this one from an academic with far better wordsmithmanship, enjoy.

Why aren't we celebrating our international success in education, asks Warwick Elley, emeritus professor of education.

In a year when our news was dominated by reports of earthquakes and mine tragedies, collapsed companies, droughts and cricketing disgrace, it was great to learn that our 15-year-olds are still in the top echelons of the OECD in reading, science and maths.

In the latest survey, New Zealand students were ranked fourth out of 34 OECD nations in reading literacy, fourth in scientific literacy and seventh in mathematical literacy.

Why isn't it front page news?

Why don't we celebrate the achievement of our schools in producing so many bright students, with so little per capita expenditure?

At this time, when schools are completing their academic year, and plaudits are being handed out to our top sports teams, business leaders and media stars, we should be congratulating our rank and file teachers for drawing the best out of thousands of children, and showing the world that we still have a great education system.

As in all past OECD surveys, New Zealand students were shown to achieve near the top, surpassed only by countries with ethnically homogenous populations such as Finland, Korea and Japan.

A quick glance at our results in literacy shows that our mainstream Pakeha students had a mean score higher than any other country. We may value our ethnic diversity, but we should also allow for its influence on educational outcomes when evaluating the quality of our education.

This year we showered congratulations on our All Whites, for making it into the top 50 nations in the soccer world.

Our 15 year-olds were fourth in the OECD survey.

This year we celebrated when our Silver Ferns defeated Australia in netball. Our 15-year-olds beat Australia in reading, science and maths. This year we proclaimed our All Blacks as heroes for shutting out South Africa, Australia and each of the UK teams. But so did our 15-year-old students. Did anyone notice?

There is much more to learn from the comparative results of the OECD survey.

While New Zealand students maintained their position near the top, Australian authorities are deploring their "significant decline since 2000" on all the skills measured.

The Ministry of Education in England has called for wholesale reform as their own report shows that, in the survey of all 65 nations that participated in the survey, their students slipped from seventh in 2000 to 25th in reading, eighth to 28th in maths and fourth to 16th in science.

Meanwhile, another country we like to compare ourselves with, the United States, languishes well down the scale, around the average of all OECD countries. So much for former President George W. Bush's hopes for the No Child Left Behind programme.

All three of these countries spend more per capita on education than we do, yet all show lower performance levels.

Perhaps there is a lesson here for our Minister of Education.

Throughout this period, 2000 to 2009, all three of these countries have had in place a system of national (or state) standards in primary schools, with annual compulsory assessments, reports to government and league tables designed to rank their schools.

We too are introducing a system of national standards, compulsory assessments, reports to government and league tables in our primary schools.

How long before we start to drop off the top of the OECD scale? It is no wonder that teachers in all these countries are continually protesting against the obvious drawbacks in this system. It is of note that the significant decline in the Australian figures was caused largely by a drop in the proportion of high achievers.

Is that where we are heading?

It is true that the latest survey still shows a wide dispersion of scores among New Zealand students.

We have more high achievers than other countries, but still too many at the lower end of the scale. However, the proportion of Kiwi students who did not reach Level 2 - the OECD benchmark of being able "to participate effectively and productively in life" - was 14 per cent, not the much-vaunted 20 per cent claimed by the Government.

These under-achievers are readily recognised in this survey. They can be identified by gender, by decile level and by ethnic group, but repeated studies overseas show us that compulsory assessment and league tables do not change them.

The recent Council Educational Research survey revealed that 85 per cent of principals and 86 per cent of teachers believe that National Standards "will not change the patterns of achievement".

The Minister of Education may welcome the positive feedback she is receiving from some parents about clearer reports of their children's achievement levels, but only 5 per cent of principals believe that they will help under-achievers.

The problems lie not so much in schools' efforts, but in such social problems as poverty, dysfunctional families, and home language traditions. In a year of frequent teacher-bashing, we should recognise that we have many dedicated, competent teachers, doing great things for our children's minds, and our future national prosperity.

Merry Christmas New Zealand teachers. Pat yourselves on the back.

By Warwick Elley

or this might happen in NZ it's happening in Australia

It's Try Time!

2010-12-02T01:02:00.000-08:00

Had a graduation dinner the other night for the 94 year six students who have had 6 years at our lovely kura (school). It is always a good night and I find myself up there thinking about the speech from last year and generally winging another spiel. Last night when faced with the leavers and their parents I realised how many interactions, how many stories, how many moments I have had with the very cool bunch. Having a daughter piled in with them was especially pleasing because I had closer interaction with the families of those daring enough to befriend the littler Podgorani.

I was really chuffed to see the many parents who have worked so hard to help there little guys. Parents who over the years have, mended books, volunteered for reading, been on camps and trips, turned up to assemblies. The thing that hit home to me is that you can have classroom performance as much as you like, but building a big family in a school is essential, treating kids like they belong, like they are loved, showing them and their families that you care, this is what truly makes the difference.

The thing is that I should care about their academic progress and I do desperately, but somehow I know that their interactions, behaviours, attitudes, families, still hold their destiny. Sure, we have got over the line with so many of these guys, but there are others who I know will stumble, and I hope there will always be someone to help them up. I hope our attitude and direction is enough for the rocky times. I do know though that those great teachers are out there to pick up my 94 mates and make sure they do get over the line. Kia Kaha to our profession and thanks in advance, oh and keep an eye out for Racheal she is gonna need a hand up occasionally.

Clever man at the ministry of education pockets 72 million

2010-12-02T00:13:00.000-08:00

It's time to just ride the wave and get the job done, it's the silly season.

I've been coming to grips with the Ministry of Ed's new "low prediction of students" policy. Basically they predict you will have less kids next year and staff you accordingly. You see they are making an overall judgement (OTJ) but with your estimated roll numbers. The hidden agenda is that if the "OTJ" has lower numbers then you get less staff. If you knock half a teacher off every school you save $30,000 x 2400 schools, thats lots of cash and 1000 less teachers next year, just through an "OTJ", see what happens when you teach to the test, you pass! Just what the MOE man got from his boss, a pass with flying colours and a saving of $72 million.

If you think this is a conspiracy and a bunch of whispers then ring ten Akld principals and ask how much their staffing has been reduced by, I did, and the total from ten schools was 35 less teachers. I know times are tough but I wouldn't want to be a part timer or someone who is looking for a day here and a day there, the squeeze is on and education is like a wedge of lime sitting on the lip of a cold corona. More than half the schools in Akld appealed their staffing with over a hundred appeals being sent to Wellington for the boffins to over-rule, it happened, we got nailed people, join the dots.

On a brighter note I can tell you that the challenge of restaffing our school was seen as a opportunity to clarify what we think are the non negotiables and what we see as important in our school. I know we have found a great balance and we are positive about our staffing and the direction we are going. My comments above aren't actually a bleat they are just the facts. I am actually struggling to see why our beloved unions and associations haven't taken up the fight. Most probably the NZEI were fighting for some small % increase which was offered, I personally would have much preferred more staffing than a pay rise, the job would get done way better, with more time to dedicate to teachers and kids, and less stress.

Q & A

2010-11-07T00:29:00.000-07:00

It's been a while, the podgorani has had heads down living week by week.

Question : Why has the ministry cut the staffing ratio for every school in NZ?

Answer : They gotta save millions so they tried it on, and with 50% of auckland schools appealing their staffing, they may just save a few bucks. Who hasn't appealed?

Question : National Standards, why are Karen Sewell and Anne Tolley making such a meal of the implementation ?

Answer : You cant force crap on schools and disguise it as a shiney answer to a complex issue.

Question : NS again, Who is advising Mary, Karen and Anne, or are they actually leading?

Answer : I think they are making the calls, no-one else could over-react like woman scorned, clearly pissed off, they wrote to BOT's giving ridiculous examples of charter targets, now they ridiculously decided to ring BOTs. Those actions will spur more to oppose!

Question : How many games does Joe Roks have to play before Ted realises that Ranger, Guilford, Gear, Jane, Maitland, Sivivatu are all better?

Answer : While they continue to pick Donald Duck we cant moan about Joe Roks.

Question : Why do I not unfollow more people on twitter.

Answer : I morbidly enjoy watching them butcher their online profile, and I sort of hope they don't have that twitter app that tells them they have been unfollowed.

Question : Why do principals always ask "how can you afford all this gear"?

Answer : You cant afford not to.

Question : Why do schools pack their term 4 calendars into something resembling the floor of the New York stock exchange.

Answer : We are suckers for punishment, we just hop on the wave and ride it through to December.

Question : Why do we continue to get ripped off in this country with mobile phone charges and say nothing or do nothing?

Answer : Kiwis are too polite to complain, we just wait for an uninformed media storm and jump right on the bandwagon (any topic, any bandwagon).

Question : How do you get a $50,000 garden for 10k ?

Answer : Get organised and get your community in to help.

Nigeria vs West Akld

2010-10-20T01:53:00.000-07:00

The Bro, my fellow Podgorani, visited over the last couple of weeks. He has been in Nigeria for the better part of two years. He is right out in the jungle and the local "city" has about 12,000 people so there is some infrastructure there. So immediately I asked about school and classrooms. He decided this time to bring some pictures of the school and gave me a couple of videos. I was gobsmacked by what I saw. I wanted to know what I could do to help. The Older Podgorani's suggestions were not to bring the western world to them, yes medicine, yes education (but not as we know it).

I dont have any profound or uninformed suggestions just some pictures, a video and a small insight to a different world.

And now for the gold. eyes out for the sleepers. ears out for the classroom sound levels !

Recreational Writers

2010-09-18T18:17:00.000-07:00

Several years ago sitting next to Harry Hood over lunch he recalled a conversation he had with Marie Clay about recreational readers. She said "you know whats wrong with this country Harry? We have thousands of kids who can read but don't". How many teachers roll their eyes, nod their heads or say amen to that one. My sons catholic school are so desperate to get their kids to read they have huge signs around their school saying "Boys who read ACHIEVE". The key is "foster a love of" not "able to" read. Harry made the point "recreational readers pass exams"

There is another step to this however. What about those people like me who haven't fostered a love of books, but have fostered a love of conversation, observation, discussion, we read only the relevant bits and watch and listen, we have plenty to say, is their hope for us? We have a love of what we do, our work, our sports, our families, surely Marie Clay has room for us. Through blogging we have become the recreational writers, surely recreational writers pass exams too!

For three years now I have followed a young mans blog he was 9 when he started. He loves sport and in the early blogs of 2008 his teacher/school cleverly used the Olympics as the hook. After a few posts I noticed that he was posting after 3pm and even at night.

The defining moment however came when Tanielu blogged in January in the middle of the school holidays. Name a ten year old pacific island boy who is recreationally writing in their christmas holidays. Yes there was a very real reason for the blog post but the boundaries between the classroom and home had become intertwined. Learning is everywhere, he wasn't writing because he was forced to, it was because he had to, he had something to say and he said it.

Other subtleties that come from this blog is that if you read todays articles and compare them to the very early posts you can see how his writing has developed amazingly (no need for moodle or mahara or scanning rubbish into an eportfolio). By the way Dan you are an observant, intelligent sports writer!

Tanielu keeps his cluster maps before they clear out annually, smart work Dan it can be encouraging to see those dots.

Search Tanielu in google, guess who is the number 1 hit.

If you check the comments you get people writing in Samaon. You get adults giving adult opinion. You get teachers encouraging (but not so necessary now). You get family members. You get classmates and kids from other schools. But the gold is you get someone called Dad, with amazing thoughtful, insightful, encouraging words. This is a winning story.

In many ways I can relate to Tanielu. I started blogging in 2008, I write because I have something to say. It takes time, process, thought. I know it takes maintenance, discipline but the bug is catchy, it's rewarding. When someone posts a comment it's cool. When you see a red dot on the map or follow the live traffic feed, its a buzz, and I'm a Benji Marshall fan too.

If you want justification for elearning, or you are thinking of blogging in your classroom then this says it all. I get ample visitors who look at elearning and I am certain they go back to their schools and do nothing. Stop the inactivity and get active, get the hook going with your kids now. As my old mate Jim Ferguson always said "these kids are year 4 once, make it the best year 4 ever". Foster a love of writing, it's not only possible, it's imperative.

Teachers this takes work, this is one small story, it's not a miracle, it is what is expected for 21st century teaching. Big ups to Dan's school you guys lead the way.

Go the Tigers !

Building Schools for Key Competencies

2010-09-07T23:35:00.000-07:00

Three events have jolted my brain into action. A tweet from the seemingly ever pondering Cheryl (it's the photo). A visit from friends at Torbay School and a session with the ever popular Julia Atkin on building Key Competencies in your school.

Lets start with the fact that many schools are prefabs, crappy old buildings, toilet blocks jammed in cloak bays (cloak bays? never seen a cloak at school!), and disconnected learning spaces. So yes, some schools are fortunate to have new blocks, purpose built spaces bla bla bla. I dont think this automatically banishes you to a default mindset of "we cant do it". The KC's : managing self, relating to others, thinking, participating and contributing. So how do you physically set up a school that supports the KC's? How do you build a school on the KC's?

There are many ways to get the job done and this is one theory, its nothing new, and it's only a suggestion that works for us, it doesn't mean it will work for everyone.

Its the old chestnut - vertical forms - I look at it from a few perspectives. I believe that kids learn heaps of stuff when the teacher isn't around, those social skills, standing up for yourself, real role models from their peers. I might think this, but Nuthall did the research (see earlier post) teachers cant always control what kids learn. So if the learning, the values, the KCs are practiced and learnt when the teachers aren't there then maybe we should try to set up the school so that when we aren't there kids of differing ages (role models) are present. When teachers are present (we do the KC's too) we can direct and model the KC's, we can focus on them, have them as goals, but when its just kids we have no say as to what happens.

So vertical forms, multi level teams, small schools within a school, call them whatever you want, they work. Imagine the kid who is pissing around at a lunchtime and kids follow this behaviour, having kids of more maturity about when the 5 year olds are eating dirt, fighting over a toy, whatever. Role models are everything. How many 5 year olds are amazing role models? If you physically have classrooms of all levels together around the school you may be starting to encourage the positive role models, it's the KC's implementation on a real level. Having the kids work together when directed by the teacher, organising real interactivity between learners of all ages, going on trips together, sharing learning together will spill over into the playground if it's genuine. If your school is set up to make real collaboration work amongst kids then you are getting there.

Hows this: Mrs Podgorani was at pak n save and a mum came to her and thanked her for the way Little Podgorani (year5 at the time) was a great friend and genuine buddy for her 5 year old who had just started at school. The young 5 year old had gone home and talked about her friend at school, how they were mates, how her friend was helping her with her learning and playing with her in the playground. When two of your schools mums are talking at the supermarket about the success of the vertical forms then you've cracked it.

Recently I met a guy who said "yeah I do buddy reading", my mental model of that was one of a cold cup of sick. I know buddy reading can be great, but it can be rubbish too. So if it's setting up structures that support the learning community for our kids then I'm all over it.

So if you're in a Julia Atkin workshop, stuck at a table of teachers who do buddy reading and palm that off as vertical forms and role modelling, or reading twitter and looking at future schools discussions, or talking with kind hearted visitors about why you do things, then try to make connections. I want to draw a symbol like Prince and call it Extended Abstract.

Perhaps its easier to see rather than explain, but think vertical forms done well, on steroids, and working for kids.

Wonderful teachers might not be so wonderful

2010-08-31T03:46:00.000-07:00

How do you know what kids actually learn? Teachers know what they are teaching, but what learning actually takes place? My mate Pezza has really gone deep on these questions and has looked at research that really has made a difference. I have read a few really interesting pieces and he has had great success tracking down the experts. Dr Graham Nutthall certainly was a man ahead of his time, and I keep coming back to what he said in an interview with Kim Hill. I suppose research can be difficult to read, but imagine listening to a radio host (who asks good questions) asking the researcher and getting the good oil. Interesting stuff.

So what can we learn :

Teachers hardly ever know what’s going on with their students.

How little the teacher impacts on the average student even though the teacher thinks he or she is doing a very good job.

In fact, we find out that a substantial amount of what teachers teach, or attempt to teach, is already known by a significant number of kids in the class. Up to 50%.

Hill: So when you talk to children or even adults ... People often say I had a fantastic teacher. Does that mean that teacher is fantastic? Is that the best kind of reference a teacher can get? Is that meaningful?

Nuttall: I think it’s meaningful within our cultural expectations of what good teachers are about; the teacher had a sense of humour, explained things clearly to us, he really cared about me, and a whole lot of things like that which motivates kids and makes them feel good. And those are the kinds of teachers which they will remember. The older generation will remember teachers who were pretty tough on them but made them work hard. But things like working hard and explaining things clearly and so on are all surface features. You could have in fact learned very little from these wonderful teachers.

I have put the whole interview here it may take 30 minutes to read but worth the effort.

Mac Vs PC

2010-08-30T01:55:00.000-07:00

So you want some evidence as to the durability of a mac ?

A Principal friend of mine lost everything in a house fire, EVERYTHING, luckily the kids/family got out.

The house just melted in front of them. The brigade got the hoses going but it was way too late.

However two pieces of technology survived. The flames, heat, water and smoke damage stopped everything from ticking, well almost everything.

Uncle Steve would be proud.

The macbook ticks along nicely thank you, oh the other piece of technology that is still going great is her iphone.

Get them all on Board - a pun - ha

2010-08-30T01:09:00.000-07:00

So the Podgorani has been on tour. We have been working hard at building a future direction for the school that is owned by all. The hard thing is that teachers are all opinionated bastards, and general know it alls. Add to that the way they like to do things (insert my way or the highway) and it could have been a recipe for disaster. However the Podgorani has a staff of gems, yes we still have opinion, debate and occasional over reaction but who hasn't? So after getting all thirty staff through the 6 chosen schools we looked long and hard at the way things are done, what we were scared of, what made sense and what we saw as a need for us.

The ideas ran wild and the wish list continues to grow out of hand.

How to prioritize what works for us is always a real challenge.

However the real genius of the staff inquiry was taking the Board of Trustees on the same tour. The discussions and observations from the BOT were on very similar levels to the staff, their ideas, contributions and buy-in is just magnificent.

It's hard to describe but while having a debrief session over a quiet beer our Principal friend Dr Cox arrived. He joined the discussion, he was sitting next to a trustee. I watched Dr Cox, he was listening to the trustee describe a moment that he'd observed in a school during the day. Inference is often a bit of a guess, but the look on Dr Cox's face was saying : shit this guy knows his stuff, what a great trustee, what a brilliant idea from the Podgorani, he really has his BOT paddling the same waka. Yes that was inference, but those were the exact things I was thinking and I know Dr Cox was on the same level. This was confirmed when he text me later. Being called clever may have been an exaggeration but the idea was a gem, as for the rugby, lets no go there.

Some ideas to help it work:

Give your BOT an opportunity to contribute.

Take them on an overnighter, you can get the informal discussions working.

Make sure they get an opportunity to see your own school too.

Visit a range of deciles, include a private school.

Choose Principals not schools.

Are you a visitor in your own school?

2010-08-25T02:21:00.000-07:00

Visitors to school can sometimes be a distraction followed by an annoying loss of time. This can easily be the perception, but often it is far from the truth. We have become so accustomed to our friendly visitors that the staff, children, school office, leadership team actually enjoy sharing, looking, watching and asking all sorts of questions. What I have realised is that it keeps me listening to staff, finding out what is happening with kids learning, watching children, gathering information about the way they learn, interacting, talking, everything actually. It has really helped me get to know so many kids.

I had a great moment the other day when a teacher came to me in the staffroom to explain a moment that happened in their class which related to some practice she is working on. The visitors coming through the school have enabled me to use them as a vehicle to continually see and talk about learning but more importantly for teachers to share their practice with outsiders. How many times have you walked into a classroom as a Principal and wanted to ask what are you doing? whats this guy up to? and any other question you want without feeling like you are threatening or digging for info.

I am always out talking to kids, but visitors give you some formality. The Board of Trustees of our school are on a learning curve to see if we can write an amazing charter in conjunction with staff and our community. We are visiting seven schools in Christchurch, for a good look around. Before we travelled I made them come on a "visitors tour" of our school. Luckily Shirley Temples cousin, Teresea from Palmerston North, was visiting that day with ex colleague Mary. So the BOT got a visit of their own school, with the whole Principal spiel, and the dig around go anywhere tour. My BOT were just so full of praise, they say they learnt so much, it was genuine. Has your BOT toured your school?

Have they been through all the rooms?

Have they seen and heard your vision in action?

Do you need visitors to get out and talk to kids, teachers?

Just take the time to be in rooms !

Just take time to talk with parents !

Just take time to talk to kids !

Now we are visitors. I am trying to behave like a good visitor. We are on tour. Must remember a good gift. Food is always appreciated.

I wanted to share this very quick answer from our parent survey. It warms your heart, well it warmed mine as much as Israel Daggs try.

iPads early days - here are a few tips

2010-08-11T01:22:00.000-07:00

iPads have a big place but how do we go about getting them in classes and working well. There are always the early adopters, some hit the headlines a month or two back, how they had ipads in their school. I had the whole (jealous) and cynical, "I bet they are stuffing up the image and snycing and app store stuff". So now we have a set of iPads, here is what I have discovered:

- each ipad takes about 7 minutes to get up and running

- have one main image ipad, he/she will be your friend, love it, care for it, ours is called Cardy.

- you can connect as many ipads as you like to one itunes library/set of apps

- after initially restoring from a backup of the first ipad it was easy to do the next one and so on

- when you plug in an ipad that has been restored it automatically backs up, you don't really want this because you want to restore from that one main image, and backups are all called the same thing as all your ipads are named the same because you restored them from one image. easy fix, ring Ash

- plug in your main image ipad (Cardy) and it backs up and syncs any changes. click on the name of the ipad and change its name to something you wont forget, ours is called ipadCardiganBayMaster, a mouthful but hang in there. Now after renaming, right click on the ipad in the left window of itunes and scroll down to backup. the backup will appear in the itunes preferences~devices window and it will have that big long random name (easy to find).

- Now when you plug in a different ipad you can let it backup or interrupt the back up, and just restore from your master which you have named so aptly.

- each sync/restore only takes a matter of minutes (7max)

- now use your computer that you sync from, to be your download center, or use your master ipad to download onto, as it will sync, backup and be the one you will restore from each time.

- the other ipads will be clones of one master, my plan is to hand the master to a person who has a handle on how ipads work, let them be the boss of the apps, pages, etc.

- there are some app issues with bought apps and putting them on more than one ipad, at the moment we are sticking to free apps, but a bought app will go across multiple ipads. I dont know if app sellers would be happy knowing one app can go on many machines. Will investigate the iTunes terms.

So far so good with the set up now how good will they be in the classrooms. at the moment the teachers are getting first go. They gotta know that these aren't a gimmick, and we must have educational apps. Teachers get their ipads tomorrow, should be a fun morning.

oh other tips- name the ipads, we have gone for horses, Cardigan Bay, Veandercross, Rough Habit etc engrave them "stolen from >>>> Primary School". Kids will remember names, not numbers. label the chargers and ipod cable too. love those label makers.

UPDATE :

New discoveries :

All the ipads are running well but I have new apps and a software update, but the master has the same name as all of the restored ipads. So UPDATE your master sync it, and get your new apps on it. BUT before you disconnect and restore the other ones, change the name of your master so you dont get confused. Every time your master is synced and backed up change its name. Remember to right click on your master and choose backup after renaming.

UPDATE UPDATE:

New Discoveries :

When you are looking to update and run a new set of apps, you must put your master in first. Every ipad you have has the same image and name, therefore if you plug in some plonker ipad that has had apps downloaded on it these apps will sync and back up. If you then put in your master then the apps from the other ipad will sync onto you master, something you dont want.

If you put in an ipad that isnt your master before syncing and renaming (see update above) then before it syncs and backs-up swipe on the ipad screen when it tries to sync, that is the fast easy way to stop the sync. If you click in itunes and try to cancel syncs it will beach ball and basically piss you off. Swipe to stop sync, its a good tip believe me.

Update 3

After a month or so we have had the ipads (not the master) wanting to sync their apps and compromising the master ipad. So now we sync the master, and then before syncing the others to the renamed master we go to setting on the device and reset/erase the ipad, thus when it syncs it just gets the new clean image. Easy and way less hassle.

NZConnected Zest Practice

2010-07-20T00:57:00.000-07:00

NZConnected conference day two.

I had a great day on day 2 where I sat in on Tony Ryan for most of the day. Let me first say that if you have heard Tony talk about thinkers keys then hold onto your hat. Tony is not a one trick pony. Most Aussies are loud beer swilling uncultured rugby league followers (all australian readers exempt and your families, as well as my aunty Shirley in Sydney). No, Tony has a kindness built into his persona, he appeals on many levels to your common sense, he has perfected the power of the pause, he doesn't have to fill the silence with words. And he doesn't talk shit.

Tony gave a great keynote on “zest practice” which was his play on “best practice”. Tony had many observations on motivation in the classroom and the power of proactive dialogue (always talking from a positive mindset). Always praise effort.

He had a few messages that resonated with me.

1. If you have a child at school ask yourself this. How good is the feeling you have when you know your son/daughter has a passionate teacher who does a great job. Now turn that on yourself as a principal and teacher - Do your parents sit at home and feel great about you as a teacher/principal.

2. Luck isn't always a factor, it happens to those who make it happen. We get lots of visitors and I will often say, "we are lucky, our kids are great". Often the reply is "yeah you guys are so lucky". The reality though is kids are great everywhere and it comes down to hard work and a few laughs, luck isn't a factor.

3. Video your practice. It can be personal and private. While on sabbatical 2 years ago I went for a golf lesson. We walked outside with clubs ready to go. The guy gave me no tips, he just said play a few shots, he videoed from behind, the side, and did a close-up of the grip. We walked inside, he put it on the TV. My first reaction was "Oh My God" I need to do this and that and this. You are an expert teacher, listen to yourself, watch yourself, watch your movements, listen to the class. This is a no brainer, do it for a short time frame, 30 minutes or so therefore you don't bore yourself to death.

4. Zest practice. Every moment you model an inspired teacher you are modeling an inspired school. The sky is your limit.

5. What Tony did real well was give teachers thinking tools to use with kids, fast simple and full of common sense. All sorts of discussion tools, inquiry tools and more, You should have attended. Brilliant.

A list of books, videos and things to google from NZC and my notes;

Bounce, Matthew Syed - great book even I have read this, the penny will drop - easy to read and makes absolute sense.

Models of the worlds we live in - John Holt

Julia Atkin EPS educational positioning system

TED - Elizabeth Gilbert

TED - Daniel Pink autonomy mastery purpose.

Fierce Conversations - Susan Scott

How to talk to so kids can learn - Adelle Faber

Learning Talk - Hyerle

The ripple effect - Tony Ryan

follow him on twitter @aussietony

Leadership Structure x 2

2010-07-14T20:39:00.000-07:00

Day one at the NZConnected conference.

It was a Julia Atkin day for me. She is here only one day so it was a great opportunity to get my fill of common sense. Something this conference provided all day long.

Following on from my quality post from last month. Julia talked about that very same leadership structure.

So the hierarchy model is a shocker we know this but what model have you most experienced ? What is our mental model of school leadership?

Is your schools model of leadership the collaborative model ? Of course it is - according to you. But what do your teachers think the model of leadership is ?

Who is telling the truth? Can you be both?

You may be operating in the collaborative model of leadership and everyone at your school may actually think you are in a hierarchy. Teachers may actually want a hierarchy (make a desicion - tell me what you want done). Part of the confusion is because of the mental models people carry. They are hard to break, because what we know, is our default position.

When I went to school many moons ago, a fire engine going past the playground with the siren blasting meant only one thing, FIRE. Today the fire engine comes past, what is the mental model we hold and where is the engine actually going. People rely on their mental models by default. That engine could be attending traffic accidents, chemical spills, whatever. Julia Atkin says we need to work with teachers and children in breaking down our mental models and reforming re-imagining them. I asked how do we do this ? Julia says with a sledgehammer. We agreed too that living the collaborative model, referring to it, owning it, will continually break down the mental model.

Management Structure

2010-06-15T13:01:00.000-07:00

the guys at the top only see shit

the guys at the bottom only see arseholes

Top 10 list for leaders

2010-06-14T00:35:00.000-07:00

I have no idea where I discovered this top 10 list. I want to apologise for pasting it here without acknowledgement. Leave a comment if you know its origins, or like the content. Its too good to not share.

1 The focus of 'your' school must be on the success of kids 100% of the time. All too often, it seems, we try to fit kids into our expectations and in the process ignore the ideas, questions, points of view, and talents the students bring with them. And we see any conflict with students as a problem rather then as a means to work out a mutual better solutions.
2 Leaders need to create a vision,write it down,and start implementing it. It is important not to put your vision in drawer and forget about it and hope for the best. Every decision must be aligned against the vision and beliefs that underpin it. The whole school community is watching when you make a decision so consistency, by referencing decisions against the vision, is important.
3 It's the people stupid. The secret of managing is to keep the people who hate you away from those who are undecided. Hire people who support your vision, who are prepared to learn and who like kids.
4 Keep the paddles in the water. When navigating dangerous rapids in raft the only way to succeed is for everyone in the boat to sit on the edge and paddle really hard even though everyone would rather sit in the centre where it is safer. In times of school crisis everybody must be involved.
5 Find time to think and worry during the day. You are never always going to have a good days so it is OK to stare at the wall, reflect on the vision, and think about how to make necessary changes. Value input from other but ask those who provide it to provide possible solutions as well.
6 Take responsibility for the good and bad. The solutions to problems are almost always right in front of you; the genius of the school lies within the school. Imposed solutions have their consequences. Don't give away your responsibility.
7 You have ultimate responsibility. Have very clear expectations derived from the school vision and beliefs and then make sure people have the knowledge, resources, and time to accomplish expectations. Autonomy is the goal but actions need to be within the bounds of the vision.
8 Have bias for yes. The only progress you ever make in life involves risk.Ideas that teachers and others may suggest may seem a little crazy but try to makes such requests into a yes. Use the vision as a self reference and encourage others to do so.
9 Consensus is over rated. Twenty percent of the people will be against anything. When you realize this you avoid compromising what really should be done because you stop watering things down.If you always reach consensus you are being led by the 20%
10 Large changes need to be done quickly. If you wait too long to make changes to a school culture you have already sanctioned mediocre behaviour because you are allowing it.That is when change is hard. Define with the staff the behaviours required by the vision and belief and hold people accountable to them.

Seems like good advice if principals want to be real leaders!

Draw a few conclusions

2010-06-02T23:32:00.000-07:00

The national standards are now entering an interesting stage. The hit list exists. "Someone" got a former head of ERO to "cold call" schools asking "how they are going with implementing the standards". The former head said it was a random call. After speaking with one of the "random" principals, I know they certainly felt like it was "pressure" and "information gathering".

So what conclusions can be drawn.

"Someone" is angry at opposition of the standards and has asked for a list to be drawn up.

"Someone" has asked a big gun to do an investigation and place pressure on these schools.

"Someone" formed the cunning strategy of saying the cold call list is random.

So who in the Ministry or in Parliament has the power to make this happen.

You draw the conclusions.

So its law, just do it. What do you do when the law is an ass. What did Maori do when they weren't allowed to speak the beautiful language in schools? The law changed in the 30's but the practice continued through to the 70's. Those that complied lost their language. Those that didn't comply, well you draw the conclusion.

Are we going to wait twenty years to look back and say "that experiment with our kids" was a lemon? Are we going to sit by and accept a law written on an election slogan?

The letter that our leading academic researchers wrote to the minister saying these can have the effect of actually doing damage. The research is saying no. The law, yes.

I wouldn't mind seeing the law tested for lacking evidence.

If I was to grade the standards thus far, and gave those who strung them together, then the "Mary team" would be "below" but thats an OTJ.

I challenge all schools who are going mad designing Nat Standards to share their living local curriculum NZC first please.

Emma Woods I salute you

2010-05-26T02:02:00.000-07:00

In one of the saddest stories ever written, a great New Zealander has touched everyone who heard or saw her reaction. This is something that brought a tear to the eye of thousands of people as we shook our heads in disbelief of a truly amazing woman. Picture your two children run over by an alleged boy racer, killing one and injuring another and the grieving mum coming out with statements like these:

"We don't want this to be his defining moment in his life," Emma Woods said yesterday of Ash Austin's actions that killed her son Nayan, 4, and injured her and her other son Jacob, 6.

"He's young ... and he's got his whole life ahead of him. And we hope he will use it to do good things, and to be good with people. And maybe eventually to be a good father.

"We know that at some stage with the grieving process, there will be anger. But at this stage, we're not angry. It's just a tragic accident."

"He was just a kid coming home from work and the road was slippery.

"He made a mistake maybe driving, I don't know, that's not for me to decide. I know that sometimes when I'm with the kids, I've maybe driven a bit too fast. Everybody makes mistakes when they're driving."

Read for yourself unbelievable this and this.

Emma Woods your are truly amazing. I know every kiwi sends you and your family their love. If we could take some of the strength and empathy you have shown, and action that daily, this country would be an even better place. I am extremely proud to know such a great Kiwi, mum, family exists in NZ. arohanui

This isn't tiddlyewinks

2010-05-24T00:05:00.000-07:00

I cant sit back and take it for one more minute.
I need to know what is going on at half back in NZ rugby. We are trying to win a world cup here, this isn’t tiddlywinks. It’s time for the harsh realities. When Will Genia is developing into a top test player you have to ask what happened to the development of our halfbacks. Our guys are just doing the same as they always did. All of you people who think steady is good are not facing the crisis that is impending if we vote for the incumbents. Its like continuing to pick Rokocoko again, we know that just isn’t acceptable.

Is the guy you are picking going to be a match winning halfback for us in the rugby world cup? When I say match winning I mean the game breaker, the guy who makes the difference, the guy with the edge, the guy who is hungry and adds actions to that hunger.
So lets have a look who is around.
A: Quentin James Cowan
B: Andrew Ellis
C: Piri Weepu
D: Khan Fotualii
E: Alby Matthewson
F: Brendan Leonard

1: does my halfback piss around at the ruck waiting endlessly to pass to a runner who is being marked. Cowan: can piss around a bit 5. Ellis: endless pissing around 4. Weepu: shocking at snails pace from rucks (fitness related though) 2. Fotualii: the most decisive, arrives quickly and sends it (easily the fittest halfback) 8. Matthewson: big failing just endless waiting for him (his worst fault) 4. Leonard: should know better 5.

2: does my half back defend like a forward, are they an aggressive or passive tackler. Cowan: great defender more behind the ruck though 8. Ellis: poorest defender (head and concussion issues) 4. Weepu: lazy defender, but smart, can step up but often doesnt 6. Futualii: wins here too, best defender by miles, aggressive tackler can use no arms occasionally but importantly can turn ball over with his hits, appears to love defending 9. Matthewson: gritty and determined but small and very obviously is knackered by the 60 minute mark when his size has taken its toll, often replaced late in games when he is buggered 6. Leonard: makes good tackles but often in the box/cover defence roll not in an attacking tackle 7.

3: is my halfback a player who always needs defending, are they a decisive runner who could be dangerous at any time. Cowan: yip you gotta defend him, he can and will snipe, not sensationally dangerous but must be watched 7. Ellis: dont bother defending him just run to carter and smash him 2. Weepu: only very close to the line is he worth defending, again he is smart/cunning but not a particularly dangerous halfback 6. Fotualii: can run and likes to have a go, has speed and can beat a man, not afraid to run, can improve but is as good as the rest 7. Matthewson: good sniper and can burst is easily put away though due to size, still this is his best asset 7. Leonard offers what Ellis offers steady predictable and at an average pace 3.

4: is my halfback always improving judge them from 06 -07 -08 and in 2009 are they going to be a better player, in 2010 will they be even better. Cowan: hasnt improved his aggression or arrogance cause he has them in spades, technically no improvement in pass or attack 6. Ellis: no improvement in any areas apart from minor experience cause he keeps getting picked 4. Weepu: has gone backwards is unfit and falling of the pace in attitude, aggression and interest 2. Fotualii: was lucky to be a crusader 3 years ago, his rise has been more growth, he is 28, he played 1st5 for Tasman last year, they won everything until he got hurt. Blackadder stuck by Fotualii when under pressure to take local Cantab Tyson Keats, great call Todd. He is the massive improver 10. Matthewson: big improver by being given a chance elsewhere, there is no question he will continue to improve, the question here does he have the attributes to match the improvement of Foutalii 9. Leonard: going backwards 2.

5: does my players hunger reflect in their actions on the field. Cowan always shows the hunger 9. Ellis hungry but the actions don’t talk 6. Weepu: his brain is always sharp and actions fluctuate, but not often enough 6. Foutalii hungrier than an alligator with actions that reflect that, equal to Cowan 9. Matthewson: hungry too up there with the other two 9. Leonard hungry but the actions don’t match the heart 6.

6: speed of pass. Cowan 7. Ellis 6. Weepu 6. Fotualii 7 Matthewson 7. Leonard 6.

Here are my totals out of 60
Cowan 42 Ellis 26 Weepu 28 Fotualii 50 Matthewson 42 Leonard 29
Summary: we might have to bite the bullet and let the halfbacks get experience (Fotualii and maybe Matthewson) and use Cowan when we need to. Otherwise more of the same will result in more of the same.

Which came first - and who cares - it's true

2010-05-18T00:38:00.001-07:00

From Values & Beliefs about Learning to Principles and Practice

Julia Atkin published the above paper in 1996. Her circles about values and beliefs are a great tool for schools to align their values and beliefs with their Principles and Practice. Below is an abstract from the article. The TED video is talking about business but the similarities with educational leadership are too good to be ignored. Thanks to @alanalach for this tweet, I just joined the dots.

So now I ask who wants to hear Julia talking about the NZ curriculum, get hands on and work with her. Get to NZConnectED

ABSTRACT : For example, there are many practices congruent with the belief that students can and do learn from each other. A teacher who holds that belief would develop approaches that, in principle, give opportunities for students to learn from each other. So a teacher who holds this belief is likely, in practice, to arrange the room so that students can work together readily, to give opportunities to work together on tasks in small groups and to employ strategies and approaches such as peer modeling, peer evaluation and peer tutoring. The relationship between these particular learning-teaching practices and the teacher’s core values and beliefs is shown in below.

Not only would practices be developed to give opportunities for students to learn from each other but also feedback loops would be introduced to evaluate whether in fact collaborative learning was actually occurring.

A useful exercise to develop the habit of this approach and thinking is set out bleow. As a reflection exercise, work it through individually or in collaboration with a colleague.

EXERCISE FOR DEVELOPING CONGRUENCE BETWEEN BELIEFS AND ACTIONS. Working with a partner. . .
1. Each identify one of your strongly held values or beliefs about learning.
2. If you believe this, how in principle do you respond? How, in principle, do you work towards this belief?
3. Give three examples of different practices which are congruent with this principle and its underlying belief.
4. Identify barriers (or potential barriers) to this belief being lived out in practice.
5. Identify a practice which is not congruent with your belief.

What is your schools priority ?

2010-05-12T00:31:00.000-07:00

I'm getting a bit sick of meeting teachers and principals who are focussing on the national standards. I can read Nag 2. We know what is expected. I recently met with my friends at Learning Network who said that the meetings and information stuff about National Standards have had huge attendance. The scary thing is that 90% of schools are making national standards their PD. Wake up you plonkers, show me your local curriculum, show me what you are doing with the NZC, show your communities how creative and hard working you are, show your kids the innovation and creativity you have as teachers.
What are people thinking making an election slogan their professional development emphasis??
Schools need to look at their values and make sure their priorities aren't compromised by competition and perceived success.
People need to get their priorities straight and a good start would be real Professional Development, not some made up rubbish from the peddlers who have sold their soul to the Ministers wallet.

NZConnectED

Follow Learning Network on twitter, retweet the NZConnectED conference, we owe it to the kids/classrooms of NZ who will soon be inundated with seen texts at 90%.

Tony Ryan: 'Zest practice' in the key competencies
The key competencies are not merely a slight reworking of curriculum documentation. They are a framework and an inquiry-based exploration for a life fully lived. This keynote will clarify the innovative nature of 'Zest Practice' for the key competencies in everyday classrooms.
Tony will also deliver the conference closing: "Now What?"

Julia Atkin: Picking up the gauntlet - doing justice to the spirit of the NZC
The NZ Curriculum has been warmly welcomed by NZ educators, but the apparent freedom if offers comes with significant responsibilities. What are these responsibilities and what are the key elements of the development and review process that will ensure your school does justice to the spirit of the NZ Curriculum?

Graham Watts: The class of 2023
In 2023 the children starting school this year will leave school. What is the future of teaching? How are we going about preparing our youngsters for unknown jobs and a future that is ever-changing? We need to develop the skilful thinkers with transferable learning skills.

1 in 5

2010-05-08T22:49:00.000-07:00

Ando truly nailed the 1 in 5 nonsense being brandished about by the minister, but what is the reality of a bell curve, what does it actually mean.

To me you can look at it from another viewpoint. A bell curve indicates that there is always someone struggling or failing. So I ask the question, is it me or you? It isn't plausible that we are so far down in the intelligence scale that we are failing because of intellect. BUT it is probable that teachers/principals are failing in the actual skills and delivery to work in the classroom and staffroom. I reckon 1 in 10 might be a decent guesstimate. Look around your colleagues the next time you meet, 1 in ten eh? But before pre judging anyone look at yourself.

I found the last four days at Masterclass Paramatta one of the best reflective opportunities. It had nothing to do with the format, more the people, surroundings and time. I was able to look at my own performance and realize that confidence can lead to a false sense of accomplishment and a dip in knowledge. When you are totally confident in where you are going without always looking to improve and learn more you can build up a false sense of achievement.

When you apply this to teachers think about the things you don't know, think about your blindspot in the Johari window. What do others know about you that you don't know? What do you know about your performance that no one else knows?

Sometimes this is the wake up call you need to give yourself. I'm not talking about those rubbish teachers, or those who destroy your school culture (they have to go) I'm talking about good people just looking to keep pressing the envelope.

Pull out the Johari window, trial it with your friends, look from another person point of view, it works.

Essential skills for the classroom or a wish list?

2010-04-28T23:38:00.000-07:00

10% of the 21st century is over, stop talking about 21st century learners and become a 21st century teacher before you get passed by. There are a few items on the list which are arguable but you cant deny its got to the stage that we need to shift NOW. Time for action not talk. Thanks manaiakalani for some help with the list.

create online materials using digital audio
find and evaluate authentic web based content
create and edit digital audio for the classroom
exploit digital images for the creation of web based learning materials / classroom use
create / collaborate on online media sharing channel (on YouTube / Teacher Tube etc)
create screen capture videos for students training
understand issues related to copyright and fair use of online materials
use browser plugins to enhance student learning
aid students in the use of a range of digital tools to help them goal set, plan and organise their learning
exploit webcams for teaching and learning / for student projects e
exploit social media for your own professional development
use a range of digital tools for time management planning and administrative purposes
use asynchronous collaborative tools for text constructions and editing
identify online resources that may pose a threat to our students e-security
exploit digital narrative for learning purposes
support students in the development of an e-portfolio
exploit blogging to achieve pedagogical aims
create digital narrative
utilize social bookmarking to share resources with and between learners
exploit 3D and 2D interactive computer games for learning purposes
exploit web based content for classroom learning
create a blog or website
check an email account regularly and manage it efficiently
use a computer / laptop and trouble shoot basic functions : on/off, connect to printer / internet
participate in online environments eg blogs or forums or Nings or Trademe or Facebook etc
independently operate, still and video cameras
administer a student blog : upload content, manage commenting, manage student use edit online pages e.g blog or Google sites use Google Apps - personally and with students a graphics programme for your level of students (e.g Kidpix, Hyperstudio, Pixelmator, Photoshop)
create a basic presentation eg Keynote or Google or Prezi or Powerpoint saving files in a variety of file formats (e.g .mov,.dv, .jpg, .aiff, .doc etc)
operate effectively you school student management system
create / interact with a wiki for collaborative learning with students
create and edit digital images / digital video
exploit web based content for autonomous student learning

Cops drop the ball

2010-04-05T22:09:00.000-07:00

In South Africa at the height of apartheid black were pulled over harassed, followed, beaten and worse. The world didn't like what was going on and we were all aghast of the brutality of our fellow man. While on holiday we all watched "walk to freedom" which was an inspiring story of Rosa Parks. Little Podgorani and her schoolie mate asked a thousand questions and were horrified with so many of the little things that black america suffered, and some probably still are. What annoys me is the same stuff happens in NZ all the time but just for brown NZers, stuff us pakeha are oblivious to. My mate Ves reckons he has been pulled over 20 times in three years, I think I've been pulled over 3 times in my life. He does have dreadlocks and a cool goatee, and he is one hell on a good teacher. He tells me on all the lines, excuses the cops use when they pull him over, it just happens, believe me.

OK here is my point, check this out and shake you head this is true story. My mate and his cook went to pick up their son from a short stint in a northland prison. They were looking forward to the day, counting the days. The fill the car, buy plenty of yummy food, and get to the gates at 9am sharp. Yes the dogs were there and they were doing inspections (no problems there). So also in the que of cars was about 15 other cars, mainly solo mums with 3,4,5 kids all with their parcels and stuff. These are people trying to hold their families together. So what do the police do. They have a line of police, checking warrants, registrations, diesel mileage, seat-belts, everything. They were handing out tickets/fines like lollipops. If you want a shit rap, a bad name, then carry on with this nonsense. No wonder the cops build up hatred with that sort of shit. My mate had a few harsh words for officer dibble and his comrades, he went home happy with his young man. But a string of young mums went home to an empty house and a bunch of fines they will never afford.

I suppose that it all comes down to cash, writing tickets, bringing in the bucks.

Shame, damn shame.

Good stuff done well

2010-03-24T15:26:00.000-07:00

So while whipping through a room the other day I came across what appeared to be the retyping of stories for publishing. I saw miss whatsername struggling with finding which key was what, and with a quick eye roll I thought hmmm. What then hit me was the reality of what was being taught. Kids were creating pictures that described their writing and then re editing their stories to make the two correlate. Add to that the thinking templates that helped step out the stories, these templates included scenes, pictures and descriptions. Great teamwork discussions between kids, the teacher had carefully manipulated who was in each group, the teacher facilitating cleverly with those needing help. They were into kid pix and were faced with a few options from there. They could either print their books off or flick them out as digital books to the junior class with whom they were going to read them with.

The story is that sometimes the simple things can be done really well and can make for great learning and teaching. I remember Mr Canterbury's boost reading project, which did a similar thing and benefitted all, or aunty Dots mileage, teamwork and comprehension jaffa on itunes. The thing is its easy to forget how much fun we can have while making learning real.

School Trustees Association are they Double Dipping ?

2010-03-19T12:49:00.000-07:00

I'm a little unsure if this is double dipping, stupidity from schools or just paranoia over National Standards.

So the podgorani has had his fair crack at the NZEI over the years and nothing has changed, but you pay your union fees or you don't. It annoys me endlessly that if I ring NZEI and say "i need help with a teacher, and you are my union, help". They say "Oh i'm their union too, ring STA". This is the big joke and we all know we need separate unions, but those NZEI fish heads cant afford to lose our fees and wouldn't be able to have endless hakas at their national conference without their "respected" principals.

But

This isn't about the NZEI this is about our friends at STA School Trustees Association. They have clearly not asked their members about the national standards and are now alongside their funding partner the National Party. At first I thought it was just a stand by a lone figurehead but the penny dropped last week. After talking with the Mike Canterbury he noted that you don't actually have to pay the STA "subscription/membership" to have the use of their services including legal and communication. STA has a contract with the Ministry of Education (insert Anne Tolley is the boss here) to provide Boards of Trustees with governance help and provide legal advice. I have over the years used this service (once) and the STA guys that assist the school were brilliant, but it is a big job and takes ages, imagine how many schools have used their services.

This is a big contract, any chance STA are now puppets for their bosses? Their behavior suggests something is going on. They certainly haven't listened to their members. Then they wrote to Boards of Trustees about sacking BOTs who don't follow the standards, but they didn't write to all members of the boards (ratty smelly). This was a hot headed reaction to pressure. Who might have been behind this letter (insert all people who want the standards who are hot headed and have some power to do something)?

This is all a shambles, don't blame me for jumping to conclusions, this is what happens when the internet bites back at the Govts ownership of the mainstream media and when our only representatives (NZEI bus tour joke, NZPF's read our website for our press release campaign) drop the ball like the Highlanders on a south african tour.

If you want to make a stand, talk with your BOT review your subscription/membership - you already are a member, I rang the STA and checked the facts, their help desk was very helpful.

Might save your school $1000, fiscal responsibility, at least one National MP, Bill English would praise your accounting prudence in these tough times.

Please, before getting angry, note that while I type i am usually laughing, and if you saw what I edit out of each post you'd be shocked. If you cant take a joke don't read, if you don't have a SOH don't read, but there is usually a message in there for someone.

Cooliris Photo Wall

2010-03-09T21:58:00.001-08:00

Visual learners - old but still cool

2010-03-09T12:23:00.000-08:00

My mate Wes (australian so i will use simple language, terms like "mate" go down well there - see I can be politically correct) posted a nice little tweet about how to avoid questions to kids that will be easily answered by google. This led me through to a nice blog post which led my eyes to a cool graphic about blooms. The graphic was cut off slightly which always annoys the visual learner (insert Podgorani here).

A quick search in google images for blooms taxonomy graphic and I had a series of hits. Still the click through to next page bollicks, and the see real image is garbage, but click to cool iris and get the scrolling images hit just the right spot. I was like a boy in a lolly shop.

I know cool iris is old and yesterdays web 2.0 tool, but the way the web moves so fast we jump past things that still work and shouldn't have been left in the web 2 trail of crappy apps.

Cool Iris in action.

If you were looking for visual representations about blooms then surely Cool Iris is where you should be.

Finally some sort of leadership

2010-03-08T14:22:00.000-08:00

This whole national standards issue is a joke.

I dont know what is more embarrassing, the unions, the NZPF or the National Government.

All we ask for is some balance to the argument, and some leadership.

Im not sure who to credit for this article but it did come via the APPA (auckland Primary principals Association.

Now there is also another side, which is some schools are bloody useless and something is needed, my theory revolves around giving ERO the teeth to sack teachers and principals and having 8yr contracts for principals (ouch).

National Standards and concerns/issues

Our school will do what is required in 2010, but we have ongoing concerns about the standards. These concerns include:

The standards have not been trialled in NZ and respectful requests for a trial by a number of organizations and individuals, including respected academics, have been rejected out of hand by the Minister of Education, Anne Tolley and the Prime Minister, John Key.

This system has failed in other countries to improve student achievement

The Minister has an advisory group of academics to advise her about the implementation of the standards in schools that does not include a teacher or a principal

We already use a range of assessment tools and the processes involved in deciding where your child sits on the standards will involve extensive moderation work. Our school is not resourced for this work, nor are schools being resourced to attend training in the implementation of the standards

There has been insufficient genuine consultation with teachers or principals about the standards

Each standard has a number of descriptors that will make it extremely confusing to align the standards with standardised assessment results, the NZ Curriculum levels, and overall teacher judgment

Children begin their formal schooling at varying levels of capability and they progress at different rates. National standards do not acknowledge this

Learning is individual, it takes time, it is different for everyone and it is emotional. Placing harmful pressure on young children is likely to be counter productive to their learning and development

The national standards will label some children during their first year at school as failing. This is of major concern to educators as early learning must be positive for children

The possibility of “league tables” that publicly compare schools will have a detrimental effect on many schools, particularly those located in low decile areas

We would much prefer government funding going into learning support programmes that we know work well to improve student achievement

Principals and teachers are feeling that our profession has been totally discredited and that the tail of under achievement is the fault of schools alone. We all know that there are other significant variables that contribute to low achievement levels

These issues and concerns need to be understood by all parents and caregivers and they need to be debated and acknowledged. Please feel free to call in to school to see our senior staff to discuss anything related to this new government requirement.

Yours sincerely

Principal

How do you choose?

2010-02-28T12:51:00.000-08:00

The gossip over the weekend. So a certain DP's daughter's girlfriend's boyfriend (thanks @mumbleboy for the apostrophies) left a certain fee paying high school on "the shore" to go to another undisclosed (public) high school because he plays basketball and the private school couldn't provide a team in the elite grade. Wow. I had to blog this and i'm currently tweeting and texting everyone I know. The DP who broke this gossip thought this was news.

The thing is that kids leave schools and go elsewhere for lots of reasons, parents and kids, it seems, have that choice. The thing for me is that in the 80's when Podgorani wore walk shorts and sandals, moving schools was tantamount to treason. Kids that left a school to go elsewhere were not tolerated. Now basketball, photography, golf, lawn bowls all provide opportunities. People, parents, kids all realize that we don't all have to go to grammar to be lawyers, and everyone at grammar doesn't have to be a lawyer. We have a choice, and we should be proud that our education system and the people in the system recognise opportunities and kids can chase their passion while getting an education.

I know that the walls close in on those stuck in the poorer areas, but there are so many opportunities for everyone who looks hard enough. This young girl is living proof of that.

Trade me is better than a blog. Whats next.

2010-02-13T10:57:00.000-08:00

Kerry Hawkins cleverly used trade me as a blog post to get attention about the national standards. This was a brilliant way to make political noise over and above the blogosphere. Blogs can become very ho hum, and it can become difficult to rise above the electronic noise and social networking chaos of the www. People only have 500 characters on trade me so the answers and questions were luckily limited, otherwise there may have been a few novels written.

This leads me to some new thinking around the next big thing. The man who cleverly sold his washing machine on trade me through some clever wording. How about how MacHeist they get you to buy software real cheap, and then force you to retweet as a term of the sale. Its all on, in the world of ewaste and some people are doing very well from it thank you very much.

So how does this have any impact on a school and what are the ways you can stand out from the crowd. Everyone has a web presence. Why are we wanting to stand out from the crowd ? What pieces of cool exciting web 2 software will be the next big thing ? How will we use them cleverly to get the best mileage?

Nowhere in the above paragraph was learning and kids mentioned, so that is also a question. What motives do we have to ensure what we do, fits with our school ethos.

A teacher recently said to me "I hate wikis", after agreeing and hearing the gasps from a certain facilitator and a charming DP (from the other side of Auckland) I thought thank god it's not just me. The thing is that we all have different view points on this technology and every angle is an angle. It's when we don't know the software, haven't tried it, then we wont be able to make the call.

So this rambling rubbish needs a finale :

Thinking differently about the web could result in an absolute goldmine for a school, it will happen, someone somewhere will have a brilliant idea, and it will change to goalposts forever.

If you want a web 2 presence then you have to be out there with ideas, contributions, comments, those who watch from a distance need to get involved. Kids who leave comments leave a link to their learning, and once that link is clicked the hook is in and the kids are away. GET INVOLVED.

Its all on

2010-02-07T00:59:00.000-08:00

I know its February but i've just finished reading all those stories, blogs, articles on my RSS reader. Boy is my head spinning. The elephant in the room is definitely National Standards. People either wont say anything or cant shut up about how bad they are. What i'm going to do is treat them with the respect they deserve, which is not much. Who really cares, if you want to run around and boast about your standards then you might be part of the problem. The parents will get some sort of chart, the MOE will get some shitty information that they can stick in their pipe, and the Herald and Metro magazines can butcher the data. My mate Mr Russty has been quoted in both the Herald and Metro in the last 15 months and both times what he said was twisted. Teacher bashing has started, luckily we have amazing parents who continually say thank you, write great emails and are very very appreciative. We are good, and I think all teachers who are good should be bigger than all the whinging.

Great start to the year with the "meet the teacher" night already over. We had it from 5.30 for 30mins, then families brought blankets and picnics and sat around for an hour in the sun. The cool thing is that when these events are in weeks three or four the parents actually think you have something to tell them, after three days of school, meet the teachers is exactly that. No speeches, no microphones, just chick chat, introductions and lots of community. 300+ turned up.

Teacher only day was a bit of talk and lots of fun. We had an hour at school followed by three hours at Wenderholm, food, refreshments followed by another 2 hours on the water kayaking from Wenderholm to Puhoi. The fun bit was that the kayak was wind and tide assisted. Add an ice cream on the way home and it was the perfect way to slide back into (or out of) the office.

Had to share this gem. One activity happening @sumprimary last week was around four classes mixing groups and taking photo stories of the school and its people. These groups were mixed year levels and I was a victim who was needed for pictures. So as kids carefully approached my door I would always ask the older kids "who is this little guy" it was an easy way for me to start to learn the new entrants names. This one young fella walked in and I said "hey mate come and sit over here you ninja" the 5 yr old replied immediately "i'm not a ninja i'm a maori". After a week of school I think his teacher might be calling me Nostradamus.

We should return the favour

2010-02-02T01:19:00.000-08:00

Need to talk about a mate up north, when I say mate I don't use the term lightly. I'm talking about a man with a heart as big as all outdoors, a guy who left school at 13, who dabbled with gangs, crime, raised 7 siblings when his parents died, raised 8 of his own kids and is now onto raising his grand kids. All this and he is about 6 years older than me. Me and my nice clean house, two little podgorani's, mrs podgorani, and the four legged potlicker. Mr education, nice job, lovely but blissfully ignorant.

My maori bro uses the harbour like his local shop, nothing new here. The thing that amazes me is that when the fish aren't biting he goes for cockles, pipis, oysters. No snapper doesn't mean no fish either. Mullet run in the estuaries, flounder in the shallow bays, kawhaii in the inner harbour, piper come out at night, whitebait, even parore in the creeks. I've seen my mate go for all these fish, enough to feed his family and a few mates, someone who calls in, or the whanau in the big smoke, its always all about feeding other people. When the fishing is crap i've seen my mate head to the creek for eels. Its a joy to watch, he just loves feeding everyone he can, the stories are rich, the recipes hilarious, and love for whanau unmistakable.

I am so lucky to be part of this whanau, not by relation, but by the fact I taught the kids 10 years ago. So when we go fishing together I just shut up and learn. Have you ever had a net in the water, full of flounder and then pulled up a stingray at least a meter across with a long tail? What do you do? Me I shit myself, my mate says nonchalantly "pass me the knife", he's a bloody legend. I've nothing to offer apart from steering the boat and rowing quietly which I can't do well enough.

So what can I do for him. His kids and now his grand kids face an education system that continues to fail them. The local school got the worst ERO report ever written. There is no other school in the area, all the others were closed under the Labour Govt. National are now saying they will fix it with testing and reporting on progress. Sorry guys this wont fix it either. By the way these are the exact kids who aren't even sitting NCEA level 1.

My mate Mr Russty says no one wants nat standards but no one offers any other solutions and something has to be done.

I have some solutions/ideas but the union wont like it. I want ERO to have the ability to sack teachers and principals who are a joke, the ability to pay some good people heaps, to sort out the schools that need it. I want principals who are doing great stuff to be able to take a break of two/three years, pick up the failing schools and return home after the job has been done. I want real principals to develop aspiring principals, not these w...kers in wellington running psychometric tests on potential principals. I want schools who have rubbish BOT's to be given autonomy to get the job done without communities interfering. I want leadership from the MOE/NZPF not "here is your property" - but leadership, leadership we respect, here is your performance on all sorts of levels, here is how you can improve, hey you're doing a shit hot job, go help Bob down the road or take this school and come back when you've nailed it.

Here is my absolute clanger:

There is no incentive for Principals who are doing a great job to move. Bring in eight year contracts. You must leave after eight years, full stop. It isn't fair that my mate up north can teach me so much and I cant help him.

Do we always win?

2010-01-27T12:53:00.000-08:00

Saw the saddest thing in a very long time in the school holidays. Sam was one of the coolest kids I've ever taught. He was the ultimate country kid. He fished, shot possums, made toys, swam in the creek, was a fit as a fiddle and had the brightest eyes on any kid. When we moved up north my boy was 2 years old and came to school every day and hung out with the groundsman (uncle Nudd) and just generally cruised around with the kids. Sam went home one day and got some plywood and a jigsaw and cut out a gun shape he sanded it up and gave it to my son. Thats a great kid. So he had older brothers who smoke weed, mum and dad work 24/7 and Sam was the baby. Sam told me he never wants to sit under the trees and drink and get wasted. He said it was for losers. So now 11 years later sam is a dad of 2, he is a weed smoking, drinking, skulking, hiding under a hoodie loser. This seems so harsh for me to write him off, in fact it hurts, but its true. While at the beach I saw the boys drinking so went over to say hello. Everyone looks threatening, bandannas, baggy jeans, hoodies - no worries I bowl up and have a laugh. Sam sat on the grass with his beautiful two year old between his legs, he had his arms around her, if he was holding a toy and talking to her it would be a beautiful picture. Instead sam had a bowl of marijuana heads and dried leaves and he was sorting out the weed for smoking, the only thing between sam and the bowl was his daughter - boy it was sad.

He has a job, he is still a good guy on the inside, but his daughter is now in a spiral that has already started to spin.

Sad, it's bloody sad.

2010 dont be too quick getting there.

2009-12-22T01:38:00.000-08:00

While meeting with by ping buddies #chanellingmyinnerbarb and @mumbleboy we began talking about TOD's for 2010, and we immediately started talking about what we will have for lunch. We then get into the; what shall we do differently next year? I then had 12 interruptions and the conversation went back to the usual hum drum business as usual coverage stuff on TOD's.

NO I SAY - NO. No more of the same. We will be different. We will think differently.

So although we will cover the usual stuff, set some school goals together, and talk about a bit of planning and chat happily over coffee. We will be different.

We have a cool team building activity sussed out- It will be offsite - It will involve a bit of music, food, laughter, teamwork, water, satisfaction, and an easily do-able activity, for all who want to give it a go.

You just gotta get offsite together. It just doesn't happen enough as a staff.

Just for 30 seconds today, I thought "I'm a bit excited about the start of next year". Then I stopped and listened to my senses which were saying "go home you dickhead, your whanau are ready to take a break from all this school crap". I went home, so should you. Switch off your macs, my blog over the next month is gonna be about fishing, golf, harness racing and random stuff.

Its gonna be fun.

Sretan Božić

are your school reports any good?

2009-12-18T19:13:00.000-08:00

We are almost at war in NZ now with the minister of education. how did things escalate so far? why is the union chipping into everything while losing site of lots of things? why is the union our front office, our spokesperson. Now more than ever we need a Principals union. A spokesperson with the ability to lead, gain support, have public appeal and be apollitical. We have had some ridiculous claims firing left and right from anne tolley and francis nelson and earnie and that lady from STA. I'm bored of it all.

So i am against national standards and then i get my sons report and it says
Maths 58% Mean 52% a pleasing year he could have got a better result in the test.

So was the test hard? easy? is he any good at maths? what level is he working at? is he likely to go on and pass ncea/cambridge on that test result? should we pay for a maths tutor? is he actually really good and the teacher he had missed the boat? is he disruptive? is he crusing? does anyone care?

Having a national standard would not have improved his ability in maths but maybe it might get some schools to pull their fingers out on the reporting side.

Make a List - A List of Satisfaction

2009-12-09T15:29:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year again, teachers in wind down mode, or wind up mode.

Hi stress levels as families pull on heart strings and want endless arrangements that never suit. Then there is the added pressure of presents and cash flow issues. So what do we do? Well prepared teachers and mothers write lists. They plan it all for the helpless husbands, and total air-heads out there. Those blue-green thinkers who have it all sorted, the list writers.

Well I know I've said this before, but I have to say it again.

WRITE A LIST

But this time start in Feb with the cool things you did in class, write this with your class, refer to your planning if you wish. Write it on the whiteboard, type it with kids, get it done any way you can.

This is your list of satisfaction.

Your list of achievement.

Your list of joy.

Your list that you and your kids can be proud of.

Do it, write it, take a picture, send it to me. I will paste it with this post, we don't need names we just want to celebrate..

They aren't all idiots in Parliament

2009-12-01T17:27:00.000-08:00

I thought it pertinent that people should know that this guy is in parliament. He is a good man.

Kelvin Davis
Maiden Speech to Parliament
Wednesday 10 December 2008

Whakarongo mai, whakarongo mai.
Whakarongo mai ki tënei uri a Ngatokimatawhaorua
E tu atu ra i te akau o Ipipiri
E tuwhera atu ra te awa o Taumarere-herehere-i-te-riri.
Ka rere ma Otuihu, tae ki nga rekereke o Tapukewharawhara
Raro i a Puketohunoa, ko Puhangahau
Takoto kau nga koiwi tupuna
Ara mai he tëtëkura
Ka hiki te manawa e te kakara reka o Te Karetu
Nga kaitiaki o te ahika ko Ngati Manu
Tihewa mauri Ora

Tena tätou katoa i whakarauikatia mai i raro i te tähuhu o to tätou Whare.

Tena ra hoki koutou töku whänau whanui i patu mai i nga huarahi mai i nga pito tawhiti o te motu ki te tatü ki konei hei tautoko i te kaupapa o te ra nei.

Tena tätou o tätou mate maha.

Mr Speaker I acknowledge and congratulate you on your election to your position.

I also acknowledge the Leaders of the Labour Party, the Hon. Phil Goff and Hon. Annette King. I look forward to working with you both, the Labour Caucus and to making a contribution to our team and nation.

Also I would like to acknowledge and congratulate the Rt. Hon Helen Clark for her formidable leadership of the Labour Party and indeed as Prime Minister of New Zealand for the last nine years. I thank you Helen for the way you honoured my people of Ngati Manu earlier this year when you visited our valley and marae and endorsed my candidacy.

With affection I acknowledge my family and friends. Those who have been able to traverse the length of Te Ika a Maui to be here, especially my wife Moira and my father Panapa, as well as those who couldn’t be here including my children Kelly, Billie and Reweti, my mother Glenys, my brothers Patrick and Greg, my sister Sonya, my brothers and sisters in law, mother and father in law, Tom and Raewyn Hoddle, my numerous nephews and nieces, Aunties and Uncles, cousins and my whänau from Ngati Manu.

I also acknowledge my many tribal connections: in the mid-North to Te Kapotai, Ngati Hine, Ngapuhi whanui, Ngati Wai, Ngati Whatua.

In the Far North I acknowledge iwi Ngati Kuri, Te Aupouri, Ngai Takoto, Ngati Kahu and Te Rarawa – and those of my iwi further south in particular Ngai Tai, Ngati Kahungunu and Ngati Raukawa.

I am honoured to have stood for Labour in the seat of Te Tai Tokerau and although disappointed not to have won it, I acknowledge my whanaunga Hone Harawira who was successful. Tena koe e Hone.

I also congratulate and acknowledge all other Maori members of parliament and hope that Maori will see the benefits of our presence here.

Mr Speaker, I hail from the valley of Karetu. Across the road from our marae stands Puketohunoa one of our ancestral maunga. On the summit of Puketohunoa once dwelled my tupuna Whetoi Pomare. From his whare named Tihema he had sweeping panoramas of the valley and across to Ruapekapeka the site of the last of the battle of the Northern Land Wars.

At the foot of our maunga Puketohunoa flows our Karetu creek which runs seaward and connects with our tupuna awa, known as Taumarere-herehere-i-te-riri.

One of our Ngati Manu waiata connect these three features to one another in the lines, “Tu ana mätou ki runga o Puketohunoa, ka titiro atu ki Ruapekapeka, ka hoki mai ki te puna o oku matua e, e karekare nei e ko Taumarere.”

If you were to drift in the current of first the Käretu creek past the foot of Puketohunoa, in to the flow of Taumarere you would eventually pass by the cradle of our nation, Waitangi, where as we all know in February 1840 a number Maori chiefs, including my tupuna Whetoi Pomare drew their moko onto a piece of paper that is now known as the Treaty of Waitangi.

I would like to believe that when my tupuna Pomare etched the shape of his facial tattoo onto that piece of paper that he did it in the hope that his actions would ensure the future prosperity of his whänau, hapü and iwi.

168 years later and the world has changed beyond what my tupuna could have imagined. But what hasn’t changed, at least in my whänau is that in the six generations since, from generation to generation through to my grandparents, parents and to my brothers and sister and I, is the understanding that our actions today leave a legacy for generations to come and must contribute to the ongoing prosperity of whänau, hapü and iwi.

Prosperity of all Maori is necessary if we are to fulfil the words of our great Tai Tokerau rangatira Sir James Henare, when he once said, “It is preposterous that any Maori should aspire to become a poor pakeha when their true destiny, prescribed by the Creator, is to become a great Maori.”

What makes Maori great? I believe any Maori who achieves their potential or beyond and bolsters the standing of their whänau and community achieves a measure of greatness. As a former principal it was immensely rewarding to witness the joy and satisfaction on the face of whänau when their children achieved. I was acutely aware though of how thin those ranks of achievement are in many of our schools.

NZ history shows that Maori can succeed in the face of adversity. But this success needs to become the norm rather than the exception. The greatness of a nation is linked to the distinction of its people. Mr Speaker I come to the House seeking to make a contribution that enriches our nation through expanding the ranks of those Maori families who seek educational achievement. The lessons of the chalkface have value and ought to be borne in mind as we debate how to innovate, fund and improve our system of education.

Being a great achiever begins for our children when they enjoy aroha, that is, unconditional love from parents and caregivers who realise that raising children is not a right to do as you like but an obligation to the next generation.

Educational engagement and achievement is vital to Maori greatness and prosperity. We will achieve more with one full generation of highly educated Maori, than we will from the last 168 years of grievance. We need Maori to be educated so that we become the people of influence and the decision makers.

I’ve spent twenty years at the chalk face in education. I enjoyed a 14 year career as a Principal and am especially proud of the achievements of the Board of Trustees, staff and students of Kaitaia Intermediate School, which in seven years saw a school turn from almost total academic failure to academic success.

We proved at Kaitaia Intermediate School that Maori do not need to wait decades or generations to see improvements to Maori achievement and wellbeing at school. It can happen almost immediately.

With the right approach by Principals, teachers, bureaucrats, politicians and others within the system Maori can – and will – make immense and rapid gains in achievement – which will lead on to Maori health gains and life expectancy, financial well being, leadership positions and influence and being able to collectively and fully contribute to our country.

We must ensure our education system engages Maori from their first day of school right through until their last day at the end of year thirteen, and onto a lifetime striving for knowledge, wisdom and understanding. For many Maori disengagement from the educational system is but the first step in disengagement from society in general.

Maori will never achieve greatness or beyond our potential unless we are educationally successful. Therefore it is imperative if Maori are to achieve great things, we need to get the education system right for Maori.

Conversely, we – Maori – have to realise one of our greatest weaknesses is to blame the system. We know that history has conspired against us; we know a heck of a lot happened to our people that set our progress and development back and has resulted in our struggle to prosper and achieve greatness.

But as critical as I am of those who deny the effects of the damage the system has done to Maori over the last 168 years, I am equally critical of Maori who only blame the system for their own failings.

Do we as a people have the courage to accept responsibility for our lives? It’s time for us to collectively step up and as we say – para te huarahi – blaze a trail.

I’ve sat in hui where the talk has all been about the injustices, the grievances, the excessive navel gazing that stagnates the mind and saps the energy and the soul.

It’s time we stopped wallowing in self pity and instead looked for solutions.

It’s time our hui were all forward thinking, positive and solution based.

Last Wednesday I attended a seminar where a group of Maori gathered to discuss Information and Communications Technology. These people were educated, professional and motivated. There was no self pity, there was no talk of grievance, there was no talk of injustice. There were problems and frustrations, but they searched for solutions. We need to replicate that sense of purpose and mission in our hui, our marae and our homes.

Blaming the system implies we are too weak as a people to help ourselves, that we are victims.

Bad stuff has happened, but we must cease to be victims.

Maori need to sort ourselves out. Education is the passport, but we need to put ourselves on the flight to the future. Obviously policy, process, ideology are a part of the journey and it will happen with a collaboration of the spirit.

A kaumätua said to me earlier this year that the problem with our Maori youth is actually us – the adults. His words to me were – We need to lay off our youth and sort ourselves out. If we want our Maori youth to act in a certain way, to achieve personal greatness then they need us Maori adults to be role models and demonstrate how that’s to be done.

If we’re serious about wanting to prosper and provide hope for our kids then us Maori adults need to step up.

We Maori men – need to step up.

It is said – Being a male is a matter of birth. Being a man is a matter of choice.

Likewise, being a Maori is a matter of birth, but being a Maori achiever is a matter of choice.

We Maori men must have the courage to lead our whänau and hapü towards prosperity and greatness.

We are renowned for our warrior spirit but it is time that warrior spirit manifested itself in new ways. We need to replace anger, grievance and self pity with dignity, determination, resilience and forgiveness.

I conclude Mr Speaker by stating that I have hope for the future, the future of my children and the future for us as Maori. I believe that by lifting Maori educational achievement, and by us as Maori having the courage to take control of our present, we will as a people achieve prosperity and the future greatness that is our destiny.

That road to greatness has been paved with trials and tribulations. But those trials and tribulations never stopped Sir James Henare, a boy from Motatau, deep in the heart of Ngati Hine stand as an example of how our destiny as Maori, prescribed by the Creator, is to achieve greatness.

I look forward to the contributions I can make to this 49th Parliament, as an educator, as a politician and as a Maori, for the benefit of the whole nation.

No reira tatou ma, huri noa i to tätou whare. Rau rangatira ma, e te whänau, tena koutou, tena koutou, tena tatou katoa.

Not really a phone

2009-11-17T22:44:00.000-08:00

Thought it might be a good time to share how things have changed so much. I have chucked my front page of my phone here.

Messages - yeah texts nothing new there, however the fact that the messages answer each other in chat style, makes life so easy because you can track a conversation and go back to numbers or information in a snap.

Contacts - nothing new here, not so, these sync with every email, phone and chat address, and they sync with cloud too, so they cant be lost, nice.

Calendar - This is actually seven calendars and they can come from google, .mac, whatever, with all the alarms and reminders that you will ever need, essential.

Camera - still or video, yes nothing new here, however being able to mms, email, mobileMe, youTube, flickr are nice options. It also uses gps to tag the photos.

Compass - This is actually a gimmick, I will never need a compass, but I know where north is (true and magnetic!)

Expt4GDocs - Basically this is a google docs reader, every doc, all my folders, all my shared docs. This is priceless, it doesnt allow editing the docs but I don't care, I have access to everything I need at a snap.

Ping - is texting over wifi or 3g, therefore you can text other ipod or iphone people. It has potential within a school or when overseas and international texts or roaming costs too much. At the moment its only for iphone/ipod but an app like this will grow or skype will reinvent itself to push.

Notes - You can use cool things like evernote (see @mumbleboy no 1 fan) or you can keep notes simple by just writing, sync, email. All good and very useful.

App Store - This a gem, there are thousands of useless things your phone can do and the app store has them all, this is why you need @mumbleboy or macash they sort the rubbish out and install it on their phones and then tell you what are the good apps. Trainspotter heaven. It was only a couple of years ago that finding third party stuff for computers was a nightmare, good old steve has all the third party peeps dying to be part of itunes, nice work steve and you are getting $ from developers, up there for thinking down there for dancing.

Maps - Ok doesn't every man know the city he was brought up in? Not true, Auckland has suburbs called Botany and Danemora, and then if you visit any city in the world you get a map with your location marked, never print a page, its the bomb.

Weather NZ - Everyone is an expert on weather, the problem is not everyone is a golfer, I've gotta have accurate weather. Plus if I bump into an old person I can always say "they reckon its going to rain this weekend" this is usually a sign of knowledge, you know, someone who reads the paper or listens to the wireless.

Settings - You gotta tell your phone what you want it to do.

TVNZ - Not a bad app, actually it beats watching the news, it has the main NZ news with fast loading links to stories and or videos, the sports links are great too. New bits added to this app quite often, big ups to the tvnz generally followers, now leading.

Twitterrific - Ok everyone has their opinions on twitter and or which is the best app to use for twitter. Personally what works for you is all good. This has a very nice search box, the @'s and dm's are great. I am a sucker for nice looking icons and the bird chirps just keep me coming back.

NetNewsWire - My fav iphone app by miles. This is an RSS reader. The desktop app syncs with google reader and the iphone app does the same, the "mark all as read" box is a favourite of mine. To be able to read in your down time with quick and fast access is just brilliant, no book, paper, or computer. You aren't reading a small can't see screen either.

Facebook - Not sure that Facebook is everyones cup of tea, the app is brilliant, no bloody ads or joining this poxy group, take that stupid quiz crap, just keeping in touch and using it the way I want to use it.

Phone - I almost forgot its a phone - ha, someone should tell Vodafone it has other uses.

Mail - Yes you get em all to your phone, and because it pushes you never get double ups. You can VPN if you really want to know who is using the hall in period three. I have found it very useful to delete email on the fly. Really easy to reply, forward, send, receive.

Safari - Useful to be able to browse the internet on the phone, I have found that I use this less and less as the collaboration web 2.0 apps have been released for the phone. The pinch and spread screen thing is brilliant for iphone so you can get to pages that need zooming.

iPod - Can't do without your music? I can, but can't do without my podcasts that I subscribe too. Also the odd episode from the town of Royston Vasey, Green Wing and or the odd youTube video can kill time while on the plane, especially those golf lessons that I need to review every now and then.

So thats one page on the phone, i have another 50 apps, and some of them are just mindless rubbish.

What will kids be holding in fifteen years? Where are we going with these devices,?

It has certainly helped me learn new stuff, helped me find new communities, helped me find new ideas, meet new people, respect my colleagues, appreciate the sharing of peers, stay connected and I can turn it off any time I want!

On Tour

2009-11-12T00:26:00.000-08:00

Last week I had a great opportunity to visit 6 schools in Chch with 11 staff. We tried really hard to take the attitude that we didn't want to be like those hundreds of visitors that visit us. We didn't want to be shallow, looking at artwork, and laminated things and surface features. By gum its easier said than done. I think its just so enticing as a teacher to borrow a very simple idea that someone else has done in such a creative way and use it for your self. After wading through the surface features (let me tell you there were some great examples of cool simple ideas) we dug into the ideas bucket. Its amazing what you can achieve when a large group from one school get a license to brainstorm when motivated, inspired and away from the chalkface. Either I have an amazing staff (true) or we were in a very good space, the PD was perfect and all the ducks were in line. SO how did it work and how could you replicate this for your school.

Flew red eye to Chch, carry on luggage only, rental van, try to arrive 830 at first school, which should get you ahead in terms of getting to all 3 schools. debrief 3 to 4pm, free time, dinner.

Arrive at 830 on day 2 at first school. Debrief in airport lounge. Catch a late plane home 6pm or so, which eliminates stress on the road and at check-in.

Two days was enough, three would have been too many days away from home and classroom, and it would have sunk our banked staffing.

Six schools was a rush (but worth it), time your travel well, be planned, have the cell numbers of the future visitors so you can text ETA's.

Visit a range of deciles, include a private school too.

Do your homework on the principals, they hold the key to the schools performance.

Debrief all the ideas, surface features are as important and big ideas, make sure everyone gets a say.

Have a chat with the school well before you arrive so they know what you are keen on looking at.

Take the chance to invite the school principals you visited to join you for dinner, you get a chance to ask a few deeper questions.

Accommodation is too easy to scab on, make an effort.

We have some great ideas being flicked around and now i'm looking forward to the next 12 heading to Wellington, as well as a local tour in Aukalani.

A quick assessment - No pun intended

2009-11-08T17:48:00.001-08:00

Here are the things you must collate and report on. Forget all other documentation, if you are a principal or teacher this is what Mary Chamberlain is being paid for.

Maths

After 1 year Level 1

After 2 years Level 1

After 3 years - early Level 2

End of year 4 Level 2

End of year 5 - early Level 3

End of year 6 Level 3

Reading

After 1 year Green

After 2 years Turquoise

After 3 years Gold

End of year 4 - at Level 2

End of year 5 - work towards Level 3

End of Year 6 - at Level 3

Writing

After 1 year Level 1

After 2 years Level 1

After 3 years - early Level 2

End of year 4 - at Level 2

End of year 5 - working towards Level 3

End of year 6 Level 3

Some quick observations - Writing is the same as Maths almost word for word, Reading too after Y3. All the support documentation they sent about maths, reading and writing mean nothing cause the MOE only want the data from above. You have to report to them exactly on the standard above and give them a number and proportion.

Nag 2A (C)(1) Says report on:

the numbers and proportions of students at, above, below, well below - maori, pacific, gender

I have quickly assessed my whole Y3 year level and looking at the data this will be how my report looks. We have a significant number at or above with a smaller number below. We have a small proportion of students not achieving and a large proportion at and a smaller proportion higher than at.

GPC 2009

2009-10-31T01:54:00.000-07:00

So its the GPC time of the year. Clearly the best professional development any principal can have. We have a group of 12 principals who bring along their "one good idea" and expand it so we can see what it looks like, smells like, how it works with your BOT, what it did to teaching and learning and any other thing. In this winning concept it is all about the ideas that flow around the table, across the kitchen, over the bar, and while out in the vans on our way to a mystery destination. This year was no exception, Pricey really had us captivated with his presso on all things happening at SRP. Check out the SRP kidzone.

I know that as a principal it can be a very lonely job, as you struggle to confide with people outside of your school, yet our group has been able to seek new ideas, ask for a fresh set of ears, and get feedback on lots of things. Local clusters can be geographically good but like minds and sometimes a bit of distance can be an advantage.

I urge principals to keep networking, whenever visiting a school in another city invite the principal for dinner, talk to people at conferences from outside your cluster. Keep in touch with colleagues, visit principals blogs, leave comments, email, ichat. Good people are just around the corner.

Any one who knows wayne knows he couldn't hit a barn if he was inside it. well he has proven us all wrong, AJ - Little Luke this is not a trick movie.

What Do We Do It's Catch 22?

2009-10-23T15:06:00.000-07:00

So the standards were launched from a school that is really worth holding up as a special place in Nationals "ideal school" list. Congrats to that school.

So while in sydney I had a few chats with Russ, Blueyonder, dorothy and MacAsh. we all differ in our angles and takes on this whole standard thing, but we all agree that rigour is a word missing in the discussions. there are so many arguments, but what is undeniable is that there are some crap schools who are butchering learning, crap leaders too.

So when good people (i know you are presuming thats you) tell you that "what happened to us as professionals, trust us" - that cant wash, so we must be accountable. It's a catch 22.

On the other hand testing, gathering, assessing, reporting, all that guff will also be butchered by those same lemons so what the hell are we doing.

So if you are in charge of all NZ and you want rigour then what is your solution. We do need a solution, there are some problems out there lets be honest.

moderated or shut down which one?

2009-10-14T15:16:00.000-07:00

As you know I started a thread on the MOE website about the national standards.

Today I left this post:

I have been contacted (by fellow principals) and asked to send the standards back to the MOE unopened. It appears that the NZEI and NZPF who I have spoken too are not sure if they are arthur or martha. Its a dilemma but something that needs to be discussed, i'm interested if there is a groundswell on "return to sender" or whether it is another poor idea in this whole ugly vote winning saga.

I thought I was asking for opinion and asking whether it was just me, should we do something or is that an over-reaction. I wanted to know what people thought.

It was posted for about 15 minutes and then I received an email that said it had been moderated and it did not fit with the forum guidelines for educational leaders. Im pissed but not surprised.

If we speak up we get shot down, we cant have an opinion opposite to the govt. Ever heard of that in other countries? I could name a few.

return to sender

2009-10-08T14:36:00.000-07:00

Stop running around worried about the new curriculum, league tables, and jobs and employment. National testing will effect kids the most.

Schools are going to butcher the national standards, they will teach to tests, parade their good results, tell parents how good they are. Classrooms will suffer, kids will suffer.

When Ka Hikitia was delivered to schools many schools sent the packages back unopened. They moaned and it was a monumental cock up. Yes they sent back an awesome document because it had some maori potential badges in it. It was a protest about nothing. BUT it was a protest.

There is a simple solution for national standards, send them back, unopened, return to sender. Anne Tolley will be massively pissed. There will be an uproar from media outlets. John Key might have to say something smarmy. John campbell will have a sickofantic approach to this one. sainsbury might be a little surprised. The thing is that the Nat Govt are winning this sales pitch and we have no spokesman, or in NZEI's case no spokesperson or significant politically correct minority spokesperson.

Just to ruin my argument the media will look for a spokesperson, and those plonkers at the union and federation will get up there and encourage colleagues to mumble mumble.

Still it was a good idea, thanks Invercargill, let me know if all your schools are going to send them back, I will look at getting a big envelope ready.

Rebels Mavericks and Tank Herring

2009-09-24T02:23:00.000-07:00

So my mate Tank didnt beat his battle with cancer. Tank was a really good coach, a very sharp selector, he had great knowledge of scrummage, his attention to detail was excellent. He also built loyalty, encouraged players, and learnt from his mistakes. His gruff nature and piss taking was exactly what players loved, his generosity endless, and relentless pursuit of winning (shit he hated losing) was admired.

So Tank was never going to be selected as the Auckland Coach, or any other high profile coaches job. Tank was too rough round the edges, too frank, too grumpy, too innovative!

This resonates for me in leadership in education.

We have these mavericks in our schools, probably a lot like Tank, but they aren't celebrated.

When we look for people to motivate and lead our leaders we look elsewhere, in the universities, overseas.

We look for someone else, anyone else, we bring in australians, americans, poms, we get advice from those who speak eloquently, who wear nice suits, who have a slick presso and a nice sales pitch.

We actually need to hear from kiwis, people in the job, those who are making it happen, Bruce Hammonds wrote a good blog about Perry Rush, and Mike left a very true comment.

Rebels, mavericks, the GPC, they are out there, I'm gonna run a conference for all the nutters out there in 2010, and we will put all those principals in one room- imagine that.

Its Simple

2009-09-18T21:36:00.000-07:00

Is it just me or are schools/NZers too serious. We have the responsibilities for the future of children, we have to mark all this stuff and collect everything, and collate everything, dont forget all that inquiry learning and copious amounts of meetings. Ok, all of that stuff occurs in nearly every school but I just cant stop thinking that people are over analysing everything, looking for work and angles to make life difficult. All of the best teachers are motivators and relationship builders, all of the best leaders are the same. Its that simple.

If you want to take things seriously as a teacher/leader then work on relationships with your peers, parents and kids, when you have those ducks in line the learning has a place to grow. It is the water and fertiliser. If you dont have relationships and motivation you just have a plant and your fingers crossed.

Newspapers from truth to crap in ten years!

2009-09-03T02:26:00.000-07:00

For years when I was smaller, littler, and a much younger Podgorani I carried the news of the world to the doorstep and hospital bed of many. As a herald boy I had the delivery of truthful information in my reliable hands for many years. The herald was gold, the truth, the bible, what was written was indisputable. Back in those clean white days the only paper that dared to flirt with scandal was ironically "the truth" it was the tabloid of the day, with its page three girl and its scandalous headlines.

Oh how times have changed, check out this crap from the herald this morning. Residential school Westbridge had 24% of its students not achieve average progress in reading (did 76% therefore achieve average progress). The school is focussing too much on behavior and not enough on achievement and it needs to close. This is just absolute crap. Pick the worst behaved 25 boys from Taupo to Cape Reinga, place them in one secure (prison) environment and then judge the school on achievement! How about judging them on who can sit at the dinner table and have a conversation without a fight starting, or verbal abuse being thrown about. Give these teachers medals, give the principal a medal and shut up NZ Herald you are a pack of tossers. They lazily read an article leaked to them by some politician looking for political gain, and sensationalized it for a headline doing irreparable damage to an honourable Principal and dedicated staff. They could have found out the real truth, taken a day to look at life in a school behind bars and seen first hand how much, skill, passion and aroha is delivered by dedicated teachers who teach in the most thankless job in NZ, now there's a story.

A colleague wrote in a blogpost that the national standards are a joke and that why don't we just start fudging test results and send in fake scores. There were other sarcastic remarks and it was written totally tongue in cheek. The wonderful paper the Dominion Post found out about the post and then made a song and dance about about faking scores. Maybe they should have made the effort to contact the writer of the post and ask for a serious comment - no that requires work.

Look at Kelston Boys vs Auckland Grammar. It was a media circus, and apparently still is.

People when you get a call from the media, never ever ever trust them. They are lazy and unethical, they just want the easy story. They are the new scum of society, they are right up there in trust, with the petrol companies, and banks.

Graham Henry I thought you were going a bit nuts, but now I see with clarity the media are scum sucking mud rakers, and you actually haven't changed, apologies Ted. p.s don't consider steven donald he's crap.

A Cognitive Psychological Tool.

2009-08-16T15:32:00.000-07:00

I needed a really intelligent title to this blog, and you got it.

Scenario

teacher: As a teacher you keep asking a question of your principal, its a difficult question to answer but its bloody important. The principal agrees with you saying "I know, I know, its a difficult one" and then they do nothing. You ask again, and have a good chat about it again, at a time when the Principal seems ready to be approached. Again nothing happens, its too hard so it gets ignored, so you stop asking, BUT you don't stop caring.

principal: Here is what you thought the first time they asked that question: This is a massive can of worms, one that I'm not sure is the highest priority, but it is important. You also know that answering this question will require very uncomfortable conversations with long serving staff, and it will require courageous conversations, consultation with lots of people and a long sustained process. You kind of think, I might park this puppy until it really has to be faced.

teacher: your cant give up caring, and you don't want to stop asking.

how do we solve this problem ? try Johari Window ?

@mumbleboy introduced a very nice tool to analyse leadership in our school and for others to feel that they can be open and honest without slamming a hammer on our already fragile personalities. This was really helpful and one that can help with the scenario above as it enables people to tell you whats in your blind area. The Johari Window was devised in 1955 and really is worth a read and for those of you who are brave enough, to experiment with. We all have blind areas that we just dont see, and everyone else can see it. How many passes does the team in white make. Have a read - follow the links, google it yourself, it could be quite powerful.

Even just thinking about your blind spot for yourself as a teacher, leader, dad, mum, or whatever, it's worth considering.

Attention 2 Detail

2009-08-14T02:43:00.000-07:00

After a week of the usual (mostly verbal diahorrea) you look back and think about what really matters. On thursday arvo we had a visitor who was asking about 4min walkthroughs and she asked how do I know they have made a difference. @mumbleboy started with some sort of intelligent answer when i had a penny dropper. So for the very first time in my life I interrupted mumble and splurted out an answer, my show stopper, my thought for the week. The funny thing was that this one liner was ringing loud in my head and it came from the mayor of wheneuapai Tank Herring. One thing about Tank is that he calls a spade a shovel. Tank is a bloody great rugby coach and last year I had the pleasure of working with the old shagger for the whole season, his line was: "attention to detail". It doesn't sound like a show stopper but in rugby coaching with rep teams, or top line players the little things are everything. Attention to detail with highly skilled players makes a massive difference.

You see when the i thought about my teachers who have had the most walkthroughs, they all say that they have improved their own practice, and they have looked at themselves and made small changes.

Small changes for top line rugby players are made through attention to detail.

Top line teachers and leaders are always looking at and paying attention to detail. If you believe in attention to detail, then you will make a difference for yourself, your staff, your class, your parents, your school, your community.

tTake care of the little things and the big problems wont surface. Small changes and small steps lead to improvement, its all in the detail.

Im guilty of brushing over stuff, switching off a bit, and I need a bit of reminding, maybe its a bloke thing, a podgorani thing, or a bullshit filter thing, but whatever the reason, i must do better.

where 2 from here

2009-08-12T00:56:00.000-07:00

Ok I have a dilemma a bit like Graham Henry. I want to make changes but i'm not sure what changes, i dont even have the goal posts to aim at because i haven't discovered them yet. It's kind of exciting but on the other hand a little difficult to plan for when you are not sure where you are headed. ERO have packed up their bat and ball and handed the school a clean sheet and said we trust you and your direction, go for it. We don't wait for ERO to give those cards out but sometimes you can think things are great and actually there can be a smug mediocrity and until ERO actually give you the thumbs up, you naturally want to hold off on a random path on the unknown. I'm feeling we are at a point in the cycle where we are ready to ride straight off the cliff. I don't want to do more of the same and don't want to just sharpen the pencil. The post about learning communities has been really awesome for thinking through new ideas. It has allowed me to think of some of the possibilities for our school. I know when this can of worms is opened to staff there will be a set of goal posts on the horizon. I reckon having eyes, ears and opinions from the classrooms will help leadership see things from every perspective, something i think we all have to be careful of as leaders. I am determined to ensure that on this journey of discovery that the staff are going to play a big part in the ideas and ownership.

I see Team Solutions has a visioning facilitator, what a wank fest, or is it? maybe we should give her a bell just to prove that we can do it in spite of some b.s systematic method. Most of the time the GGF (global gut feeling) has seen the right decisions made, but maybe this time a heavily planned visioning process is worth a try and or a laugh.

Should i head off to the library for vision books & dial 0800 vision ? or go with @mumbleboy the ninja and the whole team of mad hatters, @pinksickle included ?

By the way Ted needs some advice. Here is my backline for the next few games mills15 sivi11 ma'a14 conrad13 luke12 dan10 quentin9. Feel free to put your backline down, p.s kahui for conrad as soon as he is available.

Telethon Lemon

2009-08-09T00:34:00.000-07:00

While on Pons Rd on Sunday looking for a decent flat white I saw 4 tweenage girls singing three little birds outside a shop. They were raising money for telethon. They were full of life, laughing at the odd wrong word being sung, clicking fingers, singing their hearts out. Miss Podgorani was immediately attracted to the tweenage antics and immediately dug into a pink zipped purse to give her hard earned to the Supremes. The Supremes even had the official lanyards, to say they were fundraising for telethon. I'm picking they had been practicing all week, had talked it through at school and were really looking forward to ticking all the boxes of helping NZers in need. This is heart warming stuff.

I have a friend who is a Principal who has received the All Blacks raincoats, when I saw them in his office I couldn't help but think how much these are a bloody waste of money. It pisses me off that these bullshit charities actually get people like the All Blacks on board. The All Blacks could really make a difference for some of the very very needy charities, but they are sucked into their corporate crap.

They have milked 2 million dollars for RAINCOATS probably stitched together by chinas child labour force.

How would these Ponsonby Intermediate girls be feeling when they grow up to discover this sham. Perhaps as teachers we have a part to play. But why should we be those Kiwi knockers. Why should we rubbish the charity NZers have shown.

Michael Laws has started the attack and TVNZ will be all over this like a rash and we will have a week of telethon bashing, a bit like the Dean Lonergans fight for life stuff.

You have to read Michael Laws article, see link above.

Maybe the Supremes from Ponsonby Intermediate could take their songs to the street and hand the cash over at the food bank. Its not so glamourous, and the CEO of Kids Can might not get their big six figure salary, but at least the money would go directly to those who need it.

Building a Learning Community

2009-08-03T20:59:00.000-07:00

Its now time for you observers of the Podgorani to stop passing by without contributing, I'm calling you all to attention. I need a discussion or contribution on this post.

We have an opportunity at school to go beyond the assessment and routine of school and really do something special. I want to talk about building a learning community, what ideas do you have that gets them in the door, that builds communication, that builds families together with the school, that opens the door all the way from high maintenance mums to the working dad, the Maori and polynesian community, the masses of ethnicities, send in your ideas. I have listed a few below that seem insignificant but done properly they can be powerful.

Road Crossing Duty - great dialogue to be had here.

Values Postcards - sending something in the mail is awesome and so simple.

Twitter - get some followers and keep it current.

Interactive School Website - parents and your community must feel welcome and make it easy.

Parent Information Days/evenings - literacy numeracy and just plain old fun.

Big school events: cross country/athletics/art shows etc - make them the best they have ever been, food, and fun.

Morning Coffee Days - one principal has a local coffee shop and publishes the times she will be there (once a week) which gives parents the opportunity to join them informally.

Home Visits - you have to knock on doors to get to know people, invite them to events personally.

Assemblies - these are not freemasons meetings, invite your community.

Magic Key - I heard of a principal who sent keys out to the community and had a prize for the person with the key that opened some box, he had heaps attend.

Race Night/Quiz Night - which double as fundraising and social activities.

Term Booklets - send home a booklet of achievement each term.

Meet the Teacher - before the year started.

Principals Forum - Informal discussions (2 per term) with any parents not specifically about your own kid, but ideas, discussion and questions about education.

Homework - Neil has the whole family medal thing working with his hwk challenges.

I know that writing an idea in one sentence can seem naff and can sound shallow and in a lot of ways a blog doesn't even start to scratch the way we open our door to learning and engagement but so what. Keep it short and flick them in the pot and we will assume any idea you have is actually done really well. This is your opportunity to sound good without having to back it up.

Test for Creativity

2009-07-23T01:55:00.000-07:00

Had a great conversation with the mac center of Warkworth about testing. He really got me thinking about a National test for every kid. What you say ! Podgorani wants a national test - YES I DO. @macninz suggests we should national test every kid in the arts, dance, drama, music, and sports. Reality says a test wont work but it begs the question how schools would go if there was.

I would love to see the decile ranking spun on its arse, the 10s would find out very quickly what its like to be at the bottom. The declie 1's would be on fire with their depth of talent. On a more humorous note the south island (cant dance, white gene, wakefield company, andrew merhtons lookalikes) would be struggling. This would be brilliant.

Sure take this posting with a grain of salt, but consider Ken Robinson, are you part of killing creativity in your school? So have a reality check - look at the arts and ask yourself if you are putting the equal amount of effort into them as you are reading writing and maths.

For all you southeners who are feeling sad Merts says it all.

You want cheese with that ?

2009-07-15T13:24:00.000-07:00

So the holiday has well and truly disappeared and Im back to face ERO on the first monday back. Seems a quick way to come down to earth from the high life in the US. The truth really is that although the weather is crap and the All Blacks are persisting with Steven Donald, we really are a lucky country.

According to an OECD study it says we are only the third most obese country behind mexico and america. Given my recently trip to california I would say we are way way behind in third place. given the huge diversity of people in NZ it doesnt surprise me that we are higher in ranking than other OECD countries who have the mono ethnic mix.

Still america is heading for fat explosions, they have cheese with everything, and its that yellow crap. At a baseball game mini-podgorani wanted chips, for an extra 99c you can get cheese melted on your fries - why would ya? seems everyone esle round us was saying :" why wouldnt ya !"

Back to ERO, kind of not sure what to think these days, the days of sweating and worrying arent really there for me any more, I am kind of looking forward to getting them in, hoping they see all those little things that really matter. You cant really show HOW you do things, or HOW you have done things, in such a short timeframe. Yet we all know that how is way more important than what. I know the ERO office have matured since the days of rubbish bins not being clean, and sick bay registers recording every plaster issued.

I think there are two sets of eyes that ERO needs, fresh ones and ones that see where a school has been, its our job to show them where we have been and usually it didnt happen overnight.

Gladwell made a very interesting speech to NECC about success and creativity. basically everyone who has ever achieved has put in thousands of hours of hard work. bands like the beatles played for 2 years every night is a nude bar in germany before cracking anything (excuse the pun). fleetwood mac released 14 albums before making a hit. Think about those at the very top - Tiger Woods, hard work and dedication. Lance armstrong, might have clocked up a few miles in those legs, Steven Price those looks dont make the tackles.

Schools dont get to where they are without the depth of hard work, failure, success and more hard work. What you see is the result of hard work by everyone.

Then of course when all else fails look for luck, I know most times I have fallen in a dunnie there is usually a gold watch so long may it continue.

NECC ISTE conference 09

2009-07-02T16:09:00.000-07:00

Now six days into my US tour.
No news here about education. It is ridiculously clear that we are light years ahead of the american system. wedontknowhowluckyweare. I wont even try to explain the US elementary school system, why go there. What we need to do is treasure what we have cause its world class stuff. Yip, we currently have Nat Standards on the table and some see the erosion of what we have as catastrophic. What I’d now call it is a pimple that will soon pass, if you address it properly.
Where we are light years behind is broadband, we are on a par with the crappiest third world countries. Telecom and Vodaphone are just rubbish, ADSL3 which is coming soon to a school near you, (in the next 9 months for us) is old defunct backward technology here in the states. Go figure- we are keenly waiting for a product that is already phased out of every school over here. Yes it will be quick by our standards but pathetic by world standards. Many people don’t really know the benefits of fast broadband but there are tonnes.
We are also about 5 years behind in cell phone usage, sure I was at a technology conference but it’s an iphone (watch this) or blackberry or get out of the way. Nokia has a market in NZ, people think they are cool, but NZers in general are cell phone users, Americans are mobile web users. Every dude I see with a phone was using the web, forget the games. Telecoms 3g network might be ok for maybe a year, but will need upgrading, but because the habits of NZ cell phone users is low tech then they will get away with it for 5 years. Vodaphone... miles behind with data.
Twitter has been a great tool, at times I feel a little stink tweeting with a hash # tag to a conference thread when you have a bunch of followers who maybe aren’t following the conference you are at. This is part of the limitations I suppose of twitter or perhaps I am a poor user who doesn’t know a way round that. It has been interesting to see that the general tweeter at the conference took a commentary type attitude and tweeted what people were saying rather than giving opinion. When I tweeted opinion I was replied too “it’s not about opinion”. Interesting cause as I know at uLearn last year the keynote got rubbished by opinion on twitter. Maybe there is etiquette, or the yanks are too polite, or wont criticise publically (fear of being sued) or NZers are naive, not getting the whole public forum thing. Its a whole new discussion, but interesting.
Gadgets: got a livescribe, it won’t do OCR recognition yet, but the beta for mac is ready to be released in the next two weeks. I will post a link to some notes later this week.
Got a kodak Zi6, the picture quality is staggering, awesome, and it has an SD, takes stills, and can record in HD30fps, HD60fps, XGA for quick youtube. At the price point it has flip licked and it uses AA batteries (my preferred option).
Document cameras are quite big in the trade stands, and i see plenty of use as a classroom tool, the peddlers are loving this! However, buy a digital camera, run it from the ac charging plug, leave it on auto focus, use RCA to usb and tape it to some sort of lamp shade and you have one for $200, worth a crack! here are some from the net - seems easy.
Touch boards! ha! man is this big business, the dudes at the stands give away so much stuff and the sweet smelling, tidy looking chickies, and those tight shirted blokes with the stubble are just the shit. They have it down pat with their slick presentations and giveaways, you can see the huge margins these dudes are on. lets face it they are a fat waste of money, they are not smart or interactive, "the kids love them and they are engaged", but the work you are doing is not powerful, just powerful looking. I’m still amazed at what the boards look like with all the movement, but its movement is not pedagogy. Engagement is not learning, my kids engage with the simpsons and futurama every night!

Hyperstudio has been out now in NZ for 6 months and I am restricted by the price. But it is by far the best piece of software out there for mac schools, if you read this and brush over the comment and do nothing about it, then shame on you. Its more powerful than imovie, kid pix, and possibly keynote- big call I know but there you go! Roger Wagner is a very talented man. I did have a crack at the head of pricing and sales and he promises me a school site lisense, we wait- but don't wait for long.

Malcolm Gladwell was an excellent keynote speaker, so was Erin Gruwell who has a movie made about her. The ideas are running wild at present.

Holiday time now, back to normal now the conference issues are done.

gadget time.

have a good break one and all.

everything is bigger

2009-06-28T15:02:00.000-07:00

The highlight thus far on the ISTE conference was meeting a taxi driver from Cameroon. He has a twin brother and many many family members still living in Cameroon. His brother wants him to send some new Puma soccer boots so he can be the envy of the local soccer field in Cameroon. Why are taxi drivers such philosophers, wow did this dude have a sharp eye on life. He says all of his family wants to come to America and he has been here 20 years and has the ability to sponsor any of his family to start a new life here. he wont bring anyone to USA, he says they have a better life there, simple, but better. He says that in cameroon his brother has no debt or money issues, plays soccer everyday, never eats processed food and looks 53 years old. He said he looks like his father and is terribly sad. He says he thought after 20 years in America he would be Bill Gates, alas he is a soccer mad taxi driver in DC. This guy was amazingly well educated, spoke beautiful english & french, and had an amazing grip on world affairs.

Sometimes bigger is not always better.

More soon.

Who reflects your schools culture

2009-06-19T01:57:00.000-07:00

Kind of a discovery and kind of a bit of realism that slapped me in the face this week.

In writing a school statement for ERO I floated into a sentence about the "culture" of the school.

This got me thinking, who carries the culture of your school? Sure we have a joint philosophy and a belief in one another and what we want for our kids. Lots of schools have these thoughts and ideas but the proof is in the pudding.

To me it really did dawn on me that at our school the kids carry the culture of the school, teachers facilitate but kids articulate. Every kid that walks in the door at your school takes a lead from the other students, their actions, their words, their aroha. Think about the kids in your school, who do your new students actually take their lead from?

We have tonnes of amazing kids who carry the culture, they set the standards in work habits, in friendships, in respect, integrity, relationships-teamwork and more. The thing is, the way to judge the culture is to recall the stories where kids carry that culture. I have heaps of amazing little anecdotes from the actions of children that reflect our culture. Somewhere adults have had to do the hard work, and this happens over time and every day, but the rewards are so satisfying.

So teachers take note those great kids in your class are GOLD they not only keep you sane but they are shaping the success of your whole school.

Life Long Learners

2009-06-12T13:24:00.001-07:00

Do you believe there is one set of knowledge that every kid should learn? If this is the case what is that knowledge.?And what should schools do to ensure every kid gets that knowledge.?

Now if you were at primary school you may have a reading writing and maths answer.

If you were at secondary you may have an "application of knowledge" answer.

If you believe in Cambridge Examinations you may answer - a really good strategy for memory.

Maybe the KC's are the answer = managing self - thinking - relating to others - participating and contributing. If this is so then how can we teach these.

Its a complex issue, specific teaching of KC's is possible as a very small part, gaining understanding through doing, showing, living the KC's is an enormous part. It really comes back to loving learning. Teachers are funny animals, we are so different in many ways but scarily similar in the things that matter. We can argue over assemblies, prize giving, bike days, sand pits, dutys, timetables (my list is quite long, hmmm a bit too much information here) but we always seem to agree that teaching kids is more than just imparting knowledge.

Good schools have flocks of these teachers who give everything they have for their kids. I have heard many conversations where someone is having a dig at a kid who has been an egg, only for another teacher to pop up and defend the little sod.

Having a deeper understanding of our colleagues, a shared respect for the way everyone in your school cares for kids, knowing that everyone has a bit of the "fight for kids" inside them is so important as a teacher and as a principal. We may have our spats but nothing changes the respect we have for colleagues who live a shared philosophy, not hung on the walls, but a deeper respect for the actual daily implementation.

This is where these rambled thoughts are going.

If we are going to make it as a life long learner, if we are going to encourage all our kids to be life long learners then there isn't one skill set.

Every kid needs someone who will "fight for them". Leaders need to practice their own philosophy of life long learning. I know we aren't all perfect and we get things wrong on more than one occasion but shutting the door is not an option.

Teachers can be the worlds best coaches

2009-06-05T02:49:00.000-07:00

gold tooth and a mate

Sport is ridiculously important. As a teacher or coach you have a profound effect on kids by working with them on a completely different level. I must have coached 200 teams over the years. Coming to this realisation seems to be stating the absolute obvious but I have a chap at school who has one avenue for success, sport. Through sport he and I have built up a relationship. Tomorrow I am off to see him play for the first time and I'm really looking forward to seeing my little mate give it heaps. There wont be much conversation, likely a well done mate, and a pot of chips for him and his little brother.

I remember back to 1990 when young Lilo walked into my team and that gold tooth grin has been part of our friendship ever since.

Over the years we teach kids and have good memories but the bond between someone who cares, someone who has been in "that" team, someone who you have laughed with, built respect for, had success with, is special. Ask our office lady, The Beav, she was there the other morning and in walked a huge samoan courier, it was Mo'o a lock from years gone by, and there we were facing off after 17 years. The smile comes, so does the hug, the respect for each other, and then he's off like all good couriers. Nothing needs to be said.

Tomorrow nothing much will be said but being there will be everything.

Update : It was a gr8 morning, my mate will be stoked on Monday Morning - I bet he is at school too, which means mission achieved.

I took a few shots, and bumped in to 5 other Summerland Kids, my mate scored a beaut try too, maybe another Lilo in the making?

NZ ain't that bad

2009-06-04T01:05:00.000-07:00

So hows your week, how about this for a story from a reliever.

Been at ten schools all in a similar area.

Monday:• One hour release time (out of three per week)• First two hours - student free choice
Tuesday:• One hour release time (planning)• Afternoon -school at swimming - those not going supervised at 6 naff rotation activities for two hours SOOOOOOO frustrated!
Wednesday:• One hour release time for planning (yes again)• Supervise two classes in the afternoon playing board games while their teachers have release
Thursday:• Spent the afternoon supervising two classes while they watched a movie while the teachers did a survey
Friday:Free choice whole afternoons...
Teachers arrive at 8:30. Leave at 4pm. (School concludes at 3:30).

oh and planning consists of one A4 page for ALL subject areas for the WHOLE WEEK

Have you met any good motivated teachers?

I have met some motivated teachers yes. They are silently struggling.

Kids hate it. Behavior shocking. Some kids are just idiots seriously, all behavior strategies used up in 5 mnutes but others are keen to learn.

Whole class maths.
Whole class reading - No - groups...
BUT...I was asked to do combined reading with two classes (60 kids 1 book!). The teacher asked me. "So, what should we do for reading today". I DON'T know, I am the CRT! They had been working on predicting and only predicting (for weeks) at 9/10 year olds. They already knew it!
The next day... what shall we do?
I said, what does their testing say... Response: Oh ... we don't really test the kids.

The private schools SEEM on to it, (looking through the windows on a weekend) but not seeing teaching.
I have been to (10) schools like the Central Akld area and others more like West Akld perhaps.

Ok I concede maybe we do need National Standards.. Oops the problem is this reliever is working in Australia, is a great teacher, and they have some set of standards over there that obviously aren't working. The truth is we all have schools like these, and they need addressing or teachers will suffer silently, and the kids in deafening silence. Lets address it some how.

No sweat Pio you are the bomb

2009-06-01T02:26:00.000-07:00

One of the best evenings a school could ever host. We got in touch with no sweat parenting after a parent told me they went to an event where Pio Terei had spoken. She said he was awesome. I have met Pio through my sons kapa haka group and found him to be a top bloke.

Pio has teamed up with Ian Grant to reach Maori parents. I get a feeling Ian Grant stumbled over an absolute gem. Pio had the power point that kept him on course, he had the messages that were simple, and the real life experiences that ring true for all parents. The thing is that there were some very simple ideas that touched a nerve for me.

Emotional tanks, we all have them and they can be emptied by words, actions, feelings, surroundings. He made a great point. We have lots of kids in this country who have empty emotional tanks and they have been empty since they were five years old.

Teachers can make a difference. A smile, a kind word, a touch (hug) whatever, these help fill that emotional tanks. Every class has one kid at least with an empty tank, we all know who they are, when you see them tomorrow, give them a smile a kind word and a nice touch.

We had a very multiculutral audience and everyone got the message whilst holding their sides with laughter. I encourage, no challenge every school to get Pio in the door. This is most definitely not about little kids either, teenagers are funny creatures too, the message is brilliant.

When the boss is away

2009-06-01T02:07:00.000-07:00

I get a feeling that the MOE doesn't trust us. They seem to be determined to get through their election promise. Shame really that the purpose of the National Standards is political vote winning. It's actually a disgrace that the reason for the National Standards isn't about kids. Anne Tolley can argue till she's blue in the face about how essential these things are, so can all those facilitators who are lining up school contracts to help schools implement these standards. The truth is that these might be an important set of guidelines but they have always existed, exemplars, PATs, nathan astle and numpa testing. Why don't they just bloody address those schools who aren't there and let us get on with out job.

I don't want to bleat on about these standards, I've got better things to do. Try this video about trust. I'm sure the MOE think this is what schools are doing while they aren't looking.

Priorities

2009-05-28T23:26:00.000-07:00

I've had a difficult week trying to comprehend priorities.

First 2000 lycra wearing greenies walked and biked across the harbour bridge, they want a cycle lane and an footpath.

Secondly there was a brilliantly organised hikoi that had a few thousand walk up queen street wanting maori representation on the the new super city council.

Thirdly a trial continues at enormous cost for a man who has 6 months left on his sentence.

Lastly the MOE are rushing through national standards for schools to be introduced in 2010 just to keep an election promise, this is not being done to raise educational achievement.

ok here we go with the tirade:

1.greenies stop growing your own sandals and do some bloody maths, 1.2 billion for another "clip on" for your footpath and six foot fence to stop jumpers. It's a no brainer go away, stop wasting our time, wait for the bloody tunnel or second bridge and then ask again.

2. good hikoi cuz but why was there 500 waitakere city council employees at the march? they didn't want maori representation, they are just another bunch of incompetant beaurocrats wanting to keep their nice new offices and jobs. once bitten WCC, you're out.

3. david bain guilty or not the evidence is just at complete opposites from both sides, so lots of people are lying or lawyers are orchestrating evidence to get a result the think is right / slanting evidence. lawyers will never ever do this so what the bloody hell is this all about. MONEY our money.

4. the one that has most educators scratching their heads. are they needed? maybe they are! but how will national not loose face with their simplistic election promise and education survive without "test teaching". this farce will be rushed through with so called "consultation" and it will railroad over the NZC which schools are working hard at implementation for 2010 and it has slammed ka hikitia to the pile of books under the DP's desk.

If the standards must come then take your bloody time you stupid noddys and get it right first time and implement it with PD and people on board not on the defensive. wake up you dumb arses!

My priority is to have a bloody good weekend with the intention of getting a fish or two. thats what I call a priorty.

Why are we really at school

2009-05-14T00:40:00.000-07:00

A week of injuries to go with the pouring rain, and I start to wonder where our job starts and finishes. We had stitches in the mouth, a near severed toe, a broken arm (a bad one) and more hairy stuff almost daily. Seems the weather has sent a few crazy. I had a couple of after hours visits to homes catching up with the parents of the injured, and a couple of teachers snuck in to hospital to visit another young lad who is coming right.

The thing is that my week is nothing compared to my mate who has a motorway being planned to be built through his school, he had the media ringing at 7.30am and the phone has rung constantly for 4 days.

A student at my sons school passed away overnight. He was at school one day and gone the next. He had MD and was slowly wasting away, they always knew it was coming one day, but is still a big shock especially to his friends and teachers.

The thing is, that your actions when faced with difficult circumstances really do matter. These are possibly the most important decisions you face.

School isn't always about reading and writing, it's not always about results, it's about laughter, friendship, life, celebrating success.

Our job is about people, little people, big people, mums and dads, nans and pops. It is about community and we are all part of that community.

He aha te mea nui?
He tangata.
He tangata.
He tangata.

What is the most important thing? It is people, it is people, it is people.

Apologies to those of you who want swearing, mockery, and a lots of uninformed comment I promise next time to be way less serious and will have a tirade of ludicrous statements. OK Fiona G ?

Appraisal - rigour or rubbish

2009-05-09T02:40:00.000-07:00

Lets not beat around the bush, if your teacher is achieving in the classroom then they will always "pass" an observation and you will always attest to their meeting the professional standards. This presumes of course that they are collaborative team players bla bla bla. The problem I have is that the MOE says you should have goals, observations etc. I know one highly respected colleague who gave me a blow by blow discussion on how he observes practice and rigorously appraises teachers and it makes a huge difference to kids learning (he does have the evidence to prove it too). But what if they are sometimes late for school, and your DP has observed something in passing that set off a small alarm, their team personal demeanor isn't always spot on, and a couple of parents have expressed something that doesn't sit well with you as principal.

The thing is that an observation or even ten of them doesn't tell the whole picture. The term ‘playing the game’ is too easily applied to too many levels of the process. Pre booked observations are easy to plan for and often show unrealistically high effort. Planning can be checked, but this may or may not reflect the teacher’s practice during real student contact time. Still, these methods are widely accepted by governmental and Board stakeholders who are familiar with such business-world models to justify investment in institutions and programs.

Teachers and managers know strategies to succeed in these systems, but those strategies are seldom collegial, transparent, self-reflective or even honest. If the system of appraisal involves forced and false situations for observation, lengthy yet shallow accountability procedures and the underlying dichotomy of expecting teachers to engage in a process that has historically offered little benefit, then it’s unreasonable to expect that a culture of useful, honest dialogue may ever become embedded in a school as a result. Engaging in the ‘play the game’ subtext at a school wide level offers considerable threat to essential learning dialogue with peers or the chance for teachers to request help from management or leaders.

So every day of the week, month, and year teachers are being judged. Its a bitch I know, but here is what you are really being judged on:
the professional standards and your professionalism
colleagues and there observations and discussions
planning
your children and how well you cope
lateness, punctuality, the time you put in or perceived time
senior managers, DP's, team leaders
environment the look and feel
your dialogue with everyone from the office staff to parents to kids and colleagues
professional learning your participation, enthusiasm, attitude
personal demeanor, happiness, feedback to others
part of learning community, fit and feel with staff
wider community, parental support

So all this stuff is really used to judge you as a teacher, I need a beer just looking at the list. So lets fake it and go to an observation, an irrelevant goal and tick the box. Or lets look at the horrible list and tackle it with respect and professionalism. Leaders need to be trusted. If they are lemons you are in trouble, but if you trust them and the little things are taken care of, then the open honest learning community will thrive.

Teachers if its all too much, just read the list above and apply that list to your principal, because everyday that guy has been in teaching he has also been judged by the same list. Would you attest to your principal?

Principals - we are a weird lot

2009-04-29T22:21:00.000-07:00

I recently filled in the APPA principals survey, they have a few issues with workload, paperwork, compliance and more. I'm happy to help with a few answers. As usual, with all surveys, I look at the questions and try to work out why each question has been asked, and then think how I can skew the answers by taking the opposite point of view from everyone else. I then try to convince myself that the view I have taken (because no one else has taken it) is actually justified and correct.

Take this question : "I look forward to MOE surveys" why ask this question and really expect any principal to answer "Strongly Agree" 0.6% (1) did strongly agree (that was me). You see this is what I call a slanted question, just bloody ridiculous, how can APPA expect to have any credibility when they use this question to say to the MOE that Principals are not happy with their performance.

There are some more doozies : "

"This school has no problems with funding from the ministry on property matters"

"I find no problem in recruiting quality teachers"

"I have the teaching staff to do justice to Te Reo"

These just state the obvious and don't need 200 principals to say help.

But there were a few that I though gee guys, your answers are at polar opposites, genuinely, from where I sit. like these:

"Payroll paperwork is overly inconsistent and complex" 2 people strongly disagreed (me and some other smart arse 1.2%). Just delegate it to a competent office manager and get on with the job of education, it might be complex but it shouldn't be of any concern for the principal, get someone else to do it.

"I have no problems with passwords on official websites like Leadspace" 5 people (3%) answered Strongly Agree. 67% had problems they Disagreed or Strongly Disagreed. This got me thinking, is this actually an issue or are 67% of principals incapable of using and reusing a password. Slanted question but a backfire if you ask me. This actually shows that there are a truck load of plonkers out there. I can say this because those password forgetters couldn't follow a blog, and a mention of RSS would probably have them thinking about some sort of typing disease.

"I would like a principals handbook developed either in hard copy or online" I bloody wouldn't, it would just gather dust, what a waste of time (90.4% want a handbook).

"An online handbook of NZ educational terms and acronyms would be useful" (67.5%) think it would be great. Well whoopdee shit, would this mean the RTLB's would now actually work with behavior kids. Who cares there are bigger fish to fry.

There were a few more rippers but I need to stop here, as I'm a crap typist, and for fear of being alienated by men in walk-shorts and power dressing, over perfumed women.

OK as I am actually a principal I now need to apologize to all my mates and now enemies that I have offended. Hopefully this is taken in the manner intended, lighthearted and with hopefully some message you may take from it.