Matt, James, Ben, Andrew and Joe about to leave Ashburton

This week I have been taught a powerful lesson – a lesson in commitment, endurance and citizenship – by 5 young men who I am proud to call students of the school I work in and proud to know personally as friends of my son (one of the 5). 3 of them, Matt Jopson, Joe Langley and Ben Connor (all 17 years old) decided about 8 weeks ago to plan and train for a bike ride from Ashburton to Invercargill to raise money for the Prostate Cancer Foundation of NZ. They asked my son, Andrew Robertson, and another friend, James Smith (both 18) to be their support crew and the drivers of the lead and trail pilot vehicles.

The boys set about planning this venture with purpose and clarity of vision. They sought and acted on advice from
experts: cyclists who’d done this sort of thing before, LTSA, adults who had driven pilot vehicles for cyclists before, and people who knew about the training and nutritional requirements to support their plan. They set up an online donation page, they talked to newspapers and radio stations and, first and foremost they talked to the Prostate Foundation to pitch their idea and see  if this organisation was ok with being the beneficiary of their efforts. Needless to say, the Prostate Foundation is thrilled – young men doing something selfless for others; mainly older men you could say.

The boys planned the timing carefully. They worked out the time they’d need to prepare and still be able to beat the upcoming southern winter and leave themselves time to prepare for their internal school examinations. They couldn’t wait ’til spring – they
have NCEA Level 3 to achieve and holiday jobs to raise money for their university plans. And, young men being young men, they had a compelling imperative to get on with it while their enthusiasm and motivation to succeed was immediate and therefore extremely high.

Schools along the wayhave given them lunch - delighted to welcome and support role models such as these. Businesses have generously offered them sponsorship through provision of equipment, nutritional supplements and even replacement tyres after two punctures north of Oamaru on the 2nd day! Family members alongthe  journey have provided them with beds and food. This has truly become a community project.

Their parents have shown them the immense respect of letting them be in charge of this venture; supporting them and advising them when necessary, but allowing them to take complete ownership of their great adventure. In this age of “blackhawk” parenting and micromanaging by parents and schools of the daily lives of young people, I also stand in admiration of these parents for
stepping back to let their sons step up.

Today, day 4, the cyclists have had to grind it out; tired and extremely sore, over the rolling hills from Dunedin to Gore. Tomorrow they ride to Invercargill to be met by the mayor and, hopefully, a whole new group of generous donors whose support for
the Prostate Foundation is all the reward these boys are looking for.

Young men working together and in support of each other in order to help others – it doesn’t get any better than this. They will remember this experience and the things they have learnt from it about themselves and what they are capable of, for the rest
of their lives. (unlike last week’s English lesson which has probably already been consigned to the “trash bin” of their memories!)

This week
I, and others, have been given a powerful lesson in managing self,
participating and contributing, thinking and relating to others; a powerful
lesson in community, integrity and respect.

Please consider sharing this story among your networks and supporting Matt, Joe Ben and their
support team, by donating to the Prostate Cancer Foundation of New Zealand on

http://www.everydayhero.co.nz/raging_bulls

This week I have been
given a powerful lesson…

This from a lighter moment at ELS12:

Hi folks, if you have not yet used your school gmail account, here is a quick vid tutorial on how to do this.

Kind of a cool summary of the differentiation rationale

Differentiation is the educational catchphrase of the 2010s – or it seems that way to me.  It is possible for me to go back through my teaching career and track by decade key “movements” in professional development initiatives and  understandings about how our students’ learning might best be supported. In the 1980′s my school was trialling a “new curriculum” and structuring the junior timetable to allow junior students to experience breadth in their curriculum. In the 1990′s we moved on to accelerated learning strategies and “ learning styles” – the aural, the visual and the kinaesthetic. This saw attention being paid to the classroom’s physical environment and we all became concerned with thirst as a new generation of students were encouraged to bring water bottles to class.  By the 2000′s we were looking for ways to “move the middle” and the idea of students working together was formalised under the label ”co-operative learning”. And here we are now grappling with “differentiation” in the classrooms of the 2010′s.  The thing about differentiation is, that in fact it provides the umbrella under which we can  shelter myriad elements of effective pedagogy – including those that have gone before.  if we get to know our learners as individuals; by analysing data, by forming good relationships with our students, by learning about their diverse cultural  contexts, then we are well positioned to effectively ‘differentiate’ our teaching.  If we add to that, professional development and learning about strategies we can use in our classrooms to better meet the diverse needs of these students we have come to know, then we are well down the road to providing differentiated instruction.  These are the elements which allow us to provide the quality of dialogue and feedback which will enable us to move all our students from where they are now in their learning to the next place(s) they need to get to.  High quality formative assessment practices are enablers to effective differentiation.  At least, this is how it seems to me.

To be honest, if you look beyond the jargon and don’t get sidetracked by the cynicism of,  “Haven’t we tried this before?”  “Isn’t this just the latest fad?” we can find power in the idea that in one word we can bring all of these powerful learning approaches, as well as others together, and take the best of well-established research evidence to glean the most effective and relevant tools to enhance our teaching, build on the toolbox of pedagogical knowledge at our disposal and continue a cycle of improvement which can only be of benefit to our students.  Most of us teach because we are passionate about learning; our own as well as that of our students.

Follow the links to my studyblue flashcards to help revise language terms before NCEA exams. You can even download an app for your smartphone so you can revise anytime, anywhere.

Imagery

Vocabulary

Structure

Parts of Speech

sounds

This Beautiful Mind Revision prezi might help you with notemaking and memorising as you prepare for your external NCEA examination.

HI everyone, if you are finding it hard to  get motivated to make revision notes for committing vital information to
memory, here is an online tool that might just help.  It is a website that  lets you make flashcards – can be printed or used on the computer – or even  accessed through a free app that can be downloaded to smartphones.  It’s  free and is simple to use.  I have been experimenting with it to check it  out after seeing a recommendation of it on an education website. (I  actually
downloaded the app to phone first then went online to start creating flashcards  in computer is just  fine.

The address is:  http://www.studyblue.com/  then just register and get on with it.  The process of actually creating
the flashcards is a great way to get thinking about the material being studied  and is also the start of committing it to memory for later retrieval – in an examination.

For English, these would be useful things to make flashcards  of:

• language terms (writing techniques) from
  toolboxes and glossaries students have been given through year + definition + eg
  from texts studied
• Key quotes + characters who said them and what
  they mean/ why they are important
• Important characters + facts and qualities (what
  they are like) + egs
• Main ideas from texts +  quotes which sum
  them up

The best idea is to have one aspect/thing per  flashcard.  You can even add a voiceover explanation or video if you have a
microphone and/or webcam for your computer and learn better by listening.

Happy revising.

Speech competitions are coming up for all levels so don’t forget to ask your English teacher for the topics for your year level.  Keep an eye on the notices too as they will have details about run-offs etc.  This little vid might inspire some of you!

40 inspirational speeches in 2 minutes

Kia ora tatou, Have a look at the Y11 page to find links to class docs – worksheets, practice questions, notes etc.  Just beginning to build this doc file so you can access our class learning from home.

Ms Mac