Teaching middle and high school

The big flight

2008-07-05T09:02:00.001+09:30

Today is my last day in Adelaide for three weeks.
First, a week stop off in Melbourne to watch some volleyball and then off to the US for a conference on the brain. The trip will be a drag because of it's length and it's 'lag but the conference will be good I am sure.
Leaving behind some controversy at school because of the jealousy of going on a fully-paid trip but that's their problem.
Hope to develop a full package of teaching methods that are brain-friendly and will hope to use them with my Year 9 students in particular after their review of my teaching.
I can see I have a few things to work on.
BTW, this was done using scribefire within Firefox...just for something completely different.

Last weeks for 9 ICT

2008-06-22T10:08:00.002+09:30

What a class. It was a pleasure to teach and they taught ME a lot.
Next year (if I get it again) it will be different.
I will still incorporate both blogs (which have been very successful) and wikis (less interactive but I think I can improve on it) but will focus on podcasts (nearly all students successfully produced a podcast) and Game Maker.
Game Maker has been the surprise packet. It was something I allowed them to do as free choice and they took to it like ducks to water. They produced more in 3 weeks than my Year 11 class did in a term!
So it will be something like:
Weeks 1-3 Introduction to blogs and the wiki. Safe use of the internet.
Weeks 4-7 Social Networking assignment.
Weeks 8-12 Podcasting - introduction, main features, making their own podcast.
Weeks 12-19 Game Maker - introduction, building and modifying a simple game, building your own game. Will need to introduce the Design process for these students otherwise they will just sit and create without any documentation. Will also give them the opportunity to podcast or screencast their documentation if they want or create a website (the blog site can do this) to do this.
Week 20 Trialling and feedback.

Sent off my Summer School Application

2008-03-16T18:26:00.001+10:30

Finally sent off my application for post Summer School money.
I am not sure it will get through but I hope I am given the chance to spend some time with the Science teachers building a wiki and showing them the power of the blog.
The costs might be slightly derailed if we set up a Moodle which apparently has both blogging and wiki facilities.

The Year 9ICT course is going well. At least 6 of the class are getting the idea that they can add to the knowledge the class has. It is a bit tricky to know how to edit their information - too much and they might lose confidence, not enough and they might not think it is worthwhile. The blogs are going well and give me a real insight into how they are going. Again, I need to give them feedback. But at least I can do it in my own good time.

Finally, I am setting up a 9 Maths wiki to use with students. Given the static nature of Maths, this could be an ideal set up for students who are struggling with Maths. The trick is to structure it so that there is enough information but not too much clutter.
Interesting times.

Year 9 ICT - a brand new approach to teaching

2008-02-24T11:26:00.002+10:30

Well - new for me.
The emphasis in this whole unit will be on collaboration. We will focus on four units - blogging, wikis, podcasts and social networking.
Already we have covered blogging and I can see the benefits. Students have to make at least one blog entry per week and comment on someone else's blog each week. It has been terrific because

I get some idea how much they are taking in
I can see who is doing the work
It is much easier to give feedback (in the form of comments)
It is much easier to assess (as long as you have developed the criteria beforehand)

We are now starting on wikis - the students get to modify the course's wiki - which they have initially been very excited by but also very intimidated. Students actually have a say in what they learn - revolutionary! At the moment I am confining them to changes to the content part of the course ie what is a blog, how can they be used etc.
Eventually I want them to have a say in the assessment of the course - very empowering. Also I want them to use what we have learnt in other subjects.
More to come....

First Blog for 2008 - Proposal for Professional Learning

2008-02-24T11:25:00.001+10:30

Here is a proposal I am submitting to obtain a grant for $2000 for Professional Learning basically on using wikis:

This project is based on the research done by Dr Debra Panizzon, (Deputy Director, Flinders Centre for Science Education in the 21st Century). Her research suggested that outstanding outcomes in Science can (in part) be achieved by Science teachers where there is a culture of collegiality, shared assessment practices, communal teaching resources and shared goal-setting and class expectations.

I will work with a group of Science teachers (middle school focus) and I will:

· Introduce the idea of using a commonly-accessed web site (called a wiki) to write curriculum documents for the Science course.

· We would cover

o The main science concepts and skills

o Teaching and learning resources

o Common and/or shared assessment tasks

· Emphasis is on working on the website collaboratively. Wikis allow anybody to edit, add, delete or in some way modify the contents. This wiki will be a private one so only invited teachers can submit content.

· It also allows discussion of topics and this should allow teachers to clarify ideas, discuss the meaning of key concepts and give feedback on what has been uploaded

· If it continues beyond this year, it will evolve into a useful, up-to-date yet dynamic working document.

The Professional Learning program that I will run will have the wiki as it’s focus. However, to break up any sessions I also propose to give some short input on some of the key ideas presented at the Summer School. Here the focus is on how this information or research might impact on their science teaching.

These sessions will include:

· The survey of Year 10 Science students by Terry Lyons (Choosing Science Project for 2007)

· Neuroscience and Learning by Professor Ian Fitzgibbons (South Australian Neuroscience Institute)

· Learning Capital by Mike Lawson and Helen Askell-Williams (Flinders University, School of Education)

· Hands-on Science practical and tutorial sessions (by various members of the Science and Engineering faculties at Flinders University)

The sessions would run in the following manner:

A short introductory session – Introduction to Wikis (what are they, how they work, how to get into our wiki and use it).
A full-day session to write the curriculum documents (creating the framework, research, sharing information, reflection)
Follow-up sessions (clarify any issues, continue to share experiences, discuss how other teachers [e.g. student teachers, new teachers] might use the resource)

Ulimately, I would envisage that this group of teachers would develop wikis with other teachers and possibly even with students!

The end is nigh

2007-12-06T21:48:00.000+10:30

It's been a pretty amazing year in many respects.
Beside the fact that I turned 50, have been married 25 years and been teaching at my current school for 15 years, I feel that all the things I have been working on in the last three years are coming together.
I have been to Canberra for the Standards meeting - more the development of advanced teacher capabilities. It was a heavy meeting but I am inspired by the end result and pretty amazed about the group of teachers that I worked with. Can't say too much now, but the final document is still being worked on and should be out by around March next year.
Amanda and I are about to present our ideas from the AGQTP project to our staff along with some suggestions for how to run meetings more efficiently. I hope this goes well as it looks pretty heavy.
We also presented to some of our System leaders on behalf of the Project and that seemed to go down well.
Finally, I got into the Science Summer School in January. I am looking forward to the content but am somewhat bemused with how they are going to run the rest of the show - i.e. accommodation, meals etc., and how they will treat the participants. Should be amusing. I ran into the guy helping to work out the Mathematics Summer School in Canberra and even he was a little unsure about that side of things.
Keep you posted dudes.

Standards - more useful than for assessment

2007-11-18T13:10:00.000+10:30

In my last post I made my position clear on how standards should be used. If they are aimed at creating an elite group of teachers whose only role is to get more money then I am not interested. I have received some reading from Teaching Australia which suggests that they are thinking the same way.
They have used some pretty inspirational standards (e.g from Language and Literacy teachers, and the Maths group) which have as it's focus the improvements in learning that should result if a teacher is exemplary.
I think during the meeting that as long as I have this as a focus I should be right. Otherwise what is the point of having standards unless it is to meet some sort of goal. What higher goal could there be than the improvement of student learning.
Teaching Australia also sent out a set of guidelines about the organising categories [broad headings that capture the critical elements of teaching] and capabilities [the discrete elements of knowledge, skills and dispositions expected of teachers operating appropriately and effectively at a high level of expertise]. They include:

Professional Knowledge

Knowledge of content
Knowledge of students
Knowledge of teaching and learning (pedagogy)

Professional Practice

Planning for learning
Creating a learning environment
Assessment and evaluation of learning

Professional Engagement

Self-motivated professional learners
Reflective practitioners
Active members of professional learning communities (in schools and beyond).

I will have a look at the Gleeson 10 and see if they cover everything mentioned above (and vice versa)

What you need to teach effectively (a personal reflection)

2007-11-12T21:04:00.000+10:30

Here are my thoughts after having read the material on teaching standards. I think all teachers need:

a love of children and a belief that all children are capable of learning
a very good understanding of the subject matter that you are teaching. This would include a love of the subject to an extent that you are interested in finding out more about it. This would be further enhanced when you know the anecdotes and stories associated with the subject.
an effective method of planning a teaching and learning unit using a structure that actually results in improved student learning.
a range of teaching and learning techniques to help students understand the content and develop the skills to be a successful learner.
a willingness to work and share resources with other teachers, students and parents.
a willingness to reflect on your teaching on your own or with some sort of support group.
an ability to involve yourself in useful professional development opportunities that come.
a willingness to get to know children, their interests, strengths, weaknesses to be able to know how to effectively help their learning.

More to come as I think about the upcoming writing session on Teaching standards.

Teaching Standards in Australia

2007-11-12T20:47:00.001+10:30

As a part of this writing group, I have been doing a lot of reading about standards in Australia and around the world. Some of the documents I have downloaded have been fantastic to read and will be very useful in my job as Professional Learning Coordinator.
For example:
From "Professional teaching associations and professional standards: embedding standards in the discourse of the profession" by Terry Hayes, he says:

There is a tension between using standards for accreditation and using them as a goal for all teachers to aspire to.
He further articulates this potential problems with

comparability versus creativity in presenting evidence of accomplishment
meaningful versus manageable amounts of evidence to present
personal goals versus what the school/system wants
value of assessment versus ongoing critical inquiry.

He also states that the context of where teachers work is of critical importance when assessing attainment of the standards. Some others feel that standards can be context free.
There is another issue. It is a conflict of interest that arises when the people setting/governing the standards may have different priorities than those who are being assessed by them. Often peak bodies have the capacity to offer PD associated with helping people achieve the standards. Then a conflict develops because the body has a vested interest in keeping the current standards and assessing it in ways that THEY have already developed.
Also a very important point about the idea of isolated teachers being assessed as achieving the standards or not. Surely we want to encourage cooperation between teachers so should individual teachers be assessed in isolation?

My personal opinion is that standards should not be used to pump up a small group of teachers to say how great they are and give them more money. It should be used inspire ALL teachers to become better teachers and should promote a cooperative and collegial approach to reaching these standards. I also feel that the assessors should not be the PD providers otherwise there will be too much of a vested interest in maintaining the status quo.

Last Learning Team Meetings Part 2

2007-11-12T20:34:00.000+10:30

Last Thursday was the last Learning Team Meetings for the Year 8 groups for the year.
I found the English/SOSE/RE people a little subdued. It was almost like this group had very little to offer such capable people. The group itself will be very different next year - two are going on long service, one is pregnant and the another has the year off to stay at home to look after his child.
I thought Tricia came up with a good way of structuring some scaffolding for significant writing in Year 8. She separated the task into distinct parts and then for each part, created a page of instructions and then a blank section for students to write bibliographic details and then notes. The rest was discussion of a presentation from one of the teachers.
The Science/Maths people were a little more lively with an animated discussion about Self-Paced Maths. Some people were hesitating about the process feeling as though they had lost some control over the class and feeling that they were not working as hard as they should - and that this would reflect on them as teachers.
Danielle brought up the importance of teaching students how to use the resources - i.e. how to use the text book to get the most out of it. She also has experimented with success with students marking their own tests. This takes a great load off her, but gives the students immediate feedback - no just with a score, but also with an idea of where they went wrong and why.
Craig talked about using re-tests as a learning opportunity and the need to have more opened-ended investigations that students could do along side of the textbook work. This will encourage problem solving skills.
I discuss the struggle I had with allowing students to fall behind. How sometimes it's important to let that happen because they need to struggle with some things at some stages in their life and then be thankful when they actually succeed.
The Leadership group and I will meet next week to see where we go from here.

Last Learning Team Meetings Part 1

2007-11-06T19:29:00.000+10:30

Today the Year 9 Learning Teams met as a Learning Team Meeting for the year.
The SOSE/English/RE people met first and we did another success protocol. Graeme spoke about an integrated task on Antarctica that he and Emily did. It was a series of activities designed to prepare and research a trip to Antarctica as well as study the wildlife and minerals found on the continent. He reflected on the fact that a number of students did very well - but many did not do as well and was surprised by the lack of organisation that they showed.
It was great to hear some of the feedback from the other teachers. For example, there was a lot of discussion about the need to build independent learning skills in Year 9 students so that they are ready for when they need it in the senior years. They suggested things like checklists, verification forms like in Year 12, making mini due dates for each part of the task, giving choice i.e. do any 2 out of 3 tasks in this section and offering alternative ways of presenting work to those who struggle with writing.
Interestingly, the main presentation in the Science/Maths/ITC meeting was from Emily, Graeme's partner. She was pretty happy with what they had done and also received mostly positive feedback. It was suggested that perhaps students could make a learning plan for what they are going to achieve in each lesson/homework.
We also discussed the use of rubrics for our classes. We felt that we were at such a point that we could hone them a little and offer them for use by all Science and Maths teachers. Because of their generic nature, they could be used across the board with little modification. We decided to present them at the next Science meeting for other staff to use.
A review of these meetings suggested that they had been worthwhile and they would like them to go longer so more people can share their successes. Some other comments were baffling - let's leave it at that.

Further interesting events

2007-11-02T22:44:00.001+10:30

Firstly I found out what the Drafting group has to do:
It includes

settle on the common organising catagories. Still finding out what they mean by categories.
draft the capabilites for advanced teaching and school leadership.
This is the bit I am interested in. I have some ideas already from the ASCD magazine. They called such teachers, Teacher Leaders and have surveyed some them to determine their characteristics. Four things stood out. Such teachers have done presentations to their staff; have lead significant groups or committees; have mentored new or student teachers; have written significant curriculum documents.
propose guidelines and criteria for professional associations to use in drafting descriptors for their specialisations.

Then I found out that Amanda and I need to give a 20 minute presentation to other AGQTP groups nationally.
I'm getting rather giddy. Must keep that swollen head under control.

Developing a set of school values

2007-10-31T21:43:00.000+10:30

The principal at our school recently asked all staff members to contribute what they saw as the values of our school. It was an interesting task and they came up with a vast list. Here it is:

Service

· To others

· To charity

· Have compassion for others in need

· Community minded and not ‘self-serving’

· Show care and compassion

Lifelong Learning

· Are committed to the value e.g. lifelong learning

· Instilling a desire for lifelong learning

· Lifelong education of the whole person

· Value the process of learning and the opportunities to do so

Achieving full potential/excellence

· Make the most of our talents and opportunities

· Achieve your potential

· Maximise potential

· Education of the whole person

· Commitment to development of talents and use of talents – staff, students and parents

· Striving to reach an individual’s potential

Respect

· For individual differences

· The learning styles / needs of individuals in our community

· Of individuals and for the environment

· Everyone and their property

· Beliefs and values of others

· For self and others

· Love

· Acceptance and tolerance of individual difference

· Safety

· Respect for staff, others and environment

Faith

· Live out our faith in the light of the example of Jesus Christ

· Catholic tradition central

· Being a disciple of Jesus in action

· Christian values taught and upheld

· Grace

· Promotion of faith

· Faithful (to College and God)

· Faith filled community

· Spirituality of faith

Celebrate diversity

· Live as part of a global community (contribute to the global community)

· Responsible citizen

· Celebrate the diversity

· Culturally diverse

· Community

· Welcoming

· Providing a caring and welcoming community for all

· Inclusively

· Unified and inclusive as a community

· Acceptance

· Safe and welcoming community (and supportive)

· Value others opinions

· Value diversity

Working Together

· Work together / in partnership

· Provide a safe and supportive community / environment

· Work together towards common goals

· Parents, staff and students sharing the same ideals and working together to the same ends

· Supportive environment

· Support and provide opportunities

· Supportive

· Collaboration

· Cooperation

· Communication – do it nicely!

· Communication

· Equity

· Sense of community

· Forgiving and restorative practices – promotion of choice with responsibility

· Empathy

Wholeness: including

o Striving for Excellence

o Honesty and Respect

o Resilience

o Trust

o Truth / trust

o Wellness

o Optimism / hope

o Forgiveness/Reconciliation

o Commitment

o Integrity

o Loyalty

o Compassion

o Hope

o Optimistic

o Responsive

o Morals

o Leadership

o Just

o Pride in personal appearance

o Having a ‘go’!

o Care for environment

Others:

· Provision of quality teaching (and learning)

· Providing appropriate educational pathways for students

· Build the resilience that we need to take on the challenges in our lives

· Modelling – role models, students and staff

· Support

· Value for money

Some good stuff. Now I think Amanda and I will be involved in honing it down using one of the protocols later in the year. I might have a go at summarising the gist of what is being said in each heading and offering that up as a basis for the Gleeson Ten.

Well, what do you know!

2007-10-31T21:35:00.000+10:30

I recently applied to be a member of a National group looking at Teaching Standards in Australia.
This was my application:

I was recently exposed to the draft of the Charter for the Teaching Profession at a recent AGQTP session on Constructive Pedagogies. We were examining the document whilst using the ANSN teaching protocols – in this case we use the Consultancy Protocol. Whilst examining the document I was intrigued by the possibilities for my own school and for the profession in general.

We did not come up with any significant changes to the document – that was not our purpose. The five areas outlined in the document immediately suggested to me a guide for helping to create a Professional Learning Policy for teachers at our school.

I have been a teacher for nearly 24 years and have taught in High Schools for all of that time. In my time I have had many positions of responsibility including Coordinator of Science, Year Level Coordinator and my current position Professional Learning Coordinator. However, time and again, I have been drawn back to teaching in the classroom. I have set myself the goal to improve my teaching methodology each year. Each time I have felt that this personal goal (personal improvement of my teaching methodology) was enough. This document has shown me that it can be much more than this.

During my teaching career I have undertaken further study – I have completed a Masters in Science Education through Curtin University in 2002, for example. I have been a member of the AGQTP group looking at Constructive Pedagogies over the last two years and have been asked to join a leadership group amongst our system to help other teachers develop their teaching strategies.

In the last three years (thanks to a visionary principal) I have had a position in the school where I have the opportunity to work intimately with members of the teaching profession. This has included work as a mentor (to both new and student teachers), a leader of teachers during the implementation of the Middle School structure in our school and as a leader of small groups of teachers meeting in Learning Teams.

My reflection is that teaching has become incredibly complex in the last 10 years. More is expected of teachers from Governments, leadership, parents and students themselves. It is no longer enough simply to teach what we taught last year in the same way we taught it last year. Teachers can get lost in this complexity and this is where a charter can help clarify the role of those of us in the teaching profession.

We are reminded again and again of how important the job is theoretically, but the almost constant sniping at teaching standards from both sides of the political divide is weakening the confidence that members of the public have in teachers. A well-implemented charter is something that we can hold up and say, “No, you are wrong. This is what we are on about. Now let us get on with this very important work”.

I would like an opportunity to join the Drafting Group for the reasons I have outlined above. I believe I have significant experience in teaching and working with teachers to make a worthwhile contribution to the Group. I very much pride myself on my ability to work with others in a team. I do this constantly with my own teachers, working with teachers of the same subject or in the same year level, exchanging ideas and resources and discussing strategies and expectations.

I would see many advantages in developing national professional standards. Not only do they become a statement for all teachers to present to the wider community, they become a framework for teacher improvement and a clear guide for new teachers coming into the profession.

I am new to the area of writing professional standards but I would bring a new perspective and plenty of useful ideas to the Drafting Group. I am willing to learn. My talents include an ability to apply deep analysis of such documents but also an ability to show how things are connected.

If this application is not successful, I would appreciate if you could keep in contact with me in my capacity as the Professional Learning Coordinator. As stated earlier I can see such standards as being directly useful in my work as the Professional Learning Coordinator.

And guess what...I got in!
Late November I get to go to Canberra to work with the group for four days. Pretty amazing and exciting. To top it off, I will be in Canberra on the day of the election! I might even get to go to the Tally Room and meet the new Prime Minister! Magic.

Further movement in the CAR committe

2007-10-27T11:56:00.000+09:30

I suggested that I design some sort of framework for the committee highlighting the work it does and the decisions that have been made and the principles decided upon in the past by the committee.
A quick scan of the minutes suggests that the committee looks at number of different areas: Open days, information nights, reporting, curriculum for senior and middle schools, student teachers, teaching plans and course outlines are just some of the areas that the committee looks into.
I will try to summarise these for the future meetings.
This hopefully will be the start of clarifying the purpose of the committee and helping with decision making in future.

Working with Student Teachers

2007-10-27T11:45:00.000+09:30

Interesting times working with student teachers at this point. It's here you see how far you have come over the years and how many skills you have that you just naturally do without thinking.
Timing the lesson, peripheral vision, student management and even content knowledge.
One trick I showed my colleague was that when you are asking students to do something use the 5W as a guide to what you should tell them.

For example, when asking students to fill in a sheet:
Who (discuss this in pairs);
What (complete questions 2-5);
When (You have 10 minutes);
Where (put the answers in your exercise book);
Why (we will use this information in the practical we will do later).

By doing this the teacher will ensure that just about all the important bits of information are given to the students but using the simple check list.
This came up naturally in conversation with the student teacher - another sign that I am beginning to assimilate the productive pedagogies into my teaching.

Useful site for developing individualised graphic organisers.

2007-10-25T21:29:00.000+09:30

This site (in beta version) could be useful in creating graphic organisers modified for your particular subject.

Check it out!

Movement on the Protocols

2007-10-25T21:17:00.000+09:30

Big movement on decision making in the school.
I chaired a meeting of the CAR group and it became clear that the discussion was ill-directed and often fatuous.
At the end, it was suggested that a decision making process be adopted by the committee to help direct discussion in a more fruitful or at least, efficient direction. This was agreed to.
Also I "kited" the idea that the CAR needs a framework of principles of operation - eg "all long reports are submitted first to allow for extensive proofreading". I might suggest that i get the minutes of the CAR meeting to help flesh out this framework. Accompanying this should be a vision statement for the group. More of this later when it starts to gel.
Also we got the go ahead to use some sort of refining protocol to help with the development of the basic beleif statement for the school. This process was started by teachers who listed down their top 10 beliefs about education. This will be added to by the Board, P&F and by the SRC of the school.
We will then use our time at the end of the year to discuss, probably using the tuning protocol, the summarised version of all of this. I now need to sit down with Amanda to discuss how we might do this.

Summary of Learning Team Meetings

2007-10-20T22:42:00.001+09:30

This summary was sent out to all the Year 8 and 9 teacher to prepare them for the next meeting:

8 LT1 – Last Meeting: Tricia shared her unit on comparing two civilisations. Included ideas of student choice (e.g. essay topic), variety of presentations, gender balance, scaffolding, feedback sheets; Helen shared her “faith in action” review of charitable organisations unit in RE. Included random groups (sometimes a good option for short term activities) and “lucky dips” for the charity i.e. little choice. Students had to champion their charity. They were assessed on cooperative skills and their presentation.

It was suggest that two others shared a success in their teaching, using the “success” protocol.

8LT2 – Craig shared his “Revision/Test/Revision/Test” methodology to help develop revision skills. This helped give students feedback on their revision techniques. Jason shared the cross – curriculum “Pedal Prix” unit developed with Tricia. We furthered discussed test preparation techniques such as: Look, Cover, Write, Check, Flash cards, asking questions of a partner (sometimes called “See Saw”), active reading, students creating almost daily revision sheets. We decided that we would trial test preparation and get data to compare how students went. So bring samples folks.

9LT1 – Discussion of what “X” factor in student work makes for an “A” standard. Jess shared her work on developing “sophisticated” poetry. Sophisticated skills included: appropriate technique and terms, abstract language, complex vocabulary. Use of metaphor, simile, alliteration, onomatopoeia and ? (There was a fifth technique). Reading is important in helping develop sophistication. Suggested that “every Year 8 and 9 carry a novel with them to all lessons” [where possible]. Also, keep sophisticated work to show other students. Students need to do the unpredictable/original/unique to improve their standard of responses.

[On Reflection: This only needs a little bit of work to become a useful document for all teachers to help improve the sophistication of student answers].

It was suggest that two others shared a success in their teaching, using the “success” protocol.

9LT2 – Looked at the use of Rubrics for assessment. Paula presented one’s she had used for practicals and tests. The test rubric had been used twice and was useful to see if students had improved in their skills. Lengthy discussion of individual assessment during group tasks. Use of the ePortfolio. We will work further on the Rubrics (Test/Research – Gerald, Orals –Paula, Practicals – Emily, Clint – Movies. Aim was to trial a Rubric and bring back feedback to the next meeting.

Presentation day at AGQTP

2007-10-20T22:06:00.000+09:30

Last meeting for the year was presentation day for all involved. A culmination of the work done in the third term on our projects.
Here is a brief summary of most of them:
All Saints - Reviewed the schools Personal Responsibility Policy using Cognitive and Cooperative strategies and the tuning protocol. Then used the same protocol so that we could review their policy. Very successful at their school.
St Gabriels - Focussed on working with targeted teachers in their school to model the strategies. Picked up a unit of work (on Creation) and showed how it could be taught over five lessons. Other teachers looked on and took notes. They were enthusiastic and will now model them to other teachers.
Our School - decision making processes in our school. Clear that this needs refining to be able to manage some of the decisions that need to made in the future e.g. future SACE.
St Francis X - wanted to make P.L. more relevant and individualised. Used PMI - a good tool to model and use to review. [Could lead into using a protocol to examine the results]. As a result of the review, there is more continuity, they include more energisers from other people, incorporate cognitive and cooperative strategies, time for sharing and professional reading time. Learning teams have formed and a member of each team is part of the Lead Learning Team. Teams include Higher Order Thinking, Brain Based Learning, Choice Theory, Cooperative/Cognitive Strategies, Questioning, and Student Engagement.
Mary Mount - does student directed learning improve engagement? They worked in teams on a topic of their choice on energy. [Have asked her to send me a copy of what she did]
St Josephs ? - Used protocols to share the learning that they and others had experience in the various AGQTP activities.
Sacred Heart Middle School - Authentic assessment. Class did study on what chips are best. Need to use statistical tools to work this out and then write it up justifying their decision. [Again, have asked him to send me the documentation]
St Josephs Tranmere - whole school engaged in a project on Antarctica which focussed on all four Productive Pedagogy elements. Huge project.
St Francis A - using pp based activities to raise student engagement.
My reflection on the process is the enormous range of talent in the room and the different roads people appear to be taking whilst introducing these pedagogies. The discussion after the presentation reflected this with a general feeling that many people were prepared to go the next step and willing to lead others through the productive pedagogies pathways.
I felt that we needed to document the way in which people have grown and developed in this area and what was necessary for this to happen ie. time to review, try, evaluate, listen to others then try again. Also we need to indicate what conditions are necessary to help the process in our schools: principal on board (especially in financial terms), some teachers in the school willing to tackle new ideas, a long term commitment to change.
Should be an interesting year next year.

Really getting the hang of this...

2007-10-20T21:53:00.000+09:30

I just noticed that when planning two units of work, how easy it was to introduce Constructive Pedagogies into the planning.
For example, in a new unit in Psychology, I wanted to explore student definitions of emotion - so we did a Y chart - very suitable for this unit. Then when trying to understand what the books definition of emotion was, we used a concept map.
Further, in a Year 9 Science unit on Light, I wanted to explore what students knew about light. So I did a Think, Pair, Share on 3 different questions: How can we see trees? What can't blind people see trees and what is colour. They all complained about doing each of these activities but when they reported after the Share section, it was quite clear that some ideas were spot on and others were way off.
Would like to do more of them where appropriate but my biggest hurdle is how to decide which is appropriate for each situation.

I found this site, which summarises them according to function. Could be useful.

future SACE and its impact on the middle School

2007-10-02T21:48:00.000+09:30

This could be great. The structures in future SACE include:

personal learning plans - we could begin this in Year 8 particularly at the end of the first term when we meet with students and parents to discuss how they are going. Very strongly linked to the reports done in Term 1. Review at least once a term after each report. Plans written down and submitted on-line for access by students and parents, as well as teachers and coordinators.
extended learning initiatives - currently done in Year 12 but we could do a cut-down version in Year 9. Basically students study a subject area of their own choice based on personal interests. Presented to the wider community (somehow) towards the end of Year 9 - maybe at a presentation night?
Numeracy and Literacy requirements (not sure what they are) which must be met sometime in Year 8 or 9. Need to decide what basic numeracy and literacy skills are needed by the time they finish Year 9. These skills would be taught across the curriculum so much so that people would need to indicate in their teaching outlines explicitly where they will teach these skills.
Capabilities - if we use the Gleeson 10 as a guide, these could be developed in these two years.
Must achieve at least a "B" in five core (Science, Maths, SOSE, English, Italian) subjects or a "C" in choice subjects. If not, they repeat the subject in the following year. Alternatively, each KLA could identify key units of work that students must receive a “B” in whilst they are doing Year 8 and 9.

The Gleeson 10 might include:

Life-long, independent, skilled learners.
Creative, critical, self-evaluating thinkers.
Empathetic and collaborative workers.
Self-aware citizens of the world.
Confident problem solvers.
Responsible and resilient individuals
Effective communicators
Socially and environmentally responsible individuals.
Spiritually-aware, faith-filled members of the church and community.
A producer of quality work.

If we use these as a guide to the sort of "capabilities" we want our students to have by the time they reach Year 9, then that changes what we teach and how we teach.
This would radically overhaul what we do in the middle school and really get them prepared for senior school.
It could be that each KLA decides to focus on one particular aspect in each of Year 8 and 9. For example, maths could look at “confident problem solvers”, English – “effective communicators”, RE – “spiritually aware, faith-filled members of the church and community” etc.
This would radically overhaul what we do in the middle school and really get them prepared for senior school. I realise this is only “pie in the sky” stuff and would need to have full agreement from the teachers involved but not only does it achieve a lot of what we want to see in the Middle School (I think) but it also prepares our students for the future SACE.

Professional Learning Review

2007-10-02T21:40:00.000+09:30

It could be that Professsional Learning at our school may take a decided turn for the better.
After an abortive pd session for the majority of our KLACs and YLCs, I plan to put forward the idea of developing a professional Learning plan for all teachers, PART of which might be organising speakers from outside the school, but most of which will be sessions run by teachers in small groups or groups of individuals meeting together to discuss matters of import (e.g. Learning Pairs or Learning Teams).
Apparently the Flinders Maths and Science school run it this way and have done so right from the start. However, they have an afternoon off a week and don't have to share a campus with two other schools. This could be a sticking point because we won't have the flexibility in the timetable if we go it alone and say take Tuesday afternoon off.
I am thinking of coming up with a professional learning policy which includes:

professional learning plans made by each teacher with their teacher mentors
regular professional learning in groups or individually
professional development sessions
lead learning team made up of myself the Principal and deputy and three others who have responsibility for overseeing the structure and running of these teams.

The survey results: a summary

2007-09-13T22:23:00.000+09:30

AGQTP Appreciative Enquiry – Decision Making.

Results

KLA Areas Covered: (number indicates numbers of returns per faculty)

Arts	RE	H & PE	Lang	SOSE	Maths	Sci	D & T	Eng	ESO
3	7	8	0	10	2	3	3	5	4

Q1 What impact do you have on decision making at the whole school level?

	None	Very Little	Don’t Know	Some	Significant	Total returns
All	0	14	1	7	5	28
POR	0	2	1	6	5	14
Not POR	0	12	0	1	0	14

Notes: Although clearly the proportion of “very little” impact (50%) and “some” or “significant” impact (43%) is about the same overall, when you break it down to POR/Not POR, most PORs (79%) feel they have at least some impact, most Non-POR staff (86%) feel they have very little impact. I guess to change this they should apply to become PORs.

Q 2 Words to describe perspective on decision making at whole school level:

Manufactured	3	Easy	1	Efficient	5	Frustrating	7	Affirming	4
Pre-disposed	1	Consultative	15	Fair	11	Well-informed	6	Explicit	1
Logical	10	Contrived	1	Collective	4	Impulsive	3	Agonising	2
Rational	4	Intuitive	2	Constructive	8	Procedural	11	Shared	13
Ad hoc	3	Autocratic	1	Delayed	3

Top 5 (School Overall):

Description	Number	Percentage overall of returns (Tot = 28)
Consultative	15	54
Shared	13	46
Fair	11	39
Procedural	11	39
Logical	10	36

Notes: All very positive.

Q 3 Impact on Decision making in KLA

KLA	None	Very Little	Don’t Know	Some	Significant	Total
All	0	8	2	20	7	37
Percent	0	22	5	54	19	100

Notes: this means that most staff (73%) felt that had at least some impact in some faculties although a significant proportion (22%) felt they did not have much impact on some faculties.

Q4 Words describing decision making in KLA Area

Manufactured	2	Easy	2	Efficient	8	Frustrating	5	Affirming	4
Pre-disposed	0	Consultative	9	Fair	9	Well-informed	7	Explicit	1
Logical	8	Contrived	1	Collective	9	Impulsive	4	Agonising	2
Rational	3	Intuitive	2	Constructive	9	Procedural	5	Shared	16
Ad hoc	1	Autocratic	1	Delayed	5

Top 5 (KLA):

Description	Number	Percentage overall of returns (Tot = 28)
Shared	16	57
Consultative	9	22
Fair	9	22
Constructive	9	22
Collective	9	22

Notes: Again, all very positive.

Q 5 Impact on decision making at Class Level (some ESOs did not comment)

	None	Very Little	Don’t Know	Some	Significant
Number	0	1	1	4	19
Percentage	0	4	4	14	68

Notes: As you would expect, most teachers (82%) have some or significant impact on decision making in their class rooms.

Q6 Words describing decision making in the Classroom

Manufactured	0	Easy	8	Efficient	7	Frustrating	1	Affirming	7
Pre-disposed	0	Consultative	9	Fair	8	Well-informed	7	Explicit	2
Logical	8	Contrived	0	Collective	7	Impulsive	1	Agonising	1
Rational	5	Intuitive	1	Constructive	9	Procedural	8	Shared	8
Ad hoc	1	Autocratic	3	Delayed	0

Top 6 (Classroom):

Description	Number	Percentage overall of returns (Tot = 28)
Consultative	9	32
Constructive	9	32
Fair	8	29
Logical	8	29
Procedural	8	29
Shared	8	29

Notes: An interestingly even spread of very positive comments. I wonder what students would say?

Q 6 Student Impact on decision making at Class Level

	None	Very Little	Don’t Know	Some	Significant
Numbers	0	5	0	16	2
Percentage	0	18	0	57	7

Notes: Again, most teachers (64%) feel that students have at least some impact.

Q 7/8 Decision Making Groups (Number that are effective in brackets)

CAR	2	PPAR	2	Liturgy	1	Sports Com	2	Uniform
Café	1	Music Ministry	1	PE	5	YLC	3	Leadership Team	2
Learning team	4	SRC	1	English	2	GCFFL	2	SOSE	1
Consultative Committee	1	RE	1	Staff Association	1	Celebrations committee	1	None	4

Q 10 Preferred Decision Making Style

	Auto I	Auto II	Consult I	Consult II	Group II
Points	30	44	72	90	119
Percentage	8	12	20	26	34

Notes: a reasonably clear preference for at least consultation (80%), with at least one third of staff wishing that it would go further in that the group should make the decisions rather than leadership.

N.B: Points were allocated as: 5 was worth one point, 4 – two points, 3 – three points, 2 – four points, and 1 – five points.

Overall comment: Much more positive than I expected. Some individuals had some significant gripes about how decisions were made and how little say they had. Most staff (68%) came up with some sort of decision making process that they thought was effective.

Collection of Responses to Survey

2007-09-11T20:31:00.000+09:30

So far, so good. We have collected about 20 surveys from a range of staff and faculties. The responses are mixed in most areas but clearly most people think that they have little say in the decision making process of the school as a whole.
I have been intrigued by the feedback by both the KLA coordinators and people in their factulty. I will use RE as an example. The coordinator feels like everybody gets a go and decision making is shared. However, the (albeit few) two responses from the faculty suggest otherwise.
What has been excellent is that most people have given examples of worthwhile decision making processes.
On reflection the best process I have been involved in has been with the Fantasy Football association that I am involved in. We are about to have an AGM and the process for changing the constitution is as fair and clear cut as I have seen. This usually involves sending out a proposal sheet, getting proposals in by a due date, printing them off in a very well set out booklet with all the options available, getting this out before the day and encouraging discussion before the meeting. Finally, all people come to the meeting with an idea of how they are going to vote. Some people reasons for/against and then we vote.
We will do a final appeal for surveys tomorrow and then collate them on the weekend - if I can fit in all the reports I have to write!
A friend of mine suggested that the school's PC might help developing the processes involved in developing worthwhile decision making structures. Will contact him with the results to see what he thinks.

The surveys start coming in...oh, and another meeting

2007-09-05T21:24:00.001+09:30

Yes, the first decision making surveys have come in and even the ESOs are getting involved. Should make for interesting reading.

I attended another typical meeting today, this time for a particular KLA that I am closely associated with.
The meeting started late with the usual excuses. The chair also said at the start: "I don't want to do a lot of talking at this meeting" and then proceeded to talk for about 80% of the meeting. She stuck to the agenda for the most part except near the end when we had an open discussion on what skills we would like our Year 12s to have by the time they reach Year 12. We can then use that to map what skills we develop in Year 11, 10 etc. down to Year 8. She really needs to be shown a technique on how to do this.
Prior to this, the only decision making part of the meeting was to decide on whether the new Engineering Course we are a part of (!) should be run across Year 10 or should be aimed at a particular group. It consisted of a small amount of discussion, then around the room for a vote! Hmmm. Very interesting way of doing things. She does not have much of an idea about getting opinions of others as she appeared to be very uncertain when asking for this.
Verdict: not a meeting more of a lecture/information session.

A meeting of the second kind

2007-09-03T20:16:00.000+09:30

This is a review of a second meeting of a group that I have reviewed previously.
I usually take minutes for this meeting but it was suggested that this not be necessary - I don't know why. The agenda seemed to be an informational one but the discussion that ensued was quite vigorous (if unruly) . Intriguingly the chair did not take notes as the meeting progressed - a recipe for time wasting if ever there was one.
Here is a sample of the progress of discussion about student recommendations for senior subjects.
Objections to the process because it seemed pointless as students can still choose a subject even if they are not recommended -> student progress in general, some students should not be doing certain subjects because they were never going to be suited to it and are now dropping out -> should we introduce a minimum "B" standard for all assessment tasks? Should start in Year 8 not Year 12, and no progress until it is achieved -> teachers spend too much time re-teaching work in Year 12 -> can't get through the course -> some students doing outdoor ed and/or child studies miss many weeks of lessons and don't make them up -> could we have subject panels to recommend students? -> could we get students doing work prior to the commencement of Year 12 - say in the holidays or final weeks of Year 11 -> why are some Year 12 students doing Year 12? -> we need to focus on what is required for Year 12 and scope this back to Year 8 students -> back to subject recommendation panels -> back to teacher recommendations and so on and so on....
It was agonising. Don't get me wrong the topic(s) were worthy of conversation but given that no notes were taken and nobody will remember what was said I just don't see the point.

Ok how could it have gone?
Firstly, if it is simply to present information, then present it,
If you want to discuss it, present it, ask for clarifying questions and then discuss it in small groups. Under no circumstances should an individual take hold of the agenda and fly kites.
Time limit the discussion and move people back to the agenda if they start to stray. This meeting went no-where because there was no purpose to it.
If you want to decided something, then people must be given time to digest the suggestion - it SHOULD NOT be raised at the meeting for a decision there and then. Grrrr. That makes me mad!

The Project: Current Status

2007-09-03T19:57:00.000+09:30

Met with Susan to talk about where we are at with the AGQTP project.
After giving her the run down of where we are at:

Aim is to survey the decision making process at the school and offer suggestions for decision making protocols.
We are doing this by making observations at meetings, evaluating them as we go, searching for decision making models and surveying staff on decision making.

Susan made a few suggestions:

Aim to create a decision making policy
Do a survey of what decisions are made at the school
Rating the decision beforehand ie Level A Decisions are critical and need to be discussed and decided upon broadly; Level C decisions probably just need some feedback and then an individual can make the decision. This would be determined by examining the impact of the decision.
How are we involving students and parents in the decision making process?
There is an urgent need for a shared vision
Critical - giving feedback about why a certain decision was made.

She seemed to have a few good ideas and her business is aimed at training leaders so we could use her as a sounding board for ideas. She seemed very supportive.
We hope to complete the survey and analyse it when we next meet. We asked about any accreditation we might be getting but she is none the wiser.
Our presentation needs to be 10 minutes long.

The Decision Making Process

2007-09-02T13:12:00.000+09:30

This is from a reading from Amanda and the GenGroup about decision making.
It suggests that there are three main factors which influence a decision:

The decision maker - chair of the meeting, coordinator, principal.
Such leaders can be extroverted (thinks aloud, facilitates group decisions) or introverted (processes information in a controlled fashion, must include much preparation and planning beforehand).

The decision process - fitting in with the decision maker's style, planning and preparation, sharing information, decision making process.
Involves two processes - information (search, amount, supply and use of data required in the decision) and procedure (steps that a group uses to make a decision).
Information should be of high quality and have predictive value when making decisions in a short time frame.
The process of decision making can further be broken down into three stages: Preparation (sourcing, collecting and analysis of data), Facilitation (drawing out persepectives, opinions and options based on their analysis), and a Decision (decision maker considers the options in relation to vision and mission and choses a course of action).
The situation - what are we deciding on, where and when. This needs a group that can trust each other (must consider time pressure, acceptability and group/team factors)

This is a good way to analyse what happens in our school. Maybe the next step is to review the meetings based on this analysis and see what the data shows us.

This prompted me to come up with an analysis grid to help with the process:

Analysing decisions at our school:

Questions to ask:

What was the decision made?
Who was (were) the decision maker(s)?
Was their style extraverted? Some planning done prior to the meeting as information and expectations shared? Thinking out loud? Guides group decisions? Or Introverted? Much planning and preparation done prior to the meeting
What was the process involved in the Search for data Supply of data to meeting participants Use of data during the meeting Analysis of data during the meeting What data was valuable in making the decision?
What was the process involved in the drawing out the Perspectives opinions, and options from group or team members based on their analysis of the data
What was the process involved in making the final decision? Were a range of options considered? What strategic goals were addressed? How was the final course of action decided upon?
What were the time constraints, acceptability?, and group/team factors, which make the decision task more difficult

Might try it at the next meeting!

Two more meetings

2007-08-22T21:01:00.000+09:30

First meeting was a general staff meeting. Mostly information or taking a survey on ICT habits. This is ok as long as they don't call it professional development. I prefer the term, Professional Information. Part of the meeting included a short session on the on-going Dress Code development. Of all the processes going on at work, this is the best managed one. It has been on the go for about two years and we are now at the stage where dress amongst the staff - especially on formal occasions - has improved significantly. Almost to the point where I feel like a slob.
Anyway, todays process included a set of recommendations by the Consultative Committee sub-group on Dress Code. I won't go into the details but we use DeBono green, yellow and black hats to analyse the code. Each group discussed it and then some of the feedback was presented to the big group. The whole feedback will be presented to the committee for further refinement. Pretty superficial but at least we did it in groups which meant many people had a chance to have a say in the process.
Second meeting was a consultative forum. Shoddy start with half the group going one way and the other half going somewhere else. Eventually the two groups met but there were no items on the Agenda! So, let's make one up! No process agreed to .Some discussion on why the forum has such poor attendance - I think it is obvious. Poorly run session dominated by a few opinionated old farts. Whew! Hope this never gets out. Although THIS meeting was better, we still had situations where individuals talked over each other, determined to get their point across; a lack of clear process when discussing ideas or making opinions evident.
A good thing though is that they recognised this and attempted to run the meeting properly with acknowledgment of the speakers, people taking turns, a proper proposal, a somewhat lame attempt to get discussion on the proposal, an "Enough discussion, let's vote" comment from the chairperson and then a vote.

Another Meeting

2007-08-15T21:48:00.000+09:30

This was a very different meeting. It included people from other schools and was designed to discuss the facilities we share and some of the issues that arise from it.
Not many decisions were made and most of the meeting was spent listening to the coordinator talk about the budget and future plans - something he could have quite easily sent out in an email. Boy, did he like the sound of his own voice!
Some observations during the meeting:

It was all business.
Seventeen people were present at the meeting and only six people spoke up. Of those six, four people, including the coordinator dominated the discussion. They were all senior, experienced teachers, mostly coordinators in the school.
The meeting discussed the unsafe state of the labs., especially when numbers of students were big. The big four basically made statements about how we can lobby for action. Then the coordinator said "I presume that because people are not saying anything, that they agree with what we are saying here"!. A huge presumption

What it needs is more time in small, mixed groups where people can actually have a say in the issue not just making presumptions because people don't want to speak up. Again, this was not really a decision-making meeting but when a "decision" was made, the process was nonsense.

Learning Team Meetings

2007-08-10T18:37:00.000+09:30

The last two days have seen the running of the four learning teams at school.
In the English/SOSE/RE Year 8 group we discussed successful research tasks in our classes. We decided to trial the Success Analysis protocol as one of the teachers spoke about researching the Roman and Greek ancient cultures. The protocol went well and the group stuck to the process stocially. In the end we used it again with another teacher to talk about a quick research task her class did comparing many religious charities.
Then the Science/Maths/IT Year 8 group met in the afternoon and were a little more difficult to contain. The first presenter took a long time to get through his presentation - not that there was a problem with this but other people were chafing at the bit to say something. Whilst the rest of the group were reflecting on his presentation, he was also very keen to join the conversation but held back. In the end the free-for-all conversation that followed was quite a contrast - although interestingly, people seemed much more polite in there interactions.
This morning the the English/SOSE/RE Year 9 group met and our focus was on identifying what an "A" was in our subjects. The presenter spoke brilliantly on developing the different skills needed to write poetry and the scaffolding she developed to achieve this. In the end, the students could reflect back on their work and the obvious improvements they made in their poems. We did not use the protocol with this group but have decided to use it next time.
Finally, in the afternoon it was the turn of the the Science/Maths/IT Year 9 group. Again, the group found it difficult to keep to the protocol - at one stage, one member could not help herself and took the discussion on a tangent that suited her. Eventually we got back on task and I think benefited on the discussion about using Generic Rubrics to help us review student achievement in Maths and Science. This included Rubrics on Research skills, orals, practicals, test results and movie reviews. We decided to trial one of them and bring back our results for the next meeting.
Very useful technique for these groups.

Started the ball rolling with the project.

2007-08-06T22:28:00.000+09:30

Won't mention which meeting we attended...but needless to say it was a perfect example of how not to run a decision-making meeting.
Almost every aspect of the agenda was open to railroading - that is, someone at the meeting taking over the "discussion" of the issue and forcing the group to make a decision. Yet, almost every point on the agenda was for information only! I feel it needs to be clear beforehand what you want from each part of the agenda. If you want feedback - ask for it before the meeting and summarise at the meeting.
If you need to make a decision about something - put that on the agenda!
Then when questions were raised, the vague answer of: "We need to look at that next year when it comes up again". In other words, whatever you just said will be forgotten unless it is raised again next year - after the event!
Finally, the section on the agenda where a decision needs to be made. At least it was handed out prior to the meeting and the people most likely to have gripes were met with BEFOREHAND. This is unusual - usually any proposal is handed out at the meeting with no prior discussion. There was less discussion but still it went round and round in circles with no clear purpose, easily distracted and with no idea how to resolve the issue. I'm not sure it was resolved in the end or what decision the committee could have made on it.
The committee involved should not be a decision making committee unless you have protocols for making the decision or you have a smaller (e.g. 4-6) body.

AGQTP Day 7&8 I think!

2007-08-03T19:50:00.000+09:30

Over these two days we focussed on using the teaching protocols with our groups. Members of the group presented student work and the protocols were used to analyse issues associated with student work.
For example, we used the consultancy protocol to look at some work from a very bright student of Roses. This student was clearly batting out of her league and this was seen in the high standard of her three responses. Rose's concern was that she didn't know how to challenge this very polite student further.
After Rose gave her input, she then had to answer clarifying questions (simple, easily answered questions focusing on getting the facts straight); this was followed by probing questions (more indepth and expansive) and then step back whilst we (the rest of the group) discussed her issue. She could not speak but had to take notes.
After hearing what we had to say, she then gave her response to the feedback. Having done this a second time now, it was much easier and we were much more efficient. So in summary:

Presenter gives overview of issue and then question they want help with (5 minutes)
The group asks clarifying (but not probing questions) to the presenter (2 minutes).
The group asks probing questions to the presenter (5 minutes)
The group talk with each other about the strengths and gaps. The presenter is not allowed to talk and should take notes.
The presenter responds to feedback.
The group reflects on the process.

Over the two days we tried a very difficult protocol called the Atlas Protocol. Its harder because, although we use student work as the basis for discussion, the focus is on the thinking and values that TEACHERS have about students.

My understanding of the process is something like this. It is best used with a completed, discrete piece of student work and also with a group of teachers that are from across the faculties. There needs to be a facilitator, time keeper, observer and presenter.

The facilitator starts the process by reminding or agreeing to the protocol norms. The presenter then hands out the task and the student response to that task. They give minimal background information about the task but nothing about the student or the standard of the student's response to the task. Note: this will require a silent time so that teachers (especially those unfamiliar with this type of task) can have the chance to take in all aspects of this assessment task. (2 minutes) . At this point the presenter steps back from the conversation.
Looking at student work. The group then analsyes the student response by looking for evidence of achievement. By this we mean simpling describing what they see that the student has done. Judgments should be avoided about the quality of the work. If they are mentioned the teacher should state what evidence they used to make the judgements. Noting this down would be useful. (5 minutes)
Then next step is to interpret the evidence. The group tries to make sense of what they student was doing and why. What does the student understand and how the student interpreted the assignment. Try to see the work from the student's persepective. Try to understand the perspective of your teaching colleagues. (5 minutes)
Implications for teaching this student. Having made the interpretations, teachers exchange ideas about where the teacher could go with the student, what other evidence of learning would be needed, what teaching strategies might work with this student and how the teaching and assessment could be better aligned with this students needs. (5 minutes)
Reflect on the process. The group reflects on the use and benefits of the process. The observer might have a thing or two to say at this point.

Whew. Having been a presenter at one point, I initially found it threatening but in the end the implications section resulted in some excellent ideas about how to extend the student. It will take a fair amount of trust to implement this with teachers back at school.

The final sessions looked the planning for the Action Research project we are undertaking this year. This is:

Project Questions:
What are the decision making protocols at formal meetings in our school?
Are the decision making protocols effective?

Steps we need to take:

Situation analysis - collect evidence at meetings, by observations, surveys, one-on-one interviews and /or using a focus group.
Source secondary information about models of effective decision-making protocols/styles and leadership styles
Analyse, evaluate and make recommendations on what we find.

What data/artefacts we will need to gather for our final presentation:

Process used
Summary of data
Recommendations

What will each group members role be in preparing our presentation?

Collecting data (AP and me)
Analysing data (me)
Research on models (AP)
Draft up recommendations (both of us)

Next meeting in October.

Using Blooms to improve the standard of the writing of senior students

2007-07-28T22:25:00.001+09:30

During that interesting lesson I had with my Year 11 IT students, I was challenged to put down in writing some of the ideas I expressed in the class. Made me think about what the different levels actually mean and how they can be used to guide students to deeper thinking.
Anyway I came up with a grid that students might use to improve their responses to issues.
Here is it:

Example One: Writing about Issues

Bloom’s Taxonomy Level (including dictionary definition)	Explanation	Questions to answer when exploring issues	Example: all students should be banned from the school’s car park
Remember – “to recall or bring to mind again”	Involves simply remembering, listing, retelling, stating in your own words what the issue is.	What are the words, ideas and thoughts that immediately come to mind when you think about the issue.	P plates, speeding, reckless, showing off, noisy.
Understand – “to grasp the meaning of”	Involves trying to understand and summarise what the issue means.	Why this is an issue?	People could get hurt, cars and property might get damaged
Apply – “to put to use especially for some practical purpose”	Involves showing examples and illustrating the main points about the issue.	Give examples of the issue as you or others you know have experienced it	Two days ago, I saw a Year 12 student speed out of the car park and just missed a car coming up Surrey Farm Drive (more examples would be good).
Analyse – “separating or distinguishing the component parts of something (as a substance, a process, a situation) so as to discover its true nature”	Involves thinking more deeply about the issue by separating it into the different arguments about it, working out their importance and how they are different from each other.	Is this an important issue? Is it widespread? Are many people affected? What are the reasons why the issue occurs? What will happen if it is not dealt with?	18-25 year old drivers have the most accidents. Often drive powerful cars. Peer pressure to show off to others.
Evaluate – “to determine the significance, worth, or condition”	Using certain criteria or standards, make judgements about the significance of the issue. Make conclusions about the issue and how to resolve it.	After reviewing the above ideas, what do you think about the issue? Do you think it is important? Explain why.	I am concerned that somebody will get seriously hurt or even killed either in the car park or out on the road. Most young people are good drivers, but some are reckless and selfish.
Create – “to produce through imaginative skill”	Involves looking at the issue from a different angle. Is there some way that the causes and consequences could be used positively?	If you have identified that the issue is significant, can we solve it creatively? If it isn’t significant, can the concerns of others be used positively?	Organise a “show off your car” day at a racetrack. Use driving simulators to have races between student drivers.

I will give it to colleagues first to get their feedback but it was good to do to help clarify in my mind what exactly is involved in the analysis, evaluate and create steps -very challenging.

A new term...a new beginning

2007-07-26T22:07:00.000+09:30

The new term has started and I find myself trying more of the Teaching strategies learnt at the AGQTP sessions.
For example, I met with my Year 11 IT class for the first time and got them thinking about how they might respond to an assignment on Computer Game addiction. This meant a brief introduction to Blooms taxonomy and then selecting part of the assignment and asking how they could respond to show: recall, understanding, application, analysis, evaluation, creativity in their response. This will help them understand why a simple recall response, though factually correct, may not be enough to get the higher scores.
My Year 11 Biology class used a see-saw activity to do some revision. In pairs, the first person was asked to recall as much as possible about the respiratory system for one minute. Then the second person was asked to recall as much as possible about the breathing cycle. Many commented that they felt they could not recall much. This was an opportunity for me to talk about the importance of regularly sustained revision - using whatever format suited them.
I am starting to explore wikis with my Psychology class. At this stage we cannot get on but at least they are interested in trying.

AGQTP Day 6 2007

2007-07-03T21:48:00.000+09:30

Today was a very satisfying day in many respects.
We further trialled the Final Word protocol (see previous post) and it worked much better and seemed to engage people more in what the article was trying to say. The process allows you to cover the essentials of the article but gives you different perspectives. It enriches the conversation on the topic and enables quieter members to have a say.

I would suggest that it may also be useful to sit for 2 minutes in silence to write a reflection on the main points of the discussion after going through the protocol. The other thing to consider is: Groupthink. How do you prevent like-minded individuals from agreeing with each other just so you don't rock the boat. Need an outside party to review the discussion. Also, you could have one person act as an outsider who reviews the process.

We discussed an article on the new Professionalism of teachers where the focus is now on measurable student outcomes. Part of the way that this can be achieved is through professional development that is self-directed, continuous and systematic. Excellent stuff!

Success analysis protocol
Another way to listen more professionally to what people have to say is this protocol. It goes like this:

Everybody think about and note down some key points about a recent professional success (5 minutes).
One person outlines what was successful in as much detail as possible. (5 minutes)
The others in the group ask clarifying questions (defined as questions that help the questioner understand the situation) as opposed to probing questions (defined as questions that help the respondent think a little more deeply about their situation). (3 minutes).
The rest of the group then discuss the success story. The story teller says nothing but writes notes as the rest of the group speak. (8 minutes).
The story teller then gives their reflections on what was said in step 4. (2 minutes)
The group then discusses the process and try to sum up together what elements of the story led to it being a success. (2minutes)

This was also interesting although it was hard to stick to the protocol properly. Once again, it allowed one person to speak at length about a topic that was important to them. The others had to listen and only ask clarifying questions. Then the storyteller was forced to listen.
This would be good with students or to debrief after a key event. We could use it in our PL teams to talk about our successes in teaching.

We then tried a Tuning protocol. Similar to the above but used when evaluating policy and fine-tuning it's contents. We did it once as a big group but I will wait until the next session in August before reporting back in detail.

We did have a long discussion about a Teaching Australia document on what it is to be a teacher. It was good that such a document is being developed and would be useful for me in my quest to develop the Professional Learning Policy for the school.

The next session: we must bring samples of student work, a policy document of some sort and should try some of the protocols before the August meeting.

AGQTP Day 5 2007

2007-07-02T21:13:00.000+09:30

We met all day today down at the Yacht Club, no less, and went through a range of strategies.

Some that might be worth following up:

Using the Extended T-Chart [KW(H)L(D)] to help plan a unit of work.
Use the SACSA outcomes to set the standards of assessment. That is SACSA outcomes along the side of the page, and levels of achievement (ie introductory, satisfactory, mastery) across the top.
Help students remember to use the assessment rubrics by making bigger versions and place them around the classroom.
Getting students to use summative assessment rubrics for formative tasks as a test run -either by assessing their own work or by using it to review other students work.

Some of the good ideas expressed on the day were:

Students learn best when:

they understand what the expectations are for the task. This includes understanding of the language used.
the get feedback about the quality of their work
they are advised how to improve their work (this needs time)
the are involved in deciding what needs to be done

Authentic Questions are those that have addressed:

Content - what is required and is it useful
Context - what situation are we talking about
Quantity - limits placed on time, length and general boundaries of the response
Depth - is higher order thinking required?

For example: You are about to plan a trip to the Flinders Ranges National Park. You will be there for three days. You will need to be self-sufficient.

What areas will you go to?
What resources will you bring?
What will you do when you are there?
What impact might you have on the environment and how can you minimise that impact?

or
If your hair straightener stopped working, how would you find out why?

What makes a fertile question? It should be

open - not one correct answer
unsettling - challenges assumptions
rich - has depth
connected - relevant to learners and the community to which they belong
charged - involves ethical, social and political decision making
practical - a question that can be researched by students

Finally, a very interesting way of a group of people analysing key ideas in a text called The Last Word. It uses the following process:

All read the text to be analysed. As each person reads, they highlight important points (5 minutes)
One person reads one of their highlighted points and say why it is important (2 minutes). No one else is to speak during this time.
The next person responds to the first speaker on their own for one minute.
Repeat step 3. for others in the group.
Person one has the final word by responding to what has been said for one minute.

Repeat for all other members of the group.
When we did it, it forced you to be quiet (and not interrupt) the speaker. I had to noted down points I wanted to make and then choose the most important. Everybody had a say and everybody had to listen.
Could be interesting with a senior class.
More ideas tomorrow.

Gardiner and Blooms...together

2007-06-20T21:58:00.000+09:30

Today in Year 9 I started a unit on the Earth which brings together the Muliple Intelligences ideas of Gardiner and Bloom's taxonomy of joy.
The students got into groups of three and had to choose one of three units on the Earth.
They included:

Rocks and crystals
Inner Earth
Earthquakes

Each unit also had a different style of intelligence that it appeals to. For example the Earthquake unit is for students who like the mathematical/calculating style of working. Plenty of worksheets, statistics and calculations. The Rocks and crystals is more of a hands-on unit with practicals on making crystals, making booklets and the like. The Inner earth unit is more interpersonal with presentations and discussions the focus.
It is the culmination of the last 18 months and the AGQTP work being done. I like it because it is student driven and planned. Once I have outline what is expected (took about 15 minutes) they had to sit and plan all the work for the next three weeks (including homework).
I am very much the guide rather than the teacher. It is a logistical nightmare though. Makes teaching interesting.

Current Developments

2007-06-11T12:06:00.000+09:30

I have tried a few techniques recently and so I would like to share them with you all.

Y-chart with Year 11 Psychology. I was trying to introduce the topic of aggression to the students and thought that they Y-chart with "What does it look/sound/feel like" would be a useful way to get them thinking about the topic. It worked well and I shall try it again with some other aspects of the course that they have an experience of.
Round-Robin with Year 9 Science. I wanted them to generate ideas about acids and bases - their uses and dangers. They had a piece of paper and then passed it round 1 at a time, wrote ideas down and passed it to the next person. I needed to go over the idea of brainstorming because they spent too much time trying to get affirmation from each other about their ideas - however at least it got down on paper some of the ideas from all of the group.
I followed this up with Tournament Prioritiser where the students went through the ideas and omitted some and keep other depending on their ranking.
Finally, I then asked them to give members of the group a job. The jobs included: Organsier (overall coordination), Clarifier (had to make sure the point of the project was clear), Creative Genius (had to try and improve the creativity of the response), writer, andChecker (whose job it was to make sure the information was accurate from a scientific point of view). I need to work on this because this is the first time I have explicitly used the cooperative groups idea.

They will present their information as a radio play (ie read from a script with sound effects) and they rest of the class will listen in and assess them on their clarity and creativity. We have practiced this beforehand and so hopefully they will have enjoy being involved in the assessment of their peers.

Day 3 AGQTP or is it day 4

2007-05-17T20:36:00.000+09:30

Came late to this session - too busy discussing constructive teaching strategies with teachers.
Spend some time using the extended T chart which involves unpacking objectives (eg SACSA) and then using the chart to say what you want the students to know, at what Blooms level, and what skills the students need to achieve it.
Could be useful with the all-day session next term with Margaret.
We also discussed trying to understand the different levels of Blooms using three cups.
Knowledge - they are cups
Understand - they are reasonably big and either plastic or clear in colour.
Apply - use them to drink with
Analysis - one might hold more liquid, but another might be safer in a bathroom
Synthesis - create a new use for the cups - as a hat.
Evaluation - just how good each cup is according to its environmental impact.

We then spent some time on rubrics. It was good to go over this again and to hear that you should avoid putting too many levels (ie good, fair, excellent), otherwise it becomes unwieldy.
It was also useful to hear that student should be taught how to use them to help organise and prioritise their work for an assignment.

Finally, we did a PMI on our presentation. Must get students to do that with their own efforts.

The next day, I used some of the Blooms information for the next set of meetings with our Learning teams. We were talking about SACSA and how we can use Blooms to create criteria that illustrate what a SACSA "A" looks like. The English/SOSE/RE teachers decided to try and clarify what an "A" was for them - other than an "X" factor and use it in an assessment task in the next term.
The Science/Maths/ITC people decided to come up with generic rubrics (using the reporting A-E) model for things such as tests, practical reports etc. and to try one of them in the next term. I noticed that Adam was pretty quiet in the meetings. Must try to find something for him to bring up at the next meeting.

Finally, today I showed the Year 11 students a remembering technique. I can't remember what it is called but if you need to remember a series of facts then try to visualise the structure of your house - the rooms, the features and appliances. Link each fact to an appliance, feature of the room in a visual and literal sense. Then do a walk through the house trying to remember the idea as you walk through each room.
For example, the students were trying to remember the names of the key placental groups (eg rodents, carnivores, ungulates). I suggested that they put a representative animal in each room (eg rats [rodent] in the kitchen, bat [chiropteran] in the shed, whale [cetacean] in the pool or baht) and then write a story of their adventure through the house. They even included the animal doing something which illustrated their groups main features. For example, dog [carnivore] eat a leg of lamb [as meat-eaters do] in the bedroom. The really liked it and were intent on creating a story. The test will be tomorrow if they remember the rooms, animals but particularly the groups.

A big couple of days.

AGQTP Day 3 2007

2007-05-14T20:33:00.000+09:30

Some more cooperative ideas:

Transfer booklet. Give students a sheet and a question. Give minimal verbal input on how to do the booklet and how to answer the question. As the students get closer to what you want, give minimal positive feedback. If they say things that are irrelevant, ignore them.
Donut strategy. Two circular groups - inner and outer. Inner talks about a point, then outer talks. Rotate outer circle for three people. Repeat tell and retell. Better in outside area.
Acrostic introduction. Use the letters in a person's name to introduce them to others. It could be used to explain what key words mean as well. Or use an acronym to summarise a key point.

We spend most of the day planning a small input session explaining what TRIBES is. My limited understanding of the topic was that it was cooperative learning made explicit in ALL aspects of school life. So the key features such as caring for others, high expectations and an opportunity for all to participate are promoted in all aspects of school life - not just the classroom.
We decided that we TRIBES was very much like what Catholic schools are on about. So our first step was to present some key ideas about TRIBES as quotes and then ask the participants what activities, programs, people, processes etc., encourage and develop these values.
They then brainstormed by using the ABC graffiti method ie list all the letters of the alphabet. Then add the names of the people, programs and policies that reflect the values mentioned earlier.
Once that was done, they should they revisit the ABC graffiti and group them according to what TRIBES value was being met ie high expectations. We expected that they should see gaps in what they were trying to do in schools ie use it as an audit. We then encouraged them to try to fill that gap (in part) before the next day in June.
We were then reminded to journal our experiences. For me, this day remains a little fuzzy - typical of the approach used so far. There are so many things to consider that it becomes difficult to hold it in your head for the day.
The good thing is that we were reminded of some good teaching strategies and also could interact with some of the other teachers from other schools.

AGQTP Homework

2007-05-13T18:47:00.000+09:30

Research cooperative learning

Here are examples of what I know of cooperative learning not already covered in previous posts:
Think, pair, share - one of my favourites for science. Get students to think carefully about a topic BY THEMSELVES. Tell them that you want them to write or draw their own ideas and share them later. Write what they think, don't worry if they don't know it.
Then share it with another. Defend their positions but then come to an agreement about their understanding.
Finally share with another pair and then write a list of their common understandings.
Great for ideas such as "What is the smallest particle", "What are living things made of", "What causes disease", "How do plants get their food."

Go ask an expert - put a question on the board. All students stand up. Put your hand up if you think you know the answer. Those that don't, go and ask the "expert". Get them to clarify the answer. Then go and ask another expert until you are satisfied by the answer. Then clarify the answer with the whole class - even asking one of the experts to answer it.

Three Muskateers - go around the room and find three others at random. Number off from 1-3. Each number person given some part/information to summarise to the other two.

ABC graffiti - List all the letters of the alphabet. In groups, brainstorm key ideas about a topic so that all the letters have at least one word after them. Then prioritise the most important three - this is where the analysis comes in.

One minute write - write on a general topic for one minute - could be a review of the unit or just on a theme. Don't lift pen off paper. Count the number of words/number of words of three syllables (quantity v quality). Set a goal for the next minute of writing (ie more words, more 3 syllable words). Write. Did you achieve your goals? Share strategies for achieving goals.

Find out about Tribes (from http://www.tribes.com/abstract_character_education.htm)

CHARACTER VALUES	TRIBES PROCESS COMPONENTS

Caring and Compassion	Four caring Agreements are used:
		Listen with the heart as well as head.
		Express appreciation/no put-downs
		Mutual respect (for others, the school and environment)
		The right to pass within a peer group
Responsibility
		Students maintain membership in small groups (tribes) to support learning and positive social behavior.
		Teachers use cooperative learning methods for academics, transfer responsibility to students to help each other.
		All members are responsible to each other and for group accountability.
Justice and Fairness
		Time is taken to reflect on tribe member's work, special qualities and skills after every group task.
		Equal participation, fairness, open and honest communication is acknowledge.
		Group issues and conflict are mediated within the peer group.
		Teacher observations, instruction and modeling support the cooperation with the tribes.
Trustworthiness
		Peer support, respect and appreciation built with the tribes and classroom enables students and teachers to know each other well and count upon the affirmed individual virtues repeatedly cited throughout every day.
Honesty
		Repeated use of reflection and feedback (processing) by peers develops a high level of candor and honesty. The sense of belonging (inclusion) facilitates speaking the truth.
Doing One's Personal Best
		Setting goals, completing tasks on time, respecting others, living responsibly and loving learning becomes the norm.
		Hundreds of cooperative learning studies have proven that students work more diligently on task and excel academically when in caring groups than individually.
Social Skills
	The Tribes process is recognized as a very successful cooperative learning model because it teaches and gives daily practice to important individual and team building skills:
	Participate fully Listen attentively Express appreciation Reflect on learning experiences Value diversity of cultures / ideas Think constructively Make responsible decisions Resolve conflict Solve problems creatively Work collaboratively on tasks Assess improvement Celebrate achievemen

Do a journal entry - done previous and this entry.
T-chart of actual teaching practice - compared to the T-chart of beliefs. Audit your classroom.

Brilliant idea for Project

2007-04-01T20:15:00.000+09:30

Here it is.
The project will be to help Middle School Teachers use Constructive Pedagogies to help integrate a unit of work across the six curriculum areas.
Background:
At our school, our middle school is structured so that two key teachers (called Learning Teams) are responsible for the teaching of six of the main curriculum areas for a particular class (i.e. Maths/Science/IT and English/SOSE/RE). There are 12 teams in all (6 for Year 8 and 6 for Year 9).
Currently, we are sporadically working on at least one unit of work together as a integrated unit. It is fairly haphazard and depends on the commitment of the people involved. We will hopefully report on this at the next Teams meeting. Our aim then is to get these teams to meet with Margaret Bishop to reflect on the process used so far and then plan a full unit for the second semester. We could use the Connectedness part of the Constructive Pedagogies as guide to the sorts of things we are aiming for (ie connections between subject areas, but also with students lives and with the "real" world).
My idea:
I work with Amanda (also doing the AGQTP project) on the planning of the day with Margaret. We use the Understanding by Design process to framework the day. Amanda can be the reflective partner and would help people understand the Cooperative and Cognitive methods that are used for each of the sessions (given that I will be involved with my partner). She could also take photos and get feedback on how the day went.
We aim that teams get the unit done in the third term and then feedback to the Middle school team sometime late in Term 3 or early term 4 (Term 3 would be better for us).
Then we report back to the AGQTP project - viola!

Understanding by Design:
This is a three step process which I am only beginning to understand, but hopefully will have a better understanding in Term 2. It goes something like this:

Step 1: Establish the goals for the PD day. Something like: Integrated units give students an opportunity to see how ideas are connected and how those connections can also be made with their own lives and the world around them.
Having decided that, we need to focus on: what key ideas will students understand as a result of doing the integrated unit. By understanding, I mean being able to transfer the knowledge to new and unusual situations.
Then we need to come up with some essential questions to provoke inquiry, understanding and transfer of learning.
We should then be able to come up with some statements that show: what students will know and what students will be able to do by the end of the unit.

Step 2: The next step is to decide on the authentic performance tasks that students will participate in to show they have these essential understandings. We will need to agree on criteria to judge the performance (a rubric might help here). We could also decide on tasks (tests, homework) that students need to do to demonstrate achievement of the desired results. Will we get students to reflect on their own learning and self-assess?

Step 3: The final step is decide on the learning activities to help students achieve the desired results.
These must:

help students know where the unit is going and what is expected.
get students hooked into the process
give students the skills to succeed
give students opportunities to think and reflect on what they have done
allow students to evaluate their own work
allow students to personalise their learning according to their needs and interests

Looks good.

AGQTP Day 1 2007

2007-03-31T08:47:00.001+09:30

Wednesday 28th was the first appearance of AGQTP this year.
As usual it was full on from the first.
We made a transfer booklet - small, eight page booklet made out of folding paper.
I wonder if I can describe how to do it? Let's see...fold an A4 sheet in half, then in half again and then again - so you have folded into eighths. Open it up to the first fold. Along the closed edge, tear half way down the page (to the next fold). Open it up, mountain fold along the middle, push the torn halves in opposite directions, fold the paper back together again along the natural folds. You should end up with eight pages of naturally opening booklet. Either that or a small, flying crane.
Anyway on the booklet I wrote a number of questions which I tried to answer during the day:

Find 5 Cooperative strategies
T Chart - we used to map our beliefs about teaching and learning and our practices which show our beliefs in action.
Round Robin - use when you have groups to generate ideas. Each group brainstorms on paper for a short period of time then passes on to the next group. With the new piece of paper, the group must add to ideas already there. Keep going until to receive your initial piece of paper. Groups can then choose the best three ideas.
Hot Potato - similar strategy except that it is done within a group and each person writes down one idea and passes it onto the next person. A good way of getting all members of a group to contribute.
Paired interview - one person acts as a questioner and the other person answers the question. Then reverse roles.
Expert Jigsaw - Divide the idea or skill under study into 4-6 sub-topics. Get students into groups of the same size as the number of sub-topics. Each member of this "home" group is then given a number from one to the maximum number of sub-topics (e.g. 4). Then, all the number ones from each of the home group come together as Expert Group One, all the twos into Expert Group Two etc. Hand out or point out material from each of the sub-topics. Each expert group now takes responsibility for trying to understand the concepts or skills explained in the sub-topic. Once this is completed, they move back to their home groups and explain each sub-topic to the rest of the group. Whew!
Tournament Prioritiser - still to get my head around this one.
Details on how Tribes is a different cooperative approach.
Not much on this as we only skimmed the surface to get some sort of overall idea of the concept. Seems quite successful and the focus is on getting students to get on with each other.
How does Round Robin work - see above. Further ideas - give each group a different topic to work on; still pass the ideas onto the next group - but each group only adds ideas for the different topics.
What is the silent card shuffle - cards of a sequence of ideas (eg Blooms taxonomy) are cut up and shuffled. Then each group silently rearranges the cards in "correct" order. This would silence the more vocal, dominant members of the group. Then, when the group is finished, they can verbally challenge the arrangement. Finally, this is compared to the commonly acceptable arrangement.
What does it mean to "understand" something.
Constructive Pedagogies talks about deep understanding - a concept that has fascinated me for a long time. My understanding of Understanding is that it is the ability to transfer what you know to new and unusual situations. Still need to work on this.
List of Cognitive Strategies
3, 2, 1 - Come up with three facts, 2 insights and 1 question about a topic (or combinations of this).
Main Point Marking - slightly more detailed reading of a document than skim reading. Just get a highlighter and point out the main points. I like students to then go back over it and say why (using annotations) the points highlighted are important. Finally, I get them to number the highlighted points and rank them in importance using numbers.
2Q - answer two questions after an activity: What went well, where could you improve or could have done things differently.
RAS alerts - highlight important areas to come and your expectations so that students are aware of what is important and what is not.
Alert symbols - use different colours for each group and say that the Blue group has to be aware of one idea or concept being presented and will then report back a summary of the end of the presentation.

Traffic Lights was another teaching strategy. Each student needs a green, yellow/orange and red card. Green means - "I'm ok (no need to help me)"; Orange/yellow means - "I'm struggling but I am willing to work on it"; Red - "I need help".

Homework for the session includes:

Research cooperative learning
Find out about Tribes
Do a journal entry
T-chart of actual teaching practice - compared to the T-chart of beliefs. Audit your classroom.
Need to get a folder to put in all the stuff we get at this conference. Divide it into three - action research done; handouts from the sessions; journal.

I will need to follow up the following:

Using blogs for journaling. Possibility of using CESA online as a forum.
Getting an electronic copy of the XPATA learning planning - has a number of cooperative and cognitive teaching strategies. We are due to get a PDF version.
Dates for the next meetings: 14-15th May; 7th-8th of June; 3 August; 19 October - Presentation.

First week back

2007-02-04T17:27:00.000+10:30

Interesting start to the new year - it hasn't exactly gone as I wanted but that's teaching!
My 11 Biology class are great - I have discussed with them how I would like to work and they are at least open to the idea. So all the things I mentioned in my previous blog might work with them.
However, my Year 11 Psychology class is something else again. 26 students, 25 girls! The dynamics of the class are interesting enough - but all girls!
The first thing I asked them was to answer four questions - about me, what I know about psychology, what is important to me and, crucially, what I don't like about school and teachers.
I say crucially, because the vast majority have huge (and mostly reasonable) issues with homework. I will have to work hard to convince them that it is essential.
I intend to discuss this with them and then also discuss my teaching methods for the week. I will ask for feedback and then urge them to take on board what I am doing to the fullest.
Year 9 Science will be a little more difficult because it is a big class. I will need to rethink my approach here.
No mention yet of the Web 2.0 stuff yet but our network is a bit wobbly due to a complete upgrade so that's ok.
Oh well, see how this full week goes.

How to plan a unit of work using student input:

2007-01-28T21:16:00.000+10:30

Ask students to read outlines and list major points to be covered.
Students write a mind map - showing how these ideas are linked; below this raise either more areas of interest or questions you would like answered during the process.
Form a general week by week plan of how to cover these ideas in the unit.
Skim read the text book. Does it cover all the areas needed. What else is needed? Who will do this?
Plan a week at a time of activities that they agree on.
Agree on a way of determining if people understand the key ideas.
Do the same with skills.
All students to write up their learning plan for the week.

General Weekly structure of my senior lessons

2007-01-21T21:00:00.000+10:30

As part of my radical new teaching style, I want to set up what I will call learning environments (as opposed to classrooms).
I will emphasize that I am here to learn from them how to be a better teacher, but they will also learn from me and from each other (and from others beyond the classroom).
During the week I will need to cover:

What needs to be looked at this week. This could be done with mind maps. We could also look at the parameters of each concept.
What resources can we use to try and understand the concepts.
What might stop us from understanding them. What do we need to do to overcome these problems.
What skills do we need to develop to help with the assessment tasks. Where will be the problems.
What learning style will we try and use this week. What are three signs that this style is effective.

At some stage early in the term I need to cover:

What content we will cover
What assessment items we need to produce
What issues there might be between them (as students) and me (as a teacher)
What the deadlines policy means to me
Ethics - critical to be covered before ANY exercises can be done in class.
My ideas for Web 2.0 and how we might use it.

Issues in 11 Psychology

2007-01-12T11:42:00.000+10:30

I want to be able to teach this class by being "embedded" (thanks George Bush) in the class. So here are some ideas:

I have done a cursory look at the big ideas of the first unit on Introduction to Psychology. I have listed the key resources in a database and only briefly looked at the key points.
I have a general idea of how I could use them in a class. For example, there are a number of sections on identifying variables in an experiment, graphing data etc. It would be very boring to go through each one of them and then do the review questions. I would like to attempt the class activity which is an example practical first but then examine each problem with the students method as they become apparent.
I would like to start the unit by getting the students to articulate what constituents an effective teaching session for them. List these off and then when I come to a new area ask which method might be appropriate.
I did have the idea of getting them to do all the Review questions for homework but that would be difficult to manage and might tempt students to copy. I guess I would have to discuss the reasons for doing homework and ways to avoid copying.
The wiki idea is starting to take shape. I can see the importance of the students coming up with their own ideas of what words like "normal distribution" and "histogram" mean. Again, collaborative work means that it would be easy for "social loafing" to occur. Perhaps I could allocate each student a set of words that they must initiate the discussion of the meaning of and then get others to add to or comment on as part of their homework. So for example, I would say "your homework for tonight is to add the meaning of these words to the wiki and contribute to the meaning of at least two other entries".
Will also need to discuss the ethics section very early. This would be critical in creating trust in the class.

Ideas for Shared Documents

2007-01-07T10:23:00.000+10:30

Further to my discussion on using Google Docs, I would envisage a letter being sent home to parents asking that they guarantee access to the Internet on the three days that I have lessons in Psychology and Biology. During access students will have to:

read certain documents that I publish. For example, course outlines and assignments given out in class. This is a fairly passive process but I could ask students to comment on the publication - ask for clarification, suggest some resources of their own etc. This would be a document that I publish. I wonder if there was a way to ensure that they have read it?
work individually on a document. At this stage, I am looking at formative documents only that they would work at online so that I could monitor their progress and give immediate feedback. I am not sure about summative work as I could not guarantee that it was student work (not coerced friends or even parents) but maybe some of the research notes and plans could be done online. This would be a document that I would collaborate with one student.
work as a group on a collaborative project. This would involve me setting up the document name and then inviting groups of students to contribute. This could help me monitor their progress and check to see the quantity and (more importantly) the quality of each students contribution to the project. This would be a document that I would collaborate with a group of students.
work on a document as a class. This could include posting aspects of the syllabus and asking them to explain it in their own words, or posting a question that they need to answer and discuss with others. It could include a class revision resource where collectively they try to understand the key points of the course at the end of the year. This would be a document that I would collaborate with the whole class.

The idea, then, is to ensure that students have access to the internet all the time - including having a back up plan if things go wrong at home. They would have constant access to the document (no more excuses like "I've done it but left it at home") and, in theory, I could have constant access to what they are doing (Big Brother-like).
The other aspect that this opens up is if parents complain that students are not doing homework or say that they have no homework. There is the possibility that I give parents access to the sites as well! What about Subject Coordinators? Hmmm. The possibilities look endless.

Must be careful not to overdo it

2006-12-27T16:05:00.001+10:30

The focus on the changes should be on what students can do and then improving on it. It has to be achievable by students.
I was thinking about developing a rough outline of the course and then planning a week's worth of lessons with the students.
Each week could have a focus question that we are trying to answer. For example, early on, it could be "why do we need to be ethical in Psychology studies?"; "What do we know about Psychology already" (Good Brain storm or Brain Mapping question - could even be a KWL question).
Would like to give them time for journal writing - to be put into the wiki - and also review of learning goals.

More ideas for 2007

2006-12-22T23:01:00.000+10:30

Here are some more things I would like to do.
* I got this idea from a site called "Instructables". How about adding a part of the wiki site that I want to create to include a section on 'Here is how I do it'. It could include information on how I write an essay or do research. In maths it could include how the student approaches a particular task eg adding fractions. The answers could include pictures (screen dumps) or digital photos to illustrate the ideas begin generated.
* Using Google docs to create documents that students can share or can edit. More importantly, getting students to write their answers in a document that only I and the student can access. This means I can give them feedback as they create it, but also I have an idea of how they are going - ie what stage they are at.
* Also using Google docs students could work on collaborative documents eg report write ups or group assignments. Again, I could follow their progress and give feedback on the way.
* Also I could post assignments online for student access so that they don't have to go searching for the paperwork but also they can't use the excuse "they forgot".
Hmm. This Google docs could be interesting. I hope that it is stable.

Student control over the lesson content

2006-12-20T09:23:00.000+10:30

Over the past 20 or so years, I have used every teaching trick in the book to try and get my students motivated. Over those years, the only thing that ever works is when students take control over their own learning. That is, when students say to themselves, "I want to be successful in this subject and only I can be in control of that".
So my thinking now is that once I have given out the main materials for the class, I sit back and ask them what they want to know. I will say to them that they need to decide what should be taught in the class and, to an extent, how. I will get them to agree to a week-by-week program, one aspect will include them setting a personal learning goal and deciding on three behaviours which show that they are achieving their goals.
My theory is that this will force them out of their dependence on me as their teacher and help with the motivation to participate in the classes actively.
We would have to agree on the structure of the class and what work would have to be done outside the classroom. My initial thought was to get them to work out what is required of them for each assessment task, but I would hope that they might be motivated out of sheer interest in the subject matter.

Using Brain-compatible techniques in my classes

2006-12-08T21:10:00.000+10:30

Today began a commitment to use Brain-compatible techniques in a new class I am teaching in 2007 - Year 11 Psychology.
I will encourage the bringing in of water and brain food. I will break up my lesson into 10-12 minute chunks with plenty of movement (eg Brain Gym, movement around the class to discuss ideas with others), deflected questioning techniques, RAS alerts, VGMActivities).
I will emphasise student control of the class by giving plenty of choice and taking my directions from them about what they want to study (within the confines of the syllabus).
I will use their ability to socialise freely but emphasise that success comes mainly through hard work. I will also emphasise the importance of Hope - everyone can do it.
Should be interesting times.

AGQTP Orientation session

2006-04-05T19:33:00.000+09:30

Today was the first session of a year long series of training and meetings for the Productive Pedagogies Project. I want to start blogging this because I feel it could be a great project to be involved in.
Focus:
It appears to want to develop "something" that will identify and support quality teaching. We need to know what quality teaching looks like.
This project is part of a new cycle of funding from the Federal Government with aims to develop cross-sectional programs aimed at improving teacher quality. It also stems from the needs that have come from schools in the area of: what is my understanding of a good teacher across the board but also in specific teaching areas. Research suggests that a major factor in improving learning is the teacher.
Aim:
Work towards a "thing" which will provide support to analyse and help teaching.
Build our capacity as a organisation to have leaders which will support training in this area.
Will use Queensland version of this to help reflect on our notion of good teaching.
Will involve action research project which will involve mentors to help refocus the research.
Intensive training days will be held in the first week back for three days.
Includes: Edgar Bliss - Senior Education Advisor for CEO; Ian Smyth - Executive Director Council for Education Associations in SA (CEASA); Margot Foster - Manager Learning to Learn project in Education Department.
Some ideas I have about the project is:
* Find out details about how an action project is supposed to work, what are the essential elements of such a project.
* Must involve statistics - revisit this idea at school.
* Could link in with the Quality school concept and other aspects of Choice Theory.
* Must also involve middle school ideas - this will be the experimental area.
* Use Values education stuff from Julia Atkin

Well Im back...

2005-05-31T21:37:00.000+09:30

Its only been 6 weeks. Did you miss me. I felt the urge to write today because my class is at the cross roads. I have two students, possibly three who are driving the class in a particular direction and I am not sure I like where it is going. They are all intelligent and articulate but are not necessarily interested in doing the things I would like to do.
I am currently discussing with the class what their job or role is and what mine is. This came as a result of a survey I did with them to determine a new seating plan. The results were disappointing with some saying they did not want to sit with the majority of the rest of the class. I said I can't operate that way so we need to deal with it. The result is that they come up with some things they are prepared to do: eg respect and cooperate with others, learn?, listen. Except that they decided that they would only try to do these things. After some thought I have decided that this is not good enough - you can't try to respect people. You either do or you don't.
So I am going to go back to the class and ask them to think again. I have thought about what my role is and am willing to include the following:
I will work to create a positive, learning atmosphere in the classroom
I will work to create a place where students choose to learn
I will support students in their learning where ever I can
I will respect and listen to the views of students
I will respect the dignity of all people in my class.

I have a feeling that they will want to have some input in this aspect but I will have to remind them that this is stuff I have to do. Not them. So they can advise but they can't insist. Should be interesting stuff.

Using Maths to develop cooperative skills

2005-04-13T19:58:00.000+09:30

Today was an unusual attempt to use Mathematics to help develop cooperative skills. There are 11 students who need to re-do a test that they did not get 75% mark. I asked today that those that did get over that score help train those that didn't. It went well except that some of the under-achievers decided to try and help each other. However, it was good to see them at least trying to help each other.
We then spent the rest of the lesson making our own problem-solving games. Some of them came up with some excellent ideas and I look forward to getting them laminated and in boxes for others to use.

Not a day I will look back on with fondness...

2005-04-08T16:48:00.000+09:30

Today was not a good one. I had one lesson with the class and handed back their Maths tests. Only a few of them scored the necessary 75% and so many will be re-doing the test. Some seemed to treat it as a great joke - laughing out loud when asked to call out their scores by their friends. Well, then some of the class just lost it completely. They could not get back on task. Even as I went through the test, they were still calling out and laughing at their incorrect answers.
In the end I tried to set a date for the new test, and we agreed on Monday. MeB disagreed and tried to change everyones opinion to a Wednesday - she just would not accept the idea of spending the weekend learning for the test. To cap it off, she blamed me for doing badly in the test. I got very angry with that and so probably said some things I will regret (though not too bad when I think about it).
Two lessons I learnt with this class:
Never give a test back on the last lesson on a Friday and never give it back at the beginning of a lesson.
I will also be changing the seating arrangements - because the new one does not work.
SA is concerning me greatly as he appears to be getting himself into trouble in other classes and in the yard. I have spoken to him about this - and he appears to know what the correct response is - but does not want to put it into action. There is something significantly wrong here - I know he has trouble focussing but I am concerned that he DOES know how to behave appropriately and is chosing not to. Oh, well, one for the occipital lobe.

Have decided to do a couple of things next term...

2005-04-06T21:29:00.000+09:30

1. Write up in detail what I want students to do during the week. I don't know if this is going to work but I am sick of repeating myself and it appears (from my reading) that this vagueness of adolescents is quite expected.

2. On the same sheet get students to indicate what they are going to do for homework. Then get parents to sign it. This should get some of them off my back.

3.Visit a primary school and watch how middle-schooling should be done. At the moment I am lacking ideas and direction.

4. Summarise the key points from the interviews and then put them into an action plan for each student. We will use them next term as guide posts for behaviour.

5. Do a lot more planning in the holidays.!

C'mon holidays. Hurry up!

2005-04-05T21:14:00.000+09:30

What a woeful day. I am not sure if I am running out of ideas or the students are just tired but it was like pulling teeth today. They could just not get into it. We are working on the sampling side of this rubbish unit - boy, oh boy where they not interested. I don't think I was either, and that was reflected in the lesson. We collected a sample of rubbish just to see what was out there and found that most of it was paper and plastic. They then had to get into their groups to come to some agreement on what information THEY were going to find and how to get it. Boy, it was hopeless: the groups were disagreeing, they were missing the (my) point and they were acting like they hadn't slept in days.
I guess we will struggle on. I needed to break up the lesson more with some active components. But, as I said in my last blog I have run out of ideas.

And the interviews go on...

2005-04-04T21:28:00.000+09:30

Another day, another 11 interviews. They are lengthy, tiresome but worth it. I learnt a lot today about some students and very little about a few of them. Two challenges I face are: what to do with parents who want their children to have more homework and two students who have asked to be accelerated, challenged, extra work etc. It is hard to determine if the parents want it or the children.
I hope to get a chance to talk to the students at school but I don't know if I have their trust yet for them to tell me honestly how they feel. Will have to put my thinking cap on, hard!
We started looking at cooperative groups today and they spend time working out the ground rules for how each group will work. They had to agree on rules to achieve six criteria eg sharing responsibility, working out how to come to a consensus etc. They were pretty good at it and it looks like each group has a workable set of guidelines. The next step was to identify the maths skills needed to achieve the outcomes and we will use the text book to try gives us clues for this.
As you would gather, we are rapidly approaching the end of the term and my resources for writing this blog are dimishing. Roll on holidays.

Just another thought

2005-04-02T10:53:00.000+09:30

Yesterday we also started the new unit on Rubbish. It was interesting to see that the first task was to write a 100 word expository piece outlining their thoughts on the subject. They were very unhappy about this and so we came up with a compromise where they could do the 100 words, or a diagram or a mind map. To me both the other options required a bit more thinking because they had to show what they thought rubbish was and describe why it is (or is not) a problem.
I was glad to be able to give them the option because they seemed so concerned about writing 100 words. I was amazed that they felt it was going to be so difficult.

More interviews and a shock for the students

2005-04-02T10:46:00.000+09:30

Yesterday I had four more, indepth interviews with parents of my home class. They all went well, and a common theme throughout was how well their children had settled into school and how they were enjoying it (or it was "ok" in the words of the student). Another common theme was the lack of homework. Given that Jane and I will be providing most of it, we need to discuss how to approach this so that parents feel ok and yet we are not giving it homework for the sake of it.
Last lesson of the day, and all students recieved their Science exercise books back. I checked to see how much work they had done and many had not done much. So to recieve a detail report showing this was quite a shock for most of them. Only two students can hold their heads up high and say they did all the work required. This is ok - as long as it doesn't stay that way. I think they get the idea now that I mean business and that they must complete the work set to a good standard. The timing of the parent interviews has been great because I could point this out to the parents as well.
Now the challenge is to produce a work agreement for all three subjects that I teach so that it comprehensively covers the work they need to practice and the summative tasks. Oh well, back to the keyboard.

The Parent Teacher Interviews begin

2005-03-30T21:50:00.000+09:30

Today was the first of the new style Parent/Teacher/Student interviews. They went well. It was great to be able to speak to them at length and make some detailed plans for the future. I was able to explain what we were doing in class and I think that they appreciated what we were trying to achieve. It was only the first two but it was a positive beginning.
Had a great exchange of ideas with Danielle - her classes will also be doing the rubbish unit. She said that her previous school had a big "thing" about writing genres and those in particular to do with Science and Maths - expository and report styles seemed the most appropriate. She had some great resources for overheads and student work and it looks like we will make a useful beginning to this unit. I feel at this stage that I need to give a lot of direction for this unit but I will attempt to give the students a lot of choice in what methods we use. I will also try to introduce the different aspects of the unit so that they can help plan the next one. My head is in a spin at the moment - not just because it is near the end of term and there is a lot going on, but also because each of the pillars of my teaching experiences is slowly crumbling and being replaced by a new teaching paradigm. This is scary but I feel as though I am finally teaching not just schooling.

On a rubbish adventure

2005-03-29T21:04:00.000+09:30

Today was notable in that it brings to a head the dilemmas I have been having about teaching as part of a learning team. Today I threw out the text book (with the students agreement) and took on a task which (it appeared to me) was much more useful and interesting with regard to the topic of Matter.
We decided to look at rubbish. What it is, where it comes from, where does it go, and how long it lasts. I have a number of ideas of how this will work but the main thing is to get students to be responsible for what they learn.
We will discuss what needs to be done to collect, study, analyse and dissect and then publish this information. We will start out by discussing what aspects we should cover, how we work together on this and who will do what. Danielle (another teacher) suggests we should start with an open-ended question such as:
What is the problem with rubbish?
We could mind map how we will answer it. I am not sure of the process but I think I will need to vary the methods of getting information from the class. I definitely want to start with cooperative group work and at least getting them to discuss how to listen actively, how to take turns and how to make sure everyone is involved. There should be a Science and Maths aspect to it as well as a Literacy and ITC focus.
Hmmm. Still finding hard to let go. I will begin discussion tomorrow during the double Maths lesson.

My first parental challenge

2005-03-24T20:10:00.000+10:30

For this year anyway. Recieved a phone call from JQ's parents saying that he was bored with what was happening so far and was starting to lose interest. I think it is mainly in Maths. I said "Not a problem" as we were having PTS interviews in two weeks and we could discuss it there. JQ has come from England and got into a Grammar School there - which I think is pretty significant academically. He was in the top xx% academically and so was a little concerned about where we were going.
This has forced me to start putting in place the criteria needed to ensure that we are doing the right thing and that all students are improving.
The other thing we did yesterday and built on today, was a slide show where the students had to ezplain BODMAS to other Year 8 students. They are producing some excellent work and are very adept at using the software. I wish I had allowed them to explain ANY part of the chapter we have just finished as I don't know where it could be used but they did not really understand the concept of BODMAS. The exercise has been good but I would make it a little more open-ended.
Finished today with students taking photos of each other to be able to pin up on the board as part of the decor of the classroom.
I find I am saying "yes" more these days to student requests - such as allowing students to go get a camera from the library. I didn't think there would be enough time but in the end they did a good job and we will end up with some great photos.
The first eight weeks have been very interesting, but I believe the best is yet to come.

They are not telling me something...

2005-03-21T21:35:00.000+10:30

Today we had the usual Maths double lesson at the beginning of the day. I must look into some way of helping them become more alert because I think a lot of them had very long weekends.
The main thing we did today was to do a trial test on basic maths. A little late in the term but we have been building up to this point. Some people struggled to complete it in time but most had a good go at it. Another student marked it and then I picked it up so that I could see where they were at.
When we went through the answers, it was quite clear that a number of students were struggling with order of operations. It also became clear on reading their efforts that they were struggling in this area. However, the intriguing thing was that when I asked if they were having problems, nobody said anything. Not one issue was raised and not one example was mentioned.
Two reasons suggest themselves: One - they are too scared to speak in case I bite their heads off or Two - they don't want to lose face in front of their friends so they say nothing. Given that I the last head I bit off was in 1987 it can't be the first reason. So I am challenged to get realistic and useful feedback from them in situations other than in tests. I am not sure how I can go forward unless I come up with a solution.

Raising money

2005-03-18T22:13:00.000+10:30

Just a quick note today to say that my class raised $146.50 for the charity - a great effort given we had only raised $12 two weeks ago. Also the class displays are looking great. I will try to post an example of this sometime soon. Had a chat to CO today and learnt that his dad works in demolition! I hope that his son does not have the same tendencies.

Yin and Yang

2005-03-17T21:00:00.000+10:30

Amazing how one day can change the tone of the class who were a little more ratty today. It appears that the return of ME and CO might be a factor after two days absence. I don't know but I have to do some review on how they influence people in the class. I guess I need to continually present what I think we are on about and try and get them to understand this.
I know at one stage I forgot that today and got sucked into a power play with SA. I gave him a pen to use for decorations and he simply passed it on to other students and did not return it to me. At the end of the day I pointed this out to him and he started arguing. I said you can argue all you like but I still need to make a point. At this stage the rest of the class were waiting for us to finish so that they could go home. SA was very aware of this and played up to his audience. What I should have done was stop there and spoken to him alone after class. Instead, as I say, I got sucked into an argument with SA. I will apologise to the class and speak to him privately tomorrow.
We are on the home leg of decorating the class. It is quite obvious that some students are just taking it as an opportunity to bludge but many are still very involved. I will change tomorrows lesson by bringing some school work on Science and the students need to ask me to complete any decoration work. I have one very proud student's drawing of a motorbike that I will laminate so that it will last more than a few weeks.
Some of the other displays are quite poor and it has annoyed me a little that they think that they look ok, when quite clearly (to me anyway) they are not. What I think I will do early next term is to allow groups of students to apply to do another display instead of doing the unit we will cover in Science. Their display needs to be Science based. The class will vote on the applications. Only one group will be allowed to create a display. Then the class can vote on which display will be replaced. I am sure a secret vote should ensure that the "dud" one gets removed.

We went for a walk

2005-03-16T19:42:00.000+10:30

What a great day! Some time ago, SH had the suggestion that we go on a walk-a-thon to raise money for a local charity. We had a class goal of raising $50 but had only achieved $7 after three weeks. It was a great idea and involved walking around the school - so no special permissions or problems with admin.
No student in the class was forced to go on the walk or to raise money. However, I did say that if they did not they would have to stay at school and do some other work in our Study Hall.
When it came to the crunch, everyone had raised some money - from 50c to an amazing $20! Today was the day of the walk and I incorporated a bit of Maths into it by taking a measuring wheel and working out how far we walked. As I said, all of them participated and were willing to walk the 2 1/2 kilometres. They were so enthusiastic about getting out of class that they wanted to walk it again! They were great on the walk - just a few words early to the stone throwing wannbes was enough to get them to focus on just walking and talking. I got to know a few more of the class as well - a number of them are playing high (ie State) levels of sport including Soccer, Netball and even Football (AFL). A couple are captains or vice-captains of their teams.
When we came back to class, we had about 30 minutes until lunch time. During this time I let them sit where they wanted - I wouldn't have dreamed of doing this 5 weeks ago. Generally, they were great and really focussed on the task at hand (some Maths work sheets).
I don't know where we are headed exactly but overall I am very happy with the direction. Looking forward to Term 2 when we undertake the Great Balloon Race - part of the English Curriculum. I can see links with the Mixtures and Matter units in Science. With the matter unit I was thinking of getting them to study the changes in atmosphere when they go up a 3000 m mountain - the changes in air pressure, temperature, oxygen levels etc. They could also study the consequences of this: the lower boiling point for water, the changes in the way you cook food, the challenges to breathing etc. I don't know to what extent the students will understand how this relates to matter, but I am going to have fun trying. The English teacher was also very interested.

And so to Science

2005-03-15T18:41:00.000+10:30

Scienc as a subject has been a little neglected of late and we are currently nearing the end of a critical chapter. Basically it is on "Doing Science". I say critical because it is what Science is all about - but you wouldn't think so looking at the text book. It is all recipe practicals. This chapter sets the students up with practical design skills but then ignores them until the beginning of next year.
Oh well, I will change that this year. Also, how can explain words like hypothesis, variable, fair test and so on when they are not ready to hear what these words mean.
I am currently thinking about the next chapter on states of matter which, again, is an important chapter but is handled very poorly. I was thinking about marooning the students on the moon or in space in full astronaut uniform, but they have to work out how to boil water or make ice cubes up there. They will have to discover what conditions exist on the moon and why it would be so hard to carry out these tasks there. Still working on this.
2 groups in the class won the Maths problem of the Week and so won a can of drink and a Mars bar. They were pretty happy about this and the others were quite envious. Maybe this will spur them on to greater heights for the next one.

The Maths continues.

2005-03-14T21:36:00.000+10:30

First day of the week. The group are still pretty quiet. I don't know why. SA and SH both came up with ideas for how they will keep themselves on task if they find themselves with some spare time. It took some prompting but SA decided to see me if it happened and SH decided to do some Maths. Interesting that ME and BR were absent today. Creates a new dynamic really although I am unclear why.
We reviewed Order of Operations in Maths - they seemed to handle this pretty easily. I then gave the problem: How can you get 5 from 5 twos (ie 2 2 2 2 and 2)? It took them a while but eventually they worked out that it was a order of operations problem: ie (2+2+2)/2+2. There were lots of other solutions. You can do the same with 3s, 4s and 5s all equalling 5. Finally I set another problem of how can five 8s equal 9 (but you can't use + and -). JQ came up with answer first ie 8 88/88, so I owe him a Chomp chocolate bar.
I have decided to use the SACSA frameworks to help me plan my lessons. This should give me a guide to what exactly the students should know and be skilled in. Now I can start planning units for the rest of the year.
We are going on a class walkathon on Wednesday. I will sit down and work out what we need to do to get this going ie hats, shoes, water. Should be interesting.

Building relationships...

2005-03-12T17:50:00.000+10:30

Last day of the week. Once again, an enjoyable lesson spent putting edges on the displays and working on the content.
I was very happy with their participation and the way that they worked together. We used a lot of resources today and at times I was concerned about wasting them. I guess I needed to have a little more faith. I would like to discuss the concept of recycling with them at some stage.
Towards the end of the lesson two of the students I have mentioned previously as leaders decided to have a water fight - not a big one but enough to draw my attention to it.
I asked SH to explain what happen and the reply was "SA started it". I then went to SA and the reply was "SH started it". I said that they had to wait until everyone was gone and they needed to get the story right.
Eventually it turned out that SA started and SH responded (as is her wont). I spoke to them both about showing me that they could handle the less structured approach to what we were doing in class - otherwise they would not be allowed the freedom to do these things. They both needed to come up with ways that they would control themselves in these situations by Monday.
I then dismissed SA but spoke to SH. I said that I was suprised at her reaction and asked her to work hard at coming up with a solution to this problem. I said that I enjoyed her active role in the class and her leadership. I emphasised that I wanted her in this class playing a leadership role and I think that I got through to her. I guess Monday will tell.

Leadership

2005-03-10T14:24:00.000+10:30

Started the lesson by getting them to create their own survey of the class. They could choose the topic ie favourite car, colour, cartoon etc., and then they went around the class and tallied all the opinions. It was fascinating watching them. They seemed determined not to miss anyone in the class. They then had to transform this data into a table and a graph using Excel.
Each student produced their own type of graph and had different colours and styles. I will collect each graph as an example to show them what I expect them to be able to do in the future. I will also compare this with their hand - made graphs.

After the IT lesson, we continued decorating the home room. They are finally starting to see some results in the process. The boys have got some great pictures and drawings of cars and motorcycles - some done by the students themselves. The girls are working slowly at producing a stage-like display of pictures of the students in the class. The other group of girls are producing a display of optical illusions.

I have begun to see the leaders emerge from the groups:
SA. - seems to have this aura around him that students of the opposite sex cannot resist. Just loves flirting with them. The guys always look to S. for comment and to say something smart. Bit of an enigma though. Will try to get out of work as much as possible and will push me as possible. Must try to tap into his interests and strengths. A potential House Captain in 5 years time though.
SH. - another enigma. Has so much drive and is so active but sometimes leads people down the inappropriate pathway. Again, a future leader, no doubt, but must see the importance of direction in leadership.
JA. - interesting, independent, dignified student. Intelligent but not necessarily in the academic sense. J. is quite clear what J. does and does not want to do. Has a wicked sense of humour.
CA. - very capable academically. Has a touch of cheekiness that needs to be watched. At this stage, knows when to draw the line. Highly capable in english and maths.
JO. - quiet but very capable and thoughtful. Already involved in many things outside of school.
The group is justing starting to understand that they need to work together to get what they want. They often ask when they can move to sit where they want. I got sick of this so I said that the next person to ask me will mean that they will stay where they are until the end of the term. Haven't heard a word since.

Already I am feeling much better being at school. I never really had a problem motivating myself to go but it rarely anything to do with the students. I find myself enjoying their company and listening to all the little things that come up in their conversations. I am beginning to see the importance of what I am doing but am acutely aware that I need to set some long term goals for each part of the syllabus and build toward them.

Middle school maths

2005-03-08T03:53:00.000+10:30

Today was an interesting day. I spent the first half and hour of the lesson discussing tests and how people prepare for them. Whilst the consensus was that students hated tests, they couldn't (or weren't prepared to) pinpoint why. When I asked how they prepared for tests, it was like pulling teeth. Either they said they didn't or they told me what I wanted to hear. In the end I had to say "Do you want help in preparing for this test?". The majority said, "No!". So I said, "Sorry for wasting your time, let's get stuck into the Maths".
We went over how to get the highest common factor of two numbers (ie dividing by primes) and they seem to understand that.
We then used that method to get the factors for the numbers 2, 4, 16, 32, 64 etc to show that it was 2, 2x2, 2x2x2, 2x2x2x2 etc. I showed them that we could continue this but it would become very tedious writing all these numbers, so in Maths we abbreviate using exponential notation. They seemed happy with this but were not confident to use the words. That is, if I asked them to write 49 in exponetial form using base 7. they struggled.
It is going to be interesting to see how they go in the test. I would predict that some of them are going to struggle big time, but are not prepared to admit it.
I also discussed a number of things with the other key teacher of the class - Jane. It appears that at least one student in the class is under big pressure from their parents to succeed. "I have paid a lot of money for your education" type parent. Very scary that a 13 year old is under so much pressure. We will monitor him and discuss this with parents at the parent/teacher meeting.
Further, some other students are still struggling with homework requirements, especially on weekends. It appears that they lead busy lives and so have little time for something as silly as homework. Must remember to catch up with those students on Wednesday.

Sea change...

2005-03-07T11:28:00.000+10:30

Welcome to my first post on this blog and to blogging.

I am an experience High School teacher in Adelaide, South Australia, going through a bit of a "sea change" in my work.

Up until last year I was highly involved in the upper end of education. In fact, I was Year 12 Coordinator for the last three years. Year 11 Coordinator for the two years before that.

I felt, though, after five years that I was bashing my head up against the wall trying to convince senior students to be more than mediocre. My view has not changed but my methods have. I have decided to try and change things as the beginning of high school life, not the end.

I am now (mainly) a Year 8 teacher trying to come to grips with teaching three subjects to a group of excitable, enthusiastic but reasonably raw 13-14 year olds.

I hope to use this blog as a means of reflecting on what happens in my class and I am interesting in hearing from others going through the same process.