We were having a chat around dinner about the role of politics in education. I took the position that party politics had no place in education and others took the role of education is a necessary part of government.
We reached a point where we decided that a weak bureaucracy that allowed rapid change in education was a flawed platform as students ran in 12 year cycles and governments in four year cycles. Ideas are not given time to develop or be researched properly due to political expediency.
The issues in recent years have arisen as ill-researched policy have been able to be introduced (with the idea of gaining votes rather than improving education) because current bureaucracy is too weak to resist or put forward arguments to prevent the worst of political excess.
This has occurred as current government agencies have lost public confidence and are as weak as they have ever been. They lack a knowledge base and have low morale.
It would take a strong government to change this mentality and guide/fund strong and conservative, reputable long term appointments rather than make ill advised decisions.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Inspirational students
Students can surprise you. Yesterday, the year 12's graduated. For some it was a surprise - that despite numerous obstacles (some self created, others purely due to circumstance) they had somehow made it, for some meh - it was an end... for others the start of something well deserved.
The school prefects did a wonderful job of standing up and being counted - truly contributing to the school. They made you feel proud to be a student or a teacher. They were funny, they were serious, they included everyone and they reminded you of the little part you had in growing them into people that would contribute to society because through that one speech, they already had.
.. and it felt good.
The school prefects did a wonderful job of standing up and being counted - truly contributing to the school. They made you feel proud to be a student or a teacher. They were funny, they were serious, they included everyone and they reminded you of the little part you had in growing them into people that would contribute to society because through that one speech, they already had.
.. and it felt good.
Labels:
teaching
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Common diseases found in teachers
"Challenge"-itis: to act offended or abrupt if an existing decision is challenged as being ineffective or could be improved.
"New idea"-itis: the need to deflect, ignore, be offended by or denigrate any new idea that challenges an old one without due consideration.
"Take credit"-itis: the need to claim credit for unrelated success whilst in the presence of immediate superiors.
"Lost credit"-itis: being sad because someone has taken credit unfairly.
"In my experience"-itis: when experience rather than reason is used to defend indefensible positions.
"shyness"-itis: suppressing positive ideas for fear of annoying, irritating or offending someone.
"fed up"-itis: losing faith in all students due to the actions of a few.
We need to be ever vigilant to prevent the virulent spreading of these diseases in our fellow teachers and ensure that we find cures for them as they arise.
:-)
"New idea"-itis: the need to deflect, ignore, be offended by or denigrate any new idea that challenges an old one without due consideration.
"Take credit"-itis: the need to claim credit for unrelated success whilst in the presence of immediate superiors.
"Lost credit"-itis: being sad because someone has taken credit unfairly.
"In my experience"-itis: when experience rather than reason is used to defend indefensible positions.
"shyness"-itis: suppressing positive ideas for fear of annoying, irritating or offending someone.
"fed up"-itis: losing faith in all students due to the actions of a few.
We need to be ever vigilant to prevent the virulent spreading of these diseases in our fellow teachers and ensure that we find cures for them as they arise.
:-)
Labels:
teaching
Monday, October 19, 2009
Online Books
We've been looking for Living books for Mackenzie and found a local website that has a lot of educational software. Can't vouch for it yet, but it does seem to have a fair range.
http://www.aussiekidssoftware.com.au/b/17629/1/living-books.html
http://www.aussiekidssoftware.com.au/b/17629/1/living-books.html
Labels:
software
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Bit flat
It's hard when the best thing for a school is not the best thing for a bunch of students. The articles on the half cohort floating around best illustrate what happens when budgets rule schools rather than common sense.
It makes everyone a bit flat when good teachers are actively looking for jobs and are uncertain of their future, whilst teachers remaining are put under the microscope as to why they were chosen to stay in lieu of others. I know when I had to dismiss staff I always made it short and sweet, to minimise staff impact. It was always harsh on me this way, but was easier on staff. In schools, decisions may be made mid year, with staff remaining until the end of the year.
Loss of capability is always a concern - as typically teachers are multi-talented and losing someone impacts on class availability. The smaller the school, the lesser the ability to have redundancy and the higher the impact of losing a staff member. This exacerbates the lack of ability to run small class sizes in small schools (50 student cohorts with 10% of students reaching level 3 courses) are bound to make small classes(eg. five students). It raises the question of the appropriateness and equity of most small WA high schools for bright students.
I also think that sometimes we miss that some teachers can really do wonderful things with small groups - the adage that <5 is bad is not always true.
I struggle with advocating for students. I have been criticised for advocating and for not advocating vigorously enough - once for not idetifying loudly enough that students were in the wrong class, on one occasion for raising that potential issues were arising due to changing class availability and on one occasion for raising that I thought that my teaching was sub par for a topic and needed help. Sometimes I understand why some teachers just want to close the door and teach and let others do what needs to be done. I'm glad of this blog, as it allows me an outlet rather than just pursuing what I think needs to be done through action and persuasion.
Those of us specialising in one learning area (such as mathematics) need to examine opportunities for multi-skilling or alternatively find larger schools. It makes it harder to stay focused when you would rather be looking to student improvement and working with a dynamic and motivated team to make it so. Building a good team is difficult and breaking it up for the sake of a couple of dollars is just a tad silly.
On the upside, the limits topic in Saddler 3BMAS is a bit of a doddle - which is great, as I found it difficult when I went through school. I'm not sure if it is just that the text is good or if I'm missing something.
Anyhoo.. time to look forward, find the next idea and drive it onwards. I think year 7 extension programmes are next with some refocusing of the year 8 -12 programmes to tailor them a little better to the cohorts.
It makes everyone a bit flat when good teachers are actively looking for jobs and are uncertain of their future, whilst teachers remaining are put under the microscope as to why they were chosen to stay in lieu of others. I know when I had to dismiss staff I always made it short and sweet, to minimise staff impact. It was always harsh on me this way, but was easier on staff. In schools, decisions may be made mid year, with staff remaining until the end of the year.
Loss of capability is always a concern - as typically teachers are multi-talented and losing someone impacts on class availability. The smaller the school, the lesser the ability to have redundancy and the higher the impact of losing a staff member. This exacerbates the lack of ability to run small class sizes in small schools (50 student cohorts with 10% of students reaching level 3 courses) are bound to make small classes(eg. five students). It raises the question of the appropriateness and equity of most small WA high schools for bright students.
I also think that sometimes we miss that some teachers can really do wonderful things with small groups - the adage that <5 is bad is not always true.
I struggle with advocating for students. I have been criticised for advocating and for not advocating vigorously enough - once for not idetifying loudly enough that students were in the wrong class, on one occasion for raising that potential issues were arising due to changing class availability and on one occasion for raising that I thought that my teaching was sub par for a topic and needed help. Sometimes I understand why some teachers just want to close the door and teach and let others do what needs to be done. I'm glad of this blog, as it allows me an outlet rather than just pursuing what I think needs to be done through action and persuasion.
Those of us specialising in one learning area (such as mathematics) need to examine opportunities for multi-skilling or alternatively find larger schools. It makes it harder to stay focused when you would rather be looking to student improvement and working with a dynamic and motivated team to make it so. Building a good team is difficult and breaking it up for the sake of a couple of dollars is just a tad silly.
On the upside, the limits topic in Saddler 3BMAS is a bit of a doddle - which is great, as I found it difficult when I went through school. I'm not sure if it is just that the text is good or if I'm missing something.
Anyhoo.. time to look forward, find the next idea and drive it onwards. I think year 7 extension programmes are next with some refocusing of the year 8 -12 programmes to tailor them a little better to the cohorts.
Labels:
motivation
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Thoughtful material
As with any material that makes you think, information was provided at yesterday's PD session that has the mind racing. In particular was the advice (not directive) to not publish anything online that might criticise your employer.
This was of particular interest to me as this blog forms an important part of my teacher reflection and I do comment on public figures from time to time (Julia et al.) who is my indirect employer (being a part of government) and DET who is my immediate employer. Much of it is tongue in cheek - but hopefully constructive criticism and investigation of topical issues.
I strongly agree with the presenter that information needs to be anonymised and any reference to an individual student on this blog is an idealised representation of students gained through day to day interaction (no student mentioned on here actually exists, although the situations may have occurred in some form)... and that has always been on purpose.. similarly there are no direct quotes from named individual staff... nor is my school disclosed (although if you know me, you could probably figure it out - which is ok - as you would know where I work anyway).
Although information suppression was not the intent of the PD yesterday, the inferred blanket ban on comments from teachers about schooling is a problem as it suppresses idea development and gives the impression to the public that teachers are not inclusive and won't interact with the community to better serve. This ivory tower where schooling is only discussed in the school is not right. It is interesting to see the public encouragement of involvement with the community yet the blanket that is put around what appropriate involvement is.
Teachers are professionals and have a responsibility to develop the concept of schooling with the community. It is interesting to see schools responses to Web 2.0 technologies like Facebook and mySpace. As stated in earlier articles, I believe direct communication between teachers and student via this mechanism (at present) is inappropriate, fraught with danger and misadventure, but to distance ourselves from it is to create another disconnect with our students in addition to the emotional and physical disconnects that currently exist. To ignore it is to limit our ability to monitor cyber-bullying and create situations where students are put at risk (as students quickly recognise unmonitored resources that can be abused).
With open internet based resources available, teaching has an opportunity to widen it's ability to communicate and interact more with parents, past students and community organisations to improve the behaviour and intellectual output of students.
I think this is one of those issues that needs further investigation.
This was of particular interest to me as this blog forms an important part of my teacher reflection and I do comment on public figures from time to time (Julia et al.) who is my indirect employer (being a part of government) and DET who is my immediate employer. Much of it is tongue in cheek - but hopefully constructive criticism and investigation of topical issues.
I strongly agree with the presenter that information needs to be anonymised and any reference to an individual student on this blog is an idealised representation of students gained through day to day interaction (no student mentioned on here actually exists, although the situations may have occurred in some form)... and that has always been on purpose.. similarly there are no direct quotes from named individual staff... nor is my school disclosed (although if you know me, you could probably figure it out - which is ok - as you would know where I work anyway).
Although information suppression was not the intent of the PD yesterday, the inferred blanket ban on comments from teachers about schooling is a problem as it suppresses idea development and gives the impression to the public that teachers are not inclusive and won't interact with the community to better serve. This ivory tower where schooling is only discussed in the school is not right. It is interesting to see the public encouragement of involvement with the community yet the blanket that is put around what appropriate involvement is.
Teachers are professionals and have a responsibility to develop the concept of schooling with the community. It is interesting to see schools responses to Web 2.0 technologies like Facebook and mySpace. As stated in earlier articles, I believe direct communication between teachers and student via this mechanism (at present) is inappropriate, fraught with danger and misadventure, but to distance ourselves from it is to create another disconnect with our students in addition to the emotional and physical disconnects that currently exist. To ignore it is to limit our ability to monitor cyber-bullying and create situations where students are put at risk (as students quickly recognise unmonitored resources that can be abused).
With open internet based resources available, teaching has an opportunity to widen it's ability to communicate and interact more with parents, past students and community organisations to improve the behaviour and intellectual output of students.
I think this is one of those issues that needs further investigation.
Labels:
PD
Monday, October 12, 2009
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Games for educators website
Came across this link in my travels - a site about games for educators. Also has a regular podcast.
Though not specifically for educators, this one by Tom Vasel isn't too bad either.
Updated 18/10/09: Fixed link!
Though not specifically for educators, this one by Tom Vasel isn't too bad either.
Updated 18/10/09: Fixed link!
Labels:
board games
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