Today may be looked back as a turning point in education. Is this the disruption in education that has been predicted for some time? Can we take the predictable and repeatable process of educating students and automate the repetitive parts without significantly reducing outcomes and with lower costs? Can education be made more efficient than 1 teacher to 30 students with high capital outlays and investment in property?
Is this the day when the model for educating students changes?
If changes in the economy return us to a nuclear family structure with a maximum of one parent working with the other caring for children or unemployed could this lead to a change in the teaching model?
For instance, if a distance model becomes the norm for many students and parents take a significant role in education of children and teacher re-training occurs on a large scale, do we need schools open 5 days per week?
Imagine if things changed. A 60,000 teacher strong workforce instantly becomes the strongest 2000 delivering online and the rest part time if at all. Online everything becomes the norm.
This has never been able to be done as technology was not there..
It's an interesting thought.
Are teachers in a privileged position with salaries and doing a job that could be done by a relative few? Is there a legitimate case for laying off teachers to preserve capital for the upcoming recession/depression? Some are seeing this period as an extended holiday or a "work" at home. I'd suggest that everyone get into doing something productive such that we can say "I'm needed for my kids to make parents very happy that they have a great teacher" - otherwise these sorts of questions might be raised. There will be discontent over the have's and have not's.
Yesterday I presented to staff and posed the questions -
What is online learning and what does it look like?
What is the difference between supplementing learning online and delivering teaching online?
For some, there was no difference, for others this caused a critical change in thinking.
The flipped classroom was the first point where teaching was effectively done and supported offline in schools and is closest to an offline delivery model that we have for parents. Teachers "instruct" online, students complete work offline and self mark or submit work online, teachers are available to answer questions online as they occur. The intervention done by teachers observing work being completed is not done easily or neatly and would be an area managed by parents.
Teachers might be able to identify things to look out for to parents to increase intervention. Would this be enough to change education from a 60000 strong workforce "rolls royce" solution to a 2000 "it'll do" model where very similar results are found after 12 years of schooling (do the possible efficiency gains possible offline for students of high ability offset the need for 12 years of schooling and would it be less for those that would be diverted into other forms of education such as apprenticeships and the like).
To perform in society, do children need to attend in person school for 12 years?
Heresy.
Friday, March 27, 2020
Sunday, March 22, 2020
Closing Schools and the effect on Year 12 students.
According to the media it sounds like schools are closing next week. The big question is what will happen to Year 12 students? Creating a statistically sound ranking is going to prove problematic for TISC. It's time to think about the what next..
External WACE exams and ATAR ranking are not about content, knowledge and skills but about identifying potential through evidence that can be used to identify students that will succeed in higher education. It is far from perfect, but it is the fairest and most manageable idea devised thus far. The evidence for this is simple - pre-requisites in university courses are rare, they accept students on ATAR scores. I understand the logic that students will have to do bridging courses once there - but the counter argument is that once there they will be able to do the work based on their ATAR score.
I imagine SCSA could do a few things depending on whether schools are out for 4 weeks, a term, two terms or the rest of the year.
1. Create an exam based on Year 11 course content and run it as the external exam. A little time at the end of the year to revise content and advise kids early enough and this would work.
2. Create an external exam based on Unit 1 and examine that only relying on the end of the year to finish Unit 1.
3. Expect kids continue their work in isolation through distance education and run examinations of Unit 1 and 2 as per any other year.
4. Reboot 2020 as 2021 and create a mandatory year 13 for all years currently in school(increasing staffing for kindy/pre-primary and rooming as that year group passed through school years) requiring an extra year of workforce for the next 12 years in schooling (dealing with more 18-19 year olds in high school) and a dead year passing through TAFE/universities for the next four/five years.
Kids in my class are becoming able to use a flipped classroom effectively (where instruction is given through Connect), but it does not work for all students and some require face-to-face intervention to be successful and motivated.
I do hope we are sensible about this. To use 3. (the most likely outcome even if schools are closed for an extended period) has vast inequity particularly for low SES students that are not disciplined, do not have the resources available or are not supported enough for distance education. We should not underestimate the value of peer based instruction within ATAR classes / the power of students at a similar level working together to solve a problem (rather than passive instruction only).
For Certificate students, I am not sure how they will complete any onsite parts of their Certificates - Childcare, Building and Construction, Sport and Rec when industry are shut down as all are courses with significant practical requirements.
For General courses with practical components, particularly those with significant infrastructure requirements (D&T, Home Ec, Engineering etc), will have an impact on students WACE, students through no fault of their own may be unable to complete courses.
For ATAR, General and Certificate courses, SCSA may need to consider reducing WACE requirements for 2020 (fewer units required) and award units based on partial or projected completion of Unit 1.
External WACE exams and ATAR ranking are not about content, knowledge and skills but about identifying potential through evidence that can be used to identify students that will succeed in higher education. It is far from perfect, but it is the fairest and most manageable idea devised thus far. The evidence for this is simple - pre-requisites in university courses are rare, they accept students on ATAR scores. I understand the logic that students will have to do bridging courses once there - but the counter argument is that once there they will be able to do the work based on their ATAR score.
I imagine SCSA could do a few things depending on whether schools are out for 4 weeks, a term, two terms or the rest of the year.
1. Create an exam based on Year 11 course content and run it as the external exam. A little time at the end of the year to revise content and advise kids early enough and this would work.
2. Create an external exam based on Unit 1 and examine that only relying on the end of the year to finish Unit 1.
3. Expect kids continue their work in isolation through distance education and run examinations of Unit 1 and 2 as per any other year.
4. Reboot 2020 as 2021 and create a mandatory year 13 for all years currently in school(increasing staffing for kindy/pre-primary and rooming as that year group passed through school years) requiring an extra year of workforce for the next 12 years in schooling (dealing with more 18-19 year olds in high school) and a dead year passing through TAFE/universities for the next four/five years.
Kids in my class are becoming able to use a flipped classroom effectively (where instruction is given through Connect), but it does not work for all students and some require face-to-face intervention to be successful and motivated.
I do hope we are sensible about this. To use 3. (the most likely outcome even if schools are closed for an extended period) has vast inequity particularly for low SES students that are not disciplined, do not have the resources available or are not supported enough for distance education. We should not underestimate the value of peer based instruction within ATAR classes / the power of students at a similar level working together to solve a problem (rather than passive instruction only).
For Certificate students, I am not sure how they will complete any onsite parts of their Certificates - Childcare, Building and Construction, Sport and Rec when industry are shut down as all are courses with significant practical requirements.
For General courses with practical components, particularly those with significant infrastructure requirements (D&T, Home Ec, Engineering etc), will have an impact on students WACE, students through no fault of their own may be unable to complete courses.
For ATAR, General and Certificate courses, SCSA may need to consider reducing WACE requirements for 2020 (fewer units required) and award units based on partial or projected completion of Unit 1.
Labels:
HOLA,
reflective practice
Friday, March 20, 2020
The perils of streaming
I managed the streams at my previous school for a number of years and significantly reduced the amount of issues raised by teachers. It was a difficult process to manage as the stream was one size fits all - move in maths, you move in all the MESH subjects. To get around this required three of the four to suggest a stream or one humanities/english, one math/science to be moved. At it's best, students worked with teachers over at least a term to get promotion. By the end the move was valued and deserved. Streaming was done twice a year for all students and reviewed each term for students that had entered the school during the last semester.
The problem with streaming is that it lacks a research basis for putting it in place in an average school. In a school where the level of teaching required is 4+ years within the same room, there is a basis for it as it is difficult to teach students that far apart. In my new school, after removing a small number that require IEPs, it appears that the remaining students fall within a 2-3 year syllabus bracket in each class.
I am struggling with the existing streaming model I am faced with as I come to grips with the benefits and deficits of it. Three streams have been devised with top, middle, bottom courses. Top, middle, bottom have two classes in each, also streamed (creating six fully streamed classes) - the best students in each stream in one class and the remainder in another. The streams appear to align with NAPLAN (with some obvious exceptions being rectified) indicating that for the most part they have been ranked correctly. One teacher in each stream sets all assessments. All assessments are written from scratch in each stream.
Issues appear when the performance of the streams are analysed. Out of the 60 students in the top stream, a significant proportion of the second class are achieving less than 50%. The gap between the mean score in the top class and the second class in each stream increases significantly as students progress through school. My top class outperformed the second top class and were highly motivated and enthused, but students in the second class universally wanted to be in my class (not theirs) but were unlikely to be promoted as they significantly performed lower and demonstrated lower levels of motivation.
Having a highly motivated class may be seen as positive in isolation, but having half the students undermotivated in the top course made me question current practices. In each stream, one teacher sets the assessment with little communication with the other teacher. This leads to the second class being given an assessment that is pitched at the wrong level for the second class resulting in lower levels of engagement. Thus high performing (top pathway but in the second class) students are left believing that they are not solid high performing mathematics students. It also has the potential for friction between the two teachers (at the level of the assessment set and/or the students of the underperforming second class (blaming the teacher for the underperformance).
As a trial I rebalanced the year 8 top stream to have two classes of equal ability and challenged each class to raise their performance. To date I have seen little difference in student performance in my rebalanced (lower ability than before the rebalancing) class and hope to see the other class rise to the challenge. We now have two classes of equal ability, we should achieve median test scores approximately the same. With both classes being exposed to high performing students they should have an increased potential for success.
The second issue that I see is that streaming in Year 7 occurs too early. This separates kids into haves and have nots very early in their high school career, prior to them engaging with specialist mathematics teachers and gaining a love of mathematics. The issues with this is seen with undermotivated middle tier classes in later years and students that struggle to fully engage with Mathematics as they lack proper role models, particularly boys who generally develop later than girls.
A quick analysis today indicated that there is a clear difference in teaching with respect to results in Year 7, as four classes with similar composition (same NAPLAN mean) with the most at risk removed into a remediation class, performed significantly differently on the same assessment, with one class clearly outperforming the others. There are some factors that can be attributed to class differences (the spread of ability was different in two of the classes), but if the differences in programme and pedagogy can be identified then improvement can be made in subsequent delivery across all classes. This was also after one assessment, this may be a strength of one teacher in one topic and may vary in future topics or in students adjusting to a different style of teaching.
The third issue identified is with the performance of upper school classes - there is always room for improvement. Although small Methods (10-15 students) and Specialist (5-7 students) classes consistently produce 55+ course scores, it is not as consistent in Applications courses (30-40 students) with between one third and one half of students achieving a 55+ course score. In a school of so many students in Band 9 and 10 students in NAPLAN9, there appears potential for higher numbers of Methods students out of the 60 students typically in the top stream. To produce a higher number of Methods students requires aligning the Year 10 course with Methods rather than the current programme of 10/10A aligned to the Specialist course and only producing 6-7 Specialist students. We need to make Mathematics a subject of choice for students at the school and fall in their top two subjects ranked by ATAR course score. This means the Year 10 teacher would need to extend potential Specialist students through differentiation in class (rather than through the general programme) and assess predominantly on the year 10 (not 10A) curriculum. If the current course (with a 10A focus) produced more students in Methods with the current programme, it could be seen as workable, but they are not choosing Methods, underperforming in it with many withdrawing from the course in Semester 1, Year 11 (thanks SCSA for an overloaded Semester 1 course) - typically seeing the Applications course as an easier path through Mathematics; resulting in few students using Mathematics as their first or second score in Year 12.
The fourth issue comes with creating unteachable classes. If students that are disengaged are lumped into a class together, there is the risk of creating a difficult class to engage. Rather than working with difficult students, the first option appears to be to use the streaming process to remove them to another class - reasoning that needs to be constantly challenged. My prediction when setting up streams at my prior school was that middle classes would prove the most difficult to teach never eventuated there, but I can see it at the new school. The middle classes appear to lack a clear pathway to keep them motivated, lack positive role models and this may be a good area to explore for further improvement.
Food for thought going forward. Now to get teachers to see the streams holistically and derive positive changes that can be measured for the benefit of students.
The problem with streaming is that it lacks a research basis for putting it in place in an average school. In a school where the level of teaching required is 4+ years within the same room, there is a basis for it as it is difficult to teach students that far apart. In my new school, after removing a small number that require IEPs, it appears that the remaining students fall within a 2-3 year syllabus bracket in each class.
I am struggling with the existing streaming model I am faced with as I come to grips with the benefits and deficits of it. Three streams have been devised with top, middle, bottom courses. Top, middle, bottom have two classes in each, also streamed (creating six fully streamed classes) - the best students in each stream in one class and the remainder in another. The streams appear to align with NAPLAN (with some obvious exceptions being rectified) indicating that for the most part they have been ranked correctly. One teacher in each stream sets all assessments. All assessments are written from scratch in each stream.
Issues appear when the performance of the streams are analysed. Out of the 60 students in the top stream, a significant proportion of the second class are achieving less than 50%. The gap between the mean score in the top class and the second class in each stream increases significantly as students progress through school. My top class outperformed the second top class and were highly motivated and enthused, but students in the second class universally wanted to be in my class (not theirs) but were unlikely to be promoted as they significantly performed lower and demonstrated lower levels of motivation.
Having a highly motivated class may be seen as positive in isolation, but having half the students undermotivated in the top course made me question current practices. In each stream, one teacher sets the assessment with little communication with the other teacher. This leads to the second class being given an assessment that is pitched at the wrong level for the second class resulting in lower levels of engagement. Thus high performing (top pathway but in the second class) students are left believing that they are not solid high performing mathematics students. It also has the potential for friction between the two teachers (at the level of the assessment set and/or the students of the underperforming second class (blaming the teacher for the underperformance).
As a trial I rebalanced the year 8 top stream to have two classes of equal ability and challenged each class to raise their performance. To date I have seen little difference in student performance in my rebalanced (lower ability than before the rebalancing) class and hope to see the other class rise to the challenge. We now have two classes of equal ability, we should achieve median test scores approximately the same. With both classes being exposed to high performing students they should have an increased potential for success.
The second issue that I see is that streaming in Year 7 occurs too early. This separates kids into haves and have nots very early in their high school career, prior to them engaging with specialist mathematics teachers and gaining a love of mathematics. The issues with this is seen with undermotivated middle tier classes in later years and students that struggle to fully engage with Mathematics as they lack proper role models, particularly boys who generally develop later than girls.
A quick analysis today indicated that there is a clear difference in teaching with respect to results in Year 7, as four classes with similar composition (same NAPLAN mean) with the most at risk removed into a remediation class, performed significantly differently on the same assessment, with one class clearly outperforming the others. There are some factors that can be attributed to class differences (the spread of ability was different in two of the classes), but if the differences in programme and pedagogy can be identified then improvement can be made in subsequent delivery across all classes. This was also after one assessment, this may be a strength of one teacher in one topic and may vary in future topics or in students adjusting to a different style of teaching.
The third issue identified is with the performance of upper school classes - there is always room for improvement. Although small Methods (10-15 students) and Specialist (5-7 students) classes consistently produce 55+ course scores, it is not as consistent in Applications courses (30-40 students) with between one third and one half of students achieving a 55+ course score. In a school of so many students in Band 9 and 10 students in NAPLAN9, there appears potential for higher numbers of Methods students out of the 60 students typically in the top stream. To produce a higher number of Methods students requires aligning the Year 10 course with Methods rather than the current programme of 10/10A aligned to the Specialist course and only producing 6-7 Specialist students. We need to make Mathematics a subject of choice for students at the school and fall in their top two subjects ranked by ATAR course score. This means the Year 10 teacher would need to extend potential Specialist students through differentiation in class (rather than through the general programme) and assess predominantly on the year 10 (not 10A) curriculum. If the current course (with a 10A focus) produced more students in Methods with the current programme, it could be seen as workable, but they are not choosing Methods, underperforming in it with many withdrawing from the course in Semester 1, Year 11 (thanks SCSA for an overloaded Semester 1 course) - typically seeing the Applications course as an easier path through Mathematics; resulting in few students using Mathematics as their first or second score in Year 12.
The fourth issue comes with creating unteachable classes. If students that are disengaged are lumped into a class together, there is the risk of creating a difficult class to engage. Rather than working with difficult students, the first option appears to be to use the streaming process to remove them to another class - reasoning that needs to be constantly challenged. My prediction when setting up streams at my prior school was that middle classes would prove the most difficult to teach never eventuated there, but I can see it at the new school. The middle classes appear to lack a clear pathway to keep them motivated, lack positive role models and this may be a good area to explore for further improvement.
Food for thought going forward. Now to get teachers to see the streams holistically and derive positive changes that can be measured for the benefit of students.
Labels:
streaming
Wednesday, March 18, 2020
Week 7: Covid19 and teaching.
A lot has been spoken about the effects of Covid19 and students, but there is another possible impact. The ageing workforce in teaching has led to many teachers working into their 60-70s and now risk exposure to Covid19, more so than in other industries that have gone into lockdown. For some this is life threatening. The question that can't be answered is for whom it is life threatening and who will be ok.
As with health professionals, teachers have been asked to go beyond social distancing (as this is not possible in a larger school or even in a classroom). The main difference to health professionals is that teachers do not have protective equipment or basic expectations of hygiene that can be expected in a hospital environment. At present we are not exposed to sick children, but it appears we will be soon, we are not doctors and will not easily be able to identify children that are sick in their early stages, placing each teacher at risk (more so than the kids as we will be more susceptible to the virus than they are). It is not properly known at this stage if children are propagators of the disease and teachers are being asked to care for them on mass despite this not being well understood.
Students are worried about Covid19. Each day a new scenario is considered. A child misses school due to their parent returning from overseas and being in quarantine. A party where a person attended that was breaching mandatory isolation. A staff member has the sniffles and a sore throat but no fever. Should we seperate desks or try and keep things business as usual? An EALD overseas student returns from home after seeing their parents. Kids concerned about parents out of work for an extended period. Kids not going to school for fear of Covid19. Students pretending they have Covid19 to get out of school. Parents keeping students at home asking for work. Drug(Ventolin), basic needs and food shortages. If teachers get sick how does that potentially impact our families (even if teachers themselves have low mortality rates)? How do we keep learning progressing if kids are kept home for an extended period? How do we complete required assessment for 11/12 students? We have dealt with similar issues before with TB outbreaks or contagion for suicidal ideation, but Covid19 is another level of concern.
Yes, I understand that by keeping kids in schools we may be saving lives in the wider community. What appears to be lacking is that teachers have been expected to take a frontline role, without being asked or given an option as with the rest of the population - there is not enough information available to know that we are safe. To some degree it feels like teachers are being set up as the sacrificial lamb (or a lower risk option) to protect the economy, keep parents working, assist health care professionals stay in hospitals and grandparents to not have to care for kids. Needless to say, teachers didn't sign up for getting sick, purely to ensure someone else doesn't. When a virus is life threatening, a degree of self preservation kicks in.
The union has been silent on this issue.
I am not criticising the department - they have been open, communicative and have a government line to follow.
Currently teachers are being asked how they would deliver content if students were sent home. The answer in many cases is that we don't know, we're busy trying to deliver content to kids that are in school as per any normal school year. For 11/12 students, delivery through technology such as Connect is possible, but assessment remains an issue. For a short period of time, online tutoring is possible, but instructional time is best face-to-face to ensure just in time intervention for students.
Needless to say, the fear of Covid19 is within our staffrooms and it is a current topic of conversation. Although it is business as usual, the underlying fear of sickness has an effect on each member of staff which will manifest in a range of ways. Although general morale is currently good and staff are soldiering on, if teachers start getting sick, it is hoped that schools do close and other measures to protect the wider community will be considered.
I certainly didn't think this would be the big issue in a new role!
As with health professionals, teachers have been asked to go beyond social distancing (as this is not possible in a larger school or even in a classroom). The main difference to health professionals is that teachers do not have protective equipment or basic expectations of hygiene that can be expected in a hospital environment. At present we are not exposed to sick children, but it appears we will be soon, we are not doctors and will not easily be able to identify children that are sick in their early stages, placing each teacher at risk (more so than the kids as we will be more susceptible to the virus than they are). It is not properly known at this stage if children are propagators of the disease and teachers are being asked to care for them on mass despite this not being well understood.
Students are worried about Covid19. Each day a new scenario is considered. A child misses school due to their parent returning from overseas and being in quarantine. A party where a person attended that was breaching mandatory isolation. A staff member has the sniffles and a sore throat but no fever. Should we seperate desks or try and keep things business as usual? An EALD overseas student returns from home after seeing their parents. Kids concerned about parents out of work for an extended period. Kids not going to school for fear of Covid19. Students pretending they have Covid19 to get out of school. Parents keeping students at home asking for work. Drug(Ventolin), basic needs and food shortages. If teachers get sick how does that potentially impact our families (even if teachers themselves have low mortality rates)? How do we keep learning progressing if kids are kept home for an extended period? How do we complete required assessment for 11/12 students? We have dealt with similar issues before with TB outbreaks or contagion for suicidal ideation, but Covid19 is another level of concern.
Yes, I understand that by keeping kids in schools we may be saving lives in the wider community. What appears to be lacking is that teachers have been expected to take a frontline role, without being asked or given an option as with the rest of the population - there is not enough information available to know that we are safe. To some degree it feels like teachers are being set up as the sacrificial lamb (or a lower risk option) to protect the economy, keep parents working, assist health care professionals stay in hospitals and grandparents to not have to care for kids. Needless to say, teachers didn't sign up for getting sick, purely to ensure someone else doesn't. When a virus is life threatening, a degree of self preservation kicks in.
The union has been silent on this issue.
I am not criticising the department - they have been open, communicative and have a government line to follow.
Currently teachers are being asked how they would deliver content if students were sent home. The answer in many cases is that we don't know, we're busy trying to deliver content to kids that are in school as per any normal school year. For 11/12 students, delivery through technology such as Connect is possible, but assessment remains an issue. For a short period of time, online tutoring is possible, but instructional time is best face-to-face to ensure just in time intervention for students.
Needless to say, the fear of Covid19 is within our staffrooms and it is a current topic of conversation. Although it is business as usual, the underlying fear of sickness has an effect on each member of staff which will manifest in a range of ways. Although general morale is currently good and staff are soldiering on, if teachers start getting sick, it is hoped that schools do close and other measures to protect the wider community will be considered.
I certainly didn't think this would be the big issue in a new role!
Labels:
reflective practice
Saturday, March 7, 2020
2020 Mid first term.
Being a HOLA can be challenging. You teach, lead staff, manage student behaviour, guide curriculum, manage a budget and participate in middle management. With 2/3 of your time teaching, sometimes you can feel a little thin.
This year, coming in cold to a new school, has been a challenge - especially ensuring the three classes I teach are challenged and comfortable without the usual background of work that gets done prior to the start of term. It has been an interesting exercise seeing the difference in focus of a low SES school compared to a higher SES school. I spent last week looking at metrics and there are so many focus areas that could be examined - the mind boggles at what can be done with these kids.
I did an interesting analysis of students that achieved 55+ in ATAR compared to cohort strength in NAPLAN9 and another of 55+ achievement in ATAR compared to students that finished the course. Then used these statistics to predict year 10 class sizes by current counselling processes and those predicted to achieve 55+ ATAR scores. What was interesting was the number of band 8/9/10 students that are not succeeding in upper school Mathematics courses or that are doing Applications and getting sub 55 course scores.
A straw poll in the top 8 maths class indicated that their favourite subject was Science. Seriously something that needs fixing and checking why students are not inspired by mathematics education practices. My hunch is an over dependence on Mathspace, nightly practice based homework, difficult investigations and a very focused and disciplined mathematics course is not providing as stimulating environment as is being done with the Science curriculum.
Working to my strengths is working directly with the kids. Starting just-in-time intervention, acknowledging that motivation is a key component in performance and maximising learning whilst students are in the classroom.
For my 8's extension class, it's about ensuring that every class students have an aha moment - we work together to identify weaknesses, plug them one at a time and develop strengths. For my Year 9 development class, it's about getting them to understand that they can do maths (and preparing them for the try a trade we've organised for the end of the year), for my Methods 12's it's establishing a strong work ethic, good work practices and balancing the risk/reward - their time doing Methods work is time well spent that will reap a reward at the end of the year. We've struggled with the OT Lee text but seem to be on top of it now.
I've enjoyed developing investigations for year 8s, IEPs for year 9's and developing a predominantly flipped classroom for my 12s. The videos (private playlist here - not public distribution quality, just for my students predominantly presenting OT Lee/Saddler examples) for the 12's. They take a couple of hours each Saturday to develop and upload, but it has been key to allaying the fears of the 12s having a new face to teach them.
I really miss my interactive whiteboard and having a younger team looking to me for guidance.
I'm tiring and losing weight, my car died, my foot is playing up and I'm not exercising as much as I would like. It's week 5. I know I have to slow down a little as the pace I've set is not sustainable. It's fun though, it's not the weary slog of last year, it's a new challenge I should have taken on but was worried about leaving Girrawheen on good terms, with a good staff to fill the gap I would leave without significant disruption. As far as I know they are doing well and so am I (I haven't had feedback otherwise yet). Bring on the rest of the year!
This year, coming in cold to a new school, has been a challenge - especially ensuring the three classes I teach are challenged and comfortable without the usual background of work that gets done prior to the start of term. It has been an interesting exercise seeing the difference in focus of a low SES school compared to a higher SES school. I spent last week looking at metrics and there are so many focus areas that could be examined - the mind boggles at what can be done with these kids.
I did an interesting analysis of students that achieved 55+ in ATAR compared to cohort strength in NAPLAN9 and another of 55+ achievement in ATAR compared to students that finished the course. Then used these statistics to predict year 10 class sizes by current counselling processes and those predicted to achieve 55+ ATAR scores. What was interesting was the number of band 8/9/10 students that are not succeeding in upper school Mathematics courses or that are doing Applications and getting sub 55 course scores.
A straw poll in the top 8 maths class indicated that their favourite subject was Science. Seriously something that needs fixing and checking why students are not inspired by mathematics education practices. My hunch is an over dependence on Mathspace, nightly practice based homework, difficult investigations and a very focused and disciplined mathematics course is not providing as stimulating environment as is being done with the Science curriculum.
Working to my strengths is working directly with the kids. Starting just-in-time intervention, acknowledging that motivation is a key component in performance and maximising learning whilst students are in the classroom.
For my 8's extension class, it's about ensuring that every class students have an aha moment - we work together to identify weaknesses, plug them one at a time and develop strengths. For my Year 9 development class, it's about getting them to understand that they can do maths (and preparing them for the try a trade we've organised for the end of the year), for my Methods 12's it's establishing a strong work ethic, good work practices and balancing the risk/reward - their time doing Methods work is time well spent that will reap a reward at the end of the year. We've struggled with the OT Lee text but seem to be on top of it now.
I've enjoyed developing investigations for year 8s, IEPs for year 9's and developing a predominantly flipped classroom for my 12s. The videos (private playlist here - not public distribution quality, just for my students predominantly presenting OT Lee/Saddler examples) for the 12's. They take a couple of hours each Saturday to develop and upload, but it has been key to allaying the fears of the 12s having a new face to teach them.
I really miss my interactive whiteboard and having a younger team looking to me for guidance.
I'm tiring and losing weight, my car died, my foot is playing up and I'm not exercising as much as I would like. It's week 5. I know I have to slow down a little as the pace I've set is not sustainable. It's fun though, it's not the weary slog of last year, it's a new challenge I should have taken on but was worried about leaving Girrawheen on good terms, with a good staff to fill the gap I would leave without significant disruption. As far as I know they are doing well and so am I (I haven't had feedback otherwise yet). Bring on the rest of the year!
Labels:
reflective practice
Sunday, February 2, 2020
Day 5: First day with the kids
Sat down today and did the exercises for tomorrow, wrote names in my teachers journal and looked at student results for last year. It's all a bit cathartic and readying me for working with kids. There's always that nervousness that the kids won't respond the same way in a new context.
I'm missing my car, each day I've popped down to the repair place to pick it up but it hasn't quite been ready. It's amazing how awkward it is not to have something that you rely on - can't stay late at work, can't get the bike to do regular rides, can't pop to the shop to get resources.
My own kids are starting year 2 and year 6. They're excited which is great as all years have not been this way.
Managed to get access to school data, logins, timetables on Friday afternoon. Starting to wade through the information and see what is happening. Some Exam results are concerning some NAPLAN results are very encouraging. Horses for courses. Yay!
I'm missing my car, each day I've popped down to the repair place to pick it up but it hasn't quite been ready. It's amazing how awkward it is not to have something that you rely on - can't stay late at work, can't get the bike to do regular rides, can't pop to the shop to get resources.
My own kids are starting year 2 and year 6. They're excited which is great as all years have not been this way.
Managed to get access to school data, logins, timetables on Friday afternoon. Starting to wade through the information and see what is happening. Some Exam results are concerning some NAPLAN results are very encouraging. Horses for courses. Yay!
Labels:
reflective practice
Wednesday, January 29, 2020
Day 2: Learning to keep quiet and watch and learn
Ok, seemed to navigate day 1 without creating a reef of grief. Fell asleep during the yoga exercise, hopefully didn't snore too loudly. Looked at last year's results. Looks good so far. Keep quiet you idiot until you know what you are talking about. Vocalise here where nobody reads it and it can cause no concerns. Talk bout the kids and the holidays, keep it light.
There are many things that I wish I was good at. I've watched people walk the room and talk to everyone in sight, with a smile and some smalltalk. I gave it a red hot go and hope that people see me as a fairly affable soul looking keen to get started in a new role (and not the annoying new person that knows everything). Work the absent minded professor role and see what happens.
I can't tell where the undercurrent is coming from, but it appears to be there - a group of people outwardly working together but a very strange vibe at the moment. It could just be new people working together and not quite gelling yet, I really hope so. It appears that there has been significant turnover, which has created administrative load.
Timetables today. Hopefully IT issues sorted out. It would be nice to get some time to walk the school and learn the lay of the land. Need a spec teacher stat! Get a few boxes of stuff out of my garage and onto my shelves. It's all a very odd feeling. Start operational plans and budgets.
Back to waking at 5am. This is good as I've been sleeping in too long and was wondering if it was an age thing. Hives on my left wrist telling me to calm down. I'm so excited though!! Enthusiasm is a good thing!
There are many things that I wish I was good at. I've watched people walk the room and talk to everyone in sight, with a smile and some smalltalk. I gave it a red hot go and hope that people see me as a fairly affable soul looking keen to get started in a new role (and not the annoying new person that knows everything). Work the absent minded professor role and see what happens.
I can't tell where the undercurrent is coming from, but it appears to be there - a group of people outwardly working together but a very strange vibe at the moment. It could just be new people working together and not quite gelling yet, I really hope so. It appears that there has been significant turnover, which has created administrative load.
Timetables today. Hopefully IT issues sorted out. It would be nice to get some time to walk the school and learn the lay of the land. Need a spec teacher stat! Get a few boxes of stuff out of my garage and onto my shelves. It's all a very odd feeling. Start operational plans and budgets.
Back to waking at 5am. This is good as I've been sleeping in too long and was wondering if it was an age thing. Hives on my left wrist telling me to calm down. I'm so excited though!! Enthusiasm is a good thing!
Labels:
reflective practice
Tuesday, January 28, 2020
New day, new job, first day jitters
For the first time in many years I start in a new job, with new people and a new context to apply my skills. It's a bullet I should have bitten a fair time ago and so far I'm glad I did it. For the first time in my career I walk away from an environment without leaving a big hole that is difficult to fill and hopefully on good terms. Last year wasn't a bad year. I've been a Deputy for an extended period, I've come out relatively unscathed and I've won a great position in a new school.
As you get more senior in an environment, it's fairly normal to see divergence in what you think should be done and what the general consensus is. If you tend to be less risk averse than the incumbent team, then the gap is likely to increase with time. There are a number of main ways to deal with it. You can roll with it, you can try to influence the decision makers or you can leave and find a new environment and bring your hard won skills with you. The alternative is to stay, get stale and discontent.
I've tried the roll with it routine, it's not me and I get frustrated over time. It's more my style to run a team, to understand the goals of the decision makers, influence the team to align with those goals and influence decision makers to align with what the team wants to achieve and measure the results. My last role sat between the decision makers and staff and I spent a lot of time explaining and supporting decisions that I didn't always agree with and had no team to work with. It's exciting to be back with a team and be able to do great things again.
With performance management, I work with staff to ensure that they don't feel stale. What is the path to their ATAR class, do they want leadership opportunities, do they need support whilst their children are growing up, how are they travelling physically and mentally, do they need pedagogical, assessment or behavioural support, do they need support understanding the evidence base of their classes, are they looking for promotion, do their requirements align with the needs of our students and the school? These are critical questions to ensuring that staff are engaged and have a clear career pathway to staying relevant in the system.
This time, I don't know if I have an enthusiastic team wanting me to succeed, but I'm guessing so as nearly all teaching staff are good people. I will miss those that carried me through difficult times and believed that I could do it, even when I looked at a problem and thought how can I do all that! Doing the impossible has been in my job description a few times in my career, looking at the stats of my new school, for a change, this does not appear the case. I'll know more when I have more information at hand today.
I'm looking forward to doing the basics well. Operational Plan, Performance Management, Compliance documents, Faculty Budget, Evidence base, Teaching and Learning.
I've prepped what I can, I've had a good break, everything seems to be aligning nicely. Bring on that first day!
As you get more senior in an environment, it's fairly normal to see divergence in what you think should be done and what the general consensus is. If you tend to be less risk averse than the incumbent team, then the gap is likely to increase with time. There are a number of main ways to deal with it. You can roll with it, you can try to influence the decision makers or you can leave and find a new environment and bring your hard won skills with you. The alternative is to stay, get stale and discontent.
I've tried the roll with it routine, it's not me and I get frustrated over time. It's more my style to run a team, to understand the goals of the decision makers, influence the team to align with those goals and influence decision makers to align with what the team wants to achieve and measure the results. My last role sat between the decision makers and staff and I spent a lot of time explaining and supporting decisions that I didn't always agree with and had no team to work with. It's exciting to be back with a team and be able to do great things again.
With performance management, I work with staff to ensure that they don't feel stale. What is the path to their ATAR class, do they want leadership opportunities, do they need support whilst their children are growing up, how are they travelling physically and mentally, do they need pedagogical, assessment or behavioural support, do they need support understanding the evidence base of their classes, are they looking for promotion, do their requirements align with the needs of our students and the school? These are critical questions to ensuring that staff are engaged and have a clear career pathway to staying relevant in the system.
This time, I don't know if I have an enthusiastic team wanting me to succeed, but I'm guessing so as nearly all teaching staff are good people. I will miss those that carried me through difficult times and believed that I could do it, even when I looked at a problem and thought how can I do all that! Doing the impossible has been in my job description a few times in my career, looking at the stats of my new school, for a change, this does not appear the case. I'll know more when I have more information at hand today.
I'm looking forward to doing the basics well. Operational Plan, Performance Management, Compliance documents, Faculty Budget, Evidence base, Teaching and Learning.
I've prepped what I can, I've had a good break, everything seems to be aligning nicely. Bring on that first day!
Labels:
career progression
Sunday, January 19, 2020
Should I send my children to a state high school?
Short answer. In nearly every case. Yes. If you live in the Western Suburbs and their peers are going to an Independent Public school, if your child is top 5% academically or has an disability, you have personal history at that school, if your local public school is going through a difficult transition or if you are looking for religious education as part of the curriculum then maybe not.
Long Answer. As a teacher supportive of public education this was a very difficult decision and long drawn out process for my own children. For a short period I was teaching in a public school, was an advocate for private education and was sending my children to a private school. It made it very difficult to recommend a state school to parents and raised the question of "if I believed in the private system why wasn't I teaching in the private system too?", "Was I not good enough to even teach in a higher SE school and why wasn't a public school good enough for my own children?"
I wanted the best for my kids as do all parents, the independent private schools had superior resourcing and better results. Surely it was a no brainer to pay the money and get a better education.
With the benefit of hindsight I can say that I was very, very wrong for my family. There are clear reasons why private schools outperform public schools and though it has a little to do with teaching quality as they have more control over staffing processes, it is not the only factor. Despite odd employment practices in the public system, there are very fine, vocational teachers working in public schools working under demanding conditions.
The basic reason private schools outperform public schools in low SE schools is that cost of living clumps struggling families together. Many families in low SE areas lack the education to support their children, in many cases had poor experiences within the education system and subsequently lack support for the education system itself. The proportion of drug use, poor parental skills, unemployment, cultural issues, mental health issues, lack of tertiary study and lack of contact with their own children due to work commitments is much higher. The entry levels of students at low SE schools are much lower requiring more creative work by teachers in secondary school to access the curriculum. The skills of teachers in low SE schools is not just about curriculum, it's dealing with all the other issues too, whilst teaching children.
For most people, in higher SE areas there are few reasons not to use higher SE state schools, your decision should be based on local performance and perception. Investigate local issues with local parents to see what is really going on. Public documents will not reveal much. If parents talk about bullying and uncontrolled classes think about the local fee paying privates - but make sure it's not happening there too. Find out about the tenure of the Principal and their focus. Shifting students from public to private between primary and secondary is tempting but brings a considerable level of disruption to their learning whilst they adjust. There is risk in transition socially, emotionally and academically at a time of significant developmental change.
My own experience putting my first child in a high ranking independent private school from Kindergarten was not good. I was promised a thriving young girl and was delivered an unhappy child in a highly competitive environment, with little curriculum differentiation for a quirky student (as opposed to children at either end of the educational spectrum), poor pastoral care and a group of upwardly mobile people that we could not relate to. As the naive parent that initially proposed sending my child there, it is a decision I have forever regretted.
It's not that the school did not deliver for those parents that pressed their kids, wanted homework, were in the top 5% or had an ID, students that benefitted from strict curriculum delivery and desired upward mobility or were already wealthy and knew it. It just wasn't what we wanted for our kids. After four years of an unhappy child, we moved her to the local public school. It has taken two years for her to be a happy kid again and having normal developmental issues rather than social and curriculum ones. What I discovered was the difference of her being embedded with families of similar values outweighs perceived academic benefits. She could be a kid again and develop at her own pace together with our expectation that she would always give her best effort - not be coached beyond it through constant parental tutoring - the expectation at the private independent school to compete. If you are in a situation like us, I'd suggest rip off the band-aid and get them out, don't hesitate and don't struggle with the decision. It is the kindest thing to do for your child.
We all want the best for our kids. Mine can cope in an environment where they are instructed what to do and are happy to do it. At their new school there is little bullying and enough pastoral care available to deal with little issues. Teaching is a bit hit and miss as the environment is not particularly challenging and because there is no mechanism to weed teachers out if the teacher can't deliver.
We have three low fee private schools nearby and still have her enrolled at one in case of another parental catastrophic failure but I don't expect to use it. I know low fee paying private schools do pastoral care well and are less likely to do the "weed" out of students that do not fit purely the academic mould than the high performing Independent private schools. I have looked into the public feeder high school and am very happy with what I hear from parents at the primary school with older siblings, we should now be ok.
The low SES school that I taught at for so long has better teachers with a more diverse skill set. Students quickly identify the weak links in teaching staff and move them on. Kids that can't cope with the difficult environment move on to low fee private schools or higher SE public schools. Training of teachers is relentless to ensure best practices are maintained to prevent an unproductive environment. For kids struggling behaviourally it is a much better environment than a private school where they would be asked to leave and have their basic security challenged whilst they matured. For them the low SE public school is great as the school wants them and wants to help them mature.
For kids that grow up in the area, can survive the environment, are smart and get access to ATAR programs they wouldn't otherwise, they benefit from intense assistance (without these students the school would lack aspiration and growth). These kids are the pride of their schools, kids that do succeed, despite all the noise that interrupts their learning.
Given my obvious appreciation of low SE teachers, why did I not send my children there? My kids lack the social experiences to deal with the environment, I'll support them to university or whatever they choose, they do not need the extra support to cater to local requirements and don't have the skills to cope with the difficult students. Their home environment is not what I grew up in and they'll do better in a higher SES school.
I was a strong believer in the values education provided by a low fee private school, particularly the service beyond self ethos. I acknowledge when done well it is brilliant. I'm not so sure anymore that it is the norm though (after teaching briefly in one at the start of my career - it was superficial at best), but am open to considering it again - it's just that I've seen the service beyond self ethos in public schools provided by teachers in an authentic way, not forced by curriculum and wonder if this form to kids is more effective. Rotary Interact clubs are a great substitute for this with a win-win for the community and students, where students decide what they want to benefit and it's not a form of community service enforced slavery, tainting their perception of public service.
So, for me choosing a school, ultimately now is not about league tables - it's about cultural fit. Choose where your child will thrive and forget the rest - it will follow regardless. There will be exceptions, but the general rule is this - if it feels wrong it probably is. Ask some questions, make some changes and if it doesn't improve, if the child is not happy, move them. You are doing the right thing.
Long Answer. As a teacher supportive of public education this was a very difficult decision and long drawn out process for my own children. For a short period I was teaching in a public school, was an advocate for private education and was sending my children to a private school. It made it very difficult to recommend a state school to parents and raised the question of "if I believed in the private system why wasn't I teaching in the private system too?", "Was I not good enough to even teach in a higher SE school and why wasn't a public school good enough for my own children?"
I wanted the best for my kids as do all parents, the independent private schools had superior resourcing and better results. Surely it was a no brainer to pay the money and get a better education.
With the benefit of hindsight I can say that I was very, very wrong for my family. There are clear reasons why private schools outperform public schools and though it has a little to do with teaching quality as they have more control over staffing processes, it is not the only factor. Despite odd employment practices in the public system, there are very fine, vocational teachers working in public schools working under demanding conditions.
The basic reason private schools outperform public schools in low SE schools is that cost of living clumps struggling families together. Many families in low SE areas lack the education to support their children, in many cases had poor experiences within the education system and subsequently lack support for the education system itself. The proportion of drug use, poor parental skills, unemployment, cultural issues, mental health issues, lack of tertiary study and lack of contact with their own children due to work commitments is much higher. The entry levels of students at low SE schools are much lower requiring more creative work by teachers in secondary school to access the curriculum. The skills of teachers in low SE schools is not just about curriculum, it's dealing with all the other issues too, whilst teaching children.
For most people, in higher SE areas there are few reasons not to use higher SE state schools, your decision should be based on local performance and perception. Investigate local issues with local parents to see what is really going on. Public documents will not reveal much. If parents talk about bullying and uncontrolled classes think about the local fee paying privates - but make sure it's not happening there too. Find out about the tenure of the Principal and their focus. Shifting students from public to private between primary and secondary is tempting but brings a considerable level of disruption to their learning whilst they adjust. There is risk in transition socially, emotionally and academically at a time of significant developmental change.
My own experience putting my first child in a high ranking independent private school from Kindergarten was not good. I was promised a thriving young girl and was delivered an unhappy child in a highly competitive environment, with little curriculum differentiation for a quirky student (as opposed to children at either end of the educational spectrum), poor pastoral care and a group of upwardly mobile people that we could not relate to. As the naive parent that initially proposed sending my child there, it is a decision I have forever regretted.
It's not that the school did not deliver for those parents that pressed their kids, wanted homework, were in the top 5% or had an ID, students that benefitted from strict curriculum delivery and desired upward mobility or were already wealthy and knew it. It just wasn't what we wanted for our kids. After four years of an unhappy child, we moved her to the local public school. It has taken two years for her to be a happy kid again and having normal developmental issues rather than social and curriculum ones. What I discovered was the difference of her being embedded with families of similar values outweighs perceived academic benefits. She could be a kid again and develop at her own pace together with our expectation that she would always give her best effort - not be coached beyond it through constant parental tutoring - the expectation at the private independent school to compete. If you are in a situation like us, I'd suggest rip off the band-aid and get them out, don't hesitate and don't struggle with the decision. It is the kindest thing to do for your child.
We all want the best for our kids. Mine can cope in an environment where they are instructed what to do and are happy to do it. At their new school there is little bullying and enough pastoral care available to deal with little issues. Teaching is a bit hit and miss as the environment is not particularly challenging and because there is no mechanism to weed teachers out if the teacher can't deliver.
We have three low fee private schools nearby and still have her enrolled at one in case of another parental catastrophic failure but I don't expect to use it. I know low fee paying private schools do pastoral care well and are less likely to do the "weed" out of students that do not fit purely the academic mould than the high performing Independent private schools. I have looked into the public feeder high school and am very happy with what I hear from parents at the primary school with older siblings, we should now be ok.
The low SES school that I taught at for so long has better teachers with a more diverse skill set. Students quickly identify the weak links in teaching staff and move them on. Kids that can't cope with the difficult environment move on to low fee private schools or higher SE public schools. Training of teachers is relentless to ensure best practices are maintained to prevent an unproductive environment. For kids struggling behaviourally it is a much better environment than a private school where they would be asked to leave and have their basic security challenged whilst they matured. For them the low SE public school is great as the school wants them and wants to help them mature.
For kids that grow up in the area, can survive the environment, are smart and get access to ATAR programs they wouldn't otherwise, they benefit from intense assistance (without these students the school would lack aspiration and growth). These kids are the pride of their schools, kids that do succeed, despite all the noise that interrupts their learning.
Given my obvious appreciation of low SE teachers, why did I not send my children there? My kids lack the social experiences to deal with the environment, I'll support them to university or whatever they choose, they do not need the extra support to cater to local requirements and don't have the skills to cope with the difficult students. Their home environment is not what I grew up in and they'll do better in a higher SES school.
I was a strong believer in the values education provided by a low fee private school, particularly the service beyond self ethos. I acknowledge when done well it is brilliant. I'm not so sure anymore that it is the norm though (after teaching briefly in one at the start of my career - it was superficial at best), but am open to considering it again - it's just that I've seen the service beyond self ethos in public schools provided by teachers in an authentic way, not forced by curriculum and wonder if this form to kids is more effective. Rotary Interact clubs are a great substitute for this with a win-win for the community and students, where students decide what they want to benefit and it's not a form of community service enforced slavery, tainting their perception of public service.
So, for me choosing a school, ultimately now is not about league tables - it's about cultural fit. Choose where your child will thrive and forget the rest - it will follow regardless. There will be exceptions, but the general rule is this - if it feels wrong it probably is. Ask some questions, make some changes and if it doesn't improve, if the child is not happy, move them. You are doing the right thing.
Labels:
public vs private,
school choice
Wednesday, January 8, 2020
Sadler Methods text and general ideas for improving ATAR results
I've been a proponent of Sadler texts in low SES schools as they are relatively cheap, ramp slowly, have reasonable worked examples and I really like the built in study through the Miscellaneous exercises. Some teachers really dislike them and prefer the Nelson texts instead and for some students the Nelson text is better. By doing the Sadler Unit 3 Methods text again to reacquaint myself with the course, it has reminded me of a few pitfalls I have encountered along the way.
There are some tricks to using the Saddler text.
1. Go through each worked example with students identifying explicitly what Saddler wanted students to recognise in each topic.
2. Understand that Saddler does not cover every dot point in the syllabus. You do need to check what is missing and include it in your programme.
3. Check that students are doing the Miscellaneous questions, otherwise they will miss one of the greatest benefits of the Sadler text.
4. There are few exam level questions in the text. Ensure students use their revision guide in conjunction with the text.
5. Provide revision papers, prior to tests and exams, to get students to assessment level. The text does not do this at all.
6. Make connections to the glossary and formula sheet whilst students are learning.
7. Use a journal to identify key points (eg. get students to put their notes in a seperate book from their exercises) and then generate their page of notes from the journal.
8. Get students to highlight question numbers that are tricky or test corners of the syllabus that may turn up in assessment.
9. Identify which questions may appear in calculator sections and which questions appear in non-calculator sections.
10. Explicitly teach and enforce calculator usage until competency.
11. Make sure students are reaching questions at the end of chapters and not just doing 15 easy questions in class.
12. Do corrections (and go through the assessment) after each assessment.
13. Ensure that students check answers after every exercise (at a minimum) and redo questions that are incorrect. Preferably in red pen, so that you can see from a distance without interrupting them.
14. Be mindful that some exercises take longer than others when setting homework. As a safety net, I tell students to stop after 1hr 15 mins and assume that they will do a minimum of 45 mins every night. If it is the whole class, we continue the exercise the next day. If just a few students we identify together why they are taking too long and try to remedy it.
15. Extend students with the Nelson text if they are finishing earlier than the rest of the class. In some cases, get them to use this text instead.
I tell students the following:
a) Do only the first ten questions in each exercise and expect to fail.
b) Do the main exercises only and you may reach 50% on assessments and expect to fail the exam.
c) Do the main exercises and miscellaneous exercises, you may reach 50% on assessments and it's possible to pass the exam.
d) Do the main exercises and miscellaneous exercises, make good notes, understand the syllabus dot points/glossary, you should reach 50% on assessments and could pass the exam.
e) Do the main exercises and miscellaneous exercises, make good notes, understand the syllabus dot points/glossary and use the revision guide, you should do well (60%) on assessments and may pass exams.
f) Do the main exercises and miscellaneous exercises, make good notes, understand the syllabus dot points/glossary, use the revision guide and do your corrections thoroughly, you should do well (60%+) on assessments and about the same in the exam.
g) Make a study group prior to exams and allocate content research for revision to each member prior to study meetings to further improve exam results. Drop members that are not actively contributing.
h) Do as many past papers as you can lay your hands on and have time to complete. Identify any patterns in papers.
i) Do all the past ATAR papers prior to Mock/ATAR exams.
Given the median in exams is over 70%, points g-i are imperative for low SES students to reaching the state mean (not only using Methods as part of your ATAR score). We would complement above with after school classes, UWA Fairway, ECU Studiosity and summer schools to help students rectify the 2 year gap that they entered high school with.
Natural ability will take some students so far and buck the trend, but usually it catches up with them. The formula above has worked well with getting average students through the course and though "obvious" took a fair few years to nut out what worked and what was ineffective for larger groups of students (other than just the top four students or students falling behind getting intensive tutoring).
There are some tricks to using the Saddler text.
1. Go through each worked example with students identifying explicitly what Saddler wanted students to recognise in each topic.
2. Understand that Saddler does not cover every dot point in the syllabus. You do need to check what is missing and include it in your programme.
3. Check that students are doing the Miscellaneous questions, otherwise they will miss one of the greatest benefits of the Sadler text.
4. There are few exam level questions in the text. Ensure students use their revision guide in conjunction with the text.
5. Provide revision papers, prior to tests and exams, to get students to assessment level. The text does not do this at all.
6. Make connections to the glossary and formula sheet whilst students are learning.
7. Use a journal to identify key points (eg. get students to put their notes in a seperate book from their exercises) and then generate their page of notes from the journal.
8. Get students to highlight question numbers that are tricky or test corners of the syllabus that may turn up in assessment.
9. Identify which questions may appear in calculator sections and which questions appear in non-calculator sections.
10. Explicitly teach and enforce calculator usage until competency.
11. Make sure students are reaching questions at the end of chapters and not just doing 15 easy questions in class.
12. Do corrections (and go through the assessment) after each assessment.
13. Ensure that students check answers after every exercise (at a minimum) and redo questions that are incorrect. Preferably in red pen, so that you can see from a distance without interrupting them.
14. Be mindful that some exercises take longer than others when setting homework. As a safety net, I tell students to stop after 1hr 15 mins and assume that they will do a minimum of 45 mins every night. If it is the whole class, we continue the exercise the next day. If just a few students we identify together why they are taking too long and try to remedy it.
15. Extend students with the Nelson text if they are finishing earlier than the rest of the class. In some cases, get them to use this text instead.
I tell students the following:
a) Do only the first ten questions in each exercise and expect to fail.
b) Do the main exercises only and you may reach 50% on assessments and expect to fail the exam.
c) Do the main exercises and miscellaneous exercises, you may reach 50% on assessments and it's possible to pass the exam.
d) Do the main exercises and miscellaneous exercises, make good notes, understand the syllabus dot points/glossary, you should reach 50% on assessments and could pass the exam.
e) Do the main exercises and miscellaneous exercises, make good notes, understand the syllabus dot points/glossary and use the revision guide, you should do well (60%) on assessments and may pass exams.
f) Do the main exercises and miscellaneous exercises, make good notes, understand the syllabus dot points/glossary, use the revision guide and do your corrections thoroughly, you should do well (60%+) on assessments and about the same in the exam.
g) Make a study group prior to exams and allocate content research for revision to each member prior to study meetings to further improve exam results. Drop members that are not actively contributing.
h) Do as many past papers as you can lay your hands on and have time to complete. Identify any patterns in papers.
i) Do all the past ATAR papers prior to Mock/ATAR exams.
Given the median in exams is over 70%, points g-i are imperative for low SES students to reaching the state mean (not only using Methods as part of your ATAR score). We would complement above with after school classes, UWA Fairway, ECU Studiosity and summer schools to help students rectify the 2 year gap that they entered high school with.
Natural ability will take some students so far and buck the trend, but usually it catches up with them. The formula above has worked well with getting average students through the course and though "obvious" took a fair few years to nut out what worked and what was ineffective for larger groups of students (other than just the top four students or students falling behind getting intensive tutoring).
Labels:
improving ATAR results
Sunday, December 29, 2019
Three Games - Machi Koro, My First Carcassonne and Arkham Horror 3rd Ed
Machi Koro (G Rated)
I played this with my 10 year old and her grandparents. A simple card game where you build a city engine that is run by dice. Easy to learn and quick to play although it does have a finite life as it does get samey after a few plays. Don't let the name fool you, it's all in easy to read English. A four player game that could definitely work in the classroom as it should play under an hour.
A couple of take-that elements to teach resilience and gamesmanship, some text and literacy, some optimisation and a little strategy.
Recommended for early to late teens.
Found online, at stores like Gamesworld or your local friendly hobby store.
My First Carcassonne (G rated)
I'm playing this with my 7 year old. It's a tile laying game with some counting, network laying, creation of closed networks and simple optimisation strategies. 5-10 minutes long. She often wants to play 3-4 games. No literacy skills required. Nice big chunky meeple.
She can now beat me reliably using basic strategies and is ready to move to full Carcassonne. It was a great way to get her to want to play games (the harder games turned her off playing).
Recommended for getting young children interested in play based learning.
Reasonably easily located online (try Milsims, gamesEmpire or eBay).
Arkham Horror 3rd edition (M15+ Rated)
I'm playing this with my wife. The game drips with theme and lots of text. Takes 1.5 - 2hrs to play which limits its use in school unless able to leave setup over multiple days in a safe location. Lots of bits and takes ages to set up and take down. Would need to know the game thoroughly and enjoy it to play with high school age students.
Although the occult theme is attractive to students, parents may not be happy with the theme. Be best checking first. It's not gruesome or sex filled, but has demons, spells and the like. If you are familiar with HP Lovecraft, it's based in the C'thulu mythos.
The game is really good and quick to learn for all its complexity. The mechanics and bits everywhere look great on the table but do overwhelm the gameplay from time to time, but with familiarity, it will hopefully become less overwhelming- especially during the mythos phase.
I'm not sure if I prefer this edition or the 2nd edition but given the old edition is getting hard to find, I'd stick with the new edition as new expansions are likely.
From a learning perspective, it has a high literacy component, potential for roleplay, lots of instructional text, an algorithmic approach to turns and optimisation in managing the various aspects of play to solve the mystery before becoming overwhelmed by the mythic creatures. Online tutorials such as Beccy Scott can be a great way to learn the game.
Recommended to play with your own teenage kids or your partner.
Found online, at stores like Gamesworld or your local friendly hobby store.
I played this with my 10 year old and her grandparents. A simple card game where you build a city engine that is run by dice. Easy to learn and quick to play although it does have a finite life as it does get samey after a few plays. Don't let the name fool you, it's all in easy to read English. A four player game that could definitely work in the classroom as it should play under an hour.
A couple of take-that elements to teach resilience and gamesmanship, some text and literacy, some optimisation and a little strategy.
Recommended for early to late teens.
Found online, at stores like Gamesworld or your local friendly hobby store.
My First Carcassonne (G rated)
I'm playing this with my 7 year old. It's a tile laying game with some counting, network laying, creation of closed networks and simple optimisation strategies. 5-10 minutes long. She often wants to play 3-4 games. No literacy skills required. Nice big chunky meeple.
She can now beat me reliably using basic strategies and is ready to move to full Carcassonne. It was a great way to get her to want to play games (the harder games turned her off playing).
Recommended for getting young children interested in play based learning.
Reasonably easily located online (try Milsims, gamesEmpire or eBay).
Arkham Horror 3rd edition (M15+ Rated)
I'm playing this with my wife. The game drips with theme and lots of text. Takes 1.5 - 2hrs to play which limits its use in school unless able to leave setup over multiple days in a safe location. Lots of bits and takes ages to set up and take down. Would need to know the game thoroughly and enjoy it to play with high school age students.
Although the occult theme is attractive to students, parents may not be happy with the theme. Be best checking first. It's not gruesome or sex filled, but has demons, spells and the like. If you are familiar with HP Lovecraft, it's based in the C'thulu mythos.
The game is really good and quick to learn for all its complexity. The mechanics and bits everywhere look great on the table but do overwhelm the gameplay from time to time, but with familiarity, it will hopefully become less overwhelming- especially during the mythos phase.
I'm not sure if I prefer this edition or the 2nd edition but given the old edition is getting hard to find, I'd stick with the new edition as new expansions are likely.
From a learning perspective, it has a high literacy component, potential for roleplay, lots of instructional text, an algorithmic approach to turns and optimisation in managing the various aspects of play to solve the mystery before becoming overwhelmed by the mythic creatures. Online tutorials such as Beccy Scott can be a great way to learn the game.
Recommended to play with your own teenage kids or your partner.
Found online, at stores like Gamesworld or your local friendly hobby store.
Labels:
board games
Friday, December 20, 2019
Writing an application - unwritten rules
To begin with, I think it is awful that we have a process where it is considered ok to have unwritten rules. Thankfully there are schools that still have fair processes, but, as predicted many years ago, the rise of independent public schools has resulted in unfair practices (processes that meet PSC guidelines in a limited fashion).
There are a number of unwritten rules that lead to some staff getting interviews and others not, purely on the way selection criteria/CV's are constructed and subsequently read. The information on the jobsWA website on each application is very limited compared to what is actually being done to get roles.
The first unwritten rule is (to my mind) the most unfair. The buzz term in resourcing schools is 'projection' into the role. Projection requires you to answer questions as if you were in the role. I'm not sure how this meets the Equity or Merit criteria for applications as it gives an unfair advantage to the incumbent and tells you little about what they have done (only what they would do based on model answers). Some would say this is fair as having knowledge of the context is a part of assessing an applicant, but that could be taken into account in their interview answers. By limiting answers in selection criteria to "projecting" and not "actual experience" in roles that may deviate from the requirements of the role, it diminishes the value of a person with diverse experience and agility to move with requirements. It rewards responses with maintenance of the status quo through private knowledge, current unwritten objectives and agreement with existing practices.
The second unwritten rule is to abide by the word limit. The word limit rewards someone with intimate knowledge of the school as they can be concise in answering questions in a way that solves problems within the school through projection. It is harder as a non incumbent (an equity issue again) to identify what would meet school requirements thus requires further explanation to scatter gun what is required.
The third unwritten rule is to write SAO's or some other version of situation/action/outcome. They are typically wordy and you are not sure which SAO will meet school requirements. Be too specific and it looks like you have limited experience, be too general and you are not indicating how you solved the problem. Have too many and you have issues with the second rule.
The fourth unwritten rule is you can't expect inference from the CV. An extreme example would be answering a leadership question in the selection criteria and not discussing chairing the curriculum team because it was not specific to the SAO used. Some panels will not infer your experience from your CV if it is not specifically in the selection criteria. A lack of inference (checked at interview) is being addressed at panel training, but is still common practice in schools.
The fifth unwritten rule is to make it as easy as possible for the panel to identify you as a worthy candidate. Do not use a lot of bold, but bolding where you are attempting to meet selection criteria makes it easier for the panel to see that you have met the criteria (or attempted to answer the question).
"As a leader in the school, it was required ...", "In addressing financial requirements ..."
The sixth unwritten rule is not to read from your notes at interview. I learned this at my last two wins and am not sure this is a universal rule. In each case I had the questions in front of me (and only the questions), brought a bundle of notes (that I did not look at, but did review prior to the interview) and attempted to project how the panel would interact with me if I was in the job.
The seventh unwritten rule is that typically the panel will not talk to you during the interview other than to read the questions. This may be an attempt to maintain a level playing field, but makes it difficult to know if you are answering the question. Look for when they go to write something as this can be an indication you are on the right track. A good teacher engages in conversations with students to create a rapport, for many of us, a one sided conversation is not natural and can diminish the ranking of an applicant. It requires practice. It's an odd way to assess cultural fit, to my mind the most important part of the interview process.
The eighth unwritten rule is to call the school before the selection criteria to get extra information. WTF. This practice is not universal (try taking calls from 90 applicants) but more common in leadership positions. The couple of times I did it, I was asked what did I want to know? (I don't know what I don't know), or given general information that I could read online. It felt like an imposition and I stopped doing it. I think this is done to overcome the Equity issues outlined above with projection requirements but is commonly given advice in feedback.
The ninth unwritten rule is to call for feedback. Do this. Some people are wonderful at this and already have it prepared for you as it is a very common practice. Assess what they say and amend your application.
The tenth unwritten rule is to get assistance writing your application. Sadly the process is often the best applications get the interview and subsequently the best applicants do not get the job. After all, good teachers stay put and do not job hop, thus do not have a lot of experience in application writing. Your only hope of avoiding "learning the required way to construct an application by trial and error", is to find someone that has recently managed to navigate the system. Find a recent "successful" applicant - say in the last 6 months and get them to read your application. Get their application to model from.
The eleventh unwritten rule is that if timelines are short, it is likely the school is wanting the incumbent and seeks to limit the time available for other applicants to tailor their selection criteria. Prioritise the jobs with longer timeframes (if possible) or have an absolute standout and matched application ready for common positions (LA teacher, HOLA, SS, Deputy) for specific contexts (disadvantaged, LSC, high performance etc). If you win, be prepared to have a disgruntled staff member that may have been promised the position, but the risk of appeal was too high to give them the position.
The twelfth unwritten rule is to let it be known to safe leaders that you are seeking another position and to keep an ear out for you. Leaders talk and can put a good word in for you. In many cases they will be asked about you off the record and be able to assess you against other candidates. Pick your time for leaving in advance, so that you leave on good terms (not just leaving because you hate everything and are discontent with the profession) and these references show you in the best light. I don't know why performance management records are not available during reference checks - it's likely to avoid union issues and potential for bullying, but would make the process fairer if done properly as it would give an indication of your performance over time.
The last rule is a written rule but one worth keeping in mind. Do your basic research and as with any job, tailor your selection criteria to it. The Business Plan (school website), Annual Report (schools online website), school demographics and comparison data with your current school (mySchools website) have information that provides feedback on how your experience aligns with school requirements. This is not projection, (where you are required to interpret this information and apply it in the new context - which biases the process), but allows you to identify what experiences you have may apply in your new context and outline those to put you in the best light. Also if you are a grad, get into the grad pool. No I mean it, do it now, it's a palaver but we are looking for you.
Not doing these things means that you have to hope that the school you are applying to runs a fair panel. I've been lucky as the unwritten rules leave a bad taste in my mouth (leading to me trying to buck the system and write applications that allow the reader to see if I am a potential match from what I have done rather than construct a matchy application that may stretch the truth) and I am a big fan of centralised staffing (despite the inherent weaknesses of centralisation) as practices such as those above, to my mind, are counter productive and could be relatively easily overcome using performance data instead.
Good luck and I hope this helps.
Ps: Here's an earlier post after my last interview process in 2012.
There are a number of unwritten rules that lead to some staff getting interviews and others not, purely on the way selection criteria/CV's are constructed and subsequently read. The information on the jobsWA website on each application is very limited compared to what is actually being done to get roles.
The first unwritten rule is (to my mind) the most unfair. The buzz term in resourcing schools is 'projection' into the role. Projection requires you to answer questions as if you were in the role. I'm not sure how this meets the Equity or Merit criteria for applications as it gives an unfair advantage to the incumbent and tells you little about what they have done (only what they would do based on model answers). Some would say this is fair as having knowledge of the context is a part of assessing an applicant, but that could be taken into account in their interview answers. By limiting answers in selection criteria to "projecting" and not "actual experience" in roles that may deviate from the requirements of the role, it diminishes the value of a person with diverse experience and agility to move with requirements. It rewards responses with maintenance of the status quo through private knowledge, current unwritten objectives and agreement with existing practices.
The second unwritten rule is to abide by the word limit. The word limit rewards someone with intimate knowledge of the school as they can be concise in answering questions in a way that solves problems within the school through projection. It is harder as a non incumbent (an equity issue again) to identify what would meet school requirements thus requires further explanation to scatter gun what is required.
The third unwritten rule is to write SAO's or some other version of situation/action/outcome. They are typically wordy and you are not sure which SAO will meet school requirements. Be too specific and it looks like you have limited experience, be too general and you are not indicating how you solved the problem. Have too many and you have issues with the second rule.
The fourth unwritten rule is you can't expect inference from the CV. An extreme example would be answering a leadership question in the selection criteria and not discussing chairing the curriculum team because it was not specific to the SAO used. Some panels will not infer your experience from your CV if it is not specifically in the selection criteria. A lack of inference (checked at interview) is being addressed at panel training, but is still common practice in schools.
The fifth unwritten rule is to make it as easy as possible for the panel to identify you as a worthy candidate. Do not use a lot of bold, but bolding where you are attempting to meet selection criteria makes it easier for the panel to see that you have met the criteria (or attempted to answer the question).
"As a leader in the school, it was required ...", "In addressing financial requirements ..."
The sixth unwritten rule is not to read from your notes at interview. I learned this at my last two wins and am not sure this is a universal rule. In each case I had the questions in front of me (and only the questions), brought a bundle of notes (that I did not look at, but did review prior to the interview) and attempted to project how the panel would interact with me if I was in the job.
The seventh unwritten rule is that typically the panel will not talk to you during the interview other than to read the questions. This may be an attempt to maintain a level playing field, but makes it difficult to know if you are answering the question. Look for when they go to write something as this can be an indication you are on the right track. A good teacher engages in conversations with students to create a rapport, for many of us, a one sided conversation is not natural and can diminish the ranking of an applicant. It requires practice. It's an odd way to assess cultural fit, to my mind the most important part of the interview process.
The eighth unwritten rule is to call the school before the selection criteria to get extra information. WTF. This practice is not universal (try taking calls from 90 applicants) but more common in leadership positions. The couple of times I did it, I was asked what did I want to know? (I don't know what I don't know), or given general information that I could read online. It felt like an imposition and I stopped doing it. I think this is done to overcome the Equity issues outlined above with projection requirements but is commonly given advice in feedback.
The ninth unwritten rule is to call for feedback. Do this. Some people are wonderful at this and already have it prepared for you as it is a very common practice. Assess what they say and amend your application.
The tenth unwritten rule is to get assistance writing your application. Sadly the process is often the best applications get the interview and subsequently the best applicants do not get the job. After all, good teachers stay put and do not job hop, thus do not have a lot of experience in application writing. Your only hope of avoiding "learning the required way to construct an application by trial and error", is to find someone that has recently managed to navigate the system. Find a recent "successful" applicant - say in the last 6 months and get them to read your application. Get their application to model from.
The eleventh unwritten rule is that if timelines are short, it is likely the school is wanting the incumbent and seeks to limit the time available for other applicants to tailor their selection criteria. Prioritise the jobs with longer timeframes (if possible) or have an absolute standout and matched application ready for common positions (LA teacher, HOLA, SS, Deputy) for specific contexts (disadvantaged, LSC, high performance etc). If you win, be prepared to have a disgruntled staff member that may have been promised the position, but the risk of appeal was too high to give them the position.
The twelfth unwritten rule is to let it be known to safe leaders that you are seeking another position and to keep an ear out for you. Leaders talk and can put a good word in for you. In many cases they will be asked about you off the record and be able to assess you against other candidates. Pick your time for leaving in advance, so that you leave on good terms (not just leaving because you hate everything and are discontent with the profession) and these references show you in the best light. I don't know why performance management records are not available during reference checks - it's likely to avoid union issues and potential for bullying, but would make the process fairer if done properly as it would give an indication of your performance over time.
The last rule is a written rule but one worth keeping in mind. Do your basic research and as with any job, tailor your selection criteria to it. The Business Plan (school website), Annual Report (schools online website), school demographics and comparison data with your current school (mySchools website) have information that provides feedback on how your experience aligns with school requirements. This is not projection, (where you are required to interpret this information and apply it in the new context - which biases the process), but allows you to identify what experiences you have may apply in your new context and outline those to put you in the best light. Also if you are a grad, get into the grad pool. No I mean it, do it now, it's a palaver but we are looking for you.
Not doing these things means that you have to hope that the school you are applying to runs a fair panel. I've been lucky as the unwritten rules leave a bad taste in my mouth (leading to me trying to buck the system and write applications that allow the reader to see if I am a potential match from what I have done rather than construct a matchy application that may stretch the truth) and I am a big fan of centralised staffing (despite the inherent weaknesses of centralisation) as practices such as those above, to my mind, are counter productive and could be relatively easily overcome using performance data instead.
Good luck and I hope this helps.
Ps: Here's an earlier post after my last interview process in 2012.
Labels:
job applications
Thursday, December 5, 2019
So what comes next?
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!
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!
Labels:
career progression
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
Saturday, July 6, 2019
Vocational vs career teachers
With teacher pay improving over the years, teaching is a competitive career with other professions. A teacher can rapidly be on a six figure salary and be trained on an ongoing basis with career options going ahead.
The profession is changing from one which was fundamentally filled with vocational teachers, who entered teaching because they had a love of teaching and a desire to teach, to a profession with a mix of vocational teachers and those who enter it as a long term career, one of the few that are predicted to last for the next 20 years through technological change.
This is a not necessarily a bad thing, but it does raise a challenge for vocational teachers as they are vulnerable in the system. By vocational teachers not targeting advancement, school run the risk of dissatisfied vocational teachers who are unaware of the gauntlet required for advancement - they will advance slower than career teachers.
For instance, a teacher focuses on their student cohorts and their craft. Over many years they become a passionate and great classroom teacher. They see a career teacher that is not as good a teacher, does not understand the craft required to become truly great at what they do but that has targeted the KPIs that are required for advancement. The career teacher can talk eduspeak, self promote actively, are involved in projects that meet STAR objectives, actively seek promotional positions, understand how to write a CV and answer interview questions, have been at multiple schools over a short period - burn bright but over short periods. Once the balance tips towards career teachers (are we there now? Panel training indicates we are!), this becomes the model for advancement.
The question I ask myself is does this help kids get better in classes? Does this promote better mentoring of young teachers?
There's a little voice in the back of my head that says - "yep, but vocational teachers, the passionate ones can also be the flaky, argumentative, the most painful teachers to manage as they are needy and require constant guidance compared to the focused teachers on career progression." And I hear you little voice, but when I look at exceptional student outcomes, being 50% in doesn't cut it compared to what some of these teachers can achieve. An evidence base shows this over and over again.
Are we, by encouraging a career based approach, turning our vocational teachers away from their passionate, "this is my life", approach towards a more career based (I do this for the wage and the six hour day) sustainable and minimal intervention approach because it is easier to manage and less likely to cause management pain, even if the evidence shows that it has lower student outcomes?
If this is the case, and to a lesser or greater degree I believe it is, we need to re-evaluate how we remunerate teachers and the merit system that in its current form is encouraging a change to a career workforce rather than a vocational one and that where career satisfaction is through advancement, not through student achievement. A teacher for life, cared for by the system, developing their skills, recognised by the community for what they can do, moving passionately with changes in pedagogy required and realising that they are blessed for being involved with a system that guides our youth not for the career progression that they are not getting.
How to get teaching to that point is an interesting intellectual question.
The profession is changing from one which was fundamentally filled with vocational teachers, who entered teaching because they had a love of teaching and a desire to teach, to a profession with a mix of vocational teachers and those who enter it as a long term career, one of the few that are predicted to last for the next 20 years through technological change.
This is a not necessarily a bad thing, but it does raise a challenge for vocational teachers as they are vulnerable in the system. By vocational teachers not targeting advancement, school run the risk of dissatisfied vocational teachers who are unaware of the gauntlet required for advancement - they will advance slower than career teachers.
For instance, a teacher focuses on their student cohorts and their craft. Over many years they become a passionate and great classroom teacher. They see a career teacher that is not as good a teacher, does not understand the craft required to become truly great at what they do but that has targeted the KPIs that are required for advancement. The career teacher can talk eduspeak, self promote actively, are involved in projects that meet STAR objectives, actively seek promotional positions, understand how to write a CV and answer interview questions, have been at multiple schools over a short period - burn bright but over short periods. Once the balance tips towards career teachers (are we there now? Panel training indicates we are!), this becomes the model for advancement.
The question I ask myself is does this help kids get better in classes? Does this promote better mentoring of young teachers?
There's a little voice in the back of my head that says - "yep, but vocational teachers, the passionate ones can also be the flaky, argumentative, the most painful teachers to manage as they are needy and require constant guidance compared to the focused teachers on career progression." And I hear you little voice, but when I look at exceptional student outcomes, being 50% in doesn't cut it compared to what some of these teachers can achieve. An evidence base shows this over and over again.
Are we, by encouraging a career based approach, turning our vocational teachers away from their passionate, "this is my life", approach towards a more career based (I do this for the wage and the six hour day) sustainable and minimal intervention approach because it is easier to manage and less likely to cause management pain, even if the evidence shows that it has lower student outcomes?
If this is the case, and to a lesser or greater degree I believe it is, we need to re-evaluate how we remunerate teachers and the merit system that in its current form is encouraging a change to a career workforce rather than a vocational one and that where career satisfaction is through advancement, not through student achievement. A teacher for life, cared for by the system, developing their skills, recognised by the community for what they can do, moving passionately with changes in pedagogy required and realising that they are blessed for being involved with a system that guides our youth not for the career progression that they are not getting.
How to get teaching to that point is an interesting intellectual question.
Labels:
career progression
Friday, July 6, 2018
Resourcing in a small school
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.
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.
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.
Labels:
love,
self esteem
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