Tuesday6May 2008

Staff Solidarity – Issue 3! (with a reference to classical studies)

Welcomeback to the third issue of Staff Solidarity. A fun, and slightly informative newsletter to staff of Northcote College and beyond.

I’m well aware that I didn’t email out an end-of-term reminder as promised (Sorry Mrs Cannan) and I am slapping the back of my hand for that. However, I must say that it was crazy “internals-from-everywhere” season and I was rather stretched for time. Though that does not excuse me from my responsibilities and to make up for it I will include a photo of myself for your enjoyment.

I would REALLY like to thank the teachers who have pointed out to me areas of their concern in the school, whether it might be a light that always seems to be one unnecessarily, or equipment that’s being used in the school that they think is also unnecessary and just an energy hog. This is the type of communication I’m talking about!Expect some chocolate soon. I have noted these things down and will go see the appropriate person about it.

Moving on…

One very wonderful person I got to meet when I was down in Wellington was Jay Piggott who was the 2007 Sir Peter Blake Trust AntarcticYouth Ambassador.He Hddddddddgfkljklj3He is a man who holds great experience, knowledge and understanding. He took one thought which I have had for a very long time and turned it into words in such a way that I am not able to replicate but I will try my very best to:

If you ask somebody from a developing country in strife to live sustainable they wouldn’t be able to because they can hardly cope surviving on a daily basis.

So what I’m trying to get at is that we are EXTREMELY fortunate to be living in New Zealand and we have the resources, the freedom, and the lifestyle to be eco-friendly and sustainable.

We have no reason not to.

That’s all the serious stuff for this issue. It’s really just a reminder that it’s term 2 therefore our 15% energy reduction scheme will be popping up soon. The rest of this Staff Solidarity 3 is jokes and whatnot.

Fifty fun things for professors to do on the first day of class

(The bolded ones are my personal favourites)

1. Bring a CPR dummy to class and announce that it will be the teaching assistant for the semester. Assign it an office and office hours.
5. Pick out random students, ask them questions, and time their responses with a stop watch. Record their times in your grade book while muttering "tsk, tsk".
8. After confirming everyone's names on the roll, thank the class for attending "Advanced Astrodynamics 690" and mention that yesterday was the last day to drop.
11. Gradually speak softer and softer and then suddenly point to a student and scream "YOU! WHAT DID I JUST SAY?"
13. Deliver your lecture through a hand puppet. If a student asks you a question directly, say in a high-pitched voice, "The Professor can't hear you, you'll have to ask *me*, Winky Willy".
20. Pass out dental floss to students and devote the lecture to oral hygiene.
26. Show a video on medieval torture implements to your calculus class. Giggle throughout it.
29. Have one of your graduate students sprinkle flower petals ahead of you as you pace back and forth.
31. Jog into class, rip the textbook in half, and scream, "Are you pumped? ARE YOU PUMPED? I CAN'T HEEEEEEAR YOU!"
42. Announce that last year's students have almost finished their class projects.
45. Tell your math students that they must do all their work in a base 11 number system. Use a complicated symbol you've named after yourself in place of the number 10 and threaten to fail students who don't use it.
49. Give an opening monologue. Take two minute "commercial breaks" every ten minutes.
50. Of course, the most fun thing to do on the first day of class is to enjoy yourself, sleep in, and let the students wonder if they found the right room!

Environmental tips for not adding more into the tip in the environment (land fill, if you didn’t catch that). Taken from

“Stop getting plastic shopping bags! This is SO easy to do! You may be surprised at how easy, even when you grocery shop. Buy or make yourself a few re-usable canvas shopping bags. Take them with you or keep them in your car/bike/whatever. That’s what I do. When you get to the register ask to have it bagged in your bag. The thing is that plastic bags don’t biodegrade in landfills so if you throw them away (either on their own or as garbage bags for those little canisters), they just sit there. Plus, 14 plastic grocery bags have enough petroleum to fuel a car for a mile! And plastic bags may end up doing more harm in developing countries where some nations are choosing to ban them, just like San Francisco recently did.”

Just another note that I came across in Wellington: “When we lose biological services such as wet lands, we will need to invest finances to replace them with technology”

Thanks for reading. I’ll be having a chat soon to the lovely Mrs Cannan and awesome Monique Zwaan (as you some of you may know from the North Shore City Council and Northcote College’s enviroschool facilitator) to talk about how we’ll launch our 15% reduction goal. It’ll involve how we’ll manage and obtain the prizes and rewards for if we reach our goal so the more interest that is expressed, the bigger the rewards that’ll result!

Any questions? Feel free to come approach me at school or drop me a line at . Anonymity will be assured.

One more thing, I’ve been inspired in Wellington to really improve the recycling situation at our school. We’ve tried it once, it kind of did not work but with a better, more well structured action plan and some resources which I will ask my good friends at the ARC for, hopefully Northcote College can have an efficient and working recycling system.

Ideas are buzzing in my head already and this time the students will play a bigger part.

Thanks again