Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday? XXIV November MMVIII
Staff Solidarity – Got half an hour to spare?
The number 10.
An even natural number that follows 9 and precedes 11 and is the base of our number system.
It’s the atomic number of Neon and the number of space-time dimensions in some superstring theories.
It’s the number of cents in a US dime and it’s the number of wickets required to be taken by the bowling side for the batting side to be bowled out in cricket.
10AD was a Wednesday on the Julian calendar and is when Ovid, a Roman poet completes Epistulae ex Ponto describing the sadness of banishment.
It’s the number of legs a decapod crustacean has and in tarot numerology, the number 10 represents the ending of one cycle and the beginning of another.
That was 10 facts for you about the number 10 and this is Staff Solidarity’s bumper issue number 10!
Everyday is Earth Day!
“The production of a kilogram of beef is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions and other pollution than driving for 3 hours while leaving all the lights on back home.”
-www.newscientist.com, 18/07/07, Issue 2613.
That is just one more reason why we should eat a little (just a little) less meat.
Vegetables and fruits are great and growing your own is even better. It’s one of the more healthier and environmentally-friendly ways of putting land to use, don’t you think?
It’s November (well it was at the time of writing)! The following fruits and vegetables should be in season so look out for them:
· Artichokes
· Asparagus
· Broccoli
· Cabbage
· Carrots
· Cauliflower
· Courgettes
Want to know which vegetables are in season, or want to know when to look out for your favourite greens?
Check out this Vegetable Availability chart at http://www.vegetables.co.nz/resources/availabilitychart.pdf
The humble apple.
It’s 95% carbohydrates, has an estimated glycemic load of 3 and is very low in saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium. You can do so much with an apple and here’s just one way you can deal with them:
Apple burgers
Credit to http://www.theveggietable.com/recipes/appleburgers.html
Yield: 4-6 patties.
Ingredients: 2 apples, grated. 1 cup of onions, minced. 2 cups of breadcrumbs.
1 green pepper, seeded and chopped. 1 tablespoon of fresh ginger, minced.
2 cups of rice, cooked. 6 tablespoons of rolled oats, grounded.
½ teaspoon of salt. Black pepper. 1-2 tablespoons of vegetable oil.
Method:
Squeeze some of the juice out of the apples, then place in bowl with onions, bread crumbs, green pepper, ginger, rice, 3 T oats, salt, and pepper. Mix well.
Heat the oil in the frying pan, over medium heat.
Shape mixture into patties, adding more bread crumbs if necessary. Coat with remaining 3 T of oats.
Pan Fry/Sizzle/Whatever you like to do in 1 T oil over medium heat until golden brown, 2-3 minutes per side.
Wil says: Lightly brown a couple of your favourite burger buns (or just leave them how they are) and serve it with your apple patty between said buns. Or add the usual burger salad such as lettuce and tomato and your usual burger condiments. Have fun!
Okay, so I haven’t exactly tried out this recipe but I thought it sounded pretty decent. Give it a go and get back to me on how it went. I take no responsibility if it turns out horribly, horribly wrong. Enjoy.
Note to staff: The seniors are out for another year and the last term of school is slowly coming down to a close. You’ve probably accumulated a years worth of hand outs, photocopies, work sheets, documents, permission slips and detention slips which you either want to file away or never look at ever again. If you’re going to throw them out remember to recycle the paper!
Paper that has plastic or wax on it and paper that is shredded generally cannot be recycled as shredded paper will clog up the materials recycling facilities. In the house hold, shredded paper can be used in the garden as mulch but if you have a whole lot (a gigantic whole lot) then you’ll need to contact a private collector.
Northcote College really has had a great few years in the environmental scene. In past years Northcote College has sent teams to two Youth Jam conferences, represented New Zealand in the International Youth Coastal Conference in Australia, earned their Silver Enviroschools’ award, been one of only three schools nationwide to be selected to trial the BRANZ solar wall project, planted over 1500 native trees on school grounds, got selected to pilot 16 photovoltaic solar panels from Genesis Energy, and a whole lot more.
Northcote College has been a great school to work with. I couldn’t have been a student in a better school that embraced eco-friendliness and practicality. The support from both staff and students has been overwhelmingly positive.
I haven’t always been the big greeny environmental rep. I only joined Cocoon in 2006 half way through Year 11. I had the small desire to protect the only planet that we had but wasn’t sure where to start or what I could even do. I started out with some admin work where I helped to sort out sponsorship for the waste audit that was held that year. I was writing letters and making phone calls to local businesses. By the end of that year I had comfortably found a permanent spot in Cocoon and was ready for 2007 alongside with Mrs Mrkusic’s awesome bread making skills.
2007 was the year that Envirschool’s had their first Youth Jam youth conference. Northcote College was keen to participate and we were luckily one of the schools selected to give a presentation there. So a group of us worked hard on the project that we would give in Rotorua in October. Some of you will know it as the Energy project where we linked the electricity blow out at the end of 2006 with our schools fondness for energy drainage and found it to be the perfect time to introduce the solar panels and a message to the schools to save a bit of energy.
It was the work and dedication that others saw Northcote College students and staff put into projects such as for Youth Jam that saw to Northcote College’s emergence into the bigger environmental picture of both Auckland and New Zealand. Northcote College started to show signs of becoming North Shore’s success story with teachers of schools from all over the North Shore and students from the Youth Jam conference commending us from all around.
All this work was well noticed with some of the research done for the Youth Jam project being used and quoted in a document published by the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority called ‘Energy-efficient schools: A guide for trustees, principles, teachers, students, caretakers, and energy managers’ where Northcote College was 1 of 4 schools in New Zealand to be used as a case study. A recorded video of our Youth Jam presentation was sent to and screened at the Global Youth Forum on Sustainable Actions at the 8th International Annual Conference on Liveable Communities which was held in Toronto. Northcote College was pumped out into New Zealand but also the world.
The years-worth of achievement was all summarised when Northcote College was awarded their Silver Enviroschools’ Award.
Northcote College’s new found fame lead into 2008 with Northcote College being selected for the second time to be a presenting school at the 2008 Enviroschools’ Youth Jam. This years Northcote College Youth Jam team saw old and new faces. Having been there, done that, bought the t-shirt and sung the song, I decided to give my seat to the “new entries” of Cocoon giving fresh, new personalities to the 2008 Youth Jam team. They did a wonderful job in crafting a project based around how Northcote College affects our surrounding water ways such as the Waiurutoa stream in Kauri Glen. I stood by at the sideline, helping out if they needed it while I also helped with pulling off a water audit for the project.
The presentation was well received and the team was happy to know that this was the presentation that they would take to the International Youth Coastal Conference in Australia where Northcote College was chosen by Enviroschools to attend. The presentation was edited and altered to fit time constraints and context and an application process was implemented to prioritise and choose an appropriate team to go to Australia. It was a wonderful experience for those who got to go, both the ‘newbies’ of Cocoon and those who had a fair idea of what they were getting themselves into. What’s even more exciting was that one of the team members, Grace Watson was offered an apprenticeship that invited her back to Australia to work on the environment.
Northcote College was also 1 of 3 schools in New Zealand to be selected to trial a solar wall for BRANZ. This green solar wall is attached to the M block wall facing the basketball court and pumps warm, sustainable air into the adjacent classroom. The whole project included the installation of a mini weather station which was monitored by several students and a teacher. It measured parameters such as pressure, temperature, humidity, rainfall etc. The data was sent off to a BRANZ scientist every week.
Northcote College held a World Environment Week in celebration of World Environment Day which landed right in the middle of our exam week on June 5th. Northcote College had been granted $1000 funding from the Ministry for the Environment for this event. Students and staff of Cocoon had organised lunch time activities which included prizes, a live band to play and 500 native plants were organised to be planted near the gymnasium. All this made World Environment Week a great success and photos and a post-event report was sent off to the Ministry for the Environment as requested.
The things I have mentioned above are the big things that get noticed easily but there were a great number of smaller, but just as important projects and events going on constantly around the school such as the no-dig garden, more tree planting and restoration, wai-care water testing, the small group of Year 10 business class students participating in the BP challenge at Shepherds Park, students working with Untouched World, form class garden initiative, the stream session with year 10 science students lead by Ms Tagg, the small team that represented Northcote College at the AYDEO Discussion Forum and more exciting things! There are so many people involved that don’t get the recognition they deserve. You know who you are and I would like to thank you for the great work you’re doing and to keep it up. I would also like to acknowledge the amazing work the Learning Support Centre does for the school environment.
In unrelated news, a new subject has appeared in the 2008 NCEA exam timetable – Level 2 Education for Sustainability. That is exciting!
These past few years have been fantastic and the environmental activity has only enhanced my experience at Northcote College. These experiences have shaped the person that you see in me. I can tell you that back in 2006 I was a very different student. The experiences such as Youth Jam, Sir Peter Blake Youth Environment Forum, being in the Auckland Youth-Directed Environmental Organisation have taught me invaluable skills, perception, and awareness while giving me the opportunity to meet awesomely inspiring people.
When I think about the above and what I know, what I’ve done and accomplished and what I’ve seen these past few years one thing in my head that always makes a point each time is that it all started on one Thursday lunchtime where I decided to go to a Cocoon meeting. I believe that Northcote College should be proud in knowing that for me, it was where it all started.
Staff Solidarity was a success! This idea actually just started out as a small electronic reminder which was suppose to be a word or two about remembering to switch off electronics and a joke. When I first started on Staff Solidarity 1 I got a tad carried away. Crazy spazzing fingers running all over the keyboard. I might as well have been tapping away at the computer and sending these newsletters to myself. Staff Solidarity became an outlet for me and what I had to say. I tried very hard to keep the tone of Staff Solidarity ‘neutral’ (highly subjective) and lightly humoured. The first issue showed a very different side of me, one that is hardly seen by my teachers at school. I wanted to make eco-friendliness approachable and less preachy as it sometimes seems to be whenever one tries to get a point of view or an opinion across a large audience. Fellow students who find out about Staff Solidarity find it as an incredibly bizarre concept. A student writing a newsletter that gets mass-emailed out to staff only? It sounded like a conspiracy. Nonetheless, it’s an initiative that I’m really proud of and I hoped that the staff of Northcote College looked past my shocking grammar, terribly dry humour and amateur writing skills and enjoyed Staff Solidarity as much as I enjoyed writing it.
I’d like to thank Ms Barrie and senior management, Mrs Cannan and the property staff team: Mr McCurran and Mr Stephens, Monique Zwaan and the awesome team at North Shore City Council, the Enviroschools team for Youth Jam, Mr Macauley for taking care of the solar wall weather data, Ms Tagg for being in charge of Wai Care, Mrs Gunman and Mrs Guise for all the great work they’ve done. I’d like to give a special mention to the staff that have encouraged and supported me in any way or form. You have no idea how much I appreciate it and how much it means to me. Also, thanks to anyone else who I shamefully might have forgotten.
However, last but not least I would like to thank Mrs Mrkusic who has done an outstanding job from the very beginning. She’s done and provided an endless number of things for Cocoon with her generosity, dependability and hospitality. She deserves commendation and a gold star.
This is the last Staff Solidarity for the term. I would really enjoy continuing any sort of communication with the school and any environmental stories that anyone would like to surprise me with during my absence from Northcote College. I can be contacted on .
Thanks for reading and making Staff Solidarity a success!
Wilson Shen