"Windy" would be an understatement

I am guessing I will adjust to the time difference a day or so before going home. Again, I woke up too early…around 5:00 am. I passed the time by reading the two daily newspapers.

One interesting article indicated that New Zealand was rated as the fifth most prosperous country in which to live by the 2013 Legatum Prosperity Index. The same rating placed Canada in third place behind Norway and Switzerland. The index assesses 142 nations on their wealth and well-being in eight categories including health, education, safety, security, and economy.

New Zealand did rank first in the education area, based upon their access to education, quality of education, and human capital in the education sector. In the study, 82% of Kiwis were satisfied with the quality of education, compared with a global average of 66.3%. Nearly 90% of Kiwis indicated that their children had the opportunity to learn, compared to 70.2% globally.

First thing this morning, we blew across a few blocks for our first session of the day. I would have said we “walked’ were in not for the wind gusts that apparently were reaching 110 km/hour.

We visited the Education Review Office (ERO) and met with their acting national manager, Stephanie Greany. She provided an overview of how she and her staff of 200 assess the quality of instruction and learning in every school in New Zealand.  She joked about how her agency was the Department of Parties because schools have parties after ERO visits them. From my limited time in the country, I have learned that this actually is not the case. While some schools apparently have anxiety about ERO assessments, the organization is quite well regarded. Ms. Greany did say that the assessment that her agency provided some schools was clear and direct and often not something that the school leaders were eager to hear. She said that that was the nature of education. If our collective mission is to focus on what is best for children, occasionally we have to say things that might upset some adults.

The purpose of ERO’s reviews is to give parents and the wider community assurance about the quality of education that schools provide and their children receive. An ERO school report answers the question “How effectively is this school’s curriculum promoting student learning, engagement, progress, and achievement?" Individual ERO school reports are public information.

Ms. Greany talked about how her country has a high quality of education but continues to be challenged by equity issues. She said that while New Zealand schools do quite well for the majority of students, they need to do better at supporting students from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds. This is especially true for indigenous students. She stated that the country is quite good at doing quite poorly for their neediest students.

When we asked about future areas of focus, we learned that ERO is developing processes to assess student well-being using our own Manitoba framework as a reference point.

During the afternoon, we returned to the Ministry of Education where we had a chance to present to a number of officials on what is happening with Manitoba education. I was privileged to have a chance to speak about the unique partnership that Park West School Division has with Waywayseecappo First Nation.

At day’s end, we returned to our hotel where we were able to catch the last few innings of the final game of the World Series. Unfortunately the Cardinals lost. Congrats to the Boston Red Sox.

This evening we are going to get together for some discussion and planning. Hopefully the wind goes down for tomorrow’s three hour ferry ride.

That was a full day!

My day started with a twenty minute walk through the heart of the city. Even though Wellington only has 400 000 people in the region, it has much more of a large city, cosmopolitan feel than Winnipeg. It has many tall buildings packed closely together. Everyone walks so its streets are filled with people. On the ground, it feels as if you are moving through the Exchange District with several stone building fronts and countless unique shops and restaurants. When you look up, however, the stone facades give way to lots of steel and glass after the fifth floor or so.

Once we crossed the city, we made our way to the New Zealand Council of Education Research (NZCER). We had an intensive morning listening to several educational analysts as they provided an overview of their work.

I am getting a sense of how vast the bureaucracy is that supports education in this country. To start with, there are 4000 people who work in the Ministry of Education. Also, there are several other independent agencies that exist to provide different aspects of support. These include the NZCER, the Education Review Organization (ERO), and private businesses that develop assessment tools and school resources. To give you some comparisons to Manitoba, the NZCER has over 60 employees focusing on the analysis of educational research while Manitoba only has a couple of individuals charged with this responsibility.

The NCZER officials provided us with an overview of assessment practices in New Zealand. They said that student assessment is completely a local school responsibility. Consequently, it varies greatly across the country. Teachers and schools individually decide what assessment tools will be used, when they will be used, who will be tested, and how and to whom the results will be reported.

We also learned about some need national programs including one to develop leadership skills among new principals. It seems like they use data to analyze everything in New Zealand education, and this principal training program was no exception. Their Educational Leadership Survey revealed that school leaders were rated lowest in supporting teacher Professional development and in enabling aboriginal (Maori) student success. I suspect many people in Manitoba would suggest that these are similar challenges for us.

One particular item on the Leadership Survey demonstrates the extent to which education in New Zealand is an analytical enterprise. According to this survey, high performing principals lead staff meetings which “contain serious conversations about how to improve teaching and learning’. 

The NZCER also had a really neat perspective on what we in Canada often reference as 21^st Century Skills. They are asking what capabilities will today’s young people need if they are to become proactive future builders. Researchers are looking into their daily newspapers for what they deem to be “wicked problems”. They then work backwards, imagining the types of skills and competencies that

During the morning session, I mentioned that we were heading north to Masterton in a rental vehicle later in the day. One of the ladies then said “Be careful, it sometimes gets pretty windy going over the Rumatuckits”. She then said that sometimes when the wind is really high they close the highway to high-sided vehicles. Of course, we were going to making the trip in the van.

Well, the trip was interesting to say the least. Imagine a steep and extremely windy road that rose over 500 metres rather quickly and then continued on along the side of steep mountains for about forty minutes. It was difficult to unclench my hand for the roof handle when we finally came through on the other side.

When we eventually made it to Masterton, we visited a wonderful rural school just outside of the town limits. The Fernridge School kids were outside in their uniforms and all were wearing similar hats.  I even met a young girl from Toronto whose family had moved there recently.

Next we stopped by to learn about a regional program called REAP.  There are 13 REAPS in New Zealand. The first was set up in 1979 and the last in 1982. REAPs provide what they refer to as “cradle-to-the-grave” educational resource support to rural communities. They support preschool initiatives, public schools, community colleges, and adult education programs.

On our way back, we stopped in a small place called Greytown for great supper prior to tackling the mountain goat trail again.  It actually went much better on the inside of the road…although all of us were giving thinks when we came out on the other side.

It was a long and productive day. We got going shortly after 8:00 am and didn’t get back until almost 8:30 pm. Tomorrow we return to the Ministry of Education where we will present on the Manitoba educational system and our work with the mRLC.

To everyone back home, I am sorry to hear that the weather has turned wintery. The forecast for the city tomorrow is rain with gusts over 100 km winds. Apparently this is one of the windiest springs in recent memory. Hopefully it calms down a bit before our three hour ferry ride to the south island on Friday.

Let's go to school

We started our day visiting the Ministry of Education. We met with three officials who provided us with an overview of the New Zealand education system.

 

Schooling is compulsory from ages of ages 6 to 16, but most students start on their fifth birthday. So if you turn five on February 3rd, you go to school on February 3rd. You don't wait until the next September as is the case in Manitoba.

One interesting thing that we learned is how each local school has complete autonomy, even to the point that they develop their own curriculum. They do have a very brief curriculum framework but it is up to schools to determine how students will reach these outcomes. Boards of Trustees exist to support single schools. We heard that there were 2600 schools in the country and 2600 different solutions to what makes for an effective learning environment.

Accountability is built in by an Education Review Office which operates independent of the Ministry of Education. This department reviews and publishes reports on the quality of education in all schools in the country. As you may imagine, there are differences in how different groups view this process. It would be the perspective of the Ministry that schools are receptive to the education reviews whereas there are some teacher and community groups that view it as invasive and top-down.

There is tremendous diversity across New Zealand in the types of schools and student performance.
In the internal PISA assessment, the country ranks quite high on quality and low on equity. That essentially references the fact that students in some areas and in some socioeconomic groups do rather well while students in other areas and from different backgrounds have challenges. One particularly challenged group of students are those of aboriginal descent.

During the afternoon, the six of us split into groups of two and visiting three schools in the city. My colleague and I travelled by taxi up the side of a steep, windy, and narrow street to a small elementary school in the heart of a very affluent section of Wellington.  We spent three hours at Northland School meeting with staff and checking out what was happening in classrooms. The principal provided us with an overview of how they were using data to improve student outcomes in literacy and numeracy. It was a wonderful little school with lots of neat things happening and what appeared to be a high level of student engagement. Additional information about Northland School is available at http://www.northland.school.nz/

During the tour of the school, I mentioned how neat it was that every classroom had its own exterior door. The principal mentioned that was a convention of simple necessity. Given that New Zealand is prone to earthquakes, exterior doors allow all students quick access to the safer areas outside of the building. Sensing the mention of earthquakes unnerved me a bit, the principal followed up quickly by reassuring me that they did not have a big tremor in over two months.

Later in the evening, we all got back together to debrief and share what we learned from our different school visits. It was interesting to hear from the others about the similarities and diversity among three schools within the same city.

Tomorrow promises to be an interesting day as well as we visit with the New Zealand Council for Education Research.

The Botanical Gardens

I assume it will take some time to adapt to the time change. Last night, my jet-lagged body fell asleep shortly after 9 pm. I rested well but then woke up at 4:00 am Monday morning which is 10:00 am Sunday morning back home. On a positive note, it was great timing to do a Facetime call with my wife and daughter.

I hung around the lobby until 6:00 am for the breakfast buffet. While eating, I learned a lot about the country from the local newspaper as well as my waiter.

The New Zealand Herald resembles the Winnipeg Sun but is much more tabloid focused. Several pages were dedicated to a political scandal involving the Mayor of Wellington, his alleged mistress, and an aide to his opponent that was somehow tied up in the whole thing. There was a neat quote in one article that put a different spin on similar phrases in North American culture. In referencing the aide and his tactics, one article said ‘Dirt smears the digger as well as the target”.

I also read some interesting things about the New Zealand education system which gave me some important perspective as I begin my time here. We came to learn about the unique and innovative things that they are doing in this country. However, they are not without their challenges...and these challenges are similar to what many schools and divisions face back home.

For example, a front page story chronicled recent teen suicides in the Northland region of the country that were apparently connected with bullying and social media.  This region has been shaken by 34 suicides in the past year while having only 20 highway fatalities.

Also, there was a full page story about how schools and educators are concerned about the national standards tests and the countries practice of listing and ranking school and district results.
I also chatted a bit with my waiter, a former primary school teacher. He told me about some interesting places to visit, talked about the high cost of living, and gave me advice about who and when to tip. Interestingly, because it was a breakfast buffet, he told me I absolutely did not have to tip him. He joked about how in North America people tip hairdressers and cab drivers.

We spent the early part of the day visiting the Botanical Gardens at the top of the mountain in Wellington. We reached it by a cable car ride up and walked down. Later, we took a train about twenty minutes north of the city to a small town of Porirua to visit its museum and art gallery.
During the day, I was impressed with the unique vehicles and vehicles names. There were Nissan Pulsars and Qashqai’s, Mitsubishi Tritons, a Toyata Hilux, and several different models of Holden.

We just finished watching the end of the World Series game 4 on ESPN. After a bit of a break, we are getting together for supper. Tomorrow morning we get down to business with a visit to the Ministry of Education.

Hello from Wellington

Hello from New Zealand. I arrived in Wellington around 3:30 pm local time. I got settled in my room and spent an hour or so exploring the city area adjacent to my hotel. It is really quite breathtaking. Wellington sits in on a beautiful bay encircled by small mountains. The picture above is the view from my hotel room.  I then spent some time visiting with the others from Manitoba before finding my way back to my room.

The flight across the ocean was interesting…and incredibly long. Sixteen plus hours is a lengthy time to spend anywhere, let alone in an airplane. Fortunately, I had an aisle seat, because I was up and down at least twenty times during the flight. After supper service, the captain came on the PA system and wished us all a good night’s sleep. The lights went out and most people took his advice. I myself eventually drifted for what ended up being over six hours. Of course, when I woke up the little video map that tracks your progress indicated that we still had over seven hours to our destination. That is a long flight.

One interesting aspect of the trip so far was learning the geography of New Zealand relative to Australia. As stated previously, I flew from Brisbane to Wellington. I always pictured one country sitting right below the other. Instead, we flew around three hours back in an easterly direction through three time zones. So I departed Brisbane at 9:00 am, flew for approximately three hours, and arrived in Wellington at 3:00 pm. There is certainly something to be said about the educational value of experiencing geography first hand.

For anyone contemplating a flight to this part of the world, I would really recommend Virgin Australia. Even the economy service was excellent, with two full meals, snacks and drinks on hand whenever you wanted them, the best in-flight entertainment system I have ever seen, and lots of room in a brand new plane.

Tomorrow is a national holiday in New Zealand…Labour Day I think. We are going to do a bit of the tourist stuff in and around the city before getting together later in the day to work on our collective presentation about Manitoba education.

I will leave you with a quick fact about this country. New Zealand is around half the size of Manitoba but has four times the people.

No celebrities...but big planes!

This is my second post of the day. To be fair, the last one was at 4:30 am when I had a touch of insomnia. It is now about 16 hours later. I have the need to pass some time so I may as well update my blog while it is fresh…and the internet access is free. I will apologize in advance. Even though this post is on my New Zealand educational tour blog, there isn’t much NZ or education related content. There will lots of that over the next two weeks.

Here’s a question.  If you are only in the airport, does it still count as a visit to wherever the airport is located?  If so, I am now visiting Los Angeles for the first time. Also, my first visit to Australia is tomorrow…the airport in Brisbane airport I mean.

Now I can be like one of those cool people who talk about how they were in LA.  I am a bit disappointed however.  There doesn’t seem to be any celebrities in the terminal. I sort of expected to be sitting by someone famous in the departure lounge. I imagined standing in line at Starbucks behind someone noteworthy. I thought I would get to strike up an interesting conversation with someone from the cast of some late 90’s television drama. But nothing! I got excited earlier when I thought I saw Casey from “Mr. Dressup”.  Unfortunately, for both of us, it wasn’t him.

I wanted to spend some time reading the information that I collected about New Zealand. I have had a good layover in the City of Angels, so I could easily learn some Maori greetings and words while I am waiting. But I was afraid to look down at my computer screen and miss someone famous going past me. I contemplated just sitting here on high alert with my camera phone on stand by to see what happened.  Even an old time celebrity like Bob Newhart or one of the Kardashians would work.

I previously mentioned the “terminal” here in LA.   I should correct that and say “terminals”. In fact, the multiple terminals cover an amazing 4 million square feet. I arrived at one location, hung out there for a bit, and had a fifteen minute shuttle bus ride to where I am currently. It probably only would have taken ten minutes but we had to yield a few times to some big planes crossing in front of us. And when I say big, I mean double-decker Airbus 380 big.

In terms of the rest of my day, the flight from Winnipeg to Minneapolis was uneventful. I did get to sit with a young gentleman on his way to meet a friend in Las Vegas. I guess you could say that he was on an educational tour of sorts himself…although likely not one endorsed by the Manitoba Education. I was impressed with the size of the airport in the Twin Cities, despite getting a bit winded while racing from one end to the other to make my connection.

I flew Delta all the way so far. American airlines are different than those in Canada. Everything is pay-as-you-go in economy, including food and drinks, TV and movies, and internet. I was reluctant to go the washroom because I wasn't sure if I would have to pay for toilet paper. And I did say internet previously! In the US, once you get above 10 000 feet you can access Wi-Fi. To be fair, when you fly in Canada, you have a 30% chance of seeing a Senator flying to his permanent residence in PEI.

Well, soon time to board Virgin Air for the 15 hour jaunt across the Pacific. Good night all…and love you Candace, Alex, and Winnie.

It's travel day!

Well...it is Friday, October 25th...albeit still fairly early in the day. Today is wheels-up day for my flight to New Zealand. I leave Winnipeg this afternoon on a trip that will take me through Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and Melbourne before setting down in Wellington.

Given that I was up a bit sooner than I expected, I sat down at my computer to see what was new in the world. Interestingly, one of the image galleries presented to me when I first opened up the internet was entitled "13 extraordinary places to see before you die". While clicking through it, I was pleased to note that two of these places are in New Zealand.

The first New Zealand site is the Moeraki Boulders found along the southeast coast of the southern island. These gigantic boulders started forming on the ocean floor and can now been seen sitting mysteriously on the coastline thanks to centuries of erosion. Unfortunately, my upcoming travels will not bring me very close to these natural wonders.

The other place noted in the slide show is the Champagne Pool. This is a colourful hot spring in the Waiotapu Geothermal area of New Zealand. I just happen to be spending a couple of days in the nearby town of Rotorua. The surface temperature of the big spring is 74 degrees Celsius and it's bubbles are due to uprising carbon dioxide. Minerals contained in the hot water are gold, silver, mercury, sulphur, and arsenic. One of our divisional trustees visited this area previously and recommended that I bring nose plugs. Apparently, the visual beauty is accompanied by a rather pungent odour.

One more sleep...

Well...I am officially excited. I have been trying to keep the trip as low key as possible. That has worked for the most part...until this morning. I started thinking more about what the next two weeks will entail. I even lost some sleep through the night thinking about what it is going to be like to steer a rental car on the left side of the road. I may need to feign tiredness and defer to one of my more confident driving colleagues at the beginning of our travels.

Personally and professionally, this trip promises to be extremely rewarding. At a personal level, like many others, visiting New Zealand is one of those bucket list things. At a professional level, I get to go accompany a Manitoba delegation on a tour of one of the top performing educational systems. The OECD's Program for International Student Assessment ranks New Zealand's system as one best in the world; with students performing exceptionally well in reading, mathematics and science. The country has an adult literacy rate of 99 percent. It is worth noting that other countries considered among the top performing in the world, include Finland, Singapore, South Korea, and of course, Canada.

Many educational programs and practices that we use in Manitoba came from New Zealand. Reading Recovery, an intervention program used in many of our schools to support students who require additional support in literacy, originated in New Zealand. New Zealand has also done considerable work focusing on aboriginal student success, which has tremendous relevance both in my school division and province.

New Zealand has had considerable success with international students. China is New Zealand’s single largest source of international students with approximately 25 000 students studying there annually. This number is expected to rise considerably, so much that New Zealand Education is developing what they have called a China Plan. In Manitoba, many divisions view international student recruitment as a means to counter declining enrolment in rural schools.

I expect that I will see and learn a lot during my two weeks in New Zealand. I am most excited about visiting schools and seeing teachers and students working and learning together.

To my colleagues from mRLC, Interlake, Lakeshore, and Prairie Spirit School Divisions...see you on Sunday.

Preparations, procrastinations, and considerations

I should be packing. Instead, I am online reading about different things related to New Zealand. On the ride home from work, I calculated the total amount of time I need to get ready prior to departure from home early on Friday. I should be fine.

The last time I was a principal, I taught Grade 7 ELA. One of my students spent some time travelling down under and she too recorded her experiences on a blog. Well...thanks to Emily, I get to read about those special places that she visited while looking at the wonderful pictures that she took of the country, it's inhabitants, and indigenous wildlife. I have really enjoyed revisiting what she wrote 5-6 years ago. I now have some added insight into what I should see and do during my time there.

I also did a quick search of other blogs related to New Zealand. Most of them are written from a tourist perspective, highlighting hikes through beautiful landscapes, guided tours for fans of Lord of the Rings, and sheep shearing. While the first two don't have a great deal of appeal, I could imagine making some wool if the opportunity presents itself.

Education in New Zealand

There are over 2 500 state schools in New Zealand. School rolls range from 10 to over 2 000 pupils. Most (86 percent) school-aged children attend state schools. The remainder attend state integrated (operated as a state school but with the particular religious or philosophical perspective of their owner), private schools, or are schooled at home.

The education system for schools comprises thirteen year levels.  Schooling is compulsory from the age of six to 16, which for most students is Year 11, although most students carry on to Years 12 and 13. Both single sex and co-educational secondary schooling options are available and state schools are secular. Most students attend the school closest to where they live.

The New Zealand school year usually runs from the end of January to mid-December, and is divided into four terms. Most schools are English language, but some schools teach in the Māori language.

The New Zealand Curriculum and Te Marautanga o Aotearoa form the national curriculum. These set the direction for teaching and learning in Aotearoa New Zealand schools and provide guidance for schools to develop a curriculum that meets the learning needs of their students.

 

The New Zealand Curriculum applies to all English-medium state schools (including integrated schools). Its vision is that young people will be confident, connected, actively involved, lifelong learners. It includes values, key competencies and learning areas.

 

Te Marautanga o Aotearoa applies to teaching in Māori-medium settings. The aspiration is to develop successful learners, who will grow as competent and confident learners, effective communicators in the Māori world, healthy of mind, body and soul and secure in their identity, and sense of belonging. They will have the skills and knowledge to participate in and contribute to Māori society and the wider world.

The Manitoba Rural Learning Consortium

 

Manitoba Rural Learning Consortium (mRLC) is a non-governmental, non-profit cooperative dedicated to rural education. Collaborative and innovative professional learning networks serve educators in ensuring quality teaching that benefits the learning of all students.

mRLC uses a collaborative inquiry model to engage user groups in a process of defining their needs and determining their learning path.

When working with Manitoba school divisions, mRLC emphasizes:

• Partnerships to build capacity
• Processes to support implementation
• Products to enhance learning

mRLC addresses common issues and needs across school divisions by identifying, organizing and coordinating the collaborative use of resources on a scale unavailable to individual divisions. mRLC also works within school divisions, schools, and classrooms in an effort to meet specific local needs.

New Zealand this week!

In just a few days, I will be heading off to New Zealand with five Manitoban colleagues. We will be conducting an educational tour of the country.

Our plan is to develop some perspective on the educational system of a country deemed to be among the world leaders. We will meet with Ministry officials to learn about what they are doing and to tell them about our experiences in Manitoba. During our two-week tour, we will visit schools and education offices across the country to gain an overview of what they do to support effective teaching and learning.

I am leaving Winnipeg this coming Friday and then arriving in Wellington 26 hours later...on Sunday. This will be my first experience with time travel. Given that the time difference is +15 hours from Manitoba, I will actually gain a day as I fly. My ten year old daughter is really excited because I told her I will be calling her from the future. When I talk to her at 7 - 8 pm, it will already be 12-1 pm the following day in NZ.

My intent is to keep a daily record of my experiences on this blog. Speed of posting will depend on what I am doing on a particular evening and whether or not I have an internet connection.

Thanks to the Manitoba Rural Learning Consortium for allowing me to tag along. Thanks also to the Board of Trustees of Park West School Division and our CEO Tim Mendel for their support on this exciting educational and life experience. Finally, thanks to my wife Candace, daughter Alex, and dog Winnie for giving me the most important approval that I required in considering this trip.

While I have some small anxiety about being away from family and work for two weeks, I am very excited about this incredible opportunity. I was mildly disappointed that I was going to be missing the Pink concert scheduled for Winnipeg on Saturday. However, I just learned that she is postponing until January because of laryngitis. I don't think my wife and daughter will be really excited by that news in the morning.

That's it for now. I just wanted to get started tonight with the blog because during the next few days, I will be busy getting ready. Until next time...Kia ora!