Tēnā Tātou te iwi.
My thoughts and best wishes this morning go out to all of those people who are directly effected by the weekend's events on the West Coast, as well as to those in the wider community that are anxiously waiting for a resolution to this crisis.
As the year winds down for secondary teachers, attention now turns no doubt to planning days and the like with a view to the 2011 programme. Primary teachers, while having longer to go, I am sure are also turning one eye to next year. One idea I would like to share with you as you make these plans is the possibility of incorporating decade studies into your programmes. I am sure many of you do already as they have always been popular topics for inquiry. We here at New Zealand History online have prepared a couple on the 1920s and the 1960s and have plans for more. They give a year-by-year summary as well as a snapshot of the period. They would be invaluable to students looking for ideas for research topics at a senior level. For junior classes they would also work well as a context for a class study on a period say related to their parents' or grandparents' generations, or maybe as an inquiry into New Zealand at the time their school opened. They are well worth a look.
This week's image of the week is a photo taken at the Rolling Stones concert at the Wellington Town Hall in 1966. From all accounts the capital didn't know what hit it when Mick and the boys arrived in town. Who knows, some of your students might have grandparents who were there. As a tribute to the 60s this week's Classroom quiz is devoted entirely to the decade - which some claim if you can remember means you probably weren't there!
Post your response here