Carry on, my wayward son - there'll be peace when you are done (Kansas)

Photo by Johnson Wang on Unsplash

This is the last week of Term 4 with the students before we all head off on our summer break.

Movember is history (as is my facial hair) and December is upon us.

It's a good time of the year to tidy up, close off workbooks, ease the throttle back, and throw away miscellaneous stuff that has accumulated in the just-in-case pile.

It's always remarkable how inconsequential a lot of things are after the fact. As many do, I tend to hang on to stuff just in case. The pile grows throughout the year and is seldom accessed. So, the moment to jettison all of those now inconsequential pieces of paper is a sweet one. It's very cathartic.

In movies the employees having to pack up their belongings are given one cardboard box, and I've always laughed at that, but it's actually true! That's all you need!

When I left my previous job at the end of Term 2 this year, I had some personal files to save digitally, and a single folder of papers - most of which I haven't looked at since or have subsequently thrown away. This, after 6 years in the job. It's a good lesson to remember.

Very few things are essential.

Eager and curious

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"If you're eager to learn—even if you aren't particularly talented—then you can make it a long way despite your shortcomings.

But if you're not eager and curious, you'll find your natural abilities often fall short of what is required."

James Clear

Everything we do matters

Photo by Matt Seymour on Unsplash

I'm enjoying Ryan Holiday's The Obstacle is The Way.

This bit resonated with me having reverted back to being a classroom teacher after being a Principal, and recently finding myself making a cup of tea for a senior manager (he said it was a great cuppa):

Everything we do matters - whether it's making smoothies while you save up money or studying for the bar - even after you already achieved the success you sought. Everything is a chance to do and be your best. Only self-absorbed assholes think they are too good for whatever their current station requires.

All things in moderation...revisited

2011 revisited

A colleague (I'll call her Angel) and I did some impromptu moderation of some Year 10 essays after school today, which I found incredibly valuable. 

It reminded me of a time in Ali bin Abi Taleb school (Al Foah) when I was a lead advisor there and met with the Arabic department to moderate a test. I learnt so much from those guys.

That post is here, and well worth my time revisiting it. Lovely to see those photos again too.

Te taura hāngai: Instead of changing you, we will change the assignment

One of my colleagues sent a link to Te Kahu Rolleston - a NZ writer/ poet/orator who 'mixes kapa haka with battle rap to get school kids hooked on language'.

I was taken with his story about having to memorise a passage from Macbeth when he was in Year 11 (Form 5): 

The fifth form arrived. We had an English teacher who was tasked with getting us to memorise a speech from Macbeth. It’s not much of an exaggeration when I tell you that this teacher’s job may as well have been to extract fish oil from mountain boulders. Since our third form year, our class had a reputation for burning through English teachers like a bonfire does kindling and twigs. One term, we had four English teachers. Some teachers stopped teaching our class. Others left the school completely after their time with us.

His school experience is not an unfamiliar one. I remember my classes during my fourth and fifth form years. Boys often nodded off under the influence, others were only interested in baiting teachers. Many were caned (the boys, not the teachers).

Te Kahu goes on to tell how one teacher made a breakthrough with him, by getting the students to translate the Shakespeare passage into their own language. Eureka.

The message is a great one - Te taura hāngai: Instead of changing you, we will change the assignment.

It's hard to make sentences too short (Seth Godin)

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As usual, I'm reading two books at once. One is a non-fiction book by Ryan Holiday, the other is a novel by Penelope Fitzgerald. I love them both but for different reasons.

Generally, Ryan uses shorter sentences than Penelope. She's a brilliant writer who packs a lot of brilliance into her sentences - so much so that I savor the words a lot more, whereas I savor the message more from Ryan.

Here's what I mean:

Ryan - Outward appearances are deceptive. What's within them, beneath them, is what matters.

Penelope - She had a kind heart, though that is not of much use when it comes to the matter of self-preservation.

See what I mean? Both are examples of great short (ish) sentences, but different.

Seth Godin says:

The most direct way to improve your writing is to make your sentences shorter.

I was reading a magazine article yesterday and was rapidly losing interest. The topic appealed to me, but I couldn’t keep reading. Then I noticed that halfway through the first column, I was still on the same sentence.

We have trouble keeping that long a string in our heads at once.

You can make sentences too long.

But it’s hard to make them too short.

...here today and it's gone tomorrow (The Beach Boys)

Movember has arrived at Hastings Boys' High School!

The women folk are exercising to fundraise for men's mental health and the men folk are growing their hair for the month. To be absolutely accurate, this means that the few men on the staff without facial hair are growing their hair.

This includes me, having got sign off from the boss.

This takes me out of my comfort zone. Big time. But it's for a good cause - men's mental health. If you want to support my efforts you could visit the link here.