Good Entertainment

Today was an interesting day, especially at assembly. I've seen the Indian group perform a few times now but the music is so catchy and the dance is really entertaining, not to mention Shen! I didn't get to watch it at assembly today but apparently everyone started laughing at Shen and he started to crack up laughing in the middle of the dance!

Afterwards to promote the Slave Day next week I got up on stage with the eight student slaves and the two mystery teacher slaves (the mystery dean slave was absent) with them in their rubbish bag uniforms and the teachers with a paper bag over their heads, and got them each to find someone in the audience, polish their shoes with their hands, give them a hug and then come back up on stage and break dance. They didn't really break dance too much! One of the mystery teacher slaves started doing the robot! Although they started gathering around in a circle on stage and everyone started clapping in time, but I ended up cutting it short! I didn't realise what I had done till assembly was over! I should've waited a bit longer! Anyway we'll have to see what they get up to at junior and senior assemblies to come! With the mystery dean slave I'll be sure to have my camera with me!

The Fia-fia night was on tonight, and I really really wanted to go because I wanted to see the Samoan, Indian (can't get enough of them can I?) and Kapa-Haka group...oh and a surprise dance group...perform, but I wasn't able to! My dad decided to pick up his bagpipes again and join a pipe band to relearn the bagpipes and so he decided to bring us Anderson boys along to learn at the same time! I suppose this kinda covers our Scottish roots anyway!

No Time Off

Yesterday we had a day off school which was a bit of a relief, even though I didn't really make the most of it. I just stayed home all day trying to get round to doing some homework, but spending most of the time aimlessly on the computer. I did get round to doing my statistics and history homework in the end...but late at night.

 

No wonder I can't get to school on time! Fortunately it was only physics this morning which meant I could miss it if I wanted to (or should rather say HAD TO). I ended up coming to school ten minutes late so PHEW

 

There was a mixture of good and bad news for me today. The good news was that the deputy principal approved the idea of setting up a stand-alone website for Rutherford College students, and would cover the funding of getting a domain name and the web hosting.

 

The bad news...I didn't do so well in my chemistry titrations assessment. Yeah you can probably guess what happened. My results weren't close enough to the teacher's. Depressing yeah...

 

Anyway full steam ahead for slave day! We start off with a promotion at assembly today. Hopefully if I get to speak I'll order the slaves to do something random at assembly. Watching the teachers do it will be interesting!

Miscommunication

Wow the school had a great turnout tonight! There were parents everywhere! I suppose the majority were parents of year nine students, but nonetheless good to see parent support!

 

Most of my teachers were OK to me. I got my result back for my Electrochemistry test. Thank goodness I passed with a merit! (Oh yeah by the way I passed for the history essay I stayed up till 5am doing! Phew!) Probably the harshest teacher of the night was my Chinese teacher. She said I didn't speak enough in class and that I've got to speak more Mandarin to people. I told her I've been practising my Cantonese with Jacqueline though! Personally I prefer learning to speak Cantonese because it sounds so much more fun and easier. I'm probably more used to hearing Cantonese than Mandarin. Most of my Chinese friends find speaking to me in Chinese too weird as well! Anyway I shall persevere and try increase my Chinese speaking ability!

 

I had a bad lesson with my second year recorder class on Saturday. They wouldn't stop talking, with one of my students going on about how she liked going to McDonalds, another was going over to the sink because he was trying to wash goobies off his music folder, and his sister was pulling her recorder apart to discover all the different pieces. I was trying to get them to play through ONE sheet and then I would give them something new! So frustrating! They managed to get through the sheet and I was going to give them something new....but then I realised I didn't bring anything new...and the lesson was supposed to be finished ten minutes ago...

 

I feel a bit bad because at Sunday School at church yesterday we were talking about God and blablabla and the Sunday School teacher asked me what I told people when they asked me if I was a Christian. I told her I told people I was supposed to be a Christian. She asked me what if people asked me what I meant by that. I told her that I still didn't quite understand everything, especially because I was going to a Chinese church it was hard to understand. She then suggested I try a Kiwi church, and now that I was old enough, I didn't have to follow my parents. I told her though that I could learn Chinese at this church though. Throughout the rest of the Sunday school class when the other Chinese people were using Kiwis as a comparison to the Chinese way, they would always add

 

"Oh no offence to you Calum"

 

After the second time this happened I said to them

 

"Nah hey I'm still half Chinese!"

Trouble in Paradise

It was mufti day today and so we got the Junior Council members to buddy up with the prefects to go around classes to collect the money. This meant I got to miss out on my chemistry test! :D I'll probably end up having to sit it on Monday. Anyway at least that made my day less stressful! I only had to attend Chinese (where I learnt a bit of Cantonese...I'm going to get her and Sarena and Amy to speak to me more in Cantonese so I can be more Chinese!), statistics and history. AUT came in today to catch up with our prefect group's progress since camp from the beginning of interval to lunch, which meant I missed out on Physics and my free period. Before school though I had to speak in front of the staff at their meeting about the Junior Council just to explain to them that the group was getting started and to ask them to give them a little bit of respect. They seemed to receive it well!

Anyway back with the AUT people we each got up to explain what we had gotten up to. Things got a little heated when one suggested having a talent quest this year instead of Rutherford Idol which we've had for the past two years, because it was a bit dry and cheesy, and it was taken as if it was a criticism against me (since I helped organise it) by a few who started to defend me (lol!) but I think it was just a bit of a misunderstanding!

But anyway the rock concert was at lunch. It was a shame the crowd wasn't bigger but still it was great to see some of our own performing, and I sure hope there are more lunchtime performances throughout the year! Some guys tried creating a moshpit up front but it looked more like they were fake punching each other.

Ryan came in yesterday to go over our performances in the debate the night before. I was at the end of most of the criticism. I let my standards drop in this debate, having taken a few pot shots at the opposing team, calling them deaf and their argument a load of rubbish, so I feel pretty guilty for letting the team down!

Watch out Auckland Grammar!

I will not condemn anyone who is willing to carry out revenge on Auckland Grammar for us, but I will not publicly condone it! OK here's the story - we lost against Auckland Grammar in a very frustrating and heated debate. Let's just say they weren't very well-mannered and seemed to have a superior attitude, but I guess when you attend a school like that it probably grows on you.

The opposing team spent most of the time trying to shut down our definition of the moot, claiming that we expected a 'perfect' prison system when we never said that! They went on about how we didn't establish what exactly constitutes success by providing an exact benchmark, and so that's probably what failed us.

The timekeeper from Auckland Grammar didn't help either. You would've thought they would have been able to afford a bell! But no they just thumped the table and then jingled their keys.

One of the speakers kept saying 'ON THAT POINT' when trying to raise a point of information so we thought during his speech we'd be smart and start saying

ON THAT POINT

Yeah we were all pretty gutted after that debate but Ryan who came to watch our debate took notes and is going to debrief us at lunchtime tomorrow. That's not very comforting! We must've done A LOT of stuff wrong!

Just watch out Auckland Grammar! We'll be seeing and beating you in the finals! (well we hope!)

Lost Cause

Good news I finished writing my debate speech, which ended up being even longer than my previous debate speech, which went over time. That must mean my speech will be well over time! I've got to cut back on some stuff but I'm afraid of cutting something important out!
I also managed to finish my history essay at 5am this morning together with Jacqueline over MSN. Now I've stayed up really late into the morning doing homework with Hyun, Joon, Yuk kit and Jacqueline! Fun!

Yesterday I stayed at school after after it had finished to watch the Rutherford vs Magee rugby game. Magee is some school from Canada that sent their rugby team on a trip down under. At first everyone was writing off the Canadians, but they weren't doing so much of that once the game started! We had about 50 supporters at least I'd say, and it was so good to see and hear students cheering on Rutherford! Unfortunately our school last 30 something to 14 I think? Yeah anyway we lost, but it would be great if more after school sports games were organised to encourage our students to get out there and support our school!

Unfortunately our principal Mr Edmeades is leaving at the end of term 2! He's been at our school for over 18 years, and is only the third principal of Rutherford College in its 40 year history. It's going to be sad to see him go, as you don't know what to expect from the new principal, whoever he or she may be!

Tonight the group of us went to Massey University for the second session of the careers seminar. Shen met that 'hot Asian' again and this time he even talked to her! Turns out she's already got a boyfriend though. Rightfully so, because Shen's got a girlfriend anyway! OK back to the point of the seminar! We had quite a few speakers tonight talking to us about business and becoming an entrepreneur. Interestingly two of the speakers told us they were former students of Rutherford! It shows just what our students are capable of!

Irresponsible

It was really disappointing to see the way students acted in the city in protest of youth rates yesterday. Prior to their little protest march I have to say I was slightly sympathetic to their cause, but now I'm not so sure. These students were disrupting traffic, and what made it worse was that they were skipping school to do it. Work is work, school is school. You shouldn't be skipping school to protest about something related to work. These students are missing out on schoolwork, which would help them get a higher paid job in the future! If youth rates are abolished, will employers choose to employ inexperienced youth over older, more mature and experienced people? The push for $12 minimum youth rate is a bit unrealistic as well. The minimum adult wage isn't even that, how can you expect the youth rate to be abolished and then to suddenly increase to $12?

I'm disappointed at Radical Youth and the union who organised buses to be sent to schools to pick up protesters. What's more is I'm disappointed at Green MP Sue Bradford, whose bill to abolish youth rates is at the centre of all of this. She basically encouraged students to skip school to protest. That is irresponsible to encourage people to break the law. When Labour is going to support the bill anyway, what is the point of these strikes and protest action?

What a shame this strike was the only way to get Rutherford High School into the NZ Herald. The last time was when fireworks was chucked into the hall during prize-giving assembly!

Staying Healthy

Happy Birthday Hussein!!
Happy Birthday Kat!! (for yesterday)

Things have been starting to pile up on me. I was supposed to have done an A3 and A4 poster and a little blurb about the Junior Council by last Friday, but because I couldn't get it done on time I've got those as well as a debate speech, physics experiment write-up and a history essay to do by this week!

We have our second debate coming up this Wednesday against Auckland Grammar with our moot being

"That our prison system is failing us "

with us being affirmative. Let's hope we can score another win! This time it'll be Christine, Patrick and me debating.

Today after church I went across the road to the Trusts Stadium to the Healthy Living Expo or something like that. It had all these stands about health and natural remedies etc. It was...OK. I guess it was more focused on the older person. They also had some teenage girls doing cheerleading as well.

Guess who else I met! Hyun and Joon! They were dressed in red, as Korean interpreters. Together with them was Hyun's partner to the ball last year. I also met Amber who used to go to our school last year but she's now at a drama school. It's so good to catch up with people again!

Anyway I'm bracing for a pretty busy week ahead...

Ooopsy

Yesterday I ran the first Junior Council meeting. It was a bit disorganised and because Mr Coughlan had the purpose and everything I couldn't really discuss it with them. I did ask them for their opinions on school and they talked about things from peer support to the boredom they experience during lunchtime. I then sent them to talk to their form classes and their friends during the week before the next meeting to get some ideas. After that meeting I asked Mr Coughlan the deputy principal where the Junior Council actually fits in the whole scheme of things and he explained to me how he wants it to be a something like a 'feeder' group to the three other main groups that the prefects are arranged in, and they report back. Heather and Mrs Taylor (our year 13 dean) have other ideas so I've got to sort it out. I can't actually remember what they said now!

After that Mr White the PE teacher asked me to help him with a powerpoint presentation he's going to present at senior assembly on Monday about the rubbish problem. He asked me to load the photos he took with the Sony video camera onto his computer. I took the memory stick out of the camera and tried putting it in the inbuilt cardreader in his laptop, but I accidentally put it in the wrong slot! I was going to try get something to pull it out but Mr White came over and saw it and was like No Problem! and went to look for tweezers or something to pick it out. He came back with some scissors, trying to pull it out, but in the end pushed it further in! He told me He'd get it out and let me go, and today when he approached me he let me know they got it out with a scribe from the metal room! During interval though Mr Sizer the year 12 dean told me that they managed to get the card out of the laptop and wanted to make sure I wasn't worrying too much about it. At that time the other Mr White (the computer teacher) came by to tell me that it was easy getting it out and there was no damage. A little later Ms Roscoe (I probably spelt her name wrong but she's another PE teacher) told me that they managed to get HER card out of the laptop and that it was lucky they were able to! Boy things must travel fast amongst the teachers!

Picking Up Girls at a Seminar?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PHOEBE!!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVID (for last week!!)

A small group of us Rutherford students went to Smales Technology Farm over in North Shore after school today to hear some speakers from various research institutes talk to us about possible science-based careers. Apparently we're the only school from the west to take part, with the rest coming from North Shore.

We had the CEO of HortResearch telling us about how they're developing an apple with red insides, kiwifruit that grow like grapes and get this...healthy beer! What an oxymoron! The second speaker was the assistant director-general from MAF who spoke to us about bio security, controlling what comes into and leaves the country, and the last speaker was from from some other Crown Research Institute that specialises in forensic science and other stuff like that.

Anyway what was more interesting than the talks was what was going on with us guys. Shen was hitting on Sarena (boy what would happen if Sarena starts to fall for him?) Our group was also sitting next to the girls from Westlake. There was this Asian girl Shen and Joon thought looked good and as her friend walked past Shen asked her what her friend's name was, and she asked him if he was interested. Shen told her that he might be, and she just walked off. She ended up sitting right next to me, and all the guys got me to try ask them what the girl's name was, so I turned to this girl and asked

"Hey my friend wants to know what your friend's name is?"

She snapped back

"WELL IF YOU WANNA KNOW THEN ASK HER YOURSELF"

Woooooah! She kinda gave Hyun the evils throughout the seminar when he fell asleep.That was funny. I poked him in the shoulder several times before he finally woke up! Hyun claimed that (while he WAS awake) the Asian girl kept taking glances at Shen, but Alex thought they were dirty looks. Anyway we'll be going to another seminar next week again, so that'll give either Joon or Shen (well we're hoping Joon because Shen's already taken!) another chance at scoring a few points, especially since the ball is only what three months away!

Oh yeah we got heaps of Subway that was nice too!

Sorting Through Things

This man that looked like Suddam Hussein came over during the weekend to collect our census forms, but we were short of those individual census forms so we asked for some more and asked him to come back later in the week.

 

So I had to fill in my census form that night. I have to admit I like filling out forms! They're really fun! I'm not too keen on filling out forms that have something to do with money though, like tax return forms! Now I tried to fill out my census form as honestly as possible. I said I am a NZ European/Chinese, I am a Christian (although what sort of Christian I've still gotta determine!) and I speak English...and Cantonese... OK so I can't really speak Cantonese apart from understanding bits of it but hey I thought it'd make me look a bit more unique! Apart from that though everything else was true!

 

Our road also had an inorganic rubbish collection today so during the weekend we were trying to find as much rubbish to get rid of as possible! Our dad's a rubbish junkie. He likes collecting rubbish, so we had to be careful that we did it while he was out!

 

Today we had our last prefects presentation at the year 12 assembly. That was...interesting...! I started off with my intro speech. I originally thought the microphone wasn't working so I decided not to use it, but just as I finished, I decided I'd tap it just to see if it actually was working or not, and turns out it was! After Patrick spoke, he gave the microphone to Heather, who was supposed to speak after Ellyce and Nikki! I tried telling her but she couldn't hear me and when she saw the environmental committee slides appearing on the screen she started giggling. She couldn't stop herself so she walked off stage and then back on again, but still couldn't stop so she handed her speech to Joanne who saved the day! After that we went steadily along. Before assembly Sarena had asked me if she could speak about a World Vision fundraiser and so I asked Mr Coughlan the deputy principal if she could speak but when I talked to her again during assembly she had changed her mind! Just then though Mr Coughlan called up Sarena and Mr Mataia (the PE teacher) to speak, and so Sarena had no choice but to speak at assembly. She was just telling me after our last presentation on Friday how that would be her last time to speak at assembly ever after the microphone failed on her. Looks like it wasn't to be!

Changing Times

I didn't have Sunday School at church today because neither of our two teachers could make it today, so I just spent the hour talking to this girl and helping her get other people to sponsor her for 40 Hour Famine. Amazingly she knows a few people I know! Ain't it great the way we're all linked in one way or another! She told me she got about $200 three years ago when she last did it! Another of my friends Phoebe said she raised over $100 after only two days of collecting money! Whoowhee I only made what was it $1 last year? This is where girls have an advantage! The girl I was with this morning just went up to some guy and told him he was handsome and he sponsored her $5! Just imagine if I did that to a guy I'd probably get the thump.

I was talking to another friend during this weekend who was telling me about how she's got all these plans for the future, how she plans on moving out of her parents' house in two years time to go flatting with her friend and her boyfriend. I can't believe these people who just a few years ago I was talking to about silly little things about some nice guy giving her a glance in her class is now talking about all these grown-up things! As for me I haven't even planned my future beyond the end of this year! I still have no idea what I'll study at university if I make it next year, how I'll afford it, when I want to get married, have children, blablabla! I'm kinda taking things as they come which isn't such a good thing to do! Opportunities which you could have made the most of and could benefit you in the future can come and pass which is really worrying me! Plus I'm still contemplating the thought of losing all my friends when we go off to university, with some maybe leaving the country, going to other unis or just not hanging out with me anymore! I'll just have to wait and see...

Revisit

On Friday I went back to AUT with Patrick for a meeting with the AUT staff and the Minister of Youth Affairs Nanaia Mahuta. Several other schools participating in the 'Prefects that Peek' programme attended, including Onehunga High, Papatoetoe, Northcote and Tamaki. Unfortunately the meeting wasn't at such a good time as during that afternoon our prefects were making a presentation at junior assembly, I had to organise a video camera for the sports co-ordinator to bring to the lawn bowls tournament, and we still had to sift through all the nomination forms we received for Junior Student Committee (which was substantial!). I had to step out of my comfort zone and rely on others to do the jobs for me which is a bit difficult for me because sometimes I feel like I need to do things in order to get them right! I'm working on that though! I heard that everything went well which should be unexpected as we have very competent prefects!

To start off the AUT meeting we had a powhiri, in which we had to sing a song we learnt in under five minutes. After the very long powhiri Ms Mahuta went along and did that little nose touching thing with each of us. We then had something to eat in the cafeteria room. They had set up a projector showing photos of prefects from various schools who participated. There was even Heather with some drunk looking guy on the street, Ellyce with...I think a dog, and Sarena holding her phone! It was a bit unsurprising that whenever someone asked us which school we were from and we said Rutherford College, they would have no idea where we were, but they did go on to ask

"Oh is that somewhere in North Shore?"

So I guess we can take that as a compliment!

We got round together to discuss our experiences at the AUT camp and what we had learnt. Rebecca the AUT lady asked Patrick how well he knew the other prefects before the camp. He said he probably knew only about three really well and that was it. When she asked whether camp helped him get to know others, he replied

"Well after that night everyone definitely got to know each other better!"

What's funny is that a little while later some girl from another school asked if we were an all boys school! Now that would be wrong!

Each of our schools then had to tell the others what we had planned to do and what we had achieved so far. Most schools seemed to have arranged their prefects into narrow groups such as year 13 camp/ball, or student radio - only focusing on one thing, whereas our prefects were divided into groups with a broader focus such as environment and student welfare. It felt better knowing the other schools were in a similar or worse situation with regards to school spirit/pride! It sounded as though our prefects group had made more progress than all the other schools though, and Rebecca seemed really impressed with us, coming up to us afterwards saying

"Your business plans are the ****!"

She wants to arrange a meeting with our prefects group again sometime and bring along some specialists to help us out, which means this week all our groups will have to get together and start getting their plans off the ground. Looks like it's going to be another hectic week!

Having Faith!

We had our debate this evening at Auckland Grammar School. If the room which we debated in is supposed to represent the sort of buildings AGS have then it really isn't that much better than our school! A window was tagged/scratched. They had those plastic desks that you usually have at primary schools with those removeable trays, only at Auckland Grammar there aren't trays (obviously!). At least there was a good view of Mt Eden prison!

We were up against Corran School, an all girls school, with the moot

"that we should impose sanctions on Iran" with us being the negating team. The girls were all in their fancy blazers with their ties. Their head girl was even in their team, up against ours with our school's head boy, deputy head boy and head girl! We looked a lot better in our formal uniform with ties! After seeing the other schools we're now going to try push to get our blazers early!

Heather was first speaker and she was kinda freaking out a little bit after hearing the first speaker of the affirmative team speak I think because she wasn't sure if her speech was even relevant. She managed to get through her speech and did really well! Fortunately no one made any points of information during her speech, and nor did we during their first speaker's speech (we couldn't think of anything that quick!) It was only when the second speaker of the affirmative team gave her speech that I decided to make a point of information. The second speaker stumbled a bit after my question and when I raised another point of information later on in her speech again she just shouted

"DECLINED!"

During my speech the girls must've decided to retaliate as one of the opposing team raised a point of information in the middle of my speech but fortunately all she asked me to do was define 'diplomacy' which wasn't too bad. I spoke over time and so Christine our timekeeper ended up dinging that bell throughout final few sentences! The fire alarm during my speech didn't help either!

Patrick our third speaker did pretty well with rebuttal he managed to fill up heaps of time with rebuttal. A point of information was made regarding 'Anglo-Saxons' That was interesting...

Throughout the debate the affirmative team kept on going about how Iran was a threat and that sanctions were an effective answer but never explained how they would be effective, and kept saying that our team never gave an alternative when we kept going on about how diplomacy was the answer!

Anyway fast-foward to the end we had a lawyer as our judge and she declared us the winners which proved Heather wrong! She thought it was all doom and gloom so I hope she'll have a bit of faith in herself and our team next time round because we can do it! We won only by two points and I managed to get speaker of the day but a win's a win and especially in the advanced grade (where apparently margins are slim) it ain't too bad!

Our next debate is related to the failure of the prison system so that'll be interesting and as long as we're affirmative then that'll be good!

One of my favourite private comments within our team that we were passing around while listening to the opposing team's speaker was

"What's wrong with this school?"

"Maybe it's Corran School for the Deaf"

Better Day

We finally had success in many ways today! Firstly we finally got student radio going! We had RnB music on for today and we even got people coming up to us asking to play music from their CDs! At first it was a little weird having this loud music suddenly being played around the field. Everyone just stared at where the music was coming from! Troy managed to fix the speaker wires so he's the one to thank! We're planning on having a different genre of music each day. Because most of the 'coloured' people hang around the shelters overlooking the field for...various reasons...I'm not too sure how well they'll receive the music on punk rock/emo day but I guess we'll just have to wait and see!

I don't want to give too much away but I'll put it in a couple of words - slave auction - coming soon! Today we even managed to convince a couple of teachers to get in on the act. We'll reveal who they are closer to the date!

We made our final push for more students to be nominated for the junior student committee during form period today. I sent a few of the prefects to visit junior form classes. Unfortunately year 10 students were at an assembly but I got 20 extra nomination forms photocopied and they all ran out that I had to get another 30 photocopied, and this is only the year 9's! At least by having so many nominations we have the opportunity to select the best (with the help of the deans!)

We ended the day with a debate meeting. Ryan (last year's headboy) and Elisapeta (last year's deputy headgirl) were back to give us some advice. Because our debate coach/English teacher can't make it to the debates, Ryan and Elisapeta are going with us to support us! Heather and I ended up swapping speaking positions with Heather moving to first speaker while I moved to second. Even so, I got stuck with leader's reply! Patrick our third speaker didn't turn up because he had a cricket game. We are unprepared but I'm sure we'll do fine tomorrow! It's our first debate anyway we can be allowed one stuff-up at least, considering we have Heather who has't debated since 2nd form and Patrick who hasn't done debating before! We're up against Corran, an all girls school so we're not going to give up without a fight! Losing to an all-girls team is just shameful!

Wacky Day

Today was hectic. This morning during my two free periods I first had to sort out hiring the cello, because my cello teacher is one of the toughest teachers I've ever encountered! So I had to do a bit of cello practice during my free period to make up for a week of no practice. During next period I was supposed to rearrange the room student radio will be based at with Troy but Troy had gone and the teacher in charge of the room told me it'd take more than a day to sort things out. I ended up spending most of that period in the library sorting stuff out with a teacher!

 

During interval though I talked to a few students who had a free period after interval if they could at least try to start on the room so I'd have less to do afterschool. After inteval I had to go to cello lesson. My cello lesson used to be during chemistry but last Friday during history the assistant principal talked to me in private, telling me my chemistry teacher was concerned I was missing out on too many chemistry periods and that if I continue to do so I'll miss out on the merits and excellences I want. She estimated I had missed over seven periods of chemistry already, which is a bit extreme as I've only missed one period a week and only four weeks have passed! Anyway after my cello lesson I took a detour to the room to check up on how things were going but no one was there and the door was locked! I thought no one could be bothered and went off to history class. During lunch though Shen came and told me they managed to sort out the room already! They just needed a CD player to connect to the PA system and then hopefully we'd finally be off!

 

During lunch I had to go to string ensemble. Because at assembly this week our prefects group (yip we renamed our student leaders group so we could sound more special ;) ) are presenting our 'launch' or our year plans to the students, I needed the projector and laptop to be set up in the hall and I had asked my brother to ask his friends if they could do it. During string ensemble I was thinking they were setting it all up till the deputy principal came in and asked me what was going on! Aonghas's friends couldn't do it because they had a debate meeting and Aonghas hadn't told me! So I rushed out of string ensemble to try set things up. We ended up having the projection on an angle.

 

The presentation at assembly went alright except for me getting the speaking order wrong and Aonghas getting muddled up with the powerpoint slides (fortunately we sorted it out quickly!) After assembly Shen told me that student radio DIDN'T get off the ground today because of a faulty wire! It's just one thing after the other with some things isn't it?

 

Weekend was OK, nothing special. I tried writing up my debate speech, only did two sentences and then gave up to work on the presentation instead. My neighbour came home from some sleepover at a friend's at about 1am and started shouting my name out loud as she walked up the driveway. It was too dark so I couldn't see anything. Apart from my other friend discussing whether to lose her virginity or not that's about it...oh wait yeah I did start teaching recorder again! I'm starting off with six students, hopefully more will enrol soon! Now that's about it!

Circles

I've had an exhausting day today. I've been trying to sort out student radio which will *fingers tightly crossed* get off the ground this Monday lunchtime. There's always been something that has stood in the way and have made me adjust the original plans! Originally I planned on rearranging the room we will be running it out of and shifting the equipment into it today during lunch but in the end Troy (who I've been working on this with) decided to do it during my free period on Monday and get it ready by lunch. So hopefully hopefully hopefully it will finally start!

 

We then had a student leaders meeting at lunch which went round and round in circles. They couldn't decide whether to call themselves student leaders or prefects. In the end they decided to have a vote. Initially I thought I would not bother voting, and so the vote count was Student Leaders: 6, Prefects: 5. I thought to make it more interesting I'd put in my vote for Prefect to tie it up! They then decided to go for the coin toss which landed in the favour of Student Leaders. However the deputy principal didn't like the way the decision was made so he's going to make his own decision I think.

 

The Junior Student Committee's future was looking bleak in the morning with only two nominations being handed in, but by the end of the day I heard that there were a lot more so it turned out OK in the end! That reminds me I forgot to put a reminder in the notices! ARGH I'm forgetting everything these days! The school's computer server has been down for most of the week and so no notices got out which was a bit of a nuisance. Thank goodness for the well-designed and well-updated noticeboard Sarena has been in charge of!

 

We're having our big Student Leaders/Prefects launch next week where we let the rest of the school and staff know our plan for the year so I've got to get the powerpoint presentation done.

 

This evening I've been trying to sort out my recorder lesson times for tomorrow morning. I've been ringing all my students but they always seem to have something on at this time and that time, which threw all my plans up in the air! Finally at 9.15pm I managed to get it all sorted out...for tomorrow at least!

 

Once again here's another quote from the enrichment teacher (while we're on the computer checking something out):

 

"OK once we've sorted this out we'll check out a dating website for Calum"

There Comes A Price

Today we had our first debate meeting after school. This year we have Patrick, Heather, Christine, Hyun and Joon and me. The twins are only going to be researchers and helpers this year as they can't debate on a Wednesday. Our moot for this year is:

 

 

"That we should impose sanctions on Iran"

 

We're the negative team. We spent two hours after school discussing the moot before finally settling on our argument and our attack. Now we've got a weekend to write our 8 minute speech before we have a practice on Tuesday and debate on Wednesday!

 

We had our first vocal group rehearsal today. Nikki and Toni joined which was really good! Nikki's been trying to recruit some people to join, as hopefully if we can persuade some of the 'influential' students to join in, hopefully they can bring in a few more and we can take a big group of students to the Big Sing and surprise the rest of Auckland!

 

Today after form period I came out of my form class and these juniors who just came out of their class called out to me saying HI CALUM!!! while laughing and then some girl said

 

"I think you're handsome!"

 

and then they all started laughing with a guy telling them to stop teasing me. So I'm guessing they're probably teasing me about my looks but I probably don't blame them! I haven't shaved for nearly a week now and so I look like a hori. I've lost my shaver and I'm starting to grow long sideburns, a mustache and a beard! Of course it could be something completely different...

 

It's always good to see those good people around though (I mean there's good in everyone!) These juniors sometimes open the door for me to let me go through first which was really cool and when I dropped my paper while holding my drink bottle, trying to eat and climb the stairwell at the same time on my way to my next class, this junior student stopped to help pick up my paper for me which was really cool!

Randoms

This week has been pretty good so far. I've had to speak at two assemblies in one week which I don't think I've done in a while! I probably made a fool of myself both times as well! Hopefully I get better as the year progresses!

We had orchestra yesterday morning at 7.30am. It was more like 8am for me. Despite all my hopes and dreams, our orchestra is still small. I've spoken at a couple of assemblies now. I'll probably have to go around to form classes and advertise more. I'm absolutely positively sure there are more than ten students in this school that can play a musical instrument! Hopefully we get a good turnout for the vocal group and the boys harmony group or I'll have to go on another recruitment drive again!

On Monday these junior students came up to me and asked me

"Hey Calum did you bring your socks?"

I just looked at them and realised...

"Oh so you guys were serious!"


I've been having these juniors call out to me  HEY CALUM! and HEY HEADBOY! during lunchtime which feels a bit weird. You've only got to wonder just how long it will be before everyone starts turning on you!

This morning I helped Heather clean out the fridge/freezer in the sports pavilion which is now the student leaders' common room. That really stunk! There was some yellow goo and a lot of dead ants, mostly frozen in the ice! We chucked the ice out the window (made sure not to hit anyone) and sprayed a bit of Mr Muscle around the fridge/freezer and afterwards it at least smelt a little more orangey!