This is just a wild guess, Chief, right off the top of my head (Maxwell Smart)

Past colleagues and students know my cultural markers (touchstones if you prefer) well. I am now teaching at Westmount's Kaipara campus, where the students are all from the Christian Brethren Church. 

Lately, it slowly dawned on me that the students and I don't share all of the same cultural markers.

Music, and the Beatles' ties I wear? Tick. Positive comments, of the 'I like your tie' variety!

Sport and the Arsenal jackets and ties I wear? Tick. Already there has been some good natured ribbing from the boys, in particular.

Star Wars quotes, the Jedi references? My Arnold Schwarzenegger impressions? TV references such as 'Good thinking 99'?

All have been met with a kind of quizzical expression and a polite smile.

One of my students looking at my Twitter profile said, "What is gee-day?"

The light bulb in my brain went from dim to bright at that point.

Although our students can watch films and videos in class (I saw a really old video showing Vietnam War footage in a history Video Conference recently), they don't watch TV at home. Nor do they go to the movies, and even if they did, cosmic space dramas like Star Wars wouldn't be on their radar.

During our recent educational conference (much more coming in the next few weeks), a call came from Frances Valintine to allow students to use their phones at school and from others about the value of YouTube and using the internet during exams.

These things, like my other cultural touchstones, are simple not possible in my new context.

So, as we pilot our way into the future, we will need to consider all of that along with what is possible, so that our students can embrace the many changes to learning that are coming, and keep their way of life intact.

Welcome to your life (Tears For Fears)

How does the brain work?

How does YOUR brain work?

How does the brain learn?

How does YOUR brain learn?

What is self-awareness?

What are YOUR learning tools?

Brains from Thunderbirds!

As part of a study skills workshop, I am posing these questions to a class of Year 10 girls at my school today.

To help them answer, I am using four key resources:

• Mark Treadwell's prezis; 
• Star Wars (Yoda instructing Luke Skywalker); 
• John Hattie's meta-research; 
• A TED presentation by Sarah-Jayne Blakemore.

That's it. It's all I need.

Believe it!

Finding [it] was the will of the force (Qui-Gon Jinn)

Call me Rogue 120.

I recently discovered Star Wars in the classroom http://www.starwarsintheclassroom.com/index.asp and it's an awesome place!

In keeping with all that is excellent about the Star Wars universe, this site (curated by some dedicated educationalists) provides a great meeting place for people like me.

Who exactly are 'people like me'? 
Those who love Star Wars and can see how to use connections from Star Wars in their teaching.

The site is not just a fans convention (we are self styled as Rogues - my profile name is Rogue 120), but a great place where teachers share classroom resources that they use to supplement their lessons from Star Wars.

If all that sounds a tad geeky well - so what. Imagination is more important than information - remember!

As well as a plethora of static images, my classroom walls contain Star Wars posters and a number of quotes from the movies (yes - it's true, I love both trilogies and I'll be bursting to see The Force Awakens in 2015) 

My all time three favs: Your focus determines your reality, there's always a bigger fish (both Q-G J) and Do or do not, there is no try (Yoda).

Those are three great messages: Focus! Be humble! Carpe diem!

Not geeky at all! 

May the force be with you, always!

Don't surround yourself with yourself, move on back two squares (Yes)

Have a purpose larger than yourself- the seventh new law (of seven) for a world gone digital from Ahmed and Olander. It reminds me of that great Yes song (I've seen all good people) that I've used in the title.

Let your imagination go wild, and play from your heart but don't surround yourself with yourself.

This is a great law to finish with, it certainly plays into my prejudices:

• Always play from your heart (trust your feelings -yes- from Star Wars) 
• Be alive to being alive (Buddhism- be here now) 
• Do the right thing (Spike Lee also listened to the Buddha)
• Love what you do (Thoreau- You must love the crust of the earth on which you dwell more than the sweet crust of any bread or cake. You must be able to extract nutriment out of a sand-heap. You must have so good an appetite as this, else you will live in vain)
• Your job is to serve (Joseph Campbell- Through sacrifice - bliss)
• Dream in widescreen, then push on in pixels (John Lennon - Imagine...) 
• Heroes can guide, teach, and encourage you (A fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust and a hearty 'Hi-Yo Silver') 

As you can tell I've loved Velocity. Here's the website with all of the seven laws again: http://velocitylaws.com/the-seven-laws/

A big thank you to Ahmed and Olander for an inspirational conversation. Bravo and more...more...

I don't need to fight, to prove I'm right, I don't need to be forgiven (The Who)

I continue to be inspired by an address I heard at the International Confederation of Principals in Edinburgh 2003.

It was an address about Inspirational Leadership and it used Henry V to make its points.

I was cleaning up my files in preparation for my return to NZ at the end of March and I found my notes to this address.

Reading through them I found myself inspired again. I loved the connection between school leadership and Henry V (my favourite Shakespeare character in my favourite Shakespeare play). My notes from 2003 say – ‘can do this with other figures/stories – Luke Skywalker’.

So I thought I'd have a go and do a little chart to indicate the links.

§  How to sell a vision: authentic performance in presentation  S

	The epic journey	Henry V	Luke Skywalker
Prologue	The call to imagination	The chorus (a single narrator) says. ‘IMAGINE’	The sound and picture says, ‘SUSPEND YOUR DISBELIEF’
Act I	Assessing the past and visioning the future	Henry lays out his vision for gaining the French crown	In Star Wars, Luke comes to terms with the death of his family on Tattoine and accepts his destiny –  to become a Jedi and defeat the Empire.
Act II	Identifying inner personal resources and inner ‘traitors’	The preparation for the French campaign, dealing with traitors and critics. Gaining a critical mass of support	Luke battles his inner demons in his training with Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back
Act III:	Overcoming first blocks to success	The battle for Harfleur – Once more unto the breach, dear friends…	The capture of Han and Leia is overcome
Act IV	Crisis management - the dark night of the soul and inspiring the troops	Henry incognito visits and then inspires the troops before the battle	Luke strives to control his anger/hate in the face of the Emperor’s provocation in Return of the Jedi
Act V	Achieving the vision and turning the battlefield into a garden	The Battle of Agincourt followed by the wooing of Catherine of Valois	Luke rescues/redeems his father and defeats the Emperor in Return of the Jedi

 I want to explore the vision aspect, Act 1 from the chart, in the next post.

Mystery train smoking down the track (Elvis)

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” Einstein.

I love the idea that imagination is more powerful/important than information. J.J. Abrams' mystery box is a TED talks presentation that uses a number of modern references (Star Wars, Lost, ET and more) and Abrams' own career to illustrate this essential point.

You've also gotta love his energy and sheer enthusiasm. His vitality and forceful delivery takes a bit to get used to but I was hooked as soon as he mentioned his own grandfather.