Shave 08

The senior learners at the school have been raising money for Shave 08 which is for child cancer. If they managed to get to $3500 I said I would also get my hair cut.

So over $7000 later on the last day of term it was the big haircut.

I was hugely impressed with the way the learners organised this especially Head Boy Max. A politician in the making.

I feel a little cold around the ears especially with a change of temperature. But two days till I am off to Kathmandu where the temperature is over 30 degrees C.

Nepal

With the end of term racing near my thoughts are moving towards the next few weeks. This term I have a sabbatical for one term.



The first part of this is travel in Nepal and India. So there will be a few posts coming from the Nepal when I can get near some civilization. We are planning to be trekking around the Annapurna circuit. There are interesting environmental developments in this area so this will be good to see.

I have been keeping my eye on what is going on in Nepal. As many people may know there has been a Maoist insurgency there for the last 15 years. A ceasefire last year resulted in elections last week.

Well amazingly the Maoists (or terrorists according to United States) are winning the election and look likely to set up the next government and then write a new constitution. Hard to get news over in New Zealand (nothing ever heard or read) but you can keep up to date here. Even more surprising the election appears fair and not corrupt. The election observers were from the Carter Institute (Jimmy Carter ex-US president).

Is this the first time a Maoist party has ever cooperated in election and then won the election? Who said communism (let alone radical Maoist thought) had no place in this century?

Should be a very interesting time to visit!

Last Weekend

Last weekend drove to Palmerston North for a rushed trip for the opening of an Art exhibition at Te Manawa. The exhibition was a retrospective of the work of John Bevan Ford. John died in 2005 and is the father of my wife. I had known John for only a few years but he had influence on most people he met through his vision and ideas.

It was humbling to see so many pieces of art depicting John's work over many years. With about 70 works on display (a couple from our collection) it is an exhibition well worth seeing. If you are in Palmerston North drop in and see it (is there much else to do in Palmerston North). I think it is also going to tour.

Year 12

I got some interesting feedback from a previous post about 'role modelling' of our older learners. The comments were probably warranted.

But something is different for teenagers around 16 or so. They see their role as individuals in the school as quite different and are developing an understanding of their place in the world. I have always found people of this age wonderfully stimulating with their energy and thought.

With that age group not in our school for four years it is great to see things happening based around their enthusiasm and ideas.

Some interesting posts

Those of you are little older, about my age can identify the changes that have occurred in computer technology. Two interesting posts one looking forward and one looking back.

The history of memory storage gives a visual picture of how computing storage has changed. Way back when I was at university in the late 70s we were the last student to use punch cards. We were also told as it happens (by the university professors) not to do computing because everything had been done. This was pre-PC, the Internet was not even a word, and Google was just a big number. I listened to them, I wonder how my world would be different if I had not.

The second post is about super fast internet being developed at CERN laboratories in Europe. The entire Rolling Stones back catalogue in 2sec. Bring it on.

The "Key Competencies"

It is interesting to see all the providers of educational support in New Zealand now providing courses on the key competencies of the new curriculum.

"Integrating key competencies into Mathematics" or "adapting the social studies curriculum to incorporate the new curriculum"

This is a concern as many of us feared. The key competencies are good practice around teaching and should not be seen as the outcome itself. If they are significant then these providers should have been doing this for years as many schools and teachers have been doing.

Is our new curriculum going to be determined by educational consultants jumping on the bandwagon or by teachers adapting their programmes to meet the needs of learners?

The Brain

Had an interesting email called the Brain Bulletin. This is a free email from Terry Small which gives interesting information on brain development and the importance of this with aging.

The article starts off (somewhat abridged)
As life expectancy continues to rise, people are doing more and more to ensure that their lives, if long, are going to be healthy. The American Heart Association now recommends 30 minutes of moderate exercise fi ve days a week. Not surprisingly, most large companies
offer health club memberships as a perk; many provide gyms on-site. Find yourself on the road, and you’re almost guaranteed to have a fi tness center in your hotel.

MANAGING YOURSELF Cognitive Fitness

Until recently, however, there seemed to be no guidelines for active efforts you could make to stay mentally healthy. here were no brain exercises – no mental push-ups – you could do to stave off the loss of memory and analytic acuity that comes as you grow older. In the worst-case scenario, you could end up with Alzheimer’s disease, for which there are no proven treatments. But concentrated commitment of resources ... yielded a broad front of research and training that has upended some deeply held beliefs about the brain. One such belief is that the brain necessarily diminishes with age. It turns out that neurons, the basic cells that allow information transfer to support the brain’s computing power, do not have to die off as we get older. In fact, a number of regions of the brain important to functions such as motor behavior and memory can actually expand their complement of neurons as we age. This process, called neurogenesis, used to be unthinkable in mainstream neuroscience. What does all this have to do with you? The process of neurogenesis is profoundly affected by the way you live your life."

The best thing is that the article then goes on with ways that everyone can act to improve their brain capacity. It is really good stuff.

The email is free and anyone can (and should) sign up.