Week 2, 2010 reflection

Had a great couple of weeks thus far: students are working well, keeping out of trouble. My aim this year is to increase the amount of learning that is going on in my classes.

To do this I aim to:

• increase the amount of direct instruction
• increase the amount of on-task time
• reduce the number of behaviour issues
• promote 'the search for an aha moment' as an enjoyable experience

Thus far things are going swimmingly. I started by randomly seating students, explaining to them that by increasing their circle of friends they were more likely know someone that could help them if they were stuck.

Then I set about increasing the expectation of performance, setting regular homework, giving time limits on completing tasks and setting a pace from the time they entered the room.

I paid special attention to student dynamics in the class, emphasising that performance was required to stay in the class. There is competition to get into this class as a precursor for 2A/2C/3A in upper school, so students need to perform well to remain.

I've talked to students a lot about the need to understand what it takes to learn, digging up my old "huh??!!, Doh!, OH!" model, emphasizing trying and practicing as a pathway to learning and long term retention of information.

I've also worked to modify my often unrealistic expectations and drive kids towards work where they can see real achievement. I've slowed my content delivery pace a lot (students are doing more work with a more limited focus), and it has shown a vast improvement in the general demeanor of this year's class.

I've looked at the class and tried to determine who will form the heart and motor of the room. These kids set the tone, mood and pace of the class. I'm more conscious of when they are behaving abnormally and investigate more quickly. The class picks up on this as an indication that I care about their well being as a whole.

I've set class goals which include rewards for outperforming the 'A' class and ever increasing goals for the class average, daily performance goals tied to the school reward scheme and try and give more incidental verbal acknowledgement of achievement.

I've surveyed the kids to determine their benchmark enjoyment of mathematics and then see how this changes over the year. I've recorded their friendship groups and attempted to identify any isolates.

It's vibrant and fun.

In school research

I started my studies for my masters this year and it's good to be doing something thought provoking again. There's a bit of a rush on post graduate studies at school at the moment, with many feeling more comfortable to start now that many NCOS subjects are bedded down. Lots by coursework, I think I am the only one doing it by thesis.

This term I'm looking at group dynamics and seeing how student/teacher interaction can be made more fruitful. Everyone that I explain my topic to seems to think I'm trying to do groupwork with my students (and I get a lecture on the validity of groupwork and assessment). These discussions have helped crystallise my resolve to assist students use their classtime more fruitfully and have students engage in meaningful conversation with a wider range of students. It's not really about collaboration and groupwork in the "put four people in a group and watch one do the work" mould.

It goes back to the 60 minute period - ~20 minutes instruction (10+ 10 or 7 + 7 + 7) and 40 minutes intervention time. In a class of 20, if all students are relying on the teacher for help, that's two minutes per student and a lot of time wasted waiting for the teacher, in a class of 30 it's worse.

A few minor issues have arisen that has forced me to widen the scope of my project. The first being that I need benchmark information at the start of the year but classes are fluid until week 4 when streams are set in stone. The second being the raft of hurdles that need to be jumped before research can begin.

The hurdles thus far:
Acceptance by university into the Masters course (a discussion, two phone calls and an email).
My WACOT registration expired whilst the transition from registered teacher occurred (and was an absolutely painful process to resolve with the same document lost multiple times by WACOT).
My WWC expired during the break (and required signing by the principal before a new one could be applied for and something that the screening unit needs to consider)
Approval by the university that the topic would comprise valid research (relatively painless as was done as part of a summer school unit)
Human Research Ethics Committee approval from the university (relatively painless as was done as part of a summer school unit)
Approval to proceed by the department (this was the big surprise - Policy and Planning at DET are a well oiled machine and made this a really pleasant experience with a fantastic turnaround)
Approval by my site manager (our principal).

Still to go:
Approval by parents
Approval by students
Approval by staff

The good thing is that now I have passed all of the third party stakeholders, I only need approvals directly related to the participants.

IOTY nomination 2010

The first IOTY nomination for 2010 is Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister of Australia and general all around idiot.

First we had to put up with Rate-my-teacher, a website prone to defamatory comments. At least with rate-my-teacher a comment could be challenged and removed.

Now our good-time-guy, hop on the 9 million hits bandwagon Prime Minister, has proposed to add parent comments to the myschool website.

There are so many issues with this idea it is laughable. Anyone that has run a public company and knows the issues around "running stocks" would identify the main problems with this idea.

a) the person running the myschool website would have to ensure that it is a parent making the comment, not a disgruntled student (authentication).
b) if it is a parent, there are a lot of parents with rose coloured glasses and interesting opinions of their little darlings that do not relate to their actual behaviour in class (authenticity).
c) a skew of opinions tend to occur, as happy parents rarely put their statements online (bias).
d) ensuring that malicious and slanderous comments are removed without damage to the reputation of teacher or school is a full time job (for just one school), it would be near impossible for 10,000 (legal liability and overhead).

These issues alone are enough to make this idea stupid. Another government idea taking pot shots at a system nearly destroyed by government curriculum policy. The resilience the system has shown in trying to compete with independent schools has been astounding to watch. It would be nice to get a break from those putting the boot in now and again.

If this is the government's way to take the mind of voters away from rising interest rates and climate policy issues, it is a poorly crafted stunt.

Kevin, you are the first IOTY nomination of 2010.

Link to media statement here.

First Day of school tomorrow

All fired up.. lessons planned.. preparation done.. Let's go!