2013 - Term 1 - Good Teacher Magazine by Good Teacher Magazine

Term One 2013

“The best teachers don’t give you the answers... They just point the way ... Good Teacher Magazine Term 1 2013 1 and let you make your own choices.”

NZ Glass Environmental Fund Attention Teachers Expressions of interest to make application for a grant from the NZ Glass Environmental Fund are invited. Up to $25,000 will be available in total for suitable environmental projects. For application forms and guidelines see our website www.recycleglass.co.nz or contact: NZ Glass Environmental Fund PO Box 12-345 Penrose, Auckland 1642 Phone: 09-976 7127 Fax: 09-976 7119 Deadline for expression of interest is 31 March 2013. Sponsored by O-I New Zealand.

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Index 3 Your Soapbox

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Rachel Williams

Learn and Play at MOTAT

MOTAT

Bell rings as UAE schools re-open for new term

A Ahmed

Learning about money and trade with the International Primary Curriculum

A snapshot in time

Elaine Le Sueur

What’s it costing us?

Laurie Loper

Schoolboy fakes kidnap to avoid parents evening

Giles Tremlet

The international power of reading

Kiwis lack hydration

Anything is possible at MOTAT’s Imagination Factory

MOTAT

Activating Your Natural Genius

Michelle LaBrosse

One Man’s Dream and the Ruben Jane

Neil Adams

Lovely Shetland Ponies Dressed in Sweaters to Promote Scotland

Totally Novel Tents

Beginning this school year

Bruce Hammonds

Mathematics Applied to Urban Elements

Aakash Nihalani

Science Puzzle #2 Chemical Formulae

Fred

When does tagging...? advance information

Front Cover: Teddy... rescued from the middle of the road weighing under 10kg about a year ago Back Cover:

Adelaide Zoo

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Your Soapbox!

“

The Blueberry Story: The teacher gives the businessman a lesson

“If I ran my business the way you people operate your schools, I wouldn’t be in business very long!” I stood before an auditorium filled with outraged teachers who were becoming angrier by the minute. My speech had entirely consumed their precious 90 minutes of inservice. Their initial icy glares had turned to restless agitation. You could cut the hostility with a knife. I represented a group of business people dedicated to improving public schools. I was an executive at an ice cream company that became famous in the middle1980s when People Magazine chose our blueberry as the “Best Ice Cream in America.” I was convinced of two things. First, public schools needed to change; they were archaic selecting and sorting mechanisms designed for the industrial age and out of step with the needs of our emerging “knowledge society”. Second, educators were a major part of the problem: they resisted change, hunkered down in their feathered nests, protected by tenure and shielded by a bureaucratic monopoly. They needed to look to business. We knew how to produce quality. Zero defects! TQM! Continuous improvement! In retrospect, the speech was perfectly balanced - equal parts ignorance and arrogance. As soon as I finished, a woman’s hand shot up. She appeared polite, pleasant – she was, in fact, a razoredged, veteran, high school English teacher who had been waiting to unload. She began quietly, “We are told, sir, that you manage a company that makes good ice cream.” I smugly replied, “Best ice cream in America, Ma’am.” “How nice,” she said. “Is it rich and smooth?” “Sixteen percent butterfat,” I crowed. “Premium ingredients?” she inquired. “Super-premium! Nothing but triple A.” I was on a roll. I never saw the next line coming. “Mr. Vollmer,” she said, leaning forward with a wicked eyebrow raised to the sky, “when you are standing on your receiving dock and you see an inferior shipment of blueberries arrive, what do you do?” In the silence of that room, I could hear the trap snap…. I was dead meat, but I wasn’t going to lie. “I send them back.” “That’s right!” she barked, “and we can never send back our blueberries. We take them big, small, rich, poor, gifted, exceptional, abused, frightened, confident, homeless, rude, and brilliant. We take them with ADHD, junior rheumatoid arthritis, and English as their second language. We take them all! Every one! And that, Mr. Vollmer, is why it’s not a business. It’s school!” In an explosion, all 290 teachers, principals, bus drivers, aides, custodians and secretaries jumped to their feet and yelled, “Yeah! Blueberries! Blueberries!” And so began my long transformation. Since then, I have visited hundreds of schools. I have learned that a school is not a business. Schools are unable to control the quality of their raw material, they are dependent upon the vagaries of politics for a reliable revenue stream, and they are constantly mauled by a howling horde of disparate, competing customer groups that would send the best CEO screaming into the night. None of this negates the need for change. We must change what, when, and how we teach to give all children maximum opportunity to thrive in a post-industrial society. But educators cannot do this alone; these changes can occur only with the understanding, trust, permission and active support of the surrounding community. For the most important thing I have learned is that schools reflect the attitudes, beliefs and health of the communities they serve, and therefore, to improve public education means more than changing our schools, it means changing America.

”

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

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Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Teacher Professional Learning Rachel Williams

What does it mean to ‘be yourself’ and where are the boundaries between society and contemporary performance(s)? There are numerous approaches to understanding identity and the presentation of self along side the notion of the ‘authentic self’ – what you’re being ‘true to’ when you’re doing something. Erving Goffman argues that we put on performative roles in our every day lives such as a student, a mother or a waiter whereas Judith Butler argues that not only that everyone is performing, she goes on to claim that there is no essential self: there is no person behind the mask but rather the sense of self is constructed through performances of everyday life. Jean-Paul Satre gives an example of an attentive pupil who wants so much to ‘be attentive, his eyes riveted on the teacher, his ears open wide, so exhausts himself in playing the attentive role that he ends up by no longer hearing anything’ (Satre, 1957: 60) according to Goffman, ‘individuals often find themselves with the dilemma of expression versus action’ (Goffman, 1959: 29), suggesting therefore that one can either be themselves or be performing. This is somewhat problematic as ‘only the sociologist or the ‘socially disgruntled’ will have any doubts about the ‘realness’ of what is presented’(Goffman, 1959: 15) therefore highlighting issues regarding reality of identity Good Teacher Magazine Term 1 2013 5

within society – either one pretends to be real, or one is real; leaving reality within society somewhat ambiguous. Judith Butler on the other hand follows Post Modern theorists, and argues that there is no essential self which performs roles, but rather the impression of the self is constructed out of performative acts. ‘[W]e are unwitting players in such a performance of gender and that the body as we have to come and understand it is constituted or “constructed” as a result of this performance’ (Presto, 2008: 230) In her thinking, Butler is influenced by ‘Speech act theory’ which suggests that ‘language was itself an instrument of social action that could realize effects and produce truths whose validity derived from the speech act itself’ (Kirby, 2006 : 91). So more broadly, she tries to claim that language and performances (performative acts), rather than representing some sort of reality actually construct it. Again, this forces issues of reality and identity and raises questions of portrayal and observation of it within society. Identity could be treated as an energy, in a sense that it can only be given or taken and never created, ‘The expressiveness of the individual (and therefore his capacity to give impressions) appears to involve two radically different kinds of sign activity: the expression that he gives, and the expression that he gives off’ (Goffman: 2). With identity you have to conform so you can be identified as something. For people to understand what you are trying to be, they have to understand it objectively, so they can tell you what to do so it will equal something, have a particular identity, and be successful. ‘Thus, when an individual appears in the presence of others, there will usually be some reason for him to mobilize his activity so that it will convey an impression to others which it is in his interests to convey’ (Goffman: 3). This again suggests that society exists around roles and characters as opposed to real people. ‘It is in these roles that we know each other; it is in these roles that we know ourselves.’(Park, 1950: 249). Essentially, there is a subjective mask of society, and everyone wears a different mask to come into an applied identity; ‘the expressive component of social life has been treated as a source of impressions given to or taken by others.’ (Goffman: 219) Part of ones identity is the clothes they wear: costume. It also has a lot to do with personal ‘character’, if you are a nurse for example, you have a uniform and dress up like a nurse. ‘’Apperance’ may be taken to refer to those stimuli which function at the time to tell us of the performer’s social statuses.’ (Goffman: 21) In today’s society, people think about the way they dress, so they can conform to their social groups. The thought that goes into a ‘costume’ (or appearance) at the beginning of the day suggests a performance of some manner is going to take place at some point. A performance, after all, is provoking a reaction or expectation from something or someone, weather that is positive or negative. ‘[T]he current tendency for [...] perfume clerks to wear white lab 6 Good Teacher Magazine Term 1 2013

coats tends to provide the client with an understanding that the delicate tasks performed by these persons will be performed in what has become a standardized, clinical, confidential manner.’ (Goffman: 23) When choosing an appearance, it is suggested that one takes into consideration the social group of those they will be spending their time with, suggesting they need to create their character through this appearance. ‘These stimuli also tell us of the individuals temporary ritual state: that is, whether he is engaging in formal social activity, work, or informal recreation’ (Goffman: 21). This then suggests that once you have chosen your outfit, everything you do subsequently is therefore a performance. There is an idea of the ‘authentic self’ – not necessarily lying or telling the truth, but in your performances being sincere and being true to yourself. Goffman suggests there are two types of performance: a cynical performer who ‘has no belief in his own act and no ultimate concern with the belief of his audience’ (Goffman: 15) and a sincere performer who is taken in by their own conception of this staged reality. Charles Guignon argues that the modern ‘essential self’, the “I” underpinning all performances and puts on the masks, is a very modern concept. ‘The idea that we have an obligation to shape ourselves in order to measure up to an external criterion is evident in the pre-modern attitude towards feelings’ (Guignon: 2004, 11). He goes on to say ‘what is important is [...] that you cultivate your feelings so that you will come to feel the right way about the right sorts of things at the right time.’ (Guigon: 11). It is suggestive then, that the extent of performance is to reach the social standard and to be accepted. Goffman implies that even when you’re genuinely doing something, you’re still performing, in which case performance studies is a suitable paradigm of explaining what is going on in every day life as opposed to societal groups, societal norms or societal expectations. People like Butler argue that there is no sense of self. The subject of identity is a mesh of all discourses and practices that we inherit. She says there is no self behind the performances, and there are performers that are performances. With Butler, there is no gender, rather everything is created out of performances, and people are place holders in social contexts. ‘[B]odies matter intrinsically in, and of themselves – what they are and how they exist; their materiality. They matter because they are not simply biological organisms. Inside and out, the body is a social production.’ (Allan, 2011: 369) This suggests that the only way we live is through the manufacture and manipulation of society, so the only reality is knowing ourselves to be real. Rene Descartes famous quote “Cogito ergo sum” or in English “I think therefore I am” highlights that people could doubt existence or authenticity of an external world or society, but not their own existence. ‘[W]hat constitutes the subject, according to post-modern theory, is a background of understanding laid out in advance by the discursive structures and forms of

practice that inhabit a person as he or she becomes a placeholder in a public context.’ (Guignon: 118) People can doubt everything except the “I” but then remains a huge gulf to go to try to prove the external world is existent; that other minds exist. Obviously the social reality that people become involved with is still needed, for the world to be intelligible. The problem this highlights however, is that not everyone has the same beliefs in the external world. Idealists for example, only believe we can count on the I and the mind, yet once all we can be sure of is the mind there is this outlet because of human physical performance, but it also creates a gap between individuals and the world. Descartes point was that he definitely knows that he exists, the world may not, but his mind and his soul, are real. Most people are averted to the fact there is nature and there is nurture: there’s the cultural and the natural. It has been suggested that a baby or animal aren’t performing because they are natural, but because we have this cultural identity there is room for distance between our natural selves and our social selves. This could be quite heavily problematical. Genetics for example, the model fifty years ago was that an individual had genes and was ‘thrown’ into a world, the genes stay in the individual and interact with the environment. Now however there’s a field called epigenetics. Genes are described as ‘epigenic casual actors that can change their behaviour’, this suggests that your environment decides which genes are used and which ones aren’t. Rather than there being this straight dichotomy, nature and nurture bleed into each other.

we are striving to live up to - this mask is our truer self, the self we would like to be. In the end, our conception of our role becomes second nature and an integral part of our personality. We come into the world as individuals, achieve character, and become persons. The above (Park, 1950: 250), in essence suggests there is an ‘authentic self’, and that self is developed through social (and professional) interaction, which promotes the idea that every day life includes performance or performative roles, but only to expand the reality of our true selves. There are various opinions on the true self, the masks we put on, and the roles we play, however individual belief is the concluding signifier to understanding of this subject. Bibliography Primary Sources Goffman, Erving. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. USA: Anchor Books, 1959 Secondary Sources Kirby, Vicki. Judith Butler: live theory, London: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2006. Park, Robert Ezra. Race and Culture, Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press, 1950. Presto, Jenifer. Beyond the flesh: Alexander Blok, Zinaida Gippius, and the Symbolist Sublimation of Sex, University of Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, USA, 2008. Satre, Jean Paul. Being and Nothingness London: Methuen, 1957.

So in constructing the idea of the ‘authentic self’: Guignon, Charles. On Being Authentic, London: being the social self and the real self (as in being the Routhledge, 2004. state of nature) is somewhat problematic because we are social animals and so respond to stimuli around Allan, Kenneth. Contemporary Social and Sociological us. Nature versus nurture is also problematical in Theory: Visialising Social Worlds, California: Pine modern neuro-science. When an infant brain is Forge Press, 2011. developing, there are lots of different connections made (far more than are ever going to be used), experience then trims them in the process. As the brain is developing, the sorts of things that the baby understands is accepted from the mother become This magazine the things they continue to use and can be accessed develop within their society throughout life. ‘[H]ints, expressive by educators gestures, status symbol etc. – ... both in New Zealand predictive devices. In short, since the reality that the individual is and Internationally concerned with is unperceivable at the moment’ (Goffman: 220). The “I” Would YOU and identity is again, problematic to like to advertise say there is a fault line between with us? nature and nurture because of this process of this subconscious mask that the parents are creating for their offspring. In a sense, and in so far as this mask represents the conception we have formed of ourselves – the role

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Good Teacher Magazine Term 1 2013 7

Learn and Play at MOTAT

Students and teachers alike love the hands-on and minds-on educational programmes at MOTAT. With 24 fun and interactive school programmes suitable for classes of students from early childhood to high school age, MOTAT is a memorable day out for all, with the added bonus of being an official provider of Ministry of Education approved LEOTC programmes (Learning Experiences Outside The Classroom).

MOTAT’s Education Manager, Paul Swift, says MOTAT is a remarkable setting for students to learn New Zealand Curriculum-supported lessons. “At MOTAT, we love taking the complicated and unfamiliar and presenting it in an exciting, interactive manner that links the learning to the students’ real lives. This year, we’re very excited to be introducing a new education programme for high school students called ‘The Nature of Technology.’ It showcases how technology has developed throughout history and highlights Maori technology, Colonial technology, the Industrial Revolution and modern technology. Students are then encouraged to think about the impacts that technology have had on today’s society and the environment,” says Mr Swift. MOTAT’s programmes cover science, social science and technology and can be individually customised to cater to the different learning needs of students and teachers.

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“Another great thing about MOTAT’s education programme is that we can incorporate our mindboggling exhibitions and unique resources to bring different elements of education to life,” says Mr Swift.

is here until June 3 and explores basic mechanisms and uncovers how they can be used to create ingenious inventions,” he continues.

“A great example of this is how we’ve been recently encouraging teachers with Year 1-8 classes to book our ‘Simple Mechanisms’ education programme, then combine this with MOTAT’s fascinating travelling exhibition ‘Imagination Factory.’

A typical education experience at MOTAT runs from 10am until 2pm and consists of a class session led by one of MOTAT’s talented and enthusiastic educators, an adult-led group trail themed to the education programme and time to explore the museum. Tram rides are also available.

All the way from Australia’s National Science and Technology Centre ‘Questacon,’ ‘Imagination Factory’

To find out more about the education opportunities at MOTAT, visit www.motat.org.nz/educate.

Good Teacher Magazine Term 1 2013 9

Bell rings as UAE schools re-open for new term The corridors of Al Ameen School in Abu Dhabi were filled with the excited chattering of reunited friends as pupils returned to their classrooms for the start of the second term. Across the country, about 727,918 pupils at more than 1,276 government and private schools went back to class. In the capital, schools operated by the Abu Dhabi Education Council (Adec) got into the swing of academics with play-based activities for young pupils and revision lessons for high schoolers. At Al Ameen, one of two Adec schools that follow the Finnish model of teaching, teachers prepared to undergo more training sessions in interactive learning. Harri Pekka Jokinen, principal of the school that educates 250 pupils said most of their students had returned on the first day. “Students are happy to come to the school every day,”

Mr Jokinen said.“The environment is meaningful for them and this is the first step where you start to build education.” The Finnish method of instruction is being taught as part of an agreement between the council and education consultants, EduCluster Finland. The five-year project, which began in 2010, seeks to develop a new local model tailored on international practices applied by Finland – one of the top ranking countries in education. As part of the programme, Emirati and Arab expatriate staff are supported by teachers from Finland to create a child-centred environment that uses technology and practical courses to raise the level of English language skills of pupils. Teachers are also trained in “differential instruction methods” (using different teaching methods at the same time to meet different students’ needs), which will allow them to better integrate pupils with special education needs.

Students of Al Ameen School in Abu Dhabi gather for a school assembly after returning from the winter break. Sammy Dallal / The National

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“Early intervention in special needs education is characteristic for the Finnish system,” explained Juha Repo, head of faculty at the school. “We try to deal with the challenges through multi-professional teams as early as possible.”

Hijazi. They also expect the number of pupils who score more than 180 points in Cepa (required to enter a federal university) to go up from 10 per cent to 13 per cent this year. The tests in English and mathematics will take place in March.

Mr Jokinen said there was a lot in store for the school, staff and pupils this year. “We [want to] promote cooperation with families.”

“We have plans to guide the pupils on how to write the exams and make them more independent learners through online worksheets and tests.”

The school will also be initiating the pupil self awareness and environment lessons to heighten their knowledge about their surroundings.

Private schools also got back into the swing of things yesterday, with Adec reporting the return of 198,000 pupils to 185 private schools in the capital.

The Finnish model schools are not the only ones expected to be kept busy with new learning initiatives.

IIyas Jumat Nasari, headmaster of the Model Private School, said they had to start revision lessons and extra classes for the pupils appearing for their board exams this year.

This year, Adec plans to increase the number of skill-enhancing workshops for teachers. And in the Madaras Al Ghad (Mag) schools, run by the Ministry of Education, Cycle 3 (Grade 10-12) pupils will be prepared for the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) tests and the Common Educational Proficiency Assessment (Cepa) – an entry requirement for federal universities. Ghassan K Hijazi, academic programme coordinator for Mag schools, said they were implementing an online practice programme for the pupils. “We expect at least 25 per cent of high-school pupils in Mag schools to take their IELTS this year,” said Mr

“From this evening, we will be offering extra coaching for pupils who are weak in certain subjects,” Mr Nasari said. More than 100 Grade 12 pupils will be appearing for their Indian board exams from the school. “It’s a busy period for our school and a crucial one for the high school children,” said Mr Nasari. aahmed@thenational.ae Read more: http://www.thenational.ae/news/uae-news/ education/bell-rings-as-uae-schools-re-open-for-newterm#ixzz2HPuCpBzh

Good Teacher Magazine Term 1 2013 11

Learning about Money and Tr with the Inte

Making cards

Given the chance, many children are natural entrepreneurs and revel in the opportunity to put their ideas into action. For children aged 7 to 9 who are learning with the International Primary Curriculum, the IPC Young Entrepreneurs unit provides a great opportunity to learn and, at the same time, give them a real taste of business . 12 Good Teacher Magazine Term 1 2013

This six week unit helps children develop knowledge, skills and understanding of all their subjects through the theme of money and trade. It also helps them to start to form an understanding of the work that goes into planning and setting

rade ernational Primary Curriculum and the other in the USA - with the IPC Young Entrepreneurs unit: The IPC Young Entrepreneurs unit at Bishops Hull Primary, Taunton, England “For the IPC Young Entrepreneurs unit, we decided to run our own business creating greeting cards,” explains Stephanie Norrey, Year 4 teacher at Bishops Hull Primary School in Taunton, England. “We did a Persuasion game for our Entry Point [to launch the unit in an exciting way]. The children really enjoyed this; selling something that didn’t exist! It was a real lesson of ‘buyer beware’!”

up a business. In the process, it gives children a chance to practise such skills as leadership, team work, communication, budgeting, planning, design and customer awareness. Here’s just some of the learning that has taken place recently at two IPC member schools - one in England

For the Knowledge Harvest (a crucial part of the IPC learning process to help teachers identify what children already know about the theme and what they’d like to find out during the unit), Stephanie asked the children to list all the things they knew that would contribute towards a successful business. “I was very impressed with their ideas and think that comes from watching programmes like Dragons Den on the TV,” she says. “We pooled all the ideas and the children ranked their importance for running a successful business.” Stephanie had already scheduled an entrepreneur Good Teacher Magazine Term 1 2013 13

Calculating how much each card cost to produce

(the owner of a printing company) to come and talk to the children about his work. Before his visit, she sent him the feedback from the Knowledge Harvest. “So that he knew how the children were thinking,” she explains. “He was impressed but noticed that the most important factor about running a business was missing: the customer!” Stephanie says this helped to lead the discussion when he visited. “He talked to the children about the need to focus on and look after the customers as the priority. He also used the analogy of a business being like a rucksack: heavy to begin with but then sharing the load with others. We also learnt how important product research is and how this influences pricing.” Successful Money and Trade learning tasks Stephanie says the children enjoyed many successful learning tasks from the IPC Young Entrepreneurs unit. These included: Money from around the world during their International learning: “This created the chance to talk about the cultural heritage of the children and their families” Cost of necessities in other countries during their Geography learning: “We talked with children in a school in Canada to explore this information.” Researching old money during their History learning: “The children created questionnaires for a home learning task.” Creating coinage during their ICT learning: “We designed our own Bishops Hull coinage using a graphics package, after talking about the Totnes pound” The design and production processes of their business: “This was excellent, especially the 14 Good Teacher Magazine Term 1 2013

negotiation to adjust the designs so they’d be easier to mass produce, the discussion about maintaining quality control, the price needing to reflect quality, and being self-critical of the products during development.” Accounting procedures: “Keeping a record of costs and working out minimum prices in order to generate a profit showed the children the value of materials and gave them the opportunity to apply several maths skills.” The Exit Point of the unit was the big sale! “We sold our cards to coincide with an exhibition for parents,” says Stephanie. “I explained to the children how this meant we would have guaranteed footfall. The event was a very important activity in many ways; watching to see if the cards were priced correctly to ensure maximum sales and profit, last minute offers, and so on. It was great to see the children interacting with the parents during the sale process. They were on a high throughout the whole event and still talk about it. And we made over £40 profit! The real-life element to the learning was fantastic.” Young Entrepreneurs unit at the British School of Washington, USA Instead of one big business, the children of Year 4 at the British School of Washington in the USA created businesses in small groups as part of their learning with the IPC Young Entrepreneurs unit. Teacher Lucie Woolford explains: “I asked the children to consider whether their product or company would be environmentally-minded and whether their profits (which they had to estimate using the formula: product price = materials + overheads + labour + profit) would be shared equally between their business partners.” The children used their learning about business

Calculating the profit

planning to pitch a request for a business loan to a panel of ‘bank managers’. This inspired great role play from both children - and teachers! “Over halfterm break the children were notified at home of the ‘loan’ decision via a letter from the bank managers. “The thrill of the children returning from their break, knowing they had been granted a loan and that they could now start making their products was electric,” says Lucie. Their subject learning then involved the development of products and marketing materials leading up to the sale which demanded the use of many subject and personal skills. Nine year-old Seth Cameron, cofounder of ‘Roc Bros’, a waterproof, glow in the dark airplane and parachute company says: “I learned how to work as a team – it’s harder than you think! Sometimes it was difficult making decisions that we were all happy about. I liked finding out how much profit we’d made. I enjoyed the experience of selling to customers.” Lucie explains why she thinks the IPC Young Entrepreneurs unit is so successful: “It is a fabulous journey into learning about the variety of businesses, the many good things they do (both globally and locally), and how successful businesses operate and market themselves. It was a unit that inspired the children, but also their parents.” Tips from the experts When learning about money and trade with primary age children, Stephanie says: “Have a purpose for your products and a sale deadline that can’t be moved – it’s more realistic.” And Lucie says: “Utilise local businesses. We found the children gained so much by surveying what was up the street. And invite parents and secondary

colleagues for the sale.” Also, if your school has a charitable aim during the school year, this learning can provide the perfect platform for your fundraising. Great learning about money and trade The IPC Young Entrepreneurs unit helps children develop a whole range of knowledge, skills and understanding including: Developing and operating a simple business model Making a difference as well as making a profit Identifying and responding to market needs Collaboration and communication Applying creative skills in practical ways Learning from mistakes This is just one of over 80 thematic units of learning from the International Primary Curriculum (IPC). The IPC is used extensively at primary level in international and national schools in over 80 countries around the world. As a curriculum for learning, the IPC focuses on developing knowledge, skills and understanding of subjects set within child-friendly, relevant, cross-curricular thematic units of work, such as the Young Entrepreneurs unit, that are both creative and challenging for children of all abilities. The IPC provides teachers with a structured and rigorous yet flexible teaching framework which helps them lead children through an engaging learning process that has clear outcomes for academic, personal and international learning. It helps children look at everything they learn through a local and global perspective, developing adaptable, globallyminded learners prepared for the world of tomorrow that they will be living and working in. For more information about learning with the IPC go to www.greatlearning.com/ipc Good Teacher Magazine Term 1 2013 15

A Snapshot In Time 1950’s classroom. I was moved to reflect on just how much our interactions with each other as teachers working with able/ gifted/ talented students are like camera lens filters… • Some filters serve to protect the lens. We all have personal preferences and biases based on our life experiences. There is a need to promote discussion in the staffroom around our perceptions to ensure that our viewfinder focus results in the best snapshot possible. • What we ‘see’ depends on what we focus on and is likely to be culturally motivated. Do our current lenses contribute to providing clarity? How might our identification practices mirror the cultural 2012’s classroom diversity of the school community? • It is easy to lose sight of the bigger picture if we always perceive it from the same angle. We need to occasionally use the camera’s ability to move from macro to micro and back again.· Our emotions are like color filters… they can correct an unrealistic cast or add to it, so that it becomes difficult to restore full color. Polarizing lenses may reduce the glare and improve saturation but they filter out a lot of light. • Each snapshot moment helps to contribute to and build on our understanding of the picture as it stands at any point in time. Image editing can assist to filter out ‘noise,’ but reflects subjective decisions made by the editor. That perfect frozen moment in time for gifted students I love my digital camera. It has pride of place in my may always be a little beyond our reach, but that handbag when I go out and is close at hand with doesn’t mean that we should stop striving for battery charged up ready for action in my home the improvement, or aim our sights lower because the rest of the time. I have aspirations of being in just the challenge to create a great snapshot seems to elude right place at the right time to take that ‘perfect’ frozen us time after time. We need to acknowledge that our moment in time and I am inspired by those who pictures are time specific and that we create our own manage to do so. I love that I can manipulate images filters. Children deserve the best that we can do to at the touch of a button from color to sepia or black support them… and that includes our gifted and and white images. However, I don’t think I fully talented. Bear in mind, however, that we may not all appreciated just how much change the impact of be viewing the world in the same way. technology has had on the world until the following interaction with a six year old… Child: Were you born in the olden days? Me : Yes. (The gap in our ages probably merits this answer, even though I’m not totally comfortable with the picture it conjures up in my head) Child : Were there any colors when you were little? Me : (puzzled, but curious) … Yes. Why? Child: I saw a program on television and there were no colors. Daddy said it was because it was the olden days. Oh. See what I mean? She went on to say that now she was going to find out more for herself. What an ideal time to have that conversation about factors affecting the balance of white light as it reaches our visual sensors. Interacting with gifted children is often challenging but it is never dull! 16 Good Teacher Magazine Term 1 2013

Did you know that the world is really interesting from this way up too?

Elaine Le Sueur A little help through my lens to be going on with ... Gifted learners are a diverse group. One of the variables often advanced as verification of high ability is that of advanced reading ability. (Typically this translates into accuracy and comprehension reading skills around three years in advance of chronological age). In talking about gifted/ highly proficient readers in the regular classroom I am using the term as a descriptor, not a judgment. Whether the degree of proficiency is called gifted, highly able or some other differentiated term there are some characteristic behavioural indicators of highly proficient readers that make things easier for teachers to recognize and assess. Look for the student who • Is interested in reading as an activity for enjoyment and not necessarily for a specific purpose and has ‘reading mileage.’ (reads a lot). Talk to the school librarian and the librarian at the local public library. • Has a large storehouse of information about a variety of topics, and has rapid recall.

must be hotter than boiling water because mud is a mixture of water and dirt, not just water, eh? (aged 6) •

Works independently and can concentrate for longer periods of time than you would expect from a child of the same age. Happy to read in leisure time, but may be reluctant to put a book away if it is deemed interesting

•

Quick to recognise relationships between cause and effect (or actions and possible consequences if the student is a risk taker!)

•

Uses high order critical and evaluative thinking skills routinely.

•

Spots inconsistencies

•

Quickly perceives similarities and differences

•

Is currently totally focused on an area of interest to the exclusion of reading about anything else.

•

Shows keen powers of observation and is quick to sort out the important details.

•

Quite often sees things from a wider perspective and can identify the author’s underlying motivation in a sophisticated picture book.

Try this for a challenge... How many links can you find to unite all of these picture clues? The only rule is that you must be able to link ALL of the pictures together using your hypothesis. Be creative. Have fun!

•

Aged 4 Readily gasps underlying principles and can often make valid generalizations and unexpected but logical links between events, people or objects

I got a book about geology out of the library. I think I want to be a volcanologist when I grow up. Boiling mud Good Teacher Magazine Term 1 2013 17

What’s it costing us? Laurie Loper Psychologist

What is it costing New Zealand Inc to be putting up with an education system that’s as inefficient at promoting learning as is ours? Inefficient in this context means that our system is failing to develop anything like the full capacity to learn of the nation’s young. Since it’s now known that virtually every child born has a capacity to learn that’s “remarkably similar” to every other, we have a better than ever reason for expecting achievement that is a match of that evenly shared capacity. So the issue of what that inefficiency is costing is surely not one to be dismissed out of hand. With almost every child, then, possessing such a high and evenly endowed capacity to learn, it follows every one of them is a top ranking learner in the making. On that basis, it’s possible to gauge how much of that learning capacity in total gets developed under an efficient learning regime as compared to the current inefficient one. Some work I did in 2007, led to the conclusion that only half the total of that precious capacity to learn of our nation’s young is being developed.

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This is the sort of situation where one is tempted to argue that if it is currently costing X amount of dollars to get half the job done, by continuing to use the same inefficient regime, the full job is going to take that much again. The knowledge that there is this large pool of undeveloped capacity should trigger the realisation that measures to utilise it need to be devised. The trouble is few know how large that pool is and none realise that something needs to be done about reclaiming it. The troubled times education is currently facing is raising questions so appears an excellent time be drawing attention to the efficacy issue. The danger is that having the current right wing government in power – pushing a market model of education and a belief in incremental progress – means there will be more of the same inefficient education coming up. If that’s the prospect, there’s little chance we’ll see much of that wasted talent recovered. An education system that is content to be losing as much of its student learning grunt as is ours shows how ossified it has become. The struggle being witnessed here – between a traditionalist group, trending its reformist intentions in a right wing direction, and a very small group of efficacy advocates – indicates we’re moving further towards the sort of equity situation that, in Middle Eastern countries, has given rise to the “Arab spring” uprisings. Not that the casualties here necessarily end up prematurely deceased. No, their fate is even worse, they end up as the incapacitated living. That all is not well in education is a realisation that is growing but unfortunately there is nothing in the actions being taken that indicates the issues are understood, let alone agreed, or that there’s a credible plan about what needs to be done about it all. The almost hedonistic way IT is being siezed upon and engaged with as a solution is unfortunately creating the impression that there›s rapid progress on the learning front. In fact, all that›s happening is that this development is being used to re-image the

‘inherently inefficient’ learning process/model Nuthall reported. This IT explosion has costs. There is obviously a monetary cost involved and it ought to be possible to put some sort of figure on that. Add in the inefficiencies of funding use that are playing out here – due to things like purchase mistakes, maintenance, programme incompatibilities, obsolescence, fit for purpose stuff ups,and so on. All this is draining funding away from other objectives and creating equity issues. But the largest cost is the fact that the understanding of learning and what’s required to improve it isn’t being advanced one iota. As long as those in power are satisfied they’re on the right track, three things in particular are going to continue to prove extremely costly. The first is the failure to obtain a significant breakthrough for improving achievement across the board. Arguably the biggest concern of the modern era, improving the efficacy of learning will require considerably more people understanding the learning process. That includes the entire education sector and the public, especially parents. Most people have no idea how much the learning process is at fault. Developing measures to fix a problem that’s not acknowledged is always going to be a hard ask. Though currently lacking the influence of the other groups involved, parents appear to me to be the best positioned group to bring about the necessary change (see also the discussion about the part parents might play that ends this article). What parents currently lack is knowledge about how learning works. If they were to acquire that and then could arm themselves with the skills needed, I’d pick them to be at the forefront of achieving change. Their concern for their own children provides them an immediacy and an enabling focus that’ll override any handicapping notions about learning acquired during their own schooling. The concern about the progress of their own flesh and blood gives them an edge. Feed them the facts and then sit back and watch things happen.

The second thing that will cost us is that there’ll be no progress in understanding of how significantly the current inherently inefficient learning process contributes to the achievement gap. It acts much in the same way as discrimination works. In fact, forms of discrimination get tangled up in the mix of things that go on. In effect what’s happens is like the reverse of the saying, “To him that hath, let it be given”. By any measure, the underachievers who are failing the most suffer from having so little of their capacity to learn developed, the sheer size of the gap involved renders them unable to take advantage of much of the aid that comes their way, if indeed anything appropriate does come. Effects on self esteem aside, one suspects there must be a cut off point – I’d suggest around 25 per cent of an individual’s developed capacity – below which it’s becomes unrealistic to expect any sort of recovery. Below which, too, it might be kinder not to make the attempt. The third cost to us all will be that there’ll be no significant progress in developing the sort of efficient learning process and model that’s capable of both halting the growth of that achievement gap and salvaging the learning power currently going to waste. Proponents of better learning efficacy in education have always been on the back foot. Where the norm is almost a complete misunderstanding of the learning process – this being hardwired in – no one is going to be interested in making changes contrary to such accepted, though entirely erroneous, notions. Successive would-be educational reformers have found that making changes that do not line up well with the mistaken beliefs involved, have found this out to their sorrow, not that will give our current Minister much comfort. Fortunately this is not an immutable situation, if my recent experience is anything to go by. In June last I had the opportunity to convince a group of very experienced Ngai Tahu educationists and iwi leaders that there are viable alternative solutions to be had. When the evidence was laid before them of just how inefficient the currently accepted learning

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process is – especially the learning model involved – they had no difficulty in accepting the fact. Mind you, Ngai Tahu has been long aware of just how much their tamariki and rakatahi are failing academically, and has been searching for their own answers. While that experience gives good grounds for hope, creating the situation whereby the entire education sector and the general public becomes aware of, and accepts the nature of the issue, is an entirely different matter. Education culture is by far the greatest impediment here. Its power to conserve is legion. It has been able to change-proof the myths, erroneous beliefs and inefficient practices that underpin teaching, ensuring they have remained the core of learning for centuries. It would take a book to detail the power of this culture and how good it is in keeping things the way they are, making the achievement of across-theboard improvements well nigh impossible. Let me conclude by getting someone else’s take on what the solution might be, USA commentator, Charles Kenny. I’ve chosen him as he illustrates the culturebound platform from which this whole problem of raising educational outcomes typically gets viewed Besides, he makes some good points even if he’s otherwise on very shaky grounds. As I suspected, and later had confirmed by personal contact, he knew nothing of Nuthall’s work. Charles Kenny is a multi talented sometime education blogger, whose CV is very long and includes serving in an advisory capacity to the present Obama administration. He is a fellow at the Centre of Global Development and the New America Foundation. The former is an unique think tank focused on policy formation to reduce poverty and inequality by various global means. The latter is an American, non-profit, left-leaning public policy institute and think tank focusing on a wide range of national issues. In an obviously well researched recent article titled «The real reason American schools stink» he checks out a number of factors in coming to the conclusion implied in the title he›s chosen. Reviewing the progress comparisons that show that the image the media routinely portrays – USA’s academic performance is less than stellar – his assertion is that this is no longer true because things are just starting to pick up. He quotes the findings of a raft of reputable studies to back his claim. Then he casts around for reasons that are holding this progress back.

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He absolves teachers, quoting a couple of Gates Foundation studies, involving 3000 teachers, that said that less than 8 per cent ranked below “basic” competence and the average hours teachers work is 11 per day. He absolves the students, quoting course completion rates climbing all over the country and the evidence is that American kids are learning more than ever before. He said funding wasn’t an issue, America spends one of the highest amounts per capita on students anywhere in the world. So who gets the blame? Emphatically, it’s parents, but he’s at pains to point out there are mitigating circumstances, implying poverty is the one that’s handicapping many of the failing. He picks out the lack of books in homes as a critical issue, there being a correlation between academic success and having more than two book cases full in any home – equates with a 2.5 grade level advantage. He also reports there are improvements in how much students are talking to parents about their school day (up from two-fifths in 1988 to two-thirds in 2011) and parents are visiting schools more (up from 16 to 46 per cent). That all shows, he says, that it isn’t that parents don’t care, the problem is that, particularly with the ones with the lowest incomes, they’re “not empowered to make a difference”. They don’t have the tools that’ll allow them to judge how much, if any, progress their children are making. Nor do they have the skills to make use of the test data schools produce to effect change. They need help to ensure their children don’t start school already behind, so access to pre-school education is an issue. Getting parents nearer the action so that their voices can be heard by the decision makers is what he’s advocating. I agree, but that’s easier said than done. For all that schools try to include them in meaningful ways, parents are up against a culture that has effectively kept them at arms length. Also, as Kenny observes, many are carrying negative experience baggage of their own school days. They simply don’t believe they can make the sort of difference to the schooling that’ll count. As I said, here we have a very perceptive and vastly experienced commentator – a long time member of think tanks that advise the president of the the most powerful nation in the world (Obama’s words, not mine) – writing a well researched article that makes a number of very useful suggestions. But every one of his comments and suggestions assumes that both the existing learning model and the process of which it is a

significant part, are kosher. He calls neither into question. To him, as it is to everyone else, it’s a given that they are both well up for the job. We keep hearing on an almost daily basis about how important education is both for individuals and for society as a whole. If that is to amount to more than

just talk, the time has come to develop a much better understanding of what’s involved. Developing a proper understanding of the learning process is the best place to start and likely to be the most beneficial across the board. Till that happens we can expect to continue to be paying through the nose dearly.

Schoolboy fakes kidnap to avoid parents’ evening It was both dramatic and creative - but it was also one of the most over-the-top solutions ever invented for avoiding that well-known childhood nightmare, when parents are called in to talk to their teachers. Early on Monday afternoon the unnamed 11-year-old son of a Spanish police officer stationed in the north-western town of Xinzo de Limia sent a text message from his mobile phone to tell his father he had been kidnapped. When his father phoned back, the boy confirmed the worst. He had been snatched off the street as he was putting out the rubbish, he said, and was locked in the boot of a car. He had no idea where his kidnappers were taking him, but knew that the car he was in was a blue Seat. The worried father told his commanders and, as the news was relayed around civil guard barracks across the province of Ourense, his colleagues hurriedly set up roadblocks. A nationwide alert was released in case the vehicle had left the province.

due to meet his class tutor that afternoon.” They did not report on whether that meeting had now been cancelled - or merely delayed. Giles Tremlett in Madrid Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/schoolboy-fakeskidnap-to-avoid-parents-evening-20130123-2d5rg. html#ixzz2IkE2zVsX

Police in neighbouring Portugal were also informed amid worries that the boy’s kidnappers may have fled across the border. Local newspapers flashed the news on their websites and ran photographs of heavily armed police manning roadblocks. It was only two hours later that the boy’s father noticed the keys to a spare flat owned by the family were missing. The child was soon discovered there and reportedly explained that he had been terrified by the prospect of his parents going to school to speak to his teachers. “The civil guard attributed the false alarm to a childish ‘prank’ that had something to do with the boy’s situation at school,” the local Faro de Vigo newspaper reported . “The child’s poor school scores in recent weeks appear to explain a form of behaviour that no one in Xinzo could understand,” said the Voz de Galicia newspaper. “He and his parents were Good Teacher Magazine Term 1 2013 21

The international power of reading Late last year, Cottonsoft put the call out to Auckland and Dunedin intermediate schools for the donation of second-hand books to four learning centres in Indonesia. The call was met with an unsurprisingly generous and enthusiastic response – meaning the learning centres in Malang, Mojokerto and Sidoarjo, all in East Java, and Perawang in Sumatra will receive thousands of quality books in the coming months. There are huge differences between the learning experience in New Zealand and Indonesia. It can be difficult to understand the impact this generous gift from Kiwi children and schools will make to the children who utilise these facilities – which service a very large local population. This YouTube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v =zbBxipnXvZE&feature=youtu.be provides some insight into the culture, learning centre needs and the common denominator - the joy of reading. You’ll also spot the rather empty bookshelves that will soon be filled with the donated age-and-culture appropriate books.

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Author Justin Brown visited the learning centre in Perawang and had the chance to teach the kids some of our uniquely kiwi idioms as well as generously gifting some of his own books. New Zealand schools and teachers in Dunedin and Auckland have audited their libraries, pulled nolonger-needed books from classrooms and are now being encouraged to embark on a cultural exchange with the learning centres by way of a pen pal programme. Speaking of his experience in Indonesia, Justin says, “As well as being a simple means to enhance reading materials in places where they are extremely scarce, it’s also a chance to educate Kiwi children about other cultures and about a country that is one of our largest trading partners and will become more and more important to businesses in years to come.”

Kiwis lack hydration SodaStream releases survey results around Kiwis’ water-drinking habits A new survey* released by SodaStream New Zealand has revealed that over 60% of New Zealanders don’t think they drink enough water, despite the vast majority admitting that they feel healthier when they do. The independent results of this survey show that over a quarter of Kiwis drink less than two glasses of water per day – and less than 5% of the total respondents drink more than the recommended eight.

In fact, many survey respondents agreed that they would prefer to drink sparkling water if it was available.

Interestingly, Kiwis’ top preference for a non-alcoholic drink is coffee or tea, followed by water, then juice a sliver ahead of soft drinks, followed by energy drinks and traditional cordial.

For those Kiwis that can’t resist the occasional soft drink, syrups mean you can create soft drinks that are up to two thirds lower in sugar than the store-bought alternatives, and they can be diluted further according to individual preference.

However, despite the relative popularity of soft drinks in terms of taste, 65% restrict their intake of soft drinks due to high sugar levels or it being ‘bad’ for them.

“Sparkling water is as good a choice as plain tap water, but if you’re looking for something extra, adding syrups are a great alternative to environmentally damaging store-bought drinks,” adds Bremner.

This water survey indicates that men drink less water than women, with more almost 80% of males drinking less than four glasses of water per day.

For more information on SodaStream, visit www. sodastream.co.nz.

Perhaps women are up in the water drinking stakes due to the fact that twice as many women take a bottle of water to work, and because more women think that drinking a lot of water makes them feel healthier. It could also be that men are more likely to think ‘water tastes boring’ – although women are more likely than men to say they’re ‘too busy’ to drink more water, and are almost twice as likely to simply forget to drink it. Kiwis over 40 years of age show a strong preference for coffee and tea compared with under 40s, though under 40s are twice as likely to favour soft drinks and energy drinks when compared with their 40+ counterparts. People over 40 are also more likely to wait until they are thirsty to get a drink, and to consciously restrict intake of sugary drinks. Chris Bremner, of SodaStream New Zealand, says that getting an adequate water intake is essential for optimal health. “I myself struggle to drink a lot of plain water, so I wasn’t surprised that many Kiwis identified that it’s hard to get in the recommended amount every day – especially when so many people see water as being a ‘boring’ choice. A SodaStream machine means you can turn plain tap water into sparkling water with just a push of a button. It’s one way of making it easier to increase your water intake, in a way that’s readily available.”

*The SodaStream survey was conducted by an independent party in January 2013, with 400 New Zealand based respondents. Good Teacher Magazine Term 1 2013 23

Anything is possible at MOTAT’s Explore the magic of pistons, wheels, levers, pulleys, cams and gears through dozens of handson interactive displays at MOTAT’s newest travelling exhibition ‘Imagination Factory’. ‘Imagination Factory’ comes all the way from Australia’s National Science and Technology Centre ‘Questacon.’ The Centre has been developing, fabricating and touring award-winning exhibitions for the Australian and world markets for more than twenty years. MOTAT Marketing Manager, Deanna Wharton, says ‘Imagination Factory’ has been a huge success since it opened in December, capturing the minds and fuelling the imaginations of MOTAT visitors young and old. “Both our younger and older visitors have been blown away by the ‘Imagination Factory’ exhibition and the fascinating activities it has to offer. From the dozens of interactive displays to investigate, to the multitude of fun activities like building and racing toy animals with gears, using giant levers to lift friends and family off the ground and building a maze with magnetic tubing, there really is something for the whole family to enjoy,” says Mrs Wharton. Only at MOTAT until 2 June 2013, make sure you don’t miss out on this mindboggling mechanical experience!

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s Imagination Factory

MOTAT MADNESS SPECIAL SCHOOL TRANSPORT OFFER Are you keen to share the magic of MOTAT with your class but finding the cost of getting there a barrier? MOTAT is offering a special $200 transport subsidy to the first five schools that book an educational experience at MOTAT before the end of March 2013 (the subsidy must be used before 31 March 2013). To be eligible for this funding, you have to bring at least two classes (approximately 60 children) on the day of the visit. There are only five subsidies available so email or call the team at MOTAT NOW to claim this special offer. Email: bookings@motat.org.nz

Phone: 09 815 5808 Good Teacher Magazine Term 1 2013 25

Activating Your Natural Genius

When you think of the word “Genius,” what first comes to mind? Perhaps Albert Einstein, Ludwig van Beethoven, or Isaac Newton. You may be imagining someone who is very different from yourself—someone who sits in a basement and tinkers with experiments, and who routinely forgets to use a hairbrush or eat a meal. It’s time to change what we associate with the word “genius.” Start by getting up and looking in the mirror: Can you spot the genius? If not, you may need to change your perspective, because it is there.

The capacity to be a genius is a part of our physiology. The human brain is a fascinating piece of work. It’s a dynamic neural network that makes billions of connections per second. New neurons are being made constantly in response to mental activity and learning. The reason that this is so fascinating and fantastic is because we are not stuck in any holding pattern—the ability to change our minds, literally, and become a genius on a subject matter is within our capabilities. Whether you think that you are born with natural genius, or you obtained it through your experience and environment, the important thing to be clear: You have it—genius, that is. We all do. Here are some ways to tap into that natural genius.

Know Your Strengths and Challenges. Being a natural genius does not mean you have to have a natural aptitude for every subject matter under the sun. Albert Einstein, a legendary genius, failed his University Entrance Exam. While he excelled in the math and science sections, he failed the rest (history, languages, and geography). What this should tell you is: “Don’t get down because there are areas where you do not excel.” Recognize them as challenges, and work to mitigate them. But to tap into your true natural genius, discover the areas that you excel, and work to develop those into true genius status.

The Drive To Fail. Fail? What, are you crazy? For most of us “Type A” project managers, the thought of failing bring shivers to our spines. But the fact is, you don’t know where your limits are until you push them, and in pushing your limits you are bound to fail once in awhile. To tap into your genius, you can’t be afraid of failure or run away from it. You have to chase after, fail, and learn how to fix your mistakes so that you don’t fail (in the same way) again.

Deliberate Practice.

By Michelle LaBrosse, PMP®, Chief Cheetah and Founder of Cheetah Learning, and Kristen LaBrosse, Co-Author, CAPM® 26 Good Teacher Magazine Term 1 2013

Casual Practice is going out and playing on an intramural baseball league. Deliberate practice is going to the batting cages every night until you have perfected your swing. You will strike out a lot more in deliberate practice, but this is the only way you will master your skill. So what does this have to do with you? When you find your natural genius, you have the ability to perfect it with deliberate practice, during which you will rise out of your comfort zone to see just how good you can be.

Kick Stress to the Curb. Every wonder why you can’t think when you are rushing around late trying to find your car keys? Once you find them, it’s so obvious that, of course, they would be in your key bowl on the coffee table. The thing is, stress reduces our ability to think. If we live with chronic stress, our brain is taking the majority of the burden, and it’s impossible to tap into your natural genius, let alone your natural sanity. Pinpoint the biggest stress factors in your life, then mitigate them fast.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Michelle LaBrosse

“Somewhere, someone is looking for exactly what you have to offer.” Louise Hay, Motivational Author It’s hard to recognize our natural genius if we are not in the environment that appreciates or needs those specific skills. You can try to change yourself to best fit into a professional environment, but the likely result will be mediocrity. To fully develop your natural genius, you need to find a place to be the “Best of the best,” where you can do what you are best at. Find out what that is, and go there. In 2013, make a commitment to discover your natural genius—it is in you!

Michelle LaBrosse is an entrepreneurial powerhouse with a penchant for making success easy, fun, and fast. She is the founder of Cheetah Learning, a global firm employing more than 100 people that specializes in combining accelerated learning and project management to help people achieve their goals faster than they ever before imagined. She is the author of the Cheetah Success Series, and a prolific blogger whose mission is to bring project management to the masses. Michelle is a graduate of the Harvard Business School’s Owner President Manager’s program and also holds aerospace and mechanical engineering degrees from Syracuse University and the University of Dayton.

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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 August. Inflatable race day. Last year the speed and wake had caused one man to be thrown out so this year the rules stated that the boats had to go backwards. This certainly made the boats more competitive. Laura joined the team from Early Dart. They won. Unfortunately I was unable to watch because Ed from Aka came across and adjusted the rigging which had been the cause of our exit from the race yesterday. The rubber insert at the mast junction of the spreaders had perished. Over a period of 3 hours with breaks for chats he checked it all. He charged me a can of beer so I gave him 2. That was the last of the Steinlager left by the New Zealand to Tonga crew. I suppose in a way that proves that Steinlager beer does go further than Tui beer. 2nd August. The halfway point of the cruise. I went up the hill to church but when I arrived I was escorted to a house church because the first one was only Fijian speaking. I was ushered into the front row where I met an American dentist and his wife. We were all heartily welcomed during the service and were warmly invited to lunch, I had to decline because the family was waiting to go fishing. Kevan was asleep on Adventurer so we let go the lines and drifted away before raising the mainsail. We sailed slowly out of the river before raising the jib. All the family started picking on me so I made them sail the boat with no assistance from me. When we returned there was a grass fire which got out of control just across the river from our mooring. According to one security guard here the local fire brigade has yet to put out a fire because they’ve discovered that the fire engine goes faster with no water in it. One of the other yachts, Karena, caught a marlin which weighed 200 kg. 3rd August. Joy wants to go home. She says she’s scared of further passage making - a down day. The bilibili races were held today. Bilibili is the Fijian word for bamboo raft. Susannah got into the final before the wind got up. I also learnt how to husk a coconut properly. Talent quest tonight. Started well but deteriorated with some of the jokes. It started raining so everyone moved into the bar. We left before the end when it was deteriorating. We were almost at the boat when the rain started in earnest. 4th August. The weather was indifferent so spent most of the day on the boat reading. In the evening we went to the 28 Good Teacher Magazine Term 1 2013

prize giving at the Hot Springs Hotel. They drew straws for the winner of the bilibili race and Susannah drew the winning one so they won a dinner for 2. She gave the other members of her team a big hug and they thought she was giving them the prize so they took it from her - disappointing for her but character building. Laura drew a prize for our boat. It was a return trip for one by air Savusavu - Nadi. 5th August. An early start with a trip to Makongai Island in prospect but after filling the water tanks and picking up Rebecca from Sanity we only made it as far as Cousteau’s Resort under motor. There was low cloud around the hills and there was doubt as to whether it would lift so that we could see the reefs. We dropped anchor for the day. Lost a plain white lure on the way. That’s the first one we’ve lost since arriving in Tonga. Andy came out by road for the day. We dived on split rock again. When we arrived there we had fed bread to the fish by hand. I got bitten 4 times by zebra fish - nobody else did so I guess I have to admire the fish’s taste. Later we saw some large fish feeding out in the bay so I took Plain Jane out and trolled a line without success. Rebecca and Andy caught a taxi back to town to Sanity. 6th August. Awoken at 0100 hours by VHF - Elyxir coming through the entrance having to radio to a ship on collision course. They passed only a boat length apart. Joy guided them in to the anchorage by VHF and torchlight. I tried hard to sleep throughout the whole procedure. Awoke again at 0630 and slowly prepared to depart for Makongai. Rafted alongside Elyxir for a chat before leaving. Haven’t seen them for over 3 months although have spoken via radio. About an hour after leaving we caught a small skipjack tuna which didn’t put up much of a fight at this stage but more about that later. We started shortly after Family Express and Nerissa. The seas were 1 1/2 - 2 metres for the first 5 miles - quite uncomfortable. Susannah and Laura seasick. Family Express soon had a sizeable lead but we were gaining on Nerissa when we had a big strike. Susannah put the gimbal belt on me while Joy cleared the cockpit of all but my old mismatched jandals which I use to stand on the catch to help subdue it. We were still doing 7 knots and the fish was still taking line so Joy and Susannah had to lower the jib in 2 metre seas. They did well. I was right down to 30 metres line left on the reel before I started to gain. Joy saw it leap and said it was about 3 foot long then helped hold the rod to give my arms a rest. After about 35 minutes we had it alongside. I tried to put a noose around its tail but the rope wouldn’t sink. When I lifted its head the rope went past its tail so we flagged that and resorted to the gaff and without too much trouble invited it aboard. While it was flapping

n Jane around the cockpit it flipped one of my jandals overboard followed shortly afterwards by the other one. Joy was pleased but I was not amused. They were not a matching pair but had proven themselves very useful for clambering over rocks. Some things in life are not sacred anymore. Now I will have to use my new matching pair. The mahi-mahi stood 4 feet tall in his socks. In order to keep it cool we put it under the dinghy on the deck after securing it by a rope around its tail. Joy wouldn’t let me put out the line again but I don’t know if I really wanted to as my arms were quite tired. Mahi-mahi mate for life so there was probably a mate pursuing the boat. I put 2 reefs in the main and we hoisted the genoa again. By this stage we were below the North Save-A-Tack Passage so went around the bottom of the reef. Family Express was out of sight and Nerissa was several miles distant. Once around the corner the motion eased although Laura still remained below. Arriving off Makongai we found that the chart was 1/2 mile out. This put our waypoint inside the reef instead of outside. We didn’t have any difficulty finding the beacons on the reef - there weren’t any (beacons that is - there were plenty of reefs). We radioed Nerissa who told us that the beacons were missing. They were about 20 minutes ahead of us. The entrance through the reef was reasonably easy. However it put us in a short cross-chop for over half an hour. I was up in the rigging and I found that my arms kept cramping so I held on by my elbows. I was harnessed on so was not in grave danger but it was quite uncomfortable. We anchored within 50 yards of a bommie which had a marker on it. The snorkelling was the best yet and after a swim over it I returned and Trevor, Raewyn, their daughter Gaylene and her friend Suzanne came over and Trevor and I cleaned and gutted the fish. The skin peeled off the mahi-mahi very cleanly. The tuna had been lying out in the sunlight but some 9 hours after capture it too was in the freezer. We all watched the sun set over the open sea. We gave some mahi-mahi to Nerissa, Family Express And Toolka T who were also anchored in the bay. 7th August. This morning Susannah, Laura and I went ashore with the crews of several other boats and had a guided tour through the clam farm and the turtle farm. Earlier I had taken the fish heads and skeletons ashore for the locals. This time I had the fish scraps in a bucket for the turtles. They really enjoyed them. It was amazing to witness the strength they possess in their beaks to tear the meat and the skin. The other thing I hadn’t realised is that they use their front flippers to guide their food into their mouths. Makongai used to be a leper colony with the sexes segregated into separate bays. In the bay we were anchored there was one lot of barracks and just a short walk over the dividing hill was the other camp. We took a stroll and

looked at the ruins. Apparently the roofs had collapsed in the past year. The concrete walls and floors were still intact but the fibrolite from the roofs was scattered on the ground. It must have been devastating to have been shipped to this island with a diagnosis of leprosy knowing that you were never going to leave. We found a couple of coconuts and Trevor (Nerissa) opened them. One that was sprouting had inside tropical candyfloss. Tastes similar but not as sweet as the fairground variety. It is a creamy colour. The buildings were surrounded by geeps (cross between goats and sheep-looked to have the worst qualities of both to me). Back to the boat for lunch then straight into a good book for several hours before continuing to scrub the decks (blood and fish from yesterday). This was followed by a swim over the bommie again. On my return I was preparing to dive under the boat to check the speedo propeller when I spied a lure being jigged on the other side so I desisted. Laura was fishing. We went to Nerissa for sundowners. Toolka T and Family Express were there too. We borrowed a chart off Nerissa for around Yadua. 8th August. Joy, Laura and I went ashore to show Joy the clams and the turtles. On our way ashore we had stopped at Excalibur and introduced ourselves to Jenny and Mark. We also spoke to Evergreen (there are at least 3 boats bearing the name Evergreen around the South Pacific). Upon our arrival ashore we were greeted by a friendly local lass named Nina. When the clams and turtles are old enough to fend for themselves they are released into the bay. On our arrival back at the boat we saw a turtle swimming near us. I spent the early afternoon fixing the head (again) then Jenny and Mark came for afternoon tea. While they were on board, Omega, Pericon and Episode came in. After our guests left Susannah and I snorkelled over a bommie 50 metres inshore from the boat. We saw some large (2 foot long) leopard fish which are very poisonous. Murray (Episode) caught a crayfish which they had for tea. Spoke to Makani on the evening sked and he told us that this is a marine reserve so no cray fishing is permitted so Murray did not catch a crayfish and they did not eat it for tea. Good Teacher Magazine Term 1 2013 29

There was nothing on the chart to say it is a marine reserve so we’re unsure what their diet entailed. 9th August. Laura and I set off to climb the hill behind the settlement but near the top we found our way blocked by pampas grass. It was a good time together. Laura counted 7 flatmates (squashed toads) on the track. When we arrived back Joy and I snorkelled over the inshore bommie. Joy saw a turtle but it swam away quickly. There were a few fairly large fish around. Sanity and Emotion arrived this afternoon. Joy radioed them to offer advice on entering the reef as the reef is 1/4 mile further W than the chart. They had a different chart so the call was unnecessary. 10th August. Left Makongai bound for Savusavu. Had a great deal of difficulty exiting the reef in the overcast, choppy conditions. The breaking section was very indistinct. We had to retrace our steps once but eventually found a way out. Heading N the reef only slowly sinks below the surface. Once in deep water we raised both sails and made very good speed. The wind was 20 knots from the E. This time we went through Save-Atack Passages. I was up the mast when we went through South Save-A-Tack and took a couple of photos from up in the rigging of the different colours of the reef. I wanted to put a couple of reefs in the main but with the wind coming around the island of Namena we had difficulty with it gusting and swirling. Joy wanted to anchor off the resort overnight but we have heard that we are not welcome ashore here so we continued on under genoa only and located the North Save-A-Tack entrance (exit) and sailed through without trouble. The water immediately outside the reef was deeper than our depth sounder could pick up (285 feet). The water inside the reef had definitely been calmer. There was a 1.5 metre swell although the waves were closer together than outside South Save-A-Tack. As we approached the Point light we could see the red and white ANZ ship coming down from Taveuni. Spoke to Adventurer as we past Cousteau’s Resort. They are heading for Suva tomorrow via Makongai. As we approached Savusavu we were passed by the ANZ ship. It was mooring as we dropped the genoa and motored past. Picked up a mooring on Simon’s instructions by the Eco Divers wharf. It is really a motorboat mooring. After we picked it up we drifted maybe 20 metres before it held. It had such a long line on it in the morning Plain Jane was bumping into one of the Eco Divers boats. It was good to have a shower. Spoke to Bob and Carol (Elyxir) and arranged to meet tomorrow afternoon. 11th August. Joined the morning sked which is now being run by Carol. Spent most of the day restocking. Got money from the bank and bought some more lures. Took the supermarket trolley back to the jetty with a load of groceries then returned it when we picked up the next load. Wrote a letter to my parents and posted a whole 30 Good Teacher Magazine Term 1 2013

lot of mail. Sent faxes to Corina and work (what’s work?). Joined Elyxir on their boat for hamburgers for tea. Had a hot shower again after tea. 12th August. Went ashore to pay mooring fees. Simon (Ahern) seemed genuinely sad to see us go. Filled the water tanks and left with the idea of going to Coconut Point but there was little wind and poor visibility with extensive cloud cover so we again anchored at Cousteau’s. Went aboard Kapalua II (means butterfly) for late morning tea. Enjoyed the company of Len and Pam. They gave us their friendship book to fill in a page. Swam off the boat in the afternoon, and across to Kupere getting their children to row me back after a chat. Laura spent the rest of the afternoon playing with them in the boats, having water fights. 13th August. We returned the friendship book to Kapalua II then left along with Gunsmoke for Coconut Point. We were under power as there was absolutely no wind and no ripples on the water. Out past the light there was only a slight swell and still no ripples on the water. We raised both sails and motor sailed towards the Nasonisoni Passage. When we were about a mile off the passage, just before we doused the sails we were passed by a lone 10 foot whale heading back the way we had come. We couldn’t see the way through the reef and true to what Simon had told us we saw the marker on the far end of the passage before we saw the near one. The pass is 300 metres at its narrowest so it was reasonably easy to negotiate although the starboard side was difficult to see due to the angle of the sun. By this stage Gunsmoke was over a mile behind. Once through the pass they went into the shallow bay to the N and anchored. The marker on the W end has been replaced at least twice that we could see. We raised both sails again and with the motor we made good speed. We spied The Nole to port as we sailed by. It is the only navigational hazard on that section of the voyage. After crossing a large bay 12 miles wide we came across a typical piece of island comedy. In Fiji they have a practical method of navigational marks. The white triangles point upwards and you keep those on the landward side. The black triangles point downwards and one should keep them to seaward. However if a beacon goes missing it may be several years before it is replaced. The chart shows that off Solevu Point there are 3 markers - 2 pointing upwards and one downwards. We came across only 2 and they were both white and both pointing downwards. They were difficult to see with the sun directly in our eyes late in the day. We approached them slowly and cautiously and found that one had broken a bolt and had turned upside down and the other was white because the birds had been sitting on it!! .From there it was only 3 miles to Nambouwalu. We arrived safely and without mishap which is more than could be said for the Jubilee, a coastal ship, which had struck a reef 3 months before and had limped into port where she had settled by the

stern, tied to the wharf. No lives were lost. Her deck is awash. She is being repaired but in typical island manner they have discovered that she is past her use-by-date so after she is refloated they are going to take her out to the reef and sink her. I went ashore and asked a man where I could get a piece of 4x2 timber for my lookout perch. The rope digs in to my feet when I’m aloft and I often wear my jandals up there to ease the discomfit. A man took me to the landward end of the wharf, which is several hundred metres long, where he introduced me to the market manager. He gave me 4 pieces courtesy of the Fijian Government. It’s nice to know that the inefficiencies of bureaucracy and the generosity of the workers transcend international barriers. His kind gesture did a great service to Fijian tourism. I took a photograph of the kind men and they were really happy. I tried sawing notches out of the ends of one baulk with my fishing knife but it was pretty hard going. 14th August. Laura and I went ashore to get the notches sawn. There were a number of trucks along the wharf waiting for the Overlau II which arrived at speed. A small miscalculation would have caused a lot of damage but it slowed down just in time and was pulled alongside without a bump. We met the market manager but didn’t recognise him because he was wearing different clothes. He got another man to saw the timber. It took 2 attempts as the first time he cut it in the wrong places. I met Tim, the ‘fisheries inspector’ and he showed me an easy transit up the coast. We left Nambouwalu at 1000 hours and motored out to the shipping channel a mile from port. I raised the genoa in 20 knots of breeze but it was very difficult to keep filled as the wind was very shifty from astern. Eventually I conceded defeat and dropped it. Within the channel the water was calm and the transit was clear but I stayed up in the rigging for the length of the Thakau Levu reef. It was easy aloft with my new perch. The channel was well marked with beacons. Off a point bearing the attractive name of Naithombothombo Point we turned W towards Yandua and raised both sails. On our approach to the island we saw a local fishing boat going around in circles. It appeared to be dragging a net. Off the NW tip we again encountered some local fishing boats. The island looked pretty dry. Apparently water is being shipped in because of the severity of a drought. On the W side of the island we dropped the sails and motored directly to windward. We found the entrance without difficulty and lined up the lighthouse on the skyline with a compass bearing and slipped gently through the gap between 2 reefs. I was in the rigging again and we went closer to the S side as the book said we should as the S side is steep to and the N arm has of flying rocks. In the bay we found Adana, Hallmark and Delphis. We had lost contact with them for a few weeks. They had been up a river in the bay where Gunsmoke had anchored on the W side of the Nasonisoni Passage. They had gone as far up the river as they

could in their yachts until they ran aground. It was real tropical rainforest and no-one had ever seen a yacht up that river before. In the bay here we were buffeted by the wind with the boats moving around a lot and pulling at their anchors. Late in the afternoon I went across to Adana to view his weather fax. 15th August. Stayed in bed reading until after midday. We were the only boat in the bay as Adana, Hallmark and Delphis left at first light for the N end of Yasawa Island by way of the N side of Pascoe reef. Very brave as large portions of the journey are uncharted. Mid-afternoon Episode, Pericon and Sanity arrived from Nana-nu-i-ra. The anchorage is windier than out in the open sea. However with the wind coming directly off the land the water is not rough. Tea was a big event tonight. Joy cooked the tuna we had caught on the way to Makongai. She was hot from cooking so she went out on deck to cool off. The girls toyed with theirs and said they didn’t like it so I told them not to be so silly and took a few mouthfuls to show them what to do with food. However when my mouth quickly went numb and I developed a headache I realised that something was wrong. My skin, browned after 3 months in the tropics, looked to have a bad case of acute sunburn. I thought I had ciguatera poisoning so I went to the medical handbook and it said to apply ice as a test. I went to the freezer and applied some frozen goods to my chest. True to the textbook, it felt hot, a weird reversal of temperature sensation. My lips were tingling and my heart was pounding too. It is a serious sometimes fatal disease and I thought, judging by the amount I had eaten, that I probably would die. Fortunately I did not exhibit some of the other symptoms such as abdominal cramps and explosive diarrhoea, hallucinations, temporary blindness and nightmares, muscle twitching and respiratory arrest. We were 30 miles from the mainland of Viti Levu and there wasn’t anything they could do anyway so I went to bed expecting not to wake up in the morning. Joy asked what she could do to help so I told her to call an undertaker. ‘No, seriously’ she said. ‘Call 2 undertakers’ I replied and went to sleep. 16th August, I awoke this morning - ALIVE!! Didn’t do much in the morning - just celebrated being alive. Susannah and I went ashore after lunch and went for a short walk along the short beach with the Sanity crew. Susannah, Rebecca and Andy had a swim and Susannah caught a tiny fish with her bare hands. We found a large dead crab on the beach but he resisted our attempts to revive him in the water. He must have been very dead. Emotion came in this afternoon. We saw them sail past. It looked as though they were having some problem with their sails but they eventually arrived. Went to Pericon after dark to check their weather fax for tomorrow but they hadn’t got one.

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17th August. Left Yandua at 0630 hours which was as soon as we could see the reef at the entrance to the bay. The only one awake was Brian on Emotion to see us off. It was good to know someone on earth (water) was watching out for us. We are finally en route for the Yasawas. Graham Shepherd would be envious. The short term forecast is not brilliant. There is a wind warning out for the Northern Yasawas with winds of 20-25 knots SE and moderate to rough seas. However the long term forecast gave no sign of any improvement. We were to learn over the next couple of months that there always seems to be a wind warning out for the Northern Yasawas. I put 3 reefs in the main but left the genoa on deck as we motored into the wind. We spotted the sand cay which was obvious by the waves breaking across it. The water shallowed as we passed it and it was slightly nerve-wracking to see the depth gauge rising. However we were 400 metres from the cay and eventually the depth increased. When we turned from 210°T to 265°T, I raised the genoa. The breeze was again consistent around 20 knots. Midmorning I had a very big strike but just as Joy and Susannah were handing the genoa I lost it. It had been much more powerful than the mahi-mahi we had caught on the way to Makongai. I had 2 other strikes of lesser intensity during the middle part of the day but lost them both. When Rebecca called on the evening sked I told her I’d been playing baseball - 3 strikes and still out of fish. There were a few times when the autopilot was unable to cope with a following sea and we veered 60° off course. After 30 long seconds we would come back on course but being beam on to the intervening swells was quite uncomfortable. As we approached the reef it was disconcerting to discover that the reef was very difficult to see. Bligh Water was certainly living up to its reputation. Up in the rigging I could only make out some parts of the reef. We had deliberately gone far enough S to be sure to turn N when we came up to the reef. In navigation it’s not so important to know where you are as where you are not. The plan was to head N alongside the reef until we encountered the protruding reef of Tivolei. Because of the difficulty of seeing the N-S reef it was difficult to keep a safe distance off. We erred on the side of caution. Hereabouts the GPS may be as much as 1/4 mile out compared to the chart. Travelling N was very uncomfortable in the 2 metre swell in a beam sea. It was only for a couple of miles, but they were slow suspenseful miles. Up in the rigging it was very hard to hold on so I made sure I was harnessed securely each step of the way. Also I got Laura to put on her lifejacket as a precaution. Bligh Water is 200 metres deep and the approach to Tivolei reef is 20 metres deep so by using the depth sounder and GPS we crept slowly forward. We couldn’t see Tivolei Reef at all so with both sails down we eased NW. It was like a blind man feeling with his white cane. Joy and Susannah kept their eyes peeled and I alternated from keeping a lookout up in the rigging to standing at the chart table checking the chart and GPS. Joy also 32 Good Teacher Magazine Term 1 2013

called any changes in the depth. It was the tensest time of the entire trip and it seemed to go on forever. Our view forward was made more difficult by the afternoon sun shining on the choppy water. There was a lot of white water around and every piece of it was suspected of having coral underneath. When we were in the channel the only identifiable marker was Sawa-I-Lau Island which we kept dead ahead. When we were a mile through the Qio Passage the tension eased and we followed the transits given in Michael Calder’s book and found no problem avoiding the rocks. We came into the bay off Nabekeru village. There we found the yacht Pollux with Paul (an Irish New Zealander) and his son Kian on board. The approach to the anchorage was made more difficult by the wind rising to 35 knots and the markers of a reef in the middle of the bay not being very visible until we were only 30 metres away from them. We took 2 attempts to anchor as we dragged too close to Pollux on the first try. The second time we got a good purchase. Relationships were strained for a few hours as we came down from the tension of the afternoon. At times like this even I wonder why I do it. Paul came over for a cup of tea. We were all early to bed. 18th August. Communication difficult with Carol on the morning sked. I went ashore and walked across a sandy beach and around a rocky shore to the village of Tamasua where I met Atecia Neisua. She only had I tooth in her upper jaw. She took the $2 per head off me for visiting the caves of Sawa-I-Lau then she spied the kava roots and requested them. The headman of the village is apparently away on the mainland. I retraced my steps, and then we all went in conjunction with Paul and Kian to the caves. The instructions were pretty vague but once the concrete steps are sighted everything falls into place. The cruise boats no longer visit them because the village chief suddenly put the price way up. Susannah and I had a swim in the cave. It is saltwater. I hadn’t brought the underwater camera so I dropped the family at an adjacent beach where Laura had a swim in the warm clear water and Susannah walked with Kian across an isthmus back to the beach opposite the boat. Then she swam out to the boat. I motored back for the underwater camera then picked Joy and Laura up from the beach before returning to the cave where I again swam out and took some photos. I got attacked by sea lice this time so I didn’t stay in long. Since we have been in Fiji everyone was recommending we should visit the caves but no-one could tell us why. Overall I was disappointed. We were invited to Pollux for a drink but instead we decided to sail around the point to Land Harbour for the night. It is in Nadala bay. Navigated successfully out into the open sea on the W side of Yasawa Island but after several miles realised that the anchorage would be exposed to the NE wind. The swell was also coming from the N. We decided to return to our starting point so retraced our path, dropping our sails and motoring into the bay just ahead of Episode and Sanity who had motored most of the way from Yandua

and had seen the reefs clearly. Episode pulled in a fish just before turning into the bay just to add salt to the wound. The wind had peaked at 8 knots for them. Episode had caught 3 fish from 3 strikes and Sanity had caught 3 from 8 strikes. Sanity had also lost 2 lures and a bucket. After tea Joy went across to Sanity for a cup of coffee. We were sound asleep when she returned. 19th August. Went to the beach where Laura and Joy had a swim yesterday. Went snorkelling but it was somewhat disappointing. I went ashore to the village with Paul (Pollux) and dressed a boil on a man’s leg. It had burst a week ago but it had a large suppurating crater which had flies all over it. I cleaned and disinfected it before applying antibiotic cream and a dressing followed by a bandage to keep the flies off it. I left him with some antibiotic cream and dressings. I guess their poor diet has an immense bearing on their general health too. Weighed anchor late in the morning and Rebecca took a photo of Ruben Jane with the jib up as we ghosted out of the bay. We were still within sight of the anchorage when our best lure got snagged on the bottom because we were going so slowly. Laura freaked and thought we were going aground. I tried sailing back but as we couldn’t position the boat properly we pulled down the sails which caused Rebecca to radio us to find the problem. We started the motor and got right above the snag. It was only 30 feet deep and I should have dived on it but instead I pulled the line until the trace broke. We then sailed down the W coast of Nacula Island. When we were off the Island of Tavewa the instruction book told us to take a bearing on the trig on its summit. There was no trig in evidence. We figured that with all their fires the trig had succumbed. We were also told to turn to port when the island was 0.9 miles away. I was trying to find a height on the chart of the island so I could calculate distance off using VSA but eventually gave up and resorted to the Mark 1 eyeball method to negotiate our way around the reef. I stayed in the rigging as we passed to the N of Tavewa Island and was dismayed to see us passing over the top of a reef only 19 feet down. It is not found on the chart. Fortunately visibility was good with the sun high in the sky behind us. The remainder of the trip was uneventful. All the remaining marks were present and after going around a reef we finally anchored in Blue Lagoon. We went ashore and had a swim and a snorkel in clear water. When we arrived back at the boat a Fijian man came out in his boat. After exchanging greetings he fell silent so I did too. He eventually requested sevusevu. I told him I would present it after talking to David and Janet on Chanticleer. I had heard too many stories of people inveigling some only to have the chief approach the victims and demand his portion. David and Janet said to give it to Va so I went ashore after dark. Va was out fishing but her brother and a few others were already drinking kava. Wukiwuki came along and said she was the Public Relations Officer. I gave the sevusevu and stayed with the kava ceremony for several

rounds. They seemed fairly decent people. I excused myself while I could still stand and returned to the boat for tea. 20th August. A disastrous day. Susannah put the boat up on the reef. We were all heading to shore in Plain Jane and Laura refused to be reef spotter so Joy and I were doing her job. We saw the reef just below the surface and told Susannah to reverse. We were still travelling at walking pace when we hit the coral. There was a lot of staghorn coral. Bedlam!! Laura started advising us and I jumped out onto the coral hurting my left stay at home little piggy. There was no puncture wound or bruise but it hurt for several days. I thought, given the speed of impact, that the inflatable was probably punctured so we raced back to Ruben Jane and I took the outboard off and put the dinghy on deck. By some miracle or good design it was virtually unscathed. However I got very angry at Susannah’s carelessness and spoilt the day for me with anger. I was very angry! The rest of the family went ashore for a while then Joy and I dived on a bommie with a navigation stake on it. Towards sundown Claire gave me a haircut. Then after tea we went over to Chanticleer for drinks as it was Janet’s birthday. 21st August. I found out that the underwater camera had not been winding on so I went back to the bommie visited yesterday and took some more photos. I have missed out on photos of the caves at Sawa-i-Lau. Joy and I went and dived on the white channel marker we had passed on the way in to the anchorage. Laura had a walk with me along the beach where the Blue Lagoon Cruise ships land. On the way back we had a chat to an English backpacker. Just before we returned to the mother ship Laura had a swim and while we played in the water I lost $8 out of my pocket. Back on board I realised what had happened so Laura and I went back to shore and I snorkelled over the area until I found it. It only took a few minutes. Who says being able to calculate leeway doesn’t pay. Then Laura and I went and bounced on a fallen coconut palm that hung over the water. 22nd August. Tony and Yvonne picked me up and we went to Episode to plan today’s trip to Somosomo Bay. When I arrived back Joy was talking to a French couple whose ketch we had seen coming through the Man o’ War Passage, Great Barrier Island back in February. Their steel blue boat has a white whale painted just above the waterline where they were hit by a whale some time ago. We motored out of Blue Lagoon with me up the mast reef-spotting. Susannah went on board Sanity. I must consider myself a failure because I couldn’t spot the rock off Matacawalevu. I must consider myself a success because we didn’t hit it. There were only light E winds and as there was excellent visibility and an extremely low tide there was no difficulty identifying the 2 small reefs abeam the N end of Yaqeta Island. Episode passed through, Good Teacher Magazine Term 1 2013 33

followed by Sanity and we came along in the rear. There is several hundred metres between them and it was noted that it was shallower towards the W reef. The reef at the entrance to Somosomo Bay was also readily identifiable and we let go the anchor in the bay N of Narewa Point. We all went ashore and found the beach covered in sand dollars. There was a solar eclipse at about 1500 hours. The sky was overcast but it got quite gloomy for about 20 minutes. All the adults played petanque. I must be very skilled because I lost both best of three games in two ends. We all had a swim before returning to the boat for the evening. We were hoping to go across the isthmus and dive on a W.W.II spitfire which crashed in 10 feet of water. However according to a native it is now covered in sand. Both Episode and Sanity put out a second anchor. The wind blew from off the land at 20 knots and they discussed keeping an anchor watch overnight. I wasn’t too excited about the idea but said we would do our share. If my anchor can’t stand up to at least 40 knots I should not be here. I think they got scared by stories over the radio about how bad it was in Yandua tonight. BLADE had their dinghy flip whilst moored to the mother ship. Chanticleer is anchored just around the corner off Somosomo village. Janet contacted me asking advice for a baby with cradle cap. The other boats said they would instigate an anchor watch if the wind got up. It didn’t and I had a good sleep. 23rd August. Late in the afternoon we went ashore and I was able to tend to several medical problems in the house of Bill and Luciana (Lucy for short). We also met Sovaia, Bari I and Bari II, Sami, Sikeli, Osea, Kore, Bill, Aluma, Kiti, Peno, Jale, Sunia, Ameli and Evi. There is a high tide mark about a metre up the walls where the last cyclone came to. In this 2 room establishment Bill and Lucy care for 4 children of their own and a further 3 nephews from Lautoka. It is comforting to see them open up their hearts to try to raise decent kids on his fishing income. It is also interesting that the kids prefer living in a remote village to the alternative of Lautoka. One medical case was an infected eye and the other was a gent with a month long history of a stingray barb in his foot which kept erupting. I explored the wound using Emla and a needle but couldn’t find any foreign body. We then went to the chief to give sevusevu (fish heads actually courtesy of Sanity). When the Blue Lagoon Cruises come in they pay the chief $60 per visit. This money supposedly is distributed amongst the villagers for putting on a display. There is little or no tangible evidence of this money being shared. The chief who is a female about 70 years old certainly has a very expensive gold watch with diamonds surrounding the face. The villagers themselves appear very poor, but they are happy. They are experiencing a severe drought with the last rain 10 months ago. The last three kasava crops have failed and they are experiencing some vitamin deficiencies. The Fijian Government is giving them 24 sacks of rice every 2 34 Good Teacher Magazine Term 1 2013

months. Not much for 150 people. After I had been asleep for several hours David from Chanticleer woke me because he had seen a large fire ashore and wanted to offer assistance. He took me along for medical support. Once ashore we found that it was a grass fire. One of the men who met me on the beach had a sore eye so I put some chloromycetin ointment in it and told him I’d return in the morning light when I’d take a good look in it. 24th August. Went ashore with some outboard fuel - all my reserves and a lot from Chanticleer - for Bill. I also had some interesting medical conditions to deal with.:1. The man I had seen last night who had a 2 week history of conjunctivitis; couldn’t find a foreign body so applied some more ointment. 2. Two men with swollen tongues and gums-? allergy so piriton tablets but then realised that it was more likely to be scurvy-how does one see black spots on dark Fijian skin?-encouraged them to eat plenty of seaweed as I couldn’t think of anything else that they had which contained vitamin C. With the drought, it’s about the only greens they have at present; (not many people have seen scurvy so I felt quite honoured); 3.A man who was numb down the fronts of his legs following diving using compressed air one month ago - I suspected a spinal embolism from air or nitrogen. He asked how long before he could dive again so I said to see a doctor in three weeks time and not to snorkel until then. How do you tell a man he can never dive again when this is the only way he knows to feed his family? I later found that there is a decompression chamber in Suva which may have been able to help. We were preparing to depart when the skipper of Skorpion came by and told us that the forecast was again for strong winds. At 1100 hours we decided to sail for Natavalu Bay and check the weather on the way. Sanity and Episode came too. Laura went on Sanity. At the entrance to Somosomo Bay I radioed Chanticleer with the weather and sea conditions. Once around Vakaweitaci Point we hoisted sail. It is a beautiful bay evidenced by Episode and Chanticleer staying for a week. We had to continue on because Laura had been kidnapped. Although we had a good sailing breeze we failed to make any inroads in Sanity’s lead. It was only when Laura came back on board at the end of the day that she told us that they had been motor sailing! This day had some of the most spectacular scenery I saw on the entire trip. The sandy beaches on the W coast of Naviti are where I would return to; mile upon mile of beaches several hundred metres long with rocky promontories either end; I would start at one end and stay a couple of days at each before moving on to the next. Apart from Natavalu Bay, they are all uninhabited and pristine. At about this time I wrote a letter to a friend of mine who wanted to come but was prevented by family commitments. I gave our address as ‘up where the butter melts’ and for the date I inscribed ‘August - I

think!’ He probably hates me now. The mountainous terrain of Waya Island reminded me of the mythical Bali Hai from the film ‘South Pacific’. We headed into Yalobi Bay. On the way in we saw a fairly large turtle. Laura, Susannah and Rebecca went ashore to offer medical assistance (mine). The locals wanted that as well as sevusevu so they can’t have been very desperate. We spent a very rolly night at anchor with no wind but the swell caused the boat to swing all over the place, quite uncomfortable. 25th August. Left Yalobi Bay at 0800 hours after I swam to shore and back for exercise and a wash. We motored to Vuda Point. There was no wind until late in the day. About 2/3 of the way the SE swell stopped and a NW swell developed. Where they came from, I don’t know, because there hadn’t been any weather systems around that we knew about. We had plenty of mail. e. 26th August. Caught the 0700 bus to Lautoka. $1-80 for Joy, Susannah, Laura and me. Looked around for a chart of the Mamanucas. Asked in one bookshop if they had one. ‘No’. ‘Know where I can get one?’ ‘Don’t know’. ‘Is there a hydrographic office in town?’ ‘Don’t know’. ‘Is there any way of finding out?’ ‘Don’t know’. Felt like asking him if he minded me asking him questions but I refrained. Was accosted by a friendly street hawker who gave us some wooden souvenirs and even carved our names on them. When we were about to leave he said he would take a donation so I gave the souvenirs back to him. I was looking for a part for my Coleman’s lantern and found it. They wanted to charge me $42 for the generator. A new lantern beside it was $38. I had broken a filling a week previously (despite having a dental check-up especially before leaving Tauranga) so I went to the dental department of the hospital. It cost me $1 and 2 hours to get a temporary dressing on it. Just outside the hospital gates the Crippled Children’s office is advertising coffins for sale confidence inspiring!! I then went to the other side of town to the Last Stop Restaurant (does that mean you eat and die?). Called in at the Western Districts Medical Offices and told them about the scurvy in Somosomo village. The doctor from the Yasawas was visiting Lautoka so he was notified. When I visited Yalobi Bay I was told that he lives in Somosomo village. I subsequently found he lives in another village on Naviti Island. He is provided free by the Government but the stumbling block is that one must give sevusevu to the chief of his village before one can see the doctor. It makes me angry that their culture is killing them. We then did the grocery shopping and with Tony and Yvonne caught a minivan back to Vuda Point. He charged $10. The going rate for a car is $8. Back at the marina I met an American lass who was looking for the boats Tweed and Maranatha. We put a call on the evening sked for information on their whereabouts but drew a blank. I visited Pollux and Sanity and returned some charts of

the Mamanucas I had had photocopied earlier. 27th August. I finished filling the water tanks and took the washing off the lines before the American lass arrived back so I put out a call on the morning sked again with no response. Trevor and Kay Troughton arrived so after they had met Rebecca and Andy we got underway. We had intended going back to Waya but just after exiting the marina the forecast said 20-25 knots gusting 30 for the Yasawas so we altered course for Malololailai. The wind was beam on but turned more W so just before the Black Rocks we dropped the sails and motored via the channel to Musket Cove. The marker on the end of the reef by the Black Rocks is an aircraft beacon, not a marine one so care must be taken to ignore it or you will go on the rocks. The marine one is only several feet above the water and is very difficult to see. It is also several hundred metres further W. After inspecting the whale painted on the hull of the French boat we all went ashore. All the ladies had a swim while Trevor and I went for a walk. In the rafters of the Yacht Club are carved and written the names of many visiting yachts. We towed Gold Jane back to Ruben Jane just before sunset. We were just about to raise Plain Jane when we were called from Sir Francis. His dinghy had broken free so Trevor and I launched a rescue mission. We caught it half way to the reef. It does the soul good to do something heroic and dangerous (it was neither but I can pretend). We were in bed just after 1900 hours.

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28th August. Spoke to Rebecca and Barnstorm on the morning sked. Barnstorm is only just around the corner in Lokomai resort so we sailed around there in light airs to say ‘Hi’ as we headed N. We were forced to motor sail as the wind grew progressively lighter. We went between Castaway Island and Malolo Island. Tried going over the reef to the W of Mociu (Honeymoon Island) in 25 feet of water but the crew got scared just as we were about to emerge into deeper water so we retraced our steps and went via the channel. With no wind and bright sunlight it had been easy to see the reef. An hour after leaving Lokomai the wind disappeared completely so we took the sails down. Just E of Mana Island is a sand cay I must visit sometime. As we motored past there was only one person visible on it..then 2.....3......4. The crowds always ruin things for me. We were heading to the E of Tavua Island when we sighted Chanticleer and Episode on a reciprocal heading. We swapped addresses with Chanticleer as they are moving on soon. From there it was a straight run through to Yalobi Bay, Waya Island, Southernmost of the Yasawa Group. The only other noteworthy feature was sighting a hammerhead shark about an hour from our destination. Once at anchor Trevor, Kay and I went snorkelling with some of the most vivid colours of coral I have yet seen. Some different coloured cubes looked just like pipe cleaners on one rock. The three of us then went to the house of the Tui Waya (chief) and gave sevusevu. He seemed more interested in the yaqona root than in us but his wife was more accommodating. Still he did give us the freedom of the village which subsequent events showed not to be true. We returned to the boat and had a bit of a rolly night. Still it was quieter than last time we were here. During the night we again heard considerable fish activity. Once when I was awake I took a line in Plain Jane and rowed around the bay. The awesome skyline looked impressive at night too. Again, no fish took my line. 29th August. Trevor and I joined Russell from Pericon for a walk along the beach to inspect a bure that the islanders had been building yesterday. While we were viewing it a large lady in her fifties came and invited us to a display/performance at 4pm when the Captain Cook Cruise ship comes in. We asked her if there was any charge and she said ‘No’. Brian from Windermere II came on board in the afternoon and gave us our monthly ICA newsletter, the rope clutch he had taken to Auckland and some photos of the Savusavu regatta. When the square rigger bringing the tourists arrived we all went ashore and walked to the bure. When we arrived we were told by a native man dressed in traditional dress that there would be a $10 per person charge. We told him that we had been told that there would be no charge but he insisted. We slowly moved away resolving not to pay but to go snorkelling instead. Brian and Joan were rowing

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ashore to the bure so I called to them (loudly) and told them that the islanders were not honourable. To my satisfaction he called back seeking clarification so I was able to explain at length, loudly, our intense displeasure at the insult. We went snorkelling instead but the sun was disappearing behind the hills so the light wasn’t as good as previously. We only stayed in about 10 minutes and when we emerged the square rigger was well out in the bay, leaving after the performance. We were glad we hadn’t forked out $10 each for a performance that only lasted such a short time. On the evening sked Rebecca told us she had picked up the mail from Vuda Point for us. 30th August. Trevor and I went for a snorkel. I took the camera and took several underwater photos but the light was from the wrong direction. Then we sailed up the W coast of Waya to show our guests the stark skyline. Opposite the Octopus Club we turned upwind towards Navandra Island. The breeze got up to 13-20 knots but in spite of several large tacks we made only slow progress. There appeared to be a contrary current so when we were still a mile short of Eori Island we lowered the sails and motored. I was up in the rigging as we went past Eori Island and was alarmed to see coral bommies just under our keel. I urgently asked Joy how deep it was. 114 feet she replied!!! The water clarity is amazing. With clarity like that we had no difficulty getting into the lee of Navandra Island. Getting ashore was a problem as it is shallow for 50 metres offshore. The snorkelling was awesome with great water clarity and big drop-offs. The fish were almost all similar to others we had seen before but were about twice as big. Joy, Susannah and I swam back to the boat and Kay, Trevor and Laura came back in Plain Jane. Spoke to Marty on Makani. Marty and Noelene are in Rotuma visiting relatives. That is a few hundred miles N of here. 31st August. Late in the morning we took both dinghies over to the island of Navandra (we had been snorkelling on the island of Vanua Levu - yes another one). Trevor was incensed at how the coral was being destroyed. A lot of it is covered in fine coral dust. We also saw some Crown-of-thorns starfish. These are the first specimens we have seen. They too are destroying coral. Jan from Pacific Flyer came on board. She and her husband are Australians who are just finishing a circumnavigation after 9 years travelling. She arrived on a surf ski so the girls played with that while the adults chatted. Mid afternoon Joy and I rowed ashore. We arrived on the isthmus in a hurry as there was 1/2 metre swell running. Trevor and Kay arrived shortly afterwards in Plain Jane. We saw Barnstorm and Prelude II come into the bay and Roy and Margrit came ashore too. Again there was a beautiful sunset. The trip on the Ruben Jane continues in the next issue of Good Teacher Magazine

Lovely Shetland Ponies Dressed in Sweaters to Promote Scotland In order to promote tourism in the country, the National Tourist Board of Scotland dressed a couple of Shetland ponies in colorful knitted cardigan sweaters and did a little photoshoot. Fivla and Vitamin wore the custom-made red and brown sweaters, knitted by a local knitter Doreen Brown who made them out of Shetland wool. The success of the campaign was beyond expectations!

The ponies were chosen as a local symbol because of their Shetland Isles origin. This breed ranges from 28 to a maximum of 42 inches in height and is known not only for their heavy coats, but also for being quite intelligent. Because of the harsh conditions on the Shetland Isles, the ponies have evolved into strong and hardy species. “We were looking for a photo which encapsulated Scotland’s stunning natural landscapes, highlighted somewhere a little off the beaten track, and included some true Scottish locals to reflect what this year offers to visitors,” said Visit Scotland to Huffington Post. “Shetland, and in particular Shetland Ponies, instantly sprang to mind.” The campaign is a part of the Year of Natural Scotland 2013, aimed to celebrate the amazing historic and natural landscapes, stunning wildlife, nature-inspired art and local food and drink of the country. Website: visitscotland.com

Good Teacher Magazine Term 1 2013 37

Totally Novel Tents

Camping just got a lot more fun with FieldCandy’s limited edition designer tents. They are not only well made but they come with the coolest digitally printed designer flysheets that I’ve ever seen. You’ll definitely stand out at your campsite with one of these, which is exactly what they are designed for. They partner with various artists to create the designs and each one comes with a tag saying what number in the edition your tent is. Once that particular design sells out, they are gone. You can even log on...and watch the counter on the website that’s next to each design to see how many are left.

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Imagine a campng ground filled with these?

Caroline Williamson is Associate Editor of Design Milk. Read more at Design Milk:Â http://design-milk.com/ get-out-fieldcandy-tents/#ixzz2IHKSt2oN Good Teacher Magazine Term 1 2013 39

Beginning this school year Bruce Hammonds http://leading-learning.blogspot.co.nz

Teaching is one profession where there is no shallow end.

Introducing personal narrative writing.

From day one you are presented with up to thirty plus young individuals for you to shape into a learning community; and every class community will be different. Even experienced teachers have second thoughts about starting a new class as at the end of the year they will have left students who have learnt to work with each other and their teacher. Good advice is for teachers to do fewer things well and to continually diagnose what each individual can do and, where there are gaps in skills or understanding, teaching the missing information. Positive attitudes for, or ‘feelings for’, the particular learning experience are the key to successful learning. Teachers need to negotiate with their students as much as possible to ensure empowerment or a sense of ownership and then to hold students to completing what they have agreed to do to develop a sense of responsibility. Thankfully students are easily trapped by their innate curiosity if what is put in front of them appeals. The challenge for teachers is to think up ways to tap into this sense of curiosity in all learning areas. Educationalist Jerome Bruner has written that teaching is ‘the canny art of intellectual temptation’. Teaching students to ‘seek, use and create’ An important phrase of the New Zealand Curriculum is for each student to ‘seek, use and create their own knowledge’. This requires a personalised approach helping each learner at their point of need. The whole purpose of education is to help every learner develop a powerful learning identity, a strong sense of self, of being a valued and worthwhile person. This involves the teacher really listening to their students’ questions, ideas and concerns. With such a vision in mind teachers can slowly, as students develop skill, pass greater responsibility to their students. Some activities to consider to begin the school year: First impressions count and the students’ parents will be waiting to hear from their children what their teacher is like so it is important not to leave it to chance. 40 Good Teacher Magazine Term 1 2013

A learning community - diverse individuals working together.

A good idea is to begin by introducing yourself to your students with a small potted history of yourself and share one personal experience that you had over the holidays. The students can then use this model (or ‘scaffold’) to write up something similar to share with you or even, in small groups, with each other. It is a good idea for then to write a draft, or make a mind map, before they start - and this also you can model. Get them to ‘mind map’ the things they did over their holiday and get them to pick the most memorable. Get them to imagine they are back in the experience and to write as if they were there – what the felt, heard at the time. If they choose a large idea like a visit to Auckland get them to focus on the best thing e.g. being stuck on the motorway. Keep this reasonably short and ask them for their best writing - this will give you an idea of their personal best they bring with them. Think of continuing this personal narrative writing throughout the year as a weekly occurrence completing one from idea, draft to realisation once a week in a writing journal. This is an excellent way to let students know you value their experiences and for them to develop a learning identity. Define a powerful learner. Another idea is to start with a discussion with your class of what makes a powerful learner. Work through the introductory pages of the NZC with them and develop with them an image of a great learner and a great class - a true learning community of inquirers ‘hunting’ for meaning in their tasks. Such a

community requires rights and obligations (agreed behaviours) for both the teacher and the class members to hold themselves to. The powerful learning attributes you develop with your class ( ‘merged’ with the NZC ‘key competencies’) can then be referred to, as required, to ensure students keep them in mind so they see the point of whatever they are learning. Revise the school Vision and Values. You might like to have ‘mini lesson’ on the school vision, mission and values and what they mean if they are available. This could be developed later into a class treaty of expectations and positive behaviours and linked to a ‘mini study’ on the Treaty of Waitangi. If so it is a good idea to get them to draft out, or mind map, their ‘prior views’ about the treaty. After this done students can complete research to clarify their knowledge. This could result in a class ‘treaty’ of agreed behaviours. Survey your students’ attitudes toward learning areas. Developing a love of learning and developing a ‘feeling for’ each area is vital. Get the class to complete an informal survey of attitudes, or feelings, towards all aspects of the school curriculum. The results can be compared with another survey at the end of the year as an important assessment tool. Ask students to show their interest using a one to five scale or sad or smiley faces. Complete the survey in front of the class to show then your attitudes when you were their age. Also show them how you have improved over the years – the ‘message’ is that attitudes can be changed Assess drawing skills.

To complement their personal narrative writing a small portrait of themselves could be completed If this were to be done them students may need to be taught the skills of being a ‘powerful’ drawer. Some students will have already decided that they are not artists and, if so, this is a chance to change their minds. One idea is to get them to complete a selfportrait on a small piece of paper with without instruction (noting their ‹prior› skills) and then after this has been completed guiding them (‘scaffold’ them) through the process. The ‘secret’ is to get them to ‘look –draw – look’ and not to draw from memory. This is a chance to introduce the idea of quality. One idea to develop students drawing or illustrative skill is to base their drawing on a digital photo of themselves - possibly doing something exciting during their holidays. If so get them to focus on the dramatic aspects, or close up views, not long distance shots. Combine their portraits with some holiday action perhaps holding a fish or some food for example. Get them to include as much texture, or details, as they can. Another idea is to get some school journals and for students to select an illustration they like and to copy it possibly into their language book. It is useful for them to copy only part of the drawing to introduce the idea of focus. When complete add the artist’s name. This is an excellent language activity and illustrates to the students’ wide range of artists styles and genres to learn there are lots of approaches to being an artist from the real to the bold. This is a fun activity to use whenever new journal arrive. Literacy and Numeracy blocks Literacy blocks (and maths where possible) ought to focus on providing the research skills necessaryto undertake in depth inquiry studies. All too often these blocks become the focus of teaching rather than being seen as a means to an end – self managing learners – able to ‘seek, use andcreate’. Observational drawing. Observational drawing, a vital science/art skill, is a good activity to get students to do. (http://leading-learning.blogspot. co.nz/2009/09/importance-of-observation. html) Once again get them to draw an object (kawakawa leaves are great) without instruction to assess their ‘prior skill’ and then instruct them to draw carefully, to go slow, and to take their time. The two efforts can then compared .If you are planning a small environmental study to start the termthen this skill can be put to use. A ‘mini study’ of cicadas is one idea, or shells collected from the

Slowly develop the idea of improving personal best Good Teacher Magazine Term 1 2013 41

Exercise books as portfolios.

Observational art as part of bush study seashore during the holidays. Wild flowers, grasses or a flax study are all possible ‘mini studies’ studies. Survey the gifts and talents of your class. The future of your students will depend on the individual set of gifts and talents that they have. All too often schools do not place enough attention focusing on each learners unique talents. One idea is to introduce your students to the eight intelligences of Howard Gardner and to get students toindicate their current strengths. List and explain the intelligences and demonstrate to the class your own profile. Also indicate area you would like to improve. Have the children complete their own profiles. This could be done at home with parental help and also be discussed during the first patent teacher meeting. This activity could be repeated at the end of the year to note changes. Maths For maths a good idea is to get them to research the history of number development through the ages. You could cover how different cultures have their own number system – in particular the Maori number system. Find out who developed the zero and why it is so important. It is important to humanize maths if all students are to gain a ‹feeling for› the subject. Famous mathematicians can be researched. It pays to keep maths as applied as possible. Writing Assess their handwriting abilities by getting them get them to write out their full name and address, members of their family and pets they own.One idea to consider in the first few weeks is to research the development of writing from cave drawing to word processors. The history of writing, and the various writing media, is a fascinating one.

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All students buy an expensive set of exercise books to begin the year. Some schools I know have ‘reinvented’ these books as portfolios as the year progresses they ought to show qualitative improvement (the Japanese call this continual small improvement ‹kaizen›). The first few days of school are the time to introduce students to this expectation of continual improvement. It is agood idea to introduce them to some simple graphic presentation/layout/ designideas. It is also a good idea to aim that, by Easter, all books ought to show improvement. In the schools that have developed their books as portfolios all books are sent home before parent interviews for their comments and later to discuss during interviews. Developing a programme for the class Before you start the years map out a programme for day and week one. If you are in a proactive school your fellow team members will provide you with ideas to include. Share your daily plan with the students at the beginning of the day. At the end of the day (and possibly after each activity) have a reflective session to clarify what has been learnt. One idea is at the end of the day to discuss with the class the three main things learnt during the day - their mothers will want to know! Give a ‘message’ of the need for quality. The overall ‘message’ you want to leave with them is that you want them to do their best work - to aim for quality; that you want then to value their own ‘voice’, experiences, questions and ideas; to value their individuality and creativity. This is the essence of a learning community. Slowing the pace of work. Best of all by ‘slowing their pace of work’ (many students will arrive with a ‹first finished is best› attitude) will help them to value perseverance and effort and to contributing to the development a concept of personal excellence. The value of doing fewer things well. Even if you don’t use all the above suggestions they all remain available for later use. It is important to appreciate the value of doing fewer things well in depth. Plenty of ideas to think about – you will no doubt have many of your own to add. Remember the best sources of ideas are your fellow teachers.

Mathematics Applied to Urban Elements Street Art by Aakash Nihalani

Walking the streets and stumbling across a work of Aakash Nihalani can mean a wonderful disruption. Blending mathematics into day to day life led the artist into the fun and playful world of ingenious street art. Entitled Sum Times and discovered on This is Colossal, the carefully executed projects below exude originality. Artist Aakash Nihalani usually creates (modern) art using neon-colored tape in various geometric forms, which is also the case in the works depicted by the photos below.

Everyone can spot simple mathematic formulas in day to day life, but few are those who take advantage of them in a professional purpose. With the help of inspired street art, old building can look cheerful and garbage cans can make one think of something else other than waste. Have a look at how the artist managed to transform some otherwise depressing urban landscapes into creative ones and let us know your thoughts on this particular initiative.

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Street Art by Aakash Nihalani appeared first onFreshome.com.

The answers for the Science Puzzle are: Achieved Sea water Merit Polar bear Excellence Water (H to O) Scholarship Policemanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s overtime (copper night rate) Good Teacher Magazine Term 1 2013 45

SCIENCE PUZZLE #2

Chemical formulae by FRED

This is an internally assessed achievement standard in Puzzle Solving Level 2 Work out name of the substance with the given formulae Print your answers in the box provided. Group work is encouraged. Each puzzle is worth 1 credit. Time: all afternoon

ACHIEVED

CH2O

EXCELLENCE

HIJKLMNO

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MERIT

Be+ Ar-

SCHOLARSHIP

Cu(NO3)2

When does tagging become graffitti, become street art, become valued and priceless?

Large Photo Essay on â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Street Artâ&#x20AC;? coming in Term Two Good Teacher Magazine...uploaded first day of term two.

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“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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