ICT Products for schools

ICT vendors have cottoned onto Voluntary contributions.  Government schools can charge up to $235 per year in voluntary charges.  This is an easy target for IT vendors as it is something that parents will pay for and a low number of students use it compared to the number that it is paid for.

The usual sales pitch goes like this:

Free trial - with no obligation.  There is a hidden cost as implementation has a cost in training, set up experimentation and teaching to students.

Teachers use trial, some parents use trial.  

Price is given for the whole school (knowing that a small proportion will use the tool).  Thus the price sounds small, but on a usage basis can be upward of $50 per student, subsidised by parents that are not using it.  In many cases senior school is included in the per capita price, but very little is offered to that student group (and they are excluded from voluntary contributions) making it something covered by the school.  

It is also a sop to parents that want OLNA support, but with very little evidence of success assisting disengaged students that need the support but won't use ICT.

Removing it after the trial causes conflict with teachers that are invested in it.  

I'm not saying it is not effective for some - it is just that the cost is hidden in an average charge for all students including a vast majority not using them.

Evidence such as Hattie's meta analysis does not support ICT solutions either as effective.

Students forced to use it quickly dislike it as it is often poorly targeted practice work.  I'd like to think home time is for finishing work not completed in class, intervention work targeted by the teacher, revision and study, together with extra curricular activities.  There is no space for poorly targeted practice.

Trying to pay for a targeted solution (eg only for the kids that need and will use it) results in vendors jacking up the price, often 200% the cost of the whole school solution, verifying to some degree the deceptive business model (paying for something with parent monies that are not appropriate for the students the product is bought for.)

Mathspace and Mathsonline use this approach and Mangahigh may use this approach but I have not been in contact with them for some time (I did like their adaptive tests but am still waiting to see a good, reliable, valid adaptive test written to complement the classroom syllabus).  Mathletics used a similar marketing approach to Mathspace and Mathsonline, but has a smaller footprint in high school and may not insist on schoolwide deployment with dwindling market share.

The worst thing is when effectiveness is not evaluated - when it is just a marketing sop to parents to show the school is ICT ready.  As an IT person, it is crazy to see this amount of money being thrown around like confetti.  After all, the cost of delivery is nil after the product is designed and the development is not rocket science.  It's a market crying for a no cost, syllabus based solution.

Maybe if I get annoyed enough I'll sit and write one.  The technology is now freely available, it just needs to be put in a market ready format. 

Tips for students entering ATAR (Mathematics) courses

This is by no means an exhaustive list:

Be kind, to yourself, to others.  It is the most worthwhile lifelong advice as it has infinite returns.  

Don't be a patsy - people will try and take advantage of kind people. Be savvy about who you work with.

Don't panic.  There will be peaks and troughs where you are on top of the world and when you question if you can do this.  Find a rock that will keep you centred - a good friend, course counsellor, parent, relative, deputy.  Teachers are generally a poor choice as they lack perspective.

Love is in the air.  You will feel the most intense emotions of your life.  It's ok, it's biological.  Sadly, it passes, enjoy it whilst it's in your system.

If you are finding it difficult to finish exercises set in under 2 hours move to doing every 2nd question.  It is more important to get to the end of exercises, reach the harder questions and attempt the revision/study guide than get bogged down in repetition of similar questions. 

Regular study is hard to do.  The miscellanous exercises in Sadler are great for this as they keep learned concepts in the front of the mind.

Learn how to use your calculator.  Know when it is faster to use your calculator than by hand.

Draw a diagram. Draw a diagram. Draw a diagram. Draw a diagram.

Be mindful of the routines that you set up.  If you are settling into a 12 lunch to 12am routine, this will make it difficult for you to adjust back to 7am to 7pm at school (moving your clock backwards is much more difficult than moving it forwards). It is unwise to get into the habit of working late as it gives you nowhere to go if you temporarily fall behind due to assessment crunch (you can't work later without impacting on the next day).   

Find a place in the home, make it comfortable and use it solely for study.   A bed is generally a bad place for study or mooching with your phone - (the message to your body should be to sleep here. Studying in bed may result in finding it difficult to get to sleep).  Reading for pleasure to tire your eyes in bed (without the light stimulus of a phone or iPad which will wake you up) can be good instead if you are finding it difficult to nod off.

Once you do the Revision questions you will be able to determine if you need to work faster or are on track.  The rule of thumb is 1 mark, 1 minute.  Marks aren't really allocated by time (they are allocated based on syllabus dot points), but it is a fairly reliable estimate.  If you aren't working fast enough, what is missing?  Conceptual understanding, computational speed, ability to maintain concentration, ability, distraction, effort, focus, work ethic?  Timing yourself when doing revision questions is worthwhile.  Questions will take a little longer during assessment as you will also have to decide which technique to apply and how.

Asking good questions is a key factor in success.  A good question has the following factors: it is specific, it contains what you have attempted, it identifies what you think the issue is. "I don't get Trigonometry. Can I have some help?" is not a good question as it does not identify where to start.  "I can't manipulate the Sine Rule, here is my attempt. How do I make theta the subject of the equation in C1E1Q2a?" is a specific question that can be easily answered online.  Another good question might be, "I watched the screencast and understood the example until ... can the skipped steps be added or explained."  It is a good idea to post a picture of your attempt, to make it easier to identify the problem.

Gaining the confidence to ask questions in front of peers is a valuable skill that will benefit you through school and all forms of higher education. As time progresses you will worry less about what people think and more about how important it is to keep on the learning curve and not leave gaps in understanding.

Often the answer to the question resides in the set exercise set and you will be directed to complete the exercise without the answer to your question provided.  The question is answered in context in the exercise by doing questions (rather than being talked at), building your knowledge to the point where the method can be easily understood.  If you skip too many questions (or exercises) then the flow of the new information will be more difficult to integrate with your existing knowledge and gaps occurs making it harder to apply your knowledge in unfamiliar settings.

Be aware of the question that is interesting but not on topic.  These are welcome but need to be asked at the relevant time (not in the middle of instruction!) and typically not distracting the rest of the class from the focus of the lesson.  

Look after yourself. It is important to look after the little things that are not study.  Are you eating well, regularly and hydrating?  Are you sleeping regular hours?   Are you exercising at least 30 minutes a day? Have you put some time aside for social requirements and fun?  Are you having regular breaks?  Keeping yourself well is the most important element for ATAR success - if you run down it will prevent you from working and achieving your best.

The learning curve is a way of thinking about learning.  If you are on the learning curve, the next step is logical, obvious and easier than if there are gaps in your learning.  When you fall off the curve, learning stops and you require intervention to learn the pre-requisite information that you have previously missed before you can learn the next concept on the curve.  A typical trap that students fall into, causing falling off the curve, is to focus on one subject to the detriment of others.  You need to take a holistic approach and do a little of each course each night, even if one course is demanding all the attention in the world (I'm looking at you English!).

Be aware that complacency and procrastination are your enemy.  Basically, get stuff done. If you are tired, rest.  If you are lethargic, get some exercise.  If you are hungry, eat. If you are struggling, ask for help.  Laziness is not a genetic trait, it's a bad habit and an excuse for not getting stuff done.

Groupthink occurs when students rely on shared knowledge to complete problems.  Students come unstuck when they attempt assessments as the other students in the group have part of the understanding and they can't complete it alone.  It is important that you experience each question and attempt the difficult parts before asking for help without relying on others to think their way through the difficult parts for you. This is different from working together on a question (already attempted on their own), where students are contributing equally and leave with the same level of understanding (which is great!).

Many students have reached this point in their education through ability alone and find Mathematics easy - but this won't last forever, don't get complacent.  At some point you will have to work hard (this is called developing a work ethic) or fail.  There is no point in blaming and whinging about the past - it is done - instead work on what you can control, your input into the course, your health and stay on the learning curve.

Look for opportunities to develop your network outside of school.  A job, friends of the family, Rotary, Lions, Special interest groups, sports, friends from other schools, youth groups, church groups, joining a band are all good ways of developing yourself as a person beyond that of a student.

Be kind to your parents.  You are moody, under pressure, have hormones rampaging, smelly and are generally an unpleasant being to be around.  They have protected you until now and don't know when is the right time to allow you some independence.  If they make mistakes, you suffer and don't have a wealth of experience to judge when they are doing the right thing. They are bred to worry about you - it's genetic, they can't help it.  Sleeping on someone's couch is not independence - it is mooching.  A checkout job on Thursday does not put a roof over your head.  

Check the programme and ensure that you understand each syllabus dot point.

Create a study group, set a time to meet and allocate a dot point to each person (to idenitfy the main learning points/demanding questions and questions that might be asked in an exam) to bring to the meeting. Another method is to allocate the same dot point and what each other thinks is important.  This can be done online too!  A good starting point is doing some of the questions that I have done solutions for on Connect - if they were hard then, they probably still are.

Use your revision guide effectively. Pick a number out of 10 and complete that question from each chapter that we have completed thus far. Repeat.

Complete any practice tests given.

Check the programme and ensure that you understand each syllabus dot point.

Create a list of all the exercises in the text.  Tick off every exercise that you have completed.

Get a copy of the previous WACE exam.  Mark off all the questions we have already covered. Do them.

Check the Charlie Watson website and make sure that you know how that calculator works for each topic.

Create a timeline of when assessment is completed until the end of the year.  Check weeks of the year that are busy so that you can try to lesson your load prior to those times or negotiate with teachers to move assessments a little so that they are not all on the same day (weeks 4 and 8 and 13 are typically bad).

Find some "me" time to enjoy with your friends.  Socialising a little is important to maintain a healthy headspace - just don't over do it (I'm looking at you gamers!).  Use it to motivate you to study.

Get your parents on board to monitor how you are doing.  Listen to them if they think you are overdoing it or slacking off.

Check the programme and ensure that you understand each syllabus dot point.

Get a copy of the formula sheet and have it sitting next to you.

Start preparing your end of year cheat sheet for each topic.

Create a quiet space to study.  If you need music, make it music that you have listened to a thousand times (not the radio or the latest spotify list).  This way it will not distract your conscious thought and act like white noise to block out distractions from your environment.

Set up a study plan between now and the proposed 1st semester exam date. Split the time remaining into the number of chapters completed.  Revise your notes each day for each chapter.  Do the things above in that time!

Entering Teaching after being in a competitive, adversarial environment

If you have come from an adversarial environment, where being the best means rising through the ranks and increasing your earning capacity you are in for a rude shock when you become a teacher.  

Teaching has a flat management structure where seniority is the main mechanism for increasing wages and retaining staff.  There have been multiple pushes to change this over time, (L3CT, Senior Teacher come to mind), but for the vast majority teaching a class seniority is it. There is some competition for ATAR and 11/12 classes.  There is little to compete against to be noticed for the few promotional positions outside of teaching in Student services/Admin, Head of Department, Deputy/Associate Principal and  Principal.

AITSL attempted to provide a framework for personal growth in the AITSL standards and to my mind it gives the best indication of where education (and a lot of industry) is trying to go.  Rather that competing (or being adversarial) with your peers, the current movement is to "one" team where everyone seeks continuous improvement.  As continuous training is expensive, knowledge sharing is the main lever used within the organisation to drive continuous improvement.  This is not possible if knowledge sharing is restricted through a competitive environment where restricting knowledge gets you ahead.

The AITSL standards have this embedded.  A graduate teacher is learning how to teach. A competent teacher teaches well. A highly accomplished teacher mentors other teachers.  A lead teacher is contributing to the community and the education sector.  It firmly puts the skills and task of teaching a classroom well in the competent level.

This can leave the competitive person from industry scratching their head.  "I'm a better teacher than them, I should be promoted".  "Look at what I have done, why should they get the promotion." "It must be that someone is doing a hatchet job on me in admin, I am better than others being promoted."  "I have not been personally developed this year.  The lack of development is holding me back."

None of these things are about knowledge and skills sharing. There is a skill to developing others and this is the desired skill in Leadership.  Mentoring and sharing takes more effort than doing it yourself.  Doing it yourself is not the preferred option if the goal of the task is to empower others.  

The insight is that the knowledge is not yours, but belongs to the organisation.  If you choose not to share and martyr yourself doing it yourself, you are withholding information the organisation has paid to develop.   Once teachers let go of ownership of what is "theirs" and realise that sharing is productive, it takes away a burden, is uplifting and creates that team environment the envy of organisational cultures. The effort in sharing and developing something collaboratively is required and worthwhile.  It becomes a pleasure watching others grow through what you have contributed and surpass what even you can currently do, encouraging you to seek further growth.

Often in the corporate world, forming cliques, being obstructive and putting the knife into an underperforming colleague is ok to gain promotion.  Identify their weaknesses, expose them and assume their role.  Very 80s.  Today, we don't do this.  Evidence is used to identify areas of investigation, we consider the evidence, work together to apply measures to attempt to rectify known issues and measure the results.  In teaching few staff are ever removed, the importance is to retrain and support them if they are underperforming - it is expensive to train a teacher (four years of university plus three years of graduate level performance), losing staff to what is now recognised as workplace bullying is poor management.

And here's the rub, if you are not visibly contributing to organisational growth (or are actively obstructing it) you will not be seen as a highly accomplished teacher (no matter how good you are in the classroom).  You may be seen as a competent teacher, but will not be considered for leadership as you lack the skills to lead a team effectively and will be a drain on the Leadership team preventing issues that you are causing, requiring constant "management" and restricting growth of the organisation. 

I try and help those making the transition to the new paradigm as I had to when I entered the profession.  It's not always easy and becomes a fairly repetitive discussion until it sinks in. The "one organisation" model aims to promote those that can work with others well for the betterment of the organisation, leading to organisational growth.  Being able to be collegiate and collaborative is the key that opens doors.

Measuring Performance of Upper School Courses

Participation, Retention and Achievement are three measures I look at in Upper school to measure the health of our Learning Area.  These summary statistics should not be treated as a goal or KPI, but instead as a way of identifying areas of investigation for improvement.  All too often summary statistics hide the actual situation found if an investigation into raw data is done thereafter.  With relatively small samples the summary statistics may not be reliable or valid.

1. Participation (Course Entry)

How many students enter a course?  It is not compulsory to do a Mathematics course in Year 11 and 12, they can opt out if they wish.  My belief is that all students should complete Mathematics courses in Year 11/12 as a life skill.  Any number lower than 100% indicates that improvement can be achieved.

To keep it simple, I check RTP for the course at the end of S2 and count total students.  The total number of students in the cohort is found in schools online or SIS. Divide these and you have the participation number. Participation should be measured at the end of each year of Upper School.  Participation data should be compared with standardised testing data (NAPLAN, PAT etc) to validate participation results.

This is a measure of the success of creating an appeal to enter the course.  Factors impacting participation could include past performance, lower school pathways, reputation for success, teachers in lower school, teachers in upper school, how well the course is sold to students, course counselling techniques, course counsellors, trends in careers post schooling.

2. Retention (Course Completion)

Are students staying in the course from the beginning? Students are able to change out of the course if they wish. Students swapping and changing courses is not optimal. Any number lower than 100% indicates that improvement can be achieved.

Again, to keep it simple I check RTP for the course at the end of S2 and count the withdrawn students. Participation numbers are found in (1.) above. Divide these and you have the retention number.  Retention should be measured at the end of each year of Upper School.

This is a measure of success of the Upper School Course, course recommendations, teaching methods and course counselling.  Factors impacting retention could include mental health of students and the teacher, teaching pedagogy, student ability, lower school preparation, parental support, resilience and the difficulty level set for the course.

3. Achievement

Are students achieving at the level expected for the course?  Students need to achieve a meaningful result for the course to be worthwhile. For Methods and Specialist the mean is 65 for an average student, Applications is 55 for an average student.  In each case about 57 will contribute to a 70 ATAR score. C grades or higher for General students are useful for demonstrating competence.

To measure achievement I count how many students in RTP are achieving above 57 and divide it by the retention rate (2.) including withdrawn students.  I also calculate the Mean result for both years (without withdrawn students) and check the exam results in both semesters. If there is a large deviation from other assessment scores it provides an avenue for investigation.  It is also important to check the SAIS Year 12 report to check school vs external exam results. If students need recounselling this is done at the end of S1 and S2 Year 11 and at the start of S1 Year 12.

This is the end goal, how many students performed within the expected parameters of the course after completing the course.  Factors impacting achievement could include study skills, exam preparation, engagement with schooling, student motivation, course counselling/ability, cohort strength, work ethic,  extracurricular activities, sickness/mental health/misadventure, 5th/6th course bias and teaching pedagogy.

With these three measures, the health of a course can be established.  It is important to not only look at achievement as it can hide strategies that fail the student interest test - such as counselling students out of courses to boost achievement figures (low retention rates) where standardised testing indicates that students should pass.