NZSTA Conference Reflections

One of the hats I wear in my life is a Board of Trustees member for my sons school.  I took the role on because the teachers and principal at my sons school asked a whole bunch of us to stand in the 2007 election.  We had many parents and community members standing for this election and I was very fortunate to have been voted in.

I love my role as a Board member, however, there is such a wealth of information to consume, digest, reflect and act on that at times it feels somewhat overwhelming.  For the last 2 years I have attended the NZSTA Conference.  I have on both occasions thoroughly enjoyed the conference.  Pio Terei also adds spice and laughter to the 3 days.  The most exciting part for me is meeting other parents and community members from around the country who want the very best for their children and have joined the Board in the hope that they can make a difference.

In the next few blog posts Ill share some of thoughts and reflections from the workshops I attended.  Find them here

Sponge Bob in Te Reo Maori

Sponge Bob is hitting the screens in Te Reo Maori as part of Maori Language week! Thats pretty cool in my books.  To be honest I dont particularly enjoy SpongeBob but Im going to make an effort to watch the updated versions screened for five days from Monday 27 - Friday 31 July 2009.  Check out original post from Spasifik here.

Be sure to tune into Nickelodeon New Zealand (SKY Digital, Channel 041) from Monday 27th July to see SpongeBob Tarau Porowhā.

MJ Mix

I couldn't resist the urge to post something about MJ.  Throughout the years he has entertained and inspired my family. My 9 year old son was devastated to hear the news about MJ's death so we decided to stay home all weekend and watch MJ videos together.  Friends and family are all aware of my sons love for MJ.  He has for years carried an MP3 player with loads of MJ songs and a bound book of lyrics to his fav songs. Then DJ SirVere sent a link through Twitter with a link to this mix.  Go ahead and enjoy! xx

Update

Here are a couple more DJ Reminise - MJ Mix 001 and MJ Mix 002

Early Childhood Blogs

In preparation for my work with a group of teachers tomorrow night below is a list of ECE blogs I am currently subscribed to:

Next Generation Childcare

Manaia Kindergarten

ICT in Early Education

Te Kupenga o Kahungunu

KIDSPACE Quality Early Learning Centre

Greenwood Community Kindergarten

Geraldine Kindergarten

Fiordland Kindergarten

Hunter Park Kindergarten

Grasslands Kindergarten

Please feel free to add others that you know of in the comments below.

Early Childhood Education (ECE) EdTalks

Congratulations to Sue from Rotorua Girls High School Childcare and Tania from Manaia Kindergarten for their korero on EdTalks.  Your passion and enthusiasm for advocating for children, whanau and teachers is inspiring.  Thank you!

A quote powerful beyond measure...

I find it quite ironic that in the span of 5 minutes I find a beautiful slideshow and a blog post with this quote below.  It started at Isaacs latest blog post which lead me here, to a beautiful movie created by Amy, a photographer he is inspired by, then I read a Tweet by Jo, which lead me here... to a blog post. And to my surprise without even realising each of these presented me with the quote below by Marianne Williamson.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Marianne Williamson

Warm Fuzzy for Easter

I have had the best Easter weekend! I hung out with my kids, did everything THEY wanted to do and had 3 straight days of cuddles, games, baking and conversations with them.  My life is so busy normally with kids sports, school meetings, drop offs, pick ups, workshops, emails, phone calls etc that I sometimes find myself at 7.45pm (15 minutes before bedtime) looking at my kids saying where did the last 12 hours go?

We are a breakfast family, I wake up early to make them a warm breakfast before school almost everyday (excluding those days where we skip off to a cafe for a coffee and fluffy).  I have fond memories of my grandmother doing this for us when we were younger and that sense of belonging, warmth, safety and security is something I want my kids to have each day.  I have had two 'things' bookmarked to blog about for some time now and thought that this would be an appropriate post to diary them in my blog.

The first one is a great blog my colleague Helen steered me towards a while back, but this particular post by Wake Up Tiger is something that really resonates with me, growing up in a single parent family in the heart of South Auckland definitely has its challenges - although we were not rich in monetary value we were wealthy in love, family, wairua and culture.

The father of a wealthy Mosman family took his son on a trip to country NSW, with the purpose of showing his son how poor people can be.
They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family.

On their way back in the car the father turned to his son and asked him, "So, how was the trip?"

"It was great, Dad." "Did you see how poor people can be?" the father asked. "Oh yeah" said his son. "So what did you learn from the trip?" asked the father.

His son answered, "I saw that we have one dog and they have four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night. Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon. We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight. We buy our food, but they grow theirs. We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends and neighbours who protect them."

Then his son added, "Thanks Dad for showing me how poor we are."

Original Post here

The next one is a movie my sister made we watch several months ago, titled "The Ultimate Gift", its a warm- fuzzy-type-movie that will leave you feeling 'oh-so-blessed'.  The movie works through a series of 'gifts' a wealthy grandfather leaves for his grandson.  He's surprised to see that it's not your normal type of inhertitance but a series of life lessons/blessings:

* The Gift of Work
* The Gift of Problems
* The Gift of Friends
* The Gift of Giving
* The Gift of Gratitude
* The Gift of Family
* The Gift of Learning
* The Gift of Money
* The Gift of Laughter
* The Gift of a Day
* The Gift of Dreams
* The Gift of Love (which leads to the Ultimate Gift)

I encourage you to watch this movie and reflect on the many blessings you have in your life today.