2012 - Term 4 - Good Teacher Magazine by Good Teacher Magazine

Term Four 2012

“The best teachers don’t give you the answers... They just point the way ... Good Teacher Magazine Term 4 2012 1 and let you make your own choices.”

Agitated, Disruptive – Even Aggressive Students? We can help! Are you concerned about the risk of violence in your school? Are you prepared? Since 1980, CPI has been teaching professionals proven methods for managing difficult or assaultive behaviour. To date, over six million individuals— including thousands of teachers and other education professionals—have participated in the highly successful CPI Nonviolent Crisis Intervention® training course. This course not only teaches staff how to respond effectively to the warning signs that someone is about to lose control, but also addresses how staff can deal with their own stress and anxiety when confronted with these difficult situations. Visit crisisprevention.com/good for more information and to download our FREE eBook, Creating a Safe and Caring Work Environment, containing insightful tips you can share immediately with your staff. Australia and New Zealand Office PO Box 509, Dulwich Hill • Sydney, NSW 2203 Free Phone: 0800 244 674 Tel (Local Australia): +61 (0) 2 9516 5177 Email: information@crisisprevention.com • crisisprevention.com

Just hanging out! 2 Good Teacher Magazine Term 4 2012

Join us at an upcoming training course: 13–16 November Auckland (Otahuhu)

20–23 November Wellington

Priority Code: GT121

Index 3 Motat’s ‘Olde Hallow’ Eve’ is set to thrill

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Dianne Smardon & Jennifer Charteris

Your Soapbox

Conal Atkins

The Olympic Games brings learning alive around the world

New resource to help with international students

Motat’s Aviaton Display Hall Celebrates its First Birthday

Aspirational Programmes for Young Dancers Re-launched

Adapt or Die Out

Laurie Loper

Paper Dolls

The New Zealand Book Council Launches Books and Brekkie

45th Graduation Season for New Zealand’s School of Dance

One Man’s Dream and the Ruben Jane

Neil Adams

Literary skills tackled by lesson change

Gwenfair Griffith

The Fun Way to Recharge Your Batteries

Kum Ymashita

Artist

Blenheim’s National Scriptwriting Champions Crowned

Excerpts from Dog’s and Cat’s diaries

Front Cover:

The Cotonelle Designer Challenge

Inside Front Cover:

Random amusement while out and about

Back Cover:

Adelaide Zoo

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Motat’s ‘Olde Hallow’s Eve’ is Se To celebrate the most hair-raising holiday of the year, Halloween, MOTAT will be transforming its historic surroundings into a night of thrills and chills for the whole family at their Victorian ‘Olde Hallow’s Eve’ event. Beginning at dusk on Saturday 27 October, MOTAT is inviting visitors to enter a world of creepy characters and eerie activities. Climb aboard a haunted tram or horse and carriage, witness a sugar skull parade, make a menacing mask to terrify your friends and walk down the dreaded hallway of horrors, if you are brave enough. Bring along a frightening pumpkin lantern to go on display and come dressed in your favourite Halloween costume and you will be in to win a best-dressed prize. With plenty to keep the family entertained – from spine-chilling activities for those up for a thrill, to not-so-scary for the younger ones, come along for a fun night of frights. Olde Hallow’s Eve pre-sale tickets are now available for purchase from the MOTAT shop on Great North Road or by emailing bookings@motat.org.nz. Dates Olde Hallow’s Eve will run from 7pm - 11pm on Saturday 27 October. Location MOTAT, Great North Road, Western Springs. Olde Hallow’s Eve costs $13 per person (under 5’s free) Family passes $50 (2 adults, 4 children under 17) Free for MOTAT Mates Annual Pass holders* *MOTAT Mate passes are available to purchase from our MOTAT shops, or on the event night - $65 family (2 adults, 4 children under 17) 4 Good Teacher Magazine Term 4 2012

Ticket Terms and Conditions Event will take place rain or shine. Tickets may be transferred but are not

et To Thrill

refundable. MOTAT will not replace tickets where tickets have been misplaced or lost.

A new ticket will need to be purchased. Tickets may not be resold or offered

for resale at a premium (including via online auction sites) without prior written consent from MOTAT. Good Teacher Magazine Term 4 2012 5

Between a Rock and a Hard Place:

Teacher Professional Learning Dianne Smardon and Jennifer Charteris

Abstract A market-driven model for in-service teacher development can potentially place the sustainability of professional learning initiatives at risk. As schooling improvement contracts become increasingly student outcome driven, we question whether this could compartmentalise processes of teacher learning. With an emphasis on fixed fiscal input and resulting student outcomes, inservice teacher educators (ISTE) and teachers are in the middle charged with making a significant difference. What are the practices that make this space in the middle a place where agentic learning takes place? Adopting a polemicstance, we invoke the ‘between a rock and a hard place’ metaphor to illustrate the wayteachers and ISTE are currently politically positioned.

Introduction If teachers can make a difference to the quality of student learning (Hattie, 2003) it follows that the nature of the input from teacher educators makes a difference for teachers. However, there is a dearth of research around the role of in-service teacher educators (ISTE) in New Zealand. With signalled changes to service provision it is timely to explore what constitutes ‘effective’ inservice teacher education. This paper highlights the need for robust ISTE practices which value teacher professionalism and the experiences of teachers as co-learners and co-constructors of knowledge. This contrasts to an approach which positions teachers as passive absorbers or recipients of knowledge constructed elsewhere in the system. The Rock – The Privatisation Of Education Currently the Ministry of Education is addressing the economic concept of provider capture through promoting a contestable funding model for professional learning and development. This process could be viewed as governmentality (Foucault, 1984); an expeditious way of ensuring policy is disseminated in a participatory way to its target audience. Discourses position and define communities of practitioners. We have noted in light of a political shift to the right that there has been a change in the discursive language used in New Zealand educational policy. This shift is evident in use of terms such as ‘trainers’ and ‘training’. In addition, learning, a 6 Good Teacher Magazine Term 4 2012

public good, is described as ‘core business’, a technicist term that implies education is a commodity that serves a private good (Ministry of Education, 2010a). ‘Inquiry’ (Ministry of Education, 2007) is another term that may be accepted unproblematically. We view that this term also requires exploration to unravel where it is discursively positioned. Are we talking about critical or instrumentalist inquiry? With a nationally narrowing gaze on quantifiable student achievement outcomes, teachers are in the unenviable position of frontline pressure to perform. Ironically, a performance orientation in an environment of high stakes accountability can lead professionals to focus on proving rather than improving practice. Conversely, a learning orientation can impact positively on performance (Dweck, 2006). The policy for the purchasing of professional development outlines explicit outcomes. The process of teacher learning and the dispositional nature of what it means to be an effective learner, for teachers and ISTE, are diminished in emphasis. Therefore teachers are currently positioned between a rock and a hard place. Highlighting the need for a key shift from programmes that attempt to change teachers, Lom and Sullenger (2010) advocate that we position teachers as active learners, shaping their professional growth through reflective participation in professional development sited in their practice. In this paper we advocate for professional learning and development that promotes teacher agency.

Questioning ‘What Works’ New Zealand education policy appears to be shifting in ethos which could be likened to the climate of performativity, as in the United Kingdom. Deakin Crick (2007) describes how ‘both the curriculum and assessment arrangements tend to favour performativity – the public and summative, with validity and reliability criteria appropriate for quantitative public accountability’ (p. 152). The New Zealand Ministry of Education ‘are purchasing the expertise of highquality culturally responsive providers who exemplify the principles of effective teacher professional learning and development practice’ (Ministry Education, 2010b). What constitutes a ‘high-quality’ provider facilitator and what is the measurement of this service? It appears to be a hierarchical chain of performativity; performativity of teachers, performativity of school leaders and performativity of providers. As educators strive to ‘get it right’ in a performative culture, they are marketed research to both define quality and shape practice. These are often large scale, quantitatively weighted studies that are deemed to have high reliability. Embedded in this technical rational approach to schooling improvement and reform is the New Right mantra espoused by academic capitalists and educational entrepreneurs – ‘what works will work.’ However, research can only show us what has been possible; it can only tell us

what has worked but cannot tell us ‘what works’ generically (Biesta, 2007). According to Wiliam (2006), some researchers have underestimated the complexity of what it is that teachers do, and in particular, have failed to understand how great an impact context has on teachers’ practice: That is why ‘what works?’ is not the right question, because everything works somewhere, and nothing works everywhere. (p. 8) Research and evidence can be used to shape the practice of teachers and teacher educators. This transformation of discourse and social practices is termed ‘technologisation of discourse’ (Fairclough, 1995 in Fairclough 2010). Fairclough (2010) describes this as ‘instrumental rationality applied to the shaping and reshaping of discursive practices … [It occurs] within more general processes of engineering institutional cultures to enhance their performativity’ (p. 552). We see examples of this in national standards, curriculum documents and governmental websites. The authority of research discourse is evoked and the discourses themselves become commodified (Fairclough, 2004). Fairclough, (2010) observes how this technologisation sanitises difference in its introduction of an audit culture: Technologisation of discourse produces general formulas for change which tend to ignore differences of context, so that one effect of such cultural technologisation is normalisation, homogenisation and the reduction of difference – for instance the imposition of a standardized audit culture and the discourse that goes with it (the discourse of ‘quality control’) throughout the public domain, including education. (p. 552) While the increasing marketisation of in-service teacher education is highly visible to teachers, school leaders and ISTE themselves, discursive shifts which support social and cultural change are typically not transparent for the people involved. Nor is technologisation of discourse (Fairclough, 2003). A further example of technologisation is the ISTE resource ‘Ki te Aotūroa’. As a set of learning materials for ISTE, Ki te Aotūroa was developed through a Ministry of Education, New Zealand-wide, research and development initiative, the Inservice Teacher Education Practice (INSTEP) project. Alongside the increased commodification of teacher learning, Ki te Aotūroa, promotes uniformity of practice. As a form of governmentality, this initiative is a calculated intervention to shift discursive practices as part of the engineering of social change (Fairclough, 2010). The document itself reveals its focus on uniformity and scientism. Ki te Aotūroa, … is a response to Elmore’s (2003) challenge for educators to develop a common theory of improvement … It attempts to capture what’s involved in the deep learning that leads to improved ISTE practice, which, in turn, can lead to deep learning for teachers and students. Note that the theory is not presented as conclusive or definitive; rather it is offered for ISTEs to adapt and use with the expectation that it will change and evolve as it is tested and further developed. (Ministry of Education, 2008, online)

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Ki te Aotūroa promotes greater homogeneity in the interests of coherence and increased ease of marketisation of professional development provision.

Inquiry, Identity And Agency An over reliance on a narrow view of what constitutes student achievement and research evidence can lead to an instrumentalist approach to inquiry. Inquiry under these circumstances becomes more about compliance and less about reasoned teacher judgment, informed by rich and varied sources of evidence. This reductionist approach to inquiry could be described as a ‘Velvet cage’ (Schutz, 2004, p. 16) Where professional learning and development is targeted explicitly for policy compliance and generated outside school contexts where teachers are solicited for their ‘buy in’. Schutz (2004) describes how ‘pastoral control’ differs from traditional top down forms of ‘Disciplinary control’ (p. 16). Organisational systems seek to transform iste and teachers into committed ‘partners’ who engage in meaningful activity, fully understand and control their work and supervise themselves. ‘New capitalism’ operates through these postmodern processes of pastoral control. Workers are asked to invest their hearts, minds, and bodies fully in their work. They are asked to think and act critically, reflectively, and creatively. (Schutz, 2004, p. 16) ‘Pastoral domination’ as a process of governmentality focuses on disseminating the locus of control. Governmentality is evident in pedagogies, leadership styles and policies espoused and in use by educators throughout New Zealand. Schutz (2004) views that while this new pastoral capitalist vision offers a less alienating view of work and labour, it can also amount to a form of mind control and high-tech, but indirect, coercion. Hierarchy is not eliminated in these new forms of control. Instead, it becomes non-authoritarian, as workers participate in ‘distributed systems where control is distributed throughout the system and not in any centre that monopolises power, knowledge, or control’ (Schutz, 2004, p. 16). Arguably, a key mechanism in this process of disseminating the locus of control is ‘teaching as inquiry’ (Ministry of Education, 2007). Nevertheless, inquiry, a core mechanism for teacher learning (Ministry of Education, 2007; Timperley, Wilson, Barrar, and Fung, 2007), can be integral to critical reflection. From a socio-cultural perspective, learning is situated and mediated in complex sociocultural environments. When teachers become critical consumers of research and policy, brokering interpretations that are appropriate to their localised contexts, they make informed professional decisions. Inquiry with a critical edge shifts the focus from how to implement initiatives to questions that explore implications for practice from an evidenceinformed perspective.

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Gordon, Smyth and Diehl (2008, p. 192) pose questions that could assist Critical inquiry: Why (is this important) now? Who benefits? Who gets excluded? Who gets damaged? What view of education is being perpetuated? What view of society is being endorsed? How is equity and democracy being advanced? What kind of mindset is being advanced? and, Where to from here? There is a tension in mandating inquiry through schooling improvement models and curricula as teacher and iste learning is a process of forging identity. Ben-Peretz, Kleeman, Reichenberg and Shimoni (2010) deemed it ‘Difficult, almost impossible, to teach a teacher how to teach, the only way to promote professional development is through selfdiscovery of one’s professional identity’ (p. 125). Barak, Gidron and Turniansky (2010) view professional development as a holistic process interwoven with professional life where the central issues are not only questions about what we, as teacher educators should know and be able to do, but also questions regarding who we, as teacher educators should be and the professional identity we are developing. Hoffman-Kipp (2008) sees teacher identity as the intersection of personal, pedagogical and political participation and reflection within a larger sociopolitical context. Agentic inquiry can only be learner-initiated and engaged through learner curiosity and ownership. Teacher agency is a significant factor in the sustainability of professional development and learning initiatives. This requires a long term approach to professional learning that hinges on relational trust and the growth of relationships that focus on ‘pedagogical work’ (Robinson, Hohepa,& Lloyd, 2009, p. 201). For teachers to take up this pedagogical work to inquire into their practice, there needs to be intentionality or agency; a situated concept afforded or constrained by the nature of the relationships in the social space. Wagenheim, Clark and Crispo (2009) describe the impact of transformational inquiry on the identity of teachers: Through a regular cycle of reflective inquiry – surfacing and challenging assumptions – teachers seeking improvement seek transformative change; change in their ‘way of being’ as a teacher, not just in their ‘way of doing’. Becoming a better teacher is about reflecting on and questioning deeply held assumptions in an experiential cycle of inquiry,

developing new strategies, testing in action, and learning. It is through reflection and resultant selfknowledge that one can leverage greater awareness of others and course content in the journey toward becoming a better teacher. (P. 504)

Conclusion It is timely, as in-service teacher education shifts to a contestable funding model, that we consider the practitioners; teacher educators and teachers who inhabit the space in between the contestable contracts and the mandated student outcomes. This is the space between a rock and a hard place. Inservice teacher educators are a means to an end – charged with the task of making a difference to student outcomes. If teachers are to engage in professional learning in a meaningful way there is a need for ‘psychological spaciousness’ (Kegan, 1998 as cited in Garvey-Berger, 2004, p. 221). The most promising forms of professional development engage teachers in the pursuit of investigating genuine problems over time, in ways that significantly affect their mpractice (Lom & Sullenger, 2010). As the body of research into teacher professional learning grows, ‘newer visions of professional development have emerged, seeking to create and support teacher learning experiences that are ongoing, are selfdirected, occur within collaborative communities of learners and connect to the daily lives of teachers as they are teaching’ (Lom &Sullenger, 2010, p. 4). Power in modern societies is present at all levels and does not lie outside society in some umbrella-like, overarching way (Foucault, 1984). Therefore, inquiry with a critical edge has the potential to engage and empower teachers through critique. These critical forms of inquiry are centred on a commitment to equity and social justice (Reid, 2004). We advocate professional learning which promotes critical inquiry so that teachers make informed decisions about their practice, constructing, interpreting and drawing from a rich, robust harvest of evidence. Nevertheless, we acknowledge the complexity for ISTE and teachers in finding this critical space between the rock and the hard place. References Barak, J., Gidron, A., & Turniansky B. (2010). ‘Without stones there is no arch’: A study of professional development of teacher educators as a team. Professional Development in Education, 36(1), 275-287. Ben-Peretz, M., Kleeman, S., Reichenberg, R., & Shimoni, S. (2010). Educators of educators: Their goals, perceptions and practices. Professional Development in Education, 36(1), 111-129. Biesta, G. (2007). Why ‘what works’ won’t work: Evidence-based practice and the democratic deficit in educational research. Educational Theory, 57, 1-22. Deakin Crick, R. (2007). Learning how to learn: The

dynamic assessment of learning power. The Curriculum Journal, 18(2), 135–153. Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. New York: Random House. Fairclough, N. (2003). Discourse and social change. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. Fairclough, N. (2004). Global capitalism and critical awareness of language. Retrieved from: http:// www.schools.ash.org.au/litweb/norman1.html Fairclough, N. (2010). Critical discourse analysis: The critical study of language (2nd ed.). London: Pearson Longman. Foucault, M. (1984). The Foucault reader (Ed. Paul Rabinow). New York: Pantheon. Garvey-Berger, J. (2004). Dancing on the threshold of meaning: Recognizing and understanding the growing edge. Journal of Transformative Education, 2(4), 336-351. Gordon, S., Smyth, J., & Diehl, J. (2008). The Iraq war, ‘sound science’, and‘evidence-based’ educational reform: How the Bush administration uses deception, manipulation, and subterfuge to advance its chosen ideology. Journal For Critical Education Policy Studies, 6(2), 174-204. Hattie, J. (2003). Teachers make a difference: What is the research evidence? Paper presented at the Australian Council for Educational Research Annual Conference on Building Teacher Quality, Melbourne. Hoffman-Kipp, P. (2008). Actualizing democracy: The praxis of teacher identity construction. Teacher Education Quarterly, 35(3), 152-164. Lom, E., & Sullenger, K. (2010). Informal spaces in collaborations: Exploring the edges/boundaries of professional development. Professional Development in Education, June. (iFirst), doi:10. 1080/19415257.2010.489811. Ministry of Education. (2007). The New Zealand Curriculum. Wellington:Government Printer. Ministry of Education. (2008). Ki te Aotūroa: Improving inservice teacher educator learning and practice. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media. Retrieved from: http://instep.net. nz/a_proposed_theory_of_improvement_for_ istes Ministry of Education. (2010a). Introduction to the self-review tools. Retrieved from: http:// nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/National-Standards/ Self-reviewtools/ Introduction Ministry of Education. (2010b). The professional learning and development overview. Ministry of Education: Wellington. Reid, A. (2004). Towards a culture of inquiry in DECS. Retrieved from: http://www.decs.sa.gov.au/ Good Teacher Magazine Term 4 2012 9

corporate/files/links/OP_01.pdf Robinson, V., Hohepa, M., & Lloyd, C. (2009). School leadership and student outcomes: Identifying what works and why. Best Evidence Synthesis Iteration (BES). Wellington: Ministry of Education. Schutz, A. (2004). Rethinking domination and resistance: Challenging postmodernism. Educational Researcher, 33(1), 15-23. Timperley, H., Wilson, A., Barrar, H., & Fung, I. (2007). Teacher professional learning and development: Best evidence synthesis iteration (BES). Wellington: Ministry of Education. Wagenheim, G., Clark, R., & Crispo, A. (2008). Metaphorical mirror: Reflecting on our personal pursuits to discover and challenge our professional teaching practice assumptions. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 20(3), 503-509. Wiliam, D. (2006). Does assessment hinder learning? ETS Europe Breakfast Seminar. Retrieved from: http://researchhighschools.pbworks.com/f/ Does_Assessment_Hinder_Learning_ DylanWiliam.doc Between a Rock and a Hard Place 35

About the Authors Dianne Smardon Dianne has been involved with teacher professional development for over 18 years both in New Zealand and overseas. She has taught in both NZ and UK primary schools. Dianne has a strong interest in the promotion of learnersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; critical thinking and reflective practices. Contact: diannes@waikato.ac.nz Jennifer Charteris Jennifer has over 20 years teaching experience in the primary and secondary sectors and has recently been an ISTE with the University of Waikato. She is currently undertaking doctoral research into learner agency in secondary classrooms. Her interests comprise critical theory, poststructuralism, peer coaching and the role of dialogue in teacher and student learning. Contact: jen_charteris@hotmail.com With thanks to: Dianne and Jen and the New Zealand Journal of Teachersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Work, Volume 9, Issue 1, 27-35, 2012 [ISSN-1176-6662]

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Your Soapbox!

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You have to stay in shape. My Grandmother ..... she started walking five miles a day when she turned 60. Shes 97 today..... and we don’t know where she is. Ellen DeGeneres

”

If you want to have YOUR SAY please email your offering to: soapbox@goodteacher.co.nz

Good Teacher Magazine Term 4 2012 11

The Olympic Games brings le

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earning alive around the world

Schools around the world made the most of the Olympic Games this year to link it to childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s learning. For many schools using the International Primary Curriculum (IPC), this Olympic focus took learning to some memorable and unique heights. The IPC provided member schools with Olympic-themed units of work to suit the learning needs of children in primary and the Early Years. This created opportunities for shared learning experiences across years and, at times, throughout the whole school. Subject learning as well as personal and international learning was all incorporated into six weeks focused upon the Olympics. There were even schools tweeting about their Olympics learning and linking up across continents as a result.

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Here are some of the great learning experiences that came about as a result of IPC Olympic learning this summer:

The Olympic Stadium for the British International Primary School of Stockholm The British International Primary School of Stockholm in Sweden took over the Stockholm Olympics Stadium for its IPC Entry Point! The Stadium was built 100 years ago for the 1912 Olympic Games and the British Embassy helped BIPSS to hire the location.

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The whole school participated in an Olympic opening ceremony which included a flag parade, arrival of the Olympic torch, speeches, music and sporting activities. One of the most popular activities of the day was the tug of war which was an official event in the 1912 Stockholm Olympic Games.

A state of the art way of displaying IPC Olympic learning at St Thereseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Primary School in Neath, As well as work samples, this display includes photographs showing Wales

skill development, new questions and learning activities too.

Horley Infant School

IMAGE 9: iCAN School, Cambodia CAPTION Swimming skills put into practice during the IPC Olympic unit at iCAN School in Cambodia

Experiencing a 1912 Olympic-style tug of war at the British International Primary School of Stockholm in Sweden

Good Teacher Magazine Term 4 2012 15

A national venue for Academia Británica Cuscatleca in El Salvador too IPC member school, Academia Británica Cuscatleca in Santa Tecla, El Salvador had a similar idea to BIPSS. The school took over the country’s national football stadium for its Olympics opening ceremony! All 840 children aged from 3 to 11 participated in the day along with children from a local special school. In addition to a parade of countries and a torch relay,

events included a welcome speech from the President of the Salvadorean Olympic Committee, a gymnastics display, sports including Paralympic activities and a whole school dance performance. “It was an event that we and the children will remember forever,” says Head of Primary, Amanda Dickson.

IPC Olympic learning and performing at Academia Británica Cuscatleca, in Santa Tecla, El Salvador

Jamaica joins in the Olympic fever Pimento Hall International School in Runaway Bay, Jamaica joined in with the Olympic learning too. The children celebrated the 15 different nationalities represented within the school as part of their mini Olympics. Their learning involved exploring the currency of each nationality and using examples of these coins within the creation of a very special Olympic torch. Family races, a parade of nations and a Greek myth play formed parts of Pimento Hall’s Olympics day along with the torch relay.

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Children at Campion Junior School in Athens, Greece participate in their torch relay

Athens school links London and Greece Campion Junior School in Athens, Greece emphasised the link between the current games in London and the first ever games hosted by the Greeks during its IPC Olympics learning. This included sharing local Olympic connections with Cambridge International School in England and using

this as a chance to look at the similarities and differences between the two countries. It was the schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first whole-school unit and everyone enjoyed the opportunity this gave for cross agegroup collaboration including an Olympic sports day complete with opening ceremony.

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St Therese’s Primary School, Port Talbot.

Argentine school uses Olympics theme to link bilingual learning

Scottish Schools link Olympics to UNICEF award

Holy Trinity College in Mar del Plata in Argentina conducted their IPC Olympic learning in two languages. “In a school which delivers half its curriculum in both Spanish and English, having everyone working on a common project clarified our goals and strengthened our teaching strategies,” says Head of School, Marcela Tovo. “The IPC was found to be a fantastic cross-curricular tool for coordinating work in English and Spanish and was credited with increasing oral and communication skills in both languages,” she says.

Two schools in Scotland used their IPC Olympics learning to support their UNICEF Rights Respecting Schools award. Lamington and Coulter Primary Schools in South Lanarkshire, Scotland were also made official partners of London 2012 and enjoyed a visit from members of the Sports Relief England team who talked with the children about being an athlete and staying healthy. The International Primary Curriculum is the only comprehensive curriculum in the world equally committed to improving learning and developing international mindedness. It focuses on developing knowledge, skills and understanding of subjects set within a range of child-friendly, relevant, cross-curricular thematic units of work - including the Olympic Games unit - which are creative and challenging for children of all abilities. IPC provides teachers with a structured and rigorous yet flexible teaching framework, helping them to lead children through an engaging learning process with clear outcomes for academic, personal and international learning. iCAN School, Cambodia

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Ecole Yenzi in Gabon

A Greek-themed Olympics day at the British School of Chicago in the USA

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Studying the importance of the right equipment during IPC Olympic learning at Holy Trinity College in Mar del Plata, Argentina

The Olympic flag ceremony at St. Johnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s International School in Ladprao, Bangkok More stories, pictures and videos from schools around the world sharing their Olympic learning ideas are available at: http://schools.greatlearning.com/olympics-sprinters-guide/what-other-schools-are-doing.php 20 Good Teacher Magazine Term 4 2012

Join us at an upcoming training course: 13–16 November Auckland (Otahuhu)

20–23 November Wellington

Priority Code: GT121

New resource to help with international students Race Discrimination Commissioner, Helen Szoke, has released Principles to promote and protect the human rights of international students, calling on organisations working with International Students to ensure basic human rights are protected. “These Principles will ensure safe, positive and productive stays for international students, who come to Australia to study,” Commissioner Szoke said. “They promote principles of good practice and will provide guidance to people, organisations and government agencies that provide services to students and develop policy in relation to them.” Given that there is no single body or organisation responsible for addressing the issues and concerns faced by international students, Commissioner Szoke said that a set of guiding principles would be an invaluable asset to the organisations and individuals that jointly share this responsibility. “We are all aware that some international students have faced very difficult times while studying in our country and the sector itself has been placed under the microscope and criticised,” Commissioner Szoke said. “Given that discrimination, harassment, violence and other breaches of human rights can have a serious impact on a person’s life, their sense of safety, their health and the opportunities available to them, the need for guidance through principles such as these is very real.”

Commissioner Szoke said the publication features four core principles: enhancing the human rights of international students; ensuring all international students have access to human rights and freedom from discrimination protections; understanding the diverse needs of international students; and empowering international students during their stay in Australia. “Each of these principles is broken down into practical actions that apply to individuals and organisations that deal with international students, as much as they also apply to governments and their departments and agencies,” said Commissioner Szoke. “Without being prescriptive, we have designed this publication to be as practical a resource as possible. We have also worked hard to include examples of real initiatives – from a diverse group of service providers, education and community organisations - that are already delivering good practice in the spirit of the Principles.” Commissioner Szoke said the Commission had developed the Principles in consultation with key individuals and organisations, including international students and their representative bodies, representatives of the international education sector, academics, government departments and agencies and organisations that provide services to international students.

The Principles are available at: www.humanrights.gov.au/racial_discrimination/international_students.html Good Teacher Magazine Term 4 2012 21

Motatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Aviation Display Hall

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Celebrates Its First Birthday

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Motat’s Aviation Display Hall is celebrating the milestones that made its first year so successful including welcoming a number of fantastic new aircraft, receiving awards and helping Motat reach a record number of visitors. Motat Marketing Manager Deanna Wharton says the new Aviation Display Hall has been a major contributor to Motat gaining attention from national and international visitors. “It’s wonderful to have shared the unique Motat Aviation Display Hall experience with record numbers of Aucklanders and tourists over the past year. For the first time ever, we welcomed over 300,000 visitors to Motat in the last financial year and the positive feedback we continue to receive on the Aviation Display Hall is outstanding,” says Mrs Wharton. The impressive, 3,000m2 custom designed Aviation Display Hall is home to one of the largest aircraft collections in the Southern Hemisphere, MOTAT recently undertaking a project to suspend a number of the historic planes from the ceiling. Mrs Wharton says the suspended aircraft really complete the spectacular exhibition. “The effect of having airborne aircraft in our Aviation Display Hall is that the whole place is brought to life. It’s definitely a must-see.” Over the past year, Motat has received several new aircraft to display in the hall, including a RNZAF Skyhawk, Devon and Aermacchi, of which the RNZAF Skyhawk and Aermacchi were reassembled live for Motat visitors by Royal New Zealand Air Force crew. “The two latest additions to the Aviation Display Hall, the Aermacchi and Devon are both magnificent aircraft that we’re sure Motat visitors will love to see. We are delighted to be able to have them on display,” says Mrs Wharton. “The Aermacchi is a RNZAF aircraft, used to train many cadets over the years. One of the unique features of the purpose-built training aircraft is the dual controls, allowing for both student and teacher to sit in tandem. “The NZ1813 Devon is also really interesting because it was used as a medical aircraft for years. It flew the first polio victim to be transported by air in New Zealand and also the very first portable iron lung* used in NZ – the unit functioned off the aircraft’s electrical supply,” says Mrs Wharton. Since opening, Motat’s Aviation Display Hall has also been recognised nationally for its design. It has won 24 Good Teacher Magazine Term 4 2012

awards for Public Architecture and Sustainable Architecture in the New Zealand Institute of Architecture Awards and for Clever Wood Solutions and Sustainability in the New Zealand Wood Timber Design Awards. “We were thrilled to receive so many awards for the architectural elements of the Aviation Display Hall, which was specially designed to effectively display and help the preservation of our aircraft. These elements along with the world-class backdrop of the

aircraft also create a wonderful space for a variety of unique functions,â&#x20AC;? says Mrs Wharton. Visitors can enjoy the Aviation Display Hall free with normal admission costs to MOTAT. Visit www.motat. org.nz for more information including opening hours plus details on current exhibitions and events. *a breathing apparatus that helped paralyzed patients breathe before it was replaced by more modern technology in the 1950s.

MOTAT entry costs $14 adults $8 students/children 5-16 $7 seniors $free children under 5 $35 family pass (2 adults, 4 children) $65 MOTAT Mates annual family pass Good Teacher Magazine Term 4 2012 25

Aspirational Programmes for Yo The New Zealand School of Dance is well known as the tertiary institution of choice for dancers wishing to train full-time towards a career in ballet or contemporary dance. As the school celebrates its 45th anniversary in 2012, its role in nurturing New Zealandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s young dance talent has been highlighted with the re-launch of two aspirational programmes for schoolaged dancers. The New Zealand School of Dance Associates and Scholars programmes provide specialised tuition in classical ballet and contemporary dance to exceptionally talented students in the years leading up to professional training.

Dancers are chosen for this part-time training by audition, ensuring those with ability can take class with similarly talented dancers while also continuing classes with their local dance teacher. Special classes and immersion in the schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fulltime courses give students first-hand experience of the New Zealand School of Dance teachers, training style and facilities. The new Associates and Scholars programmes have developed out of the Junior Associates and Regional Associates programmes provided by the school since 2000. A number of dancers who have been through this early training have continued on to complete two or three year qualifications at the school. Some of these students have gained contracts on graduation with leading companies including the Royal New Zealand Ballet, Sydney Dance Company and Footnote Dance among others.

Guest tutor Matz Skoog teaching the New Zealand School of Dance Associates 26 Good Teacher Magazine Term 4 2012

oung Dancers Re-Launched The evolution of these programmes in 2012 reflects the school’s focus on the future and an expansion of delivery at these levels. A tiered structure has been introduced to the new Associates programme, with students progressing through the programme as Junior, Intermediate and Senior Associates. The Associates programme identifies both ballet and contemporary dance students aged 13 - 16 who have an aptitude for a career in performance. Associates will travel from throughout the country to the New Zealand School of Dance in Wellington for four weekends annually and, once a year join the full-time students for an immersion week. The New Zealand School of Dance Scholars programme takes classical ballet students from the age of ten (year 6 at primary school) through a series of levels. Class sizes are small and the ballet training is supported by allied subjects such as Pilates. The

New Zealand School of Dance Associates in conditioning class

level of technique taught and the frequency of classes increase annually to the age of 16 to prepare dancers to audition for the school’s full-time programmes. While the Scholars programme focuses primarily on dancers from the Lower North Island, under special circumstances students from other regions are invited to participate, with students in 2012 coming from as far afield as the Bay of Plenty, Auckland and Southland. The New Zealand School of Dance has a 45-year history, a reputation for excellence and a tradition of supporting young dancers with potential. The Associates and Scholars programmes provide the best foundation on the path to becoming a professional dancer and for students aspiring to further training at New Zealand School of Dance. www.nzschoolofdance.ac.nz

photographs by Stephen A’Court Good Teacher Magazine Term 4 2012 27

Adapt or die out Laurie Loper Psychologist

That’s the choice all species face. That’s the immutable law of nature. In the wild, it governs the survival chances of all species. That urge to survive is in their DNAs. In the wild it causes polar bears, for instance, to roam unbelievable distances searching for food. Humankind, too, is subject to that immutable law. It too has the same survival urge, with various peoples expressing this in the diverse mechanisms they develop. Giving humankind some advantage over other species, the cultures it evolves are the interesting mechanisms in the survival equation for they have the power to mitigate threats to the peoples involved, should any happen along. Providing those cultures do their job, things ought to work out well. But what if change occurs – particularly rapid, radical change – sweeping away things that had for centuries been regarded as permanent fixtures? As we know, cultures do lock people into particular courses of action so an appropriate response to threat might well not be mounted quickly enough.

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In the case of education, it has two cultures associated with it that are universal – teaching culture and the larger, more powerful and pervasive education culture. Both have been around for so long, they are taken for granted so much, long ago they disappeared beyond everyone’s consciousness. Especially so the latter. The fact that education culture operates beyond our awareness poses problems. In particular it sets up a situation whereby we are no longer in control of how best to develop the capacity to learn of our young, contrary to what is otherwise thought. Given that culture and DNA are tightly entwined – one theory has it that culture imprints DNA – what we have here is a situation that’s bordering on one where our DNA might be setting us up to be on a destructive course. Being unaware of our culture’s influence, means no threat is detected even when there patently is one. In such a case, no action results, things drift, makeshift solutions are employed, things don’t improve. More makeshift solutions get trotted out, oftentimes appearing more convoluted and contrived than the ones before. Things lurch on, eventually desperation sets in, decision making goes into free fall. Observing this, thinking people from outside of the education sector wonder what the hell is going on. Can’t anyone connect the dots and see what’s happening? Can’t anyone see how relevant a knowledge of culture and it’s influences would be in the situation? Since such knowledge remains hidden beyond awareness, nobody can. Even if that wasn’t the case, the practices and patterns of thinking employed around learning are traditional and work in concert to deny the reality of what’s going on. Throw in a situation like quake-torn Christchurch, there’s infrastructural issues to further complicate things. While education’s decision makers at the top level are never backward in pointing out that New Zealand is up there with the best in the world, obviously none of them see things heading inexorably towards the type of culturally caused nemesis that is said to have

struck Rapa Nui (Easter Island). To many, that may seem an outrageous comparison to make and an overblown analysis. But even if it is both, there’s surely more than enough truth in what’s being said to warrant concern. The justification here is surely the parlous state of education, particularly as regards learning efficacy – more particularly again, it’s impact on equity of outcomes – for it’s apparent that half the capacity to learn of the nation’s young is not being developed. The thing, though, that ought to be exercising minds everywhere is what needs to be done about it all. Amongst the latest worthies to enter the lists here – as it happens, on my side of the argument – is the Auditor-General, Lyn Provost. Very recently she has issued a Parliamentary Paper, titled Education for Maori: Context for our proposed audit work until 2017. She must have one of the most interesting jobs going in New Zealand. She gets to poke her strategysavvy nose into all sorts of issues, a fact I must say I was entirely in ignorance of till a friend alerted me. On the face of it, keeping Parliament informed as to the state of play in Maori education is a very good idea. But education has such a slippery personna, it could breeze through custom checks anywhere in the world representing itself to be what it patently is not. There›s no deception involved, the buy-in to teaching culture by everyone worldwide is so complete, no issue would be seen by anyone. Customs officers, experiencing learning in the same way as is dealt to everyone else, view the process they went through – irrespective of the degree to which it did or didn›t help them individually – as being the right and proper way to do learning. With everyone being of the same mind, if those whose business it is to be alert for dodgy things detect nothing, who else will? There’s the rub, conducting an independent examination on the progress throughout the land of something as chameleon-like in nature as education isn’t a job for the faint hearted. So the AuditorGeneral has called in some experts. To quote her “I have established an Advisory Group of esteemed Maori with respected education credentials to work alongside us for the next five years.” The “us” referred to is the Project Group that’ll see things through to the end of the period the auditing project will run, that is, till 2017.

The five member Advisory Group has adopted a whakatauki (proverb) that runs: Rurea taitea, kia toitu, ko tai kaka anake. Strip away the sapwood and get to the heart of the matter. The members say it encapsulates what they’re on about. Whether they, the Auditor-General, or the whole Project Group, though, are capable to successfully getting to the heart of this matter is doubtful for several reasons, all of which have to with what they have left out of their purview. Let’s not forget either, all parties mentioned are just as much subject to education culture as are everybody. Being educationists, they’re even more so. What they have omitted is any consideration of the efficacy of the learning process and any consideration of the research – available since 2001 – on classroom learning that pertains to the effectiveness of what passes for learning in the nation’s classrooms. They also fail to see that the official educational strategy, Ka Hikitia, like all other initiatives and interventions before it or since, doesn›t address the efficacy issue either. In addition, in trying to effect solutions for Maori underachievement, the whole Project has omitted any consideration of the influence of the role of those two cultures that are under discussion here. So focused are the Project members on Maoritanga, the culture treasured by Maori, it›s led them to neglect any consideration of one of the most powerful cultures known to humankind, education culture. The same applies in respect of teaching culture, though, as said, it›s a lesser force. Education culture is so powerful, it›s known for it›s ability to reform every educational reform there ever was. Everybody is as much unaware of it›s influence as they are of the air they breathe. Being in ignorance of the under-the-radar way it operates, no strategies have been developed to counter it. Anxious to preserve identity and Maoritanga, culturally based solutions will always have an understandably high priority for Maori, and that’s of course right and proper, too. But to pursue this aim without due consideration of the influence of the other two major cultures involved is to court disaster. For such teaching practices as Maori recognise as their own – such as ako – have efficacy issues as

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well. Though ako is a process better aligned with the relational and expectation requirements of effective teaching than is the bog-standard management-oflearning model that’s the only one mainstream classrooms use, it is still a process subject to erroneous beliefs. It also operates in ignorance of other classroom learning research that the late Graham Nuthall reported in 2001, in particular the three times at two day intervals rule that signals what the teacher must do to ensure effective learning in respect of all new topics/ideas/concepts. Not only that, Maori learning practices are likely to be just as hard to bring into line with the new research findings – the inevitability of this happening is to me a given – as will be the practices of mainstream classrooms. Any teacher in a Maori medium situation who has had even part of their own education in a mainstream situation – especially if that occurred early in their schooling – will almost certainly have acquired both the teaching model and the erroneous beliefs about learning that buttress that way of teaching. On becoming practising teachers themselves, the power of both of those two cultures – teaching culture and the far more powerful and pervasive education culture – virtually ensures all the efficacy issues spoken about herein will show through in their teaching, irrespective of the teaching model they subsequently adopt for use in the Maori medium context. It can’t be emphasised enough that the joke that has it that education culture reforms all educational reforms has a substantial basis in fact. Talking adaption still, while Maori students in Maori medium situations are always likely to show improved educational thrift and performance, there’s no guarantee whatsoever that they’ll develop all of their “remarkably similar” capacity to learn they share with all learners, ethnic backgrounds not withstanding. If nothing else does it, the inefficacy present in the learning models involved in Maori medium situations will always certainly prevent that happening. Painful as it might be for some to acknowledge it, what we are witnessing here is another teaching culture – one also based on myth and folklore – that’s not up to the job. Some evidence that this inefficacy has hardened into a static, if not downward, progress trend for Maori education has been provided by Dr

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Cathy Wylie, senior researcher for the New Zealand Council for Educational Research. She has reported that this has been on going on now for at least 20 years. Corroborative evidence here is that educational achievement in Maori medium situations also appears to have begun to plateau. But the situation as has just been described for Maori is a universal one and affects English medium education, or any education in whatever other medium that anyone might care to nominate. Taking the downstream maleffects of the wastefulness that’s involved here into account, it’s hardly stretching things to call what’s happening a creep towards nemesis by culture, a failure by education to adapt. So back to the theme this piece is discussing, adapt or die out. In today’s ever changing and increasingly complex world, being able to adapt has to rank right up there. Any education system that ensures only half of the available capacity to learn of it’s nation’s young is being developed is patently making certain the nation’s intellectual engine has gotten only half the grunt it needs. Sure, education may currently be giving the impression – increment by painfully slow improving increment – it is getting by well enough, the pressures that the global economy can exert mean getting by doesn’t cut it anymore. Develop or be gobbled up and spat out is the prospect for a small country like ours, we need every ounce of developed grey matter that it’s possible to muster. With not a scrap of effort going into efficacy-based solutions to improve educational outcomes across the board, news that’s very fresh to hand that reports a fledgling efficacy-based initiative is about to be mounted in quake-torn Christchurch is more than welcome – it’s at least a sign there’s the prospect of something brighter than candle light at the end of education’s doom-shrouded tunnel. More details cannot be released at this juncture. What can be revealed that it has taken a lot of persistence and a good deal of luck – make that an accidental conjunction of circumstances – to get this initiative to the point where it’s about to become an actual project. One could get mean-mouthed about the obstacles encountered along the way, but since the odds to be beaten have been astronomical, let’s just be thankful and say it’s an initiative on the adapt side of the equation, not one on the die-out side.

Paper dollsâ&#x20AC;Ś

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Cup cakes, pohutukawa and sci-fi spring-board 3 young fashion careers The time-lapse between learning to sew the first stitch and seeing your garment modelled on the runway at New Zealand Fashion Week is usually a multiple of years, but for trainee pattern-makers Kapiliola Fonua (19), Kei Ho (30) both of Auckland, and Tanya Jeffrey (27) of Wellington, it’s taken just 18 months. All three sat n the front-row at the opening Designer Selection show at New Zealand Fashion Week this September when their elegant, white, classiccontemporary dresses, crafted from the uniquelyrippled toilet paper, stepped onto New Zealand’s most glamorous fashion stage. It all started with 34 talented young Diploma students from NZ Fashion Tech, at their Auckland and Wellington fashion schools, responding to the 2012 Kleenex Cottonelle Paper Dresses Challenge. The brief was high fashion. The theme was softness and strength. Each original white cocktail dress would need to meet the style demands of women who walk the red carpet and fashion runways anywhere in the world. It took design inspiration as diverse as goldfish, clouds, woven baskets and The Jetsons; 19,500 lineal metres of Kleenex Cottonelle toilet paper; and 4 weeks of hard work for the students to complete their line-up of 34 exquisite paper dresses. But only three would make the cut. The judges narrowed the 34 paper dresses down to three winners. Zambesi’s Liz Findlay, fashion photographer Marissa Findlay, NZ Fashion Tech Director Kevin Smith, Michele Bollinger from Kimberly-Clark New Zealand and Deb Bauer from Kimberly-Clark Australia, the makers of Kleenex Cottonelle toilet paper, were up for the task. And the winners are … Kapiliola Fonua of Auckland who has defied gravity by making pohutukawa leaf-shaped lace out of toilet paper, and sewing it into the bodice of a whisper-light, fashion-forward dress which softly cascades into a profusion of petals. Born in Tonga, Kapi remembers admiring the intricacy and symmetry of the lace in the white dresses he saw at church on Sundays. After moving with his family to New Zealand as an 11 year old, one of his fondest memories is going to the beach at Christmas where he would climb among the pohutukawa trees. Both memories are now stitched into Kapi’s work of art and he’s glad he followed the advice of his Year 11 Dean at Aorere College who told him to “do what you really want to do.” Tanya Jeffrey from Wellington is a big fan of sci-fi. She read the book ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?’ in her early 20s and went on to be influenced 32 Good Teacher Magazine Term 4 2012

in her fashion style by the movie ‘Blade Runner’ which she says was lightly based on the book. Five years later Blade Runner heroine Rachel and the futuristic sets she admired so much in the movie are the inspiration for her retro-contemporary, head-turning toilet paper dress which shows where strength and softness meet. A structured tubular skirt contrasts with a gently contoured bodice and signature ‘Rachel’ collar. Tanya’s dress drew raptures of comment from the five judges and is now set to rub shoulders with New Zealand’s big labels in the six Designer Selection shows at Fashion Week. Kei Ho, whose journey to Fashion Week is tracked in a documentary-style series of TV ads, found his design inspiration in cup cakes. He pictured a tea party at Auckland’s Wintergarden, staged to celebrate the flowering of the Royal Water Lily. Kei wanted the playful layering of the skirt of his air-woven toilet paper dress to allude to the silhouette of the lily, the pleating to mimic the paper cases, and the bodice to swirl like ribbons of icing. The contrast that HongKong-born Kei has achieved in his flirty feminine design, between the strong definition of paper ridges and the softness of flowers, captivated the judges who selected him to complete the trio of young designers destined for Fashion Week. Kapi, Tanya and Kei realise the enormity of the break they’ve been given in the industry. “Beautiful dresses have started life as a paper or cloth toile for centuries. So we think it’s fitting that our luxury-quality Kleenex Cottonelle toilet paper is the fabric giving tomorrow’s fashion designers their first big start,” says Michele Bollinger who is a former runway model herself and now General Manager,

When the show-stopping little white dresses first appear, whispers from the public gallery are expected to audibly lift as many in the crowd will have influenced which of the three flirty white dresses, designed and made by students from NZ Fashion Tech, gets to step onto the runway first. In 2009 and 2011 when the Kleenex Cottonelle Paper Dresses first graced Fashion Week, there were three equal winners. But this year a fashion front-row of 4 million was given the opportunity to vote for the nation’s favourite dress, and that dress led 2012’s Paper Dresses into the opening Designer Selection show at the Viaduct Events Centre in Auckland.

Good Teacher Magazine Term 4 2012 33

The New Zealand Book Council Books and Brekkie: A programme that encour

The New Zealand Book Council launched the Books and Brekkie programme which will see schools nationwide able to easily create a multidimensional reading event. Schools across the country who are members of the New Zealand Book Council will now have access to a blueprint which will help them build an author visit event. The document will assist schools with planning, securing an author, involving parents and even seeking sponsorship for the breakfast. New Zealand Book Council CEO Noel Murphy says that the Book Council designed this program as a flexible template, which can be implemented and adapted to suit the needs of different schools throughout the country. “We created Books and Brekkie to showcase the potential of the Writers in Schools programme to bring reading and writing forcefully to life.” Murphy says that the Book Council’s mission is to promote reading and writing, and showcase New

Tessa Duder with students 34 Good Teacher Magazine Term 4 2012

Zealand writers. “The New Zealand Book Council believes that mastering reading and writing from a young age is a crucial life skill that opens up a wealth of possibility for children. We believe that this is fundamental both in terms of reading for pleasure and to enhance the capability of students to navigate successfully the modern world of work.” Children today at Richmond Road School in Auckland were the first to experience Books and Brekkie, with widely acclaimed author, Tessa Duder, becoming the first author to be involved with the programme. “What a great way to start a day, talking about why stories and books are so important in our lives! The New Zealand Book Council does a truly great job arranging school visits like these, to foster a love of words and reading,” said Tessa. Following breakfast and Tessa’s reading a group of selected students engaged one on one with Tessa in a workshop.

Launches

rages children to read more The morning was momentarily interrupted when students stopped to participate in the nationwide ShakeOut earthquake drill. However, some children were surprised to see Tessa under the table with them. Books and Brekkie is an extension of the Writers in Schools programme that sees New Zealand authors visiting schools around the country. The key difference with Books and Brekkie is involving parents and whanau and bringing everyone together to read in a relaxed environment. To organise a Books and Brekkie at your local school make sure the school becomes a member of the New Zealand Book Council, which can be done online at www.bookcouncil.org.nz. Membership for schools cost $80 per year and includes an annual school visit from a New Zealand author, advice and templates on the Books and Brekkie event organisation, e-newsletters, quarterly magazines and notes to help students engage with

Parents enjoying breakfast authors and new releases, and access to an online publication with children’s book reviews. The New Zealand Book Councils sees more than 50,000 children engage with an author every year and would like to see this number continue to grow.

About the New Zealand Book Council The New Zealand Book Council is a nationwide charitable organisation that for the past 35 years has been dedicated to celebrating New Zealand writers and their work, and promoting reading, writing and the love of literature.

Tessa Duder reading Margaet Mahy Good Teacher Magazine Term 4 2012 35

45th Graduation Season for New

45th GRADUATION SEASON Featuring choreography not often seen in New Zealand by renowned masters George Balanchine, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Garry Stewart. The programme also includes works by Claire Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Neil, American choreographer Parrish Maynard and New Zealand School of Dance graduates Loughlan Prior and Mia Mason, embodying the essence of the schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s legacy in its 45th anniversary year. 36 Good Teacher Magazine Term 4 2012

This uplifting performance highlights students of the New Zealand School of Dance, poised to enter the dance profession and take the stage with dance companies throughout the world. Tickets: $26 Adult / $21 Students & Seniors / $16 Children under 12

Zealand’s School of Dance

The annual tradition that is the New Zealand School of Dance Graduation Season takes on more significance this year as the school celebrates its 45th anniversary. This end of year performance, designed to display the full range of the school’s talent, highlights students from the New Zealand School of Dance, some of whom will likely be the soloists and principals of the near future. For audiences, the Graduation Season is an excellent opportunity to see these accomplished dancers and to sample the best of classical ballet and contemporary choreography from well-known and critically acclaimed choreographers. Renowned choreographers George Balanchine, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Garry Stewart, whose works are rarely seen in New Zealand, will feature in the programme. Sidi Larbi has granted the school the right to perform his adaptation of Nijinsky’s famous L’Après-midi d’un faun, celebrating 100 years since the ballet’s enormously controversial premiere in Paris. Garry Stewart’s contemporary take on Swan Lake Birdbrain, created for Australian Dance Theatre, will add weapons grade movement to the performances. However for pure, delightful classical ballet it is hard to go past George Balanchine’s spirited Valse-Fantaisie. Ballerina Diana White, Associate of the George Balanchine Trust in New York, visits the New Zealand School of Dance again this year to coach the students in the subtleties of Balanchine’s charming choreography.

technique and artistry and are a delight to watch. According to reviewer Jan Bolwell, “For the dance aficionado, attending a New Zealand School of Dance Graduation Season is akin to being handed a large and sumptuous box of chocolates”. A treat for all tastes. New Zealand School of Dance 45th GRADUATION SEASON 21 Nov - 1 Dec 2012 Te Whaea: National Dance & Drama Centre 11 Hutchison Road, Newtown, Wellington Young dancers of extraordinary talent from the New Zealand School of Dance present the best of classical ballet and contemporary dance, in one outstanding performance.

On the school’s 45th anniversary this year, it is fitting that graduates Loughlan Prior and Mia Mason return as choreographers for the Graduation Season. Loughlan, who dances with and recently choreographed for the Royal New Zealand Ballet, has been commissioned to create a solo work for the New Zealand School of Dance while contemporary dancer and choreographer Mia Mason will present a modern duet. Other highlights in this eclectic programme include Edmund Stripe’s uplifting Symphony, American choreographer Parrish Maynard’s high-velocity Fractals and world premieres presented by New Zealand’s Claire O’Neil and Ivica Novakovic from Germany. These graduating students have been training full-time for up to three years towards careers in dance performance. They are at their peak, performing with exceptional

photographs by Stephen A’Court Good Teacher Magazine Term 4 2012 37

One Man’s Dream and the Ruben Our intrepid sailor determined to tick his lifelong dream off is ‘bucket list’ continues his journey with the Ruben Jane.. 1st July. All the family went to town and we shopped at the 2 supermarkets, getting the best deals from each. Then Joy and I went to the Post Office but it was closed (Stupid palangis should know that). Inside there was a child running around with an airmail letter in his hand. No wonder mail gets mislaid. A lady came to the grill and explained that it was closed for stocktaking or something - I think it was the something. The fuel which had been organised for the main wharf was now transferred to the Sunsail jetty. Before we had gone to town a boat hawker had tried to sell us a grass skirt for $12. I said $10. When we returned from town he wanted to sell it for $10 but I said ‘no deal’. We had to wait until 1500 hours to take on fuel. Had some bother raising the anchor again - bommies! As we were motoring towards the jetty Sanity took our place so we picked up a mooring while we considered our options. There was no space on the upwind side of the dock and downwind our way in was largely blocked by the charter catamaran, Tikiti Boo. Still that was the option we took. Once Rebecca took a line off the stern of Tikiti Boo we were out of trouble. A line from our bow went onto the dock and we were kedged into the dock. There was a flurry when we realised there were no fenders on that side of the dock so we hastily put on ours. Filling with 100 litres cost T$71.40. Tony lent us their baja filter and there certainly was some grit in the fuel. A tanker-trailer had been pushed to the landward end of the dock. I released the stern line and then released the bow line and jumped on board. As we were reversing, Sanity also left the other side of the dock. They had to stop while Joy engaged forward gear. We cleared their stern although there was no danger of collision. As there was still plenty of daylight we sailed to Port Maurelle. Out by the channel markers we raised the jib and made good time motor sailing. Abeam Swallows Cave we passed Hallmark heading towards Neiafu. We lowered the jib and motored in to Port Maurelle. After tea we went over to Sanity where we played ‘Last Chance’. Joy and I won by a country mile. Before tea I spoke to Roger Lindsay (off Windermere II) He lives up our road in Tauranga. He is going to take my GPS back to Corina for repair so I later took it over to him with a covering letter. I had neglected to tell Corina so she got a surprise when several days later a man arrived at her door with a GPS for her. I had only just met him but this is a good example of how the sailing fraternity works on an excellent trusting system. I have never yet heard of 38 Good Teacher Magazine Term 4 2012

this trust being abused. It is one of the real pleasures of cruising. Long before this everyone had ceased to lock their vessels unless at large towns. The locals have no need of our equipment and other cruising boats keep a good watch for any nefarious activity. Rebecca and Susannah saw a car today with snow ski racks on. Now that is a fashion statement. At least it is winter. 2nd July. Eileen (Emotion) had her birthday today so we all went over for a late morning tea. It was a squally day and we just lay around most of the time almost planning things but never completing the plans. In the evening there was a barbeque planned ashore for Eileen’s birthday but heavy showers caused us to alter our plans and so Rebecca and Susannah went to Barnstorm and Emotion which rafted up for a barbeque under sail. There was also a barbeque on On The Double - a charter catamaran. The fire got out of control and took some time to bring under control again. While we were having tea Episode called on VHF to say that Tauranga Coastguard was trying to contact us. It was to confirm Rebecca’s friends’ arrival dates in Fiji. I then relayed a message for Episode as they couldn’t be heard. 3rd July. Steve and Claire joined our crew for a motor sail to Euakafa Island where there is good snorkelling. Joy said there is a romantic story which originated on this island about a chief and his wife but I think it is a terrible story of lust and wife-bashing. We had difficulty anchoring on the NW corner of the island but finally Steve dived down and hooked the anchor chain around a large bommie. The reef to the W of us had some of the best snorkelling we have experienced. Barnstorm joined us at lunchtime and as an afterthought we roped the sterns together for closer fellowship at lunchtime. After several swims we went ashore just leaving Joy and Susannah on the boat. We gathered some coconuts and then went looking for green coconuts on the ground. It was interesting walking through a tropical forest alone. It is easy to pretend no-one had ever been this way before. Just as we all arrived back at the beach Joy using our trusty, rusty bike horn alerted us to Barnstorm’s plight. She had dragged and the only thing keeping her off the reef 100 metres away was the line attached to our stern. We all motored to the rescue with full cavalry accompaniment. With disaster averted we raised anchors and sailed into the sunset (a little N of W actually and there was still an hour of daylight remaining). As we passed Katafanga Island I saw a rock which looked like a polar bear and Laura saw

n Jane one resembling a hippopotamus. Steve and Claire stayed for tea, and then Joy and I joined them on Delphis to watch some movies. Halfway through I dashed home to check that the gas was turned off (Rebecca had used it last). Steve’s aluminium dinghy was banging on our stern. There was no wind at all so I took their dinghy back. We watched the best of Billy T. James. 4th July. We were going whale watching. Hoisted both sails as we went past Swallows Cave and headed S down the Pulepulekai Passage. We looked for whales; in fact we looked and looked but did not see any. As we rounded the bottom end of Hunga Island we spied Sanity, Emotion and Barnstorm anchored in Anchorage No 14. Just past them we were able to see the bottom clearly in 40 feet of water. The rocks looked dangerous. There was a 1-1 1/2 metre swell from the SE. The wind became fickle and finally headed us so we dropped the sails and resorted to motoring in through the entrance to Hunga Lagoon. There is a rock in the centre of the entrance which is supposed to look like a lion and if there is enough water to be up to the lions mouth there is sufficient depth to enter safely. However on this particular day Laura said it looked more like a rooster. We passed safely on the S side of it and once round the buoys we headed for Hunga Resort where we picked up a buoy close to Omega OF Wellington. Susannah and Laura went ashore and played on a swinging rope. Sanity, Emotion and Barnstorm anchored across the bay and Rebecca and Andy came visiting in their rubber ducky. Susannah cooked sweet and sour chicken for tea. 5th July. I started the day by doing 2 days worth of dishes while everyone else went ashore. It is the Tongan King’s birthday today and being Sunday all work is banned so why am I doing dishes. I’ve just noted His Highness’s birthday was yesterday - I don’t even know what day it is. It has been arranged that when I have finished doing all the work I will summons Plain Jane to come and pick me up. I decided instead to throw my jandals and wearing my sunglasses and progressively throwing my jandals I eventually swam, or drifted ashore. In the rafters of Hunga Resort are written the boat names of many visiting yachts. We saw Ann-Marie (Dave Taylor - Tokoroa) and Johanna (Tauranga). There was a visitor’s card from Bob and Carol off Elyxir. Omega were going to write their boat name there but we ran out of time. We climbed to the summit of the island to see Barnstorm sailing for Samoa and Emotion and Sanity

depart for Fiji. As we were waiting for them to come into view on our left we saw 2 whales 1/3 mile to our right. The boats motored directly away from the island so they would have missed seeing them. After lunch we retraced our steps of yesterday. There were a few squalls and we had to motor sail around the S tip because the wind was due E. A Moorings yacht with its sails poorly set took a long time to overhaul us and once past they landed a fish. There was a decent breeze and we made good time along Ave Pulepulekai. By Swallows Cave we contemplated lowering the genoa but by putting in a large tack we were able to make the final 1/2 mile under sail to Port Maurelle where we anchored for the night. 6th July. Spent a quiet day on the boat. Joy and I went to Adventurer for a visit to discuss routes to Savusavu. 7th July. Had some unfinished business so we motored to Anchorage 20 and took a photo of the rock which looks like a polar bear and the other one which resembles a hippopotamus, thence to Mounu to photograph the island which looks idyllic. Unfortunately the overcast and sometimes drizzly day detracted from the scenery. The lesson to be learnt here is never look back at paradise: there are greater and better places in the future. Onward towards Vaka’eitu to photograph a dragon (rock). We anchored by Nuku for several hours. Laura and Joy rowed ashore and I swam. Then I snorkelled with Laura (who protested but we’ve got to build her confidence again). Joy swam back to the boat and Laura and I played on the beach before rowing back. It started raining. We waited for it to finish but finally motored back to Port Maurelle where we spent a wet rolly night. 8th July. Went snorkelling. On our return to the boat, whilst still in the water we were met by 2 men from Tauranga who along with 4 other people had hired a Moorings yacht for a week. After a chat I motored ashore with Laura to crack a coconut. Back on the boat once more we decided to head for Port of Refuge so we Good Teacher Magazine Term 4 2012 39

motored there with Laura doing most of the steering. When we arrived we discovered that it is quite exposed to the SE. The only other boat there was Hornpipe who several nights before we had heard talking to another boat in Vanuatu also called Hornpipe. The conversation had ended with :-’Hornpipe clear; Hornpipe on the side’ Rebecca, Laura and I went around the point into the next bay, under a rickety vehicular bridge and tied up by a culvert. We then climbed Mt Talau which has a distinctive shape which is on the Port of Refuge Yacht Club burgee. It is the only club that Rebecca and I belong to and we are both life members. The last part of the ascent is reasonably steep but at the summit Laura still had energy to run. We only had to ask directions once on the way. I asked several villagers if they remembered the missionary vessel Amazing Grace but each time I drew a blank. Our friend Ed Pahl used to skipper her before a naughty man sailed her to Fiji against instructions and put her on a reef going into Suva Harbour. When we arrived back at the boat I found I had been asking at the wrong village. We then motored across to Anchorage No5 which is by the Tongan Beach Resort. It was sheltered but it took 2 attempts before we got the anchor to hold. On John’s sked there was a message for Conandale who were anchored close by. Yesterday they completed a circumnavigation of the world. They were celebrating on another vessel called Sea D. 9th July. After a quick visit to Conandale we motored in to the Sunsail jetty to fill the water tanks - $5. We then went out and picked up a mooring for the day, disposed of the rubbish, took in the laundry, picked up the mail and said goodbye to Mark at Sunsail and Amesia at the Bounty Bar. All that remained was to face officialdom. The first stop was the Immigration department. The official couldn’t get his mind around the fact that I was clearing out of Neiafu today but I was leaving tomorrow from Port Maurelle. He told me that I would have to go back to Neiafu to clear on the morning I was leaving. I said that I didn’t want to as it is 8 miles out of my way. Apparently all the other boats just say they are leaving on the day they clear and some stay for up to a week waiting for the right weather window. I decided to test where honesty would get me. Laura was with me and she had never seen me appear so dejected. I wasn’t dejected, I just looked that way. I was actually having fun. I didn’t leave the counter but continued to look sad until he relented and after signing an indemnity we left with the desired clearance. When Sanity had cleared they hung around in Port Maurelle for a week before leaving. Jacob from Crimson Tide called them on the VHF after a few days but they didn’t answer. I told him that a boat called Taswell might be able to help him (Sanity is a Taswell 43’). He took a while to cotton on. Next on the list was customs; ‘no, not until you pay the port captain light fees’. Sunset Quest had paid $7 40 Good Teacher Magazine Term 4 2012

so I was expecting about the same because their boat was longer and they had stayed longer although we had more people on board. He was at lunch 12001400 hours. He wanted to charge me $19-61!!! Some of the lights are not even working either. I told him I did not have that much money left and emptied my pockets. I fished out all my change along with 2 hose clips and a shepherd’s whistle. He settled on $9-61 (I must be getting soft). Then he wanted to know if I would pick him up a VCR player in New Zealand for his kids as $50 is a lot of money in Tonga.(I’ll say it is after paying lots of it to officialdom)... Then off to customs. I hadn’t bothered to clear in to Vava’u because it had been too tedious clearing in and out of each group of islands with grumpy sullen officials so after confusing them on that one I guess we got off to a bad start. They found it even more confusing that I should wish to clear in and out of paradise on the same day. We finally reached an amicable resolution and I came away with the necessary documentation. Because the port captain had taken more than expected I couldn’t afford a jar of honey so bought 3 loaves of bread instead.. T38 cents left so I gave that to Wendy (Adventurer) when she bought me an ice cream. Within the next hour Adventurer, Makani, Pericon and Crimson Tide all got charged more than us by the port captain; all different amounts with no relation to the number of people on board, length of vessel or length of stay. I felt I had won that round. Joy went to Port Maurelle on Adventurer so she could baby-sit their yacht while they went into Swallows Cave. We motored to Port Maurelle with Laura at the helm. Apart from reversing once while we were anchoring because she thought it was too shallow, she did well. I then tried fixing the head - even at sea I have head problems. It has been intermittently overflowing. I think it is the fault of the plunger seal moving. I broke one hose clip and had to borrow one from Pericon. I thought I had fixed it but next morning it had overflowed again. John Goater told us that Corina is sending a fax for us tomorrow to Pete at Club Hunga, so it looks as though we’ll have to call there tomorrow on the way out.

Tonga To Fiji 10th July. Awoke to the sound of Adventurer weighing anchor so I beckoned them over. They said they were going to Fiji along with Makani, Crimson Tide and Pericon. The weather looked settled so we decided to go as well, stopping off at Hunga Resort for the fax. We said our farewells on the sked then I called Pete and asked him to radio the fax to us as it might not be important enough to keep us in Tonga. We continued motor sailing W until the 2 metre swell from the SE started to hit us then the bolt at the bottom of the mainsheet traveller let go. We usually attach our harnesses to the traveller as we emerge from the cabin. Fortunately no-one was attached there at that time as the boom swung outboard and they may have been carried

overboard too. We were all harnessed to the lifelines. I ordered Joy, who was at the helm, to head around into the wind. This would have brought the boom back amidships. She said she couldn’t so I repeated the order. She again replied in the negative. This surprised me as in 23 years of marriage I have only ordered her to do about 5 things and I expect the orders to be obeyed. When I asked why she wouldn’t comply she replied that there were whales in that direction. They leapt out of the water at least 3 times but only Joy saw them because the rest of us were too busy. I felt like yelling ‘Thar she blows’ but all I could think of was ‘Land ho!’ which wasn’t very appropriate. Anyway the replacement shackle was too fat so I swapped it for the one on the boom vang. We were up and sailing again in about 15 minutes. Pete called to say the fax was about the non-repairability of the GPS in Tauranga. By this time Makani and Adventurer were several miles ahead, Crimson Tide was taking a more Northerly route and Pericon had gone fishing. They soon stopped fishing, hoisted their spinnaker and rapidly overhauled Crimson Tide. The wind stayed 10-20 knots although occasional wind gusts came through slightly stronger. The swell was 1.5-3 metres from the SE. Occasionally it looked as though a big one was going to climb aboard but it was one of the smaller ones which finally drenched Joy. The rest of us were shielded but she got quite moist. We had VHF contact with all except Pericon at 1545 hours. Mount Talau dropped below the horizon at 1230 hours but we could see the volcanic cone of Kao 60 miles to the SE until dark. By mid-afternoon we had overhauled Makani and just after dark we passed Adventurer. We arranged to stay in contact with them as we were all going through a 5 mile gap in the Lau Group on the 3rd morning. Also with only one GPS on board it made sense to stay closer to others. There was a beautiful sunset followed by a full moonrise although cloud cover increased shortly afterwards. Throughout the night we continued to draw ahead and at 2200 hours I opened a can of condensed milk -always good for the first night out. Just after midnight Rebecca pulled the No.2 in a tad to slow us down so we could keep the other boats in sight. Joy noted in the log at 0345 that the seas had calmed considerably since leaving Tonga and so had she. When I came on watch again at 0400 hours I dropped the jib because Adventurer was disappearing astern behind the swells. We could only occasionally see her masthead light. Pleasant conditions, warm breeze and moonlight on the water. It was about 0900 hours before Adventurer got to within about a mile of us. At 0800 hours I calculated that we had Done 170 miles in 24 hours - not bad for 1 reef in the main and bareheaded for 4 hours. We decided to slow down to reach the Exploring Isles at daybreak tomorrow. 11th July. One day ahead of us the slower boats Episode, Omega and Delphis were making slow progress in bigger seas. We stooged around all day with

Adventurer about a mile away and Makani on the SE horizon. After hours of radio silence he finally drew abeam and with Adventurer on our opposite side Marty came up with the words which have amused Joy ever since ‘D’you give up; d’you give up’? In the middle of the ocean we were surrounded by other boats. At about this stage Marty said he would lead us through the Exploring Isles in the darkness using his radar and chart plotter. We all increased speed and with all sails up and drawing it took a while to overhaul Adventurer who had drawn about 400 metres ahead. We later learnt that they were motor sailing. When we were 400 metres ahead of them I decided that Makani was getting too far ahead of us so we should drop the mainsail, and motor. With the genoa down I got caught in a squall so got wet but in the tropical warmth I quickly dried. By this time it was dark. I decided to lower the main while we continued motoring instead of turning into the wind. Sometimes I wonder how I let my cleverness get me into trouble. The only good thing was the foredeck light was not on so Adventurer could not see what a mess I made. We again finished up 400 metres behind them. Under motor we slowly drew ahead but Makani was still increasing her lead. With Rebecca at the helm and the engine revving higher than usual Makani’s light suddenly disappeared from sight. When Rebecca told me I thought that they had just disappeared behind a large swell but after several minutes realised that this was not so. I radioed to them and Noeline said that they had just blown the masthead bulb. They put on their steaming light and it made a spectacular sight. Sometimes we could see the light and sometimes just the jib glowing with its reflected light. This made it shimmer. At other times their main would obscure it giving an eerie elongated shape. They also slowed down. They can motor at 9 knots while our maximum is about 6.8 knots. It was a dark, cloudy night with only 1.5 metre swell. 12th July. The breeze was light all night. We approached the Exploring Isles and could just make out some hills on the port side in the darkness. We went between Katafanga Island and Malevuvu Reef without sighting the reef. By this stage Adventurer was close astern. With Katafanga Island on radar it was no problem. I knocked the autohelm switch, turning it off and losing the statistics for the trip. By 0520 hours it was starting to get light so we raised both sails. After the mess I had made taking the main down we had to go around 4 times to get it up again. By this time the other boats were a mile in front. We sailed in light winds past Muna Island. The wind was coming from the port quarter. As the other boats approached the island of Mango, Marty reported seeing a marlin leaping and heading our way. We didn’t see it but shortly afterwards he alerted us to some whales heading towards us. These we saw. I was pointing to some only about 40-50 metres away and the rest of the family were becoming more excited than I thought the occasion warranted. When I looked at them I realised they were excited about the whale underneath us!!! Good Teacher Magazine Term 4 2012 41

They were only 10-15 feet long pilot whales. By the time we were abeam Mango Island we had caught the others and a mile further W opposite Frost Reef the breeze had decreased to the extent that Makani started motoring. We continued sailing and the breeze did come in. The other 2 boats were hooking fish but we weren’t. Adventurer pulled 2 nice mahi-mahi alongside but lost them both. The wind was taking us towards Vatuvara but then it backed to allow us to lay the light on Nukutotu Island. It was now Laura’s turn to knock the autohelm switch accidentally, turning it off. I was on watch and didn’t realise that the autohelm was on standby mode. It automatically goes onto standby mode when it is initially turned on. We were only 100 metres abeam of Adventurer at the time and we continued parallel for 5 minutes before suddenly turning to port. It was then that I realised that the autohelm was on standby. However it also illustrated how balanced the boat was on this point of sail. As we turned the corner by the light onto a more northerly course, the wind which had been blowing 9-16 knots SSE all day came from directly astern and the swell which had died away at dawn increased to 1.5 metres. We persevered with both sails for a while but eventually lowered the main and poled out the genoa. We did discuss running under spinnaker at night but eventually ruled it out as too dangerous. Sometime after dark we hooked a Long Tom - a sort of barracuta. But as it was so slimy none of the family were keen on eating it so it went back over the side. With the swell the outer end of the genoa sheet kept jumping out of the jaws of the pole. This occurred spasmodically and randomly. During Joy’s watch it only happened once in two hours but on Rebecca’s shift it happened 3 times in 30 minutes getting me out of bed each time. Just after midnight the breeze dropped below 8 knots so I doused the sail and resorted to motor. The genoa pole hadn’t been used for so long the inboard end required a stern talking to before it would co-operate. I think the hammer and screwdriver helped. 13th July. Sometime overnight we lost sight of Adventurer way out to starboard. I remembered that my Boatmaster tutor had said that the definition of a passing manoeuvre is when a boat comes over one horizon and disappears over another. Well, given that definition, it has taken 2 1/2 days to pass Adventurer. Makani had dropped astern at night fall. Two very interesting things happened after midnight. The first one was shared by Adventurer and Makani although we did not realise that until we were within Nasavusavu Bay.... Shortly after midnight we picked up what we thought was a masthead light just off the port bow somewhere between 1/2 and 1 mile distant. It stayed at the same elevation for 4 hours so it wasn’t a star. Nothing remarkable about that until you realise that Adventurer, 2-4 miles to our right also picked it up as did Makani, 8 miles astern and over the horizon - same direction, same elevation. The chart says the light on the point at Nasavusavu Bay is visible for 10 42 Good Teacher Magazine Term 4 2012

miles. We picked it up at 7.2 miles. Between 1 and 2 miles from the Point the light ahead of us disappeared - one moment it was there and the next it was gone. It was as though a bulb had blown. At the same time as it disappeared I saw a masthead light which I thought was anchored off the coast. It was off the starboard bow. As I contemplated trying to negotiate the entrance to the bay with a boat I couldn’t see over to port, I noticed that a green light had suddenly appeared on the boat off the starboard bow on the left side of the white light meaning that it was moving slightly to our right. At this stage I thought it might be heading fairly close to where we were so with Adventurer clearly heading our way as well, I checked that our navigation lights were working and stopped making way through the water. After 5 minutes his bearing hadn’t changed so we got under way again cautiously. Within a minute the green light disappeared although the masthead light was still clearly visible. It wasn’t until we were around the lighthouse and the end of the reef, which extends some distance W of the light (told you I was cautious), that I realised that the masthead light was on a boat anchored inside the reef at Cousteau’s Resort, and the green light was a channel marker several miles up harbour. It had been obscured by the drying reef. When Adventurer was coming in I warned him of the danger of the reef extending beyond the light. Marty asked where my white cane was. At this stage he told us about what he had thought to be our masthead light disappearing earlier. We felt our way slowly up the bay. Just before it got light Tony from Sanity called us to tell us they had a mooring for us all. They had heard over the previous night’s sked that we would come in early in the morning and had kept their VHF on overnight to assist if necessary. I did appreciate the caring thought although I was a little gruff with him probably because of tiredness and the events of the last couple of hours. We chose to meander slowly up the bay. On daybreak we felt our way into a small bay from which emanated delicious cooking smells - I thought it was baking potatoes; Rebecca thought it was a self saucing pudding with ice cream on the top. She’s been at sea too long. How did she know the ice cream was on the top? We finally let go our anchor a few feet from The Copra Shed, Savusavu, and Adventurer tied to us. Linda from Sunset Quest rowed across to welcome us then the marina manager motored over in a dinghy which had the name Nerissa boldly displayed on the outboard. He told us of a mooring for all three of us. An hour and a half later Makani tied up on the other side of us. We raised anchor and Adventurer motored us all up to a mooring at the E end of the inlet. Health and Immigration officials came aboard and although very pleasant did not stay very long. The original plan had been to have some sleep before clearing in but the excitement of arrival and sharing with other cruisers put a stop to that. Susannah had an infected ear which had troubled her during the night, otherwise there were no injuries or illness on board. The authorities made us feel very welcome

and they left us with all our food. I had to go to the hospital to pay F$33 (being the health fee). We went ashore and about 10 yachties descended on 3 customs officers 20 minutes before their closing time (1300 hours). They looked aghast until they realised that we had already filled in the forms....lots of them including 12 copies of the crew list. It only took about 5 minutes to process us. Laura and I then caught a taxi to the hospital (F$1). The driver wouldn’t wait while we paid our health fee so we could catch a ride back with him. The hospital looks old. It only has 2 doctors for 58 beds. I saw one of the doctors walk by - a Sri Lankan - who looked just out of nappies. I wouldn’t like to get ill here. The pleasant Fijian lady who took my money was short of change so she reached into her own purse to make up the shortfall. Such service is rarely found these days. I think I’m going to like it here. Only the taxi driver has been unpleasant - even the pedestrians are smiling. Then into Morris Hedstrom’s supermarket (commonly called MH’s in the Islands). It was then that the culture shock following Tonga became evident. They even had leaf polish for sale on the shelves. Laura and I had an ice cream Magnum for lunch. Then for tea we all had a barbeque ashore at the Copra Shed (F$5 compared to T$18 at Atata Island). I poured a whole lot of sauce over my steak before Simon Ahern (who runs the Savusavu Yacht Club and the Copra Shed) told me it was chilli sauce and not tomato. Marty to the rescue. He was just behind me in the queue. He likes his chilli so we swapped meals. I then covered my steak with tomato sauce. After tea we watched the World Cup Soccer Final on TV. I kept falling asleep during the second half.

FIJI 14th July. Felt pretty jaded today, just tired I think. I went ashore and played frisbee with Laura for a while by the Coprashed. There was a dog tied up by the fence and just after we left to come back to the boat it collapsed and died after frothing at the mouth and biting a man who was trying to pacify it. That upset a lot of people. We went to tea on SANITY. Had mahi-mahi. Enjoyed a good discussion with Tony and Steve. Had a very enjoyable shower at the Coprashed. 15th July. Spent the entire day fixing things. There was a bracket on the engine that Steve welded for me. As we were going ashore with the welding gear I told him to tie the boat to the wharf and the wharf to the boat. When he tied up to a large (read shipping grade) steel bollard I told him to tie the bollard to the wharf. On closer inspection it was not bolted down. Talk about laugh!! However it was many times heavier than Plain Jane. More than ample to provide good holding. As we were rafted up to a mooring with Adventurer on one side and Makani on the other they poked borax at me all day as the repairs continued. They did offer some helpful advice though. The head needed attention - again as it is intermittently filling. Still can’t

work it out but I have installed a higher inlet hose. Also repaired a floorboard that had become loose. Susannah bought us a pizza for tea (F$16) which was about 2 feet in diameter. 16th July. A quiet day. I wandered down town to get some money from the bank only to discover that they close at 3pm on Thursdays not 4pm (Is this Thursday?) Anyone but a palangi would know that. Otherwise a restful day after the trials of yesterday. Received a letter from my mother. Commencing yesterday I have run a cruisers net for Savusavu on Ch 6 at 0850 hours. Marty and Kevan dared me to so here goes. It is modelled on the one in the Vava’u’s but instead of closing as they did I would finish with a Neil joke. It comprises weather; arrivals; departing cruisers; buy, sell and trade; any news; daily events; anything about anything and my Neil joke. I am prepared to run it for a week with no other input but if the interest is there I shall try to rise to the challenge. It looks as though we may be here for a while although we will try to get up the coast before the regatta here. 17th July. I had to rush the sked a little today. I got a response for the first time this morning. My weather forecasts have consisted in looking out the window and taking an educated guess. Today though Joe from Navigator (a retired airline pilot) came on with interpretations from 3 different weather faxes, from the convergence zone North of us, to Arnold on Norfolk Island to the South West. These all basically arrived at the conclusions I had so they were readily acceptable. Still, it is reassuring that someone else is listening. Joe continued faithfully in this role for the duration of the network. This participation was a large reason for the success of the venture. Thanks Joe. We are going on a 5 hour ride in the country. Adventurer, Makani and Ruben Jane are joining forces on a covered ute trip up into the hills. We visited a technical Institute, a copra mill (very interesting) and a Chinese built hydro station which the guide/driver tried to tell us had its intake downhill from the reservoir. There was a long pipe leading upstream for several miles but the initial pipe led steeply downhill. We also saw a church that was over 100 years old. Inside there was an optical illusion. The walls above the window sills were concave giving the sensation of much improved space in the heavens. We then drove to the top of the range of high hills looking towards Labasa. The ute got a puncture at the top. It had a bald tyre on the other side too. On our return, Joy went to the bank while I went to clear out from customs with the idea of going to Viani Bay. We finished the day with a barbeque on Makani. Rebecca left this morning with Sanity. 18th July. We woke up late. Just caught Carol (Elyxir) on the sked this morning. They are in the Lau group. Went to the market after the sked to buy some cabbages and beans. Sent a fax to work, then back to the boat for Good Teacher Magazine Term 4 2012 43

lunch. Picked up a visa for the Exploring Isles from Simon at the Copra shed, along with mail for Elyxir. Then went back for a book exchange just outside the bar. Swapped 2 books for ‘Tales of the South Pacific’ by James A Michener, and ‘Maiden Voyage’ by Tania Aebi. It has been another busy day in paradise. 19, 20th July. Just spent the day moping around in port with rough seas out towards the Exploring Isles. Advised by Carol (Elyxir) not to venture out. Wasn’t going to anyway. Several; boats tried but returned wiser for the experience. This is not why I came to the Islandssitting in port waiting for bad weather to pass. There is a world out there with good snorkelling. On 20th received a fax from Trevor and Kay so sent one back. Then got a message from John Goater to phone them. Rowed in Gold Jane to the Copra shed and tried to phone. The phone wouldn’t take money or a credit card. Tried to make a collect call but only got their fax and answer phone. Rowing ashore had been interesting with Laura in the stern sitting up high and me in the bow. The wind was gusty so we got blown most of the way. Susannah has made a new friend so she is watching TV with her so we took Plain Jane back. Joy then said that one can purchase phone cards from the bar so I returned alone and purchased one. Got Kay on the phone and arranged to have a closer contact nearer their arrival time. Susannah insisted on rowing home so I gave her a head start and when I caught her she was willing to accept a tow. 21st July. Motored to the jetty with Laura to get some fuel and water. Joy and Susannah met us there. Took our time refuelling and were just about going to fill the water tanks (someone else had been washing a truck) when the lady attendant said they had an emergency and we would have to vacate the berth so they could refuel another boat immediately. This was amusing because nobody else had spoken to her for 10 minutes. Anyway she refuelled the other boat which left for Manor Island (wherever that is) at speed. Apparently the boat broke down and was still at Manor Resort the next day. Sorry about that, victim.. Hope it wasn’t crook fuel that caused it to break down. We returned to the dock and filled the water tanks. Initially we had planned on going out to Cousteau’s Resort for the night but eventually decided to raft up to Adventurer again. Makani has gone to Suva to get a permit to visit some of Noeline’s relatives on Rotuma. 22nd July. Paid mooring fees $4/night plus $3 mooring. This was divided by 3 because there were 3 boats on it. Also got charged $14 for 2 loads of laundry. These were paid for at the time so I’ll seek a refund. After arranging with Pam (Kapalua II) to do my sked for the next few days we motored out to Cousteau’s where Susannah and Laura went aboard Realm leaving Joy and I alone on Ruben Jane. Kelso (Realm) then 44 Good Teacher Magazine Term 4 2012

radioed us (and everybody else) to tell us that the girls would be watching a video and also the exact time of their return so Joy and I would be alone together for several hours. It was good for the children to have someone their own ages to play with. It had been 2 months since Laura had been with any peers. When they returned we soon retired. However we spent a restless night with the anchor chain 30 feet below, grating on coral all night 23 July. Spent a quiet day on the boat. We were just going to visit Realm when they weighed anchor and disappeared out to sea. They were heading for Coconut Point. They had a considerable swell with them. The Spirit Of Free Enterprise had a 10 wheel truck tip over in its hold in the Koro Sea so it must have been rough. Joy and I motored in Plain Jane to the Split Rock which is supposed to be good snorkelling but when we reached it the rain started to fall. It felt quite cold so we headed back, arriving just as the squall ended. 24th July. We had contemplated going up to Viani Bay this morning but were glad we hadn’t when we saw Dietrich on Salusa in his usual sailing garb motoring out of the shelter of the bay. He was pitching so badly we could see right back to his keel. Windermere II had arrived from Tonga this morning. A French-Canadian asked Laura to go to play with his daughter on their yacht so while she was away Joy, Susannah and I took the opportunity to dive on Split Rock. The fish there swam to meet us. The snorkelling was some of the best we have seen so far. Later in the afternoon we returned to Savusavu to pick up some mail. As we sailed past the wharf we were greeted by a very relieved Pam who could now relinquish responsibility for the radio sked. We again moored next to Adventurer. There was a fax from Geoffrey and one from Trevor and Kay. There was also a letter from my Mom. She numbers her letters and so far we have received every one. A boat called called us to tell us of a message on SSB on a frequency that we don’t have so they relayed for us. It was from Hunga Lagoon telling us that we had an urgent fax. It was from Rebecca’s friend Dee talking about her airline ticket. After tea there was the inaugural Savusavu quiz show. Using VHF, Picketty Witch asked 6 questions. A point was given for a correct answer and if you didn’t know the answer, points were given for the most imaginative alternative. The teams were organised according to boats. Adventurer joined with us for the challenge. A complicating feature was the freedom to interject between questions (5 minutes apart) with jokes - the more jokes the more points. There were some very searching questions such as:- name the 5 Southernmost capes in the world, the 10 longest rivers, the common name for Piper Mythesticum (I was annoyed by this one because I had read about it

several weeks previously and couldn’t remember-it is kava plant), what are teak leaves used for?(sandpaper). Somehow our boat won with 20 something points. 25th-28th July. Very subdued, disillusioned, discouraged, depressed and frustrated with the possibility of staying in port until after the regatta. Calculated that if I live to be 80 I have approximately 10,000 more days in my life and I’m spending 2/1000th of my life in Savusavu. Joy has strongly expressed her distaste of blue water sailing and wants to spend the rest of the trip in Fiji. I want to complete the odyssey - i.e. Vanuatu and New Caledonia although heading S through the Tasman Sea on the way home scares me a little. Answered Corina’s fax sent to Hunga Lagoon. Asked her to send the GPS to West Island for a quote. Spent a lot of time on my bed reading and thinking. Late on the 28th Rebecca arrived back with wonderful stories of what we had been missing and what I had been dreaming about. Laura started sailing lessons with Len (Kapalua II). 29th July. Overnight, a baddy who was being pursued by the local constabulary (is that a bolt from the blue?) swam out and stole Windermere II’s inflatable. He tried starting it and ran over the painter which became entangled in the propeller. Murray (Episode) and Malcolm (Sunset Quest) assisted in his capture. He was arrested and beaten up and the dinghy was returned with Brian and Joan unaware of the escapade. Laura had another sailing lesson with Len in his dinghy and the wind was somewhat brisker than yesterday. Spent most of the day doing jobs around the boat, and reading. Kevan and Wendy came over after tea and for the second week running we won the quiz on VHF. I had our crew in hysterics when I didn’t know the answer to ‘what does the word ‘Maru’ mean on all Japanese vessels (completeness or circle) so I made up a story about how the Japanese had invaded New Zealand a thousand years ago and left their stamp on our towns with names such as Oamaru and Timaru and Whakamaru.

by Brian (Hallmark) and Steve and Claire. Steve took our water and diesel containers off as well as our life raft to lighten the boat - going a bit far I thought. At midday the race started. It was a triangular course around Nasavusavu Bay. We left the mooring at 10 minutes to midday and were drifting towards the start line but it was further than I thought so we arrived 3 minutes late. Still I didn’t want to be involved in any prestart collisions. At the first turn we were 8th and got up to 6th by the downwind mark. We duelled with a 38 foot Adams designed sloop called Maski who must have pelted us with 30 water bombs. We got them with our water guns. We sighted the bottom mark and almost shut them out but they eventually got through on the inside. Five minutes after rounding the bottom mark we were in 5th position out of 17 when we pulled out to prevent gear failure. Our port lower spreader was moving too much. We possibly could have come 4th because we point really well upwind (25-30°off the apparent wind). Joy really enjoyed racing. I’ll have to watch her. I enjoy watching her anyway. At night there was a barbecue ashore. Andy collected Laura’s food for her as she was watching videos on Windflower. I told him she was a big eater who liked lots of pineapple so he got 2 pieces....I was expecting at least 5. When she arrived back she had a couple of nibbles then left the rest. Dad again to the rescue. I had seconds as well. The trip on the Ruben Jane continues in the next issue of Good Teacher Magazine

30th July. The start of the Savusavu regatta ($50 per boat). It commenced with sevusevu (kava ceremony). I had some times 2 but Joy deferred. Some say it tastes like dishwater but I can’t comment as I’m not in the habit of drinking dishwater. I thought it had a strong nutty taste. It looked like dirt but the kava roots (piper mythesticum) had been ground. After dark there was a cocktail party so we were late arriving home. 31st July. We finally settled the travel arrangements for Bob and were able to pass the information on to him. Yacht race day. The finishing times were calculated by all the skippers estimating everyone’s finishing times and then they were averaged. These results were posted after racing began. After the briefing we were joined Good Teacher Magazine Term 4 2012 45

Literary skills tackled by lesson Glyn Derw High School, Cardiff Teachers at Glyn Derw will turn the emphasis in history and geography lessons to literacy A high school in Cardiff has changed its school curriculum to tackle poor literacy in its youngest students. Year 7 pupils at Ysgol Glyn Derw in Caerau will have literacy and numeracy lessons for half their timetable instead of more traditional subjects. Head teacher Martin Matthews said history and geography would be vehicles used to improve reading and writing. The Welsh government said it wanted to see good practice adopted throughout Wales. Traditions challenged Mr Matthews said Glyn Derw faced a huge challenge because 45% of year 7 pupils were classified as functionally illiterate, and just over half of the school’s students were below their chronological reading age. Literacy Standards 40% of pupils in Wales arrive at secondary school with reading ages below their actual age 20% of pupils arriving at secondary school were considered functionally illiterate More than a quarter of primary school inspection reports said literacy needs to improve Schools need to do more to adapt their materials and teaching styles to meet the needs of learners of all abilities Source: Estyn annual report 2012

He said the traditional curriculum was being amended for the youngest pupils to ensure reading skills were improved. “There’s a major initiative in year 7, which is a big curriculum change, which has challenged the traditional notion of history being taught in history lessons and geography being taught in geography lessons,” said Mr Matthews. “Literacy will, effectively, be the strand running through those lessons and we use geography and history as the vehicle to support literacy development.” Glyn Derw’s performance was classed as “unsatisfactory” by the most recent Estyn inspectors’ report, and sits in band five, the lowest ranking in the Welsh government’s school performance calculator. Estyn noted that 79% of the school’s pupils lived in one of the most deprived areas of Wales, compared to a national average of 17.4% of pupils. Teachers say conventional teaching methods have failed to ensure pupils at Glyn Derw achieve their potential, due to poor literacy skills. ‘Disadvantaged’ Anna Brychan, director of the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) Cymru, said the new approach could be followed by other schools. “Schools are great places for innovation,” she said. “You need only look at the reams of Estyn good practice examples to see how much new thinking schools themselves are generating in the system. “Literacy is obviously a key priority; we know pupils with insufficient literacy levels are disadvantaged because they can’t access the curriculum and make the best of all the opportunities afforded them. That must be tackled.” “Literacy will, effectively, be the strand running through those lessons and we use geography and history as the vehicle to support literacy development” Martin MatthewsHead teacher, Glyn Derw, Cardiff

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change at By Gwenfair Griffith BBC Wales education correspondent

Ms Brychan also said primary schools should also be able to opt out of the curriculum to raise literacy and numeracy standards. “Questions about whether all the foundation subjects should be statutory for example are being hotly debated,” she said. “Should schools be judged on their ability to deliver on all the skills in the design and technology curriculum for example? Or should they be judged on their success in achieving the best possible literacy and numeracy skills during the teaching of design and technology?” The Welsh government said it was committed to raising standards of literacy with a number of initiatives. “We know there are plenty of excellent examples of teaching and learning in literacy across Wales, but we want to ensure that good practice is replicated across Wales so all learners can develop the skills that are so vital for future success,” said a spokesperson. “One of the most important objectives of our National Literacy Programme is to support teachers of every

subject across every phase of education to become teachers of literacy. Glyn Derw has also boosted its performance in top rate GCSE passes “The new statutory National Literacy and Numeracy Framework, which is currently out for consultation, will provide an essential curriculum planning tool for teachers and will also set out clear annual expectations for literacy and numeracy for all learners aged five to 14.” In a separate initiative, emergency measures including extra after-school classes and close monitoring of students helped Glyn Derw achieve its best GCSE results for years. The school saw 59% of pupils achieve at least five A to C grades, up from 33% in 2011. “I can’t remember that we had too many days when the school wasn’t open throughout those six months (leading up to the exams),” said Mr Matthews. “The commitment on the part of staff has been phenomenal. We can’t keep doing that, because it’s not fair.”

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The Fun Way to Recharge Your B Solar Powered Sun Lounger Many students probably dream of spending time in a tech-friendly lounge chair while waiting to attend classes. Developed by architecture students at MIT, lead by professor Sheila Kennedy, the SOFT Rocker is a lounge chair where one can rest, while recharging the batteries of various devices. The system that makes this possible uses the human power of balance to create an interactive 1.5 axis, 35 watt solar tracking system. Moreover, the lounger utilizes a 12-ampere hour battery storing the solar energy harvested during sunlight hours, making it possible to charge gadgets after sunset as well.

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Batteries:

Here is more information from the official MIT press release: “The leaf-like loop form of the SOFT Rockers explores how standard softwood panels can be mass-customized to adapt to the latitude and sun angle of any site using parametric design software and automated fabrication with a lightweight Kuka robotic arm. The SOFT Rocker combines hi-tech and low-tech design strategies: it produces electricity but engages the body and works like furniture “by hand”; it mixes sun tracking and social dynamics; it is a site specific object and a flexible form family of ‘soft’ wood construction. The SOFT Rocker blurs distinctions between pleasure and work and recasts power generation as an integrated and distributed public activity rather than a centralized, singular off-site project of engineering“. http://freshome.com/2012/08/15/the-fun-way-to-recharge-your-batteries-solar-powered-sun-lounger/ Good Teacher Magazine Term 4 2012 49

Kumi Yamashita Light & Shadow I sculpt shadow with light or sometimes light with shadow, but both function in essentially the same manner. I take objects and carve and place them in relation to a single light source. The complete artwork is therefore comprised of both the material (the solid objects) and the immaterial (the light or shadow).

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Blenheim’s National scriptwriting champions crowned Blenheim’s Bohally Intermediate are celebrating a new calling to the arts, as they were announced as the winners of the ChildFund New Zealand national scriptwriting competition ‘Pens Against Poverty’. Six South Island schoolgirls named as ChildFund New Zealand’s official ‘pens’ against poverty Year 8 pupils Samantha Jarvis, Morgan Gurr, Emma Gardiner, Chloe Crawford, Caitlyn Woodley and Grace Williams created a unique adaptation of ChildFund’s fictional tale, Mary’s Christmas Yarn, and turned it into a script that has impressed five of the country’s finest thespians and scriptwriters. The pupils’ efforts have secured their name in lights as their script is transformed into a special Christmastime play at Auckland’s celebrated St Matthews-inthe-City church in December. The scriptwriters’ win was announced in a surprise visit by head judge of the competition, treasured Kiwi theatre icon and star of the stage and screen Alison Quigan, and ChildFund Communications Manager Kiri Carter. There were dramatic scenes and a few celebratory tears as Alison advised the girls of their achievement. She then stunned the students further with the news that in addition to scriptwriters, one of them will be able to add ‘professional actor’ to their CV. ChildFund is supporting the offer to cast one of girls as the lead role of ‘Mary’ in the play, enabling them to work alongside a cast of professional actors at a starstudded Gala premiere. Aided by stand-in character ‘Rosemary the sheep’ (gallant classmate Hugo), Alison spent some time directing an impromptu audition for the role of Mary and read-through of three key scenes of the play, giving the students a chance to test their dramatic flair. ChildFund New Zealand works with children and communities in developing countries around the world. To connect Kiwis to the organisation’s ‘Gifts that Grow’ programme, ChildFund secured the support of some of our top storytellers to pen the tale of Mary’s Christmas Yarn two years ago. Last year it became a published book, and this Christmas, the winning script from Bohally Intermediate will turn it into a professional play. In the play, the story’s heroine, ‘Mary’, goes on a journey of discovery as she uncovers the true value of gifting a humble sheep, ‘Rosemary’, at Christmas, to a needy family in a developing country on the other side of the world. Humourous twists and turns take place, an opportunity the students took to with relish in the script. Fellow judge and actor Mark Hadlow visited Bohally during the final stages of the judging process. He was “blown away” by the enthusiasm of the passionate youngsters, and particularly impressed with their grasp of

the serious subject matter at heart – the importance of lending a helping hand to those less fortunate than ourselves. “In addition to their enthusiasm for the job, I was really quite invigorated by their script reading and recognised that their efforts could be something quite superb on the stage. The script answered all the key components of the challenge, and contained the elements necessary to work with professional actors.” Hobbit actor John Callen (who rounded out the judging panel with Shortland Street’sMichael Galvin and Outrageous Fortune screenwriter Rachel Lang) also agreed that the making of Mary’s pet lamb, ‘Rosemary’ as a real fully fledged character was an inspired addition to the story. “Bohally did an amazing job of integrating the existing storyline and crucial themes with those critical personal touches, such as bringing Rosemary to life as tool to take the audience along on the journey”. Paul Brown, ChildFund New Zealand CEO noted that the response to the competition from Year 6, 7 and 8 classes across the country really showcased the how the competition inspired schools at this level, and unearthed a wide range of enthusiastic Kiwi talent. “The competition has been a genuine success. We’ve been thrilled by the creativity and willingness from all schools who entered to stay true to the spirit of Mary’s Christmas Yarn. I didn’t envy the judges having to make the decision from three top finalist scripts, but I’m sure Bohally will do them all proud as this script is transformed to the stage.”Casting for the key roles and cameo performances will now begin as Alison Quigan has generously agreed to bring the script to life with performers, lighting, sound, all proudly overseen by the students from Bohally Intermediate. Mary’s Christmas Yarn will be performed by a professional cast on Monday 3rd December, at Auckland’s St Matthews-in-the-City. To learn more or register your interest in attending, visit www.childfund. org.nz

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Excerpts from a Dog’s Diary...... 8:00 am - Dog food! My favourite thing! 9:30 am - A car ride! My favourite thing! 9:40 am - A walk in thepark! My favourite thing! 10:30 am - Got rubbed and petted! My favourite thing! 12:00 pm - Lunch! My favourite thing! 1:00 pm - Played in the yard! My favourite thing! 3:00 pm - Wagged my tail! My favourite thing! 5:00 pm - Milk bones! My favourite thing! 7:00 pm - Got to play ball! My favourite thing! 8:00 pm - Wow! Watched TV with the people! My favourite thing! 11:00 pm - Sleeping on the bed! My favourite thing!

Excerpts from a Cat’s Daily Diary .. 983 of my captivity. Day rations perfectly clear, I nevertheless My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects.

must eat something in order to keep up my strength.

They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while the other inmates and I are fed hash or some sort of dry nuggets. Although I make my contempt for the

The only thing that keeps me going is my dream of escape. In an attempt to disgust them, I once again vomit on the carpet.

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There was some sort of assembly of their accomplices tonight. I was placed in solitary confinement for the duration of the event. However, I could hear the noises and smell the food. I overheard that my confinement was due to the power of ‘allergies.’ I must learn what this means and how to use it to my advantage.

Today I decapitated a mouse and dropped its headless body at their feet. I had hoped this would strike fear into their hearts, since it clearly demonstrates what I am capable of. However, they merely made condescending comments about what a ‘good little hunter’ I am. Bastards.

Today I was almost successful in an attempt to assassinate one of my tormentors by weaving around his feet as he was walking. I must try this again tomorrow -but at the top of the stairs. I am convinced that the other prisoners here are flunkies and snitches. The dog receives special privileges. He is regularly released - and seems to be more than willing to return. He is obviously retarded. The bird has got to be an informant. I observe him communicating with the guards regularly. I am certain that he reports my every move. My captors have arranged protective custody for him in an elevated cell, so he is safe. For now................ Good Teacher Magazine Term 4 2012 53

“The best teachers don’t give you the answers... They just point the way ... and let you make your own choices.”

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