Anti Bullying Message

Revolution Tour Group
This week we had a visit from an Auckland based tour group called "Revolution".  They are musicians that are travelling the country combining their musical talents with a strong anti-bullying message. 

They put on a show for an assembly of year 7's to 10's. 

Students chanting "stop the bull"

The effect of bullying on learning cannot be overstated.  Students who are victims of bullying will find it very hard to associate school as a positive place to be. 



Students ask to stand if they don't want bullying. 

As educators we have to give some real consideration to the level of safety we provide in our classrooms and around the school grounds.  This is more than just a social responsibility we are charged as professionals for ensuring this takes place. 


The Registered Teachers Criteria has two specific criteria that relates to this...

RTC #2 Demonstrate commitment to promoting the well-being of all ākonga - take all reasonable steps to provide and maintain a teaching and learning environment that is physically, socially, culturally and emotionally safe.  and

RTC # 7. promote a collaborative, inclusive and supportive learning environment - foster trust, respect and cooperation with and among ākonga.  

Good music - strong message.

As teacher who can't sing or dance I realise that I cannot send that message in the same way as the Revolution Tour group.  But it left me thinking how do I send messages of safety, inclusiveness and positive relations in my classroom?   What ways do I recognise when bullying (especially subtle bullying) happens in my class?  Am I responsible for any?  What avenues have I created where students can ask for help? 

 

This post relates to RTC #2 and RTC #7



Follow Up Homework vs Prep vs Study vs Learning

Summary of the Discussion From Last Week
Thanks to those staff involved in our meeting last Tuesday.  It was great to see so many keen educators and innovative thinkers.  Here is a summary of my notes that I made on the day...

On Learning and Homework

• Discussion went through ideas of creation of habits and routines. 
• The idea of feeding forward and preparing for learning. 
• Homework club was discussed (how it's not well populated and that the various subject help is generally taken up by the more able students). 
• We talked about targeting homework - is it the strugglers that need it more to 'catch up'. 

On the Diary

• Discussion about the battle of homework (students not doing their x tables or spelling).
• We talked about the idea of the diary as a record of learning (not just homework). 
• Some discussion on the diary as a means of communication with home. 
• The use of the diary for formalising goals, recording results and storing affirmations. 

On the Keys of Good Homework Practice

• That it must be marked by teachers (so the students see us value it).
• Discussion on consequences for not having it done. 
• We discussed the notion of managing the load of homework for the students (not all due at one day). 

Also...

• We discussed what habits are made on homework at our feeder schools.
• We discussed the idea of "busy" work (material/worksheets that didn't relate to much in class). 
• We discussed the idea of projects and inquiries for homework. 

From here the SLT will make take some time to formulate our ideas on Homework for 2015 and beyond.  Please if you missed the meeting and have some contributions (or would like clarification of any of the above) please see me. 




This post relates to RTC # 6. conceptualise, plan and implement an appropriate learning programme part i. articulate clearly the aims of their teaching, give sound professional reasons for adopting these aims, and implement them in their practice.  And RTC # 8
demonstrate in practice their knowledge and understanding of how ākonga learn part ii.

 

 

Book Review - Todd Whitaker

17 Things That Matter Most by Todd Whitaker

Review by Justin

I love to read.  I especially like fantasy novels by authors that 'take me into another world'.  A favourite annual Christmas holiday event for me is reading a book through no interruptions.  Very few times do I find an educational 'how to' book that fits into that category.   However Todd Whitakers What Great Teachers Do Differently: 17 things that matter most does.  It is a short book (around 120 pages) and was a one day read. 

Nicola, my wife, is also a teacher.  I found that I popped my head up often reading her an exert and saying "listen to this, this is so true…". 

Whitaker style is somewhat formulaic, not so much as a recipe book, but delivering chapters each with a pearl of educational wisdom.  The points are made with clear illustration - narratives that concrete in the idea.  It is clear to me that Whitaker was a great school leader.  He offers insight into typical school life and had me remembering those teachers I had when I was at school. 

One of the things that I found refreshing is that Whitaker constantly speaks of 'greatness' in teaching as a destination - something to aspire/aim towards.  I found that whilst reading I was constantly checking off in my head my habits as a classroom teacher.

This was a book that after I finished I found myself sweeping back into.  It was so sound educationally and written in such an easily digestible manner that I've gone back through and collected my favourite quotes and decided to make a wall display that other teachers may discover some useful ideas. 

I would definitely recommend any teacher to read this book.  It was a light read and one that you won't have to slog through. 

Rewarding Students

Unequal Rewards.
One of the traps that I fall into every now and then is that I reward students/classes with a treat.  I have found that this is a trap for us as educators.  We create expectations, we programme that education extrinsically rather than intrinsically and we brake consistency between classes/teachers. 

Two interesting research materials that are worth looking at are...

Dan Pink (author of Drive) discusses a study of preschool students - ones interested in drawing/painting.  The researchers simply divided the students into three groups... 

• Ones shown fancy certificates they'd get if they did a drawing,
• Ones who didn't know about the certificate but got one when they finished, and
• The final group who drew and never got any certificate.

Two weeks later the researchers returned to the same pre-schoolers and asked for drawings.  Those that had been shown the certificates were the least likely to want to do another if there was no certificate. 

Here is another...

   
This post relates to RTC #1. establish and maintain effective professional relationships focused on the learning and well-being of ākonga and RTC # 5. show leadership that contributes to effective teaching and learning

Growth Mindsets

Checking Our Assumptions.
One of the most vivid memories of my first year I had as a teacher was Mr Flinders the teacher in the classroom next to me.  He can be best described as a *seasoned campaigner*, a likeable guy, respected by the students, but set in his ways.  I can clearly remember him saying to me "Justin - you just can't teach smarts".  These words impressed upon me - I liked these words. 

You see the idea was appealing to me - it provided me with a quick mantra that I could use to deflect.  If my classes struggled with the content... "you just can't teach smarts." 

It was deficit thinking in action.  I've seen the same idea presented a million ways...

• "The family don't value education",
• "Those students they'll get a job in the factory they don't need my subject",
• "I taught the brother/sister - this guys just the same"...

We see it getting engrained.  Parents at teacher interviews "I never could do it when I as at school".  Teachers in the staff room "I had that class last year - good luck with them".  Even in the students themselves. 

I think that we need to check these thoughts.  I think that we need to move away from them and value the essence of improvement through education.

Dr Carol Dweck created a very interesting set of work covering this idea under the notion of *Mindset*.  She identifies a fixed mindset or a growth mindset.

Here is a illustration of her idea...






 This post relates to RTC # 8. demonstrate in practice their knowledge and understanding of how ākonga learn.

Waihi College Happiness Survey

Happy Students = Learning Students
The following survey was something that I thought that I'd put together after closer examination of the PISA 2012 results.  There was a strong correlation to the sense of belonging and their achievement at school.  Here are the questions that the PISA assessment asked.

1. I feel like an outsider (or left out of things) at school.  Strongly Agree    Agree     Disagree   Strongly Disagree
2. I make friends easily at school.  Strongly Agree    Agree     Disagree   Strongly Disagree
3. I feel like I belong at school.  Strongly Agree    Agree     Disagree   Strongly Disagree
4. I feel awkward and out of place at school.  Strongly Agree    Agree     Disagree   Strongly Disagree
5. Other students seem to like me.  Strongly Agree    Agree     Disagree   Strongly Disagree
6. I feel lonely at school.  Strongly Agree    Agree     Disagree   Strongly Disagree
7. I feel happy at school.  Strongly Agree    Agree     Disagree   Strongly Disagree
8. I am satisfied at school.  Strongly Agree    Agree     Disagree   Strongly Disagree

The web link to this survey is... https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LPCXPVG

Please do take the time to supervise (minimise the "funny" stuff) your Learning Advisory students through this. 

I hope that in a couple of weeks we'll have an idea of where our current students are at. 


Here is an interesting graph from Alive in the Swamp a book by Micheal Fullan & Katelyn Donnelly...

Can you see that the "Love of School" is consistently decreasing (Canadian study) until students start to drop out? 





Here is a little video of the authors speaking on Alive in the Swamp  which was about the new way of digital technology in education (good watch for those thinking of being in the BYOD group). 

This post relates to RTC # 2. demonstrate commitment to promoting the well-being of all ākonga

PISA

PISA - Programme for International Student Assessment
PISA testing is something of a political football.  It is used as justification or provocation by various invested interest groups.  I always find it curious how easy it is for politicians to make *changes* in education - we are a pretty easy football to be kicked. 

I prefer to look at PISA as a means of improvement of our practice as teachers and the culture of learning as leaders.  It acts as a snapshot of a cohort of students (PISA aims exclusively at 15 year olds).  PISA looks at only at the 34 OECD countries.  

The nice thing about PISA is that it's not solely interested in content (although the test against curriculum).  The assessment is also about how students use that knowledge. 

The key areas that are looked at in the PISA testing is Maths, Reading, Science, Problem Solving and recently they've added Financial Literacy.  An area that is often over looked in the PISA testing is that each individual student (slightly over half a million students world wide are tested) over the two hours of testing the first part is a survey on their attitude towards school.  Fairly similar idea done in our NZ asTTle testing.  The PISA report makes note of the correlation to the student attitude and their overall success.  Here is my summary of the correlations...

1. Having parents that encourage and push is important.  How do we at Waihi College engender this?  What things can we do to improve this?
2. students that enjoy being at school do much better.  How do we create or add to this environment?  What ways do we identify those students not enjoying Waihi College?  FYI in the PISA report 91% of kiwi students reported as being happy at school - what would that be like here at Waihi College? 
3. Belonging was a key - PISA measure this by asking if they're late to school or have missed classes [the results were 1/3 are late and 1/4 missed a class].  Do we follow up our lateness or missed lessons?  Who should be doing this?  Statistically late students score 27% less and those that miss lessons score 37% lower.
4. The better the relationship with teacher the higher the scores.  
5. Boys are likely to associate difficulty in assessments on external factors and girls are more likely to associate difficulty intrinsically.   Do we create self management/responsibility in our boys?  Do we offer enough support for our girls? 



Further information on this can be found at http://www.oecd.org/pisa/keyfindings/pisa-2012-results-overview.pdf
You can actual try some of the actual 2012 PISA tests online at http://www.oecd.org/pisa/test/


This post relates to RTC #2. demonstrate commitment to promoting the well-being of all ākonga and RTC # 11. analyse and appropriately use assessment information, which has been gathered formally and informally

Homework vs Prep vs Study vs Learning

Homework - Discussion Ideas
I grew up in an intimate relationship with homework.  Starting high school at a boarding school I believe that the hostel managers figured it was easier to control teenage boys if we were forced into silence sitting in the classroom for two hours six nights a week.  I certainly don't think the reason for these long periods of "prep" was about quality learning. 

The strange thing was, however, this is something that actually took place (well for me anyway).  I was malleable, I was in fear of the consequences of not quietly sitting there (bamboo cane).  Given that there was no iPods or mp3 players or even magazines - I took up revision of my school work.   I found that I was sharper and more able in my classes.  

Now we've evolved of teaching and learning to a stage where as educators we are doing new things - it is good to review homework. 

From an interesting article on Edutopia Glenn Whitman says;

"Homework can be a powerful learning tool -- if designed and assigned correctly. ...It should be challenging and engaging enough to allow for deliberate practice of essential content and skills."

From the NZherald website there was an article which found that 69% of kiwi kids do actually do homework and the average amount of time per night of homework was 53mins for under 13 year olds and 1 hour and 13 minutes for over 13 year olds.

Finally there is a Waihi College Board of Trustees 'Statement on Homework' which states...

• Year 7 & 8 pupils may expect to have about one hour of homework
• Years 9 & 10 pupils may expect to have about one and half to two hours of homework
• Senior pupils could expect an average half an hour per subject per period.   

We will have a meeting afterschool Tuesday 12th in the staff room to discuss various points around homework.   All staff are warmly invited. 

 

Powhiri for Japanese Sister School

Waihi College Powhiri for Kyoritsu
Monday morning began with a celebration of our formal arrangement of 'sister' school with Kirotsu Girls School from Japan. 


The Actual Agreement

For over ten years now Kyoritsu Women's University High School has been sending students over to New Zealand to stay here in the mighty Hauraki, based here at Waihi College.

This year there is a group of 22 students, one teacher and the tour group organiser.  This year marks a special change in events where Mr Koya the Kyoritsu Women's University High School Principal also came to join the tour party.  This was special because it marked our formalising of our sister school arrangement.

To celebrate the start of this day Waihi College officially welcomed our guests with a formal Powhiri.  The Japanese were karanga'd onto the school grounds by Jeannie Mohi our Deputy Head Girl.  Mr Oudes and Mr Hunt lead the formalities giving whaikorero's for the hosts and guest respectively. 

After the powhiri the Junior School welcomed our visitors in the assembly hall.  The formalities included song, kapa haka and exchange of gifts. 

The Kyoritsu girls are staying for the next two weeks and will be attending classes with our Waihi College students.