Must be careful not to overdo it

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

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

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

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

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...

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.