Surviving 2020

Interesting title given Covid-19, but in Perth the impact has been comparably minor to other cities.  Currently sitting here with no voice after some boisterous lessons to finish the year, as a teacher it's not unusual to get sick straight after school finishes and the adreniline wears off.

The year ended with classes known, classlists making sense and reports able to be explained.  Students were now able to be ranked and streams able to be examined and modified as required.  

New programmes are being rolled out to teach and assess Number and Algebra throughout the year, rather than just in Semester 1, a significant difference on existing programmes.

Pathways are now able to be communicated to parents, now that grades provide the reasoning for moving students. If you are a C/D student in Pathway 2, this leads to Essentials in Year 11 and TAFE or employment after school.  If you wish to change this, seek promotion by talking through what this means to your teacher.  Although promotional points have been moved to twice yearly (more than the four time yearly done this year and possibly beyond any "inspired" period able to be maintained by a student), it is able to be communicated to parents.

Using Connect to do this on day one will be great, with letters already written and approved by Admin.

I've watched teachers start to understand what has been done so far, how it connects with the business plan and an evidence based approach and the path forward.  Progress in a school is glacial and requires patience, outside of young staff it is rare to find colleagues that do change well.

Given that much of this was done in the last four weeks while wrapping up classes, it's not that surprising I'm a bit rundown.  Bring on the holidays and the rejuvenation to do the planning required to support SEN classes with large numbers of students on the NCCD list, create the videos required to support a new push in Year 10 to raise the ATAR participation rate and ensure that students that start Methods 11 navigate Semester 1 hell of a packed course and get into Calculus in Semester 2.

Get stuffed 2020, bring on 2021.

Boardgames in high school

I ran a few games sessions this year that were all successful.  This is my current list for a class of 30 that I have run across high and low ability classes.

Puzzle

Blockus (2 to 4)

Kaleidescope (solo) - out of print

Turing Tumble (solo) - hard to find

Take that

King of Tokyo (4 to 6)

5 Minute Marvel (3 to 5)

Set taking

Spot it (2 to 6)

SET (3 to 8)

Dexterity

Hamsterolle (2 to 4) - out of print

Rhino Hero (2 to 4)

Klask (1 to 2)

Party Games

Crappy Birthday (4 to 8) - hard to find

Throw throw Burrito (4 to 6)

Other

Machi Koro (2 to 4)

Santorini (2 to 4)

Challenging classes

We all get that class that we find a little challenging.  The day starts with thinking, how am I going to get through this.  Student X is an absolute pain in the arse.  Student Y is going to talk through my instruction. Student Z is out of his seat and student A will do anything they can to get out of work and distract the class.

When I find these thoughts entering my consciousness it's time to step back and have a good look at myself.  Each of these kids are someone's special little person and the time spent worrying can be better spent planning how to work with each student.

Note that I didn't say deal with each student.

If you're coming to me and saying, I have student X can I put them in your class period 1, then you will get a look.  If you enter the room thinking the worst, it can be a self fulfilling prophecy.   Time is often better spent figuring how to get a positive outcome in the classroom than working on potential consequences for something that might not happen.  There would need to be a pattern of behaviour and attempts at behaviour modification before withdrawal is ok. 

Sometimes allaying the anxiety can start with a parent phone call.  My calls typically go with, "I have noticed that student Y is sleeping in class/distracted/moody/finding it difficult to concentrate.  I have tried frequent reminders/moving them/positive reinforcement/hand signals/consequences/private chats/interaction with student services and they have been unsuccessful.  Is there anything that might have caused a change in behaviour?"

This can open up a parent to give reasons and hints as to next steps.  The student might get upset that you have spoken to their parent (well.. stop the behaviour and I will cease), or change my behaviour (give clearer instructions/change pedagogy/change level of work presented), alter the environment (behavioural expectations, seating, stimulus level), provide additional support (removal of privileges, at home tutoring) or require additional supports (mental health, eyesight, hearing, auditory processing, autism, ADHD, ADD, emotional regulation, PTSD).

In many cases the request for assistance and escalation through BMIS processes are predictable as the teacher has few strategies (other than fear of consequence) to engage students and done insufficent preparation to prevent entirely predictable situations.  It's my way or handball them to admin.  This is career limiting - if you can't deal with these students you will not be considered for promotional positions.  Reflection, de-escalation, communication, conversations with other teachers, interaction outside the classroom, connecting with interests, story telling, enthusiasm, encouragement, mindfulness, peer mentoring, positive re-inforcement, goal setting, class building, finding success, collaboration are all alternate strategies that can have a positive result without using punitive consequences.   

Kids at risk have the highest needs and are also the ones where the biggest rewards for effort that can be achieved - and often the rewards are years down the track and only recongnised with hindsight.  There are such special people in the department that know this and make a difference.  It's always important to strive to be one of them.

OLNA preparation

OLNA diagnostics and group diagnostics are found in SIRS and assist in identifying parts of the course that students don't understand well.  I've spent the last week collating data for my class and identifying what needs to be learned.

The main ideas so far have been in Money/Percentages and Proportion:

Money, Proportion and Percentages (Number topics)

    Profit/Loss: Percentage increase decrease
    Discount/Markup: Percentages of amounts
    Finding quantities in an amount: Multiplication / Partitioning
    Providing change: The difference in two amounts / Subtraction
    Changing quantities in a recipe
    Pie charts

This has been consistent over many years of teaching that these concepts are poorly understood.  With the increased understanding of how to teach Linear Algebra among teachers through the efforts of Pam Sherrard, proportion and specifically percentages are the new frontier.

There were some other topics: Volume, Elapsed Time but Percentages and Money topics comprised the majority of issues faced by students, particularly when calculators are not allowed to be used.

Something to consider as we design the new programmes, particularly in the lower ability classes.

The biggest tip so far is not to learn rote methods without context.