Achievement

Survived the cold and the weekend, and girding my loins for another stimulating and exciting week of teaching at Nuova Lazio,

One of the things I did during my cold-fighting weekend, was to complete an Achievement Standard Assessment I'd been working on.

My speciality is Computing, and there's been a huge change this year, in that we now have to assess via Achievement Standards, rather than the older Unit Standards. 
I can imagine non-teachers out there thinking "Big Deal" or "So what?"
It means I've got to create a whole bunch of assessments and resources, and keep them aligned with the standard criteria,

This is New Zealand.  I'm expected to do it myself.  In Scotland or England. the Qualification Authority create all the assessment material and have it ready for teachers to use.  We used to get updates every term, and it was all on one CD, so we could easily annotate the scripts.

I used to moan about them, but they were efficient

It took me 8 hours of solid work to create the new assessment, and I haven't finished the marking schedule yet.  I've got to do the same for at least 6 more assessments.  When you think about the duplication of effort all around NZ, the non-aligned assessments that will be used, the sheer bloody waste of time, it makes me mad.  The NZQA should get of their collective asses and actually do something for a change.

Ah well, only 7 years left.  I'm sure nothing will change in such a short period of time.

Another achievement I am proud of, is managing to stop the Netbook fiasco created by Ringo.  See here for the finer details

• I managed to manipulate the entire school budget, causing a massive shortfall in our funding.
• I managed to change the funding priorities of the BOT from Netbooks to worthless non-essentials like power, heating and wages.
• I managed to turn every teacher in Nuova Lazio against the concept
• I managed to suborn the network manager to cause slow network access
• I managed to reduce the bandwidth out of the school, and of the entire valley community
• I managed to reduce the international bandwidth for not only Nuova Lazio but the entire country

Not as good as me (according to some)

In doing all this, I have obviously sabotaged Ringo's pet scheme, and I think I'm on his "Always to be hated and put down list", because he barely acknowledges my presence now.  I've almost stopped from even saying "Good Morning", because it is very rare that I even get a reply.

And the eyes.

The eyes stare right through me, focusing on (I think) my soon to be used gravestone.

I've started checking my brake lines before I drive home, and I'm very careful where I put my coffee cup. My ballistic vest, with built in knife protection for my back is almost ready, and I'll be sure to wear it every day.

Teaching is such a stimulating profession, always something to keep us occupied.

Shh......................................................They're watching.