It’s Remembrance Day - Nera rang me last night to ask my advice about what she might write in a note to her staff at the Vaccination Centre. It’s an interesting exercise, trying to get the balance right: not too blasé and dismissive and not too jingoistic and over the top.
Marilyn is at her Book Club meeting and I’m in a classroom with just 6 students who are being examined on their knowledge of General Mathematics. It’s a three-hour paper and this group has been allowed an extra 30 minutes for one reason or another. With reading time we’ll be here for 3 hours and 45 minutes.
Three boys and three girls is a nice mix. I have an offsider who is happy to take the lead so I can sit at the back of the room and scribble my notes. I look around for inspiration for the content of this daily report but it doesn’t look promising. Everything which might be distracting has been removed from the walls so there is nothing to write about here.
The exam paper is interesting. Old fogies complain, “They should teach them real world situations like buying a house and working out the finance” – and they do. The paper is vastly different to the ones I remember which was mostly about Arithmetic.
One thing I notice is that every classroom is set up for audio-visual presentations. There is a ceiling-mounted projector which can be controlled by the teacher’s laptop – what a boon to be able to illustrate any point you want to make, and the full power of Youtube to call on.
Out the window I have a panoramic view of an old colonial-era windmill which is now the centrepiece of the Pennyroyal Resort and is a nice counterpoint to the relatively hi-tech environment of the school opposite.
Well, that’s occupied about 15 minutes, only 210 to go.
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