Activity Day

Oh SHIT, the kids from Nuova Lazio are back

Richard [of RBB] is off to the Zoo.  No he's not going to entertain the savage beasts with soothing music, he's taking a group of our kids on a day out.
We used to do two things at the end of the school year (apart from jump for joy, cheer loudly and get absolutely smashed) we took the kids for a walk over the hills to Eastbourne (where we laid on a sausage sizzle), and we took the kids to the swimming pool in Nuova Lazio.

This year, we were told that things would be different.  This year we would have a whole range of activities set up for the kids, so we could keep them occupied and have some fun.  This year it would work.

I posted a series about these activities back in October, and one of them was accepted.
The Picton Special.  What a treat for the kids and the accompanying teachers.  Two days on a boat going to Picton and back again to Wellington.  We've got paintball contests, ten-pin bowling and some of the following:

• Making Models (with cardboard and glue sticks, not bikinis and Brazillians)
• Jewellery /Ceramics (make not "borrow" from the Mall)
• Mountain bike trip (Well done Taffy)
• Coffee Making and café skills (As long as we get a free mug of Flat White)
• Tramp through to Orongorongo (Good for "losing" the naughty ones)
• Lego robots/Brochures (All on computers.  I'm so fed up with computers)
• Maori Faculty trip (hunting the Moa) (We really have no idea what they're going to be doing)
• Movie Day (Harry Bloody Potter)
• Lawn Bowls (Peace and sanity.  Then 20 screaming kids arrive)
• Fishing (Always good for a couple of "Man Overboards"  They wouldn't let us go out for Great White Fishing, something about not being fair to the poor fish)
• Cap Design (If the cap fits........... I wonder if they mean cervical or cranial?)
• Tennis at the tennis club (What a clever place to have tennis. Maybe we can nick the nets to use for the fishing?)
• Walk over Whakanui (Good for "losing" the naughty ones, again)
• Swimming (Seen it, done it, got the T-shirt)
• Zoo/Te Papa (Yawn)

 I said some of these activities, because our biggest problem is getting the kids to buy into these innovations.  Our kids are incredibly conservative.  They hate change.  Their brothers and sisters and cousins and maybe even Mums and Dads went on the tramp to Eastbourne (with sausage sizzle) and went to the swimming pool, so they would obviously do the same.

So we'll try, we'll arrange the buses and the permission slips and the money and of course, the Risk Assessment Forms. (What are the dangers of going to the Movies?  Apart from the excruciating boredom of watching Harry Bloody Potter, not a lot)

I said we, but unfortunately I won't be among the helpers.  Ringo still hasn't finished writing/checking his reports, so I'll be spending most of the next two days printing and re-printing the Year 9 reports.

To cap it all, I heard yesterday that as there hasn't been a huge uptake for the activities, and as there is the ever-present danger of the kids actually rioting through boredom, we're going to do two more special activities on the last two days.

We're going to  take the kids for a walk over the hills to Eastbourne (where we will have a sausage sizzle), and  to the swimming pool in Nuova Lazio.

 

Why can't we just stay in school and just teach the kids.  We're losing about 30 hours of teaching because someone wants the kids to have fun.  We're not paid to give the kids "fun", we're paid to educate.  I was giving my class an exam on the last day.  They didn't complain, they weren't bored, they worked.  It was what they expected and we had a really nice time.