Although with celebrity attention ala Jamie Oliver, food in school remains an issue. Students frequently enter classes, lollypop in mouth, sweets in bag, juiced to the limits on sugar. This impairs their ability to concentrate and inevitably ends with head on desk in a sugar low ten minutes later. Combine this with 'energy' or carbonated drinks and students are left unable to learn anything.
This unfortunately is not where it stops. Students then resent them being confiscated and the materials are returned more than likely at the end of class and the cycle begins in the next period with the next teacher.
The methods of combatting this are arriving with parents able (in some schools) to prepay lunches at the school canteen and restrict money available to students for sweets. Other schools are banning sugary foodstuffs from canteens altogether. Health classes are informing students of the impact of high sugar foods. Sadly though, the majority of sugar abuse is in the low ability students, students that are already behind and aren't paying attention anyway. These students have not eaten breakfast, nor have sat at a table with their parents for a meal in a while.
Healthy food, healthy brain, healthy learning.. easy!
Showing posts with label learning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label learning. Show all posts
Monday, July 14, 2008
Sunday, July 13, 2008
The power of a parent
Parents are the single biggest influencer in a child's life. When that influence is used to describe a teacher in negative terms the consequences can be severe.
Johnny goes home and says to mum Mr so-and-so is mean and says I have to hand in my assignment tomorrow. Mum writes a note to the teacher and says Johnny must get an extension. Mummy doesn't care that Johnny has had two weeks to complete it. Johnny doesn't learn that deadlines are important.
Janie has a test today. Janie says to mum that she is sick of school and instead goes shopping with mum. Janie misses the test, misses the session when the test was being explained. Janie misses a day of school which means it will take another four days to catch up. Janie falls further behind.
Jason's behaviour in class is deteriorating. A note is sent home but Jamie says that the teacher is picking on him and describes some of the measures used to keep him in line to mum - that isn't happening to other students. Mum can't imagine her son misbehaving and instantly starts to denigrate the measures used by the teacher directly to the student, blaming the teacher for the poor performance of the student not the behaviour. The student does not analyse their behaviour and continues to disrupt the class. The class loses and Jason loses.
Parental support of teachers is a must for teachers to do their job. There is nothing wrong with questioning teacher performance and behaviour, but we must be very careful not to undermine authority or reinforce poor behaviour in students. A quiet phone call out of earshot of the student followed by a three way conference (teacher-parent-student) can prevent many detrimental situations occurring.
Johnny goes home and says to mum Mr so-and-so is mean and says I have to hand in my assignment tomorrow. Mum writes a note to the teacher and says Johnny must get an extension. Mummy doesn't care that Johnny has had two weeks to complete it. Johnny doesn't learn that deadlines are important.
Janie has a test today. Janie says to mum that she is sick of school and instead goes shopping with mum. Janie misses the test, misses the session when the test was being explained. Janie misses a day of school which means it will take another four days to catch up. Janie falls further behind.
Jason's behaviour in class is deteriorating. A note is sent home but Jamie says that the teacher is picking on him and describes some of the measures used to keep him in line to mum - that isn't happening to other students. Mum can't imagine her son misbehaving and instantly starts to denigrate the measures used by the teacher directly to the student, blaming the teacher for the poor performance of the student not the behaviour. The student does not analyse their behaviour and continues to disrupt the class. The class loses and Jason loses.
Parental support of teachers is a must for teachers to do their job. There is nothing wrong with questioning teacher performance and behaviour, but we must be very careful not to undermine authority or reinforce poor behaviour in students. A quiet phone call out of earshot of the student followed by a three way conference (teacher-parent-student) can prevent many detrimental situations occurring.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Outcomes Based Education
The experience of Outcomes based education in WA has been painful. Before being condemned as a failure in 2008 it raised the ire of many parents and teachers.
The main idea of outcomes based education is that teachers should teach students to actual outcomes. The outcome is important not what is scheduled to be taught. If the student is not ready, teach them something that they are ready for. Students within a class are learning different concepts based on their individual optimal learning requirements.
In an average class of 30 it is not likely that an inexperienced teacher will achieve anything like optimal learning using an Outcomes based method as they are unable to recognise when the learning point has been achieved or what the next logical learning point is. What seems to happen is that teaching of simple concepts is overdone and students start to "loaf" and are not stretched to their utmost. An experienced teacher may manage optimal learning but it takes many years to reach this level of skill. In today's workplace with people job-hopping I would suggest that this level of skill is in short supply and is only getting shorter.
Much of the issues with OBE was hidden from parents through ineffectual and confusing student reporting in "levels" which were so far removed from the traditional ABCD or F that parents could not discern how their students were performing and the information documented for future years became vague and useless.
A great step forward was the introduction of the K-10 Syllabus this year and the return to ABCDE reporting. The document has filled some of the gap for new teachers and the reintroduction of ABCDE has given some ability back to parents to read reports. If this had been done from the beginning and training courses had more content specific outlining correct scaffolding of concepts, much of the fuss about OBE I think would have been avoided.
Oh but for hindsight!
The main idea of outcomes based education is that teachers should teach students to actual outcomes. The outcome is important not what is scheduled to be taught. If the student is not ready, teach them something that they are ready for. Students within a class are learning different concepts based on their individual optimal learning requirements.
In an average class of 30 it is not likely that an inexperienced teacher will achieve anything like optimal learning using an Outcomes based method as they are unable to recognise when the learning point has been achieved or what the next logical learning point is. What seems to happen is that teaching of simple concepts is overdone and students start to "loaf" and are not stretched to their utmost. An experienced teacher may manage optimal learning but it takes many years to reach this level of skill. In today's workplace with people job-hopping I would suggest that this level of skill is in short supply and is only getting shorter.
Much of the issues with OBE was hidden from parents through ineffectual and confusing student reporting in "levels" which were so far removed from the traditional ABCD or F that parents could not discern how their students were performing and the information documented for future years became vague and useless.
A great step forward was the introduction of the K-10 Syllabus this year and the return to ABCDE reporting. The document has filled some of the gap for new teachers and the reintroduction of ABCDE has given some ability back to parents to read reports. If this had been done from the beginning and training courses had more content specific outlining correct scaffolding of concepts, much of the fuss about OBE I think would have been avoided.
Oh but for hindsight!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)