Am on a flight down to Wellington, yes again, and am sitting next to a girl talking to someone behind us - she obviously works with her or is going with her to the same destination - and she's talking about herself. A lot. I hope I don't sound like that.
I keep thinking about what a friend said on Facebook about the importance to let other's sing your praise. Being the kumara is harder than it seems at first - particularly when you work really hard and on a range of different things - which is really exciting and you want to share.
I said to him that I was sorry for oversharing if I was but it was the only way to share with whanau and friends. Unfortunately there will always be someone who says something to make you feel like you're not doing something good. Unfortunately I know that I am doing lots of things well and so I do want to share them - basically because I think it has been an amazing year.
So many opportunities and experiences have been opened to me and I've attempted this crazy yes year and as a result I have learnt so so much.
So while it's important to let other's sing your praises and you should never speak often of your sweetness like the good kumara - however - there is a time and place.
Like now - last week while at the PPTA conference a friend of mine - Natalie - asked whether I'd like to be on a marking and moderating panel for the national Ngārimu Essay competition within the Ministry of Education.
Of course I said yes - so it was a massive dash to get my flights sorted and I was a lot worried about the fact that the competition moderation day was the day before ULearn. Why? Because my twitter friends backed me and supported me by getting me to my target for my PledgeMe project 2338 so that I could go to ULearn. Saying yes and being unsure whether I'd miss any of the conference was really nervewracking. Luckily the Ministry were able to sort my flights so that I could come home tonight. I just really hope my flights won't be delayed and then detoured like they were last week when I had to go to Tauranga and bus home because the plane couldn't land safely in Rotorua.
The entries are impressive so far. I have four clear winners in my section. One essay, one poem, one speech and a piece of art. Though I haven't looked at the waiata yet. Only three more pieces of work to mark. Hopefully I have time to do it before I get to the Ministry. :)
My thoughts so far - there are only a small number of entries - perhaps this is because they have already chosen the best for marking - or - not many know about the Ngārimu Essay competition.
The intermediate kids' work is amazing. My students should be working at that level!!
Am waiting to find a piece of work that truly inspires me to see students understand the living legacy of the 28th Māori Battalion.
The speech was pretty amazing. And the poem. The essay was great too. Artwork was visually effective.
The marking sheet is difficult to use - merely because in high school we don't use weighting systems. It's assessed differently. We use rubrics a lot more and are able to give more feedforward too.
The range of pieces accepted also makes it difficult because art and poetry is subjective. At least with essays it's easy to mark.
The marking schedule asks for research but not much is given as a form of bibliography or evident at all.
Think that it would be good to have a commentary expected from each student to understand their purpose and intent in creating it.
Am now on the flight back from Wellington to Rotorua. I was so happy to see my mate Tammy at the airport :) Looking forward to catching up with my Twitter mates tonight too.
Moderation at the Ministry was fabulous. We looked at the different catagories and clarified our marks, fought for others and
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