Well here's my first post for this here blog thingy. I've always wanted to start one of these but do I have interesting things to post? Well stay tuned because we're both about to find out.
I'm currently in Mildura with the ever cool Tenix Questacon Maths Squad in order to excite kiddies about maths. We arrived yesterday after a tiring 10-hour drive during which I slept for a bout 5 of them.
So we did two schools today, something that Jamos calls a 'stun-and-run' effort. I didn't have such a problem with it. I think it went fairly well. Jamos says that it feels cheap and nasty and that we should ideally stay at one school for the whole day. I can see his point to an extent and he agrees with me that there's just not always enough students at a given school. He's got some pretty strong views about how the program should be run and I suppose that's inevitable when you've been working hard to build something for the past 6 years.
The first show was flat and the kids were uninspired by our antics. Following that, the next show we did at another school was heaps better and by the time the workshop came around at about 2:20 I felt like I was on fire.
I was tempted to say something about how it was just the heating being up too high or some such and that's really what you get when you hang out in this group for too much time. I gotta say, there's enough bad puns being bandied around for anyone's taste.
Previously I've been to the Hunter Valley in NSW and Sth Gippsland and Mornington Peninsula in Victoria. I noticed that the proportion of indigenous kids in this area is much higher than in others I've toured to. I don't quite know why but I always look to these kids more, really hoping that they're understanding what we're doing or enjoying their time. It's because we hear so much about how much trouble they're all in. It feels fantastic when you see them getting into it.
Sometimes the squad travels to indigenous communities. I've never been on such a tour and I wonder if I'll ever get to go on one. I have strong hopes to one day experience that side of Australia.
Anyway, later...
3 comments:
Hi Jeff - nice post. The kids were "uninspired by your antics"? Even after the cream bun?! Shocking!
I wrote about my visit to you on the Q blog - not sure if you've spotted it yet.
Say "Hi!" to the troops for me. And tell Jamos I haven't cracked the Chilli Stout open yet. I'm a little bit scared of it. :-P
Yay, another person willing to rant in cyberspace...
Found this completely by accident. From now on I'll be watching it like a hawk.
Geez, I thought I'd have a bit more time to get used to this blog posting thing before anyone found the site :). Never mind, I'll post again now - I have a schweeet photo. Ken, the chilli stout doesn't taste spicy at all! You need to crack open one of the other chilli beers we have back in Turner. There's talk of a house-warming when we get back so we'll be sure to provide you with one on that occasion.
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