Attacking a subject

I always tell my students to attack a subject and it worries me when I get a class of passive students - especially in stage three courses.

Students that are attacking a course:

a) come in bright eyed and bushy tailed
b) are on time
c) have all of their resources (books, calculators, pens ...) ready on day 1
d) attend regularly
e) have pre-read the chapters
f) get stuck into their coursework and are not afraid to have a go
g) natter about their current question with other students

Students that wait to be prompted and expect to be spoonfed, wait for you to find that they are stuck and look like deers in headlights make me concerned. Students that seek personal information from the teacher, natter during instruction, dawdle in late, are disrupting the whole class with nonsense annoy me. They make me think "Is this student in the right place?". This is after all senior school, the pointy end of education.

My 9's, 10's and 2C course are going gangbusters. They demand notes on everything. They attempt questions that I haven't asked them to do as well as the ones I have. They are working on revision books. They are playing with their calculators. Good for them.

My 1B's and 3A courses are another story. Where's the ego? Where's the work ethic? Where is the focus? Hopefullly they're more awake next lesson.

Multiplying and dividing by powers of 10

I had my academic year nine class for the first time today and had a lot of fun. I had been warned about a few students, but they were arms deep in the trenches having a good go.

I took an experimental approach today with the class examining how to multiply and divide powers of 10. The idea was to create algorithms in student terms for solving simple equations.

We started with simple examples using whole numbers
5 x 10 = ...

"When multiplying by 10, 100, 1000... count the zeroes and put them on the end of the number you are multiplying."

25 ÷ 10 = ...

This time students considered the position of the decimal point:

"Count the zeroes in the number after the division symbol [divisor] and move the decimal point right of the other number [the dividend] that many digits"

We then looked at the case

2.5 x 10 =

and discovered our first algorithm didn't work as by our first algorithm 2.5 x 10 = 2.50

This lead us to a similar algorithm as for our division case:

"Count the zeroes in the multiplier and move the decimal point left of the other number [the factor] that many digits"

Using the whole number cases gave students an additional method of multiplying powers of ten than the messy loops moving decimal places method. The idea of this lesson was not to deny them mathematical language - but to give them an opportunity to explore a mathematical concept before formal language was introduced. It was a lot of fun for me and engaged them during the lesson.

We then looked at a few cases where the multiplier and divisor were not powers of 10. This exposed that students had difficulty with long division and long multiplication and were over dependent on calculators - which has the possibility of causing issues in non-calculator sections in upper school. We'll now go own to examining factor trees and ease into indices.

We also looked at 250 ÷ 10 where we converted the expression to a fraction and cancelled the zeroes - although we didn't consider why this works and will need to revisit it later.

National Curriculum confusion reigns

National curriculum continues to be a source of confusion for teachers. New words such as engage (have a look at it), implementation (sort of run a class with it) and significant implementation (meaning whatever you want it to but it needs to be done by 2014 in WA and 2013 everywhere else). Never mind that curriculum description dot points are vague even to DoE experts.

If you manage to implement something by getting past inhibitors in your school you then have to decide how to grade what you have done. Proper grade descriptors are non-existent, vague C grade descriptors give little idea what an A or a B is. Administration are scared witless that any implementation will impact negatively on NAPLAN scores, especially where they have been good in the past.

Overcoming the urge to use classroom distributions as solutions for behaviour management problems threatens academic programmes. Small class cohorts gives fewer opportunities to distribute difficult students between classes. Teachers need to closely examine classlists to ensure that troublesome or low ability students are found classes to which they can perform. Finally we have some acceptance that heterogenous classes with wide distributions are not optimal teaching or learning environments.

I read the dreaded innovative solutions mantra for the first time this year in a department missive. Give me a solution or identify an opportunity to solve a problem. The wait and see at the moment is becoming generational.

It seems ok for a whole school to get D's and E's if that's all the students can produce despite their best efforts. Just create an alternate school based criteria to distribute to parents at the same time.

The frustrating thing is that NCOS is working ok and this new system is degenerating into a debacle of epic proportions. Yay for our minister putting on the brakes a little. It will be interesting to see how the final implementation is delayed again if ACARA can't get a handle on this monster.

The only positive out of all of this is a push for more academic classes and more protection and attention for our gifted students. For this at least we can be thankful.

Being proud of those making a difference

I'm the first one to say, teachers have a pretty good wicket to play on. The pay is getting better, the holidays aren't bad and when you have a supportive administration, teaching is a lot of fun. There are a lot of teachers taking advantage of this, it's true.. but there are also many going way past what is required, doing what is necessary.

I'm one of those that is very proud of what my school is and does; and I refuse to be negative about what we achieve. Our kids do not come to high school ready with all the skills they require. They have parents that work 2 jobs, many are abused or neglected, have poor nutrition and health, have few positive role models outside of school, have strong negative peer influences, have access to little help outside of the classroom, have few aspirations, no career guidance, already work long hours to help families make ends meet, have low expectations of their own ability and performance, limited access to resources, few options for subject selection.

Yet every year, up to half of our year twelve cohort goes to university. Not just goes, but are ready and skilled to perform at the highest level. Another group enters TAFE, starts apprenticeships and pre-apprenticeships. Another enters the workforce and starts the gradual climb to owning their own home and financial independence.

There's also the hidden statistics, the kids that are the first in their families to get to year 10 for the first time. The kids that raise their attendance from sporadic to regular. The parents that gain an interest in their children's performance. The kids that succeed despite low expectations (or ability) through the intervention of a teacher or two. The kids that get that positive work ethic and attitude that will carry them through hard times. Those that conquer substance abuse in their homes and turn their backs on criminal activities. Those that succeed despite physical and mental handicaps.

As a teacher, I look at the results of year 12 and take pleasure being a part of an education equation. If my kids get opportunities as a result of finishing school, staff at all levels of the organisation should take pleasure, no one teacher made the difference. We as a school have achieved something.

The Aussie battler is not just a person in the bush, it's kids and organisations that do things despite the odds, with limited resources and where others are trying to take advantage of them (yes I'm looking at you IPS staffing!). Our principal, administration and teaching staff are giving it a good go, and for my mind last year succeeded in many areas. If we keep our eye on the ball and support each other, we'll do it again.. and again...

Cheers to that!

Oh, and DoE take note.. support your low socio-economic schools or you will end up with these kids unsupported in large mid socio-economic schools with teachers that cannot cope nor want them. If you create a permanent underclass be prepared to be named as the cause when it happens.