Newsletter

August 2010

HATA

is the Teachers Association dedicated to the teachersand teaching of Agriculture and Horticulture in New Zealand.

Inside this issue:

From the Horticulture President

Hi AllApparently there are 65 school days left (after the end of the first week this term) until NCEA starts. Nowwith end of year exams, Tournament Week, Cross Country and other sports days, Labour Day and other Anniversary Days there will actually be less than 50 days of teaching and learning for some kids before theexternal examinations. And with some NCEA levels having up to 6 external achievement standards to studyfor, they have about 8 evenings in which to commit some time to revise for each of them (which is obviouslya bit of a problem if you had planned to actually use those 50 days to teach new material). I hope your students have taken this on board and have started revision already, just like mine have. Yeah right!The weather gods have not been particularly kind to us in Hawkes Bay and it seems that most of the countryhas suffered from frequent long spells of rain which does not make for a pleasant experience outside doingpractical activities. For us, the student’s plots are almost unusable as the soil has been saturated for weeksnow and yet still they insist on pouring water onto their veggies.Over the holiday break, I took attended the PPTA Subject Association Forum which looked at a variety of aspects regarding the work of associations and allowed for discussion between the many small associationssuch as ours. There were also representatives from MOE and NZQA who fronted up to some very directquestioning particularly in respect to the Standards Realignment Project, which for many other subjects didnot work well at all.Brent Logan from NZQA spoke about the new Quality Assurance of Assessment Materials (QAAM) whichwill be preapproved, assessment resources that can be used for internal assessment and which will not bechecked by the moderator, rather they will only look at your marking. You will still be able to write your ownassessments and schedules which will be moderated as in the past. If you are a bit of an entrepreneur youcan pay NZQA to critique a resource however at $960 per assessment it may too pricy for our subject whenlooking at cost recovery. The Maths association seemed quite interested in using this to write their ownmaterial which would then be sold to schools to cover the NZQA fee but would probably not be feasible for us.Another workshop I attended looked at teacher training and the lack of sufficiently skilled or knowledgeablenew teachers, of which we will need many with our aging teaching population. It seems that if you agree totake two trainees from Canterbury University, the university will provide masters papers at half price or for free for theassociate teacher . This may be a good way to both up skill yourself and ensure that the graduateteachers gain the best experience from their training.

Nigel Evans from the MOE talked about the Senior Secondary Teaching and Learning Guides for whichsome subjects have already published. I have written about these before and with luck they will be availablebefore the end of this term at this website:www.seniorsecondary.tki.org.nz . I really do think that they will prove to be useful for all as they are designed to bridge the gap between the NZ Curriculum andassessments by providing ideas and strategies to help improve teaching and learning.The final workshop I attended looked at something called Network Learning Communities. I had never heardof this and it seems to be a really good idea where a group of teachers in one region can get together anddecide what is most needed by their students. Their local School Support Service helps out withadministration etc and who will pay $4000 a year for meetings, teacher release time and whatever they can justify. I will certainly be looking at organizing something for my region next year. If you are interested it wassuggested you contact your local School Support Service such as Accent Learningin Wellington,Massey CEDfor the central North Island,Waikato Faculty of Education, Team Solutionsfor Auckland and Northland, TheUniversity of Canterbury College of Education for the top of the South Island andUniversity of Otago College of Educationfor the bottom of the country.I hope your planning for 2011 is going well and that you are able to construct interesting relevant courses for your Year 11s next year. If you haven’t yet had a chance to look check out the material ontki it would pay to familiarize yourself with what is available and on offer.If you have any questions or comments please do not hesitant to email me:summerfield.mason@lindisfarne.school.nz Mason SummerfieldHorticulture President

Approaches to teaching agriculture and horticulturescience scholarship students

Mason asked in the last newsletter if there was any interest in a Scholarship Training Day centredsomewhere in the Central North Island. The following is being organised by Rick Jochem, Ross Redpathand Mason Summerfield.

Date: 18

AugVenue: Palmerston North Boys High SchoolTime: 9:15am – 4:00pmFacilitation: Round table format – everyone contributes!The purpose of this day is to bring teachers who have scholarship candidates together to:

•

Unpack the scholarship performance standard and assessment specifications.

•

Review the 2009 exam, marking schedule and examiners report.

•

Discuss strategies regarding the teaching of students who are consideringentering the scholarship examination.

•

Share resources that are relevant to the knowledge and skills required by thescholarship examination.

There may be a small fee for lunch and photocopying, etcTeachers interested in attending should confirm their interest with Rick Jochem on jochemr@pnbhs.school.nzby the 10

August.

The Correspondence School Name Change

The Correspondence School has changed its name and is now Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu, or Te Kura for short. Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu refers to connecting students with learning, and reflects the role they playwithin the education sector, their students and their vision for their achievement.

Their web address has changed to

www.tekura.school.nz

and all email addresses to Te Kura staff have changed (i.e. from

name.surname@correspondence.school.nz

name.surname@tekura.school.nz

New Zealand DVD Resources.

The Film Archive of New Zealand have compiled 3 titles, Viticulture, Aquaculture, and Dairy Industry (anextensive 3 Disk title) aided by Dave Jackson from the Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu with the funding from theMOE which was to be used in their lending library. Unfortunately, the MOE pulled their funding, meaningThe Film Archive of New Zealand had to close an enormously successful DVD Library in April. HATA hasbeen able to secure 2 copies of each of these DVD’s to lend out to their members. This will be a loanservice where HATA member schools can loan the DVD’s to show their classes. A questionnaire will beprovided to fill out for feedback for The Film Archive. We would like a 3 week turn around on the DVDs. Allthe clips on the DVD’s have been taken from programmes and advertisements from TV New Zealand over last 50 years. Below are brief overview of the contents. More detailed contents of each of the DVD’s havebeen attached to this newsletter or attached to the email that this newsletter was sent out in. Check out thecontent pdfs and you'll see how extensive they are. If you are wanting to loan one or all of these DVDs,please let Kerry know via email( james.allen@clear.net.nz), which DVD that you are wanting and the address that you would like it sent to. We hope that you find them useful.

Brief overview of the Dairy Industry:

Part of a new series of compiled material on New Zealand Resources aimed at supporting learningexperiences in Geography, Agriculture and Horticulture and region specific studies.

Part One: History

Looking at the history and the development phases of New Zealand’s dairy industry from its earliest phasesto the major industry shakeup in the 1980s. This includes documentary historical overview and a collection of historical footage that includes: early government footage; NZ Milk Board footage; examples from early1980s Country Calendar; and some must see 1960-1990 television commercials.

Part Two: The Modern Industry

An overview of the modern industry including: local and boutique supply; breeding and genetics; pasture andfeed; animal health and milking; organics; and research.

Part Three: Marketing and Industry Structure

Careers and farm ownership: sharemilking, variable (equity, lease etc.) ownership, Māori ownershipstructures.Industry structure: Westland Milk Company, localised operations, Fonterra. Economic returns - the 2007 and2008 payouts and ramifications.International trade: dairy exports and Europe 1984, The EEC 1991, DOHA 2005, WTO 2005, Trade and theEU 2006, US export subsidies 2009.Environmental Issues: Canterbury irrigation; environmental planting; Environmental Report 2004; Fish &Game versus the Dairy Industry; Charlie Pederson versus the Greenies; Climate Tax 2006; water catchmentpriorities; Fonterra after the Melamine fiasco; Greenpeace and the palm kernel debate; Dairy’s public imageand TV advertising 2009.

Brief overview of the Aquaculture Industry:

This title looks at the history and the development phases of New Zealand’s aquaculture industry: the pre-farming industry with oysters and lobster, and public collection of paua and mussels; early farmingexperimentation and consolidation in the 80s; the modern industry in the 90 and 2000s – mussels, oysters,paua, hapuka and kingfish; industry issues – the seabed and foreshore legislation, allocations & customaryrights, red tape & industry expansion, environmental concerns.