25 March 2022

In the 'olden days' circa 1987, I started teaching. I'd left Secondary at 16 years old, skipped Year 13, completed my Education Degree at Massey and the world was my oyster at 20! In those days, you had to be interviewed to see if you would make a suitable teacher. I remember Mum picked me up from school, checked that my attire was fit for purpose and took me to the interview at the Taranaki Education Board. I was interviewed by a group of 'old people' who were concerned I may not be able to look after myself away from home. After reassuring them that I was mature (which was possibly a stretch at the time!), I was accepted and moved to the bright lights of Palmerston North.

Four years later, there I was with my first class of 6 year olds at Puketapu School just north of New Plymouth. I can smell the banding machine room from here - all that methylated spirits must've caused some damage as we printed out the purple flavoured pieces of paper - the worksheets!

I worked in a collaborative style with 3 other teachers and as a teaching team we sat down at the start of each year and planned for each term there and then. We will start with the rocky shore, move onto the solar system and how about we learn about the lives of children in far off lands.... we had it sussed! We knew what we were doing every week for each term without knowing our learners, without working from their interests, without any formative assessment, without any goal setting....... I think our decisions were made on what we had physical resources for. No websites at the push of a button then. No Twitter or teacher Facebook.

However, we had access to amazing knowledgeable education experts for…. free! These wonderful people would answer their phone and arrange to come into the classroom to work alongside you at the drop of a hat. The rich treasures to unlock in the Arts advisor's head, the inspiring methods of using pictures to draw out the Social Sciences thanks to the Social Studies advisor, the Maths advisor who would sit beside you and give you specific feedback on your teaching.

We didn't have the mod cons but we had something special. There is often a call from Principals in New Zealand to "bring the Advisory Service back".... I'm one of them!

You won't see me around the school next week as I have a course for the week. (Now online - eek!)

I must share a 'hot off the press' snippet of writing from a Year 2 child ....

"Jude is special because she does nothing. All she does is give awards and walk."

I loved it! So - I think everything will just be fine!