Top Teachers

 T's career was on the ascendant. She was the first primary school teacher to be sponsored to go on an important research trip to Canada, and was taking Whaea Caryn as her guide and interpreter. Teaching gave her wings, and she was going to use them. The other teachers considered calling her 'Principal'  'Princessipal' 'Headmistress' 'Mother T' but she simply asked them to call her TT which stood for 'Top Teacher'. 

She booked her flights during the school holidays through the laptop that she kept hidden away in the cupboard. She knew if she left it out some of the junior children would either sit on it or open it up and start mashing the keys, or try to login into you-tube and watch toy advertisements. 

Whaea Caryn was more than happy to be tagging along, to return to Saskatchewan, the land of her birth, or at least to be flying over it. At the airport checkin the airport staff ushered them both on to the flight. Have you had your quarantine and your flu shots? Yes and yes.

TT was excited. She had messaged Whaea Caryn the night before on what to pack.  What can I expect in the land of the long white snow?

Whaea Caryn thought for a bit. You'll need several layers of puffy jackets, pants, snow boots, and scarf. And mittens. 

TTs suitcase wasn't able to fit these items. She figured she might wear them on the plane, but Whaea Caryn said if she did that she won't be able to fit in the seats. She said it was best to buy them at the airport when they landed.

Oh ok. Well maybe I should wear something that shows everyone where I come from. I am proud to be TT of Ranui School. 

Whaea Caryn observed drily, we could just go wearing the school uniform. 

Excellent idea, Whaea Caryn. 

So they boarded the plane wearing the school florescent vests which had their names on the back, and they looked so important that the air hostesses upgraded them to sit behind the pilot in the special cabin near the emergency hatch. You both look like you know First Aid, said the hostess.  

We're teachers, said TT smiling, and popped a barley sugar in her mouth. 

The Teaching Centre

T's new inquiry topic for the term was 'Sugar, where does it come from?' after one child asked the question 'What is Diabetes? ' . The tiny teddies and tim tams were having their effect. T thought this was  the perfect opportunity to announce a class trip to Canada because she had found out that sugar came from Maple trees in Canada. Whaea Caryn was certain it was, and everyone knew that Whaea Caryn would not tell a lie. 

Unfortunately not everyone could go. Whaea Caryn's air points was only enough for maybe one or two teachers, and while parental permission was sought, nobody would gave their consent for their child to go to Canada on a research mission.  Pak n' Save, yes, but not Canada. 

T had to decide whether to go herself on behalf of everyone else. For research purposes. It was very important for the children to have a responsible adult doing their research for them, in case they got it wrong, and sugar was NOT from Canada after all, they would have wasted a trip. 

On paper, it looked good and ticked all the boxes. Canada was where a vital ingredient for Diabetics came from, it was in the North East, which they were all teaching towards, apparently it DOES have bears, which were basically the prototypes for tiny teddies, and it was on T's bucket list. 

T filled out a RAMs form to check all the hazards of going and quickly submitted it for approval. This was going to be a huge learning curve for her and she was certain it would be exponentially off the charts to the North East. 

Library Wishlist 12

 The Fairy Godmother of all library wishlists waved her magic wand over all the libraries in the Land of the Long White Cloud. She had heard all their prayers (or rather, read all the suggestions in the suggestions box) and had the authority granted by the Powers That Be to grant every wish. 

Librarians woke up to find that all their wishes had been granted and their libraries transformed overnight. 

At Ranui, a wild jungle had emerged and tamariki were delighted to find that the green gorilla had NOT eaten their librarian after all. She was found up in one of the acoustic trees eating bananagrams, and the library now had several reading hammocks and swing chairs where lucky readers could relax and read at the same time. What a novel idea.

There was also a wild robot who went round checking everyone's books while vaccuming the carpet. The carpet was now soft and spongy, and in some places, even bouncy. Because of this, no shoes were allowed in the library, special library bunny slippers had to be worn. 

At morning tea (now renamed yum cha) and lunch time (kai time) the Yum Cha book restaurant operated, with trolley service and a la carte menu. At other times you were allowed book snacks/browsing/grazing whenever you wanted. You rang a bell, and a librarian would come to you with books or her read aloud function, meaning if you had your hand stamped she would read out loud with you. 

There was now a  book carousel with a constantly rotating book display, and a great glass elevator, which took you to new reading heights. Mushroom chairs in different colours had popped up from the floor, and there were now reading lamps in different colours. There was a book-o-matic machine that when you typed in your request, it spat out a book although every once in a while it might give you slime. 

More puppets joined the library, in fact, all the storybook characters were there,  Goldilocks, the three bears, the three little pigs,  the pigeon, Gerald, Piggy, Wally,  Wonky Donkey, Paddington, Hairy Maclary and Slinky Malinki. Even all the toys out of Toy story. The library had come to life.

******

T also woke up that morning and found 'her' room had turned back into a library and her Tim Tams and Tiny Teddy Trolley had been moved back into the staffroom which was now called the Teaching Centre. It now had desks for each teacher and a seating plan, and the teachers all had to wear uniforms as well, and put their hands up if they wanted to go to the toilet. 

There was a big map on the wall with a big arrow on it pointing to the North East. Whaea Caryn said that's where I'm from, Canada. I'm so glad that we are going to teach there as that's where all the best teachers come from. T said that's right Whaea Caryn, and all of you now have puffy jackets with your names on the back so you have no excuse. Now let's get to work. 

T loved teaching during the school holidays. It was the only then when her teachers had time to learn anything new. After saying a karakia for winds to blow from the North East, the teachers practiced their pepeha. It was important to know where they came from, in case they lost their passports in Canada. 

Library wishlist 11

 Mr Muggs! Fancy seeing you and Pablo here, at the Warehouse! Said S, who was considering buying some squishmallows for her new library. The cat and mouse duo had crossed the stream over into Henderson, but they needed important food supplies first. The Warehouse was the easiest place to find them, and they knew they would not be chased out of the Warehouse, where it was stated that EVERYONE gets a bargain. Pak N' Save was too risky, Mr Muggs feared his tail would get run over by all the rogue shopping trolleys. 

Mr Muggs of course had headed straight for the pet section, where there were cans of Fancy Feast, while Pablo wondered if the Warehouse now sold cheese. They did, but it was in the form of Twisties.

Pablo had hastily scrawled a note for S on the back of a receipt. It had Tiny Teddies and Tim Tams that T had bought for her room. It was a considerable part of the school budget. S read Pablo's scrawl -  Teacher Strike this Thursday. 

S noted that she was not a teacher and so this did not apply to her. Now I heard through the grapevine, and is it true, that Ranui School was closed for an entire week due to floods and no power? You can tell me, it's all water under the bridge anyway.

Mr Muggs flicked his tail. Yes.

I thought so. 

The teachers are  desperate and running low on librarians. Now they were striking, who was going to teach the children? The teachers couldn't be there, so the children suggested they go to school anyway and hang out in the library to read  the books all day.

T did not approve of this anti-teacher behaviour but there was nothing she could do to stop the teachers strike, unless...she became the librarian herself and trained all the children to become her library assistants.  

How she thought of this clever idea she did not know, but one of her Year 6 girls who now ruled the school, was hinting that if there was no more librarian since S got eaten by the Green Gorilla SHE would be the Head librarian and in charge.

And T couldn't have that. 

Library Wishlist (10)

 Mr Muggs jumped up on the last remaining bookshelves hidden behind a long bank of ipads and tv screens and climbed up the hoya plant to the window where he could just about squeeze through the gap. Pablo, who was nimble and sprightlier, asked Mr Muggs why he couldn't just go through new door in the Whanau room, it was open right next to the new kitchen sink.

Mr Muggs said he wanted to create a diversion, and then accidentally knocked a pot plant over, which landed on a computer, smashing the screen. Whoops. 

Goodbye T's room! Mr Mugg meowed as he left the mess for the tiny teddies to clean up. T had them all trained now as part of her dustbusting campaign and had issued all the children with little dustpans and brooms to sweep up crumbs, as she'd removed the carpet she thought was 'too green' and the shaggy library rugs so that the children had only hard concrete to sit on for the time being, apart from the blue plastic prison chairs. 

Pablo ran after Mr Muggs who followed the dirt bike track across the school field to freedom. Before them loomed the Ranui Community Garden, which they heard was where S had trained in horticulture. Isn't the Pataka Korero in the other direction? He called after Mr Muggs. 

But Mr Muggs wasn't really listening because he had seen some monarch butterflies and wanted to chase them.  

Library Wishlist (part 9)

 Where does S live? Maybe she's still at home and just forgot to come back to the library suggested Pablo the mouse.

Mr Muggs had no idea where S lived. Supposedly she lived somewhere, but he knew she didn't live in the North East, because she wasn't a teacher. T was now teaching up a storm and had already given out ten tiny teddies to ten tamariki who all said she was the best teacher ever. 

Perhaps she went to the Ranui Pataka Korero? Even though there was a slim chance she would be there, wasn't she a borrower there and would need to return her books eventually?

Pablo racked his nano brain and saw a map on the wall of the library in the reference section. T had completely forgotten about this part of the library in her room makeover because 'everything was online'. So she had left it as it was behind long bank of new computers and ipads that were left charging up all the electricity bills.   Look Mr Muggs this might tell us where she lives. 

Sure enough on the map of West Auckland there was a circle where S had helpfully written her Tuku Iho where she claimed she was descended from Heaven and just living temporarily in Henderson with her parents, who were all the way from Maungawhau (Mt Eden) and Hong Kong. Henderson was the next suburb over from Ranui. They would have to cross the stream. Helpfully there was a bridge over the troubled water. 

Are you sure she didn't go dumpster diving Pablo? Perhaps she was rescuing all the trolleys from Pak n' Save for books now that T has taken back her green trolley. 

I don't think so, T just said that but I'm sure S is too smart to be eaten by the Green Gorilla. 

Well, I'm still hungry for Fancy Feast Pizza, I can't live on Tiny Teddies. That's dog food! 

I agree. Let's go. 

What about the Lucky Pig?

The Lucky Pig will eat anything. 

Library wishlist (part 8)

 It was the first day back at school, or rather, the 8th day back at school for T as she had got there early to change all the H words to T words now that Principal H was no longer there. So instead of 'Happy, Healthy, Harmonious and High Achieving' T changed these to Trials, Tribulations, Tests and Tiny Teddies. She thought about using Tim Tams but decided that no, she would keep the Tim Tams for the teachers and just use the Tiny Teddies for the little people. 

Now there would be no excuse for not knowing alliteration and instead of pizza rewards for reading seven books that S did every week, T was going to now be the most popular teacher in school with her Tiny Teddy reward scheme. 

T loaded up her trolley with the Tiny Teddies in her tote trays ready to give out as a reward to anyone who told her she was the best teacher ever. T's room was now ready and the bell was about to ring. 

Whaea, where's S? 

She noticed a large year 6 kid walk in with a confused expression on his face. He was wearing the correct uniform, yes, but it now seemed too small for him and he was nearly bursting at the seams. He looked around. 

Whaea, what happened to the library? How come there's no books? 

T smiled. She pointed at the new decal. It said T's room.

It changed??

T nodded. 

But where's S? I'm the library monitor. I get to be in charge this year. And he puffed out his chest, to show he was ready for his library badge. 

I'm sorry but S went dumpster diving at the end of the year and nobody has seen her since. 

The boy gasped. The Green Gorilla ate her??