Career management is an interesting problem in education. Back in the day, a five year plan was probably sufficient to guide a young teacher through the first steps in education.
Year 1 - survival. It doesn't matter that you are doing long hours and are losing the will to live. Find a good mentor. Talk about your issues. As the new cab off the rank, your classes are likely to suck and will be a mishmash of whatever the grid throws at you. Don't complain. Don't overcomplicate it. The classes you've been given are impossible to manage properly so use every trick you can think of to connect with the students and stop them piling out the door and annoying student services. Get on a CMIS Course and learn some low key strategies. Bubble with enthusiasm. If the year was too traumatic and you caused too much chaos, quickly move to another school and don't make so many mistakes this time. Resist the urge to relief teach unless you can't get a proper gig.
Year 2 - critical times. Classroom management should now be in order. If you haven't managed to annoy anyone, they should be feeling sorry for you after the horror story you were dealt in your first year. With slightly better classes, start to get your resources in order and start understanding how content fits together. Your eyes will be sunken into your face and you will look slightly haggard, that sinking feeling that you made a mistake and teaching isn't what you thought it would be will occur. This is the hump. Embrace it.. generally speaking it gets better from here, Year 3 will be easier.
Year 3 - content mastery. If you are finally teaching the same class twice, you will be starting to see how the content fits together in a way teachable to your kids. There will be bad days when you just want to do your job but the kids will just not do what they should. Little buggers. Now that you've been deemed competent, the evil bastard doing timetabling will give you a horror mix of classes. You will laugh in his/her face and get through the year with a semblance of sanity remaining and possibly looking ten years older than you are. All those people that told you year 3 was easier are also evil lying bastards.
Year 4 - What the F%$4 happened. This is when you look back and can't remember the names of students from year 1 but things are looking up. Those evil lying bastards knew something that you didn't know. Something clicks and you realise that teaching is a bit formulaic after you have content and behaviour mastery and you can start doing things you had hoped possible in your first year. A smile returns to your face (though it possibly cracks when you try for the first time in four years). Understand where you sit in the queue of better classes / opportunities at the school. Don't get sad if someone else gets something you want, just figure out how they did it and be ready for the next one. If you haven't already, start asking for that ATAR class. If that evil lying bastard is around, thank them for guiding you and ensuring that you are ok.
Year 5 - Get Out. If you are still in the same place, get your butt into application mode and seek a school with better conditions than the one you are in. Get your resume and CV done. Get involved in the 'write your selection criteria' meetings with Exec. Understand what opportunities that exist that float your boat. By doing this, the school sees potential and one of two things happen - either promotional opportunities occur locally, or you take all your new found skills elsewhere and start again on the same cycle (though hopefully shorter). Check to see if that evil lying bastard is willing to referee for you and will tell others how you are the best thing that ever happened to the education system; hopefully they are your line manager. Year 5 is the critical step for career progression, it refreshes your enthusiasm, provides challenge and is the basis of any 5 year plan.
Years 6-10. Look at what you want to do next and start doing it in your current role. Aspire to HOLA? Work on programmes and get a place on the curriculum committee. Take a praccie and practice those management skills. Join the social, board or ball committee. Be active and gather more advocates for your career. Don't sit back and wait for it to happen. Volunteer for that two week role, lead the student council, anything that makes that CV align with your next chosen role. Do some interviews, get interview skills and your CV right. Your first interview is likely to suck. You won't be ready for that role you really want if you don't do the hard work early. Don't get stuck in a school unless there are serious opportunities for progression. It's harder than Year 2 but more rewarding at times. Beware giving up teaching student time (it's an easy trap to fall into) - it's the buzz in teaching, without it, you can start again to wonder where the satisfaction is, even if it is a bit easier. Students may make your hair flame in burning angst but they are also why we enter into this thing.
After that you'll have to ask someone that has successfully navigated it. I'm still figuring it out too, although on a fairly accelerated trajectory. Have fun!
Thursday, December 5, 2019
Friday, November 8, 2019
Looking back at 2019
So when I look back at 2019 I see a successful year.
- Deputy for the majority of the year
- Supported three different Principals
- Assisted students find alternate pathways where required
- Navigated difficult cases working with Department of Communities, Department of Justice, Participation and Engagement resulting in positive outcomes for students
- Led the Course Counselling team
- Led the Curriculum team
- Completed the 2020 timetable (undone)
- Created a MAG class for 7/8 to assist low literacy numeracy students in 2020 (undone)
- Implemented the Student Council Form Class
- Implemented a lower school specialised basketball programme
- Created a focus on Endorsed Programmes (undone)
- Changed the mode of the period 25 class to reduce FTE requirements (undone)
- All teachers on load (undone)
- Created a focus on NCCD intervention (unlikely to continue)
- Worked with teachers in performance management group to raise awareness of opportunities and strengths
- Managed the NNEI relationship
- Named a fellow by Rotary for services to education and welfare of students
- Started the Guitar group and a boardgame group with students (unlikely to continue)
- Continued to work with the low mood boys group (unlikely to continue)
- Developed an understanding of SENN reporting and implemented it for a whole year 7 class
- Mentored two social work Practicum students
- Navigated some difficult staffing issues to conclusion
- Maintained a calm approach in Senior School
- Organised the achievers club with 80 students on B averages (a rise from 50 in semester 1)
- Developed the business plan reporting tool and managed the addition of information to the tool
- Completed 5 job applications, 2 interviews, 1 job
Update (edit above): Sadly, a lot was undone when I returned to my current role due to a host of reasons, (including leaving for a new role in a new school).
Labels:
reflective practice
Sunday, September 22, 2019
High School Boardgames
It's been a while since I have written on board games successful with high school students. While I still have favourites in my repertoire, a few new ones are being used to good effect.
Recently we have been playing Warhammer 40 Killteam, a skirmish based war-game after school. Kids can now play the majority of the rules during a game, takes about an hour and is a bit of fun. Cost of entry is a big concern unless you have a Warhammer person on staff and use their stuff. Playing, painting, assembling, learning rules is part of the fun. Warhammer stores offer school based offers from time to time.
Deception, Murder in Hong Kong has become my go to Cluedo/Werewolf, type game over Spyrun. It's simple, can be learned fast, is easy to get your hands on, and is less than an hour to play.
5 Minute Marvel/Dungeon is a quick game, runs to a timer and gets a bit of excitement in the room. Students have to refine their strategy as the enemies get stronger.
Together with Blokus, Citadels, SET, Ticket to Ride Europe, Apples to Apples, Dixit, Carcassone, Claustrophobia, King of Tokyo/New York, Triazzle; games in a classroom can become a whole class or small group activity that develops a classroom and builds social skills.
Recently we have been playing Warhammer 40 Killteam, a skirmish based war-game after school. Kids can now play the majority of the rules during a game, takes about an hour and is a bit of fun. Cost of entry is a big concern unless you have a Warhammer person on staff and use their stuff. Playing, painting, assembling, learning rules is part of the fun. Warhammer stores offer school based offers from time to time.
Deception, Murder in Hong Kong has become my go to Cluedo/Werewolf, type game over Spyrun. It's simple, can be learned fast, is easy to get your hands on, and is less than an hour to play.
5 Minute Marvel/Dungeon is a quick game, runs to a timer and gets a bit of excitement in the room. Students have to refine their strategy as the enemies get stronger.
Together with Blokus, Citadels, SET, Ticket to Ride Europe, Apples to Apples, Dixit, Carcassone, Claustrophobia, King of Tokyo/New York, Triazzle; games in a classroom can become a whole class or small group activity that develops a classroom and builds social skills.
Labels:
board games
Thursday, September 12, 2019
Timetabling
In a small school, timetabling is a delicate balancing act. If too many resources are placed in maintaining ATAR classes, limited resources are available for the lower school or for the majority in General or Certificate based courses. If too few resources are placed in ATAR courses, students lack the diversity of subjects required to fully engage them to achieve their best. It also can limit the career progression of teachers seeking positions in other schools as they lack the experience teaching ATAR courses.
The previous core of subjects (Maths II/III (in whatever incarnation Methods/Specialist, 3ABCD MAS/3ABCD MAT), Physics, Chemistry, English/English Literature, History) now has a few alternates with Politics and Law, Computer Science, Human Biology that can challenge the traditional big six for getting a high ATAR score. Language bumps and min/maxing Mathematics Applications (Discrete, Maths I) could also provide avenues for success. To provide a core of subjects can be costly when 10-16 students are involved in each ATAR cohort.
Timetabling is difficult in these circumstances. Split 11/12 classes or combined General/ATAR courses become more common. In our case we share courses with neighbouring schools and bus kids back and forth, using a pair of double periods (one after school) to minimise busing and disruption to the general timetable. SIDE becomes an option where class sizes reduce below 5. It is very important to have teacher buy-in to prevent resistance and disruption to learning.
Important to success is careful planning during course counselling. Choices for students need to be limited to what can be delivered. Failing to do this effectively results in a bloated grid or considerable disappointment and re-counselling of students when subjects are not offered. This process requires long lead times and making accurate predictions on the nature of each cohort prior up to two years before a cohort hits upper school.
To maintain teacher morale, it is important that the needs of an individual are considered when assigning teachers to classes. Planning must be in place through performance management and career planning. A degree of equity is required to ensure that challenging classes academically and challenging classes behaviourally are shared. Strong vs compliant personalities need to be considered. Promises made must be adhered to, to maintain credibility - especially hard as these can be made to past timetablers, HOLAs, Principals or "just be in the head of a teacher" as a fair response to a difficult prior year.
SCSA requirements through the CAR policy in year 7 and 8 has put pressure on the grid. Requirements for digital design, performing arts, visual arts, computing and soon languages puts pressure to maintain specialist teachers within the school, typically with less than a full FTE requirement. This results in an increase of teachers teaching out of area or on reduced loads. The alternative is to have more multi-skilled teachers and to create "teacher based solutions" that are hard to refill if the teacher moves on.
Specialist teachers in key areas (such as Certificate delivery, Physics, Specialist Sport, Dance, D&T, Media, Visual Art) can be hired on reduced loads, but typically request 0.8 FTE over four days. With four to five people like this in a timetable, this is difficult to grid in a small school, requiring careful consideration to prevent lopsiding grids with subjects not evenly distributed across the week, creating situations where teachers have multiple days without breaks or a subject being repeatedly delivered during the last period of the day.
Requests to reduce load to cater to family requirements, mental health or in preparation for retirement are common. With childcare costs similar to working costs, requests for fulldays rather than 0.8 over 5 days has significant proportions of staff on reduced load.
With diluted specialisation (if sharing a specialist subject such as Methods between multiple teachers), a teacher may only get to teach a subject once every two to three years. This does not lend itself to the level of specialisation typically required to be able to accurately grade and design assessment materials. This has created an increased reliance on purchased assessments (which are regularly compromised through sharing on social media) and small group moderation. Small group moderation puts additional pressure on teachers as there is an overhead mantaining these relationships successfully.
More recently the need to use endorsed programmes to supplement WACE has become more prevalent. Leadership, Sporting, Performing Arts and Workplace Learning skills developed by teachers requires individuals to deliver particular courses as only they have the expertise and patience required to monitor, manage evidence and deliver the programmes within the school, limiting where these individuals can be used on the grid.
Other considerations also drive the timetable. Marketing a school is important (put effective teachers in year 7/8 or risk reduced numbers from reputation loss), remediation through extra resourcing or multi-age grouping, extension classes, capacity building, balancing electives come to mind.
Understanding these factors, and the skill base of each teacher is the domain of the timetabler. A skilled timetabler in a school manages this with ballet-like grace and few understand the surprise that comes with a grid finally coming together.
The previous core of subjects (Maths II/III (in whatever incarnation Methods/Specialist, 3ABCD MAS/3ABCD MAT), Physics, Chemistry, English/English Literature, History) now has a few alternates with Politics and Law, Computer Science, Human Biology that can challenge the traditional big six for getting a high ATAR score. Language bumps and min/maxing Mathematics Applications (Discrete, Maths I) could also provide avenues for success. To provide a core of subjects can be costly when 10-16 students are involved in each ATAR cohort.
Timetabling is difficult in these circumstances. Split 11/12 classes or combined General/ATAR courses become more common. In our case we share courses with neighbouring schools and bus kids back and forth, using a pair of double periods (one after school) to minimise busing and disruption to the general timetable. SIDE becomes an option where class sizes reduce below 5. It is very important to have teacher buy-in to prevent resistance and disruption to learning.
Important to success is careful planning during course counselling. Choices for students need to be limited to what can be delivered. Failing to do this effectively results in a bloated grid or considerable disappointment and re-counselling of students when subjects are not offered. This process requires long lead times and making accurate predictions on the nature of each cohort prior up to two years before a cohort hits upper school.
To maintain teacher morale, it is important that the needs of an individual are considered when assigning teachers to classes. Planning must be in place through performance management and career planning. A degree of equity is required to ensure that challenging classes academically and challenging classes behaviourally are shared. Strong vs compliant personalities need to be considered. Promises made must be adhered to, to maintain credibility - especially hard as these can be made to past timetablers, HOLAs, Principals or "just be in the head of a teacher" as a fair response to a difficult prior year.
SCSA requirements through the CAR policy in year 7 and 8 has put pressure on the grid. Requirements for digital design, performing arts, visual arts, computing and soon languages puts pressure to maintain specialist teachers within the school, typically with less than a full FTE requirement. This results in an increase of teachers teaching out of area or on reduced loads. The alternative is to have more multi-skilled teachers and to create "teacher based solutions" that are hard to refill if the teacher moves on.
Specialist teachers in key areas (such as Certificate delivery, Physics, Specialist Sport, Dance, D&T, Media, Visual Art) can be hired on reduced loads, but typically request 0.8 FTE over four days. With four to five people like this in a timetable, this is difficult to grid in a small school, requiring careful consideration to prevent lopsiding grids with subjects not evenly distributed across the week, creating situations where teachers have multiple days without breaks or a subject being repeatedly delivered during the last period of the day.
Requests to reduce load to cater to family requirements, mental health or in preparation for retirement are common. With childcare costs similar to working costs, requests for fulldays rather than 0.8 over 5 days has significant proportions of staff on reduced load.
With diluted specialisation (if sharing a specialist subject such as Methods between multiple teachers), a teacher may only get to teach a subject once every two to three years. This does not lend itself to the level of specialisation typically required to be able to accurately grade and design assessment materials. This has created an increased reliance on purchased assessments (which are regularly compromised through sharing on social media) and small group moderation. Small group moderation puts additional pressure on teachers as there is an overhead mantaining these relationships successfully.
More recently the need to use endorsed programmes to supplement WACE has become more prevalent. Leadership, Sporting, Performing Arts and Workplace Learning skills developed by teachers requires individuals to deliver particular courses as only they have the expertise and patience required to monitor, manage evidence and deliver the programmes within the school, limiting where these individuals can be used on the grid.
Other considerations also drive the timetable. Marketing a school is important (put effective teachers in year 7/8 or risk reduced numbers from reputation loss), remediation through extra resourcing or multi-age grouping, extension classes, capacity building, balancing electives come to mind.
Understanding these factors, and the skill base of each teacher is the domain of the timetabler. A skilled timetabler in a school manages this with ballet-like grace and few understand the surprise that comes with a grid finally coming together.
Labels:
deputy roles,
timetabling
Sunday, August 25, 2019
Staff and student wellbeing
Developing a positive culture at a high school is an ongoing task. Transience, cohort changes, workload, personalities, religious beliefs and perceived racism, perceived sexism, competence, home life, mental health, physical health, systemic change, leadership styles can all influence the "mood score" of a school.
Most schools are currently grappling with the Aboriginal cultural standards framework. Some schools will be grappling with societal changes (eg. changing the way the issue is viewed in society) as they will have few, if any Aboriginal students in the school. There will be many people in these environments that believe the whole project is a minor inconvenience that can be for the most part ignored.
In our environment this is not true. How we embed these ideas in the school will impact the mood of the whole school. We're probably a little bit ahead of the game, which allows agencies to think we are a solution that will work for at-risk students. Unfortunately that is not always true as these interactions require intensive support for success, support that is already stretched between the competing needs of the school.
There is that balance in resourcing for us that needs to examined as individual students can disrupt the learning of large number of students. Although, through the framework we can assist these students, over time, in some extreme cases (like with any other student from any other nationality) the needs of the individual exceeds the ability of a school to respond to their needs and external help is required. For these students, the ping pong between agencies begins as they see the best solution as a child in a school, but the school sees the situation as untenable as they put students, staff and themselves at risk when they enter school grounds due to their current circumstance.
The ability of teachers to deal with the individual needs of a student is not equal across a school. Identifying new areas of challenge(weaknesses) and then working with teachers to resolve them is a delicate process, challenging established practices and then examining and redirecting to develop alternate practices. Trauma informed practice, culturally informed practices, perceived racism in practices, perceived favouritism toward students, perceived sexism in practices, gender related practices (a relatively new phenomenon to deal with) all require a delicate touch, to confront someone after a complaint to challenge the way they teach can go as deep as personal identity which can result in emotional and aggressive responses.
Although teachers are relatively static in a school, year 12 cohorts leave and year 7 cohorts enter each year. This results in a leaving of the leadership of the school, the most competent in a school leaving each year and a whole new group becoming embedded in the culture. With the varying skill levels of teachers in year 7, this can impact the school for a significant period. Students transitioning to school have siblings in feeder primary schools and this, more than any other factor, impacts on the enrolments at a school. These are the parents giving feedback to new parents in each feeder primary school. No amount of marketing will overcome the response of existing parents leaving the school or repeating that the school has an issue with fighting, bullying, drug use, poor teaching practices etc.
The one line budget has put significant strain on small schools, struggling to maintain ATAR classes, struggling with high class numbers and struggling to provide high levels of support to students with all the issues that low-socioeconomic areas bring in financially struggling, high levels of mental health concerns, limited parenting, low support for education, high levels of drug use in the home, and with considerable parts of welfare dependent cohorts. Many of these categories are not covered through the one line budget outside of broad groups such as EALD, Aboriginal and Islander students, and Intellectual disabilities. The use of one line funds to maintain additional school Psychologist time in particular is one drain on a budget. To fund extra class resources, Professional Development is being done in-house as much as possible, external agencies are being brought into schools in an increasing rate (which feels a bit like money shuffling as all the money comes from the same place), requiring additional management time to do properly.
The story here is only the beginning which shows how complex and underdeveloped my understanding is of the issues we face. I suppose the point is that school culture changes glacially as nothing seems to occur in a vacuum and very few simplistic solutions can have an impact across a school - all we can do is look for wins in certain areas, make sure they don't move resources from something that is already working and measure the effect. A school has a simple goal at it's heart ("teaching kids well") but have allowed themselves to become much more and we may need to reconsider some of the roles that schools play to gain traction again with the idea that "high care, high expectations, high results" is narrow enough in its scope to do well.
Most schools are currently grappling with the Aboriginal cultural standards framework. Some schools will be grappling with societal changes (eg. changing the way the issue is viewed in society) as they will have few, if any Aboriginal students in the school. There will be many people in these environments that believe the whole project is a minor inconvenience that can be for the most part ignored.
In our environment this is not true. How we embed these ideas in the school will impact the mood of the whole school. We're probably a little bit ahead of the game, which allows agencies to think we are a solution that will work for at-risk students. Unfortunately that is not always true as these interactions require intensive support for success, support that is already stretched between the competing needs of the school.
There is that balance in resourcing for us that needs to examined as individual students can disrupt the learning of large number of students. Although, through the framework we can assist these students, over time, in some extreme cases (like with any other student from any other nationality) the needs of the individual exceeds the ability of a school to respond to their needs and external help is required. For these students, the ping pong between agencies begins as they see the best solution as a child in a school, but the school sees the situation as untenable as they put students, staff and themselves at risk when they enter school grounds due to their current circumstance.
The ability of teachers to deal with the individual needs of a student is not equal across a school. Identifying new areas of challenge(weaknesses) and then working with teachers to resolve them is a delicate process, challenging established practices and then examining and redirecting to develop alternate practices. Trauma informed practice, culturally informed practices, perceived racism in practices, perceived favouritism toward students, perceived sexism in practices, gender related practices (a relatively new phenomenon to deal with) all require a delicate touch, to confront someone after a complaint to challenge the way they teach can go as deep as personal identity which can result in emotional and aggressive responses.
Although teachers are relatively static in a school, year 12 cohorts leave and year 7 cohorts enter each year. This results in a leaving of the leadership of the school, the most competent in a school leaving each year and a whole new group becoming embedded in the culture. With the varying skill levels of teachers in year 7, this can impact the school for a significant period. Students transitioning to school have siblings in feeder primary schools and this, more than any other factor, impacts on the enrolments at a school. These are the parents giving feedback to new parents in each feeder primary school. No amount of marketing will overcome the response of existing parents leaving the school or repeating that the school has an issue with fighting, bullying, drug use, poor teaching practices etc.
The one line budget has put significant strain on small schools, struggling to maintain ATAR classes, struggling with high class numbers and struggling to provide high levels of support to students with all the issues that low-socioeconomic areas bring in financially struggling, high levels of mental health concerns, limited parenting, low support for education, high levels of drug use in the home, and with considerable parts of welfare dependent cohorts. Many of these categories are not covered through the one line budget outside of broad groups such as EALD, Aboriginal and Islander students, and Intellectual disabilities. The use of one line funds to maintain additional school Psychologist time in particular is one drain on a budget. To fund extra class resources, Professional Development is being done in-house as much as possible, external agencies are being brought into schools in an increasing rate (which feels a bit like money shuffling as all the money comes from the same place), requiring additional management time to do properly.
The story here is only the beginning which shows how complex and underdeveloped my understanding is of the issues we face. I suppose the point is that school culture changes glacially as nothing seems to occur in a vacuum and very few simplistic solutions can have an impact across a school - all we can do is look for wins in certain areas, make sure they don't move resources from something that is already working and measure the effect. A school has a simple goal at it's heart ("teaching kids well") but have allowed themselves to become much more and we may need to reconsider some of the roles that schools play to gain traction again with the idea that "high care, high expectations, high results" is narrow enough in its scope to do well.
Saturday, August 24, 2019
Back as Deputy again... .. and the NCCD list
So that little sojourn back as Dean of Studies lasted all of two weeks and I'm back as deputy again, this time under the new Principal. This is the fourth Principal in 12 years, each having their own quirks, and I imagine wondering what the hell is this upstart talking about now and why do I have to deal with him.
A pet hate has always been implementing things just to tick a box or because an actual solution likely to succeed is too hard. It becomes quickly evident through my body language when I feel this is the case. The current solution for "students identified through NCCD requiring additional support" may fall into this category, although the verdict is still out on the current solution. Students were identified and then pedagogy based solutions written up in documents outlining what will be done for them. There is acknowledgement in staff that the current solutions are not working and more needs to be done to engage them.
My only beef with the current solution is that it appears more about documenting the existing modifications that are "good practice and good teaching" and should be done (regardless of being written up), rather than identifying strategies that will make a difference to a particular student different to the general needs of the group as a whole.
To my mind (as little as it is), the problem requires a multidisciplinary approach. As a teacher I do not know the ins and outs of every intellectual disability or behavioural challenge (and in many cases I don't care about the diagnosis), I just want to know how to work best with my kids. This knowledge is held by school Psychologists and Paediatricians and then provided to me through the school Psych, Student Services or a Deputy. Best practice would say that it then goes into an IEP in conjunction with teachers of other LA's to make a consistent approach where possible.
With the NCCD kids, they may not have a diagnosis but we (as teachers) suspect that something is going wrong. My issue with the approach on Friday at our PD day was that we were asking teachers for solutions - in most cases they had already tried what they knew (and thus indicated that something was wrong that required additional assistance). A better approach (to my mind) is to look at standardised testing results, class results, psych files and then work with the care team to identify possible solutions for the student in the context of the whole class. Working on individuals does not create a workable solution in a class as it does not take into account class dynamics, the biggest factor outside of appropriate content in engaging students. This means that you will be looking at the whole class at once and developing IEPs for groups of students. The class that I am thinking of had 85% of students on the NCCD list, a class that had come together from multiple primary feeders, each indicating that these students faced challenges in learning.
It also did not address the content issue. By putting together teachers from multiple LAs, it did not address whether the student could access the curriculum or more specifically the modifications to the syllabus to allow them access to the curriculum. When a student is 4-5 years below the year level achievement standard, modifications to pedagogy alone are insufficient to engage a student. There it is, "the elephant in the room". You cannot deliver a Year 7 syllabus to a student operating at a year 2 level. They will be disruptive, bored and no amount of reward programs and pictorial representations will give them access to concepts that require years of scaffolding.
It does not address the workload issue. Current estimations are that 25% of students or 100 students in the school need to be placed on the NCCD list. Staff are querying how IEPs can be written, maintained and followed for all 100 students. I too am worried that the current approach is not sustainable.
What's more, having 21 IEPs in a class all different without significant (eg. bodies to assist the teacher) assistance is not going to set up a positive learning environment and put significant stress on the educator in the room. The picture that is created must identify which IEPs align and then create workable groups after classroom cohesion has been constructed through success, rapport and them having belief that learning is possible. I'm not sure this was understood during the session.
So the challenge going forward is to measure the impact of the PD (I would love to be wrong and see engaged students as a result of the PD) and then if it fails, identify the positive parts and then try some of the things listed above that did work during a trial earlier in the year. One of the nice things that happened recently was an acknowledgement that a role of the Wellness team was to identify classes or teachers that were not operating to capacity and allocate support to these teachers (rather than solely relying on ad hoc support from deputies, HOLAs and through performance management). This has the potential to be an avenue to implement some of the more holistic approaches listed above outside of the current NCCD process and get further support to these students in need.
A pet hate has always been implementing things just to tick a box or because an actual solution likely to succeed is too hard. It becomes quickly evident through my body language when I feel this is the case. The current solution for "students identified through NCCD requiring additional support" may fall into this category, although the verdict is still out on the current solution. Students were identified and then pedagogy based solutions written up in documents outlining what will be done for them. There is acknowledgement in staff that the current solutions are not working and more needs to be done to engage them.
My only beef with the current solution is that it appears more about documenting the existing modifications that are "good practice and good teaching" and should be done (regardless of being written up), rather than identifying strategies that will make a difference to a particular student different to the general needs of the group as a whole.
To my mind (as little as it is), the problem requires a multidisciplinary approach. As a teacher I do not know the ins and outs of every intellectual disability or behavioural challenge (and in many cases I don't care about the diagnosis), I just want to know how to work best with my kids. This knowledge is held by school Psychologists and Paediatricians and then provided to me through the school Psych, Student Services or a Deputy. Best practice would say that it then goes into an IEP in conjunction with teachers of other LA's to make a consistent approach where possible.
With the NCCD kids, they may not have a diagnosis but we (as teachers) suspect that something is going wrong. My issue with the approach on Friday at our PD day was that we were asking teachers for solutions - in most cases they had already tried what they knew (and thus indicated that something was wrong that required additional assistance). A better approach (to my mind) is to look at standardised testing results, class results, psych files and then work with the care team to identify possible solutions for the student in the context of the whole class. Working on individuals does not create a workable solution in a class as it does not take into account class dynamics, the biggest factor outside of appropriate content in engaging students. This means that you will be looking at the whole class at once and developing IEPs for groups of students. The class that I am thinking of had 85% of students on the NCCD list, a class that had come together from multiple primary feeders, each indicating that these students faced challenges in learning.
It also did not address the content issue. By putting together teachers from multiple LAs, it did not address whether the student could access the curriculum or more specifically the modifications to the syllabus to allow them access to the curriculum. When a student is 4-5 years below the year level achievement standard, modifications to pedagogy alone are insufficient to engage a student. There it is, "the elephant in the room". You cannot deliver a Year 7 syllabus to a student operating at a year 2 level. They will be disruptive, bored and no amount of reward programs and pictorial representations will give them access to concepts that require years of scaffolding.
It does not address the workload issue. Current estimations are that 25% of students or 100 students in the school need to be placed on the NCCD list. Staff are querying how IEPs can be written, maintained and followed for all 100 students. I too am worried that the current approach is not sustainable.
What's more, having 21 IEPs in a class all different without significant (eg. bodies to assist the teacher) assistance is not going to set up a positive learning environment and put significant stress on the educator in the room. The picture that is created must identify which IEPs align and then create workable groups after classroom cohesion has been constructed through success, rapport and them having belief that learning is possible. I'm not sure this was understood during the session.
So the challenge going forward is to measure the impact of the PD (I would love to be wrong and see engaged students as a result of the PD) and then if it fails, identify the positive parts and then try some of the things listed above that did work during a trial earlier in the year. One of the nice things that happened recently was an acknowledgement that a role of the Wellness team was to identify classes or teachers that were not operating to capacity and allocate support to these teachers (rather than solely relying on ad hoc support from deputies, HOLAs and through performance management). This has the potential to be an avenue to implement some of the more holistic approaches listed above outside of the current NCCD process and get further support to these students in need.
Sunday, July 14, 2019
Named a Paul Harris Fellow!
This week was shaping up to be a shocker.. 6 fillings, four hours in the chair, another hour getting my ears cleaned out, 4 plumbers trying to find a leaky hot tap under the house, stood on a nail, kicked in the knee, hours writing 52 pages of content creating a course beyond my level of expertise (I really am clueless below year 7). Trying to get back some mojo after returning to my substantive role as 11/12 coordinator.
Well.. that turned around fast and came out of the blue.
Last year I was asked to attend one of the changeover nights with the Rotary club that partners with the school. We've worked together over the past 5 or so years and they have done wonderful things with our kids. I've sat in the background and helped where I can. They're more friends that colleagues now.
The changeover night came around again and I was asked to go. It's a small thing to attend and a fun and jovial evening. They're genuinely nice people and it is always great to associate with them.
They asked that I speak about our Interact club with some students and the outgoing Principal (which I did with pleasure as it is a great thing) and about the other things that Rotary has done in the school. The kids spoke well as they always do. When I had finished, they asked that I stay on stage and then the club president proceeded to name me a Paul Harris fellow for doing what I do at school. I was presented with a badge and a medallion.
To say I was shocked was a bit of an understatement as I enable stuff, typically I don't have a lot of time to actually do stuff. To nominate a fellow they have to donate $1000 US to their Rotary charity (which is no mean feat) for someone that turns up to their events twice a year. The people in the club that have been nominated, generally have a lifetime of service behind them. Those wearing their medallions were generally club past presidents. I'm not even a member!
I felt a little bit of a fraud but very thankful for their thoughts and best wishes.
So there you go.. recognised for what I do with the kids. A very cool thing and thank you Heirisson Rotary. You have certainly put wind in my sails.
Sunday, July 7, 2019
One person can make a difference
I've had "One person can make a difference" written on my door for the last nine months. It's a reminder that much that is done in a school starts with one person. It's a statement supported by Hattie in his indication that teacher impact has the largest effect on student learning. My latest project shows the power of one person running with an idea.
With my current period as Deputy, returning to my role as 11/12 coordinator and with the start of a new Principal, it's important to find the next thing that keeps you motivated. Schools aren't a place where you can rely on your line manager to identify what that might be, so it's important to be on the lookout for it.
For me, the main thing that will change is the return to the classroom for four periods a week, as I haven't taught whilst being Deputy, other than the odd bit of tutoring students that come to my office. I've been given a dysfunctional Maths class, the most challenging class in the school and one that needed further assistance. I've had some practicum students who have been observing them for me and we have a great team generated and some defined outcomes that we seek to achieve.
It's something that I would suggest to any educator that has more than three years of experience. Find a project, if one comes to an end, find another project - something that will drive your motivation and keep you engaged. It's a great way to be noticed in the school and can create some great collaborative activities that keeps the mind working and prevents you becoming stale in your role.
Better still, if you can make something that has a lasting effect beyond your involvement. I've been lucky to have had a few of these, maths summer school, mathematics academy, ICT committee, this blog, after school music classes, the boys group, the interact club - but I've also had my set of failures to go with them, projects that have died a slow death. Don't become disheartened if your project does not have the take-up that you thought it would. Be supportive of others if they are trying to get their project up and running.
This current project is a doozy though. To think I could go in as a teacher and just fix things based on my teaching experience would be fairly egotistical and prone to failure - after all they have had an experienced teacher all year. To succeed we need to try something different. I've had a bee in my bonnet about "imputed disabilities" and reporting to "year level achievement standards all year". Ann eMarie Benson at SCSA made the comment to me that if 2/3 of the students at your school cannot meet year level achievement standards, then your school is doing something wrong, and it is something that has stuck with me. We have some intervention work to do.
I was lucky enough to do the SEN reporting at the start of the year and discovered a tool that might be able to provide the glue for the project. Coupled with the SCSA K-10 scope and sequence document, it provided the broad brush to create IEPs for the 25 students in the class. By using PAT tests and NAPLAN results I was able to identify where the class was and with help from the Semester 1 teacher I laid out a programme of work for term three that complemented work done in Semester 1. My practicum students observed the class over the past three weeks and collated their predominant behaviours and attention spans across different learning areas and noted in which classes they were most dysfunctional. The school Psychologist is working closely with me for the first week to identify desired classroom behaviours. We created seating plans and a list of desired behaviours.
Now, as I said - it is not about just going into the class and doing good teaching, they have had that. It's about intervention, which by definition is something different. The next step was to identify resources that were available to assist driving learning. The school has no new resources available at this time of year (thus I'm being deployed to the class as the best available resource), I have the semester 1 teacher remaining with me, but have identified a couple of ex-students studying teaching that have agreed to come in and work. The local university has also pledged teaching students to pop in and assist as my skills in k-7 teaching are limited and I will need to do some heavy lifting to get up to speed and assist them assist the kids.
In any success driven class we need strong feedback loops indicating the level of success achieved. For this I have gone old school and printed A1 posters for the wall indicating each student has 14 tasks to overcome this term and bought gold circles to paste up. Some would see this as public shaming, but the 14 tasks are individualised and noted in the IEPs - if we have set the outcomes correctly, then this could drive a little competition and could be a strong success indicator to kids. We also used the observations done to drive classroom behaviours through a four point behaviour poster which controversially uses some negative language (the PBIS language is missing, but has been ineffectual in semester 1 anyway), it's something I will need to monitor to see if it works. If the posters don't work - it's ok! We just rip them down. I've put the IEP in student portfolios so that they know what we are trying to achieve - and each assessment goes in there so that it can be looked back at as a path from what they knew to what they know now. NCCD quality teaching ideas can easily be embedded in the interventions for each student attempted by myself or associated teaching staff. Staff from outside the class that have seen that these kids are at risk have pledged their support. We have pens, books and other resources to limit avoidant behaviours. They have watched me suspend students all semester - so I come in with authority, now I need to develop a caring rapport to match.
I have worked with the English HOLA and Principal to indicate that this is a model that does not have an overhead, uses resources that are available, lives with the student (SEN reports can be used and progress from 8-10) - it is a low risk project that can be supported. I'm not sure if this is destined to be a failed project or a success - but I'm keen to attempt something that has not been successful in the past and create a new string for the school that parents and the school can crow about. It's important that communication to parents from the beginning is strong and continuous - especially as much of the contact to date has been behaviour related and class reports were for the most part indicating limited progress and students that are behind. Here is the potential for the school response to be vigorous and effective (and maybe even recognised as a good solution for others to model).
.. and if you have a chance to work with practicum students, do it. Yes you will get the occasional plonker, but on the whole they can fire you up and help you achieve work you cannot do on your own. The current pair have certainly done that and can run with an idea (and generate some great ones through observation) once it is seeded and hopefully get a good appreciation of what is possible. Without them, we wouldn't be this far down the track without teaching a lesson. Yay!
With my current period as Deputy, returning to my role as 11/12 coordinator and with the start of a new Principal, it's important to find the next thing that keeps you motivated. Schools aren't a place where you can rely on your line manager to identify what that might be, so it's important to be on the lookout for it.
For me, the main thing that will change is the return to the classroom for four periods a week, as I haven't taught whilst being Deputy, other than the odd bit of tutoring students that come to my office. I've been given a dysfunctional Maths class, the most challenging class in the school and one that needed further assistance. I've had some practicum students who have been observing them for me and we have a great team generated and some defined outcomes that we seek to achieve.
It's something that I would suggest to any educator that has more than three years of experience. Find a project, if one comes to an end, find another project - something that will drive your motivation and keep you engaged. It's a great way to be noticed in the school and can create some great collaborative activities that keeps the mind working and prevents you becoming stale in your role.
Better still, if you can make something that has a lasting effect beyond your involvement. I've been lucky to have had a few of these, maths summer school, mathematics academy, ICT committee, this blog, after school music classes, the boys group, the interact club - but I've also had my set of failures to go with them, projects that have died a slow death. Don't become disheartened if your project does not have the take-up that you thought it would. Be supportive of others if they are trying to get their project up and running.
This current project is a doozy though. To think I could go in as a teacher and just fix things based on my teaching experience would be fairly egotistical and prone to failure - after all they have had an experienced teacher all year. To succeed we need to try something different. I've had a bee in my bonnet about "imputed disabilities" and reporting to "year level achievement standards all year". Ann eMarie Benson at SCSA made the comment to me that if 2/3 of the students at your school cannot meet year level achievement standards, then your school is doing something wrong, and it is something that has stuck with me. We have some intervention work to do.
I was lucky enough to do the SEN reporting at the start of the year and discovered a tool that might be able to provide the glue for the project. Coupled with the SCSA K-10 scope and sequence document, it provided the broad brush to create IEPs for the 25 students in the class. By using PAT tests and NAPLAN results I was able to identify where the class was and with help from the Semester 1 teacher I laid out a programme of work for term three that complemented work done in Semester 1. My practicum students observed the class over the past three weeks and collated their predominant behaviours and attention spans across different learning areas and noted in which classes they were most dysfunctional. The school Psychologist is working closely with me for the first week to identify desired classroom behaviours. We created seating plans and a list of desired behaviours.
Now, as I said - it is not about just going into the class and doing good teaching, they have had that. It's about intervention, which by definition is something different. The next step was to identify resources that were available to assist driving learning. The school has no new resources available at this time of year (thus I'm being deployed to the class as the best available resource), I have the semester 1 teacher remaining with me, but have identified a couple of ex-students studying teaching that have agreed to come in and work. The local university has also pledged teaching students to pop in and assist as my skills in k-7 teaching are limited and I will need to do some heavy lifting to get up to speed and assist them assist the kids.
In any success driven class we need strong feedback loops indicating the level of success achieved. For this I have gone old school and printed A1 posters for the wall indicating each student has 14 tasks to overcome this term and bought gold circles to paste up. Some would see this as public shaming, but the 14 tasks are individualised and noted in the IEPs - if we have set the outcomes correctly, then this could drive a little competition and could be a strong success indicator to kids. We also used the observations done to drive classroom behaviours through a four point behaviour poster which controversially uses some negative language (the PBIS language is missing, but has been ineffectual in semester 1 anyway), it's something I will need to monitor to see if it works. If the posters don't work - it's ok! We just rip them down. I've put the IEP in student portfolios so that they know what we are trying to achieve - and each assessment goes in there so that it can be looked back at as a path from what they knew to what they know now. NCCD quality teaching ideas can easily be embedded in the interventions for each student attempted by myself or associated teaching staff. Staff from outside the class that have seen that these kids are at risk have pledged their support. We have pens, books and other resources to limit avoidant behaviours. They have watched me suspend students all semester - so I come in with authority, now I need to develop a caring rapport to match.
I have worked with the English HOLA and Principal to indicate that this is a model that does not have an overhead, uses resources that are available, lives with the student (SEN reports can be used and progress from 8-10) - it is a low risk project that can be supported. I'm not sure if this is destined to be a failed project or a success - but I'm keen to attempt something that has not been successful in the past and create a new string for the school that parents and the school can crow about. It's important that communication to parents from the beginning is strong and continuous - especially as much of the contact to date has been behaviour related and class reports were for the most part indicating limited progress and students that are behind. Here is the potential for the school response to be vigorous and effective (and maybe even recognised as a good solution for others to model).
.. and if you have a chance to work with practicum students, do it. Yes you will get the occasional plonker, but on the whole they can fire you up and help you achieve work you cannot do on your own. The current pair have certainly done that and can run with an idea (and generate some great ones through observation) once it is seeded and hopefully get a good appreciation of what is possible. Without them, we wouldn't be this far down the track without teaching a lesson. Yay!
Labels:
intervention,
low ability students,
teaching
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