Seating plans and motivation

I remember as a practicum student that it was difficult to arrange a room where students worked well. I always resist seating plans initially as I am not sure how the social groups were aligned.

One strategy that is reasonably effective is to run a test, pair desks in rows and put the high scorers in the t-zone (through the middle and in front) and then put next to each one a student that they don't "hate" but is performing below their ability level. Any students that have lost focus/have situational issues or are behavioural challenges can be isolated to corners until attitudes improve. I put the high performers across the corridors so that they still have contact with each other but are often tempted to discuss with their partner first as it is easier to compare notes. In upper classes it can be good to do this a few weeks before the end of term and tell them that it can go back to free seating at the start of next term.

Like this (in a square room):

UH HU UH HU (U=Underachiever)
BM UH HU BM (H=High Achiever)
MM UH HU MM (B=Behavioural challenge)
BM UH HU MB (M=mid range student)

I then start a new topic and run a paired activity. It takes a bit of encouragement for students to speak to their partners, but quickly enough it stops much of the social chat in the classroom (as they have little socially in common) and promotes chat about the topic at hand. It's not a permanent solution but can raise the 'happiness' quota especially if struggling students need more attention in a big class where teacher time is limited.

This helps the underachievers as they have modelled behaviour from the high performers. It also allows separating chatty students without feelings of being "singled out".

Teaching index laws cont..

Ok, I was with my little challenge group again today. I had the full range of students all with their own idiosyncrasies, the rapper (and his periodic burst of song and then bouts of narcolepsy), farty (with his own special tuba), the two in love (that hate each other passionately), kermit (with his constant slurping noise), the dark cloud and the two year old. Normally when introducing indices I would do it one law at a time. With this group though, I had to do something different as I'd have glazed eyes and riots after the first five minutes. So... I introduced them all at once and focused on helping them generalise what is basically a group of abstract concepts.

I put a range of examples and the laws on the board and asked them to find the law that was most like the equation supplied. They then looked to see which law could be used to simplify the equation. By the end of the class they had a reasonable idea of what could be done - I selected the part of the equation we were simplifying (at this stage they could not decide what to do first) and they chose which law to use to simplify it. All of this was done with algebraic terms, tomorrow we go back to numeric terms and start looking at BIMDAS (order of operation) so they begin to think themselves what order to apply the laws - and evaluating the answer with their calculators.

One difficulty I have found is getting these students to continue working/thinking for the whole lesson. I'm breaking it up by enforcing copying of information from the board into their books (mainly as a break from the interactive work on the whiteboard) to promote engagement when as a group they select the correct law to apply and I model how it is performed/recorded. This way they can participate for a whole working period, not just a play time or a pocket of time where they pay attention between potential rewards.

Real Estate & the calibre of staff

I have worked in many careers, but my first was as a receptionist (of all things) when I was 17. I worked in a real estate office for three years.

Now if there is any career to direct a real plod of a student it has got to be real estate (What am I saying about myself??!!??) and the real estate rep generally is the stupidest person and most dishonest you can find.

Anyhow.. I come home today and there is a real estate for sale sign on my home. I think to myself.. have I decided to do this in a moment of insanity (no.. I don't think so..), has my mushbrain pregnant wife done so.. (no.. she loves her home)... did I not pay the mortgage this week??

No.. the real estate company "Ray White" just decided to put my house up for sale. A quick phone call and the sign was gone literally 3 mins later and two reps had some fairly burning ears. If they can't put the for sale sign on the right house, I wonder how good they are at selling houses (or even the right one!).

Not to mention the agents that can't read "no junk mail" yet still drop unsolicited mail in the mailbox (yes Professionalscoastal - Monika van Namen - I mean you!).

Yep.. an industry still full of plods.

grrrrrrr....

Issues with classroom differentiation

In my top year 10 class, although basically ability streamed (with a few exceptions in the class for social reasons), I have thirty students. Behaviourally there are few problems but as the year has progressed I have 8-10 3AB MAS/MAT bound, 3-4 3AB MAT, 8 2CD bound and 10 2A bound.

This means that as the course continues, student goals are different for each block of students. For some it is so important that they master content now (such as 3D trig and bearings) to leave time for new content introduced in 3AB MAS and 3AB MAT. For those entering 2CD next year, they have a few bites at the cherry, the content is seen for the first time this year, consolidated next year and mastered in the following year. For the 2A crew they do not ever have to master some of the content, but by spending extra time on the basic concepts of more difficult areas of mathematics (especially algebra), they have a higher chance for success as they need to learn very little new content over the next two years.

With such broad groupings though, students are feeling frustrated that they cannot reach the 3A MAS bound students and some have asked to be moved to lower classes (better to be a big frog in a little pond, than a little frog in a big pond). Yet I have resisted this as there are transition issues this late in the year moving students between classes and no guarantees of success in lower ability classes. I have tried to redirect them to before and after class tutoring sessions.

I just thank my lucky stars that we streamed at the start of the year (thanks to one of my colleagues pushing for it). If there were 1B students in the class as well as behavioural issues the class would have had no 3A students at all.

Music soothes the savage beast

Our school has no music programme. Many of our teachers attempt to use music in their learning areas to fill the gap. In English it might be examining lyrics, in IT examining how digital delivery is changing an industry, in media how music can emphasize and focus delivery of a message.

In my mathematics classes at the end of term I tend to bring in my guitar. Sometimes there's a bit of singing, other times it's placing a guitar in the hands of a student for the first time, sometimes it's a bit of strumming whilst they are doing their work and a bit of banter about 'more modern music' please. Last class I was told it was soothing and they did a fair bit of work. All in all it's simple classroom building.

A strategy I have seen in another school is using music to keep class noise low. The music is turned to just an audible level.. as long as the music can be heard it is left on. Other times, MP3's are allowed as long as students are working with reasonable efficiency.

I have also used music once or twice in statistics, where we examine radio station choice, genre's and the like.

One point that I should make is that I cannot stand the ghetto subculture. Would-be rappers beat boxing and talking about their 'hoes' make me want to fume. Girls that 'booty shake' and behave as property get a stern talking to. I would much rather pop, 'happy house' and dance music was the genre of choice and women viewed the 'empowered' nature of such video clips being object of desire and love rather than being objects of ownership found in rap culture. I inform the young ladies that they should be playing with dolls and doing schoolwork rather than thinking about boys. Once pointed out, the concept has a tendency to stick and find a home in their minds.

It must be a generational thing.

At home, these students work with constant noise/music in the background. In some ways I understand that they wish for similar circumstances in the classroom. There is some kernel of logic in allowing them to listen to music whilst working as known music probably blocks background talking out and allows the student to focus on the task at hand - conversely up-to-date music may be distracting as they will actively listen to the music (and want to discuss it) rather than actively doing work. I believe though that in many cases silent work still has it's place.

Impact on WA of election result

This was the election where no-one wanted to vote for anyone. The major political parties were for the most part an insipid bunch. Now that the voting is over and they are being counted here's how I see the outcome.

In a perfect world (with lots of wishful thinking):
A) The National party has the balance of power, education in rural areas will gain increased support - more incentive to take rural posts, improved housing conditions, higher wages and community encouragement to stay.
B) Political parties will no longer dismiss the impact of educational lobby groups in marginal seats
C) The teacher pay dispute will be resolved quickly as the first item of the new government.
D) Teachers will resume community building roles and prevent disconnect with youth and community that is currently forming within low ability/low socioeconomic students sector.
E) The role of permanency, selection, relief teachers, class sizes and teaching administration will be investigated and resolved.
F) League tables will disappear as they are proved to have provided incomplete and misleading data to parents.
G) Performance based pay scales will be thoroughly investigated and found impractical to implement.

Comment:
It is clear from this election that both political parties cannot rely on party loyalties of voters - strong leadership is required at all times to maintain government. If a leader is stale, arrogant or belittling to the electorate - move them along, no matter what their perceived importance to policy. It is time politicians looked to running the state rather than their careers first.

I believe that politicians should stay with big picture issues and not turn up 5 minutes before an election and talk about local problems. Either be in touch with your electorate throughout the whole tenure or risk exit stage left. Parachuting politicians into safe seats is also a recipe for disaster.

We need strong experienced leaders. Not young up and comers - unless they are brilliant beyond their age. One only had to look at the faces of politicians last night to see that in "good times" conservative faces is what the electorate demands. Political parties take note! (How Albert Jacob managed to get elected I can't understand - let's hope he is more capable than he looks.)

Well done to the 3 independents and the National party for standing in seats and on issues that matter to their electorates. It shows that our political system is not yet as dead and showy/frightening as the American system or boring as the English. And for a small nation like ours we should be - vibrant, able to take action and go forward in leaps, stumbles and bounds.

I don't mind who is in government as long as progress is made. For now though... no more naive politics from me (at least for a while!).

Here is a link to education policy statements of all parties.

Using notes in tests

Having a working memory of four units, I know the necessity of having well prepared notes. Everything I do has a paper trail of sorts that lets me manage the many things I'm juggling at any one point. The programme we use is far more detailed than most - but without it I would be lost as to what I had done and what I still needed to do.

Students coming through junior school (where tests and assignments are not the norm and alternate assessment is more often used) don't know how to prepare for tests. More so, many suffer extreme test anxiety that affects their performance in later years. Making and having notes makes sense as in real life we do not work in a vacuum and normally have our notes/diary/teachnical books at hand.

To alleviate issue of recall and anxiety in year 10, we test often - at least once every two to three weeks and have a 2hr mid year exam. Students know that a test is coming (and have been forewarned when and the topic).

For the first term, the notes consist of their journal and I tell them what to write in it as we go along. At the end of each test the aim is to do some self reflection (5 mins) that I read in spare moments about their performance and how to improve.

In second term, they can still use their journals but I now insist that 2 pages of notes is all they can bring into the test (by the end of the term the journal has too much content to use effectively). Those that bring notes get an extra 10% for being adequately prepared.

In term three I no longer reward students for bringing notes as they are in the habit and know the consequences of not bringing adequate notes.

Interestingly I had one student indicate that her notes never had the material on it that she needed. On reading it I found that the information was there but she was unable to generalise the notes to assist her. This is an issue that I need to investigate further.

By going through this process I believe that my students are better prepared for tests and exams in yr 11 & 12 and have shown anecdotally that they are not as stressed in the assessment process.

Motivation

I must admit, being a fairly self motivated person, motivating others is not my forte. Many teachers do I much better job than I do - my primary motivational tool is ensuring student see and value success. TEE kids approaching their final exam need a bit more than this, so I had a bit of a think and did the following:

I dug out my old gown and scroll from my degree ceremony. I talked to all of the students about my goals at their age - many were absolutely ridiculous. They then each wrote ten goals of their own. Each wrote theirs on the board and stood in front of it. I took a photo of them in my old gown, cap and sash, with my degree scroll and printed the results on my little photo printer. The results are that they now have a permanent record of their goals in year 12 that more than likely they will keep. They had graduated from my goal setting session.

Hopefully it will motivate them to lift a little higher when needed.