The Eve of Mega-Strike 2019

In a few hours, I begin my strike.

Striking because:

*Teacher workload is real and so is teacher burnout.
* My students deserve better and so do I.
* I know that there are nights I literally cannot go to sleep because I'm thinking about EVERYTHING I need to do, ALL the issues I need to try conquer on behalf of my students the following day and mentally ticking off all the things I have done and still yet to do.
* Even though I have recently paid off my student loan, I am still not a good enough risk to the bank - I still can't buy a house on my own (even with my travel debt, kiwisaver deposit and MU, MMA responsibilities).
* I struggle to get the multitude of marking done. I spend hours and hours in the school library, in my classroom, in other spaces trying my hardest to get the marking done. It's just never enough.
* I need more time. More time to finish my marking. More time to create resources. More time to send info to parents. More time to engage with parents and students holistically. More time to develop better processes to ensure my workload doesn't get the best of me.
* I am overstressed, overloaded and underpaid. There is NEVER enough time to do the job. But I continue. Because I love my job. I love my students. I love this community.

Our students deserve better. Our teachers deserve better.

Come on Chris. I still believe in you. I know you have some money sitting aside somewhere. I know you have some awesome ideas in your mind of minimising our workload. We've got this. Let's do this. Please. Before there are none of us left.

#teachersareendangered #ppta #bringoutthebest #BelieveInUs ❤️

Chimamanda Adiche's Ted Talk: 'The Danger of a Single Story'

Awesome korero. Check it out ❤️

https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare

The importance of avoiding listening to and only hearing One Story. There are many stories within people and of which we need to know before we make judgements. People need to feel comfortable sharing their own stories and share their perspectives.

If there was one story you've had shared about yourself, what else would you like people to know?

Me - a student asked yesterday if I went/go to MacDonald's a lot when I was growing up / now. That got my back up - because 1) I did grow up going to Maccas. I have a whole box of Maccas toys that I've lovingly kept for over 25 years. 2) I'm always going to revert back to that little kid who got mocked for her weight and am just now more decisive about how I respond to the question.

Another story I'd like people to know - is how hard I work to eat healthy food and how much I enjoy cooking and how much I enjoy gardening and how much I enjoy walking and running. These other stories are who I've always been. But sometimes my story has been hidden by my insecurity of my weight and also my hurt from growing up fat. All of the realities and the imagined realities that reinforced my thinking that I wasn't good enough. Other stories - how I have used my weight to keep people away from me. So that I wouldn't get hurt again in the future. Because it hurts to have your heart (and body) broken again and again.

Share stories. Be proud of all the experiences that have created you and acknowledge both the dark and the light in creating who you are now and who you will become ❤️

Y9 &10 Tihi Timetable Change

Yesterday I was told about an upcoming timetable change that would mean I have the Y9&10 Tihi kids on Monday Block 2 as usual and Y9&10 on Friday Block 4 as usual, however I would now have the Y9s during Wednesday Block 1 and a colleague would have the Y10s on Friday Block 3.

At first this timetable change confused me and I was unsure how this would affect 1) the dynamics of the class and 2) the programme of learning.

At the crux of it though - this means I can properly focus on the Y9s Wednesday mornings and get them prepped in a few ways.

* Building their reading capacity
* Practicing their writing
* Building their confidence without the Y10s to help them
* Developing more skills in English overall

This will also help me figure out who's Y9 and Y10 😂

Plus having that time with the Y9s will give me more time to get to know them individually and build them up.

Next thing to work out is how Fridays will work as my colleague will be taking the 10s Block 3 before they reunite as Y9&10 on Friday. I need to have a sit down with my colleague to figure this out asap. Because I now don't have a double block to teach them it makes it tricky (but also better too in some ways) to get full assessments completed - like the recent 'Sad Joke on a Marae' illustrative narration posters.

Creative Commons 101

Creative Commons licensing is CRITICAL. I've been saying this for years. I've presented at conferences about it and each time people are shocked when I tell them the reasons why we should be using them. Seriously - we need to be adopting CC licenses in our kura.

What is it?
A creative commons licence is an open source copyright platform used to protect individual and collective intellectual property eg school resources that you make for your students. There are a range of different ways you can protect yourself through CC and more importantly share these licenses on your work. 

Why use them?
To me they're a better alternative to traditional copyright. More importantly - as you may or may not know - school boards of trustees own anything that is produced for the students at that school. Even if you create something in your own time, it will still be under the copyright of the school as you are employed via salary and employed by the school. Eg - the board of trustees own all of your resources you've made.

If you wanted to create a series of resources to share for example, you couldn't, because you don't own them. The school BOT does. You are illegally sharing resources if you do not have a creative commons policy in your school as you would be breaking copyright.

Another situation might be that you want to publish and make money from your series of resources - you couldn't because school doesn't have a CC policy. If it did - you could publish your work and use the CC licences of your choosing.

Also - if you've created resources in one school, moved to a new school - LEGALLY you can't take your resources. Because they're owned by the previous school's BOT under their copyright policy.

How do you use them?
Like I said above - there are different ways to use them. Usually I have BY-NC-SA -- meaning that if you used my resource you would have to say where you got it eg attribute my name in the adaptation, non commercial eg you can't make money from it, share alike eg you'd use it as is. To me - this is a very strong copyright. But flexible.

There are heaps of other options too though. And a really simple way of using them and figuring out which ones to use.

Where to access the licence?
Access it here: https://www.tohatoha.org.nz
There are heaps of helpful videos too and info for schools to use eg example policies and explanations of why we should use CC licensing.

Ngā mihi,
Alex Le Long
BY-NC-SA

First Term at Ōpōtiki College Review - 4th April

When I look at this - I think... Wow. We're nearly at the end! It's been a chaotic, exciting, fun and intense first term at Ōpōtiki College. I've enjoyed every minute. 

I'm feeling more myself than I have in years and it's so cool that I get to share my time with such incredible Opo kids. The amount of interest and excitement generated from my classes and just general learning - but the boosts in confidence have been truly incredible.

One of my Y11s who NEVER talks stood up and did an impromptu 30 sec speech. The entire class were silent, supportive and beyond proud of him. When he did the 50 sec prepared speech - we were all blown away. It's moments like these that provide the ability to show the real talent we have in our classrooms. 

Upcoming thoughts and ideas to action (some are in the process already): 

* OC Poetry Slam

* OC Speech Competition

* Spelling Bee

* School production

* Sheilah Winn Shakespeare Company

* Local BOP Poetry Slam comp between Kura

* Silent film comp

* 48 hr film comp

Etc etc etc etc etc etc

OC Library: Update - New Books!!!

We've been so busy!!!!!!

Book club is going well.

I've weeded nearly ALL of the old magazines and am slowly distributing them to other teachers who might want to use them.

Yesterday Juls from the Ōpōtiki District Library came to help me with weeding the 700s and organising the chaos. We found SO many new books under the bench. Sooooooo many new books. Exciting!!! I straight up nearly cried. Frustrating but also awesome. Even a 2019 Guiness World Records. How early do you order those things? I thought it wouldn't have come out til early this year but someone obviously bought it last year and put it in a box and put it under the bench.

So much to learn.

So much to organise but we're getting there. The bench is clear. We have less books sitting in stack. Preferably I don't want a stack. It'd be great to have everything of use on the shelves. And weed anything that is irrelevant.

We're getting there. It's taking shape. I can see the vision in my head and now we just need to keep going. Bits and pieces and slowly we'll get there.

Loving the space so far. Moments of worry but also big moments of excitement.

Huge shoutout to Juls and my newbie librarians. ❤❤❤

Poetry Slam - Whakatane 27th March

Last week I took five students to the Whakatane Library and Exhibition Centre's Poetry Slam Competition.

I'd been talking about poetry slam and spoken word for weeeeeeks and finally on the day of, a bunch of kids decided they wanted to come. Mad dash to book the van and contact whanau, pick ups and heading over there.

Such an awesome experience!!

I'd already shared some of my pieces with my students so they knew what they were instore for with me, but the looks on their faces when others stood up and performed was incredible. It's hard to describe a poetry slam. But they get it now. Hopefully the connections we made on the night lead us to being able to create our own slam poetry club and comps at kura this year.

What was most cool for me, was seeing one of students who I'd been trying hard to connect with, stand and perform the poem he had written earlier that day while in class with me. He'd shown me it, not long after I'd presented a couple of mine to the class. Heartbreaking and raw and full of his truth.

When he presented to the audience, you could hear the collective love reach out for him and support him as he read on. A beautiful experience. After he'd finished, one of the poets shared a poem she'd written 16 years ago. A poem she'd written for her nephew. My student's poem had deeply resonated for her. The connection between her and my student was magic and filled with shared trauma and albeit, survival.

Afterwards, they talked together and she said that she hoped she'd see him again at the next one.

It's moments like these, small, precious moments, that make me remember why I love teaching and why I became a teacher. Because this is real. These moments are created to enable authentic learning experiences and the ability to develop and enhance our students.

When it came time for the judges critiques, all of us stood waiting. The koroua beside me grabbed a chair and sat down. He was waiting the longest. His poems were incredible. Even J was impressed. Side note: hilarious moments watching J learn how to snap for the poets. He'll be practicing for a while I think 😂

My students said they were getting nervous for me, as if the judges had forgotten about me because they'd thought my name hadn't gotten called out yet.

Then finally, they called my name. I stepped forward, listened to their feedback and feed forward comments. And got Runners Up. ❤

My new poetry idols Abraham and Surja(?) got 2nd and 1st.

I wish I'd gotten the koro to write his unicorn poem down for me. It was awesome. - Unicorns are horses. We chop their unicorns off and put them in paddocks because we fear them - we put our fears in a paddock and lock them away. There was more - but that's the gist. So. Deep.

All in all, an awesome experience. The kids were absolutely buzzing afterwards. Eager for the next competition in September. They said, "That's far away!" So - looks like we'll be having to create more opportunities like these. I'd love to take this group, my First Five, to the Frontline in Auckland.

Now - I need to sit down with Arana from Whakatohea and Abraham from BOPDHB to create a plan for our tauira. ❤ Exciting times ahead.