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.

The pirate code

My classroom operates on a behaviour system that I have dubbed The Pirate Code. I refer to it a lot!

The first line in The Pirate Code is also the most important:

Do the right thing, now.

Why?

Because as Hyman Rickover says: Any system of education which does not inculcate moral values simply furnishes the intellectual equipment whereby men and women can better satisfy their pride, greed and lust.

There's already enough of that stuff out there in the world.

I think it's important to inculcate moral values - how to be good people - at home, in the classroom, and out in the world.

I trust that one day my students figure that out.

Leadership should be born out of the understanding of the needs of those who would be affected by it (Marian Anderson)

Photo by Skyler Gerald on Unsplash

Understanding the needs of others is the most important aspect of this quote. That's at the heart of servant leadership.

In schools, 'others' includes students, parents, teachers, support staff. So, it's obviously tricky for leaders who find themselves needing to balance a variety of competing needs, but Marian's words hold a basic truth than many leaders struggle to appreciate.

Seth Godin frames this as a great question for leaders/ managers: How do we create the conditions for our people to get to where they are heading?

Pretty in pink (The Psychedelic Furs)

The anti-bullying campaign has pink as its theme. Not really in my colour wheel, but for a great cause I'm prepared to stow my pink misgivings.

Friday arrived and awareness was duly heightened - I mean, it's pink, right! Hard to ignore.

And Angel provided the pink donuts, so there was that as a bonus.

We acquire the strength we have overcome (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Photo by Venyamin Koretskiy on Unsplash

Not sure about that Ralphy.

Mondays can be a struggle at times, especially when I remain a smidge in holiday mood, and Year 10 English are doing their thing.

A key point to bear in mind...you're better off not giving the small things more time than they deserve (Marcus Aurelius)

Photo by Filip Szalbot on Unsplash

Marcus is like a postman, he always delivers.

We all get caught up in the day to day. Being a teacher means there is always something to mark, always some prep to do, always demands on our time, always new emails.

At the time, those things may seem really important.

I spent a lot of time during a lesson yesterday discussing some fundamentals, like knowing when something is right or wrong, with one of my senior classes. My point being - a teacher can assist in this by getting students to think about their responses to situations, weighing up the pros and cons, considering the consequences and the implications for themselves and others.

My example was me on Friday night - I'd had a few drinks at my daughter's wedding and was asked to drive a van home. My superego was egging me on - I felt fine and okay to drive but I thought about all the things that could go wrong.

• It was a rental van, and not in my name
• I was in America (more lawyers than you can shake a stick at)
• I'd had a few drinks 
• I was at a mile above sea level in Denver (that means an increased alcohol affect)

I took the keys, but we got an Uber home. I returned the next day to get the van.

That was the important stuff - and worth giving more time to. But all the marking, planning, demands and emails?

Small stuff in comparison.

Take me out to the ball game

Jade, Rachel, Samantha and Chris' ear at the ball game

During our visit to Coors Field to watch the Colorado Rockies annihilate the Atlanta Braves 2 to 1 in an early afternoon game, I noticed a huge number of school kids being supervised by various teachers (they had the kind of look in their eyes that I recognised).

Apparently, they were on a field trip for STEM purposes. 

Genius!

Science component - exploring the natural world (plenty of blue sky and cloud movements to observe to say nothing of the humans in attendance).

Technology - balls, bats, foul ball velocity, cause and effect ever present, stadium seating, safety barriers (sketchy in places).

Engineering - the stadium (Coors Field) is mighty impressive, the design of the baseball field is also worthy of study.

Mathematics - numbers and patterns for modeling and predications, and statistics abound. Mind-bogglingly so.

What a great way to engage the youngsters in STEM, while also supporting the local team!

We can make our lives sublime (Longfellow)

Prior to coming to Denver, one of my finds from our time in California was a biography of Harry Truman (Truman by David McCullough). Ryan Holiday wrote eloquently about Truman in one of his books and I've been keen to read more about his early life before he became President.

It's a big book! Heavy! And over 1000 pages, but it's worth finding a spot for it in our luggage.

I'm drawn to it because, as Longfellow wrote:

Lives of great men all remind us

We can make our lives sublime, 

And, departing, leave behind us

Footprints on the sands of time.

Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind (Seneca)

When you're traveling, every day brings fresh sensory impressions that can be overwhelming.

For me, it's about sifting and sorting all those sensory impressions to gain some sense of my surroundings, which I love to do.

I think that's why I love going into supermarkets on my travels. So much to look at and learn. 

These days, many of the products are available in New Zealand, so the wow factor is diminished a bit. Just a bit though, because packaging and variety is still a thing.

In the early sixties, my family once stayed in King's Cross in Sydney and mum would buy Grissini breadsticks for us. Ross and I marveled at these exotic things from outer space. When I saw them in a Capitola supermarket, I was reminded of this and sent him a picture. 

Of course, what was exotic then is now freely available in NZ. Maybe the tariffs will have a beneficial aspect and things like this will become exotic again.

It's fascinating watching people as they shop, as well.

You can learn a lot from supermarkets. 

Dog, dog - dog eat dog (Ted Nugent)

While travelling in California it is obvious how persuasive the persuaders are. They are everywhere we go.

Maybe it's because we are watching more American broadcasting this week and we are walking around having different shopping experiences (San Francisco and Waipukarau aren't that comparable yunnerstan), but the hard sell for medicines (with long lists of possible side effects) and medical treatments is in-yer-face obvious.

I noticed that sign outside a new-agey therapy place (my brain is wired to notice such things) and did a double take.

The pseudo-scientific Nano-microchanneling technique sounds an interesting/weird/daft/enticing process (delete what doesn't apply) that fits right into the anti-aging urge/craze/dream/quackery.

It's non-invasive - so whatever nano-microchanneling is, it doesn't penetrate the skin (of course not), and they've slashed the price for you!

Good grief!

Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together (Vincent Van Gogh)

 

At the top there are no easy choices (Dean Acheson)

He's Homer Simpson, one of the drones in section 7G

At the top there are no easy choices. All are between evils, the consequences of which are hard to judge (Dean Acheson).

Dean has something there. The thing is, you still have to make those choices, if you are a leader. You can't not act - paralysis by analysis is a real thing.

As a leader, I liked to have time to weigh up pros and cons but I learned that you have to make that decision and you have to live with the consequences. You also, often, don't have much time. So, I did get quicker at it back in the day.

Same thing now I'm back full time in the classroom. Every day - instant decisions and no easy choices.

That's why teachers (drones in section 7G) are so tired at the end of a shift in the brick factory.

Success is achieved by developing our strengths, not by eliminating our weaknesses (Marilyn vos Savant)

Photo by Vicky Sim on Unsplash

That quote caused me to do a double take. When I mulled it over, I could see the truth in Marilyn's statement.

In past interviews, in a former life, I've asked that question. You know the one - adapted to the more modern buzz-speak, "What are your work-ons?", but the intent is the same. In my defense it was designed to gauge self-awareness, more than it was about an applicant's weakness. But it remains a horrible question.

Savant is right - too much is put on eliminating weakness, and not enough in developing strengths!

Look at my face (Lauren)

Watching Adolescence on Netflix has dredged up some memories of working and advising in some U.K. schools.

While working in Benfleet at the King John School, I experienced the teenage Essex culture at first hand (as did my two daughters). That school was an excellent one, but there were still students like Lauren Cooper from The Catherine Tate Show (look at my fayce - am I bovvered?) and some hard nut boys who appeared to just want trouble.

While seconded to help the leadership team at Walthamstowe Academy, it often felt like a war-zone featuring various ethnic cultures. Not surprising given that many had come from areas of war-torn Mogadishu. 

Helping out the English department at a 'Special Measures' school in Southend was also an eye-opener.

So, the school scenes in episode 2 of Adolescence are not far from the reality. Having all the teachers relying on videos to crowd control classes was something I never saw though.

The other aspect that rang true about the show was the behaviour of 13 year old Jamie Miller. All kids lie at some point. As a Deputy Principal, Assistant Headteacher and Principal I developed a keen sense for when students lied. 

The basic method of investigating thoroughly before confronting a student with proof, is something I used many times. Like Jamie, students will still lie as a self-preservation instinct, but eventually the truth will come out.

Always best to tell the truth and do the right thing, now.

DYD DYB DYB

Photo by Diego Gennaro on Unsplash

Do Your Best is a phrase I have heard many times. As a youngster I was a cub scout in Royal Oak, Auckland. Famously the scout motto is DYB DYB DYB.

But more importantly, it was a phrase my dad used all the time. He never said, "Try you best". Instead, it was, "Just do your best". That is enough.

So, I grew up with that phrase and it helped form my approach to life (the universe and everything). 

As Ryan Holiday says (in Discipline Is Destiny) why wouldn't you do your best?

As in:

Why are you holding back?

Why are you half-assing this?

Why are you so afraid to try?

Why don't you think this matters?

What could you be capable of if you really committed?

When I ask my students to set goals, I always combine it with a question about their commitment level - if it's not at the highest - then they need a different goal.

Whatever job I've had I've always aimed to do my best. I would take it particularly hard, if my commitment level was ever questioned, because 'anything less is to cheat the gift' (Ryan Holiday):

The gift of your potential

The gift of the opportunity

The gift of the craft you've been introduced to

The gift of the responsibility entrusted to you

The gift of the instruction and time of others

The gift of life itself.

Now he rides a comet's flame and won't be coming back again (Neutral Milk Hotel)

This passage from Discipline Is Destiny (Ryan Holiday) deserves repeating. And if you any kind of leader, it's something to keep in mind:

The history of Rome - indeed, the history of humankind - is almost universally the story of people who were made worse by power. From Nero to Napoleon, Tiberius to Trump, power doesn't just corrupt, it reveals. It places unimaginable stress on a person and subjects them to unbelievable temptations. It breaks even the strongest.

The rarest of the rare (Ryan Holiday)

Photo by mana5280 on Unsplash

In the last post I focused on the 'just show up' directive.

In this sequel, the message is - that's the first step (showing up); the next step is finding something to focus on getting better at each day.

Ryan Holiday: Think about it: Most people don't even show up. Of the people who do, most don't really push themselves. So to show up and be disciplined about daily improvement? You are the rarest of the rare.

I've been lucky (I've lived a charmed life, remember). Teaching is absolutely that thing I found to focus on.

Some days you eat the bear, and some days the bear eats you. As a teacher you'd better figure out what to do to be better on to avoid more of those ugly days or else you won't last long (you need all that you can get of those days when you eat the bear).

Just show up!

I know that I've used Ryan Holiday's Discipline Is Destiny for a few posts on this blog (and Wozza's Place), but this book hits bull's-eyes for so many things.

This list of instructions is well worth pinning to a wall in my classroom. It will work for me and my students!

Show up...

...when you're tired

...when you don't have to

...even if you have an excuse

...even if you're busy

...even if you won't get recognised for it

...even if it's been kicking your ass lately.

It's tough to do. Showing up. But because it's hard - most people don't. It's why many NZ kids who want to grow up to be an All Black, never make it. 

Many of my students tell me they want to be professional league players in Australia. 

They'll need to show up. Every day.

Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work (Gustave Flaubert)

Photo by Jeffrey Hamilton on Unsplash

I helped our school's very patient, calm and biddable caretaker to re-position a teacher's desk the other morning (I'm first to school remember). We chatted as we did so, and I remarked how I got out of the habit of using a teacher's desk back in my Woodford House days.

Conferencing with students means moving around the classroom and not sitting at a teacher's desk, plus these desks in Tier (the building I teach in) are huuuuge.

At OneSchool Global the thrust was very much away from teacher desks (they were removed with extreme prejudice by order of the Regional Principals).

Ryan Holiday has no such problem with desks existing, as he suggests - the laptop desktop has largely surplanted an old style desk - he just advocates them being cleaned up. Ordered.

I have always made sure my desk is free of papers and clutter at the end of every day - that continues to the present day, with my teacher's standing desk and my huuuge teacher desk that is in the corner of my classroom.

The last word goes to Ryan: Clean up your desk, make your bed. Get your things in order.

Sweat the small stuff

Photo by Branimir Balogović
on Unsplash

Yes, I know I'm a fan of the Don't Sweat The Small Stuff message from Richard Carlson, but Ryan Holiday makes a great point in Discipline Is Destiny.

He uses the analogy of coach John Wooden's lesson in how to put your shoes on correctly very effectively.

The basic message is to get the little things right.

In a way it's a mindfulness lesson. One of my routines each morning when I put my watch on is to say aloud 'Be mindful'.

I learnt that lesson when I was sloppy one morning - the watch slipped off my wrist as I was attaching it, and dropped to the floor - dislodging the second hand. Without it my watch stopped working. That meant a cost me a lot in terms of discombobulation and a repair bill.

So now I look at it each morning and say, 'Be mindful'. I haven't dropped it since.

In my career as a teacher and as a leader, I have aimed to employ that approach - nip things in the bud, get the basics right, fix the broken windows, deal to the graffiti, sweat the small stuff.

That does not mean I micro-manage others or lose perspective though.

Wrapping paper in the gutter, moving slowly as the wind on the sea (Cream)

Photo by hannah grace on Unsplash

Interesting thought from James Clear:

"Your teaching ability is constrained by your writing ability.

If you can’t write it down, it will be nearly impossible to teach it well."

As an English teacher, I initially nodded in agreement, but I'm not sure my P.E. colleagues would necessarily go for that. It's one of those quotes that needs some context around it.

It has had me puzzling on it for a few days, which is good.

I'm caught in a fold as the moon holds the sea (Mostly Autumn)

Photo by SOULSANA on Unsplash

Cover. Relief. Substitute.

I need to be away from my school for a few days next week, so the boys will have a reliever to cover my classes.

Like many teachers, I hate being away from school. Particularly for an extended period.

It means I have to set relief, which is not an exact science because I can't gauge the boys' day to day progress, nor can I leave material for the reliever that needs actually teaching because they won't be expecting to do that. 

Frinstance: if I relieve another English teacher I'm fine and I'm not useless in humanities/arts/P.E., but if it's a science or maths class - fergetaboutit. It's the luck of the draw.

Therefore, it's a baby-sitting exercise by necessity. That's the unfortunate reality, but I do need my students to progress during the week because time is tight. Neither they nor I can afford to waste a week.

However, needs must. Family comes first. Every time. So, they'll just have to manage the best they can without me. I'll pick the pieces when I get back.

Meh. Afterall, graveyards are full of indispensable people, are they not?

I've been workin' so hard (Van Morrison)

Photo by il vano on Unsplash

According to four-star Marine Corps general and former secretary of defense James Mattis:

'If I was to sum up the single biggest problem of senior leadership in the information age, it's lack of reflection. Solitude allows you to reflect while others are reacting. We need solitude to refocus on prospective decision-making, rather than just reacting to problems as they arise'.

Solitude for me comes at regular intervals during my workday.

First thing in the morning is when I'm the only person awake. This routine started when the kids were young and I needed some part of my day without noise and bustle. Now, it's because my back is sore every morning when I wake up, and I need to get up and move around. I've always been an early riser so this hasn't disrupted things too much. This equals to about 1 hour usually.

The commute to Hastings takes an hour so I have two hours a day of listening to music, thinking my thoughts, driving on State Highway 50. Out of nowhere, the weirdest things pop into my head on the commute. 

I arrive at school before others get there. At Hastings Boys' that means I arrive at 7.00am (the time Andrew turns off the alarms). I've done this early arrival thing since the late eighties so it's an ingrained routine. This equals to another hour usually.

During the day I can sometimes head off for a walk during a non-contact period. I walk from school into the CBD and back. It roughly takes about 40 minutes. I don't take my earpods - instead I pay attention to my surroundings as best I can, and think.

My final solitude experience is at night before going to bed. I need some time to myself to write my journal entry for the day. This equals to about 15 minutes usually.

That's quite a bit - at most about 4 hours of me time a day. Nice.