Incredible India

This term our Year 6 students are working on an Inquiry unit entitled Our Asian neighbours. The primary focus of this work is our trip to Beijing but also the four  year 6 teachers all choose an Asian country in which to conduct a series of lessons and all classes are rotated through each country.
This is fantastic as I get to indulge in my passion for India and share this passion with my students.
As far as I am concerned besides Australia there is no country like India. I am enthralled, enchanted and bewitched by this wondrous nation.
I first travelled to India in 2001 for my honeymoon (there was no tropical island for my wife and I). People thought we were crazy but we were so excited. My first impressions were staggering. I thought India would be a breeze. I had travelled to China twice and had spent two months in Africa so India would be fine. How wrong I was. I was not prepared for the mass of humanity that greeted us as we touched down at Mumbai airport late on a Sunday night and the next morning when we took a walk around the Colaba area of the city. We had to go and sit down in the foyer of the Taj Mahal hotel (of course we weren’t staying there. Our hotel had bed bugs) take a few deep breaths and then we threw ourselves head first into the maelstrom that is India. And loved every minute of it.
People said we were crazy in 2010 when we took our children to India. Many of these people had not been to India themselves. Our children loved it and I hope when they grow older they want to explore the country further.
I have had some amazing experiences in India; stood in the foothills of the Himalayas in Shimla, gazed at the majesty of the Taj Mahal, watched sacred Hindu rituals take place in the ghats of Varanasi on the banks of the Ganges, went tiger trekking through Ranthambore National Park in Rajasthan, cruised the backwaters of Kerala on a houseboat, walked amongst tea plantations in Munnar, played cricket with locals in Lodhi Gardens in Delhi and eaten magnificent road side food in Jaipur. These are just a few of the magnificent happenings that have occurred. Of course I have seen the poverty on the streets, the madness on the roads and other stereotypes that people generally associate with India.
I love Indian food, movies and books. Eat chicken makhani, watch Monsoon Wedding and read Shantaram and Q and A.
Indian friends of mine laugh at the passion at which I speak of their country. Many are so thrilled that I speak so highly of India.
My description of India is that it is a billion people who want to be friend. The people on the streets may drive you crazy but they do not mean any harm. They ask questions and many try to sell you goods but I have never felt threatened in India. I also describe India as an attack on the senses. The things you see, smell and hear will amaze you but also has the power to horrify and disgust.
I wouldn’t advise anyone on the first overseas trip to go India. Try New Zealand first.  Work your way slowly into India.
With my students I try to introduce them to India by making tandoori chicken, watching Bollywood movies, role playing the caste system and investigating the procedures involved with an Indian wedding. Whilst undertaking these activities I ask the students why Indians like spicy food, what is the fascination of Bollywood movies by Indians? I want students to ask questions and investigate for themselves.

I would love my passion for India to rub off on my students so that at some stage in their life they want to go and explore this magical country.

See the World: It's an Incredible Place

Next week I get to indulge in one of my great passions in life: foreign travel.  My family and I are off to the Philippines for a week on the beach and I always get excited when visiting a foreign land. Yes, I have been to the Philippines before but it doesn’t matter. I am still looking forward to all that travel in a foreign country brings.

Compared to the students I teach (who are incredibly worldly 12 year olds) I was a late starter in the foreign travel department. In 1995, when I was 24, I spent the year travelling the world with a spot of working in London mixed in as well.  I had only ever been on a plane once in my life (when I was 17 I flew from my hometown of Cootamundra to Sydney 1 hour away on a small 12 seat plane). Before I left for my year away I wasn’t a very nice person in a few ways. I suppose I was a stereotypical person from a rural town in Australia; inward looking; redneck basically.

1995 changed my life. I came back a wiser, smarter person, thankful for what the world had given me. I embraced all that I came across loving each and every day. My feelings were summed up in a significant journal entry I wrote at Johannesburg Airport before boarding a flight back to Australia. Basically I surmised that the world was an amazing place, people need to see it if possible, we needed to protect and look after it and finally as Australians we don’t know how lucky we have it compared to other places.

1995 was spent in the US and Canada for 2 months, 6 months in Europe and 2 months in Africa. I had no desire to go to Asia. Since then the only travel that I have done (besides a 10 day trip to New Zealand in 1999 and a trip to England and Ireland in 2009) has been in Asia. Sure I have spent 8 years living in Hong Kong, right in the heart of Asia, but this continent is truly incredible.
I have been to 41 countries and as far as I am concerned that is not enough. My favourites in no particular order are: Ireland, Canada, India, China, South Africa, Jordan and Laos.

I have seen incredible sights and landmarks that I have read and dreamt about: climbed to the top of the Statue of Liberty and Eiffel Tower, kissed the Blarney Stone, marveled at the beauty of the Taj Mahal, trekked sections of the Great Wall of China, summited Table Mountain in Cape Town on foot, explored the ruins of Angkor Wat in Cambodia and Petra in Jordan, floated in the Dead Sea and chased lions through the Okavango Delta in Botswana. I know I am incredibly lucky.

It is fantastic to see my 9 year old daughter developing a passion for the world. It has been great taking my children to some unique places in the world and I hope when they grow the passion I have rubs off on them and they want to venture further out in the world on their own.
I love the excitement of travel. I get excited about going to airports, exchanging money finding hotels and great places to eat. The internet makes so many of these things easy. I already know where my family will be eating next Thursday night in Angeles City in the Philippines and what we need to avoid being scammed on the streets, then again this is all part of travel.

Fortunately I married someone who shares my love of travelling. There was no relaxing on a tropical island or by a beach for our honeymoon. Jen and I went to India for 5 weeks. It was the first time we had been overseas together. I thought it was going to be a breeze; I had been to China twice and also Africa. India would be fine. Yes it was and the country holds an incredibly special place in my heart, but nothing could prepare me for the mass of humanity that faces you when you arrive at Mumbai airport or walk the streets. On our first venture outside our hotel I was shaking with what we encountered. Once we went and sat down inside the Taj Mahal hotel (of course we weren’t staying there, our hotel had bed bugs) and calmed ourselves we were fine and loved every minute of it. I would seriously advise nobody to make India their first overseas venture. Try New Zealand or Canada first. India is an amazing attack on your senses, where 1 billion people want to be your friend. In 2010 it was great being able to take our children to India (although many said we were insane).

 

Travel enriches the mind, body and spirit. The world is an amazing place. See it if you can.

Going Home

After 8 fantastic years in Hong Kong the Spain family is going home. It was a difficult decision to make but we are pleased with the choice we have made. In December we relocate from Hong Kong, Asia’s world city, to Wagga Wagga, the capital of the Riverina.

A number of people have said that we are crazy, why would you want to leave Hong Kong they have asked. We have asked ourselves this question and we are happy with our answers.

The time is right, we are going for family reasons, we want our children to grow up in an Aussie environment, I want to be able to have chicken schnitzel and sausages from Woolworths for lunch. (Well maybe the last reasons aren’t that important but I am still looking forward to them anyhow).

Hong Kong has never been ‘home’. It has been an incredibly fun, rewarding, exciting and enriching place, but never home. I was warned by my principal at my previous school to ‘not get stuck in Hong Kong’. By this he meant he meant to not get enchanted by what can be a relatively comfortable lifestyle. My family has been incredibly lucky to have an amazing helper (maid) who lives with us, is amazing with our children and looks after the cooking and cleaning in our household in a superb manner. This is easy to get used to. The 16% tax rate is very nice thank you and a relatively safe city to boot. The travel we have done since we have been in Hong Kong has been a highlight. I fully expect to ‘rack’ my passport when I return to Wagga Wagga but I am OK with this. In a future blog entry I will elaborate more about what a special place Hong Kong has been).

When we moved to Hong Kong we were always going to move back to Melbourne which is where we lived before moving here. After a few years here I started to think about moving to Wagga Wagga to be closer to family. My wife was hesitant at first. She wanted the bright lights of a big city again. The passing of her father changed her mind. She wants to be near her mother. My parents are an hour away by car. I have missed too many family events since I have been in Hong Kong. I want to go to more family celebrations. A population change of 7,000,000 to 70,000. I am more than happy with that.

I want to spend weekends transporting my children between sporting venues and friend’s places. I want to wake up and look at clear skies (the pollution level in Hong Kong seems to be getting worse. As is my hay fever. I want my children to go to Catholic schools. I want to read a daily paper with a large sports section and spend hours on the weekends dissecting newspapers. I want to explore Australia. I have been to 41 countries but never to South Australia, the Northern Territory or seen the Great Barrier Reef. I want to be able to take my children to sporting events. I want to encourage the Aussies kids that I will teach to go out and explore the world; and then realise how lucky we have it in Australia. I want to challenge myself in a new educational environment. I believe I have a great to offer a prospective school and I would relish that opportunity.  

There is a lot more that I could write about why I am going home. I am happy with the decision and excited about what lies ahead. Sure there are elements that scare me (I haven’t found a job yet) but I want to tackle these things head on and embrace what lies ahead for my family in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia.

Homework: A Necessary Evil

Homework is an emotive issue and a word that can strike fear and terror into the hearts of all stake holders; students, parents and teachers.

I would like to state my philosophy on homework early in this post. I believe homework is a necessary evil. Students need it to establish positive work habits and to develop key study skills that will assist as their education lives grow.

I have had a reputation (mistakenly mind you) of a teacher who tends to deal out a great amount of homework. I stubbornly defend myself against these charges. I would love to not have to assign homework each week. This would mean less marking for me to have to do. I would however, be doing students a disservice if I did not give them homework. They would not be developing skills that are going to be essential for them in the future if they do not do homework.

The school I currently work at has a sound policy in place regarding homework that I believe is effective and works very well. For each year level a student is in multiply by 10 the amount of minutes that a student needs to spend on homework each night between Monday and Thursday. Therefore a student in Year 6 should do 60 minutes homework a night.

Our weekly homework schedule is distributed on a Monday and is generally due Friday. The work is a combination of spelling, maths, grammar and either a literature or Inquiry Studies activity. Students are also given weekly Chinese homework. The flexibility of this type of system allows for students to complete their work whenever they want during the week. If they have an extra-curricular activity on a particular afternoon and can’t get homework done, not a problem. As long as the work is handed in completed on a Friday that is all that matters. Of course we encourage effective time management and spacing the work out throughout the week but this is not always possible.

On top of this work is the expectation that students will read nightly. This is a massive non-negotiable in my mind. Every 2 week students have to report orally to the class on the book they have just completed.

I am a tyrant in ensuring homework gets completed. Students need to understand that there are commitments they must meet and homework is one of them. In my class students know that there will be ramifications if homework is not completed. I follow these consequences through and therefore have a very, very low rate of homework incompletion.

Over the past 18 months the homework issue has turned almost full circle for me. My 9 year old daughter once she reached Year 2 started receiving weekly homework. A touch of the tyrannical classroom teacher obsessed with homework completion attempted to raise its head. My wife quickly quelled this beast reminding me that I am Alexandra’s father, not teacher, and my role was to support and assist her with homework tasks.

Alexandra tends to have a somewhat casual attitude with her homework. She is of the belief that it will get done eventually. I am learning not to push her but to let her take responsibility for her own work. This approach seems to be going satisfactorily at this stage but am I still hoping to intervene at some stage in her academic life.  

Confessions of an Olympic Junkie

My name is Paul and I am an Olympic addict.

This addiction first began when I was 9 years old during the Moscow 1980 games. At our school in my Year 4 class we had to do a project on the Olympics. Basically this just involved cutting out Olympic pictures from a paper and sticking them into a project book. However this was enough to pique my interest in this quadrennial event. I can still clearly recall that Australia’s two medals were won both in swimming by Michelle Ford and the men’s 4 x 100m medley relay.

Los Angeles 1984 and my addiction was just about full blown. I watched every moment I could and became almost ‘Rain man’ like in my ability to recall obscure facts and statistics regarding the events and competitors such as Romanian gymnasts. Anyone else remember Ecaterina Szabo and Simona Pauca? I do.

Seoul 1988 and I was in Year 12 preparing for my HSC. I recall during the school holidays my mother making me lock myself in my room to study just as the Australian women were playing in the gold medal hockey final. Well my mother went out for a few hours and I left my room went out and watched the game cheering the Aussies onto their gold medal. When my mother returned she excitedly said to me “Wasn’t it great Australia winning the hockey gold medal?” My reply was simply “Did they? I didn’t know that. I was busy studying”.

 Barcelona 1992 and the addiction had reached an alarming rate. I was teaching now and had my own Year 6 class who I attempted to brainwash over the virtues of the Olympics. I bombarded  them with facts and figures on the games and as I was living away from home I spent nearly every minute glued to television coming to school blurry eyed each morning.

Atlanta 1996 was much the same. I taught a large unit of work in class on the games with a new group of students to indoctrinate. I brought a TV into the classroom to watch the women’s hockey final but kept the volume down and didn’t let the kids cheer when Australia scored. I had a new girlfriend and I didn’t want her to think I was too much of a freak with my love of the games (she is now my wife and well aware of my addiction). I was captain of my rugby team at the time and before kickoff I told the team to play with the same spirit that Kieran Perkins had done when he had won the 1500m freestyle earlier that morning. Many of my team mates groaned when I mentioned this point.

Sydney 2000 was incredible. The games seemed home made for Australia a nation whose sporting passion knows no bounds. I missed the first 5 days of the games as I was travelling in China. On return I went to the tennis finals seeing Venus Williams win gold in the women’s singles. All I wanted to do was see Australia win a gold medal live. Unfortunately I saw the Woodies lose to their Canadian opponents in the men’s doubles. Despite this I loved seeing the passion that all medal winners displayed. They were so proud to have achieved a level of greatness on the ultimate world sporting stage. 

Athens 2004 was a lot of fun and I exulted in Australia’s best ever performance. Just last  week I made my children at home relive 2 hours of highlights of these games on DVD. I am thrilled that my daughter is starting to become passionate about the games.

I had a soft spot for Beijing 2008 having been to this amazing city numerous times. The Chinese did not disappoint. I was fortunate enough to attend the equestrian events that were being held in Hong Kong. I had my chance to see Australia finally win a gold medal live as they battled with Germany in the last round of show jumping. I held my breath as the Aussie riders attempted to clear all fences and wanted to scream out loud and put the German riders off as they went through their paces. Alas the Aussies hit a few more fences than the Germans so I saw for the second time Australia win a silver medal.

What is it that I love about the games? Where do I start? I love the passion, the superstars, the sportsmanship, the sense of comradeship between all competitors. I love seeing nations come together in what is generally such a peaceful event. I love seeing smaller nations taking on bigger teams (Tunisia v USA men’s basketball played this morning is just one example of this). I love seeing Australia do well and seeing our athletes return home as heroes. I love seeing people taking an interest and becoming experts in sports that they have no idea about outside the Olympics such as hockey and water polo.

I have tried to think about some of my top  Olympic moments over the years so here they go in no particular order:

1.       Sydney 2000. Having a chance to attend these games and see them in my home nation was incredible.

2.       Dream Team 1992. I was and still am a massive NBA fan. I thought it was incredible when the greatest basketball players were allowed to enter the games. The story of Magic Johnson, recently diagnosed with HIV, illuminated further the greatness of this team.

3.       Jon Sieben Los Angeles 1984. This was the first time I had seen an Australian win a gold medal. I sat in front of the TV madly cheering on Jon Sieben a 17 year old outsider in the 200m butterfly as he powered home in world record time to beat of a star studded field.

4.       Derek Redmond Barcelona 1992. The heartbreaking sight of one of the favourites for the 400m tearing his hamstring as he turned for home. This was then followed by the inspiring move of his father who leapt from the crowd to carry his son across the finish line.

5.       Grant Davies Seoul 1988. Grant Davies was an Australian competing in kayaking. He was in a fierce battle with an American opponent and they crossed the line nearly dead even. Davies was initially told he had won the gold medal. Ten minutes later he was told that he actually lost by a few thousandths of a second. I was distraught watching it. Davies was a mirror of sportsmanship and humility as he accepted this news in good grace still elated to be leaving the games with a medal.

6.       Eric Liddell Paris 1924. Whilst obviously not seeing this one live it is still one of my favourite Olympic stories. The man who refused to run on a Sunday due to religious beliefs therefore missing the 100m where was expected to win. He went on to win the 400m. It is fantastic that this story was retold in the movie Chariots of Fire.

7.       Australia 4 x 100m Women’s Freestyle Relay Athens 2004. These girls were quite amazing. Won the gold medal in world record time but what stands out for me with them was their reactions on the victory podium. 3 of the team stood beaming with happiness and pride whilst the youngest member Alice Mills, had tears streaming down her face as the emotion overcame her.

Anyhow these are just some of my favourite memories from the games. I hope London 2012 suppplies many more narratives that I can add to the list.

The Power of the Hashtag

It is about time that I sat down to write another entry in my blog. I plead guilty and have been slack over the past few weeks but I will put it down to priorities and being report writing time of the semester and all.

Anyhow let's get on with it................

I am constantly amazed at twitter. I know I wrote a blog about it last year but since then my use  and knowledge of twitter has grown. More importantly my knowledge of how I can use it professionally has grown immensely.

I have built and developed my PLN over the past few years. PLN stands for Personal Learning Network. Basically this is a collection of educators who follow each other on twitter sharing links, ideas and thoughts. When I mention my PLN to my wife her reply is "But do you know these people?" No, but this is beside the point. Twitter (for me anyhow) is not personal the way a friend on FaceBook is.

I have learnt a tremendous amount from my PLN. New web 2.0 tools, handy tips that can be used in the classroom and upcoming conferences are just some takeaways I have gathered from twitter.

Of course I still use twitter socially. I keep up with news and sports details and my passions of rugby and basketball.

So what is a hashtag. This is it #   If you add this to a tweet it is like sending your message to a group. I use a service called tweetdeck to read and send my tweets. Tweet deck can be divided into columns as seen below:

In these columns I receive tweets from the people I follow, direct messages from others but what
feature I like the most about the cloumns is to be able to search a hashtag.

Above you will see columns where I have searched for a hastag #iste2012 and #iste12. ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) is currently having its annual conference in San Diego California. It would be amazing to attend (if the school PD budget allowed). By searching the conference hashtags I have been able to view some of the presentations online, view the notes taken by a conference attendee and also find other people to add to my PLN.

If I can't be at the conference then twitter is doing a good job of keeping me in touch, hence the power of the hash tag.

Time

I designate a set time for my students and I to blog, Wednesday at 10:30am through until 11:10am. During this time we all sit in front of our computers and madly blog. I have fallen into this trap. My aim is to always complete my blog within this 40 minute space.
Last week I reflected on this blogging process. I believe that this time constraint limits and affects the quality of what I write. I am in such a rush to get this blog written and published that I do not give myself enough time to re-read, edit and check on the quality and depth of what I have written. Many of the blogs that I read are thought provoking and full of depth and this is what I want to achieve with my written blog.
How do I achieve this? Time.
We all wish we could have more time. Time that can be spent with our families, time that can be spent pursuing the things we love in life, perhaps even more time spent in our jobs to ensure we can produce and work at a higher standard.
Creating this extra time is difficult. Who has extra time in our busy lives? I look at my usual week day schedule: Rise at 6:00am, leave for work at 6:55am returning home anytime between 4:45pm and 6:30pm. Dinner with family follows and before getting children ready for bed and the accompanying bedtime story which we conclude around 7:45pm. After this is either catch up on some work or relax on the couch and talk with my wife. I am generally in bed around 10:00pm. Somewhere in this busy schedule I try to ensure some form of exercise.
Where can I get the extra time that will allow me to spend on certain pursuits such as being able to edit my blog more carefully, check my Google Reader feeds or my twitter account. This remains the challenge. I don't want to sacrifice my family or exercise time and I have to do my job to the best of my ability.

I know it is very anti-social but I tend to spend recess and lunch times at my desk. Just having this extra time does allow me to catch up on some extra work. Just doing something like this practise does allow me the extra time that I need to just.....live.

Homework

Homework is an emotive topic. I would like to go on record early in this blog by stating that I believe it would make things a lot easier both at school and at home if homework was abolished.
Having stated this though I am truly of the belief that as educators we would be doing students a disservice if we abolished homework.
Homework serves an important purpose. It is required to reinforce concepts and ideas done in class. It is required as preparation for exams and to complete assignments. If we did not have homework in the primary years students would not learn the importance of using their own time for school purposes. How would they survive in secondary school and university if they have not established healthy routines at a young age?
Over the years I have earned somewhat of a reputation for being tough on homework and a teacher who gives too much homework (a reputation I do not deserve). My current school has a policy that states a Year 6 student should be doing 60 minutes of homework between Monday and Thursday nights. All I am doing is following this policy. Currently our homework is distributed on a Monday and is due Friday. This allows a student who has an extra curricular activity on any particular evening or afternoon plenty of extra time to complete the set tasks. These tasks usually include Maths mentals, some spelling and grammar work and generally either a literature based or Inquiry Studies based activity. Combined with this our students also get Chinese homework each week.
Through this approach to homework students also get to learn the important skill of time management. It is absolutely fine if they complete all of their set work on one night as long as it is all handed in completed on the Friday.
Homework being an emotive issue really struck home to me when I first started teaching in Hong Kong. Finding a balance between the desires of parents was difficult. There were many parents of a Chinese background who wanted more homework whilst the Australian parents wanted less homework as they wanted their children outside playing sport and being with their friends of an afternoon.
In this situation it was incredibly beneficial to me to have a school policy on homework. My answer to both groups of parents was that I was simply following the school policy of the set amount each day. For those wanted more homework I directed them to websites and books which could give them what they wanted but I was not going to offer a reduced amount of homework as some desired.
It is important that there are consequences in place for students who do not complete their homework tasks. For me this generally involves missing out on our set Friday free time.
The difficulties that homework can create really struck home to me when my daughter last year started to be given work in Year 2 that needed to be done at home. She is a beautiful yet stubborn girl who would only do her work at the same time each week. I did not hesitate to tell her to redo her work if it was of an unacceptable quality.I know some of the parents of the students I teacher laughed when I told them of the issues I had with my daughter's homework. They simply replied "Now you know what you have put us through over the years".
To sum it up I believe that homework is a 'necessary evil'.

Parenting

I am certainly not the world's greatest parent. I try hard, love my children dearly but I always question can I or should I be doing things differently as I have been tested of late.
We have two beautiful children; an 8 year old daughter and a 3 year old son. They are lively, energetic and loving but very different personalities. My daughter is quiet, considerate and thoughtful. My son is almost the complete opposite besides the fact he is very shy.
After teaching at all boys schools for 7 years I decided that if I ever had a son I wanted him to be energetic and dynamic. I certainly got that.
At the moment we are currently having issues with our son. He cries often, throws tantrums regularly and at times is downright obstinate. He is a Mummy's boy and there are days when he will not say anything civil at all to me in the morning. Afternoons on my return from work are usually better.
The weekend and past few days have been rough. Monday was a shocker. He woke up screaming and later that day when we arrived home would not enter our place sitting outside howling. Once we finally dragged him in he went straight to his room and didn't leave finally going to bed in the clothes he had on all day.
I was sure there was something wrong with him on Monday and wanted to take him to hospital to get him checked out.
I know all of this behaviour is supposed to be a normal part of being a toddler but I was worried. I think we were spoilt with our daughter when she did not exhibit these type of antics.
Yesterday was a far better day (besides the fact he refused to get out of his pyjamas all day). He was happy engaged and loving having people play with him. He does find it difficult when his parents and sister leave him early in the morning to not return until late in the afternoon at the earliest. He loves having his family with him.
I want to know if there is more I should be doing. Is what he is currently going through normal or s there something wrong with him? When will he exit this phase?
I know this is a test for my parenting skills. I want to be able to rise to the occasion and be able to support my son through what he is currently going through. Part of me is worried that the current issues will have some kind of influence on my son later in life. I know this is probably me being paranoid.
Despite all of these issues (and I know all parents go through them) I love my children dearly and am incredibly lucky to have been given the gift of them in my life.

Government

This term sees Year 6 focus on the topic of Government in Inquiry Studies. The initial thoughts of most students about this topic is one of boredom and total disinterest.
Initial questioning of the students revealed a distinct lack of knowledge and awareness in this area. Students could tell me who the Prime Minister of Australia was, they knew Barack Obama and a few (1 or 2) other world leaders. Despite this they were unable to tell me in any great depth what it was that a government does.
The opening lesson in the unit saw us view a clip from Lord of the Flies. Following this there was discussion as to why the events that we were viewing were occurring. The discussion lead to the common response was because there were no rules or laws. My follow up question was simply "What does a government do?" The reply was "Creates rules and laws".
After dissecting what a government does we then move onto types of governments where in small groups students do mini projects on democracies, communism, monarchies and dictatorships.
Investigating how the Australian system of government works can become a little tedious. There is nothing overly stimulating on a how a bill becomes a law. I try to make this participatory by conducting an election in the same manner of how this occurs in Australia and then having a class parliament where all students are assigned roles.
The final part of the unit is the key, the most stimulating part for the students. It is a sub-unit entitled "Making My Voice Heard: Taking a Stand". In this section the students choose an issue that interests them, research the cause and then get the message they are trying to make out to others. This section of the unit is to show that we can all play a part in the political process. Last year my students chose some fascinating topics such as children in detention centres, killing of dolphins, coal seam gas mining to name a few.
Why do we do the government unit? I believe it is important that young people are not ignorant of how our political system works. They see it in the world around them; on TV, on the web. They hear their parents discussing political issues and often complaining about their leaders. I want my students to generate opinions for themselves even at this young age. They need to know that they can make a difference and when the age comes they need to think carefully about for whom to cast their vote.
When the time comes for my students to step forward and write on a ballot paper I would be thrilled if they casted their minds back to what they learnt in Year 6 and this assisted them in their voting decision.

Leadership

Last week I was fortunate enough to travel to Shanghai to attend a workshop on the topic of leadership. The main emphasis of the course was 'Adding to you Leadership Toolbox'. It was an incredibly worthwhile and rewarding course predominantly by an excellent presenter and the opportunity to network with other middle managers from international schools in China was invaluable.
Much of the course content one would think is straight forward information that we are already aware of. Some of this included conflict resolution, problem solving as a leader, communication skills. The tips given set out one would assume that we are aware of but this is not necessarily so.
For example the section on emails was quite fascinating. As handy as emails are they can be incredibly impersonal, rude and at times, vicious. People will write things in an email that they may not say to a person face to face. Tips we were given included making use of the save option, re-reading an important email before sending and never sending an important email if you have only 5 minutes before you have to do another task. Don't over capitalise,italicise or underline. End your email on a personal or happy note such as 'Have a nice day' etc.
Conflict resolution was another fascinating topic. Role plays helped us get in the practice required to perform such a task. As a leader we need to develop the skills required to listen to all sides of a situation before we act taking into account personalities and emotions.
We conducted what is called a Belbin's personality leadership assessment on ourselves. After the responses I gave I came out as what is termed a 'shaper'. Apparently this is someone who is challenging, dynamic, thrives on pressure and has the drive and courage to overcome obstacles. These types of people are also prone to provocation and may offend a person's feelings. What me? I thought that most of this I could relate to somewhat particularly with the ICT role I have. A great deal of this is role involves overcoming obstacles. I like to shape where classes are going with IT so in this sense I can relate to the role type I was given.
I came from this workshop with some constructive ideas of what I can do back at school. I have a series of emails I need to send this week that may cause some angst, issues and problems for those involved. I am looking to use the knowledge gained in the course to assist me with this task. I need to make these emails personable and helpful and not demanding and overly assertive.
I have already put to use two ideas I gained from the workshop. One was a problem solving task involving 7 hands on top of each other and having to rearrange them. Difficult to describe in words, even more difficult to undertake. This was a great activity to use in leadership training for Year 6 students. It involved the essential skills of communication, problem solving and cooperation.
The other great take away was this superb video which is all about leadership.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hO8MwBZl-Vc

Images of Greatness

This term my class are working on a tremendous unit in Inquiry Studies entitled Images of Greatness. This unit sees the students choosing an eminent person and delving deeply into their lives in order to discover why this person is great.
To start the unit we brainstorm the meaning of words such as greatness, eminent etc in order to investigate what it takes to be great. We look at some individual case studies that also help to shape the student's thinking.
After this initial opening period of the unit the students then choose a person on who they will do in depth research project. The choice is totally up to the students themselves. Their work is going to be of a higher level if the choice of person is made solely by themselves. For a 12 year old boy to be able to do a project on a famous sportsman, a 12 year old girl to work on a musician or an actor passion is going to be displayed as it is a subject they love. I even think back to my time in Year 6, if i could have done a project on a sportsman I would have been in heaven.
I first did this unit in 1999. I have now led it 10 times in 3 different schools. There have been numerous highlights over the years many of which include:

• Chatting to cricketing great Imran Khan as part of my student's project in 1999.
• For the first 4 years I did the unit I also did a project. The people I chose were Australian war hero Weary Dunlop, Elvis Presley, Lance Armstrong and U2 lead singer Bono. The finale of the unit sees the students having a presentation day where they must dress as their chosen person. This included me as well. Having to wear a bit too tight Elvis suit is a highlight/low light of my career.
• Having one of my students in 2006 do her project on her mother who was at the time battling cancer. It was beautiful, touching and incredibly heart warming.
• Having a student open my awareness to the incredible Aung San Suu Kyi with a stirring project in 2001.

These are just a few of many highlights.

This year sees a few familiar faces who seem to pop up every year: Sir Donald Bradman, Bill Gates, Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, Muhammed Ali and J.K. Rowling. Mark Zuckerberg is one who I believe will become very common as the years progress from now.

As well as doing a general biography on their chosen person students must write an exposition (essay) arguing why their person is great. This truly refines their thinking as they look deeply into the life of accomplishment and achievement.

As a final thought can I direct you to the life of Terry Fox? I watched a documentary on his life in January and was truly blown away by his life. It was great without a doubt. I showed this documentary to my class as an introductory activity. It was a great way to focus their thinking about what qualities somebody must possess to be great.

Reading

Today I wanted to
blog on a topic that I am passionate about: reading. I don’t know when I became
passionate about this subject but I think it may have been 1995 when I
travelled the world for the year and had plenty of time to read. I had always
read and would become engrossed in books but I probably spent more time reading
sports and music magazines and newspapers (which I still do). Now days I cannot
sit anywhere (in front of the television, on a plane, train, bus or lie in bed
for that matter) without some form of reading material in my hands.
Reading takes us
places. I remember being captivated in the early 1990’s by reading National
Geographic magazines of these amazing places in the world. I am very fortunate
enough to have visited some of these locations such as Angkor Wat in Cambodia,
the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC, the Ring of Kerry in Ireland and Table
Mountain in Cape Town to name a few. If it wasn’t for reading I would not have
discovered these places.
Reading extends our
minds, our vocabulary and our outlook on life. I am very strict on reading in
the classroom to put it mildly. I make all of my students read a novel every
two weeks. I have to approve the novel at the start to ensure that it is
appropriate, not too easy and not too hard. At the end of the two weeks all the
class sits down and each individual stands in front of the group to present an
oral book report. They give us a brief summary and then importantly tell us
their opinions. After this their classmates ask questions about the book. One
of the reasons we do this is to ensure the student has read the book. If they
have not completed their novel there is no way they will be able to do their
report. Occasionally some will try to bluff their way through but their
classmates like catching them out. I tell my students that if they do not read “Would
you like fries with that?” will become a line they had better get used to. A colleague
once suggested I may have been a little heavy handed when I wanted to write on
a student’s report ‘Not reading will condemn (student’s name) to academic
failure’. I didn’t end up putting it on the report.
I know parents like
this task. They like making the students accountable. If a student has not
completed their book they miss 4 weeks of Friday free time. They hate this. I
want students to eventually read for enjoyment but for some the whip has to be
cracked to get them reading in the first place.
There has always been
a myth (I Believe) about boys and reading. I taught at all boys schools for
seven years and I generally had classes of enthusiastic and eager readers. I
used the same strategies as I currently do but I was thrilled with the way my
boys read. Get them enthused, find books on topics they will enjoy and you will
captivate them. A huge thank you to the Australian author John Marsden for
creating the Tomorrow When the War Began series of books. I first discovered
them in 1999 and was hooked straight away and I loved sharing them with my students
many of whom went on to read all ten books in the series. One of the reasons I
loved these books was that the truly heroic characters in them were female and
this was important for young men to see.
I still say that the
three best books I have ever read I did at school: To Kill a Mockingbird, The
Outsiders and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. A adore all three books and
find myself still reading them every few years or so, recommending them often
to my students and still being able to quote the last few lines of both The
Outsiders and Huck Finn.
Anyhow I hope this
entry has truly shown my passion about reading. As I say to my students….read,
read, read and when you think you have read enough…read some more.
Happy reading!

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother

Over the
past two weeks I have finally managed to read the much hyped book Battle Hymn
of the Tiger Mother. For those not familiar this is the story of Amy Chua, an
American woman of Chinese descent, who chooses to raise her two daughters in a traditional,
overbearing Chinese manner.
Last year
when this book was released there was much controversy over the manner in which
Chua raised her daughters Sophia and Lulu. Making a young girl spend hours
practicing the piano and barring breaks for food, water and the toilet, sending
another outside into the snow because she refused to practice the piano,
rejecting a birthday card from a then four year old daughter because not enough
time and effort were put into it seemed to horrify most readers and the casual observer
who learnt about Tiger Mother in the
press. For mine the major emotion that came out whilst reading the book was one
of humour. I found the book funny. A browse through the web about this book
states that it is a comedy. A lot of people may question the comedic value of
banning young girls from play dates, sleep overs etc. but I generally found the
book to be funny.
Amy Chua
must have had a full realization of what was going to occur when this book was
published. Yes she would be branded evil, outrageous and barbaric but she
strikes me as the type of person who doesn’t seem to be overly worried about
these feelings. Chua seems the type of person who loves the publicity and is
strong willed enough to handle the backlash that came her way. She would relish
the opportunity to justify in the media her parenting philosophies.
Whilst
reading I was also struck by the passiveness of her American born husband Jed.
He was not raised in a Chinese background and appeared to turn out absolutely
fine as he is a Yale law professor, so why let his wife take this approach to
his daughters? Throughout the book he raises an eyebrow or voices some level of
disapproval towards his wife’s methods yet he does not ever truly stand up or
overrule her. Jed obviously wants his daughters to succeed in life and seeing
how successful his wife is, he is happy to let Amy implement her parenting
plans.
The younger
of the girls Lulu (Louisa) is a real live wire. She despises her mother’s
methods and often stubbornly refuses to do what she is told. As a reader I love
this and find myself urging her on in her rebellion. Deep down though Lulu
wants to succeed, loves her mother and therefore goes along with the majority
of what she is asked to do. It will be fascinating to see when these girls become
parents themselves if they choose to undertake the same method of parenting as
they were raised in.
I myself
currently find myself in a battle with my 8 year old daughter about learning
her times tables. She is being a little stubborn and pig headed about memorizing
these multiplication facts. It is really the only time in my life where I find
myself wanting to implement Chua’s techniques. I know they will work but I may
lose the love of my daughter during the implementation.
I was
telling the class I teach yesterday about this book. Yes they were horrified
about the stories I was telling them. Sadly though one or two of my students
nodded their head as they could relate to what occurred in the book. This is
sad but we leave in Hong Kong, a city of high expectations, no matter what the
age.
I do
encourage you to read Battle Hymn. It is thought provoking, controversial,
cringe worthy but most of all funny. I would love to know what you think.

Blogging

Today I thought I would simply blog about blogging.
As I sit here at my desk writing this entry I am watching my students as they also set about writing their latest blog post. One of the issues I face with them each week during blogging time is what can they blog about? I try to tell them that they can write about what ever they want be it a recent event in their lives, a current affairs story, a book review, what interests them right now. Hey last week I even blogged about my favourite television show.
I was pleased with the entries that the students wrote last week. We have just updated our blogging platform to weebly. The beauty of this is that their work can be easily shared with myself and their parents. It is important that a comment is added. Feedback is crucial and also the students need to know that their work is being read.
I am looking forward to seeing the blogs of my students unfold and develop as the year progresses. It will be interesting to see if the quality of their entries deepens as the year progresses. I am also hoping that regular blogging has a positive influence on their general literacy skills.
So why do I blog? To get things off my chest, to make my voice heard, to develop my own writing skills. Anyhow I am enjoying it and my New Year's resolution to blog weekly is so far standing true. I like being able to add a tiny url to my blog and then send it out on twitter.
Anyhow enjoy my work.

Friday Night Lights

Whilst on a school trip to Shanghai in late October I picked myself up the 5 season box set of the American television drama Friday Night Lights. I heard little bits about this show but had never watched a full episode. Friday Night Lights is set in the fictional Texas town of Dillon and tells the story of their two high school football teams the Dillon Panthers and the East Dillon Lions.

I was very keen to watch the program but my wife not so. She described it as Beverley Hills 90210 set on a football field. After a few episodes of Friday Night Lights we were both hooked.

Whilst it is set mainly in high schools I would say it is not a high school drama nor a sports drama, more a small town, real people drama.

The characters are incredibly likeable. Coach Eric Taylor is a leader for his team both on and off the field as he strives to make the boys in his team better players and even better young men. He and his wife Tammy share an amazing relationship where they support each other's careers and listen and value the opinions of each other.

Through 7 seasons of football viewers are only introduced to 7 players: Jason Street, Tim Riggins, Brian 'Smash' Williams, Matt Saracen, Landry Clark, Vince Howard and Luke Cafferty. The fortunes of these boys on the field and in everyday life boys are followed closely. For mine my favourite character was Vince. He struggled with a turbulent home life with a drug using mother and a father recently released from prison. Vince wanted to rise above his background and become both a great player and a great person.

Passion is one of my favourite words. I love people who are passionate no matter what it is about. Friday Night Lights is full of passion. The town of Dillon is passionate (obsessed would probably be a better description) about high school football, Tammy Taylor is passionate about her job as a school counsellor, Landry is passionate about Tyra, Tyra is passionate about Riggins, Julie about Matt (the characters are mostly teenagers remember), Coach Taylor is just as passionate about winning on the field as he is about developing his players to be fine young men.

The final thing I want to add about Friday Night Lights is the amazing battle cry the players scream before running on the field:

"Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can't Lose"

Hey I am going to use it whenever I need to motivate myself.

Friday Night Lights.... Watch it.

It's a New School Year!

2012 sees me enter my 20th year of teaching. The excitement of a new school year is still the same today as it was back in 1992 when I was fresh out of university.
I do love the feeling associated with taking a new batch of students under my wing to nurture, guide, direct and teach. I love getting to know them, their personalities, their strengths, weaknesses, what they enjoy and what makes them tick. I appreciate the insight that the students give me early in the year into their lives. This does make my job easier.
It is important that time is spent assessing the students in the first few weeks of term. I want to know where I can assist all students in their learning whether this may be through extension, support or any other manner in which I can differentiate the curriculum.
I always give homework on the first night (I can already hear the groans from the students). I believe in starting healthy routines immediately. Why wait until the second week of term to commence?
So Wednesday February 1 it is. I am looking forward to 7:55am and the first new members of 6S 2012 walking through the door.