I'm furious about my yr 11s French exam (external...)

French teachers nationwide are mobilising to complain about a "shocking" NCEA exam that they say contained errors, bizarre references to elderly women and Pablo Picasso, and convoluted questions.
Dozens of French teachers are complaining to the New Zealand Qualifications Authority about the NCEA level 1 exam, expressing their dismay at the content of a paper they say was at least two years above the year 11 standard.
But the authority says candidates and teachers should expect challenging material, without which excellent pupils would be unable to demonstrate their skills.
In letters of complaint compiled by the Association of French Teachers and seen by The Dominion Post yesterday, one teacher asked NZQA if it was trying to "demolish an entire subject via a nasty exam".
"What kind of sadist could get away with setting an exam like this?" asked another teacher on the association's forum, which attracted more than 70 comments in the aftermath of Thursday's exam last week.
NZQA confirmed that, of 13 official complaints it had received about NCEA exams so far, five were about the French exam.
Paraparaumu College principal Richard Campbell said the school would complain, after reports that pupils were upset and demoralised.
Teachers were given the exam paper to read half an hour before the test, to familiarise themselves with an oral section that had to be read out for transcription. When teachers realised the exam contained mistakes, they rang NZQA – and were advised by the authority to continue, he said.
As well as containing mistakes, the section put many questions in a context that he said was "completely irrelevant" to 15 and 16-year-olds, such as a scenario involving a missing elderly woman, and the art of Pablo Picasso.
"We're absolutely disappointed with what has happened. The kids would have been confused and scared by it and there's going to have to be some sorting out [by NZQA]."
Wellington East Girls' College head of languages Gillies Marguier said the exam was totally different from the seven years of exam papers his pupils had studied.
"They are quite confusing questions, the language is very different, there's more vocabulary ... It was basically very upsetting for the girls. It was quite shocking."
New Zealand Association of Language Teachers French adviser Ruth Bourchier said the exam would damage pupils' desire to continue studying the language. "When they are confronted by something like that ... it's too hard, they will go and do something else."
NZQA deputy chief executive Bali Haque said the paper was still at the beginning of the marking process, but early indications were that pupils were coping well. However, NZQA would investigate any issues.
Apart from the five complaints about the French exam, it had also received five about sign language for deaf pupils and three about fees.
- The Dominion Post

Friends!

Don't be frightened... we are looking like this because we had lots of fun! And I get the irony of me telling Megane not to post pictures of herself in her PJS etc on the internet and here I am doing it... but we had such a good time with our friends from Ashvegas over Stake Conference weekend that I just had to post a picture... and this was the only one I have where we are all looking towards the camera. *the shame!*

Progress chez Dad

And whose cutie little 2yr old footprints are there beside the water feature? Megane's :)

(the signs say "Danger! Do not enter your property", yer, whatevs...

The insurance/EQC people aren't dumb... the only way to avoid having people sob over the destruction of their homes and possessions is to *drag out the process over 14 months* so it feels like an occasion to REJOICE when you are finally confronted with a bulldozer and an empty section.

Note to aforementioned insurance and EQC people... "please let me be next. The cracks are losing their novelty value as is the wonky driveway and 40% working electricity"

PS the Historic Society came and looked around for 2 days and found a packet of cigarettes and a newspaper from 1945, and that's it. Phew! No Moa bones! Let the rebuilding begin!

Future All Black meets his coach...

I'm not sure where he met him, but Seb bumped into Steve Hansen - probably future coach of the ABs! (And Seb, don't think I didn't notice you are wearing my favourite winter running top under that school sports top!)

Megane strikes again... Cup Cake Queen

Look closely... it was Dom's turn to take morning tea into work - and this weekend is Show Weekend (for non-Christchurch people, The Show is the Agricultural and Pastoral show... and the Cup Races (horses) are a big feature... lots of people dress up and go to the races a la the Melbourne Cup)... so she themed them :)

Meg the Cake Queen

Megane and the other girls in her class (yes, all 4 of them) went to a dance the other day. Aren't they pretty!?

And Meg (who loves cake decorating) made this chocolate cake for a school bake sale. You can't tell by my shonky photography but it is perfectly "square"... this picture was made from an awesome stencil kit that I got given. Megane fell in love with it at first sight, and the morning after I got it she got up earlier than usual and practiced using it/them... on the navy blue kitchen counter :) She was very trusting and let Sebastien hold it in the car on the way to school (she had a lap full of amazing cupcakes) and of course he had to try to shake it and blow on it to make the stenciled icing sugar move around. BROTHERS.

The new Pop Up Mall in the center of the "city"

The other day I decided to go for a walk into the center of town to see the new Pop Up mall (they have built a "mall" out of refurbished train containers where the big fancy mall in town used to be. They want to make sure that Christchurch residents don't totally get out of the habit of coming into the CBD etc. So, you drive in, park on the outskirts of the city and then walk into what used to be Cashel Mall. Ballantynes department store is on one end, and the Bridge of Rememberance is still standing at the other end (miracle). Here is a picture of my kids school as I walk away from it... You can see the church (which survived because it is wooden) and the old buildings (which are not in use as they are falling down)... St Michael's school is the oldest in Christchurch.

This is 2 doors down from their school... you walk thru a car yard (you can see it in the above picture) and then there is this... which is still a very normal sight.

Next door to the rubble is the new Centeral City Bus Exchange. This is where my children go to get the bus home (on the odd day where I can't pick them up) It is where the Kathmandu shop was, on Litchfield St. As you can see, they have made a waiting room, ticket selling place, and toilets - out of old train containers... Cars cannot drive down Litchfield Street - currently only buses can turn from Durham St North into this area... so the other other vehicules near here are cranes, bulldozers, police cars and demolition removal trucks...

And this gives you a good idea of what the Pop Up mall is made of. Train containers... stacked on top of each other... with ramps for access, and if you look below you will see the side walls have been removed and replaced with "shop front windows". It's pretty clever really. A good example of Kiwi Inginuity (especially since we see these same containers all over town propping up cliffs, buildings, huge heaps of rubble... and in the case of my children's school - they are placed beside the buildings and used as tunnels so the children can access the building without fear of masonary falling on their heads.

As you can see they have cute-ified it with plantings (they are not weeds, they are native NZ grasses and flax, thank you very much) and paving stones...

It's quite classy... and glassy..... Pity you have no idea where you are. There is nothing around you but these things, and you can't tell you are near the Cathedral or anything else... It's totally weird how you have no clue where you are and then you see the Ballantynes buildings and it is like "eh? what is that doing here???"

Those buildings in the background will be gone soon... Here's a view of how they are creating advertising space.

And just another shot so you can see how big it is. There has to be about 70 shops... Oh Sam, Johnston's Grocery is here. It looks weird because it is all light and airy and the shelves only have a few products on them (no fear of instant death by a can of imported British Baked Beans ever again) xxxx

PS I quite like it. I hope that they leave at least a part of it behind when they rebuild the city. This is the new Christchurch... Oh and the cathedral was issued a 10 demolition warning this week. They wanted to save parts of it and have it included in the new building but CERA (govt. department) as decided otherwise it seems....


I'm not sure you can see what is going on here... but they are "building" another train container into a shop, and the building next to it is all trussed up in case of more earthquakes.

See, I told you Johnstons is nothing like it used to be. I took this picture inside the shop. I was going to take a picture of the shop owner but I didn't want to get into trouble... just pretend his is in this photo

The outside looks normal, the inside is...... different. Kind of empty and like a warehouse. But it will come back to it's Nana-loved former glory.