Well Im back...

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

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...

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...

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!

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...

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

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

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

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

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

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...

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

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

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

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

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.

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...

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

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

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...

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.