Spring Visit

Peter made the drive to Gembrook last Saturday. It was the perfect Spring day. Because it was also equinox, Bec suggested that they go out looking for flowers to help to mark the day... and to make up a memory of the occasion later on. It was an excellent idea.

After lunch, there was the traditional trampoline surface play. This time it was about school and how to keep on the good side of Ms Grumpy. They were all very good students actually.

After make believe school, a large tree drawing was started using a variety of coloured pencils. By the time Peter left to return home, the image had made considerable progress and everyone was encouraged. Living energy. Well done.

Funks Arrive Back

Barb was there in time to meet Bec Gord and kids coming through the immigration doors at Melbourne Airport. First stop was our place for lunch. the photos with this blog are all taken then. It was a fun time and we really enjoyed seeing them after the three month break away in Canada. We mixed playing and chatting somehow. They left us mid afternoon (midnight Canadian time) to get to bed before they all got painfully tired. We understood and wished them well at settling back in their house in Gembrook.

Wagon Wheels

Peter was asked by different teachers to talk about the 'design process'. To do this with greater intensity he decided to design a wagon wheel from scratch, something he has never made and has wanted to. That made it a real challenge and helped him share a very current experience with the classes, especially on how he thought through the problems before even starting to cut the pieces. A 3D drawing was essential. The one above was made on the whiteboard at one of the four demonstrations each one producing an assembled wheel.

As a bonus Peter has a collection of four wheels. Now he will be able to plan towards making a cart!

Life Education

This happened at Peter's school last week by way of a visiting caravan parked in the staff car park. It stayed there for many days. Following a planned timetable each class at the school had an hour in this van to learn important things about their health and physiology. Each session was pitched for the age attending. It seemed to work quite well. For more information on this service go to their website.

Whittlesea Market Update

Peter and his friend David worked together at the dried fruit and nut stall this month at the Market. The general attraction on this occasion were a troop of young FAD All Star Cheerleaders. They were advertising themselves by doing it. FAD means Fitness and Dance, and this organisation teaches stunts, tumbling, and a lot more. They also have Funky Jazz for Hip Hop for adults. If you want to know more try their website.

Dragon Revamped

Peter prepared a dragon kit for a school boy that was a little different. This time fabric was added to the wing design and the teeth went to a finer scale by changing from skewers to toothpicks. The alterations worked a treat and the boy had a bit of fun afterward with it and a friendly balancing bird (last picture).

Striking Teachers

It came to this. The newly elected Victorian Government (Liberal/National) failed in its promise to raise the pay standards of the state's school teachers. In an underhanded way, it altered its decision to make general pay increases to all teachers, preferring to pay only the best performing ones. It now wants a productivity based pay scheme. How can that be measured across the state? There are too many variables at play. The most marginal socio-economic school community in the state may have the state's best teachers and may not show a difference. The proposed pay scheme is impossible to measure and therefore needs to be scrapped.

If this ever happened in the future, best performing teachers would be driven to look for best performing schools for better pay conditions. Soon the difference between schools would become much more marked. It is right that last Wednesday's Teachers Strike was one of the largest strikes ever in Victoria. Over 10,000 teachers took to the streets (out of 25,000 who did not show up for work that day). Two hundred state schools closed that day and many others were only open in the very smallest way.

Peter attended his school that day as a neutral party and found one supervising teacher and 14 students attending. It made for a very unusual atmosphere. A never-to-be-forgotten day.

"Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will." Frederick Douglass (1818-1895)