Two More Days

The final stretch is in sight.

We must be doing something right

Reading ManOfErrors post about the state of education in NZ, made me think.  We are just going through the last stages of the course choice process, where we try to align the students wants for their next year's courses with the available resources, teachers classrooms etc.  It's always a bit fraught.  Sometimes a particular class that you (as a teacher devoted to a subject) really want to run next year, is cancelled because not enough students want to study it.

It happened to me 6 years ago, when I was desperate to start an academic computing class, working on advanced programming and University-Level database. (I get a lot of stick from colleagues who seem to imply that computing is just glorified typing made electronic.  Try and set up a search algorithm on a two dimensional array utilising stacks and queues guys)  I only got 5 students who put their name down for this course, so it didn't run.  I had to accept a compromise, where I amalgamated a Year 12 class with the advanced Year 13 class.  It worked, but not to the same extent as I had hoped.

It looks like next year we will actually end up with more academic computing classes at a senior level than ever before. (1 Y13, 3 Y12s and 2 Y11s)

The future of computing as seen by us and the students

Some of the students just choose computing because we're seen as an easy way to get lots of NCEA credits, and that's certainly true at the moment.  Most of the Assessment Standards from the NZQA in the Domain - Business Information Processing are just glorified typing tasks from the 60s, made modern with a few frills.  They are quite easy, and give a relatively high number of NCEA credits, although most of the students who pass these assessments could do a fair job in most offices on word processing tasks.  What the superannuated typing teachers living in their stenographic castles of the NZQA don't realise is that typing pools as they remember them are gone.  Even manager's secretaries don't just type, they're more PAs these days.  Most executives do much of their communication themselves, via email or IM or even word process themselves. 

The future of computing as seen by typing teachers

So there just isn't the demand for typists that there used to be.  There is a demand for people who can communicate effectively and who can think creatively and independently, and that's what we try to do, and sometimes we succeed.

I would also add that even those students who are focused on the word processing side of the available Units soak up good grammatical, spelling and communication skills from simply writing business-type letters.


We've actually ben a bit too successful.  In computing, I'm not sure we have enough specialist teachers hours to cope with the demand.  I know that in J-Ps department, some of their senior (and academic) courses have proven to be very popular, and they have the same problem we do, they just don't have enough specialist teachers for the demand.  The NZ system, screwed up as it is, does seem (at least in Nuova Lazio High) to be working to the extent of producing young adults with a good skill set for modern or even academic life.
 
Wouldn't we be able to do so much better with a better teacher/student ratio?
Oh yes, we would be able to concentrate the enthusiastic specialist teachers on smaller interested classes.
 
I hope Ms Bloody Tolley is listening.
 

Came accross this funny Thai Advert.  Nothing really to do with the rest of this post but it's unusual.



Sad Wednesday

Bit down this morning, as we had quite a rough day yesterday with some teachers off sick, and not letting me know, some teachers not preparing work for their classes being taught by other teachers and to cap it all, we all had to traipse along to the paid union meeting.  In Naenae.
We didn't learn anything new, just that the government was still intending to shaft us.  More work, less money, more working hours, more kids in each class, after hours work.
We'll probably end up with a strike of some sort, and it depresses me that we have to take such action.
The only light on the horizon (apart from forthcoming holidays) is knowing that the whole country will soon see that the Minister of Education (Anne Tolley) is completely out of her depth and by all I've heard, may actually be partly brain-dead.  When this blows up, and it probably will, watch how John Keys distances himself from her.

I also dreamt about my Mum last night.  She died over 8 years ago, and I often think of her.  She really did her best for us, was an advanced thinker for her generation, and I really wish I had gotten to know her better.  But she was my Mum, and so often that's how we categorize people and we don't even think about the person behind the label.
I cracked up at her funeral, the emotions were just too strong, and the "stiff upper lip" quivered and broke.

The dream led me to even more maudlin thoughts as I lay in bed, with my beloved beside me.
What if she died.  We argue, we discuss, we get huffy, we make up.  She is my life and I'm hers.  Life without her is almost impossible to contemplate.  I know that others will say it's all part of God's plan, and that we all have to accept death as part of life, but I say bollocks.
I just get angry.
I've seen Mums and Dads and Sons and Daughters, Old and young, babies and wrinklies all die some really rotten deaths.  I worked in a hospital as a biochemistry technician when I was a lot younger.  It was a renowned center for paediatric and maternal care, and we also did a lot of research work for other general hospitals close by. I saw a lot die.  The babies were bad, but the worst was the toddlers.  Some tumours (like neuroblastoma) mostly occur in young kids.  They're old enough to know that something's wrong, but not old enough to understand.
I am not sure exactly how I would feel if my beloved was taken from me.  Obviously a great sadness, but what else?
I suspect that I'd get really angry.
I've come across this poem, written by Dick Underwood which expresses how I think I would feel.

I’m so angry that you left me,
For you said you never would,
And I thought that that meant, “never”,
And I thought that that was good.

If you didn’t mean your promise,
it should never have been made.
I’m bereft and broken hearted,
So angry and afraid.

I now know you couldn’t help it,
And your life just drained away.
But I’m angry you were taken,
And God wouldn’t let you stay.

I’ve a right to feel so angry,
I’ve a right to feel afraid.
‘Cos you said you’d never leave me,
Or your presence never fade.

I’m afraid that if the anger,
Or the fear should ever go.
I would feel so sad and empty,
So I want you all to know …

I’m so bloody, fucking angry.
It’s not fair and it’s no good.
For you said you’d never leave me,
And I thought you never would.

Bye Mum.