Many organisations have worthwhile programmes that are offered to the school. They want to work hand in hand to deliver a project that they have developed. They have value and for larger schools are easy to roll out and have a target audience. The temptation is to take them all on for the good of the kids.
In a smaller school like ours, that is offered many projects during the year, the need to manage them becomes a resourcing issue. Excursions require a file of documentation, staff willing to participate, students willing to give it a go, a spot on the planner that won't cause disruption to learning and ensuring it's not the same six kids going on each excursion. We need to liaise with partner organisations, work with them and ensure that there is a win-win situation available.
What I have found is that we have had more success with organisations that ask our needs and then seek to help us reduce the issues caused by them. UWA Aspire and Rotary are two good examples of where this can work.
UWA Aspire had a clear goal to raise low socioeconomic student engagement with university and to raise their aspiration levels. We needed support for our Math/Science students and assistance with career activities. They listened and assisted us establish our Mathematics Academy by providing university students that worked with our kids and supported us with resourcing and food to keep them coming. They take our kids on a Leadership camp. They support our summer school with a venue and ambassadors at UWA. They come to the school for each year group and work with developing a career focus from year 7 onwards. We assisted them with developing activities that would fit our students. They assisted raising awareness of modern teaching pedagogy through their education faculty.
Rotary offered to help as a community minded group. They had leadership programmes and science programmes but waited to establish a connection and asked what our requirements were. We needed assistance in developing a strategic plan for the school. They worked with our board and now help lead it through our chairman with our Principal. Our kids wanted to be more involved in the community and formed a Rotary Interact Club. Rotary programmes could be run independently of the school, reducing administrative overhead, increased student involvment - resulting in community events and even trips to Singapore and London for our students.
Both of these are relationships that I have had involvement with. There are others, such as with the Smith Family, ABCN, with organisations within DOE such as SEND:BE and the engagement team which have similar impact.
I'm currently starting a music club after school (as we have no offering for music at the school), running some maths extension classes and building our Achievers club (students that have 4As and no Ds). A good model for external agencies is to pilot a project, have it running for a year or so and then have a model for a partner agency to develop. I hope these develop into something that the school can use for some time, like the Summer school, Interact club and Mathematics academy - each that involve 20-50 students (10-20% of the school).
A well meaning project can take up resources that may be better utilised elsewhere. These usually involve 3-4 students (such as the solar car challenge or a number of local leadership programmes), over an extended period, are expensive, are during school time, require transport (a bus is $300 per day), want access to upper school students and require teacher involvement for duty of care (at $600 per day, a "free" project becomes expensive). If a project can't be accessible to 20-30 students (which is a difficult brief), I think often kids are better off in school, somewhere geared to teaching large groups of students.
Where this is untrue is in the VET space, where small (1-4 students) projects have lasting impact on students but that is for another day.
Friday, July 6, 2018
Thursday, July 5, 2018
Role models and dreams of the future
It was posed to me who I looked up to as a role model. The example given to me was the queen of England and I was asked to think of one better.
Scary to think that I couldn't come up with one.
Scary to think that we, as a generation can offer no-one up that is both as well known as the queen and as publicly selfless.
We've given this generation narcissism and fame hunger. Sarah Hanson Young and the Leyonhold guy. "Me too", sexual harassment, anxiety, loss of hope, an emptiness hard to fill.
I think about the cold, emotionless education system we've created where a few people doing horrific things to children have destroyed what could be a loving and nurturing environment and turned it into something sterile and with the sole purpose of providing skills and knowledge to survive post schooling. ... and not even doing that particularly well.
As a male teacher, being hugged by a student, places you at risk of a standards and integrity investigation and criminal charges. Being a female teacher now is changing to do the same thing. To protect ourselves we cannot be a role model to students - the barrier of societal trust is not there. Where we once at least had gender appropriate roles that protected the emotional self of a student, strong male and female role models that fulfilled different roles that were ok, now neither can help fill the void created by a society where two parents work and the relationships that help build a whole person are not being supplemented by a society that forgets that nurturing its young is its prime imperitive.
When children need emotional support, there is nowhere for them to turn. There are times when I see distressed students that are seeking emotional support and the best we can offer them is counselling, when they really just want a hug and to believe it will be ok. Those two things are powerful are missing from our education system. It wasn't always this way.
Ten years in teaching and I have not seen this issue addressed in other than band aid modes. Will we look back and think how the hell did we miss this.
I watch year groups robotic in their approch to schooling, lacking a love of learning, of each other or the school system. Seeking to get by to their next step as citizens.
It's wrong.
I don't know how to fix it. It will take brighter minds than mine. Maybe its a call to our generation beyond the teaching fraternity to stand up and be good role models - do great things and become examples for our youth that teachers can point to. Something to aspire to and give belief and love back to a generation feeling lost.
Scary to think that I couldn't come up with one.
Scary to think that we, as a generation can offer no-one up that is both as well known as the queen and as publicly selfless.
We've given this generation narcissism and fame hunger. Sarah Hanson Young and the Leyonhold guy. "Me too", sexual harassment, anxiety, loss of hope, an emptiness hard to fill.
I think about the cold, emotionless education system we've created where a few people doing horrific things to children have destroyed what could be a loving and nurturing environment and turned it into something sterile and with the sole purpose of providing skills and knowledge to survive post schooling. ... and not even doing that particularly well.
As a male teacher, being hugged by a student, places you at risk of a standards and integrity investigation and criminal charges. Being a female teacher now is changing to do the same thing. To protect ourselves we cannot be a role model to students - the barrier of societal trust is not there. Where we once at least had gender appropriate roles that protected the emotional self of a student, strong male and female role models that fulfilled different roles that were ok, now neither can help fill the void created by a society where two parents work and the relationships that help build a whole person are not being supplemented by a society that forgets that nurturing its young is its prime imperitive.
When children need emotional support, there is nowhere for them to turn. There are times when I see distressed students that are seeking emotional support and the best we can offer them is counselling, when they really just want a hug and to believe it will be ok. Those two things are powerful are missing from our education system. It wasn't always this way.
Ten years in teaching and I have not seen this issue addressed in other than band aid modes. Will we look back and think how the hell did we miss this.
I watch year groups robotic in their approch to schooling, lacking a love of learning, of each other or the school system. Seeking to get by to their next step as citizens.
It's wrong.
I don't know how to fix it. It will take brighter minds than mine. Maybe its a call to our generation beyond the teaching fraternity to stand up and be good role models - do great things and become examples for our youth that teachers can point to. Something to aspire to and give belief and love back to a generation feeling lost.
Saturday, June 16, 2018
Violence in the workplace
My father was a prison officer, so I have a polarised viewpoint when it comes to the judicial system. His viewpoint was biased as he noted recidivism in the system. This has also biased my outlook as once a child enters the judicial system, they become exposed to others in the same system which can normalise behaviours that wouldn't occur otherwise.
So when I was faced with violence in the workplace for the first time in my career where I believed a student intended physical harm to myself, I had to consider what my philosophical viewpoint is regarding children coming to grips with their physicality and using it to influence their environment. Did this need to be reported to police?
I considered that students have maturing brains, are impulsive and will have limited empathy for others. I considered that my actions, as administrative staff, sets the tone for the school and my personal philosophy needed to take into account the norms that the school wished to purvey. I considered societal expectations of what teaching staff were expected to deal with.
Student influences / Context
There are many reasons students become violent. Frustration, domestic violence, physical abuse, peer interactions, sexual abuse, physical development, trauma, self image, helplessness, modelling/culture, attachment, gender confusion, sexuality, mental health, drug abuse are just a few reasons that spring to mind. Any one can make a student respond in a violent manner given particular situations. Schools today are expected to identify issues, manage risk, provide options for counseling and deal with situations that arise when plans put in place fail to adequately cover a violent series of incidents.
School influences
Maintaining a safe workplace is a necessity as a school becomes a melting pot of these issues. How a school responds to the threat of violence, dictates how safe children and staff feel when in the school. The ability of a school to predict where a problem may occur and develop a rapport that prevents violent outbursts is critical to the managing of low socio-economic schools experiencing many of the issues identified above. Staff that can do this effectively are rare as each issue tends to demand a different response and the responses can be personally draining and require high levels of support for students and support staff.
The maximum immediate penalty that can be imposed is 10 days of suspension, a period intended to allow time to improve risk plans, allow time to consider actions, organise support for families and support staff and work with students impacted upon by the violence. Diversion of a student to another location may be attempted, but if different solutions cannot be used, this may only move the violence from one school to another. When a school cannot devise a solution that is likely to succeed (and has likely failed many times with attempted solutions) then, and only then can exclusion be considered - it is a long and arduous process, as it should be, as there is no real solution at the end of it, other than saying school is not for that student.
Philosophical issues
Teachers do not report students to the police often or probably often enough. There are a few reasons for this, the main one being is that (good) teachers see students for who and what they are, not for their aberrant behaviours. In most cases these children are the most needy and require our assistance not our condemnation. I didn't start in education to be a pathway to the judicial system.
The counter is that as a deputy I have a responsibility to provide a safe working environment, with limited resources to deal with violent offenders. Nothing in the EBA indicates that it is ok for a teacher (as a worker for the Education department) to feel unsafe in their environment. Physical aggression, intimidation and assault are not ok and need to be seen to be dealt with for the mental health and confidence of staff, students and parents in the school. In a no tolerance for violence environment, 10 day suspensions for breaches are one part of a two part solution. Consequence for behaviour together with assistance to prevent similar behaviour in the future is key to success.
Societal Expectations
Schools are being asked to be a one size fits all solution to youth issues, increasingly working with agencies to fill gaps where there are no resources to deal with them. Finding alternate agencies with capacity in itself requires resources and deviates from the core business of teaching students the curriculum. In a high care, high expectation environment, schools are required to deal with context and deliver results.
What then?
I still have not in my career referred a student to police for threatening me physically (although I have for student welfare concerns and have restrained students on a number of occasions), I do hope that it remains this way. I must say though in the past five years, I have gone from feeling that students understand that threatening a teacher is unthinkable to now being a threat becoming relatively commonplace. I am more reliant on personal rapport with students than respect for my position to keep me safe. Both in junior and senior school there have been times when I have felt there has been risk I would be assaulted and that dealing with the student situation had a level of risk of physical assault, I may end in being physically hurt. Although schools are supportive when police reports are made over assaults, teachers like myself remain reluctant to ignore the factors that cause the assault in the first place (listed under student influences above) and fail to make a report - our knowledge of why students behave violently is part of why we are teachers in schools like ours.
Mandatory reporting of assault against staff together as suggested by the union (did I just agree with the union??) with protection from freedom of information may be one solution to measuring the issue and to target higher levels of resourcing to support students with anger management issues. Blanket FOI would be problematic (as with NAPLAN) as it would target schools attempting to deal with spikes in violence that occur with particular cohorts. Identifying accurately epicentres of issues, their causes, teachers struggling and then providing schools targeted assistance through existing processes would be a good start.
Violence in schools remains an area of potential conflict between parents, administration and teaching staff, where any action may be viewed as too little or too much, with clear differences in opinion in what is necessary to protect staff in their workplace and students in their high school depending on the perspective of the situation.
So when I was faced with violence in the workplace for the first time in my career where I believed a student intended physical harm to myself, I had to consider what my philosophical viewpoint is regarding children coming to grips with their physicality and using it to influence their environment. Did this need to be reported to police?
I considered that students have maturing brains, are impulsive and will have limited empathy for others. I considered that my actions, as administrative staff, sets the tone for the school and my personal philosophy needed to take into account the norms that the school wished to purvey. I considered societal expectations of what teaching staff were expected to deal with.
Student influences / Context
There are many reasons students become violent. Frustration, domestic violence, physical abuse, peer interactions, sexual abuse, physical development, trauma, self image, helplessness, modelling/culture, attachment, gender confusion, sexuality, mental health, drug abuse are just a few reasons that spring to mind. Any one can make a student respond in a violent manner given particular situations. Schools today are expected to identify issues, manage risk, provide options for counseling and deal with situations that arise when plans put in place fail to adequately cover a violent series of incidents.
School influences
Maintaining a safe workplace is a necessity as a school becomes a melting pot of these issues. How a school responds to the threat of violence, dictates how safe children and staff feel when in the school. The ability of a school to predict where a problem may occur and develop a rapport that prevents violent outbursts is critical to the managing of low socio-economic schools experiencing many of the issues identified above. Staff that can do this effectively are rare as each issue tends to demand a different response and the responses can be personally draining and require high levels of support for students and support staff.
The maximum immediate penalty that can be imposed is 10 days of suspension, a period intended to allow time to improve risk plans, allow time to consider actions, organise support for families and support staff and work with students impacted upon by the violence. Diversion of a student to another location may be attempted, but if different solutions cannot be used, this may only move the violence from one school to another. When a school cannot devise a solution that is likely to succeed (and has likely failed many times with attempted solutions) then, and only then can exclusion be considered - it is a long and arduous process, as it should be, as there is no real solution at the end of it, other than saying school is not for that student.
Philosophical issues
Teachers do not report students to the police often or probably often enough. There are a few reasons for this, the main one being is that (good) teachers see students for who and what they are, not for their aberrant behaviours. In most cases these children are the most needy and require our assistance not our condemnation. I didn't start in education to be a pathway to the judicial system.
The counter is that as a deputy I have a responsibility to provide a safe working environment, with limited resources to deal with violent offenders. Nothing in the EBA indicates that it is ok for a teacher (as a worker for the Education department) to feel unsafe in their environment. Physical aggression, intimidation and assault are not ok and need to be seen to be dealt with for the mental health and confidence of staff, students and parents in the school. In a no tolerance for violence environment, 10 day suspensions for breaches are one part of a two part solution. Consequence for behaviour together with assistance to prevent similar behaviour in the future is key to success.
Societal Expectations
Schools are being asked to be a one size fits all solution to youth issues, increasingly working with agencies to fill gaps where there are no resources to deal with them. Finding alternate agencies with capacity in itself requires resources and deviates from the core business of teaching students the curriculum. In a high care, high expectation environment, schools are required to deal with context and deliver results.
What then?
I still have not in my career referred a student to police for threatening me physically (although I have for student welfare concerns and have restrained students on a number of occasions), I do hope that it remains this way. I must say though in the past five years, I have gone from feeling that students understand that threatening a teacher is unthinkable to now being a threat becoming relatively commonplace. I am more reliant on personal rapport with students than respect for my position to keep me safe. Both in junior and senior school there have been times when I have felt there has been risk I would be assaulted and that dealing with the student situation had a level of risk of physical assault, I may end in being physically hurt. Although schools are supportive when police reports are made over assaults, teachers like myself remain reluctant to ignore the factors that cause the assault in the first place (listed under student influences above) and fail to make a report - our knowledge of why students behave violently is part of why we are teachers in schools like ours.
Mandatory reporting of assault against staff together as suggested by the union (did I just agree with the union??) with protection from freedom of information may be one solution to measuring the issue and to target higher levels of resourcing to support students with anger management issues. Blanket FOI would be problematic (as with NAPLAN) as it would target schools attempting to deal with spikes in violence that occur with particular cohorts. Identifying accurately epicentres of issues, their causes, teachers struggling and then providing schools targeted assistance through existing processes would be a good start.
Violence in schools remains an area of potential conflict between parents, administration and teaching staff, where any action may be viewed as too little or too much, with clear differences in opinion in what is necessary to protect staff in their workplace and students in their high school depending on the perspective of the situation.
Wednesday, June 6, 2018
CMS Training
I've just finished CMS training (a little humourous as I rarely teach, more to train others using consistent terms) and although I question the effectiveness of some strategies for teachers that might be struggling to gain control of their classrooms, there is some good information in there.
Today though was the first time I had to question the delivery of the session and the assertion made during the session. The statement made was that every escalation that led to a student-teacher power struggle was instigated by the teacher. The explanation given (and predicted before it was given) was that it takes two to have a power struggle and that the adult had the ability not to raise it to that level.
I think the simple counter to that was that there are instances where it is in the interest of the school to ensure that certain standards are publicly kept to, especially around safety, intimidating behaviour and agression towards female staff. It's not a PC view, and I know that but I'm willing to defend it.
A no tolerance policy towards intimidation and aggression has to be public. Students cannot be seen to be able to intimidate, physically threaten or assault staff. Students need to know that there is a line they cannot cross. Early in my career, maybe ten years ago, I could stand between two fighting out of control students and know that I was safe with punches being thrown over my shoulders. Today, this simply is not true. Some of this is to do with the mental health issues now processed by schools rather than other agencies, some due to serious drug use, some have experienced war trauma, some due to fewer role models, parenting by screen and lack of care in homes. Students are now 18 years+ when they leave school, some refugee students are older than this, are strong enough to challenge multiple members of the male staff at once.
The maximum practical consequence a school has is the 10 day suspension. Expulsion from a public school is a rare and difficult process. If students are comfortable with threatening staff this is not a deterrent. The ramping of consequences in today's high school teacher -> Year leader/Student Services -> Deputy -> Principal can happen in a single incident.
So back to the original problem. Student verbally abuses a teacher (reprimand by year leader after the child has calmed down). Student verbally abuses a year leader (reprimand by deputy after the child has calmed down). Student abuses a deputy - there is only one step left before Principal and the entire bluff that underpins the system is gone. The student can't be expelled. Here's the line where the processes of de-escalation have failed - the student has had the opportunity to learn how to identify the triggers leading to being out of control. Now a harder line needs to be followed and the power struggle needs to be addressed and is fraught with issues. If the student abuses the deputy, the situation needs to be dealt with there and then. In most cases the deputy has to diffuse or win the power struggle, in many cases with parent assistance. If this fails, like in real life, police become involved. After all, it is not ok for anyone to verbally or physically abuse or threaten to physically intimidate anyone, anywhere. Sometimes it is a very difficult lesson for students to learn. In life someone is always the boss of you unless you live alone on an island or up a tree somewhere!
Otherwise the child is out of control. We are teaching the child it is ok to be out of control, if after best efforts to educate the student otherwise, they continue to be out of control. The deputy in a school stands like police do in the community to ensure safety of the public, staff and students. To suggest that a deputy is wrong to stand for the school in a public exchange where power is involved threatens the fabric of discipline in a school. A deputy is typically a highly trained and experienced member of staff. These are people that understand the role they play and do not seek to become involved in behaviour incidents wherever possible as challenging a deputy is clearly different in scope than challenging another member of staff. It's not advisable to have them dealing with day-to-day incidents as the punishments they hand out are significantly more serious (to deter challenging of deputies) than to other member of staff. Discipline in a school requires them to be a last resort. Deputies are better used developing rapport with students before incidents so that they can assist in post incident support of teachers and year leaders than during incidents themselves.
I've spent a fair bit of time explaining incident management to kids, a) that it is appropriate to surrender control to staff members when in school b) that it is important that students understand that they need to follow instructions without question for safety reasons. a) can take a fair bit of convincing especially for kids that have a level of financial independence or are living independently. b) is more easily understood by students. After an incident, explaining to a student why I acted as I did, and appropriate future actions for a student is more important than the incident itself. A student with limited control of themselves needs to understand where the boundary is, that it must be respected and alternative behaviours that can be learned to deal with undesirable situations. My limited experience indicates that this approach works with most students.
The line that the teacher is a student's 'boss' is a learned behaviour. The line that a student has to follow a teacher instruction is a learned behaviour. The line that a student is respectful to a teacher is a learned behaviour. The line that physical violence and intimidation is not ok is a learned behaviour. The line that consequences escalate if student/teacher/Year Leader/Deputy/Principal relationships are not maintained is a learned behaviour. These need to be taught, we can no longer rely on parents and the community to teach these behaviours to a small proportion of a school.
Getting the Principal involved in a behind the scenes capacity is great as they have a wealth of experience and have met most circumstances before. Keeping them informed so that there are no surprises is a good idea. If they have to get involved in a practical sense it is problematic. They are the last arbiter in a school, if all else fails and they get personally involved, the situation has the potential to escalate, reach media and impact on the public image of the school - especially if they are forced to defend poor staff actions. If they are placed in a situation where they make the wrong decision, it never looks good.
Intimidation of female staff by male students is also a particular bugbear of mine. In the way female teachers are generally better at dealing with emotionally fragile students (the ones that need a hug and affection), male students using their physicality to intimidate female staff is an area that male staff can and (I think) should be used where appropriate. Reinforcement of Australian values towards women, like everything else, is a learned behaviour that is not always modelled in the home. Where culturally women are not valued - this message can sometimes be delivered by male staff and reinforced by caring female staff. Not PC I know, but practical. Some female staff don't want the help or need it, and that needs to be respected to.
I don't think I've explained myself very well, which probably indicates that this requires more thought to work through issues. I think it is probably influenced by my involvement in corporate life where decisions cost money and failure to follow instructions costs jobs. I needed staff that could question and develop ideas whilst being able to follow instructions immediately when required. This made for a healthy and robust environment - something I hope I encourage with processes of escalation and the teaching of respect for authority in our school.
Today though was the first time I had to question the delivery of the session and the assertion made during the session. The statement made was that every escalation that led to a student-teacher power struggle was instigated by the teacher. The explanation given (and predicted before it was given) was that it takes two to have a power struggle and that the adult had the ability not to raise it to that level.
I think the simple counter to that was that there are instances where it is in the interest of the school to ensure that certain standards are publicly kept to, especially around safety, intimidating behaviour and agression towards female staff. It's not a PC view, and I know that but I'm willing to defend it.
A no tolerance policy towards intimidation and aggression has to be public. Students cannot be seen to be able to intimidate, physically threaten or assault staff. Students need to know that there is a line they cannot cross. Early in my career, maybe ten years ago, I could stand between two fighting out of control students and know that I was safe with punches being thrown over my shoulders. Today, this simply is not true. Some of this is to do with the mental health issues now processed by schools rather than other agencies, some due to serious drug use, some have experienced war trauma, some due to fewer role models, parenting by screen and lack of care in homes. Students are now 18 years+ when they leave school, some refugee students are older than this, are strong enough to challenge multiple members of the male staff at once.
The maximum practical consequence a school has is the 10 day suspension. Expulsion from a public school is a rare and difficult process. If students are comfortable with threatening staff this is not a deterrent. The ramping of consequences in today's high school teacher -> Year leader/Student Services -> Deputy -> Principal can happen in a single incident.
So back to the original problem. Student verbally abuses a teacher (reprimand by year leader after the child has calmed down). Student verbally abuses a year leader (reprimand by deputy after the child has calmed down). Student abuses a deputy - there is only one step left before Principal and the entire bluff that underpins the system is gone. The student can't be expelled. Here's the line where the processes of de-escalation have failed - the student has had the opportunity to learn how to identify the triggers leading to being out of control. Now a harder line needs to be followed and the power struggle needs to be addressed and is fraught with issues. If the student abuses the deputy, the situation needs to be dealt with there and then. In most cases the deputy has to diffuse or win the power struggle, in many cases with parent assistance. If this fails, like in real life, police become involved. After all, it is not ok for anyone to verbally or physically abuse or threaten to physically intimidate anyone, anywhere. Sometimes it is a very difficult lesson for students to learn. In life someone is always the boss of you unless you live alone on an island or up a tree somewhere!
Otherwise the child is out of control. We are teaching the child it is ok to be out of control, if after best efforts to educate the student otherwise, they continue to be out of control. The deputy in a school stands like police do in the community to ensure safety of the public, staff and students. To suggest that a deputy is wrong to stand for the school in a public exchange where power is involved threatens the fabric of discipline in a school. A deputy is typically a highly trained and experienced member of staff. These are people that understand the role they play and do not seek to become involved in behaviour incidents wherever possible as challenging a deputy is clearly different in scope than challenging another member of staff. It's not advisable to have them dealing with day-to-day incidents as the punishments they hand out are significantly more serious (to deter challenging of deputies) than to other member of staff. Discipline in a school requires them to be a last resort. Deputies are better used developing rapport with students before incidents so that they can assist in post incident support of teachers and year leaders than during incidents themselves.
I've spent a fair bit of time explaining incident management to kids, a) that it is appropriate to surrender control to staff members when in school b) that it is important that students understand that they need to follow instructions without question for safety reasons. a) can take a fair bit of convincing especially for kids that have a level of financial independence or are living independently. b) is more easily understood by students. After an incident, explaining to a student why I acted as I did, and appropriate future actions for a student is more important than the incident itself. A student with limited control of themselves needs to understand where the boundary is, that it must be respected and alternative behaviours that can be learned to deal with undesirable situations. My limited experience indicates that this approach works with most students.
The line that the teacher is a student's 'boss' is a learned behaviour. The line that a student has to follow a teacher instruction is a learned behaviour. The line that a student is respectful to a teacher is a learned behaviour. The line that physical violence and intimidation is not ok is a learned behaviour. The line that consequences escalate if student/teacher/Year Leader/Deputy/Principal relationships are not maintained is a learned behaviour. These need to be taught, we can no longer rely on parents and the community to teach these behaviours to a small proportion of a school.
Getting the Principal involved in a behind the scenes capacity is great as they have a wealth of experience and have met most circumstances before. Keeping them informed so that there are no surprises is a good idea. If they have to get involved in a practical sense it is problematic. They are the last arbiter in a school, if all else fails and they get personally involved, the situation has the potential to escalate, reach media and impact on the public image of the school - especially if they are forced to defend poor staff actions. If they are placed in a situation where they make the wrong decision, it never looks good.
Intimidation of female staff by male students is also a particular bugbear of mine. In the way female teachers are generally better at dealing with emotionally fragile students (the ones that need a hug and affection), male students using their physicality to intimidate female staff is an area that male staff can and (I think) should be used where appropriate. Reinforcement of Australian values towards women, like everything else, is a learned behaviour that is not always modelled in the home. Where culturally women are not valued - this message can sometimes be delivered by male staff and reinforced by caring female staff. Not PC I know, but practical. Some female staff don't want the help or need it, and that needs to be respected to.
I don't think I've explained myself very well, which probably indicates that this requires more thought to work through issues. I think it is probably influenced by my involvement in corporate life where decisions cost money and failure to follow instructions costs jobs. I needed staff that could question and develop ideas whilst being able to follow instructions immediately when required. This made for a healthy and robust environment - something I hope I encourage with processes of escalation and the teaching of respect for authority in our school.
Friday, December 22, 2017
Mental Health - The unwritten story in WA Education
Mental Health (particularly depression and anxiety) is one of those things that cannot be written about or discussed freely in the staffroom. It adds a level of complexity to teaching children and a level of complexity to the role of a teacher. Being labelled with a mental health issue is not something that is easily moved on. It is an underground issue that can change how a child is perceived and limit the progression and career of a teacher.
2016 was the year of challenges for boys in education. The fear of leaving school was palpable with little in the way of career opportunities for boys, both in the mining sciences through tertiary study, through building and construction or through manufacturing industries. The path to a wage or salary position was unclear, as were pathways to white or blue collar work. Students saw parents in long term unemployment. The number of mental health raised issues rose in schools, as did neglect and behavioural issues in classes. The meaning of why students should seek education as a path to employment was blurred as increasingly specialised schooling did not provide the promise of first jobs and the value of a generalised education for the future was not being sold to students that knew better through observations of society and the freedom of information available. Everyone is an expert in the Facebook and Google age. The validity of information and truth itself became increasingly questionable and fake everything became the norm, fame the object rather than the result of success and narcissism the new black. Add to that students that have achieved D/Es in math for their entire schooling that are progressing at a high level but know that they are not at level though mandatory use of Australian Curriculum grading really did not help. Worryingly recreational drug use appeared to be rising again leading to further mental health issues.
2017 was the year where mental health in teaching staff reached the limit of what could be supported. The question was not who had mental health challenges, but who didn't, who was still able to cope regardless and who had to be nursed through until they could cope again. The demands of an education system with limited discipline support, where engagement was the only real answer, where curriculum was alienating large parts of the student cohort, where curriculum modification required teaching three to four years on either side of the curriculum set, where the teacher had to have the answers or be deemed incapable placed additional pressure on teaching and administrative staff. Tie this together with budget measures increasing class sizes, reducing access to behavioural programmes and diminishing external support (the loss of headspace and other programmes had an effect) was a bit of a tsunami in terms of stress in the classroom. Supporting and managing staff with emerging or with diagnosed mental health issues is often a thankless task.
The positive is that private and charitable organisations are starting to fill the need but it adds an additional level of management required on an already stressed administrative system. Where three to four people in a school now manage staffing, timetabling, behaviour, analysis, strategic planning, marketing, performance management, finance, community standing - it is not always clear how they can also focus on academic performance, course counseling and wellbeing of staff and students - leading to a feeling of a tokenistic approach at times. This was always going to be the challenge of de-centralisation and the independent school system - the same resources to achieve local agendas, a grand but difficult plan to implement.
Engagement of students is always the ultimate aim, in a world where schools drive the wellbeing of the local community, I'm not sure schools are sufficiently resourced, either with adequate trained manpower or financially to achieve societal aims. With the influx of career teachers and the diminishing number of vocational teachers (who are burning out trying to achieve what previously could be done with a little effort), next year could be a tough one both in dealing with the inevitable turnover that comes from time to time and some tough cohorts that are travelling through the system.
2016 was the year of challenges for boys in education. The fear of leaving school was palpable with little in the way of career opportunities for boys, both in the mining sciences through tertiary study, through building and construction or through manufacturing industries. The path to a wage or salary position was unclear, as were pathways to white or blue collar work. Students saw parents in long term unemployment. The number of mental health raised issues rose in schools, as did neglect and behavioural issues in classes. The meaning of why students should seek education as a path to employment was blurred as increasingly specialised schooling did not provide the promise of first jobs and the value of a generalised education for the future was not being sold to students that knew better through observations of society and the freedom of information available. Everyone is an expert in the Facebook and Google age. The validity of information and truth itself became increasingly questionable and fake everything became the norm, fame the object rather than the result of success and narcissism the new black. Add to that students that have achieved D/Es in math for their entire schooling that are progressing at a high level but know that they are not at level though mandatory use of Australian Curriculum grading really did not help. Worryingly recreational drug use appeared to be rising again leading to further mental health issues.
2017 was the year where mental health in teaching staff reached the limit of what could be supported. The question was not who had mental health challenges, but who didn't, who was still able to cope regardless and who had to be nursed through until they could cope again. The demands of an education system with limited discipline support, where engagement was the only real answer, where curriculum was alienating large parts of the student cohort, where curriculum modification required teaching three to four years on either side of the curriculum set, where the teacher had to have the answers or be deemed incapable placed additional pressure on teaching and administrative staff. Tie this together with budget measures increasing class sizes, reducing access to behavioural programmes and diminishing external support (the loss of headspace and other programmes had an effect) was a bit of a tsunami in terms of stress in the classroom. Supporting and managing staff with emerging or with diagnosed mental health issues is often a thankless task.
The positive is that private and charitable organisations are starting to fill the need but it adds an additional level of management required on an already stressed administrative system. Where three to four people in a school now manage staffing, timetabling, behaviour, analysis, strategic planning, marketing, performance management, finance, community standing - it is not always clear how they can also focus on academic performance, course counseling and wellbeing of staff and students - leading to a feeling of a tokenistic approach at times. This was always going to be the challenge of de-centralisation and the independent school system - the same resources to achieve local agendas, a grand but difficult plan to implement.
Engagement of students is always the ultimate aim, in a world where schools drive the wellbeing of the local community, I'm not sure schools are sufficiently resourced, either with adequate trained manpower or financially to achieve societal aims. With the influx of career teachers and the diminishing number of vocational teachers (who are burning out trying to achieve what previously could be done with a little effort), next year could be a tough one both in dealing with the inevitable turnover that comes from time to time and some tough cohorts that are travelling through the system.
Saturday, April 23, 2016
Professional Development - Connect use in 2016
I was asked to do a Connect beginners session (a social networking/LMS/feedback/calendar/submission portal developed by the department) at the local group of high schools PD session. I said ok, I can train anyone in anything given a little knowledge of the product and how it is applied. Generally speaking, people like the sessions, will sit through them and try to learn.
Connect though is a funny beast. It's reasonably mature and is being used by students and teachers. It works now, it's not a bad time to adopt it as long as there is a commitment to keep developing it by the department. There are issues with it though that have nothing to do with the software.
Firstly, teachers need to understand it does nothing without a commitment to it. By this I mean if you want it to work, you (as teacher) must clearly define what you want it to do in your classroom. When I used a similar portal (Edmodo) successfully I had a clear idea of what I wanted it to do for me. I wanted to extend my reach beyond the classroom to assist students when I was not physically present.
I had a commitment to Just-in-time intervention, a strategy that requires responses when the student requires it. This required my solution to evolve as needs arose. The skill I required as a teacher was to keep these intervention events in the classroom and maximise learning time outside of the classroom.
I started by attempting a flipped classroom and blending my learning with ICT. Edmodo (like Connect can do) provided the glue between the instructional sessions (designed by me a few lessons in advance on a tablet and posted online or during instructional periods in class on an IWB later posted online) and response sessions. I made a commitment to my students that I would respond out of hours (if I was available - generally after my kids went to bed) to provide solutions to problems students experienced in attempting classwork. Simple things I could prompt with short text answers, curly ones I would explore using a graphics tablet and record my voice to show how I explored the question and derived an answer.
Now that they were familiar with the programme I introduced materials from other sources that they could access with new topics, Khan academy topics and mathsonline were great for this.
Then I added quizzes to provide formative feedback, things like exit statements from lessons or readiness percentages for tests and assignments. As other teachers became aware of the success, they tapped in and started answering questions for my students and I did the same for theirs. This also provided prompts to revisit topics where confusion reigned.
The great thing about one of the classes is that my time teaching reduced considerably, the students would ask me to sit down and not teach. I think this was because we managed to plug more holes this way, they started to answer each other's questions more frequently and they were more capable of independently learning, confident that if they became stuck, help was available.
Each step, I explicitly taught to students. They had to understand what it was for - there was no learning by immersion or osmosis - if they didn't know it was there or how to use it, it might as well have been just another useless page on the internet.
Going back to Connect - this is the sort of thinking that has to sit behind it's use. Connect is useless if it has not purpose in (or out) of the classroom. I used all sorts of tricks to get them using a portal initially, but with some perseverance they became the easiest to teach and the highest performing class I have ever had. I'd like to think what I learned could be used by someone else. I know at least one person has it figured out and continues to evolve their own solution.
How do I teach that to 60 people? When I was researching it, my supervisor concluded it was me not the ICT use that was successful. I'm not sure I agree with him, but enthusiasm for teaching is infectious - it could be the forming of a synergistic class/teacher relationship (with high levels of confidence in their teacher) is the result of ICT usage rather than any benefit derived from the usage itself.
I don't know. Wish me luck!
Connect though is a funny beast. It's reasonably mature and is being used by students and teachers. It works now, it's not a bad time to adopt it as long as there is a commitment to keep developing it by the department. There are issues with it though that have nothing to do with the software.
Firstly, teachers need to understand it does nothing without a commitment to it. By this I mean if you want it to work, you (as teacher) must clearly define what you want it to do in your classroom. When I used a similar portal (Edmodo) successfully I had a clear idea of what I wanted it to do for me. I wanted to extend my reach beyond the classroom to assist students when I was not physically present.
I had a commitment to Just-in-time intervention, a strategy that requires responses when the student requires it. This required my solution to evolve as needs arose. The skill I required as a teacher was to keep these intervention events in the classroom and maximise learning time outside of the classroom.
I started by attempting a flipped classroom and blending my learning with ICT. Edmodo (like Connect can do) provided the glue between the instructional sessions (designed by me a few lessons in advance on a tablet and posted online or during instructional periods in class on an IWB later posted online) and response sessions. I made a commitment to my students that I would respond out of hours (if I was available - generally after my kids went to bed) to provide solutions to problems students experienced in attempting classwork. Simple things I could prompt with short text answers, curly ones I would explore using a graphics tablet and record my voice to show how I explored the question and derived an answer.
Now that they were familiar with the programme I introduced materials from other sources that they could access with new topics, Khan academy topics and mathsonline were great for this.
Then I added quizzes to provide formative feedback, things like exit statements from lessons or readiness percentages for tests and assignments. As other teachers became aware of the success, they tapped in and started answering questions for my students and I did the same for theirs. This also provided prompts to revisit topics where confusion reigned.
The great thing about one of the classes is that my time teaching reduced considerably, the students would ask me to sit down and not teach. I think this was because we managed to plug more holes this way, they started to answer each other's questions more frequently and they were more capable of independently learning, confident that if they became stuck, help was available.
Each step, I explicitly taught to students. They had to understand what it was for - there was no learning by immersion or osmosis - if they didn't know it was there or how to use it, it might as well have been just another useless page on the internet.
Going back to Connect - this is the sort of thinking that has to sit behind it's use. Connect is useless if it has not purpose in (or out) of the classroom. I used all sorts of tricks to get them using a portal initially, but with some perseverance they became the easiest to teach and the highest performing class I have ever had. I'd like to think what I learned could be used by someone else. I know at least one person has it figured out and continues to evolve their own solution.
How do I teach that to 60 people? When I was researching it, my supervisor concluded it was me not the ICT use that was successful. I'm not sure I agree with him, but enthusiasm for teaching is infectious - it could be the forming of a synergistic class/teacher relationship (with high levels of confidence in their teacher) is the result of ICT usage rather than any benefit derived from the usage itself.
I don't know. Wish me luck!
Sunday, April 10, 2016
2016 and the move to Administration
It's two or so years since my last post and a fair bit has happened. From Head of Department to Dean of Studies to Deputy Principal of senior school. It would appear that my career has gone from strength to strength.
Perhaps on paper, but it sure has had its ups and downs. The hardest part about the transition to administration by far is the loneliness that goes with it. In a small public high school there are 5-6 administrators, generally dealing with different issues than teaching staff. First and foremost, you are by necessity distancing yourself from teaching colleagues. You now have a line to carry, whether you believe in it or not, in order to provide a united front for the school. Disunity among admin is tantamount to a dysfunctional school. The vision for the school starts here. Managing friendships and management is not easy to do, and it is often more practical not to try and draw a line in the sand. You work long hours with limited contact with anyone other than discipline cases and parents that are highly defensive and in many cases feel powerless to positively change the situation.
Next is the management of staff. Vocational staff are lofty in their ideals and don't mind how many hours they work, career staff are there to collect a wage in order to provide a livelihood for their families. Most teachers fall between these two extremes. The way both staff are managed are completely different and requires a deft touch to massage egos and be mindful of family commitments. Some are purely burnt out, others ineffectual, others outstanding but require careful stroking. To be honest this is where I get criticised because personally I believe we are paid a lot to do a job. The bare minimum expectation is that you do it. I'm often a little too black and white about this and this causes me trouble. Stroking staff is not an attribute that I have been required to develop in the past, and I find it mildly distasteful. We do what we do due to personal motivation, lack the motivation and you are not doing your job. Unlike with students, motivation has always been the problem of staff themselves. There is an element of motivating staff required, but when teaching philosophies are so diametrically opposed, reconciling yourself to saying what needs to be said to maintain a status quo rather than dealing with the issue I find difficult. I feel I am learning, but on this front I appear a slow learner.
Perception is always an issue. People cannot see what you are doing, and judge you based on how well you do their task. Sure it may not be the most important task that needs doing, but it is to them. That student that did not pick up a piece of paper, that is late to class, has not completed homework can be just as important to resolve as the incident where a student has been assaulted. Talk in the staffroom forgets all the good done and focuses on the current issue as if it was the "thing" wrong with the school. Sentiment changes and your popularity with staff changes likewise as policy that is implemented is not always popular. You are rarely judged on how well something is implemented or considered, the only comment I can recall said to me is that "you are a good operator".
The last two years were hard, transitioning from a job that I had done well for some time (as teacher and Head of Mathematics) to a job that was challenging due to staffing constraints (as Head of Math/Science) to a role that I found difficult and was initially ill defined (as Dean of Studies) and now temporarily to Deputy. In each role I assisted the person moving behind me into it by improving process, building a functional team (or improving a dysfunctional one) and providing a foundation to build upon future success.
Physically and emotionally there has been a toll, one that is still being paid. The returns from teaching are harder to find away from the classroom - there is a high from teaching that is poorly understood or recognised. Take that high away and I see little to recommend in the job other than a wage that sends my girls to private schools - somehow from being a vocational teacher, I have become a career administrator. My task now is to find the reward and vocation in the job in other areas; be that strategic development, staff development, staff managment, timetabling, career counselling, student counselling, curriculum development, marketing, behaviour and risk management or the other ten hats a Deputy or Dean of Studies wears.
Perhaps on paper, but it sure has had its ups and downs. The hardest part about the transition to administration by far is the loneliness that goes with it. In a small public high school there are 5-6 administrators, generally dealing with different issues than teaching staff. First and foremost, you are by necessity distancing yourself from teaching colleagues. You now have a line to carry, whether you believe in it or not, in order to provide a united front for the school. Disunity among admin is tantamount to a dysfunctional school. The vision for the school starts here. Managing friendships and management is not easy to do, and it is often more practical not to try and draw a line in the sand. You work long hours with limited contact with anyone other than discipline cases and parents that are highly defensive and in many cases feel powerless to positively change the situation.
Next is the management of staff. Vocational staff are lofty in their ideals and don't mind how many hours they work, career staff are there to collect a wage in order to provide a livelihood for their families. Most teachers fall between these two extremes. The way both staff are managed are completely different and requires a deft touch to massage egos and be mindful of family commitments. Some are purely burnt out, others ineffectual, others outstanding but require careful stroking. To be honest this is where I get criticised because personally I believe we are paid a lot to do a job. The bare minimum expectation is that you do it. I'm often a little too black and white about this and this causes me trouble. Stroking staff is not an attribute that I have been required to develop in the past, and I find it mildly distasteful. We do what we do due to personal motivation, lack the motivation and you are not doing your job. Unlike with students, motivation has always been the problem of staff themselves. There is an element of motivating staff required, but when teaching philosophies are so diametrically opposed, reconciling yourself to saying what needs to be said to maintain a status quo rather than dealing with the issue I find difficult. I feel I am learning, but on this front I appear a slow learner.
Perception is always an issue. People cannot see what you are doing, and judge you based on how well you do their task. Sure it may not be the most important task that needs doing, but it is to them. That student that did not pick up a piece of paper, that is late to class, has not completed homework can be just as important to resolve as the incident where a student has been assaulted. Talk in the staffroom forgets all the good done and focuses on the current issue as if it was the "thing" wrong with the school. Sentiment changes and your popularity with staff changes likewise as policy that is implemented is not always popular. You are rarely judged on how well something is implemented or considered, the only comment I can recall said to me is that "you are a good operator".
The last two years were hard, transitioning from a job that I had done well for some time (as teacher and Head of Mathematics) to a job that was challenging due to staffing constraints (as Head of Math/Science) to a role that I found difficult and was initially ill defined (as Dean of Studies) and now temporarily to Deputy. In each role I assisted the person moving behind me into it by improving process, building a functional team (or improving a dysfunctional one) and providing a foundation to build upon future success.
Physically and emotionally there has been a toll, one that is still being paid. The returns from teaching are harder to find away from the classroom - there is a high from teaching that is poorly understood or recognised. Take that high away and I see little to recommend in the job other than a wage that sends my girls to private schools - somehow from being a vocational teacher, I have become a career administrator. My task now is to find the reward and vocation in the job in other areas; be that strategic development, staff development, staff managment, timetabling, career counselling, student counselling, curriculum development, marketing, behaviour and risk management or the other ten hats a Deputy or Dean of Studies wears.
Wednesday, December 17, 2014
2014 Achievements and the IOTY
2014 was a difficult year in that it lacked the proactive measures that we have achieved in previous years. Loss of a valued staff member and the care and ultimate passing of a loved one resulted in reduced capacity to implement measures that were in the pipeline.
We did achieve a few things though:
- research is done for organising teaching observations in 2015.
- the 6th summer school has been organised and is over subscribed again with 48 students.
- Mathematics Academy classes have run for the 7th year.
- new staff are integrating well and capacity is growing in Math/Science.
- the Fogerty leadership programme helped develop stronger planning measures for the school.
- we're looking at a number of fun behaviour management schemes.
- transition went well and numbers are looking good.
- implementation of the new behaviour management policy.
- implementation of the formal streaming process.
- implementation of the ICT plan and rollout of 200 units of ICT across the school.
- made connections with like minded schools to ensure issues faced with small groups are diminished in 2015.
- plans have been presented to further enhance the mathematics programme through an engineering and public speaking focus in 2015.
- Australian curriculum implementation is progressing well.
The IOTY award for 2014 goes jointly to the teachers union, our beloved premier and the media for repeatedly reporting that we were on the list for closure or amalgamation during year 7 and 8 enrollment times. A close second goes to the commonwealth for mandating inflexible A-E grading when it is not appropriate for schools with significant delays such as commonly found in low socio-economic schools.
We did achieve a few things though:
- research is done for organising teaching observations in 2015.
- the 6th summer school has been organised and is over subscribed again with 48 students.
- Mathematics Academy classes have run for the 7th year.
- new staff are integrating well and capacity is growing in Math/Science.
- the Fogerty leadership programme helped develop stronger planning measures for the school.
- we're looking at a number of fun behaviour management schemes.
- transition went well and numbers are looking good.
- implementation of the new behaviour management policy.
- implementation of the formal streaming process.
- implementation of the ICT plan and rollout of 200 units of ICT across the school.
- made connections with like minded schools to ensure issues faced with small groups are diminished in 2015.
- plans have been presented to further enhance the mathematics programme through an engineering and public speaking focus in 2015.
- Australian curriculum implementation is progressing well.
The IOTY award for 2014 goes jointly to the teachers union, our beloved premier and the media for repeatedly reporting that we were on the list for closure or amalgamation during year 7 and 8 enrollment times. A close second goes to the commonwealth for mandating inflexible A-E grading when it is not appropriate for schools with significant delays such as commonly found in low socio-economic schools.
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