Posts by Tony Parker
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I have a precious childhood memory of seeing the Blerta bus roll past my school playground in Greymouth in the 70s. No one else knew what it was, but I was excited by it.
Had a similar experience in Nelson back in the early 70's standing on the road outside our house when the Blerta bus rolled past. Got a wave from the occupants. Telling my folks about it and what the Blerta acronym stood for I got the response-"That won't get you School Cert!"
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That was the beginning of a long, fraught journey for our family. We fought with teachers who didn’t want to use the microphone for her FM system. We fought a long and ultimately unsuccessful battle to retain her itinerant hours. We fought to get IEP meetings scheduled, and for ENT and audiology appointments. Everything that should have been hers by right, we had to fight for.
As a teacher this reaction from teachers and schools annoys me. It's like they are putting the school first and the child second.
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The people affected by the canning of the pay equity investigations are the support staff in schools who are represented by NZEI. They are mainly female and are paid out of the school operations grant mainly. In our school we have around 10 working with children who have educational and behavioural needs. In my class I have 2 mildly Autistic kids and the Teacher Associate I have for the whole day is invaluable. We've chosen to do this and it eats away at our operations budget but it's necessary for these children and their teachers. The NZEI have campaigned for a while now for these people to be paid by central govt. to free up money in the school's budgets but nothing much has happened. Support staff therefore are low paid for a number of reasons including the low hours they work and their pay rate. NZEI has in the last few years endeavoured to make the occupation more professional and our school we do this by assisting them gain qualifications. We as teachers really value these people and the work they do. Unfortunately under this government I can see their situation not improving and possibly going backwards. My rael fear is that when my collective agreement runs out next year that teachers will also end up in the same boat-bulk funding, paid from the operations grant, individual contracts etc.
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This was my first and probably last BDO. The whole big crowds, nowhere to escape, $4 bottles of water thing is not my ideal concert going experience. I'm more of a Gillian Welch at the Paramount or Wilco at the Opera House type. That said I figured it's my last chance to see Neil here in NZ so I went, leaving Napier at 3:30 in the morning, travelling 7 hrs on a bus and then returning straight after to get back to Napier at 7:00 on Saturday morning. The Ukelele orchestra were a neat way to start though although the ukes weren't miked very well. Great vocals though. The only other act I was there for was My Morning Jacket and I wasn't dissapointed. Lugar Boa were my pick of the local acts and I'm not great dance fan so didn't venture anywhere near the Boiler Room. Neil was all I expected and he really gave an incredible performance even if the set list was a safe one. Kind of neat that my 2 sons were there too even though they were more interested in the Dropkick Murphys who I would have liked to have seen but it clashed with Neil. Now in 2 weeks I'm going to Ryan Adams with my daughter. Does that say something about the differences between us as parents and how our own parents were? Watched Bullet for my Valentine and Pendulum from the stand and was more entertained by the crowds than the bands although why do some dickheads feel they have to throw bottles into the crowd. Some twat even threw one on stage before Neil and hit the drums. As a long time Neil fan I wondered what sort of reaction he'd get and was amazed at the how much the crowd was with him. One of the neatest things was the 2 teens behind me knowing and singing all the words to A Day In The Life. I think that sums up what it's all about really.
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I know it sounds geeky but I texted the songs as they happened to a guy in Oz who posted it to the Rust List which then got put on the Sugar Mountain site.
http://www.sugarmtn.org/years/09nysets.htmlSet List was;
Love And Only Love / Hey Hey, My My / Powderfinger / Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere / Spirit Road / Cortez The Killer / Cinnamon Girl / Oh, Lonesome Me / Mother Earth / The Needle And The Damage Done / Heart Of Gold / Old Man / Get Back To The Country / Cowgirl In The Sand / Just Singing A Song / Rockin' In The Free World // A Day In The LifeWas my 3rd time seeing Neil live, probably the best performance.
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(In the ongoing 'who does that person look like?'-fest that is my main topic of conversation with my husband, we agreed that one member of Neil's band looked like Nick Lowe and one of his backup singers looked like Christine McVie.)
That's Ben Keith who's been with Neil on and off since Harvest. The woman is Pegi, Neil's wife. My first BDO-hated it as an experience but loved My Morning Jacket and of course Neil. Being on a Neil list I knew what to expect, he has been doing a number of new songs but this setlist was a bit safe with only one new one but the performance was something else. Not bad for a 63 year old. And Mr Brown-saw you checking out Lugar Boa. What did you think?
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Yes Guptill's good, and I should be there as it's next door and I'm watching on TV. In the drinks break however on checking my e-mails I found this.
It's Friday's headliner with a brand song and video. I like it. -
I do think think he's floundered ever since but, hey, you can't be essential forever and I really like his contrary-ism.,
True the last 5 or so years have seen a decline in Neils output, although a lot of Rusties (Neil list fans) would say otherwise, but to say that he's floundered since Zuma is to dismiss some pretty good albums. Comes a Time, RNS, Trans!!!, Eldorado, Ragged Glory, Sleeps With Angels, Silver and Gold. His recent live shows have been pretty good too and I'm looking forward to Friday although as a 52 year old BDO virgin I'm not sure what to expect.
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Anne Tolley's father was also an intermediate school principal here in Napier. Makes her fully qualified I guess!
I have to say also that during the entire National Party campaign I felt as a teacher somewhat insulted with the constant Standards/reporting in plain english thing as if I was not doing this when in actual fact I think am doing a good job of this. Made me realise that they have no idea what really happens in schools.
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And there will always be about 15-20% of a population who will be mentally unable to attain an average level. They simply can't but they are entitled to feel confident and proud of what they can do, rather than tested into believing that they are failures.
In my classroom this is probably about right and no amount of standard setting is going to change this. These are not special needs children either. I see that my job as a teacher of these children is to ensure they reach their potential which may in fact be nowhere near the standards that will be set. For these kids there are still successes that they can achieve and these can be celebrated. I attended the ULearn conference in October and Professor John Hattie spoke. His message was yes, we have a tail of children achieving at lower levels and that our job is to see that they achieve to the best of their ability. He is also the man that has developed the AssTle resource which is an assesment package that can evaluate what the children know and can do and what their next steps are to make further progress. A far more valuable and educationally sound way of approaching assessment of children's learning.