Past students and dementia

As a teacher you forget stuff, over 1000 students over 13 years and they all start to blend into each other.  To students though, they saw you every day (out of their ten or so teachers) and remember you for the right and wrong reasons as if it was yesterday. 

I was walking through the shops and a young man stopped me.  He asked if I remembered him (I didn't) and then gave me his name.. and I went Ohhh... He went on to explain that he was now a plumber and I was one of the teachers that he really liked.

Now I've told the story of this student lots over the years but never connected the name with the student.  He came to my class on his last legs - any more trouble and he would be expelled.  I don't think it was the dreaded 10C class that was the most difficult of my career (and one of two classes I couldn't win over) but was around that time about 8 years ago.  The conversation was - make this work or they will encourage you to leave, held just outside SS1.  He turned himself around and I was proud of him (I wish I had told him today as I didn't make the connection until afterwards).  He did his apprenticeship and now has his own business in plumbing. He is one of those students that was always going to do better once he left school - without the confines of discipline, where his jokes would be taken well.  If (as a student) you see this post, know that I'm not a heartless bastard, I did greatly appreciate you taking a few moments to say you liked my class and that you were now successful (and I'd like to think I had a little part in that).  I'll let other teachers know of your success too.

I saw another student going down an escalator whilst I was going up from this year.  We had a few heartaches over probability throughout Methods, but he has been accepted into engineering.  He says the others in his class have done well too.

We don't often get to reflect on the success our students achieve - many times it is long after students leave.  These are the things that keep you in the profession - if you don't believe in the good that you do, it becomes a drudge rather than a privilege.

The student interest test.

The student interest test is a test I try to use whenever I make a decision as a HOLA.  It's a pretty simple test as it asks the question, "Is this in the best interests of students?". If it fails this test, I am opposed to it or non committal if it is obvious it will take time to change the view of the majority.

In education we lose the majority of our graduate teachers in the first five years.  The main reason is the sink or swim approach used in most schools and by most HOLAs.  A compromise is generally made to prevent turnover of experienced teachers and prevent complaints by parents while graduate teachers are learning their craft - they are generally given classes difficult for experienced teachers: low ability classes and/or classes with behavioural challenges many of these in remote areas away from family support.

To my mind this fails the student interest test.  These are our most enthusiastic staff that bring modern techniques, are closest in age (relate) to students, understand modern issues/pop culture and bring technological capability to the classroom. It is in students interests for teachers and HOLAs to support graduate teachers such that they can perform at a level acceptable to parents and provide them with classes they are most likely to find success in.  Counter intuitively these are the students most able to learn, are good students with the fewest behavioural problems.

During the last term of the year, Year 11 and 12's are off campus leaving teachers without classes until the end of the year.  Schools reduce their relief budget by using these teachers.  There are not enough relief classes, which results in teachers having unallocated time.  Given that this is not DOTT time, I allocated tasks and deliverables to to those that preferred not to do relief, gained approval from admin and teachers commenced these tasks (with the intent to use unallocated teachers to do the relief).  Other faculties complained when they had to do Math relief whilst Maths teachers completed tasks to improve student performance.  The relief coordinator complained that she was required to give reliefs to teachers that had previously had increased non teaching time, was fielding complaints and increasingly put pressure on Math to do the tasks and provide the relief required for Maths classes.  To prevent conflict, I ceased providing tasks to teachers and Maths teachers became part of the relief pool.  This response failed the student interest test as teachers were available to do the relief, it was in the interest of students for course improvement tasks to be completed but a willingness to overcome the conflict was not present.

Mathspace cost each parent $18 per year, was used by less than half of the student group, has had no effect on standardised testing results over four years, classes of equal ability did not perform higher when using Mathspace than classes that did not, there is no research basis that ICT practice based initiatives are effective in Maths, the diagnostic information available through Mathspace was available using other means, it deskilled teachers ability to diagnose issues within a class, was being used to replace good teaching practices and was demotivating for a large number of students.  It failed the student interest test, even if it made teacher's lives easier, particularly at the end of term.  Although unpopular with teaching staff, it was removed and is set to be replaced with a tool targeting OLNA performance that has a record of assisting students with numeracy issues relating to ACSF.

Assigning assessments in Pathways by one teacher to all classes in a Pathway without a proper feedback mechanism for other teachers fails the student interest test as it provides an advantage to the teacher creating assessment, especially where there are communication issues within the faculty.  Workload arguments (such as I am writing more assessments than other teachers) fail the student interest test, as the assessments written are likely to advantage students in class of the assessment writer and result in poorer assessment outcomes than if assessment was written by all. It also limits development of teaching staff and students by not being exposed to a range of question and marking construction strategies.

Student centred learning uses evidence to improve student outcomes.  It is not always in the interest of the teacher (that have a teacher centric approach) to implement these strategies and in these cases it is important to drive the message through teacher management. A "sell", "collaborate" or "collegiate" solution is unlikely to develop as often they result in more work and disrupt the status quo. 

The big achievements of 2020

Started a new role as a HOLA
Navigated Covid-19 and assisting staff use Connect and other technologies to deliver online content
Delivered another Year 12 Methods class, producing over 100 videos to support their learning.
Established transparent and regular streaming processes including explicit connections between grades and Pathways
Refined grading processes to align with grade descriptors and acceptance of consistent judgements.
Created connections between faculty knowledge and subject selection processes
Continued the after school homework club
Investigated the effectiveness of Mathspace and evaluated the effectiveness of implementation
Allocated rooms to teachers with an aim to create dynamic spaces in 2021 rather than existing bland shared classes
Navigated staffing changes and relief staff
Developed some apps in scratch to assist students learn their tables and basic numeracy
Implemented new BMIS and Performance Management procedures

Worked on repairing/managing faculty interpersonal issues
Implemented a concept of equity with course management, teaching and assessment writing allocations
Implemented a consistent comment bank and report comment framework (APAL)
Created connections between student services and Mathematics to support students
Implemented SEN reporting to support students at academic risk
Worked with at risk students in Year 9 (D/E students), resulting in returning a small group of students to the year level achievement standard and then gaining promotion to Pathway 2.
Established grading guidance documents to provide structure to the creation of assessment and desired outcomes.
Delivered Year 8 Pathway 3 (A/B/C students) with 65% average and 12% standard deviation - spot on the grading guidance across both Year 8 Pathway 3 classes resulting in at least 60 students currently in ATAR aspirant pathway
Managed development of new programmes designed by the team for each Pathway 7-10
Started embedding the idea of extension classes (with the Year 10 class established in 2021) and 90 students in the aspirant ATAR Year 10 pathway
Worked with Science to determine class composition, pathways and sizes for 2021 
Addressed issues where staff saw resources produced as personal property and ensured they were available for future years for all teachers

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.

Developing Assessment for use across multiple classes

Developing assessment for use across multiple classes is problematic.  Each teacher and text interprets the syllabus a little different and each class enters with different prior knowledge and horsepower. There is a sweet spot where courses can cater to students and minimise work for teachers.  It is not always possible to bring all teachers together to co-write assessment, typically it is assigned to a teacher to complete.

Conflict can occur if the following occurs:

• Teacher that writes the assessment is inflexible (or unable to take constructive criticism)
• Teachers that read the assessment are overly critical
• The teacher writing the assessment has not had enough/spent enough time developing the assessment. 
• Grade related descriptors and exemplars are not consulted (or been used over prescriptively)
• The assessment is too broad or narrow in scope
• Syllabus has not been taught fully in one or more classes
• Corners of the course have been emphasized in one class (particularly skills based work)
• If an assessment is written below or beyond the capabilities of a class
• Time is not given to consider the assessment before the requirement to present it to students

To solve these issues requires patience and developing a collegiate approach.  Teachers need to feel safe when developing assessments that if they have done their best, the college will improve it, not "correct it" because they have done it wrong.  It's a mindset developing growth in the team.

In some cases it's a case of developing a shared language:

"I understand what you are saying but in this case..."

"Given the Syllabus dot point identifies this behaviour/concept/idea perhaps we could modify it to..."

"This question may be beyond the scope identified through this grade related descriptor and may be more suitable for year x".

"Here is an alternative problem that might be substituted."

"I might have to think on that some more and will come back to you.."

Using past assessments as an item bank where this process has already been navigated might help as long as the syllabus is used as a basis for identifying appropriate questions.

Anger, aggression, threats, forcing an opinion, getting personal in criticism, going rogue, white anting and undermining, are not ok, professional or appropriate.

Where a difference of opinion exists, ensuring there is time to investigate a solution or involving a HOLA to mediate helps.  Sometimes having slightly different tests or a supplementary tests for different classes are ok as long as the difficulty level is maintained (to assist with consistent judgements and class ranking).

A collegiate approach requires those more experienced to work with those less experienced to develop a shared understanding (which requires investigating why the views are different and considering all opinions until a mutual or adjudicated position is found).

Similarly a reflective approach requires all of us to consider new ideas, especially if our experience or understanding indicates otherwise.  Being right all the time is an irritating and frustrating trait that will draw ire from colleagues.