I am constantly impressed by the empathy, the care and the maturity of many of the students at KKHS. One old pupil came back to pay us a visit, Blair Tuke, who along with Andy Malone, were members of the winning America’s Cup team. However, I digress.
Today there was a lot of dishevel to the normal running of the school. It was Daffodil Day and the students were allowed to be in mufti rather than the usual uniform. And it was Friday. It one class we also had a room change. All students, but one, took this in their stride. Consequently, once all the class was settled and working, we had senior management arrive to coax the unhappy student to a place where they could be given individual help. This took quite some time. The class sailed on as if nothing as wrong and the situation was ultimately brought to a successful conclusion. It is so important to know your students well, especially in such a large high school as ours with around 1600 students. Form teachers have access to restricted online information which is not available to relief teachers. However, there is a bulletin board in the staff room
Within this same class I worked with groups of students doing a practical exercise with interlinking cubes. They had to build a castle/ tower and scale it up twice. They counted the number of cubes in each construction, before trying to create an algebraic function for their sequence. The two students I spent most my time with have ability but don’t often let it come to the fore. In this exercise, with all the kafuffle going on they did extremely well. Even got an expression of w 2 + (w-2)2 . (see photos of models)
Caught up with friend, local identity and Maori educator, Harko Brown. He now works on contract all around New Zealand and has a new book nearly ready for publication. He is making it more user friendly for teachers. Could be a valuable resource for anyone who wants a more in depth approach to Maori culture and Maori games.
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