She puts her faith in the moment - outsiders (Suede)

The Mojo magazine covermount CD that is
next to my device as I typed this post.
Seemed appropriate for this one.

Cultish (Amanda Montell) continues to fascinate me in its look at how words, jargon and language use can create a specific world of insiders and outsiders.

Every school I've been in has had its own language, including a plethora of acronyms. When I worked for OneSchool Global they even had to publish a dictionary of acronyms for the induction of new staff. The dictionary also had its own acronym.

I'm joining a new staff in early 2026 and I'm sure there will be a lot of language/ acronyms/ jargon terms that I will need to learn, and use, to move from outsider to insider.

Induction takes place at the end of January and I'm looking forward to it immensely.

It is better to look ahead and prepare than to look back and regret (Jackie Joyner-Kersee)

I used the title quote about this time last year. It's relevant again as I look forward to joining a new school for 2026.

To help prepare, I'm reading a few texts that I'll be using next term. Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell is the book I brought with me to my in-law's place for Christmas in New Plymouth.

It's interesting on a few fronts, having just read a book about NZ cult Gloriavale, having worked in Plymouth Brethren schools, and being about to work in another special character school.

It's also interesting to consider the wider applications of cults in other contexts - including a political one, and how language influences actions. Montell - “Totalitarian leaders can’t hope to gain or maintain power without using language to till a psychological schism between their followers and everyone else.”  

I'm looking forward to having some meaty discussions around this with my new students.

Failure is not the opposite of success; it's part of success (Arianna Huffington)

 

Photo by charlesdeluvio on Unsplash

Oh, teachers are my lessons done? I cannot do another one (Leonard Cohen)

Boys are trying enough to human patience, goodness knows! but girls are infinitely more so, especially to nervous gentlemen, with tyrannical tempers, and no more talent for teaching than Dr. Blimber.

Louisa May Alcott in Little Women

Meditate often on the swiftness with which all that exists and is coming into being is swept by us and carried away (Marcus Aurelius)

Photo by Georg Eiermann on Unsplash

Change is constant.

Recently, I heard a friend say, "I hate change".

To me, that is like saying, "I hate life", because change is constant. To get upset by change is to wrongly assume that stability is possible.

Schools are incredibly unstable places - every period is different, the students are different each day (not just behaviourally, but physically, and academically). The periods change at the end of every hour. There's a change-over and a new set of students arrives. Every day is different. In schools people come and people go constantly. Every year staff come and go, every student advances to a new year level. We are in a constant state of flux in a school.

No man steps in the same river twice (Heraclitus) - because the river has changed and so has the man.

I am in the process of a change to a new school. I am mindful that every school is different. I embrace that idea and I am excited by the prospect of having to learn new ways, meet new people, teach new students. That gives me a strong sense of purpose.

Some of my students and colleagues may have struggled to understand why I have changed schools. I loved my job, why would I change?

My former head of department said in his farewell speech to me that - at this point, "Warren has earned the right to go and do whatever he wants to".

I embrace the idea that everything is change, and in the end, it doesn't really matter because I can't control change. Yes, I made a conscious decision and applied to a different school, but I didn't control the outcome. Events have conspired to indicate that the time is right to change to a different place.

At this point, it feels right to go with that flow.

To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe (Marilyn vos Savant)

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Next year I am taking the Purdzilla Show across town to a new school - Iona College.

I am very aware that scrutiny will be high (plenty of first impressions) and the need for relationship building will be at the forefront of my thoughts once again. 

I will also be observing, careful not to weigh in with my opinions too quickly. No one likes a clever Trevor, do they?

The above quote from Marilyn vos Savant is spot on - I will be studying, definitely, but mostly I will be observing the culture; looking for all of those unspoken rules that underlie what is done around a school.

It will be fascinating to compare the Woodford Way to the Iona Way. I was introduced to the concept of 'Sits' recently - this is the name for the year level common rooms at Iona. Fabulous. I'll be keen to observe how they operate.

My antennae will be on high twitch mode in my first weeks of next term as I begin my induction into the Iona Way.

The results you achieve will be in direct proportion to the effort you apply (Denis Waitley)

This week marks the end of my time on the staff at Hastings Boys' High School. It's been real!

Thanksgiving was last week in America and I have a lot to thank Hastings Boys' for.

Thanks for the opportunity to get back into the classroom full-time. It's what I needed.

Thanks to the boys I've taught for their warm acceptance and generosity. I'm going to miss the handshakes and the playful sass. It's been fun.

Thanks to my colleagues on the staff - akina! respect! I've loved working in the English/maths block with people who have become friends. We've shared many laughs!

This week, it will be, as Robbie Robertson says at the end of The Last Waltz: Thank you, goodnight, goodbye.

I am a cage, in search of a bird (Franz Kafka)

In New Zealand, at the moment, our Ministry of Education seems to make stuff up in the morning and announce it later that day on TV news.

Earlier this year, Erica Stanford (our Minister of Education) announced via the media that AI was being used in marking students' scripts for literacy and numeracy credits in NCEA. Who knew? It was never discussed. Apparently, we are world leaders in this, according to Erica. Did I miss something in the fine print? If I did, so did all of my colleagues at school. This has now been accepted as fact.  

Recently, we found out via an official notice and the media at the time that the government was eliminating NCEA. Did I miss the consultation on this as well? Nope. 

Seems Erica will listen to a few Principals when they agree with her, but ignore all the noise from an opposing viewpoint.

Now school boards of trustees are no longer legally required to consider the Treaty of Waitangi ("give effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi" in Ministry speak). Where did this come from? It has a strong whiff of David Seymour and his ACT party about it. NZ voters did us no favours lumping us with his smarminess.

Luckily, school boards have a lot more sense than Erica and they are rejecting this instruction in droves. I am proud that Hastings Boys' High School is amongst the schools that are posting letters on social media indicating they'll ignore this nonsense.

Two weeks ago, I attended a Kafkaesque curriculum information session during a Teacher Only Day. We (a hundred or so English teachers) were told by ministry promulgators that 'we don't know what the curriculum will look like [in the senior school], but you should prepare for it anyway'. I laughed. They were serious. The day was given to us by the government to consider the curriculum.  

We live in strange times when quasi government officials join us in the fog, government ministers use Trump's chaos theory to rule us, policy is announced via the media, teachers and nurses and doctors and firefighters have to strike to have any kind of voice, and National supporters wonder what all the fuss is about.

Could we please have some consistency (improve NCEA/don't junk it), normal routines (meaningful consultancy) and order (not chaos) restored to NZ educational practices.

That isn't too much to ask for, is it?

In a school carried on by sheer cruelty, whether it is presided over by a dunce or not, there is not likely to be much learnt (Charles Dickens in David Copperfield))

TV One news 18th November 2025: David Seymour is asked, "Isn't it possible to do both, you can uphold the treaty while also still prioritising academic achievement?" 

His response, "Well actually if you do one thing by definition you can't do another thing at the same time."

Woh. Genius! Standing ovation!

So, it's one thing and that one thing is academic achievement. Full stop. And quite right too!!

It's about time someone like DS spoke the truth.

According to David Seymour (the associate Minister of Education, thank goodness) you can't, by definition, do two things at once.

So, if it's academic achievement full stop - extra-curricular activities must cease, right?

That means getting rid of any activity at a school pursued in addition to the normal course of study. Because, 'you can't do another thing at the same time'. 

That means no music, no sport (NCEA PE is safe for now), no clubs, no cultural activities, no games (debating would be fine but no chess), no fringe hobby subjects like cooking and the like, no art. 

The popular saying - all work and no play makes David a dull boy would have to go, and about time.

Far too many resources, far too much teacher time, and loads of precious student time is spent away from class on sport in New Zealand. Just academic achievement. What an enlightened view - NZ will once again be the envy of the world! Let's make NZ great again!!

I fully support this sincere attempt to bring back a Dickensian style school system.

Oh, and here's an idea - while you're at it Mr Seymour - let's bring back the birch!

True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country (Kurt Vonnegut Jr)

Photo by moren hsu on Unsplash

Each school I have worked in has been its own unique world. More accurately, each school has been like a different country.

Each with its own borders, cultures, languages, government, traditions, dress, rituals, and routines.

There are leaders, and an overall leader. There are financial controllers, and there are people to be governed.

When you leave one country and travel to another one, there are protocols to observe.

Schools are endlessly fascinating places. 

Politicians don't really get that. They think every school is the same; they think teachers are all the same; they think students are all the same. They think parents are all the same. 

So, they devise curriculums and rules that are standardised and homogenous. For them - in an effort to control, they think one size fits all.

That's a fatal flaw in their thinking.

Won't you roll away the stone (Mott the Hoople)

Lame duckhood. I'm familiar with the feeling. It's that weird twilight zone area between leaving a job and taking up a new one.

It's about fighting the checked out feeling and planning for the next role. It's also about putting up with a lot of stick. I'm moving from a traditional boys' school to a very prestigious girl's school across town, so the genial banter has been relentless.

As I write this, my senior classes are on study leave, and with only two junior classes to teach I now have time to tidy up all of my resources, start taking my personal stuff home, and looking at how I can safely take down my Beatles, Arsenal, Star Wars posters (my passions have remained constant).

That's happening while completing the junior teaching programme, completing my appraisal for the year, and continuing to be here now.

You can do magic (America)

Photo by Nhia Moua on Unsplash

Senior prizegiving happened last Friday and, as always, it was a terrific way to send the senior students off to their external exams or summer holiday jobs. This was my second one at Hastings Boys' High School.

I'm a big fan of the pomp and ceremony that goes with school prizegivings. Seeing boys going across the stage receiving awards, wearing the academic gown, processing to the stage, the kapa haka performance, hearing the old boy speeches - all that stuff! It's magical. 

Although many walked the stage, prizes went to the most deserving. That makes them personal and meaningful. I've always seen prizegivings as an intrinsic reward for success, rather than a motivating factor for others. Although, healthy competition for prizes isn't a bad thing as far as I'm concerned.

Many are called, but few are chosen.

We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey (Kenji Miyazawa)

Photo by Miltiadis Fragkidis on Unsplash

For Year 13 students, part of leaving school is to indulge in 'pranks' during their last days.

Usually, these are creative and fun jokes at the expense of fellow students and teachers. We get that - it's a release of tension and we sigh with a sense of nostalgia, admiration for their cleverness, and acceptance when they happen. 

Unfortunately, sometimes a prank can start out harmless enough, but then quickly turn things in a nasty and malicious direction. This happened at our school this week. 

The school's values and my pirate code were trashed along with the school as good people did nothing, standing idly by, or were involved in some way. 'Do the right thing, now' was quickly forgotten by people I liked and respected.

No amount of 'they're only teenagers' can repair the hurt delivered to some of my friends and colleagues.

The whole incident has left a sour taste to the end of the year.

So say goodbye - it's independence day (Bruce Springsteen)

Photo by Michael Barnes on Unsplash

This post is for my departing Year 13 students as they head off into their final study break on Friday and then, after external exams, onwards into the rest of their lives away from school.

According to Ryan Holiday we have two tasks in life: to be a good person and to pursue the occupation that you love. Joseph Campbell puts that second one very succinctly - 'follow your bliss'.

They're right. Everything else is a waste of energy and a squandering of your potential.

As teenagers, you're still in the learning to be a good person process. Your teenage years are a time for testing things out. Your next ten years are when you need to figure out both of those tasks for real.

Ryan's advice is worth keeping in mind as you go forth:

• Say no to distractions
• Say no to destructive emotions
• Say no to outside pressure.

I wish you all good luck as you go about figuring out how to live.

I've been breaking my back, I ain't givin' it up (Split Enz)

With only a handful of classes left now until the seniors leave on their study break for the external exams, I thought they'd probably benefit from some advice from their peers.

I'm going to show these to my senior students and see what they reckon. I'll report back on their thoughts.

Don't know much trigonometry (Sam Cooke)

Photo by Akshay Chauhan on Unsplash

My third deep dive into past posts regarding revision for exams.

3 NCEA External exams are imminent.

This means three things to teachers and invigilators the world over.

One - revision sessions for the exams



Two - Exam supervisions



and Three - a seemingly endless marking grind (reading the same stuff over and over again makes my brain hurt).

How did it come to this?



Ha ha - oh yeah, I forgot!

You don't want to flunk like a fool (revisited) (Loudon Wainwright)

Time to revisit a few old posts on this topic. The first I wrote in 2013 when I was working at Woodford House. The second is from 2017 when I was at OneSchool Global. I think they are still relevant for my students at Hastings Boys' in 2025.

Number 1

Exam revision time is a challenge in so many ways.

To avoid getting into a Mr. Bean examination scenario...

...there are many study tips out there and really the only decent two are (apart from learning by osmosis with the book placed under your pillow at night) - be active, not passive in your approach and create a study timetable to cover all aspects/all subjects and when the exams are on.

That means rewriting stuff and rereading primary sources (texts), not glancing over notes or pretending to engage in revising things or being distracted by social media.

The girls that I am teaching run the full continuum from fully motivated (redoing/ improving essays and answering textual questions, then getting my feedback) to doing zip zilch nothing (sitting on a computer looking at Spotify for songs to download). Thankfully only one or two in that last category, so most of them are in between those two extremes.

Startling revelation 1: some students don't seem to want to improve. They are unmotivated to do well in external exams for whatever reason.

Startling revelation 2: some students who want to improve are difficult to help. When I've suggested on a couple of occasions to individuals that they do something more focused than they are engaged in they have reacted negatively.  

I get it - revision is an individual thing but teachers are experienced in sitting/setting exams and preparing students for exams.

All part of being a teenager I guess.

NCEA provides some challenges too - students have different strengths and weaknesses in the different external standards so for focused revision they need to have individual programmes - tough to work through as a teacher but great differentiated learning.

So - back to motivation. I came across this nifty talk about what motivates people and found myself nodding along. I can also vouch for the message as the blog can attest - bonus schemes (yes - you, Cognition Education), DO NOT WORK!!!!!!

Number 2

The revision trick is all about focus. Qui Gon-Jinn's phrase is overused by me, I know, but it's so apt: your focus determines your reality.

To help focus I offer these great ideas from an Edutopia article on 'brain breaks'.

I've heard our students use this term but they regard it as a break from study and not a sharpening of their focus.

There are some great activities in the article. Read it! What have you got to lose? And you could gain some focus. 

It's within your grasp!

Bright eyes, burning like fire (Art Garfunkel)

Photo by Ashe Walker on Unsplash

Term four is the runt of the litter, especially for senior students. In my three NCEA classes. all of the internal work is done and dusted, and so, for two and a bit weeks, we are revising work done much earlier in the year for the exams.

For two of my classes that involves rereading the novel we studied at the start of the year (which, for me and the boys, feels like 2007). I can't trust that the boys actually completed the reading first time around. Thankfully, those two novels are relatively short ones and in Punching the Air - a quick read.

[My Year 13 have had constant reinforcement of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest throughout the year so rereading it isn't needed.]

Going back to the source is key. I can pause on key quotes and we can discuss themes and characters again with a greater degree of understanding.

It's a decent challenge though, because many of the boys have already decided to switch off from externals. That's okay, I get it, so I need to bring more of the energy and enthusiasm to the party.

We should regret our mistakes and learn from them, but never carry them forward into the future with us (Lucy Maud Montgomery)

Photo by Pawel Janiak on Unsplash

With increased birthdays, comes wisdom. The kind of wisdom that says - students need to make mistakes - just as did our own children, and just as we all did in our own youth.

Much of what we learn, we learn by ourselves. We learn so much about ourselves and we improve by making our own mistakes.

As a young teacher I made many mistakes (some even when my superiors were observing me teach) and now, as a teacher with over 40 years experience, I still make many mistakes. Long may that happen.

Because, it is an absolute necessity.  As a teacher, I have to have that space to experiment, fail, and learn.

Leisure without study is death - a tomb for the living person (Seneca)

Photo by Unseen Studio on Unsplash

I've written about continuing to study during the two week break before Term 4 a lot over the years. It remains a thing!

Here's a reminder (this was from a post in 2022):

There is no substitute for focused work when it comes to preparation for exams.

Our two week study break is coming to an end and students will have two heavily disrupted weeks to finish their preparations at school. Then they are on their own.

There are plenty of good tips out there for how to prepare for exams, like this article from Edutopia. But unless a student decides to commit to study and then use these kinds of techniques to focus on what they have learned and then be able to apply that to exam questions they won't do themselves justice.

Bottom line: commitment and focused preparation are musts.

Do not follow where the path may lead...(Muriel Strode)

Photo by Yana Tes on Unsplash

The whole quote by the perfectly named Muriel Strode is:

Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

That's our lives right? Aren't we all leaving a personal and distinctive trail?

As a teacher, I feel I'm forging a trail on a daily basis. To some extent there is a predictability to our teaching lives - we follow a set timetable after all, but there is no predicting how a class will go precisely is there? It can go in all sorts of unpredictable directions.

Individual students can take one prompt and head off into diverse directions. I love that.

That's the joy of teaching, right?

You're a prima ballerina on a spring afternoon but you change into the wolfman (New York Dolls)

Photo by Hannah Reding on Unsplash

Year 10 students (the 4th form in old money) is the least engaged year group at school. They are at a tipping point in Year 10. It's their age - 14. They know it all.

For many, overconfidence is their great weakness, and a liability to learning.

Contrary to their beliefs, they don't know it all at age 14. I certainly didn't, but I guess, yes, at that age - I thought I did!

Exasperating. I needed taking down a peg or two. The following year I failed School Certificate. Boom!

If you are already humble, nothing will need to be sent to humble you. Yet it's a lesson that some Year 10 students need to be continually reminded of from time to time: to dig in, and stay down to earth.

Life will deal out its own lessons if you don't.  

My best successes came on the heels of failures (Barbara Corcoran)

Photo by Alex Zamora on Unsplash

A recent report in Morning Brew indicated that reading and maths scores among high school students in the U.S. have dropped to their lowest levels in 20 years, per new data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

The downwards trend was evident before covid-19 happened, but it's continued apace since then.

The following are some excerpts from the news article discussing this situation:

“Scores for our lowest-performing students are at historic lows,” said Matthew Soldner, the acting commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics. “These results should galvanize all of us to take concerted and focused action to accelerate student learning.”

“The news is not good,” said Peggy Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, which oversees the assessment. “We are not seeing the progress we need to regain the ground our students lost during the pandemic.”

While the pandemic had an outsize impact on student achievement, experts said falling scores are part of a longer arc in education that cannot be attributed solely to COVID-19, school closures and related issues such as heightened absenteeism. Educators said potential underlying factors include children’s increased screen time, shortened attention spans and a decline in reading longer-form writing both in and out of school.

This rings true for New Zealand as well. Anecdotally, this trend has been apparent to me and my English department colleagues for a while. Interesting that it is now backed up by research.

As I've written about recently, I've noticed, for the first time, students flat giving up. Because the task seems impossible, they don't believe in themselves. Their absence rate is also a real factor. 

This is a real worry, and I think school leaders need to be proactive now to consider courses wherein students can gain some confidence via success.

To paraphrase Soldner from above: we need to act now in a concerted and focused way to arrest this decline. 

Or else... 

Oh, smashing, groovy, yay capitalism! (Austin Powers)

Photo by Josh Rakower on Unsplash

As an English teacher, I've always been a collector of words. One particular fascination of mine is the way slang words for positive expressions of glee have evolved in the teenage world.

One of my senior students (hi Alex) recently reacted to my use of 'bussin no cap' by introducing me to 'skibidi'. I thought he was kidding (sorry Alex) so I searched it up:

Skibidi: "Skibidi" is a meaningless slang word popularized by the YouTube series Skibidi Toilet, meaning it can be interpreted as "cool," "bad," or simply used as a funny, nonsensical filler word. Coined by the series' creator, the term became popular with Generation Alpha and has since entered the mainstream through social media. So, there you go, 6-7.

BTW - Bussin is a slang term meaning extremely good, delicious, or amazing. It originated from African American Vernacular English and is now widely used to describe food, but also experiences, events, clothing, and more. You can use it to express enthusiastic approval or satisfaction, similar to saying something is "fantastic," "awesome," or "top-notch".

Here are some more of my favourites, starting with the hardy perennial - cool:  good, stylish, acceptable, or fashionable.

Gen Z slang terms for "cool" include slay, fire, gas, dope, lit, bussin', gucci, and cash, all of which describe something amazing, excellent,

Gen Alpha slang terms for "good" or "impressive" include "slay", "bussin'" (especially for food), "ate", "fire", "sigma", "snatched", and phrases like "understood the assignment".

You want more? Try these oldies but goldies - Fab, gear, gnarly, phat, mint, choice, rad, awesome, belting, sweet as, fit, epic, ace, pearler, dank, sick.

That's a bussin no cap list right?

Surround yourself with people who are going to motivate and inspire you (Charles M. Marcus)

Two of the all-star English department HBHS 2025

I have lived a charmed life.

When I think back to colleagues that I've shared schools with, I can't help but feel that. There are quite a few now. Schools and colleagues, that is.

English departments have come in for special mention over the blogging years. Notably the mighty earth-shaking Woodford House team (2013-2016), and King John School's rock steady crew (Essex 2004-2006).

The current crew of drones in section 7 G (that I am a part of) is the latest special bunch. Very special. They rate very high on the Wozza-meter. So, here's a list (I love lists) with a pithy comment for each of the ten English departments that I've been a part of or led.

1 New Plymouth Boys' High School. HoD - Terry Heaps. My first English department included Alan Elgar and Rosie Maben. Fun! High powered.

2 Maclean's College. HoD's - Lyn Trenwith and then Roger Moses. Roger was part Viking warrior and part Teddy Bear. Hilarious. The Principal, Colin Prentice, was an inspirational English teacher as well. 

3 Waimea College. HoDs -Aileen Ambler for a term and then...me! Peter Joyce and Annette Sivak were fantastic friends as well as inspirational teachers.

4 Mount Albert Grammar School. HoD - me again for a few years until I took the Senior Housemaster role full time - until then I'd doubled up. Shelley Masters and Brett Wardrope - great people/great motivators.

5 Cambridge High School. I was DP and a part timer in the English department.

6 King John School. HoD - me again for a few years while also doubling up as Assistant Headteacher. Natasha, Catherine, Ei, Mr O and Ali stood out - a gifted bunch fersure.

7 Stratford High School. As Principal I took one Year 11 class of Unit Standards students. The English department is a bit of a blur.

8 Woodford House. HoD - me again with the dream team (seriously): Greg, Amy and Andrew.

9 Three OneSchool Global campuses: As Campus Principal I was a part-time teacher again - taking one junior class.

10 Hastings Boys' High School: HoD - Matt Robertson (a superb non-micromanaging, non-control freak leader. Huh-ZAH!). Some terrific friends and colleagues - you know who you are (everyone can take a bow).

Really though, hats off to all that I've mentioned - you have inspired me in the past, and/or - you are right now motivating me to be better.

That's what it's all about right?

You must have long-range goals to keep you from being frustrated by short-range failures (Charles C. Noble)

I like the idea of Charles' quote. When I was much younger, I had some long-range goals in terms of my teaching career. That certainly helped with short-range failures. One was to be a school Principal.

Yes, that happened a couple of times: 2007 - 2010; 2017 - 2024. When they find out about that, some of my current students ask why I'm still not doing that job.

The answer is simple in each case: after a while the up moments didn't happen enough, and the down moments happened too much.

Having returned to teaching English, the opposite is now true. The up moments happen way more than the down moments.

I am happy to have fulfilled that long-range goal, but also happy to think about some new ones as well. 

P.S. Arsenal lost to the scousers this morning - a short-range failure, I'm sure. We have some big long-range goals this year.

Bone digger, bone digger, dogs in the moonlight, far away in my well-lit door. Mr. Beer Belly, Beer Belly get these mutts away from me, you know I don't find this stuff amusing anymore (Paul Simon)

Photo by Kristine Wook on Unsplash

Sniff. Sniff. Aham. Cough. Weeze. Cough.

Been crook this week. For the second time this year. Outrageous. Egregious. Flagrant.

A not so lovey combo of virus and conjunctivitis has had me in its grip since last week. 

We had a parent teacher night in a freezing hell. Oops. Typo - should be hall. Make the correction please. Thanks.

Later that week... I started feeling out of sorts. Marking all day Saturday knackered me and by Sunday I was feeling rough. Covid tests have been negative, but a fever, runny nose and cough have made it feel pretty gosh darned covid-like.

The virus had an extra card up its sleeve - conjunctivitis. That meant I couldn't even read while feeling sorry for myself. I sent a picture of my better eye to a colleague, and he wrote back - Sweet Jesus!

So, a week off school. The misery is compounded by having to set relief for my classes.

This, believe it or not, is a teacher's worst nightmare. Being away from school sux big time, no cap.

Any of my students reading this will be disagreeing, thinking it's bussin to the max staying home. Yeah nah peeps.

Stay at school kids. You know the rest.

The amount of good luck coming your way depends on your willingness to act (Barbara Sher)

Ah yes. Success.

Last week, I used that saying 'nothing succeeds like a budgerigar' when talking to a colleague/ friend at school, and she gave me that look!

But seriously folks. I've spent the day (yesterday) marking Year 12 and 13 Connections essays and that quote about luck/success from American writer, Barbara Sher, is spot on.

Even so, Qui-Gon Jinn says it even more pithily - Your focus determines your reality. Come on! That's full of pith!

The students who acted on instructions and followed advice? Success.

Those that didn't do either of those things? Not yets.

You don't get me, I'm part of the union (Strawbs)

My history with the Post Primary Teachers' Association (PPTA) began in 1983 and ended when I went to England to work in 2004. 

On becoming a principal, I joined the Secondary Principals' Association of New Zealand (SPANZ). That lapsed when I went to the Middle East as an advisor and then China. 

Upon returning to Nu Zild and teaching again, I didn't bother rejoining the PPTA and my move to a private school meant a union was redundant.

But now, in 2025, I've rejoined the PPTA. 

Why? If you've been reading my posts about the AI revolution you'll get an understanding about the disquiet I feel for the future of my profession. AI marking is just the beginning.

The clincher was watching a news clip of our Education Minister and 'Crusher' Collins moaning about the proposed industrial action. The sight of two political hypocrites lamenting the plight of the 'poor kids' being abandoned for a strike day was my tipping point.

First, they tell me NCEA is untrustworthy, and in the next breath that 'the kids' will be disadvantaged by missing a day. Make up your minds!

The next night the Health Minister was trotting out the same party line after nurses also signaled strike action. The poor patients, missing nurses for a shift. That should signal something to the minister you would think. In maternity (where Jacky works) midwives and doctors get a taste of short staffing for a day - excellent. 

So, I'm a union man again! 

All together now, with Strawbs:

Oh, oh, you don't get me, I'm part of the union
You don't get me, I'm part of the union
You don't get me, I'm part of the union
Until the day I die, until the day I die

Tell me all you need to tell. Why is it you whisper when you really need to yell (The Staves)

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

In Fathers (an anthology compiled by Jon Winokur), Arthur Ashe writing about his father's influence says:

I have a very low exasperation level for people who use the lack of education or opportunity as an excuse to do nothing because I saw my father, functionally illiterate, in a racist situation, make a success of himself.

At the moment, I must admit, I have a very low exasperation level for some of my students who refuse to even try to do a personal writing assessment (for English Achievement Standard 1.2).

A galling thing for me, is that I know they are capable of completing the task to a good standard, but they just can't be bothered. 

This is bothersome to me. I've tried a variety of approaches but in the end I had to cut them loose. As the deadline approached, it was obvious that, having given up, they would not/ could not pass.

But, it's more than their attitude, it's also my exasperation at not being able to help them.

This goes against my whole philosophy of never-give-never-surrender. This Achievement Standard precludes any kind of feedback and personal intervention on my part while the students are doing the final assessment. In practical terms this means that for the last two weeks I have been an observer.

In my opinion, this is bollocks, and against everything I am as a teacher. I hate being forced into a position where I can't help a student. 

So, for me and a few of my students, this standard is a lamentable and preventable disaster.