Janice had the day off but had one or two things to do at school so Annie and I took the opportunity to take a photo with Jeff the Principal and Lolly the office manager before slipping into a kinder class. Janice had to drag us away as we were having such a good time! We headed into Phoenix, the Capital of Arizona, where we saw their main State buildings. It is a beautiful city. We also saw a number of homeless people. Casey spent five years working to help those whose who were homeless and had mental illness. The number of homeless increases over winter as they travel in from other colder states to the warmer climate of this part of Arizona.
We went to the Heard Museum, a fascinating place, and took a tour on the early history of the area. Three things struck me. 1- the complexity of the sand picture in one of our photos (who needs written language in order to pass on information or tell a story). 2 - The story told in weaving of the man in the maze representing life's journey and the many roads we must travel, barriers we must overcome, before we find a place of inner peace. 3 - The story of the boarding schools set up to try and eliminate Indian culture.
We saw some wonderful Indian art and jewelry. Annie was particularly impressed with the work of the Zuni Tribe.
We had lunch there and tasted two different types of Fry Bread.
Our next stop was the Arizona Department of Education (similar to MOE central office) where Janice had organised for us to meet up with Sarah for an hour and a half. It ended up with five amazing State Educators spending two and a quarter hours talking with us. It was a really stimulating exchange of education direction and challenges. Arizona is moving to a common core curriculum along with a many other USA states. Up until now each State has decided it's own. They are also wanting to cover less but at a deeper level and have students develop their critical thing skills. This section of the ADE see their role as being to support schools. We were all really buzzed when we came out. Annie I invited them to NZ and I really hope that they come.
We headed back to Hear Museum http://www.heard.org for another quick look around before dropping Annie off at Crissi's school.
Later that night we went to the Tempe Schools' Board meeting where we were presented and had to speak. It was televised. For the first time since being here I felt really nervous and could hear my voice quavering! Other than that, everyone spoke really well and the Board members were smiling so it must have been OK. Unlike us, all the schools in Tempe share the same board so it makes high level decisions for all the schools in Tempe and is held in a court room type environment.
No comments:
Post a Comment