Kiwi Kids are Lazy!

Kiwi Kids are Lazy

There are must be hundreds of kiwi parents who regularly lament how lazy their teenage kids are, well they may have a point.   Last year I traveled to Korea and met with a group Korean high school students.  I spent the day at their school and they showed me around with huge enthusiasm.  They talked about their studies and their aspirations for the future.   Youngil High school was alive with enthusiastic engaged learners and teachers.   The interesting thing was it a beautiful sunny day, 36 degrees outside and in the middle of the school holidays.  Of a school of approximately 2000 boys over 1500 of them were attending voluntary ‘catch up classes’ during the summer break.

They went on to describe, in perfect English, a typical school day.  The boys I was talking to got up around 6:30AM, had breakfast then left the apartment around 7:30AM to get to school for an 8:30AM start.  After a full day of instruction they spent another 2 hours at school taking extra classes. They arrived home around 6:30PM, some students had dinner and then had 2 hours with a private tutor, others spent time with the tutor first and then had dinner.  After that they spent 2 -3 hours doing their home work.  Most nights the boys I spoke to got to bed around mid night.  This pattern wasn’t just around exam time it was a typical day repeated 5 days a week for the whole school year.

I was fortunate to be invited back to one student’s home for dinner and his farther confirmed the story and if it had not been for my visit he would have had tuition that night.  Shin talked about the importance of education and getting into one of the top universities.  This would lead to better job prospects once he graduated.  It was extremely important to the family that their son do well and achieve the best he could, not only for him but because it reflected well on the family. 

I described the Korean students day to a couple of secondary school boys during the summer break back in New Zealand.  They scoffed and the word “nerd” was used more than once.  “When do they fit in sports or time with their mates?” they asked.  It didn’t even occur to me to ask that question when I met with the boys in Korea.   When I asked the Kiwi lads what other languages they were learning they sheepishly replied none, the boys back in Korea spoke Korean, fluent English and were learning at least one other language.

So are we selling our kids short by not emphasising the importance of education? There is plenty in the media about ‘knowledge economies’ and ‘life-long learners’ but as a nation do we really believe it?  The National Curriculum Standards have gone some way to refocusing primary schools on the importance of academic learning but is our holistic approach to learning really the best thing for our kids?

Assessment Pressures

Since the introduction of the Nation Curriculum Standards there has been real pressure put on teachers to make their OTJs defensible. Even though teachers have a licence to make a judgement based on anecdotal observations and notes and student voice the assessment or test still seems to be the dominant part of the equation and teachers aren't prepared to put a student at a level without administering some form of test.

The challenge is that many assessments are administered by the teacher one on one with the student and can be quite time consuming, for example JAM and Running Records. Adding to the challenge is many schools have had to change how they provide CRT and it may not always be available when the teachers most need it.

So what is the answer? The simple response is that perhaps teachers should trust their judgement more but there is still a requirement that a standardised assessment be part of the OTJ process.

The other possibility is that we review the types of assessments we are using. Cullen (2012) questions the validity of some assessments as they are "stand alone" and do relate to the needs of the learner in a classroom environment. Cullen goes on to suggest that some assessments even encourage the wrong types of skills in a learner. Though she was referring to reading assessments I believe this idea can be extended to other learning areas as well. Cullen advocates for 'Rich Tasks' which she describes as "authentic and meaningful" which will allow the teacher to "observe student behaviour and learning in a variety of settings and with various materials."

I plan to explore the idea of 'Rich Tasks' and how they can be used as a part of OTJs. I believe this important because we need to get most accurate and relevant data about student learning and also we need to take the pressure of our teachers.

 

Cullen, T. (2012). Assessment for Better Learning: A closer look at reading assessment. Reading Forum N.Z Vol. 27, No. 3 2012

When I read Derek Wenmoth's Blog which talked 21st Century Literacy I was reaffirmed with the work we are doing with our learners, students and teachers at Vardon School.  Wenmoth's identified the following competencies as important for learners:
 

• Develop proficiency with the tools of technology 
   
• Build relationships with others to pose and solve problems collaboratively and cross-culturally 
   
• Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes 
   
• Manage, analyze and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information 
   
• Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multi-media texts 
   
• Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments

 I know personally I have made huge progress in all of the above areas this year and I still have along way to go.  I am reminded of this whenever I get one of my Year 6 students to come help me do something on line.  I'm comfortable with this though.  We figured out long ago that the teacher isn't the holder of all knowledge and that anyone can be a teacher or learner at Vardon School. 

I am also really pleased with the approach we have used to promote and implement e-learning with our teachers.  There was a real danger that what we learned at 'Learning at Schools' could become a distant memory. Because we are constantly revisiting and everyone has led learning the momentum hasn't been lost.  We have also taken the time to think about what is important at Vardon School which has been a great filter for our learning.

I think e-learning is a journey will never end, it is only limited by our imaginations.  As long as we are still prepared to be creative and open to challenges to our current thinking I am confident we will keep taking on new ideas and approach to enhance teaching and learning

E-learning and teacher engagement and learning

There is a lot of anecdotal evidence at Vardon School that the e-learning strategies the teachers are using has lead to an increase in  engagement and motivation for the students.  I think the same could be said for teachers.  I have been wondering how the teacher perception of themselves as a learner might have changed since we have started exploring and implementing e-learning. 

New technologies and resources we are now using have required teachers to rethink how teaching and learning looks in their classes.  The changes have required teachers to reflect on their 'original practice' and consider what changes they need to make to embrace the tools we are using.  The act of reflection and change leads to an on going cycle.  This is maintained by the continual introduction of new technologies and e-resources and the adaptation  pedagogy to include them.  How does this change the teacher view of themselves as a learner?

Is it really best for student learning?

stating I am not a particularly political person, but I think it is important that as parents and caregivers you are aware of the impacts of government policy on children and the government strategy for implementing the policy.

 You may have noticed that in media over the last 6 months there has been a huge amount of negative reporting about “our failing education system”.  Most of it is untrue and based on questionable research, for example New Zealand is ranked in the top 5 of OECD rankings in most education areas.   If there is any truth to the statements they are generally an isolated case.  The reason for the negative press is to sway public opinion against teachers, schools and our current education system, this gives the government justification for the slash and burn policy they want to implement.

Don’t be deceived into thinking that any policies the government are introducing are done for the well being of children.  Education policy originates from and is driven by Treasury who’s one aim is to save money.  The reality of the 1:27.5 teacher/student ratio means class sizes will be in the 30s.  The Minister has sited research suggesting class size doesn’t impact on student learning.  This is a shameless manipulation of research which doesn’t take into consideration the needs based teaching and learning that happens in New Zealand classrooms.  Treasury hope to save $43 million through this initiative.

The Ministry of Education, without any consultation with sector, have transformed the Resource Teachers of Learning & Behaviour and dissolved the Supplementary Learning Support Teachers, two critical groups of support teachers who work with moderate to high need students.  The expectation is that these students are catered for in our now crowded classrooms.  The reality will be they will miss out on vital learning and support; this will impact on all children. 

These may seem like two fairly minor changes to our education system but they are only ‘the tip of the ice berg’.  Our education system is becoming a ‘one size fits all’, regimented system that does not celebrate or accommodate diversity and difference, two of the key principals which have our system a world class education system.

As a teacher/principal I have always considered what is best for the children in my class or school.  These policies and the direction our government is taking does not share this view

Restorative Practice

Last year I went to a 3 day seminar with Marg Thorsborne to learn about Restorative Conferencing.  I found her messages extremely powerful, particularly the one that says "if you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got".  I think with behaviour management of primary school students this is very true.
At our school, at the time, we had some fairly challenging students and we were all aware that we needed to explore different ways of working with this group.

After returning to school with a lot of new learning it quickly became apparent that restorative thinking and practice needed to established throughout the whole school and  couldn't be confined to the leadership team so we organized a two day seminar for Marg to work with the whole staff.  The outcomes I hoped was that we would get consistency across everyone in the school with how we dealt with our students, (make it the talk of the school), and we would review our behaviour management processes and move from a punitive approach to a restorative one.Our review will consider how restorative thinking will become part of how we speak with the students, management the students and what we teach the students.

It has been interesting to see what elements of restorative practice have been adopted already without any direction.  Circle time was become a key part of class programmes and student are becoming more adept at saying what they think and sharing their feelings.  Mini-conferences are common sight during break  times where students collaboratively solve their differences supported by a staff member and students are being taught to give and receive an apology.

I am looking forward to our review meeting and our reflections on where we are then were to next. 

Learning Support Meetings

Tuesday and Thursday of this week, (1st & 3rd May) where amazing days for me.  We call them our 'Learning Support Meetings' where we examine with our teachers what types of support needs to put in for various groups of learners.  The reason I find these meetings so amazing is the depth of knowledge our teachers have about the children and their classes and the huge commitment they make to ensure all learners are progressing at the best possible rates. 

The teachers accurately identify what learning goals need  to be set for the students but more importantly identify what strategies they plan to use to get the children there. Without exception everyone knew what they were doing and how to do it.  The conversations that come out of our meetings are deeply reflective where the teachers all considered their pedagogical choices and approaches.
 From a leadership point of view it allows us to identify trends across the school think strategically about how use our resources to support the most 'At Risk' learners.  It also allows us opportunity to 'cross-pollinate' thinking from teacher to teacher. 

I finished Thursday exhausted from listening closely and thinking so hard, but also energized when I hear of all the amazing practice that is happening in our school.

Thanks everyone.

Marcus