Violence in the workplace

My father was a prison officer, so I have a polarised viewpoint when it comes to the judicial system.  His viewpoint was biased as he noted recidivism in the system.  This has also biased my outlook as once a child enters the judicial system, they become exposed to others in the same system which can normalise behaviours that wouldn't occur otherwise.

So when I was faced with violence in the workplace for the first time in my career where I believed a student intended physical harm to myself, I had to consider what my philosophical viewpoint is regarding children coming to grips with their physicality and using it to influence their environment.  Did this need to be reported to police?

I considered that students have maturing brains, are impulsive and will have limited empathy for others.  I considered that my actions, as administrative staff, sets the tone for the school and my personal philosophy needed to take into account the norms that the school wished to purvey.  I considered societal expectations of what teaching staff were expected to deal with.

Student influences / Context

There are many reasons students become violent.  Frustration, domestic violence, physical abuse, peer interactions, sexual abuse, physical development, trauma, self image, helplessness, modelling/culture, attachment, gender confusion, sexuality, mental health, drug abuse are just a few reasons that spring to mind.  Any one can make a student respond in a violent manner given particular situations.  Schools today are expected to identify issues, manage risk, provide options for counseling and deal with situations that arise when plans put in place fail to adequately cover a violent series of incidents.

School influences

Maintaining a safe workplace is a necessity as a school becomes a melting pot of these issues.  How a school responds to the threat of violence, dictates how safe children and staff feel when in the school.  The ability of a school to predict where a problem may occur and develop a rapport that prevents violent outbursts is critical to the managing of low socio-economic schools experiencing many of the issues identified above. Staff that can do this effectively are rare as each issue tends to demand a different response and the responses can be personally draining and require high levels of support for students and support staff.

The maximum immediate penalty that can be imposed is 10 days of suspension, a period intended to allow time to improve risk plans, allow time to consider actions, organise support for families and support staff and work with students impacted upon by the violence.  Diversion of a student to another location may be attempted, but if different solutions cannot be used, this may only move the violence from one school to another. When a school cannot devise a solution that is likely to succeed (and has likely failed many times with attempted solutions) then, and only then can exclusion be considered - it is a long and arduous process, as it should be, as there is no real solution at the end of it, other than saying school is not for that student.

Philosophical issues

Teachers do not report students to the police often or probably often enough.  There are a few reasons for this, the main one being is that (good) teachers see students for who and what they are, not for their aberrant behaviours.  In most cases these children are the most needy and require our assistance not our condemnation.  I didn't start in education to be a pathway to the judicial system.

The counter is that as a deputy I have a responsibility to provide a safe working environment, with limited resources to deal with violent offenders.  Nothing in the EBA indicates that it is ok for a teacher (as a worker for the Education department) to feel unsafe in their environment.  Physical aggression, intimidation and assault are not ok and need to be seen to be dealt with for the mental health and confidence of staff, students and parents in the school.  In a no tolerance for violence environment, 10 day suspensions for breaches are one part of a two part solution.  Consequence for behaviour together with assistance to prevent similar behaviour in the future is key to success.

Societal Expectations

Schools are being asked to be a one size fits all solution to youth issues, increasingly working with agencies to fill gaps where there are no resources to deal with them.  Finding alternate agencies with capacity in itself requires resources and deviates from the core business of teaching students the curriculum.  In a high care, high expectation environment, schools are required to deal with context and deliver results.

What then?

I still have not in my career referred a student to police for threatening me physically (although I have for student welfare concerns and have restrained students on a number of occasions), I do hope that it remains this way.  I must say though in the past five years, I have gone from feeling that students understand that threatening a teacher is unthinkable to now being a threat becoming relatively commonplace. I am more reliant on personal rapport with students than respect for my position to keep me safe.  Both in junior and senior school  there have been times when I have felt there has been risk I would be assaulted and that dealing with the student situation had a level of risk of physical assault, I may end in being physically hurt.  Although schools are supportive when police reports are made over assaults, teachers like myself remain reluctant to ignore the factors that cause the assault in the first place (listed under student influences above) and fail to make a report - our knowledge of why students behave violently is part of why we are teachers in schools like ours.

Mandatory reporting of assault against staff together as suggested by the union (did I just agree with the union??) with protection from freedom of information may be one solution to measuring the issue and to target higher levels of resourcing to support students with anger management issues.  Blanket FOI would be problematic (as with NAPLAN) as it would target schools attempting to deal with spikes in violence that occur with particular cohorts.  Identifying accurately epicentres of issues, their causes, teachers struggling and then providing schools targeted assistance through existing processes would be a good start.

Violence in schools remains an area of potential conflict between parents, administration and teaching staff, where any action may be viewed as too little or too much, with clear differences in opinion in what is necessary to protect staff in their workplace and students in their high school depending on the perspective of the situation.  

CMS Training

I've just finished CMS training (a little humourous as I rarely teach, more to train others using consistent terms) and although I question the effectiveness of some strategies for teachers that might be struggling to gain control of their classrooms, there is some good information in there.

Today though was the first time I had to question the delivery of the session and the assertion made during the session.  The statement made was that every escalation that led to a student-teacher power struggle was instigated by the teacher.  The explanation given (and predicted before it was given) was that it takes two to have a power struggle and that the adult had the ability not to raise it to that level.

I think the simple counter to that was that there are instances where it is in the interest of the school to ensure that certain standards are publicly kept to, especially around safety, intimidating behaviour and agression towards female staff.  It's not a PC view, and I know that but I'm willing to defend it.

A no tolerance policy towards intimidation and aggression has to be public.  Students cannot be seen to be able to intimidate, physically threaten or assault staff.  Students need to know that there is a line they cannot cross.  Early in my career, maybe ten years ago, I could stand between two fighting out of control students and know that I was safe with punches being thrown over my shoulders.  Today, this simply is not true.   Some of this is to do with the mental health issues now processed by schools rather than other agencies, some due to serious drug use, some have experienced war trauma, some due to fewer role models, parenting by screen and lack of care in homes.  Students are now 18 years+ when they leave school, some refugee students are older than this, are strong enough to challenge multiple members of the male staff at once.

The maximum practical consequence a school has is the 10 day suspension.  Expulsion from a public school is a rare and difficult process.  If students are comfortable with threatening staff this is not a deterrent.  The ramping of consequences in today's high school teacher -> Year leader/Student Services -> Deputy -> Principal can happen in a single incident.

So back to the original problem.  Student verbally abuses a teacher (reprimand by year leader after the child has calmed down). Student verbally abuses a year leader (reprimand by deputy after the child has calmed down).  Student abuses a deputy - there is only one step left before Principal and  the entire bluff that underpins the system is gone.  The student can't be expelled.  Here's the line where the processes of de-escalation have failed - the student has had the opportunity to learn how to identify the triggers leading to being out of control.  Now a harder line needs to be followed and the power struggle needs to be addressed and is fraught with issues.  If the student abuses the deputy, the situation needs to be dealt with there and then. In most cases the deputy has to diffuse or win the power struggle, in many cases with parent assistance.  If this fails, like in real life, police become involved.  After all, it is not ok for anyone to verbally or physically abuse or threaten to physically intimidate anyone, anywhere.  Sometimes it is a very difficult lesson for students to learn.  In life someone is always the boss of you unless you live alone on an island or up a tree somewhere!

Otherwise the child is out of control.  We are teaching the child it is ok to be out of control, if after best efforts to educate the student otherwise, they continue to be out of control.  The deputy in a school stands like police do in the community to ensure safety of the public, staff and students. To suggest that a deputy is wrong to stand for the school in a public exchange where power is involved threatens the fabric of discipline in a school.  A deputy is typically a highly trained and experienced member of staff.  These are people that understand the role they play and do not seek to become involved in behaviour incidents wherever possible as challenging a deputy is clearly different in scope than challenging another member of staff.  It's not advisable to have them dealing with day-to-day incidents as the punishments they hand out are significantly more serious (to deter challenging of deputies) than to other member of staff.  Discipline in a school requires them to be a last resort.  Deputies are better used developing rapport with students before incidents so that they can assist in post incident support of teachers and year leaders than during incidents themselves.

I've spent a fair bit of time explaining incident management to kids, a) that it is appropriate to surrender control to staff members when in school b) that it is important that students understand that they need to follow instructions without question for safety reasons.  a) can take a fair bit of convincing especially for kids that have a level of financial independence or are living independently.  b) is more easily understood by students.  After an incident, explaining to a student why I acted as I did, and appropriate future actions for a student is more important than the incident itself.  A student with limited control of themselves needs to understand where the boundary is, that it must be respected and alternative behaviours that can be learned to deal with undesirable situations.  My limited experience indicates that this approach works with most students.

The line that the teacher is a student's 'boss' is a learned behaviour.  The line that a student has to follow a teacher instruction is a learned behaviour.  The line that a student is respectful to a teacher is a learned behaviour.  The line that physical violence and intimidation is not ok is a learned behaviour.  The line that consequences escalate if student/teacher/Year Leader/Deputy/Principal relationships are not maintained is a learned behaviour.  These need to be taught, we can no longer rely on parents and the community to teach these behaviours to a small proportion of a school.

Getting the Principal involved in a behind the scenes capacity is great as they have a wealth of experience and have met most circumstances before.  Keeping them informed so that there are no surprises is a good idea.  If they have to get involved in a practical sense it is problematic.  They are the last arbiter in a school, if all else fails and they get personally involved, the situation has the potential to escalate, reach media and impact on the public image of the school - especially if they are forced to defend poor staff actions.  If they are placed in a situation where they make the wrong decision, it never looks good.

Intimidation of female staff by male students is also a particular bugbear of mine.  In the way female teachers are generally better at dealing with emotionally fragile students (the ones that need a hug and affection), male students using their physicality to intimidate female staff is an area that male staff can and (I think) should be used where appropriate.  Reinforcement of Australian values towards women, like everything else, is a learned behaviour that is not always modelled in the home.  Where culturally women are not valued - this message can sometimes be delivered by male staff and reinforced by caring female staff.  Not PC I know, but practical.  Some female staff don't want the help or need it, and that needs to be respected to.

I don't think I've explained myself very well, which probably indicates that this requires more thought to work through issues.  I think it is probably influenced by my involvement in corporate life where decisions cost money and failure to follow instructions costs jobs.  I needed staff that could question and develop ideas whilst being able to follow instructions immediately when required.  This made for a healthy and robust environment - something I hope I encourage with processes of escalation and the teaching of respect for authority in our school. 

Mental Health - The unwritten story in WA Education

Mental Health (particularly depression and anxiety) is one of those things that cannot be written about or discussed freely in the staffroom.  It adds a level of complexity to teaching children and a level of complexity to the role of a teacher.  Being labelled with a mental health issue is not something that is easily moved on.  It is an underground issue that can change how a child is perceived and limit the progression and career of a teacher.

2016 was the year of challenges for boys in education.  The fear of leaving school was palpable with little in the way of career opportunities for boys, both in the mining sciences through tertiary study, through building and construction or through manufacturing industries.  The path to a wage or salary position was unclear, as were pathways to white or blue collar work.  Students saw parents in long term unemployment.  The number of mental health raised issues rose in schools, as did neglect and behavioural issues in classes.  The meaning of why students should seek education as a path to employment was blurred as increasingly specialised schooling did not provide the promise of first jobs and the value of a generalised education for the future was not being sold to students that knew better through observations of society and the freedom of information available.  Everyone is an expert in the Facebook and Google age.  The validity of information and truth itself became increasingly questionable and fake everything became the norm, fame the object rather than the result of success and narcissism the new black.  Add to that students that have achieved D/Es in math for their entire schooling that are progressing at a high level but know that they are not at level though mandatory use of Australian Curriculum grading really did not help.  Worryingly recreational drug use appeared to be rising again leading to further mental health issues.

2017 was the year where mental health in teaching staff reached the limit of what could be supported.  The question was not who had mental health challenges, but who didn't, who was still able to cope regardless and who had to be nursed through until they could cope again.  The demands of an education system with limited discipline support, where engagement was the only real answer, where curriculum was alienating large parts of the student cohort, where curriculum modification required teaching three to four years on either side of the curriculum set, where the teacher had to have the answers or be deemed incapable placed additional pressure on teaching and administrative staff.  Tie this together with budget measures increasing class sizes, reducing access to behavioural programmes and diminishing external support (the loss of headspace and other programmes had an effect) was a bit of a tsunami in terms of stress in the classroom.  Supporting and managing staff with emerging or with diagnosed mental health issues is often a thankless task.

The positive is that private and charitable organisations are starting to fill the need but it adds an additional level of management required on an already stressed administrative system.  Where three to four people in a school now manage staffing, timetabling, behaviour, analysis, strategic planning, marketing, performance management, finance, community standing - it is not always clear how they can also focus on academic performance, course counseling and wellbeing of staff and students - leading to a feeling of a tokenistic approach at times.  This was always going to be the challenge of de-centralisation and the independent school system - the same resources to achieve local agendas, a grand but difficult plan to implement.

Engagement of students is always the ultimate aim, in a world where schools drive the wellbeing of the local community, I'm not sure schools are sufficiently resourced, either with adequate trained manpower or financially to achieve societal aims.  With the influx of career teachers and the diminishing number of vocational teachers (who are burning out trying to achieve what previously could be done with a little effort), next year could be a tough one both in dealing with the inevitable turnover that comes from time to time and some tough cohorts that are travelling through the system.

Professional Development - Connect use in 2016

I was asked to do a Connect beginners session (a social networking/LMS/feedback/calendar/submission portal developed by the department) at the local group of high schools PD session.  I said ok, I can train anyone in anything given a little knowledge of the product and how it is applied.  Generally speaking, people like the sessions, will sit through them and try to learn.

Connect though is a funny beast.  It's reasonably mature and is being used by students and teachers. It works now, it's not a bad time to adopt it as long as there is a commitment to keep developing it by the department.  There are issues with it though that have nothing to do with the software.

Firstly, teachers need to understand it does nothing without a commitment to it.  By this I mean if you want it to work, you (as teacher) must clearly define what you want it to do in your classroom.  When I used a similar portal (Edmodo) successfully I had a clear idea of what I wanted it to do for me.  I wanted to extend my reach beyond the classroom to assist students when I was not physically present. 

I had a commitment to Just-in-time intervention, a strategy that requires responses when the student requires it.  This required my solution to evolve as needs arose.  The skill I required as a teacher was to keep these intervention events in the classroom and maximise learning time outside of the classroom.

I started by attempting a flipped classroom and blending my learning with ICT.  Edmodo (like Connect can do) provided the glue between the instructional sessions (designed by me a few lessons in advance on a tablet and posted online or during instructional periods in class on an IWB later posted online) and response sessions.  I made a commitment to my students that I would respond out of hours (if I was available - generally after my kids went to bed) to provide solutions to problems students experienced in attempting classwork.   Simple things I could prompt with short text answers, curly ones I would explore using a graphics tablet and record my voice to show how I explored the question and derived an answer.

Now that they were familiar with the programme I introduced materials from other sources that they could access with new topics, Khan academy topics and mathsonline were great for this.

Then I added quizzes to provide formative feedback, things like exit statements from lessons or readiness percentages for tests and assignments.  As other teachers became aware of the success, they tapped in and started answering questions for my students and I did the same for theirs.  This also provided prompts to revisit topics where confusion reigned.

The great thing about one of the classes is that my time teaching reduced considerably, the students would ask me to sit down and not teach.  I think this was because we managed to plug more holes this way, they started to answer each other's questions more frequently and they were more capable of independently learning, confident that if they became stuck, help was available.

Each step, I explicitly taught to students.  They had to understand what it was for - there was no learning by immersion or osmosis - if they didn't know it was there or how to use it, it might as well have been just another useless page on the internet.

Going back to Connect - this is the sort of thinking that has to sit behind it's use.  Connect is useless if it has not purpose in (or out) of the classroom.  I used all sorts of tricks to get them using a portal initially, but with some perseverance they became the easiest to teach and the highest performing class I have ever had.  I'd like to think what I learned could be used by someone else.  I know at least one person has it figured out and continues to evolve their own solution.

How do I teach that to 60 people?  When I was researching it, my supervisor concluded it was me not the ICT use that was successful.  I'm not sure I agree with him, but enthusiasm for teaching is infectious - it could be the forming of a synergistic class/teacher relationship (with high levels of confidence in their teacher) is the result of ICT usage rather than any benefit derived from the usage itself.

I don't know.  Wish me luck!

2016 and the move to Administration

It's two or so years since my last post and a fair bit has happened.  From Head of Department to Dean of Studies to Deputy Principal of senior school.  It would appear that my career has gone from strength to strength.

Perhaps on paper, but it sure has had its ups and downs.  The hardest part about the transition to administration by far is the loneliness that goes with it.  In a small public high school there are 5-6 administrators, generally dealing with different issues than teaching staff.  First and foremost, you are by necessity distancing yourself from teaching colleagues.  You now have a line to carry, whether you believe in it or not, in order to provide a united front for the school.  Disunity among admin is tantamount to a dysfunctional school.  The vision for the school starts here.  Managing friendships and management is not easy to do, and it is often more practical not to try and draw a line in the sand.  You work long hours with limited contact with anyone other than discipline cases and parents that are highly defensive and in many cases feel powerless to positively change the situation.

Next is the management of staff.  Vocational staff are lofty in their ideals and don't mind how many hours they work, career staff are there to collect a wage in order to provide a livelihood for their families.  Most teachers fall between these two extremes.  The way both staff are managed are completely different and requires a deft touch to massage egos and be mindful of family commitments.  Some are purely burnt out, others ineffectual, others outstanding but require careful stroking.  To be honest this is where I get criticised because personally I believe we are paid a lot to do a job.  The bare minimum expectation is that you do it.  I'm often a little too black and white about this and this causes me trouble.  Stroking staff is not an attribute that I have been required to develop in the past, and I find it mildly distasteful.  We do what we do due to personal motivation, lack the motivation and you are not doing your job.    Unlike with students, motivation has always been the problem of staff themselves.  There is an element of motivating staff required, but when teaching philosophies are so diametrically opposed, reconciling yourself to saying what needs to be said to maintain a status quo rather than dealing with the issue I find difficult.  I feel I am learning, but on this front I appear a slow learner.

Perception is always an issue.  People cannot see what you are doing, and judge you based on how well you do their task.  Sure it may not be the most important task that needs doing, but it is to them.  That student that did not pick up a piece of paper, that is late to class, has not completed homework can be just as important to resolve as the incident where a student has been assaulted.  Talk in the staffroom forgets all the good done and focuses on the current issue as if it was the "thing" wrong with the school.  Sentiment changes and your popularity with staff changes likewise as policy that is implemented is not always popular.  You are rarely judged on how well something is implemented or considered, the only comment I can recall said to me is that "you are a good operator".

The last two years were hard, transitioning from a job that I had done well for some time (as teacher and Head of Mathematics) to a job that was challenging due to staffing constraints (as Head of Math/Science) to a role that I found difficult and was initially ill defined (as Dean of Studies) and now temporarily to Deputy.  In each role I assisted the person moving behind me into it by improving process, building a functional team (or improving a dysfunctional one) and providing a foundation to build upon future success.

Physically and emotionally there has been a toll, one that is still being paid.  The returns from teaching are harder to find away from the classroom - there is a high from teaching that is poorly understood or recognised.  Take that high away and I see little to recommend in the job other than a wage that sends my girls to private schools - somehow from being a vocational teacher, I have become a career administrator.  My task now is to find the reward and vocation in the job in other areas; be that strategic development, staff development, staff managment, timetabling, career counselling, student counselling, curriculum development, marketing, behaviour and risk management or the other ten hats a Deputy or Dean of Studies wears.

2014 Achievements and the IOTY

2014 was a difficult year in that it lacked the proactive measures that we have achieved in previous years.  Loss of a valued staff member and the care and ultimate passing of a loved one resulted in reduced capacity to implement measures that were in the pipeline.

We did achieve a few things though:

- research is done for organising teaching observations in 2015.
- the 6th summer school has been organised and is over subscribed again with 48 students.
- Mathematics Academy classes have run for the 7th year.
- new staff are integrating well and capacity is growing in Math/Science.
- the Fogerty leadership programme helped develop stronger planning measures for the school.
- we're looking at a number of fun behaviour management schemes.
- transition went well and numbers are looking good.
- implementation of the new behaviour management policy.
- implementation of the formal streaming process.
- implementation of the ICT plan and rollout of 200 units of ICT across the school.
- made connections with like minded schools to ensure issues faced with small groups are diminished in 2015.
- plans have been presented to further enhance the mathematics programme through an engineering and public speaking focus in 2015.
- Australian curriculum implementation is progressing well.

The IOTY award for 2014 goes jointly to the teachers union, our beloved premier and the media for repeatedly reporting that we were on the list for closure or amalgamation during year 7 and 8 enrollment times.  A close second goes to the commonwealth for mandating inflexible A-E grading when it is not appropriate for schools with significant delays such as commonly found in low socio-economic schools.

The year that was.

My first year as HOLA, although the end to it was disappointing and difficult, was a successful year from my perspective.  I'm proud of how my team has responded to a demanding environment and how we were able to turn a bad situation with very low morale into a positive one.

From a HOLA perspective I set a few goals at the start of the year.

1. Gain a better understanding of the composition of our admission students (investigation of statistics of transition students, investigation of feeder primary strengths and weaknesses).
2. Develop effective professional development to ensure we are improving our teaching pedagogy (Attended the MAWA conference, training to become regional transition trainer, continuation of informal teacher in-class observations)
3. Commence meaningful performance management in line with AITSL standards (done for maths)
4. Develop written programmes throughout each year group and have ownership of these documents distributed throughout the teaching staff (done for maths, work in progress for Science)
5. Implemented the online marksbook (done for Maths, work in progress for science, training of all staff in usage)
6. Develop learning area plans for Mathematics (completed and operational) and Science (work in progress)
7. Develop skills monitoring and developing solutions for BMIS cases (Learning SIS behaviour module, meeting with parents, discussing solutions with peers, ensuring cases are resolved before being closed, developing pathways to reduce BMIS behaviours.) 
8. Develop the summer school and Mathematics academies into sustainable activities (now managed by non teaching staff and using external tutors.  Students now seeking tutors to solve issues prior to assessment. Creation of demand from students for extension programmes during term breaks.)
9. Mentor teachers in the Math department, assisting them with creating connections within the school

Incidentally I was able to contribute to the school in a number of different ways

1. Part of the course counselling team
2. Developed a personal connection with UWA Aspire to create a sustainable tutoring programme for students at the school
3. Created connections with students that have left the school to assist them with negotiating issues in first year university
4. Contributed as a boardmember of the school, providing insight into the operational aspects, developed a rapport with board members and assisted with developing and monitoring schoolwide goals
5. Assisted with development of the business plan and annual report
6. Distributed year 7 transition statistics and identified the relative strengths of feeder primary schools
7. Assisted with transition programmes at the school for feeder yr 6,7,8 students
8. Participated in leadership programmes to raise the community profile of the school and illustrate the relative strengths of our leadership team
9. Part of the finance committee 
10. Developed the ICT plan for 2014 and gained approval from all departments in the school for its implementation
11. Completed timetabling training
12. Ensured that all classes were in small groups for moderation and assisted teachers locate SGM partners where necessary

Being on 0.7 FTE load, changed how many things I could do achieve as a teacher, but the following occurred:

1. Attended a number of school functions including the river cruise, graduation, graduation dinner and school ball
2. Delivered the 3CD MAT class with a C grade or higher for all students
3. Delivered the 30 strong 8A class to a national curriculum standard gaining a 60% average on their final test
4. Worked with two difficult classes to be better able to handle mainstream class expectations with minimal BMIS implications

A favourite part of my year was watching colleagues succeed, especially those that had embraced some of my teaching philosophies during practicum and started using them in classes.  It's nice to see ideas passed on and embraced by others and be able to recommend them to positions based on what you have seen work.

Best of wishes to all during the festive season.

Disengaged and defiant students

Sometimes you take along hard look at how you are doing things and look again at how it can be improved.  This time of year is traditionally a good time to examine your teaching practices and see if there are things that you can do to improve things.

We're doing performance management at the moment and one of the things I am asking is "what are some of the successes you have had in re-engaging students?"  It's one of those big questions in education as some people are decidedly better at engaging students than others.

The main theme seems to be that there is no one solution for all, but there are solutions that work for pockets of students.

• Low literacy students in mathematics benefit from reduced content and increased opportunities to seek mastery (meaning that these students require opportunities for extra classes to keep up with the mainstream).  They also benefit from alternate grading strategies to ensure motivation remains high (rather than being pounded with E's semester after semester).
• Students like explicit grading.  Putting an A on a paper is a big motivator to try harder.  Sending this information home via note or email can also be a big motivator.
• Developing a rapport with students can hide a wide range of issues with teaching practices.  If a student believes in you, they will try harder regardless of the teaching technique used.
• Deal with the defiant and disengaged students using any help at hand that is available.  Allowing them to potato (sit and hide under the radar) in your classes is not a solution that will re-engage students.
• Set high but realistic expectations.
• Encourage students at every opportunity.  
• Be consistent in your attempts to re-engage students.  Every day is a new day, but repeated and escalating poor performance needs to be dealt with.
• Seek assistance from parents as soon as possible.  Call them in to discuss matters with you.  Send test papers home.
• Engage in discussions about futures of students.  Two of my biggest successes of 2014 related to students that opened up about their career prospects and then helping them see how education could lead them there.  This re-opened dialogue about their behaviour and recreated rapports between the students and teachers.
• Competition is not always a bad thing.  A bit of friendly rivalry can invigorate a stale classroom environment.
• Take time to plan.  A little preparation in advance can give you breathing space that allows you get your head above water when you are drowning.

Another year 12 bunch through.

One hundred thousand pageviews later, Head of Maths/Science and another class delivered into the big world.  They're a great bunch - the inspiration for many articles, and my group of yr 12 students will be missed.

A few anecdotes spring to mind about them..

"I'm sorry that I missed you today... but I'm in ER.. had a few chest pains earlier this afternoon, but it's all ok."

"Hahahahahaaa sir, said we'd give you a heart attack!"

The dark cloud, the cattle wife, the quiet one, the vacant/bright eyes, the two vying for no.1 and both achieving it, the firebrand, the crazy one, the one that missed every period 1, the tryer, the 47-50%ers, the ones that drive you insane and the ones that you would do everything for and they still struggle.

I loved the fact that the girls always dressed as young ladies and rejected "skank" as the dominant dress code.

The student that cried any time I was near in the last week.

There were so many of them that could have dropped out and the ball was picked up by someone to get them through.

The boys that succeeded despite many obstacles in ways we could not have expected.

They are a part of a digital world that we have no part of.  The valedictory speech was inspired by a google search, their music is too loud, they don't know what they want and that's ok - it will all work out.


Students are innately respectful, it may take hindsight sometimes for them to find it.  Now is the time where we let them go, our work done and now they can take their vision of the world and craft it, like we sought to do at their age.  It will take too long and happen so quickly.

It's a hard time of year in that we have to disengage from students we have sought to engage for up to 6 years.  Today, we walk away from each of them and that student-teacher dependancy is gone in a farewell never to return.  Others now take up the banner and mentor them forward.

Congratulations class of 2013.  Stay safe, enjoy life, find ways to do good.  Drop in and say hello sometime.  I'll wear my tie presents with pride remembering a group that were a pleasure to teach and that will change the world.

Index Laws

I was at a presentation yesterday and was shown the following explanation for the "to the power of zero" law.  It used arrays and was a great visual for lower ability students that were unable to grasp the nature of the zero law through subtraction of powers.

It's a short video to help me remember the techniques involved, but thought it might be useful for others.  If I get motivated I will extend it to negative indices.

I can claim no credit for the idea, it was presented by the fantastic Pam Sherrard from Curriculum Support branch, who has collected some great ideas.  If you get a chance to go to her PD as a lower secondary or primary teacher I would highly recommend it - they're good fun.  I've noticed it's not working on my iPad.. I'll work on it.

Big discussions in education

There are some big discussions happening at the moment in education.  Australian Curriculum, standardised testing, year 7 transition, public private partnerships, emerging social issues, CAS calculator implementation.  Each are having a lasting impact on the way education is progressing.

Australian curriculum seems destined to repeat the primary mistakes of OBE in that it is being run to political timeframes, is being introduced without effective assessment policies and guidance is a bit haphazard about its implementation schedule.  The one size fits all model, being implemented across K-12 with missing blocks of understanding scattered throughout each year group indicates that the success will be limited to higher SES schools that already approached the norm expected by the curriculum.  The curriculum does not support our kids and the enforcement of A-E grading / inappropriate curriculum just ensures the feedback reinforces their position in society.  It will take schools to make a stand, change their approach and find innovative ways to smooth the learning curve to help these students succeed.

As schools struggle to reach the norms required they are trying publicly to show they are ready to maintain their competitive position in standardised testing.  Being based on averages, even if a low SES school catered well for its higher achieving kids, this result is hidden within the average.  To counter this effect small schools are putting vast amounts of effort "teaching to the test", something most teachers are vigorously opposed to.  I was hearing an anecdote last night from a friend talking about their kids playing schools and saying,

"And after maths we'll have NAPLAN"

Since when did NAPLAN become a formal class in year 3?  If we want this to stop, we have to stop publishing these figures.  By all means run the tests and direct funding to schools based on test results,  but schools are biasing the test so badly I question its relevancy as a standardisation tool.

Year 7 transition has become a non issue.  In many public schools there aren't any coming to high school.  The delay of the decision to move 7's means that many parents of higher ability students made the decision to send their kids (along with younger siblings) to private schools and get specialist teaching assistance.  The remaining kids in many cases lack support at home - many are the most at risk students.  Public school numbers that were quite stable at 500 are dropping sub 300 which makes smaller metro high schools unviable and there is no indication that this number will bounce in the next 5 years.  Smaller schools can't compete with private education and facilities, lacking a marketing budget or effective USP to drive students to the school.  The end result is that more public schools will close and our education system will become more and more dependent on private education, ultimately further disadvantaging and marginalising low SES students.

With smaller schools and reduced funding through lack of scale to minimise costs, our smaller schools will need to increasingly devote time to managing public/private funding agreements to maintain programmes.  This is a clear diversion from classroom first (as it diverts resources from the classroom), will bias schools towards areas required by industry or areas easy to support through volunteers.  This is an issue in itself as cyclical industries may leave highly at risk generations of kids in geographical areas without employment opportunities, potentially creating ongoing social issues for communities and creating situations for schools where difficult to staff specialist programmes or expensive subjects to teach will become unsupportable.

The marginalisation of the poor is already occurring with accumulations of cultural groups in low SES areas now not integrating with large sections of the community (as those children are in private education), something in the past restricted to exclusion from high SES students in a few independent schools.  Without any real hope of employment due to a lack of social support and poor levels of education, some low SES students are now focused on the quick wins available to them through crime and social loafing, others are facing low self esteem, poor job prospects and mental illness.  The lack of positive peer support is having a clear impact on our communities and schools.  The edges of this is starting to be reported in the media and has the potential to create another drug and alcohol effected generation that will again require large amounts of funding to address.

The last issue is a math issue and one we face right now, but is still related to the issues above.  Math itself is becoming marginalised with the cost of participation rising above the level of a growing number of students within the school.  CAS calculators at $200, revision guides, course costs and texts can account for 50% of year 11/12 fees.  Low participation rates are precluding students from higher study.  Able students are now choosing other subjects with lower costs as families cannot pay the cost (costs that may have been able to be found within the school when numbers of at risk students were lower, access to support bars were set lower and more discretionary funds were available).  A further question exists about whether we need these calculators as they are creating exams that test the corners of courses to create bell curves rather than teaching students solid mathematics.  Many teachers are still struggling with CAS calculator integration and I'm beginning to fall in line with the thought they are not  an effective teaching tool, tablet technology in the classroom (not in assessment) may be a better pathway for our high performing students.  I'm sure issues like this are apparent in other learning areas.

Public education is beginning to fail the students that it is most needed for, to ensure "the fair go" is still a national objective.  I hope we have the courage to address it early, rather than be forced into reactionary measures later.

Screencast on Linear Programming - feasible regions and sensitivity

I do the occasional screencast for my students, sometimes from scratch, other times explaining Saddler examples and then post them on the SLN for watching at home.  They seem popular and get watched by students.  I noticed the video button in blogger and thought I might see if they are useful to anyone else.  They only take about 5 mins to do, have the occasional error in them (which become discussion points in themselves) and have become a fairly positive addition to my available teaching pedagogy.

Here's two on feasible regions and sensitivity that I did the other day.  I have higher res versions available for putting on my IWB.

If anyone is interested, they are done using an iMac, quickTime and ActiveInspire.  They're encoded using the cellular setting for use on smartphones and tablets.

It's not about the aha moment.

This was a realisation this week.  My teaching is no longer about the Aha! moment.  I've come to the realisation that my students now expect an aha! moment any time I teach.   What's more, experience gives you the ability to construct these moments at will.

Teaching has become more can I get past the aha! moment to ensure retention of concepts and develop depth in learning.  Most teaching points can be taught, creating the motivation required to learn for life, rather than learn for the moment is where my teaching is now going and is starting to drive my thinking.

Where the process of huh?->aha!->embedded is used to scaffold new learning, the embedding is more critical as experience in teaching grows.  This is where exam results improve.

I talked with my teaching group this week and was challenged as to why we have exams.  I sat down after the discussion and wrote for nearly an hour as to why I believed they were important.  Being part of the group that re-embedded them in the school I needed to revisit why I thought they were important.

1. It is a part of the school year that provides inertia for the learning process: teach (learning) -> test (for understanding) -> exam (test for retention)
2. It forms a part of the expected scholastic disciplines
3. It prepares them for the pressures of performance
4. It provides reason for rectifying understanding after initial testing
5. It provides summative feedback on student performance
6. It identifies if students can select the correct strategy across a broader range of strategies
7. It is an opportunity for making consistent judgements across classes
8. It is an opportunity to develop revision, calculator usage and note preparing practices in students
9. It is how students are tested in the majority of upper school courses
10. It identifies areas that require reteaching or more attention in future courses of work

I'm a bit sad because whilst students were sitting their exams I created a more exhaustive list, but in my wisdom failed to save it.  Can't win them all.

Reporting Period and Supporting students

Everytime a reporting period goes by we have discussions with parents about how students are travelling.  A recurring theme is the support required by students and whether they are receiving their entitlement of support.

There is a community expectation that students will receive homework.  In most cases homework does not have a return on investment.

If you are a parent, right now you are likely to be having a conniption..... but hear me out - I too was a supporter of homework once but except under some quite specific exceptions I would argue that it is rarely appropriate in a low SES school, increasingly so in upper secondary.

1. Students lack academic support at home to complete homework.
2. The spacing between learning and practice is too short for measurable effect.
3. It takes 10+ minutes out of every lesson to manage effectively.
4. When given it is rarely done well.
5. Repetitive practice based resources reduce motivation for low ability students.
6. It causes unnecessary friction between parents, teachers and students.

There are types of homework that I would encourage:

1. Any form of regular reading
2. Preparation of notes prior to testing
3. Use of engaging online resources
4. Delivery of instructional resources via video
5. Revision resources driven by student inquiry
6. Rote learning of tables, number facts and exact values required for trigonometry
7. Assignment work that is being graded

There is a difference between the two lists.  One has cause and effect (I do this and I benefit from it) and is possible without significant assistance, the other is I do this (stuff I already know) or can't do this (and have no way to get help) and have little in the way of explicit benefit.  Regular homework all too often falls into the latter category.

I have been pleasantly surprised by the response to video instructional resources that I have written as they are universally watched by students.  I can't explain the effect (as they're not mindshatteringly interesting) but they do most closely relate to classroom teaching (as they are closest to teaching practices) and are in their preferred mode of learning.

SLNs have provided additional help with students gaining access to each other to get help with revision materials and access to teaching staff out of hours.  Online tools like mymathsonline and mathsonline also play their part.

That's not to say our students don't study in their own time.  I make myself available three days a week after school for an hour (along with most of my stupendously wonderful staff and support people), and in doing this we ensure students spend in excess of the expected study time.  It's effective, collaborative, targeted and supported.  It's optional (I tell parents to not force students to come if they do not want to - I don't have resources available for behaviour management) and we have had a clear quarter of the students in the school seeking assistance and not resenting it.

Survival

Sometimes teaching is about surviving.  Most teachers have war stories about years when it was difficult.  At the moment is one of those times for me.

There are many reasons for finding a cohort difficult.  Sometimes it's a class that doesn't settle.  Other times it's a student that has behavioural difficulties.  It may be the challenge of finding engaging relevant material.  It could be students that are not performing under test conditions... or the transition to a new curriculum, adjustment to the changing requirements of a new leader.. skilling up to the demands of a new role.  Then you get the flu and it all gets a bit much.

Sometimes it's all of these things. They're the things that get in the way of focussing on the majority of students that just want to do well.   When it gets to that point, my solution has always been to sit and reflect.  500 bits of reflection later, we are here.

The things that get you through are your family, your colleagues and the kids that respect what you do. When these fail, then you know you are in trouble.  Reflection probably is not enough.

I'm hoping this week has been a blip and not an insight into the time leading to reporting.  I love my job, but sometimes think I may have been promoted beyond my ability... I'm a good classroom teacher but an ordinary disciplinarian - I counsel students to death rather than berate them effectively.  

My thought has always been if I can get them to care about themselves, then I have hope.  The problem that I face at the moment, is that many pointy end kids are not reachable and live purely in the moment - with no real idea or fear of consequence. I envy them that a little, as we all know the time where this can be only exists as a child - even my four year old is passing through this stage.  How did it happen that some students are 13 and still struggling with the idea, challenging a system designed purely to help them transition to adulthood?

 Schools are not a quasi correctional facility and are poorly equipped for dealing with students that cannot be managed effectively.   Students now have the ability and authority to disrupt the learning of others - when students reach the don't care/defiance point, there is little left to defend education with.  I think it is an area that requires attention in the public system at least. 

Connect and ICT in schools

Creation of ICT is fraught with problems.  When government seeks to create applications they tend to be ill focused and narrow in their application.  In education ICT has continuously failed to live up to expectations.  IMHO the risk in application development is best left with private enterprise in commercial solutions and the government should take a "best practice" approach, being reasonably ruthless in what they ask for when spending each dollar.

Connect is the next generation of the education department portal, seeking to bring data together for use by students and teachers.  It is a mixed bag of applications seeking to replicate what is already done by commercial and department applications that for the most part are freely available.   I hate to think of the amount of money spent on it.

I think the reason for not using public money is multifold.

1.  Replication of software that already exists freely is illogical
2.  A created solution will lag features available in larger communities where scale can be applied
3.  A small solution does not have access to the required depth of developers and designers
4.  Small projects tend to be lead by programmers and technical capabilities rather than by need of users
5.  Early adopters get burned.  Established applications proven to scale to millions are less likely to fail.
6.  Infrastructure is expensive in closed systems and rarely scales well

The Connect solution is experiencing issues that we viewed today at a presentation promoting its use.

1.  Connect infrastructure is already struggling.  Other solutions use commercial clouds and leverage their infrastructure.  Users of connect are already being asked to restrict their storage or are required to use external servers (such as YouTube).  This is an issue similar to the current email problem where a small storage limit precludes teachers using email as a silo for information.  It seems counterintuitive to say we need a managed private closed solution if we are locating resources (and sending students) to public locations.  We watched Connect struggle under load when trying to log teachers into the system, something that would quickly derail a class if used.  Timeouts were frequent.  Given that this was run in a closed system (within a school) controlled by the department on a day when students were not present does not bode well for the design of the solution.

2.  Connect allows communication directly between students and monitors this through sending multiple emails to teachers.  This is problematic as it creates spam in teachers email and creates a significant monitoring overhead (something overcome by the approach of other solutions).

3. The interface is suboptimal and has not evolved from 90's thinking (even in the presentation style).  The Connect interface is generations behind solutions such as schoology and edmodo (which is expected as Connect is drawing on a much smaller user base of 100 users vs millions of users).  Connect needs to move beyond thinking of itself as a portal and think about being a user's experience (eg. an SLN).  Students do not need to see "Connect" advertising on the landing page, they need to see what they need to know.  If a landing page serves little purpose, put something on it that has purpose, preferably in colours linked to the school (as belonging is a key component in driving usage).  If Connect is seeking to be another SLN and use this to drive usage, then this needs to be the "centre" of thinking, not being a content aggregator.

4.  It does not do anything better than what already exists and appears to seek to copy or relocate features of existing applications (cynically I would suggest to bloat functionality).  There is not a single feature that I could see that was a significant benefit over other already existing solutions (other than they had been aggregated in one place moving administration overhead to teachers).  Many features were being oversold (single login, presentation, RTP integration, notice board functionality, submission of work online, access to the ill organised and predominantly useless resource bank, password changes) and features that are lost were undersold (familiar interfaces, access to wider communities, access across school sectors, marking student work online (a feature that is very unlikely to be implemented but that already exists freely in full workflow form), quizzes, online testing, polling, usage statistics, integration with other learning communities, tablet app integration).  Little of the actual student benefit (social interaction, making work available 24/7, increase in information flow, connectivity to the classroom, collaborative peer support, BYOD device support) or the requirements of successful implementation was discussed (high levels of teacher interaction, high levels of organisation/preparation, ICT support requirements within the school, deadlines for implementation, staged rollouts, student education).

5. Proposed usage is not timely and demonstrates a lack of understanding of student usage. If a student is stuck at home they can call a friend, facebook them, email them, re-read notes, ask a parent, ask a tutor or wait until class the following day.  What they are unlikely to do is log into a portal, navigate to a community, hope that someone sees the message and then wait for a reply.  The response time is too slow for this type of approach.

6. Something is good if it is readily adopted and seen as useful.  I sat and listened to an early adopter claiming that Connect was a good solution.  Once we dug a little further, his actual student adoption with Connect was inconsequential yet he claimed he had great success with equivalent commercial applications (then why change?).  It made me laugh as it reminded me of the letter I received from the department saying I was a frequent user of OTLS (complete BS) and thus was chosen to use Connect.  Saying something definite does not make it true.  What the presenter was really saying was that the commercial solutions was better but if we had to use Connect it was ok and the interface was not unusable like OTLS.  We need to use Connect as it overcomes legal issues relating to student data.  To this I would say a) success is only success if usage can be shown and that compromising by using connect when better solutions exist because of closed system requirements (that cannot remain closed due to infrastructure requirements and costs) is poor reasoning. If we allow the open internet in schools (and we do - check any library at lunch) with only limited filtering,  a commercial solution is viable.

7. Parent involvement is overstated.  If I said to a parent, I will have grades emailed to you they might say great and read the email when I push it to them at a regular interval.  If I say, here is a portal, log in (requiring finding a password) if you wish to check how your student is doing, it is unlikely to be used often (what was my password again?). There is not enough information here for parents to review to make regular use viable.  The same can be said for homework review - this would take a cultural change that is unlikely in the near future.

8.  It is promising more than it is delivering.  It promised better access to SAIS (not available), access to RTP (not available), ability to store resources (but is limited in storage), access to classes (but not all classes were accessible on the day), email attachments to students directly (not available).  The "tell us your wants" and we'll make it happen statement is scarily present implying that direction for the application is poorly defined and lacking direction (flexibility in development screams scope creep and cost blowout in public sector application development).

Many of these reasons disappear once we pass through stages of early adoption.  I just question whether the need for another portal or SLN exists.  I have often been wrong before, but I believe that better solutions only occur if we challenge what is being done.  The challenge for Connect is to become an indispensable tool. It still has some way to go.

Why teach?

Teaching in a relatively hard to teach school seems to be a place to test the mettle of young would-be teachers.  We get a fair amount, they are generally very good and we have to weed out a few.  The first difficult question I ask a wannabe teacher is "Why do you want to teach?"

It's a valid question and one that I still get asked weekly - both by students, friends and acquaintences.   You can predict the failure of a teaching practicum with a fair degree of accuracy with this question.

If the answer is I don't know, or it was all I could do, the motivation to overcome adversity will likely not be there and the student will struggle until they can answer it.

If the answer is I love students, they might make it through, but the "teacher as an entertainer" model better really suit them because teaching for love is a pretty stupid reason that hits a hurdle with the first class that doesn't like you.  You won't be doing what kids want to do most of the time (unless you have thrown the syllabus out the window from a math class) and in classes of 30 it is rare to achieve this.

If the answer is that I love learning or I think I could do a better job than my teachers, then there is hope.  It's not the answer that I'm looking for, but young teachers can get by with either.  One is based in the idea that I can learn to be better (reflective practice) and the second is based on a pre-conceived notion of what not to do.  Strangely enough either of these can work and lead to successful careers in teaching.  I feel for these teachers through, as the end product tends to be unhappiness, as learning is only one component in teaching and competing with a bad memory is hard to sustain.

The answer to my mind is I need to teach.  It is my vocation and my desire, it dominates my thinking and I get a real buzz out of seeing others achieve.  It gives you your connection to your students.  When you find the kid or mature age teaching student that understands that teaching is at its heart a vocation, mentor them, harden them up and find a way to get them through.  The concept is based in a selfless desire,  a fire in the belly that keeps many of us going even when we're battling to get students through and our own personal dilemmas.

Hand in hand with this idea, my grandmother taught me that the gift is in the giving, whenever I feel down, I look for a way to help others.  It's a key element to teaching and ties to teacher motivation.. She also taught me not to be a patsy and that goes together with it.

A more involved question is "why teach in a hard to staff school?"   The elephant in the room is that many will assume you're not good enough to teach elsewhere.  For some it is about ease of access to the rewards of seeing students fly (they've got further to go so it is easier to make happen), for others the ability to right a social wrong, for others the lack of teaching demands and for others it is returning to the community the time put into you.

They're a gutsy choice for young teachers, as they are far from the easy option.  With the right support though it is both rewarding and contributes to society in a way leafy green roles can't.  There is something special about watching a family escape poverty cycles through education.  Low SES schools are not for everyone but are the home for many of us that seek to make a difference.

Ideas vs proven methods

In any organisation my voice will be heard.  I don't fear offering an opinion and over time people learn how to use my opinions effectively.  I'm sure as hell not always right, but can be a good sounding board for ideas.

It always amuses me when someone argues a position and then gets sad when my position moves closer to theirs, undermining their argument.  I'm not as fixed as I should be, although probably more fixed in my ways than when I started teaching.

If someone has a better idea, I try to welcome it and embrace it (it is hard to give up an idea that has taken time to develop).  If someone attacks one of my ideas/ideals/opinions in the spirit it is given, then it is a welcome discussion - it can only create a stronger position (if only to better understand the counter argument).  The only time I really get frustrated is when ideas are attacked purely because of the person that is giving it.  I've been on both sides of this and get frustrated with myself when I catch myself doing it.  A colleague generally taps me on the shoulder to reconsider my position (and if they know me well enough) can snap me out of it.

The ability to offer an idea without fear of reprisal and the ability to develop ideas through dialogue is important to an organisation.  Developing ideas before implementation will increase the chance of success significantly.  Developing ideas in a vacuum can be a frustrating process of reinventing the wheel.

I feel to some degree I am doing this at the moment.  In developing better support for teachers, I am working with teachers with many years more experience - offering an opinion can either scratch wounds, state the obvious or sound naive.  Many of my ideas feel simplistic, to counter this I am actively looking and listening to successful strategies currently being used in our school in other learning areas and in other schools where I have colleagues in similar circumstances.

Creating a Math/Science department is also problematic, as I am trying to bring two teams together and I lack science experience.  Gaining knowledge of the needs and wants of the science team is drawing attention from the math team, also needing help, development and guidance.  I remind myself that I'm 10 weeks into a new job and can only do so much - yet it's obvious I need to do more to get the job done, and new responsibilities are on their way shortly.

I need to keep thinking about what I am doing, and do it better.  It sounds obvious, but if I keep focus on the big picture over time our learning programme will improve further.

End of Term

It hasn't been an easy term with structural projects within the school being navigated whilst teaching programmes needed to continue.  Whilst the process has been traversed as well as it could be, these things are not pleasant to be a part of and finalisation of them such that the focus of driving learning can  be re-established will be a welcome change.

My first term as HoD is now nearly over.  The departmental focus has been implementing resolution processes to ensure that a mutual understanding (teachers and students) of issues and consequences is effected.  The issue is at the heart of teacher morale and having a HoD where responsibility lies seems to be making a difference. The outcome should be that teachers feel better supported and clear boundaries are set for students to work within.

There is an inbuilt conflict built into the HoD role in a small school as it has elements of student services (the "you'll be all right" care team type stuff) and the discipline ("this has gone on long enough, understand the consequences that follow") side.  With struggling students you can be on both sides within short time frames.

Whilst doing the role I have tried to keep development of the teams going, working with teachers to develop skills, encouraging others to demonstrate their leadership capabilities within teams, develop behavioural support structures, identify professional development opportunities and allow staff time to demonstrate skills learned before intervening.  With a challenging group of students, I always seem uncertain that I am doing enough, whilst the image seems to be that I have a lot of time and can be doing more.

The disappointing part is that I have not been able to achieve my core objectives for term 1, the completion of the math learning area plan and implement RTP in math/science.  The learning area plan is incomplete although is evolving in structure to meet the needs of the school, but RTP is mired in the structural change, until classes become settled and administrative capacity available there seems little point to implementation.

There is a always a need for those in leadership positions to lead.  With reduced numbers of L3 positions in the school I am mindful that this is ever more the case.  Morale of staff is sometimes about pointing out the obvious achievements, keeping a focus on learning, identifying the positives, dealing directly with issues, discouraging negative perceptions and generating a culture around sound student achievement.

In the last few weeks in my own classes I have focused on student engagement, developing clear connections for students between assessment outcomes and the need to take ownership of results.  It is evident that students often do not realise the need to utilise resources available, but it is equally evident that they need reasons made explicit to utilise these resources.  One example was a test that students did poorly in - I provided two options for them - attend after school classes voluntarily to improve or I'll make calls to parents and make it involuntary.  Needless to say they were empowered to turn up after school and enjoyed the well planned extension class (well done team!).  It's ideas like this that can keep a group engaged and improving.

Having my computer stolen was devastating both in a loss of trust in my students and organisationally as it is a core element of my teaching.  We had been working on iPad deployment with it, and without it we have had to stop.  It's taken time to register with police and liaise with admin, time that would be better spent on learning programmes.  I'm also disappointed that the work for the 1-1 iPad deployment was discarded for a shared model.  This too has wasted a lot of effort in developing resources and deployment infrastructure.

The structural changes in the school will evolve the idea of HoD at our school and the school will have to decide whether my abilities fits the role.  I'm doing my best to listen and enact changes as I see possible, but I need to recognise I can't be everything to everyone.  It's week 9, and not a time to over think stuff - just execute and recharge over the holidays.

Supporting students after graduation

I have witnessed many wonderful things evolve at our school, but one of the most promising is the development of effective support structures for ex students.  Developing Win-win situations for ex students and the school is very important to make these relationships work for all involved.

When I first arrived six years ago, graduating students often came back to the school and looked a bit lost.  They said hello to teachers that barely remembered their names and I would get the feeling of loss that they would feel, coming back to a place where they were happy and felt safe that was now closed to them.  This loss was heartfelt, as school is a launching pad for these students, a support that after graduation is lost.

Over the next few years we have looked at ways to engage ex-students, provide a level of support going forward and use the skills gained by students in navigating school to assist students within the system.  It's a way of leveraging the goodwill gained during the 'best' times of their lives (though if it truly is the best, I'd be sad as it is a very small part of their lives).

The most obvious way was to encourage tertiary students to help at summer school.  Students entering ATAR make mistakes preparing for the final two years and won't always listen to teachers as to the best method for preparing for one of the most stressful situations in their lives.  By coming to summer school after graduation, they can share their experiences and have clear evidence of how far they have come in comparison to their fellow students.  It's downtime for most students, so it only has minor impact on their commitments.

The recent emerging structure is seeing students come back as paid tutors after school. Students in first and second year university are finding that ICT is decreasing the number of required contact hours and they are now more free to engage in work related activities.  We have found that our graduates are happy to come back and help out in after school programmes for high performing students and tutor.  As effective tutors have typically been very difficult to find, it has been welcome to utilise they students as a resource (and fulfil a need of theirs to both belong and support their income).

A welcome aside is to assist our university bound students complete their courses.  Our success is truly measured in their success and being able to give graduating students effective post-school support at critical times in their university journey may be the difference in completing their courses and failing.  Assistance may be helping them through a first year math course and adapting to a more text orientated learning style with clear language differences than experienced in school.  Support at tertiary institutions that work for a green leafy students, may not work for our headstrong students, who either do not fit in with peers well, or are too headstrong to engage in help structures and typically do not work well in groups.  It takes them time to realise that there are students less intelligent that are completing successfully their courses and that they have something to offer beyond cynicism and self deprecating comments.

I have been pleasantly surprised by the number of students seeking math teaching as a pathway into the workforce.  Having employed two of our mathematics practicum teachers in our team of four and having more on standby means that we have a pool of culturally aware teachers available to develop our mathematics department that can hit the ground running and avoid common issues found with our students.  The fact that some of these are ex-students developing their peers is a whole of community bonus.

Much of this is officially non-core to our mission, but we know that many low-socioeconomic strategies have failed to increase tertiary engagement and effect social change.  Post school programmes tied back to effective in school processes may be a factor that has not been sufficiently considered.

Combined 11/12 courses for Australian Curriculum

One of the surprising successes of the school has been the running of combined classes in 11 and 12.  It has been made clear that SCASA ("the authority") does not want this to continue with Australian Curriculum.  This was stated by teachers at the Swan Schools Conference that are part of math discussion groups with SCASA.

At the moment we can run 1BC / 1DE / 2AB / 2CD / 3AB / 3CD MAT, 3AB 3CD MAS and even PA/PB or 1A courses as needs arise with a high school cohort of 470.  With an even smaller cohort this year, this will need to be reconsidered but is manageable.

We can do this because if we have 10-15 students from yr 11 and 10-12 students from yr 12, we can combine them to make a reasonable sized class (except the end courses 1DE MAT or 3CD MAT or specialist courses 3ABCD which can run at around 10 because of the larger classes).  This structure provides differentiation for our students and has been effective.

If we could not run these combined yr 11/12 classes, specialist courses could not run having a detrimental effect on school marketing as an academic institution.  Furthermore combining year groups has had the surprising effect of exposing yr 11s to students that have adjusted to yr 11/12 workloads providing the level of mentoring that MAG classes always promised (but never really delivered) because the endpoint is actually evident and the drive to work harder has clear reward.  Using this method we have built our 3CD courses to 7-8 students, a respectable 12% of our yr 12 cohort (with MAT class averages over 60% close to state averages).

The school cannot run Australian Curriculum "Focus, Essentials/General, Methods and Specialist yr 11" with class sizes of 10-15 and "Focus, Essentials, Methods and Specialist yr 12" with classes of around 10.  It will not fit within a small school math department staffing profile. It's going from 8 courses with reasonable numbers to 8 courses where the spread of students is not even, requiring additional classes (this is only evident when student cohorts are put to courses during timetabling). Add to this the increased focus on the WACE numeracy test with management of students failing the test in year 10 and then passing the test in year 11 (thus making general course sizes variable), I see issues on the horizon.

Given that a reasonable number of schools are in this predicament due to boundary degradation, half cohorts, yr 7s in private schools, gentrification and a host of local reasons,  this will further degrade the offerings of small public schools, ultimately further reducing their competitiveness.

I hope this is a direction that SCASA will reconsider.

iPad journey

My iPad journey has hit a snag.  I designed a model that sends the iPads home and it's pretty much a foregone conclusion that I won't be allowed to do it.

This means something that was meant to complement classroom activities has become something that dominates preparation time.

Let me explain...

Responsibility
In a 1-1 model, students are responsible for the iPads, tracking usage is relatively simple.  In a classroom model, teachers are responsible.  This means keeping them in locked stores, being aware of which student has and had each iPad at all times, being able to liaise with ICT when misuse happens and identify which student (in which class) had the iPad.  If multiple teachers are involved this rapidly becomes untrackable as are issues with moving between rooms around the school (30 iPads are heavy).

Timing
In a 1-1 model, students take iPads out of their bags and put them back in - no real impact.  In a classroom model, taking them from the store, issuing them to students and counting them back in at the end of the lesson is time consuming.  5-10 minutes is 10-20% of learning time.

Usage
In a 1-1 model, students are trained to do the same thing every lesson with the iPads, they become just another tool like pen and paper.  In a classroom model,  there is a novelty factor, they fiddle with them, it's harder to train them into desired behaviours (like putting them at the top of their desks when doing written work).  Furthermore, each iPad is now being used over multiple year groups with a range of students, increasing the demands for identifying suitable materials than if it was focussed on one student at a particular skill level.  There is little point designing ebooks to put on iPads if they are going to remain in cupboards rather than used in conjunction with homework.  In a classroom model, levels of students have to be catered for if the iPads are to be used effectively.  In a take home model, the iPad can be used more effectively as an intervention tool (where the student does not miss teaching whilst catching up).

Incidental usage
In a 1-1 model, incidental usage is possible.  In a classroom model,  because there is an overhead to allocating the iPads, incidental usage is not as likely - I'm not taking them out for 5 minutes of use, whereas I might let a student that has an iPad do tables practice if they have completed their work if there is one on the corner of their desk..

Maintenance

In a 1-1 model, students are responsible for charging iPads, uploading apps and fixing small issues, along with ICT staff.  In a classroom model, teachers are responsible for identifying issues, finding solutions and liasing with ICT staff.  This should not be underestimated, as anyone that is in charge of a computer lab will recognise.

Retention of work
In a 1-1 model, the work is on the iPad and can be worked on over a number of lessons. In a classroom model, classwork has to be stored on resources linked to students rather than the device and this resource needs to be accessed from multiple devices.  Although this is normally the preferred model, iPads are not well suited to this and workarounds need to be found.  Any type of user authentication will slow down classes as authentication issues reduce available teaching time.

Behavioural incentive
In a 1-1 model, loss of the device is a real behavioural incentive. In a classroom model, it's only lost until the end of a class, a minor inconvenience.

I like using the iPads as mini whiteboards, doing quizzes on topics and giving students instant feedback to how they are doing, having lessons focussed on core numeracy.  We can now video students attempting problems and use it for diagnostics of a range of tasks.. I get all that.. but ultimately...

Conclusion: Poorly suited to classroom mode use in high school
Most apps at the moment are rote learning practice based - something that is poorly suited to learning environments and better suited to play (in extension or after school classes) or at home - they are important, just not in a highschool classroom with the overhead suggested.  Unless the student is able to use the device without impact on a learning programme it has the potential to be a distraction from the main game - learning.  Unlike in primary (with the same students in a class), I can't see how I can get utilisation to a level where buying iPads is viable for students within learning area budgets for use in classrooms (IWBs, texts and exercise books are more cost effective in 95% of cases).

If you take into account that applications need to be found to use on the iPads and classes designed for their use, put these issues on top and my enthusiasm wanes rapidly.  I am not saying that these issues cannot be overcome (and I have solutions for each issue), I question whether they are worth overcoming.  The outcome at the moment is that rather than complementing classroom use, they are fast become an impact tool only, one that I'm not sure is worth the investment of time, cost and effort within a classroom compared to other techniques.

I'm sure I'm not making each point as clearly as I could but they are a basis for discussion.  I'm also a little negative as I did a lot of work to ready the programme for take home use (with enthusiasm generated by students and parents) and now have to rethink it, something that I can't do now - it will have to wait until later in the year.

IPads and the classroom

I hate ICT when used without purpose.

Some of my favourite misuses of technology:

• Social Networking
• Research assignments
• Interactives
• Online learning modules
• Portals
• Blogs & Wikis

If someone comes to you and says we should be doing this, immediately ask why.  I wouldn't give a teacher a sledgehammer hoping that they will find something to do with it.  That's what is happening all too often with ICT.  You can do great things with these tools, but they need to be appropriate for the task.

Rather, start with a problem that inhibits learning.  If ICT is the optimum solution for solving the problem - then use it.

I have a problem in one of our streams.  Student work rate is low in the top class and self image is at risk in the focus class.  There is no personal excitement in learning new concepts and little drive observed.  The gap between the top and bottom class is quite large and there are issues with core numeracy skills in both groups.

I had 30 IPads at my disposal, so i designed a solution to bring both classes together (50 kids) and bring some excitement back to the group.  I could have done it without the iPads but it saved me some work and was a motivational factor for the kids.  I was lucky to have four teachers available to help on the day so student ratios (even though there were a lot of kids) were low.

Problem: Low motivation and low student output.

Solution: Use the iPads as motivation for completing a large amount of work to illustrate what can be done by students.  Schedule high and low performing students together.

Method: Six worksheets on core numeracy (tables and basic number facts) were placed at the side of the room.  All students were given the first sheet (25 questions).  The next sheet was given on completion of the previous sheet.  Students were given an iPad on completion of the last sheet.  Students in the focus stream only had to complete 4 sheets in the timeframe.  A math game (KingofMaths) was placed on the iPads($30 total cost) and high scores were recorded on the board (with the top stream students given a 10000 point handicap).

Outcome: Crazy, off the chart fun.  Completely controlled chaos.  Each student completed over 100 questions in the hour with little difficulty.  The few disengaged students were identified for further work, other students were taking the incomplete sheets home to do them later.  There was a sense of fun in the room and students were able to see what they could do when they tried.  

It hasn't solved the problem (that takes time) but has given students a new way of looking at what they can do.  Next week I have some puzzles to do to challenge their thinking, not just their computation speed, using a similar model.  Given that the whole thing too about 30 minutes of preparation and was a first attempt,  I think we can improve with more efforts.  I would not do this every lesson, but once a week I can see how we can attack the type of topics used in NAPLAN and improve our results further.   Teachers in the room responded that they thought it was awesome and something completely different to what we normally do.  Hopefully it will stimulate ideas for driving teaching pedagogy further.

IEPs and engagement

Students cannot sit and do nothing in my classes.  It's a fundamental of my classes, something introduced to me by an EA when I first started in the school.  She has now gone on to be a teacher, and I'm sure a fine one.  It was an interesting lesson to me at the start of my career.  Listen to those experienced around me and that a good EA is worth gold for what they are paid.

That's not to say all EAs are great.  Some are decidedly ordinary - the issue being how to identify when an EA is being effective or ineffective...  We need to be fair - is it the fault of the EA giving a student individual assistance, the fault of the teacher giving a poor instruction, not adequately meeting the needs of the student or are the expectations of the student/teacher/EA unachievable given a certain circumstance (medical, emotional, developmental, prior learning, attitudinal).

Given a circumstance when a student is not learning - and as HoD I am responsible for learning (where the care team are ultimately responsible for monitoring and improving behaviour/attendance through IBPs), I face a difficult task as often the circumstance of a particular student is "confidential" and the lines of communication are muddied by "who needs to know".  With "at risk" students it is common to assign an EA to assist the student remain in class and learn.  I'm not a believer in withdrawal for extended periods (students in life will rarely have personal tutors), and teachers are overpaid to be babysitters and not have students learning.

What I really need to know as HoD are the strategies that are expected to work (developed in conjunction with the care team), that the teacher involved knows what is necessary to enact the strategy, that they are equipped to do it, they have the required resources (such as an EA) and that the student is on the same page - then I need to monitor that it is in effect and check it's effectiveness. To my mind the performance contract is the IEP.  I don't need to know the condition of the student, just the main effects of it, the strategies in place to ensure learning is happening and whether it is working.

The model I describe is teacher centric and unapologetically so.  If the teacher has responsibility for learning in the classroom, then they are responsible for ensuring learning is adequately occurring - ensuring there is an effective learning programme.  If a student is refusing to work, then it is the responsibility of the EA to make the teacher aware and then the teacher to enact change.  If the assessment is that the EA is not enacting the strategy as designed - then and only then, can the EA be assessed as ineffective.

The EA/teacher role needs to be in synergy, realising that we don't live in a perfect world (things won't always work with difficult students) and with some amount of lookahead as materials will need to be modified by the EA to ensure that they are suitable for the student.  The IEP has it's place here too as it documents the role of the EA and the tasks they need to do in preparing a lesson.

The bottom line is, it costs a lot to assign an EA to a student.  If the cost/benefit analysis is not there - we need to recognise that it is an expensive intervention and that it needs to be given priority to design a new solution.  After all, in a high or mid performing class, with a skilled EA, that person could be helping ten students rather than effectively helping none.

Documentation

Coming from a world of litigation prior to teaching, I understand the reticence some have in writing down what you have said.  For many, not writing something down leads to deniability and the ability to change position without having evidence of doing so.

I have never thought of written evidence that way.  I was once told, don't write something down that you wouldn't want to appear in a court of law.  Secondly I was told never to write an email in anger.  I think these are both wise but are only part of the story.  

Only today I was told that communications I sent last year were likely to come back and bite me, but they are opinions at best, that people can take or leave - I'm not precious about my opinions, nor do I have a monopoly on being right.  I aim to help, and hopefully that is what I do most of the time.

The problem with not writing things down is that memory is fallible, and a lack of documentation (or inadequate documentation) means that definite positions are lost to the mists of time or worse still, history is re-written by those that have no evidence at all because no evidence to the contrary is available.

At our school I am seen as a supporter of IPS, but those reading this blog will realise that I criticised it before our implementation and that I continue to be wary of it.  My support for it was based in the people that needed it to staff the school, not in what I thought it would achieve in other areas.    

I have criticised OBE widely, but have supported ideas within OBE, and question its implementation more than the underlying concept.  I've seen it work, and have seen the consequences of diabolical assessment policies, hoping that we have learned from the issues and won't repeat them with Australian Curriculum.  The fact that we lack clear guidance for assessment and that an ambitious implementation plan set to political timeframes is occurring, means that we have some difficult years ahead.

I have watched the effects of delaying year 7 transition to high school and the effect of the half cohort on small schools.  Schools continue to struggle with planning over the next few years,  and the effort ensuring the ATAR courses in some guise will be practical under national curriculum requirements will be considerable.  2015 will be a watershed year for public school education.

By writing things down I can see how my opinions have formed and changed based on circumstance and perspective, I can reflect on my decisions (good and bad) and attempt to make better informed decisions in future.  Though this may be a brave position, I think documentation of this sort is important for future planning and that a fear of documentation where honesty and positive intent is present is ill founded.

Head of Department.

Today was my first day as Head of Department of our high school.  Six years and a fair bit of work has resulted in a position where I can monitor progress and instigate change to improve the learning programmes of students.  It's a role gained through attrition to some degree with some people better than I passing through it on the way to other roles, but I'll take it and make it into how I see it.  It's a two edged sword as I have to give up some class time, but it will free time to develop the courses further - which can only be a good thing.

Recently two bits of research crossed my desk.  The first stated that self discipline was more important than IQ, something that I have believed for a long time (albeit I attribute it to work ethic rather than self discipline - but I see them as two sides of the same coin).  The second indicated that social networks were detrimental to student learning, particularly for students of low self esteem (in hindsight, this is obvious like most insights into human behaviour).

We ran our summer school again this year and it was our most successful thus far, involving students from three year groups, graduating students, past students, practicum teachers, university students and teachers from the school.  Student responses on day five were overwhelmingly positive, indicating that the format is working and students can see how it is helping them.  It was interesting to note that the presenters believed we could have been more prepared, yet the students believed we were well prepared indicating that either we can do far better, or that the kids liked the responsiveness created by the flexibility required by being ill prepared.  I'm not sure, but this year, with a plethora of presenters, I wasn't as pressured as in past years (and to all the presenters a big thank you!).

I played a game of LNOE tonight, and it was by far the best zombie game I have played so far.  It plays in under an hour, so I look forward to playing it with the kids.  Should be a bit of fun.

I had a quick look again at the National Curriculum progress, particularly for senior school today, and it was interesting to see how close the descriptions were to WACE outlines, making the transition a little easier.  Having only looked at the essential (Voc type course like MwM or MiPs) and the general course descriptions,  my anxiety levels are dropping as long as we can get the national curriculum courses working in 8, 9, 10.  

I like the new found emphasis on delivering courses to pathways whether office, vocational or university.  It gives guidance to the materials required in a way general courses did not.  It will be interesting to see if course planners can continue to predict the needs of the pathways and stay ahead such that the right students are always available.  Protecting the element of learning for learning's sake is important as it is how we future proof our courses - I would hate to see them only teaching what is required for today's industry.

We're a good team in 2013 and I look forward to some good results.