Posts by Bob Munro
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It's a bit of both, actually. It's the amount of control the kids have over what they learn, and the breadth of the choices they have.
There is no limit to the breadth of choices. Hence the name of the school.
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This is how we are being trained at Waikato Uni (Graduate Diploma Teaching (Secondary).
Unfortunately the reality in the classroom doesn't always bear this out... not because of the students or teachers but because of other issues such as time, resources, lack of quality professional development, class sizes.... we always try out best though!!
I think this is where the difficulties lie. With Unlimited it's not really on for kids to be bundled off to school and forgotten about. Parents and wider community have to be involved. It's not a very 'industrially efficient' form of education and needs wide support.
Best wishes with the career Max, your country needs you!
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And why do you get excited about Unlimited?
I am assuming it's not the content or the curriculum that excites - same old same old, but the delivery and choices it offers
I am afraid that is what seems to be missing from this review - though I have only had a quick scan of it.
Where are the exciting new and inclusive methods of delivery that will reflect emerging communication systems and technology ?Jean, I'm not sure either about curriculum details etc but the system does seem to be changing to accommodate variety. For example with NCEA our daughter at year 11 is doing NCEA at levels one, two and three. But it's not the be all and end all. The primary focus is on her interests and achieving her goals which are set at the start of each term, monitored and ticked off at the end of the term. Actually in our case it is much looser than that. We hardly take any notice of even of that process any more (parents are involved in a three way meeting to set goals with student and teacher), she just gets on with it and the administrative and NCEA type boxes are ticked after the fact.
The other significant change is that these schools sit under the state school umbrella as schools with a ‘special character’. Again I don’t know what the exact law is surrounding that but it is another welcome change which allows variety to flourish.
With regard to technology it’s pretty much all-pervasive. Our daughter has a Mac notebook which goes with her everywhere and everything is done on it. Again I’m not really up with all the ins and outs but it is a very tech savvy learning environment.
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I'm very much hoping to get my son to go to Unlimited year after next. He wants to go to Riccarton like all his friends, but I look at what Unlimited offers in comparison with a traditional high school and I get all excited.
It's always horses for courses but from our experience which is six years now between both schools I would recommend it without reservation. One of the many plusses is that teacher's love it too so they bust a gut to get jobs there, so the quality is very high. Funnily enough, this is in an environment where the teacher as orchestra conductor is turned on it's head to teacher as another player in the band.
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Our daughter attends Unlimited Paenga Tawhiti school
in Christchurch and went to Discovery primary before that. These are the schools set up largely by former mayor Vicki Buck which essentially put the onus on the learner to get on with their own learning and the school environment, teachers, resources etc. focus on assisting the learner to achieve their goals.One of the values of the school is:
‘Students are exposed to entrepreneurial thinking and are supported in undertaking entrepreneurial ventures”.It is not the primary goal of the school but it is part of a very broadminded and outward looking attitude. Frankly I think most kids would kill to be in this sort of environment. School is actually fun believe it or not.
Our daughter is a self-sufficient learner, working on her own programme in her own time. Her entrepreneurial skills are perhaps yet to be completely revealed but her old man lives in hope that they may flower and he be the benefit of them in his dotage. -
Yes I came in about halfway through the South Park movie and had forgotten how much fun it was. I'd remembered the Blame Canada song but not much else (our kids have Canadian cousins so they have always loved that). There were all these references that went by so fast in the general hilarity that I looked it up in Wikipedia today to try and catch up.
Did you know?The movie's use of profanity gained it a spot in the 2002 edition of Guinness World Records for "Most Swearing in an Animated Film" (399 profane words, including 146 uses of fuck, 76 uses of shit, and 68 uses of bitch, 128 offensive gestures and 221 acts of violence).
I don't think I would have gone to a theatre to see it so guess it must have been on TV before? Perhaps several times? Maybe the Family First types had their go at it then?
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By 'Jeremy'. Please excuse brain fade.
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The sex is fairly explicit for MSTV.
the 9.30pm timeslot is a bit close to family viewing times which perhaps helps fuel the outrage as pointed out by Andrew.
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No that's right. Looks like it's going to go to a second series. Your review of it does make it less than enticing even with all the Warren Zevon references IO. :)
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but it only took six episodes to figure out that this thing wasn't going anywhere. Farewell, Pussyman, farewell.
Well that's poured cold water on that!