Always keep your eyes open. Keep watching. Because whatever you see can inspire you (Grace Coddington)

Recently, a student thanked for some inspiring words at an assembly.

A lot of things inspire me. 

A random selection:

• Music (how do they do that?)
• Autumn
• Daily positive closes
• A student who gets a not achieve grade up to an achieved grade via a resubmission
• An applicant for a job who makes a list every morning of things to be grateful for
• Writers of novels and short stories
• Poems by Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

Rest in peace Lawrence.

The world is a beautiful place.

It's all an unfinished film (Lawrence Ferlinghetti)

Here's an excerpt from my latest newsletter article:

As a famous saying goes, ‘Time flies like an arrow, but fruit flies like an apple’. With the first full week, we suddenly feel like the year has started in earnest. Time is flying by! 

This week, in extended vertical form classes and in the junior school, students have been engaged in establishing their learning goals and personal goals for the year. It is our aim that these goals will be monitored regularly in the extended form class time.  

While I was standing in for Mrs Read in her form class, I also wrote my own goals for these two areas.  

My learning goal is to read at least 50 books this year and my personal goal is do more forward planning with my own writing so that my writing can improve with more frequent editing.

Just like the students, to successfully reach my goals I will need to be quite self-disciplined, avoid some long standing distractions, manage my time well and be reminded of my goal regularly.  

I will need my students in Mrs Read’s vertical form to keep me honest. I aim to keep them honest with their goals as well.

So far so good - starting with books I brought back from our Christmas holiday, it's one book down (Lawrence Ferlinghetti - Pictures of the Gone World).

When the lights go down in the city (Journey)

In celebration of City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco and Wardini Books in Havelock North: 

My first connection to this celebrated independent book seller/publisher came when I was at Auckland University doing English, way back in 1977. The university's second hand book sale was a great place to collect weird and wonderful text books and hard to find publications like Ginsberg, Corso, Kerouac, and other beat poets and writers - stuff that I was somehow drawn to at this stage in my life.

Stage 1 English's 20th century American poetry course (omg - YES!!!) also had a Lawrence Ferlinghetti text as required reading - A Coney Island of the Mind. I was on board!

It's taken a while, close on forty years, but I've finally visited the store, in North Beach - still in it's original location. My second visit to San Francisco (first one was more for Samantha and Jesse's wedding so we were a tad distracted), and we cruised past the store.

Luckily, Jacky, Samantha and Jesse were waiting so I had a limited time to browse - otherwise I would have come out with loads of books! 

Instead I bought two volumes of Ferlinghetti's poetry to join Coney Island when I get back home and set up Abbey Road Four (ARF) in Maungaturoto!

In the forward to one, written by Lawrence in 1998, he bemoans the trend away from independent booksellers. Luckily, they are not dead yet!

Wardini Books in Havelock North has been a real find in the last four years. I love Unity Books in Wellington and Auckland. Hopefully, I can find another great little independent book store in Northland!