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.