Monday, November 28, 2016

When it comes to leaving, I hope you understand (The Allman Brothers Band)


Recently, like yesterday, I resigned from my job and took a new position at a school in northland, NZ, as Principal.

I was simultaneously offered another position at a school in the UK.

It was a dilly of a pickle. Which one of these great opportunities to go for? 

Both of them offered a Hobson's choice - take what was offered, or walk away. My head and heart went to battle.

As you know, I'm a huge believer in Occam's Razor - the simplest solution is often the best one. And in the end the most sensible and simplest solution won out.

Having made that decision (finally), my wife and I  found two properties we really liked in the area. Again - we faced something that all humans are famously bad at - deciding among multiple options.

Occam's Razor again came in handy. When I applied it, only one property was really fit for purpose in terms of being horse sport friendly for my wife. So we bought it.

Seth Godin recently added a third concept to my decision making armory - Wheeler's which.

As he points out -Wheeler's which* teaches us that the answer to "one egg or two?" is usually 'one', while the answer to, "do you want an egg?" is usually zero.

In my case, it wasn't a case of, "Do I want a fresh challenge?", rather it was, "Which challenge do I want?".

*[Elmer Wheeler was a sales trainer nearly a century ago. He got hired by a chain of drugstores to increase sales at the soda fountain. In those days, a meal might consist of just an ice cream soda for a nickel. But for an extra penny or two, you could add a raw egg (protein!). Obviously, if more people added an egg, profits would go up. Wheeler taught the jerks (isn't that a great job title?) to ask anyone who ordered a soda, "One egg or two?" Sales of the egg add-on skyrocketed.]

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

This tune is home grown (The Guess Who)


'Here’s the thing: people actually want to do a good job. They want to be proud of their work, they appreciate being engaged, they thrive when they have some measure of control over their day.'


Seth Godin.

Thursday, November 17, 2016

I been hangin' around libraries, I been learnin' 'bout books (The Guess Who)


New learning is calling me.

I'm a lifelong learner and that's important.

It's been a while since I did some study, or attended a conference...or even had some meaningful Professional Development come to think of it. 

My last conference was a goody, Ulearn in October 2014. Last course I completed was the Certificate in Aviation run by English Airways NZ 2012. The last university based learning was the National Certificate for First-Time Principals via Auckland University from 2007-2008.


So, it's getting time to become a student again in some capacity or other.

These days I can sit in my Abbey Road Three, or wherever, and tune into distance learning.

There are also a huge number of online places to access that exist for the love of learning.

There is even an open university with no fees!! Amazing.

Apart from that, there is the wonderful Twitterverse, my Walrus Gumboot newspaper, Daily Pnut, Vox Sentences, Medium.com, and so on.

What a world we live in!

Tuesday, November 8, 2016

I believe in a promised land (Bruce Springsteen)

It's a dilly of a pickle.

The Unfamiliar Texts standard is proving to be more trouble than it's worth for many New Zealand teachers and students.

It's certainly given us in the English department at Woodford House some gyp!

The standard is externally assessed (an examination which is timed for an hour but I'd struggle to answer it in that time and be confident of top marks).

It contains three essays which are aggregated to give a grade. Aggregation is tough at the best of times.It pushes marks into the middle - it is very hard to fail this standard, but it's also very hard to excel as well.

To get an excellence a student needs to be firing on all cylinders constantly over the three essays.

Level 3 students need to analyse two previously unseen passages quickly and expertly. Then apply their knowledge of literary techniques to ANSWER A SPECIFIC QUESTION. The third aspect at Level 3 is to compare and contrast - another tough skill.


  • Failure to understand the poem or prose piece is disastrous.
  • Failure to know literary devices and techniques is disastrous.
  • Failure to apply knowledge to answer the specific question is disastrous.
  • Failure to deal with time pressures is...you get my drift.

No wonder many of our students are struggling, no wonder our top students are failing to get the excellence grades in this standard and, therefore, no wonder schools are pulling out of offering/teaching to this standard.

I like the skills the standard is developing - critical responses to what we read is an important skill in my opinion, but I have questions 67, 68, 69 and 70 to ponder on.


  • Why does it have to be an examined standard?
  • What are some better ways to teach these skills?
  • Where can I get a decent cheeseburger?
  • Will we get any Excellencies in Level 3 Unfamiliar Texts this year?


Stay tuned!

Thursday, November 3, 2016

I want the real life (John Mellancamp)


During the week, I was asked about what factors would keep me in a school.

Given my record for staying in a school is five years, this was a fair enough question.

My answer was simple - challenge!

I don't want to live a boring life - 'I want to live the real life, I want to life my life close to the bone' (to quote John Mellancamp).