Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday? XXIV November MMVIII
Staff Solidarity – Got half an hour to spare?
T
he number 10.
An even natural number that follows 9 and precedes 11 and is the base of our number system.
It’s the atomic number of Neon and the number of space-time dimensions in some superstring theories.
It’s the number of cents in a US dime and it’s the number of wickets required to be taken by the bowling side
for the batting side to be bowled out in cricket.
10AD was a Wednesday on the Julian calendar and is when Ovid, a Roman poet completes Epistulae ex Ponto
describing the sadness of banishment.
It’s the number of legs a decapod crustacean has and in tarot numerology, the number 10 represents the
ending of one cycle and the beginning of another.
That was 10 facts for you about the number 10 and this is Staff Solidarity’s bumper issue number 10!
Everyday is Earth Day!
“The production of a kilogram of beef is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions and other
pollution than driving for 3 hours while leaving all the lights on back home.”
-www.newscientist.com, 18/07/07, Issue 2613.
That is just one more reason why we should eat a little (just a little) less meat.
Vegetables and fruits are great and growing your own is even better. It’s one of the more healthier and
environmentally-friendly ways of putting land to use, don’t you think?
Website of the Week
http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/basics/techniques/growfruitandveg_index.shtml
This BBC gardening website is a wealth of knowledge on building your very own vegetable garden. The
page I have linked above will give you techniques and tips to grow over 30 different fruit and vegetables
from carrots to tomatoes. Just click on your chosen fruit or vege and it’ll tell you where to do it, how to
do it and what you’ll need.
Exploring the site will lead you to extra information such as growing in different climates and weathers.
Remember to look out for those ‘Read more about this topic’ buttons which you can click for additional
information.
It’s November (well it was at the time of writing)! The following fruits and vegetables should be in season so
look out for them:
 Kumara
 Artichokes
 Snow peas
 Asparagus
 Cucumbers
 Broccoli
 Radishes
 Cabbage
 Garlic
 Carrots
 And more….
 Cauliflower
 Courgettes
Want to know which vegetables are in season, or want to know when to look out for your favourite greens?
Check out this Vegetable Availability chart at http://www.vegetables.co.nz/resources/availabilitychart.pdf
The humble apple.
It’s 95% carbohydrates, has an estimated glycemic load of 3 and is very low in saturated fat, cholesterol and
sodium. You can do so much with an apple and here’s just one way you can deal with them:
Apple burgers
Credit to http://www.theveggietable.com/recipes/appleburgers.html
Yield: 4-6 patties.
Ingredients: 2 apples, grated.
1 cup of onions, minced.
2 cups of breadcrumbs.
1 green pepper, seeded and chopped.
1 tablespoon of fresh ginger, minced.
2 cups of rice, cooked.
6 tablespoons of rolled oats, grounded.
½ teaspoon of salt.
Black pepper.
1-2 tablespoons of vegetable oil.
Method:
Squeeze some of the juice out of the apples, then place in bowl with onions, bread crumbs, green pepper,
ginger, rice, 3 T oats, salt, and pepper. Mix well.
Heat the oil in the frying pan, over medium heat.
Shape mixture into patties, adding more bread crumbs if necessary. Coat with remaining 3 T of oats.
Pan Fry/Sizzle/Whatever you like to do in 1 T oil over medium heat until golden brown, 2-3 minutes per side.
Wil says: Lightly brown a couple of your favourite burger buns (or just leave them how they are) and serve it
with your apple patty between said buns. Or add the usual burger salad such as lettuce and tomato and your
usual burger condiments. Have fun!
Okay, so I haven’t exactly tried out this recipe but I thought it sounded pretty decent. Give it a go and get back
to me on how it went. I take no responsibility if it turns out horribly, horribly wrong. Enjoy.
Note to staff: The seniors are out for another year and the last term of school is slowly coming down to a
close. You’ve probably accumulated a years worth of hand outs, photocopies, work sheets, documents,
permission slips and detention slips which you either want to file away or never look at ever again. If you’re
going to throw them out remember to recycle the paper!
Paper that has plastic or wax on it and paper that is shredded generally cannot be recycled as shredded paper
will clog up the materials recycling facilities. In the house hold, shredded paper can be used in the garden as
mulch but if you have a whole lot (a gigantic whole lot) then you’ll need to contact a private collector.
Northcote College really has had a great few years in the environmental scene. In past years
Northcote College has sent teams to two Youth Jam conferences, represented New Zealand
in the International Youth Coastal Conference in Australia, earned their Silver Enviroschools’
award, been one of only three schools nationwide to be selected to trial the BRANZ solar
wall project, planted over 1500 native trees on school grounds, got selected to pilot 16
photovoltaic solar panels from Genesis Energy, and a whole lot more.
Northcote College has been a great school to work with. I couldn’t have been a student in a
better school that embraced eco-friendliness and practicality. The support from both staff
and students has been overwhelmingly positive.
I haven’t always been the big greeny environmental rep. I only joined Cocoon in 2006 half
way through Year 11. I had the small desire to protect the only planet that we had but wasn’t
sure where to start or what I could even do. I started out with some admin work where I
helped to sort out sponsorship for the waste audit that was held that year. I was writing
letters and making phone calls to local businesses. By the end of that year I had comfortably
found a permanent spot in Cocoon and was ready for 2007 alongside with Mrs Mrkusic’s
awesome bread making skills.
2007 was the year that Envirschool’s had their first Youth Jam youth conference. Northcote
College was keen to participate and we were luckily one of the schools selected to give a
presentation there. So a group of us worked hard on the project that we would give in
Rotorua in October. Some of you will know it as the Energy project where we linked the
electricity blow out at the end of 2006 with our schools fondness for energy drainage and
found it to be the perfect time to introduce the solar panels and a message to the schools to
save a bit of energy.
It was the work and dedication that others saw Northcote College students and staff put into
projects such as for Youth Jam that saw to Northcote College’s emergence into the bigger
environmental picture of both Auckland and New Zealand. Northcote College started to
show signs of becoming North Shore’s success story with teachers of schools from all over
the North Shore and students from the Youth Jam conference commending us from all
around.
All this work was well noticed with some of the research done for the Youth Jam project
being used and quoted in a document published by the Energy Efficiency and Conservation
Authority called ‘Energy-efficient schools: A guide for trustees, principles, teachers,
students, caretakers, and energy managers’ where Northcote College was 1 of 4 schools in
New Zealand to be used as a case study. A recorded video of our Youth Jam presentation
was sent to and screened at the Global Youth Forum on Sustainable Actions at the 8th
International Annual Conference on Liveable Communities which was held in Toronto.
Northcote College was pumped out into New Zealand but also the world.
The years-worth of achievement was all summarised when Northcote College was awarded
their Silver Enviroschools’ Award.
Northcote College’s new found fame lead into 2008 with Northcote College being selected
for the second time to be a presenting school at the 2008 Enviroschools’ Youth Jam. This
years Northcote College Youth Jam team saw old and new faces. Having been there, done
that, bought the t-shirt and sung the song, I decided to give my seat to the “new entries” of
Cocoon giving fresh, new personalities to the 2008 Youth Jam team. They did a wonderful
job in crafting a project based around how Northcote College affects our surrounding water
ways such as the Waiurutoa stream in Kauri Glen. I stood by at the sideline, helping out if
they needed it while I also helped with pulling off a water audit for the project.
The presentation was well received and the team was happy to know that this was the
presentation that they would take to the International Youth Coastal Conference in Australia
where Northcote College was chosen by Enviroschools to attend. The presentation was
edited and altered to fit time constraints and context and an application process was
implemented to prioritise and choose an appropriate team to go to Australia. It was a
wonderful experience for those who got to go, both the ‘newbies’ of Cocoon and those who
had a fair idea of what they were getting themselves into. What’s even more exciting was
that one of the team members, Grace Watson was offered an apprenticeship that invited her
back to Australia to work on the environment.
Northcote College was also 1 of 3 schools in New Zealand to be selected to trial a solar wall
for BRANZ. This green solar wall is attached to the M block wall facing the basketball court
and pumps warm, sustainable air into the adjacent classroom. The whole project included
the installation of a mini weather station which was monitored by several students and a
teacher. It measured parameters such as pressure, temperature, humidity, rainfall etc. The
data was sent off to a BRANZ scientist every week.
Northcote College held a World Environment Week in celebration of World Environment Day
which landed right in the middle of our exam week on June 5th. Northcote College had been
granted $1000 funding from the Ministry for the Environment for this event. Students and
staff of Cocoon had organised lunch time activities which included prizes, a live band to play
and 500 native plants were organised to be planted near the gymnasium. All this made World
Environment Week a great success and photos and a post-event report was sent off to the
Ministry for the Environment as requested.
The things I have mentioned above are the big things that get noticed easily but there were a
great number of smaller, but just as important projects and events going on constantly
around the school such as the no-dig garden, more tree planting and restoration, wai-care
water testing, the small group of Year 10 business class students participating in the BP
challenge at Shepherds Park, students working with Untouched World, form class garden
initiative, the stream session with year 10 science students lead by Ms Tagg, the small team
that represented Northcote College at the AYDEO Discussion Forum and more exciting
things! There are so many people involved that don’t get the recognition they deserve. You
know who you are and I would like to thank you for the great work you’re doing and to keep it
up. I would also like to acknowledge the amazing work the Learning Support Centre does for
the school environment.
In unrelated news, a new subject has appeared in the 2008 NCEA exam timetable – Level 2
Education for Sustainability. That is exciting!
These past few years have been fantastic and the environmental activity has only enhanced
my experience at Northcote College. These experiences have shaped the person that you
see in me. I can tell you that back in 2006 I was a very different student. The experiences
such as Youth Jam, Sir Peter Blake Youth Environment Forum, being in the Auckland YouthDirected Environmental Organisation have taught me invaluable skills, perception, and
awareness while giving me the opportunity to meet awesomely inspiring people.
When I think about the above and what I know, what I’ve done and accomplished and what
I’ve seen these past few years one thing in my head that always makes a point each time is
that it all started on one Thursday lunchtime where I decided to go to a Cocoon meeting. I
believe that Northcote College should be proud in knowing that for me, it was where it all
started.
Staff Solidarity was a success! This idea actually just started out as a small electronic
reminder which was suppose to be a word or two about remembering to switch off
electronics and a joke. When I first started on Staff Solidarity 1 I got a tad carried away.
Crazy spazzing fingers running all over the keyboard. I might as well have been tapping
away at the computer and sending these newsletters to myself. Staff Solidarity became an
outlet for me and what I had to say. I tried very hard to keep the tone of Staff Solidarity
‘neutral’ (highly subjective) and lightly humoured. The first issue showed a very different
side of me, one that is hardly seen by my teachers at school. I wanted to make ecofriendliness approachable and less preachy as it sometimes seems to be whenever one tries
to get a point of view or an opinion across a large audience. Fellow students who find out
about Staff Solidarity find it as an incredibly bizarre concept. A student writing a newsletter
that gets mass-emailed out to staff only? It sounded like a conspiracy. Nonetheless, it’s an
initiative that I’m really proud of and I hoped that the staff of Northcote College looked past
my shocking grammar, terribly dry humour and amateur writing skills and enjoyed Staff
Solidarity as much as I enjoyed writing it.
I’d like to thank Ms Barrie and senior management, Mrs Cannan and the property staff team:
Mr McCurran and Mr Stephens, Monique Zwaan and the awesome team at North Shore City
Council, the Enviroschools team for Youth Jam, Mr Macauley for taking care of the solar wall
weather data, Ms Tagg for being in charge of Wai Care, Mrs Gunman and Mrs Guise for all
the great work they’ve done. I’d like to give a special mention to the staff that have
encouraged and supported me in any way or form. You have no idea how much I appreciate
it and how much it means to me. Also, thanks to anyone else who I shamefully might have
forgotten.
However, last but not least I would like to thank Mrs Mrkusic who has done an outstanding
job from the very beginning. She’s done and provided an endless number of things for
Cocoon with her generosity, dependability and hospitality. She deserves commendation and
a gold star.
This is the last Staff Solidarity for the term. I would really enjoy continuing any sort of
communication with the school and any environmental stories that anyone would like to
surprise me with during my absence from Northcote College. I can be contacted on
wilsonshen@ihug.co.nz.
Thanks for reading and making Staff Solidarity a success!
Wilson Shen