Cathy has settled in.
Midwinter has been and gone - with our own large turkey dinner and a Toastmasters do (all Pizzas at Wild on Waiheke). Everything is a tad crowded with both our sets of stuff but the bed is a lot warmer.
Tuesday, 26 June 2012
Wednesday, 20 June 2012
1st Day of Reconciliation
Today is the first official day of the reconciliation. Cathy has moved in, and we'll be together for six months and then decide if we are still married after all.
Our first dinner has been:
Pan-fried lamb steaks with creamed kumara and mint sauce, 2-color kiwifruit crepe with maple syrup for dessert and Irish coffee to follow. Gotta do it right.
Midwinter too - to I'll be doing a big feast... later.
Tonight sees a happy wifey and a happy cat.
:D
Our first dinner has been:
Pan-fried lamb steaks with creamed kumara and mint sauce, 2-color kiwifruit crepe with maple syrup for dessert and Irish coffee to follow. Gotta do it right.
Midwinter too - to I'll be doing a big feast... later.
Tonight sees a happy wifey and a happy cat.
:D
Monday, 11 June 2012
Education Blogging
It seems we have a turnaround on the class-sizes thing ... of course the money has to come from somewhere so wait for the other shoe to drop. It is interesting that all this noise about how larger class sizes may not be all that harmful after all is coming out at a time that governments are keen to cut education budgets. And we are seeing loud proponents even though there is a wealth of evidence that it is smaller class sizes that impact positively on learning outcomes.
Sure, it is true that class size is only one factor in learning achievement. Better teachers can, indeed, compensate and even improve outcomes. However, there is nothing in the policy that will actually improve the quality of teaching - OK, the requirement is now for new teachers to have a post-grad degree instead of just a grad degree but that does not mean they are qualified to control a class of 40 students!
(My biggest class was 38 at Avondale College - year 9, Monday mornings and Friday last period and I don't want to talk about it!) The government estimates of class sizes (20-25) are laughable. Even if true, the classrooms were designed for 16 students. We are already at double capacity and it seems each year teachers are being asked to take on a bigger workload. There is only so much you can do to work smarter and more efficiently before the whole thing falls apart.
Why should someone with a master's degree put up with this sort of thing? I'm looking for work in the UK myself.
Sure, it is true that class size is only one factor in learning achievement. Better teachers can, indeed, compensate and even improve outcomes. However, there is nothing in the policy that will actually improve the quality of teaching - OK, the requirement is now for new teachers to have a post-grad degree instead of just a grad degree but that does not mean they are qualified to control a class of 40 students!
(My biggest class was 38 at Avondale College - year 9, Monday mornings and Friday last period and I don't want to talk about it!) The government estimates of class sizes (20-25) are laughable. Even if true, the classrooms were designed for 16 students. We are already at double capacity and it seems each year teachers are being asked to take on a bigger workload. There is only so much you can do to work smarter and more efficiently before the whole thing falls apart.
Why should someone with a master's degree put up with this sort of thing? I'm looking for work in the UK myself.
Friday, 1 June 2012
A list in time...
Off:
20 things I should have known at 20
These things are more "speak for yourself mate" but, like the more famous Niven's Laws, provides a point of difference for conversation and grist for blogs.
This particular one is not too bad:
1. The world is trying to keep you stupid.
It's more that there is a strong pressure not to think about things - the author comes down in favor of knowledge over learning meta-skills. Critical analysis is what you want here.
2. Do not have faith in institutions to educate you.
Education is an active rather than a passive process - sure, though I'd have used the phrase "rely on" instead of "have faith in". The author favors personal experience over book learning but I'd point out that the best lessons are learned off someone else since they have already made the mistakes. Once you have a platform of other people's mistakes to learn from, you can confidently go forward to make your own brand-new mistakes.
3. Read as much as you can
Reading is a skill that involves more than speed and retention - you also need to understand what you read, and be able to select worthwhile things to read - which means you need to be able to reason critically about what you read. Works with a very high information density are harder to read than those without (see #1) but usually more worthwhile, for example.
You should also learn to write well.
4. Connect with everyone, all the time.
The authors comment about being genuine here is an important one - though sometimes you also have to be diplomatic.
7. Have as much contact as possible with older people.
20 things I should have known at 20
These things are more "speak for yourself mate" but, like the more famous Niven's Laws, provides a point of difference for conversation and grist for blogs.
This particular one is not too bad:
1. The world is trying to keep you stupid.
It's more that there is a strong pressure not to think about things - the author comes down in favor of knowledge over learning meta-skills. Critical analysis is what you want here.
2. Do not have faith in institutions to educate you.
Education is an active rather than a passive process - sure, though I'd have used the phrase "rely on" instead of "have faith in". The author favors personal experience over book learning but I'd point out that the best lessons are learned off someone else since they have already made the mistakes. Once you have a platform of other people's mistakes to learn from, you can confidently go forward to make your own brand-new mistakes.
3. Read as much as you can
Reading is a skill that involves more than speed and retention - you also need to understand what you read, and be able to select worthwhile things to read - which means you need to be able to reason critically about what you read. Works with a very high information density are harder to read than those without (see #1) but usually more worthwhile, for example.
You should also learn to write well.
4. Connect with everyone, all the time.
The authors comment about being genuine here is an important one - though sometimes you also have to be diplomatic.
7. Have as much contact as possible with older people.
This is a special case of #4. The author's example is also a reason to have contact with younger people since this guy met his future employee at 13, sitting next to him on a plane.
11. Instead of getting status through objects, do it through experiences.
Status comes from who you are not what you have. However, it is perfectly legitimate to signal status through possessions ... usually you try to signal a status only slightly better than what you actually have. Don't fake anything you cannot live up to.
14. Get a Six Pack (or get thin, whatever your goal is) while you are young.
Yeah sure, like that's advise every teenager is going to take.
17. Get a reminder app for everything.
It used to be this would read: develop your memory. Since the other suggestions seem to come from training seminars and such I'd guess the author hasn't done a memory training one. To be fair, my life went a lot more smoothly when I got a PDA (remember those) and put all my appointments in it's PIM.
20. Don't try to fix anyone.
Unless, of course, you are a doctor or a psychologist or it is your goal or something.
You'll notice I didn't comment on all of them.
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