Leibster Blog Award

Good afternoon,


Steve, the fine fellow behind soundofficerscall.blogspot.com has very kindly nominated me for a Liebster Blog Award. Thanks Steve!

The one rule of the award is to pay it forward by nominating five other blogs and letting the blog owners know you've done so by leaving a comment on their respective blogs.

So, who to choose? The blogs that I've selected are those who have relatively small followings, but I think deserve more press. If yours doesn't appear here, please don't take offence...

• Wargamingnz Robin Sutton's eclectic mix of 20mm WW1&2 (Spearhead), 20mm HOTT (yay!) as well as Kings of War, for which I am slooowwwllly building an army the cheapest way possible, 40K and other bits and pieces.
• Jack Sarge's Wargame Ramblings John Sargeson's fantastic source of 20mm WW2 inspiration - and the source of not a small amount of my figs! (E.g. my Naps)
• The Plastic General, Jack's fantastic blog concerning, well, fantasy 20mm - Warmaster, Weird War Two (way cool), 20mm 40K, all very clever stuff.
• Men in Boxes, an interesting wee blog that promotes the used of, well, random toys and such for wargaming.
• Monty's War Gaming. He always has the best film promos!! And is a fellow Crossfire aficionado, which is very cool indeed.

Thanks again Steve,

Nick

Hoplites

Good afternoon,

Just to prove that I haven't given up on my first love, here are some almost completed ancients - Classical Hoplites.




Zvezda.

Nick

All Wriled up...

Good evening,

I have been requested to remove this from my class blog to this one.

Wrong forum and all that.

I'm just back from an emotionally charged union meeting out East where we voted (something like 430 to 8) for a one day strike before the end of the term to protest what this government is doing, and is proposing to do, to the primary education sector in general, and here in Christchurch in particular.

Now before you start freaking out about it, firstly the idea has to be presented to and ratified by the rest of the Christchurch teachers who weren't at the Chisnalwood meeting, and secondly if it's a go (I voted for it), you will get at least 10 days notice.

What's got me upset? The direction that this government is taking primary education, specifically the apparent adoption of the GERM (Global Educational Reform Movement) philosophy of competition within the education sector instead of the co-operative model that has, up until now, held sway.

That is to say, the government wants to run schools using a free-market philosophy...

The GERM	The norm
Competition	Collaboration
"Choice" of where to send your children	Equity, where the quality of the education is the same
Standardisation (one size fits all)	Personalised Learning (meeting the needs of the individual)

These things will adversely affect your children's education.

We were presented with data that showed the drop in academic achievement in maths of the countries that have adopted these proposed measures - the UK, the US, Australia - compared to the achievement data from Finland who are doing the exact opposite of the GERM model.

Let me be clear, this stuff that they want to do has been proven to be ineffective in raising children's achievement - quite the opposite, in fact.

So, if we do go on strike, I for one am not protesting about money (even though they are effectively offering me a small pay cut), it will be to try to safe guard your children's education.

Visit www.standupforkids.org.nz to find out more.

Hoplites in Action!

Good morning,

For those interested in a follow up of that last post, here is a post about Room 2's Hoplites in action.

I'd be the tall one on the end!

Nick

Hoplites Hoplites Everywhere...

...and not a pointy stick!

Good afternoon,

At school we're having a look at ancient civilizations. Sooo...naturally, my class has made (well, an ex-parent has, and a grandparent has given them their handles, and my wife and I gave them their base coats, and another parent along with some senior children made the children's designs' stencils, and some other parents helped them to trace and block paint said designs, and pick out details afterwards with with indelible pen) Hoplite shields.




Another parent made 26 chitons + one for me!


Anyway, I've been thinking a bit about what the children will do with them. Something like this...


...but without the pointy sticks.

Further to this, I found these clips fascinating.






For the technically minded among us.

Courtesy of Nikolas Lloyd. Interestingly, this fellow plays Crossfire too.

Thanks Nikolas,

Nick