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.

The teacher stands in front of the class but the lesson plan he can't recall (Rage Against The Machine)

We could sense it was coming, but we didn't think it was going to be the blunt kind of announcement that came last week.

The rest of the world doesn't care much about education in New Zealand, but a big change has just been announced here, along with some revelations about the use of AI to mark student work. 

For the last twenty-ish years we've been preparing senior classes for their National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) - a standards-based assessment system. 

It was announced on Monday that it will be scrapped.

Over the next few years, it will be replaced by new qualifications. Not overtly standards based, but 'subject based' (whatever the heckfire that means), marks out of 100, best four subjects counted.

That precisely describes what I did at school from 1973 to 1974 (it took me two years to get School Certificate by 'passing' four subjects with marks over 50%).

My immediate thoughts:

• How will my current students sitting NCEA react to this scrapping of their qualifications (Year 9 to 13 students will leave without the new qualification)? Will they abandon their efforts given the criticisms by politicians (David Seymour doesn't let facts stand in the way of his opinions - NCEA has Excellence standards that are damn hard to get).
• For twenty-ish years I taught English for School Certificate, Sixth Form Certificate, and University Bursary students. For twenty-ish years I taught English for Level 1, 2, 3 NCEA.
• I don't have another twenty-ish years left in me. I do have a few though and I'd like to think they had some purpose other than preparing students for an 'untrustworthy' qualification.
• This is a real reverting to the pre NCEA years and all of the gains from a standards-based approach, UCL approach will be lost for a while (these things are cyclic).
• Twenty-ish years of textbooks written for NCEA are now useless.
• Will a change of government mean they scrap all these proposals and revert to a standards-based qualification again? Potentially, it's a clear point of difference in an election.
• Did we know about A1 taking over teaching marking? Like all of my colleagues, I missed that memo. Apparently, the Common Assessment Activities (CAA) in numeracy and literacy are marked by A1 now - it takes 6 weeks for students to get their results. Six weeks!! Will teachers' job be safe from A1 in the future? I think I know the answer.

The more I thought about all this, the angrier I became, which is disappointing. I can only control my reaction. I have zero control over political decisions. I told myself off. 

Instead, I need to think about the possibilities, the benefits, the areas where I can contribute. That may take me a while, but it needs to happen.

I will be very interested in how all this shakes out.

BTW the students' response to all this was - meh.

Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out (Robert J. Collier)

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

Currently, two of my senior English classes are writing a connections report on four texts. They have to find two connecting threads that run through the four texts. The time frame for the work is 6 weeks. We are now in week 4.

It's a big piece of work. To help them do this, I created a few charts for them to complete. The first chart highlights some key areas that COULD lead to those two connections and the second fleshes out the two connecting threads they've chosen for their report.

Both classes are working through those charts and if they spend some time on them each period (small efforts), they will give themselves a real shot at an Excellence grade.

Of course, some students want to leap ahead without doing the groundwork (the small efforts).

To my mind this is a real case of the tortoise and the hare. My money is on those doing the repeated small efforts, day in and day out.

Same thing goes for adults, by the way.

Just look around you, you can set your spirit free. Look all you people, you can change your destiny (The Weather Girls)

Open days. 

I've been involved in a few over the years. They come in all shapes and sizes - open classrooms during the day, multiple event days, an evening event (the current situation), and old boys' days (my first one of these in 1983 was a concert where we did a few Monty Python routines of all things).

Do they work? Do they generate new enrolments? 

Google's AI tells me that while the open house marketing ploy by realtors is not the most effective way to sell a home in today's market, school open days 'can be highly beneficial, offering parents and students a valuable opportunity to experience a school's environment, ask questions, and assess its suitability. While a school's marketing materials and a slick presentation will be on display, attending an open day provides a more tangible sense of the school's culture, facilities, and the interactions between staff and students'.

It's impossible to know what effect yesterday's open night had on all the prospective students and parents (in total about 300) but they must have been hugely impressed by the kapa haka performance alone. It was spine-tinglingly awesome!

Common sense is the knack of seeing things as they are and doing things as they ought to be done (Josh Billings)

      Simpler times in 2011 - Ali bin Abi Taleb school -
       Abdulla, Salem, me, Abdelazim (HOD), Shaban

Some of my favourite memories of my time advising at Ali bin Abi Taleb school in Al Foah (Al Ain, UAE) are around moderation sessions with the teachers.

I wrote about them at the time in a couple of 2010/2011 posts - 'all things in moderation, including moderation'. and 'got my mojo workin'.

In that 2011 post I said: 

Nu Zild educators could learn heaps from the rigorous moderation procedures we use here BEFORE the teachers mark their tests. They then have a benchmark to mark against. It so much harder to moderate after the fact.

And less is more, as this extract indicates (and Mark Twain's quote summarises):

Moderation is considered a key part of a person's personal development in Taoist philosophy and religion. There is nothing that cannot be moderated including ones actions, ones desires and even thoughts. It is believed that by doing so one achieves a more natural state, faces less resistance in life and recognises one's limits. Taken to the extreme, moderation is complex and can be difficult to not only accept, but also understand and implement. It can also be recursive in that one should moderate how much they moderate (i.e. to not be too worried about moderating everything or not to try too hard in finding a middle ground).

I'm reminded of all this after following the 2025 moderation processes at my current school. Doing moderation cover pages (if I had a degree to navigate these docs I would still get lost every time), distributing papers around my equally busy colleagues to moderate, putting the results on Kamar, attaching moderation notes, writing assessment comments and so on. 

All. Mind. Numbing.

Beam me back to Ali bin Abi Taleb 2011! Pleeeeeease!

I'll try to sail the sea, ride wild and free (Quicksilver Messenger Service)

Photo by Resume Genius on Unsplash

It's worth repeating this pearl of wisdom from James Clear:

"Strangely, life gets harder when you try to make it easy.

• Exercising might be hard, but never moving makes life harder.
• Mastering your craft is hard, but having no skills is harder.
• Uncomfortable conversations are hard, but avoiding every conflict is harder.

Easy has a cost." 

Paradoxically, the easy life comes at a cost. 

I am very fond of that saying, "There's always a price to pay".

Stumbling is not falling (Malcolm X)

Photo by Alexis Mora on Unsplash

The concept of resubmissions for Not Achieved grades is a great one within NCEA. I like the idea of a NY grade - Not Yet.

Over the years I have had to deliver the news of NY's to many students and, in my experience some didn't take it too well, some don't care, and some pin their ears back and go for it.

Those last ones see a Not Yet for what it is - a chance to improve their failed work. It is a stumble. 

I had to give out some NY's to a few of my students this week and to them I say: 

Harden up. Get over it. Move on. Show some grit. Make it better!

Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm (Winston Churchill)

Photo by Eugene Lim on Unsplash

Recently, I was reminded of failures' benefits while re-watching Star Wars Episode VIII The Last Jedi. 

Yoda says to Luke: Pass on what you have learned. Strength, mastery. But weakness, folly, failure also. Yes, failure most of all. The greatest teacher, failure is.

Having just marked all my seniors' work, I'll have to pass on that message to a few of my students next week.

Through sacrifice - bliss (Joseph Campbell)

Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash

Poet Ellen Sturgis Hooper reveals a little secret of life:

"I slept, and dreamed that life was joy;

I woke, and found that life was service.

I acted and behold, service was joy."

Source: The Dial (July 1840)

Courtesy: James Clear

Sometimes I, I feel like a fist (Porcupine Tree)

 

It's our term 2 study-break/holiday.

Marking and holidays are a dodgy combo for teachers. While others prefer to delay their marking, my general time management philosophy centres on the touch-it-once idea.

Which means I can only start feeling like I'm on holiday when the marking is done. Given I had marking for all five-year levels/classes, that meant the first few days were devoted to clearing the decks.

Luckily Jacky had work in the midst of this, so I had a day to mark my Year 13 writing folios.

All the marking is now done - so I can enjoy the break with just prep for the start of the term to come.

Having re-read all that - it sounds more pompous and sanctimonious than I wanted it to. Yay for me!

I do stand by that touch-it-only-once idea though, so let's cling to that shall we.

Learning is not attained by chance

Abigail Adams (although tight lipped above) contends that 'Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and diligence'. 

That contention is set up as an absolute - the 'not' and the 'must' indicate the polarities. But I don't think it's that easy.

I get what her intention is - students need some passion and application to learn something, but I can learn stuff without having that initial deliberateness she suggests.

For instance, I learn plenty of things by chance in my everyday interactions with students and staff at Hastings Boys' High School. All you have to be is awake to the possibilities and receptive to them when they come.

I am a Jedi, like my father before me (Luke Skywalker)

My initial reaction was to laugh when a Year 11 student said to me this week, "Sir, you're like the father I didn't know I needed".

But then I thought about it a few days later when I was reading a chapter from Star Wars and Philosophy Strikes Back. The essay was about filial piety and Anakin's fictional father/son relationship with Luke.

The authors on this filial piety: Parental figures typically serve as 'ready-made' exemplars since children typically admire their parents - if their parents exhibit noble and loving characteristics.

So, I guess for some students, teachers may be considered parental surrogates.

We often point to good role models amongst the student population, but maybe we seldon reflect on the role modelling that we present to our students.

While a student myself I had a full range of male role models. There were the sarcastic teachers I didn't like, the ones I was never sure about where I stood, the kindly uncle types (i.e. they were only a few years older than me), and the older gentlemen - many of whom seemed quite aloof.

Father figures though? Not that I can recall. 

Hence being taken aback somewhat when the student made that comment. Because of my references to the Pirate Code, I can kind of see where that feeling might come from.

It provides a structure, a moral code and a clear set of consequences that is noble in intent, and I care enough to enforce it. Maybe that's missing from the lives of some students.

All I can control is myself and just keep having a positive attitude (Rose Namajunas)

Students often ask me, "Who's your favourite student, sir?" and I truthfully answer, "That's like asking who's my favourite child?"

I don't have favourites - a student preferred to all other students, or a favourite child.

Of course, I do have students I like more than others. Those tend to be the ones who do their best to get better in class and outside of class; the ones who listen and act on advice; the ones who learn from the Pirate Code.

Of course, the corollary to this is that there are students I like less than others. Only natural. Those tend to be the ones who have to learn the hard way, who are really immature, who compromise the learner of others, and who don't learn from the Pirate Code.

That's different to having someone I favour above all others. Having a favourite implies favouritism - giving unfair preferential treatment to one person or group at the expense of another.

That would be troubling, and against my own Pirate Code. I aim to do the right thing, now, and teach all students to the best of my ability. Every day.

Have a vision. Be demanding (Colin Powell)

Photo by Anastasia Petrova on Unsplash

Much as Marcus Aurelius does in Meditations, I think Colin Powell is talking to himself here.

So - I take it that he is telling himself to have a vision and to be demanding. Demanding of himself.

Teachers get this. We have a vision. We demand a lot of ourselves. Every day.

That's partly why it's such a rewarding/ exhausting job.

Poetry is a form of display

Photo by ricardo frantz on Unsplash

Poetry is a form of display. The poet bird repeats vowels and consonants in order to widen his tail. Meter and counted syllables make up a peacock tail. The poem is a dance done for some being in the other world.

Robert Bly

You've got the power to know, you're indestructible, always believing, you are gold (Spandau Ballet)

Photo by Petr Vyšohlíd on Unsplash

This will come as no surprise to any teachers out there in the blogosphere, but the golden moments in teaching are rare.

Mostly teaching is hard work. Dealing with teenagers' motivation levels all day long, as I do, is hard work. Dealing with administrivia is hard work.

Not all the time, but most of the time.

That makes those breakthrough, golden moments all the sweeter.

As Robert Bly says in Iron John:

Sometimes the mentor or teacher, sitting with a student, slips into soul water and the tongue turns to gold.

Those are the moments that keep us going.

You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him find it within himself (Galileo Galilei)

Galileo Galilei 1640

This post could centre on the unfortunate way women were excluded from so much thinking by men back in the day (the 17th century for Galileo), but it doesn't.

Instead, let's change it to a gender neutral - you cannot teach anyone anything; you can only help someone find it within themselves.

Then again, he may have just been talking about males, right?

Anyway, a good debate topic.

As I teacher I'd like to think I can teach someone something (a new skill perhaps), but I suspect Galileo is correct - the impulse/receptiveness must come from within.