Our Intrepid Journey - Principalship 101

 MICHELLE: We had a very early start with a hotel pick-up at 5:30am.  So with blurry eyes, we boarded our flight to Saskatoon.  At the airport Mary and Nardi chatted with some locals on their way back to Saskatoon.  Mary managed to peel an interview out of a Dr she was sitting next to on the plane.  Dr Andrew is from Chinese decent but his schooling as been in Canada.  A very intelligent man who is passionate about the work he does with people in his community.  Mary will fill you in more.  Nardi also had a good chat with a local who spoke a bit about the education system in Canada.  I didn't chat with anyone but spent the flight reading a book:-) Once we arrived and settled in at our hotel we went for a wander.  It was very cold and a bit wet but where the hotel is situated is very pretty...river, clock tower, some very old but very clean buildings.  A few blocks over was a bit of a different story, but more dreary but no different...

Today was a definite highlight for us...a trip to the Grand Canyon, made even more special with the company of Monica.  Whilst on our drive to the canyon I was privileged to podcast with her and listen to the stories of the educational and life journey of her family.  What a journey they have had!   While she spoke of her grandmother being taken as a child by the white man to a boarding school where she was abused and that she ran away from multiple times, I was taken straight to the TV spin-off of Yellowstone called '1923'.  When we see things on TV I often think, nah...it's overly dramatised for the screen, but Monica's story fits right in with the storyline told on that show.  She spoke of the trauma her people suffered over the years through colonisation and I drew many parallels between her people and indigenous people around the world.  I was fascinated to learn about the traditions that had been passed down to her through her ancestors and how s...

After rising to the glorious views of Monument Valley this morning we spent the day on the road to Flagstaff.  On our way we detoured to Chinle on the Navajo reservation to have a korero with Michelle Woody a teacher at Chinle Elementary School.  She teaches reading in grades 5&6.  It was interesting learning about what teachers teach at this level and how they teach it.  I had many questions about the 'standards' which they tested every two weeks and the curriculum.  My wonderings were about how the curriculum and the standards fit together...were they teaching to the test or to the curriculum.  With the many sites and documents she shared I was astounded by the amount of admin work that she did to monitor student's progress and check and recheck standards.  Michelle and her team had an obvious passion for the progress of the children they teach and listening to her speak about her students she obviously knew them and their families very well....

MICHELLE: We checked out of the hotel bright and early to head back to the city for a talanoa with GinaMarie Scarpa.  We met her at the Phoenix Suns merch shop with Ralph who had a busy day ahead as the Suns were in the NBA playoffs and had a home game that night. After saying goodbye to Ralph, we headed to the sound room at GinaMarie's apartment across the road from the Suns stadium and carried out a podcast with her.  Such a fascinating woman and what a privilege it was to chat with her.  GinaMarie is a powerhouse in her organisation NABI (as described in yesterday's blog).  She has many outstanding achievements in her journey of leadership and advocating for young people through sport.  I found GinaMarie inspirational in drive, vision, determination, and humility.  At the end of the podcast she mentions receiving congressional recognition...this is huge and is a tribute to the work she has put in.  This talanoa has been a highlight for me because Gi...

MICHELLE: Today we headed out bright and early to the Ak Chin reservation about an hour out of Phoenix City.  Driving through the res there were definite parallels for me with state housing areas in New Zealand in the 80s.  The houses all looked the same but the land is barren with no grass and very little foliage.  There were elements which reflected hardship and poverty but there was beauty in the rawness of the landscape.  We arrived at the Ak Chin Indian Community Education Centre and Library to meet with Dr Jeff Thornburg, the Education Director, and Stephanie, the Manager of the 'Head Start Programme' (preschool education center promoting native language learning).  Discussion was heavily focussed on the importance of language, identity and culture and the aspirations of language revitalisation and the barriers encountered on the journey of their people in this area.  The conversation was rich, informative and inspiring.  The barriers faced by th...

MICHELLE: Travel Day - Up at the crack of dawn to have breakfast and head to the airport.  Flew to Phoenix Arizona.  After probably the hardest landing I've ever experienced in a plane, we made our way to the car rental place on a sky train.  As we walked to the sky train we met a group of university students who were travelling in their Uni Golf Team to a tournament.  When we asked them about school, they thought the education system served them well and were happy with what's on offer in the States.  On the train we struck up a conversation with a couple who were visiting family from New York.  We asked them about the school system here and what they thought of it - they didn't think much of the system.  Why?  School's not for everyone and benefits some more than others.  By the time we settled into the hotel, we went to dinner and headed home preparing for our up and coming talanoa.  Can't wait to get started! A different city in a ve...

MICHELLE: After a good breakfast we worked a little on the blog and podcast set up.  We ran a dummy talanoa about our purpose behind this trip and what we hoped to take back to our schools.  We practiced recording, listening back to see if the structure of discussion was sharp, to the point - holding interest.  The blog is set up and profiles added...now all we need is a picture. We discussed how were are going to post the podcasts, when we were going to post them, how we would link them to the blog.  There's a lot more to it than just record and post, we need to work on our editing skills. We took a break from set up to head to Universal Studios (can't come to LA and not do a theme park!).  By about the 3rd ride, motion sickness set in so I pretty much spent the rest of our time there "people watching" with Nardi while Mary covered every inch of the park.  I was in awe of the studio tour and how clever film makers are at using a variety of sets and effects...

MICHELLE: The 12 hour flight was a little cramped and we all got some sleep...but not alot.   I was seated next to Greg from Antarctica on his way to Fresno.  He has been on the ice from October last year and works as a telecommunications specialist.  It was fascinating listening to his stories about life on the ice, growing up in New York, school life for him and what inspired him to get into telecommunications. With very little sleep we arrived round midday and after finding our rental car we headed to our hotel where we settled into our rooms and had a quick swim before dinner.  Before we left for dinner, we made our way downstairs in the hotel for 'happy hour' where we got to meet a few of the patrons and get a bit of a feel for the place.  People here are very friendly...maybe a tipping system helps! We decided on a little sight seeing and ventured out to the Santa Monica Pier for dinner at Bubba Gumps - delicious!  After dinner and a walk along t...