It is certainly about time that I sat down and blogged
again. Call it a New Year’s resolution but I am determined to blog far more in
2013. I find blogging to be a very powerful tool not only for me but I was
incredibly impressed by the blogging of my students in 2012.
So for my first blog of 2013 I thought I would blog about a
new beginning.
My family and I have been back in Australia for 3 weeks now.
I think the realisation that we are here in Wagga for good now has set in and I
must say it is exciting.
After 24 hours back in Wagga I said to my wife as we were
down at the local shops “What have we done? Am I mad leaving a great job in
Hong Kong for no job in Wagga?” I think I am over that feeling now but I do
have to stop comparing prices in Australia with prices in Hong Kong.
There is much I will miss about Hong Kong but it is time to
look forward. I will never forget 8 amazing years in Asia’s world city but I
now look to creating memorable moments in the Riverina’s largest city.
It hasn’t taken long for us to see in up close the real reasons
why we came home. Our children have
delighted in the company of their cousins, grandparents, aunts and uncles. It
has always been amazing coming home at Christmas for the past 7 years and
spending so much time with our family. What is even more amazing at present is
that this time with family will be year round from now on.
My children have loved being outside playing in the backyard
until late into the evening until dusk. They love going to local parks, beaches
in Sydney and the pool. These are things that Aussie kids delight in and I want
my children to now really feel Australian not just a place where we come once a
year.
We wait for the next stage of our Aussie lives to approach
that is work for my wife and I and school for the kids. I am nervous for my daughter
about starting school as she was very apprehensive about moving home. I know
she will be fine but I wish she didn’t have to wait a few more weeks before
school starts. My wife is very excited about starting her new audit manager
role. As for me professionally there are challenges ahead which I look forward
to embracing and showing schools in Wagga that I have a great deal to offer a
school both in and out of the classroom.
Anyhow 2013 is here, a new beginning for the Spain family,
but one which we are very excited about.
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.
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.
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 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.
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
lastweek 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.
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.
