FYI Planning

Here is the plan for this week...

2016 term two week two itinerary from WaihiCollege

Week 11 Planning Document

FYI Planning

Here is the weekly staff planning document for week eleven

2016 term one week eleven itinerary from WaihiCollege

Year 10 Conference

Conference Flyer

Owning Your Future

Today our year ten students spent the day out of school at the Waihi Academy on conference.  This inaugural annual event is the brain child of Learning Leaders Jo Howell and Vicki Speirs.  The purpose here is to take a break from the regular routines of school life and present a days worth of workshops and keynote addresses from former Waihi College students.  

Introduction of Keynote

Year 10 was chosen as this represents a key age in adolescence where students have been through the institution of school but now viewing the world with increased maturity.  We have timed this conference to be just ahead of subject selection for the first year of NCEA Level One.    
Seven ex student leaders from previous years at Waihi College made the presentations and keynote address (which was given by Adrian Holmes).  

Those students included...

1. Adrian Holmes (class of 2003)
2. Anna O'Hagen (class or 2008)
3. Samanatha Sanderson (class of 2011)
4. Tina Youngman (class of 2001)
5. Natasha Staheli-Lowe (class of 2012)
6. Jack Kingsford (class of 2011)
7. Ariana Te Wake (class of 2005)

Our hope is that from today many future dreams would have been formed and that our students will see the next three years (plus) at Waihi College as being an avenue to launch their futures.  

It is vital that I acknowledge the excellent efforts of Jo Howell and Vicki Speirs who's collective efforts and initiative brought together a brilliant day.  Tremendous thanks also goes to Tony Kang and the staff at Waihi Academy for providing a fantastic venue and delicious meals.  

This post relates to RTC #2. "Demonstrate commitment to promoting the well-being of all ākonga."  And RTC #7. "Promote a collaborative, inclusive and supportive learning environment".  And ERO's School Evaluation Indicators Domain 6 Knowledge Building for Improvement and Innovation "Participation in evaluation, inquiry and knowledge building activities contributes to changes in thinking and behaviour and builds inquiry 'habits of mind' ".

Classroom Expectations

Evolution of Education

When I first began teaching I was *taught* a very traditional way of managing a classroom.  The basic presumptions were...

1. That getting students to work was the key to learning.
2. Work looked like silence, lots of writing, solo participation.
3. That students would actively look to doing minimal work.
4. Teachers were to pressure students into doing the work.  

The following PowerPoint presentation begins with some photographs which sum up that philosophy on education.  The dog with a biscuit on his nose - this can be done by training that the dog (aka the student) would want to eat straight away (not work in class) and the owner (aka teacher) would have to be in control.  


The other image of an alpha wolf represents the way teachers were modeled to control.  That you would rigidly police the students into obedience.  This was often done through faking aggression - don't smile until Easter on steroids.  

Classroom Expectations from WaihiCollege

The video which I showed echo'd this management style...

Looking at this video what messages were represented?

• Discipline?  Humiliation?  Inhumanity?
• Education centered on facts?
• Education centered on the teacher?
• Misogyny? 

One of the things that you may have missed in this clip.  This is about the older teacher showing the new teacher 'how it is done'.  

The evidence now is very clear - the best teaching is done in an environment where mutual respect is paramount.  Todd Whitaker puts it very well in his book (click here) What great teachers do differently; “The teacher who sets a positive tone can influence the interactions of everyone in the school” (p. 55)

This post relates to RTC #2. demonstrate commitment to promoting the well-being of all ākonga.  And RTC #7. promote a collaborative, inclusive and supportive learning environment.  And ERO's School Evaluation Indicators Domain 4 Effective Teaching "Students experience an environment in which it is safe to take risks and errors provide opportunities to learn".  

NZTC and EDUCANZ

NZTC (EDUCANZ) Discipline Tribunal Hearing

Here are some case examples from the last 12 months from NZTC.

Here teachers have had to appear before the Tribunal to go through some issues around professional boundaries.


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Here are some instances where you might want to discuss the 'greyness' of relationships with students...

1. Going to the pub (not in school time) and there is a student (over 18) there.  Is it ok for that student to buy the teacher a beer?  Is it ok for the teacher to buy that student a beer?
2. Socialising after hours.  Say if there was a male staff member going for a training run with a student, just the two of them, in their weekend?
3. Solo tutoring subject material male staff member female student?  
4. Social media (Facebook) staff ‘befriending’ students (setting such that they can see each other’s personal settings)?
5. Staff who comment socially online about the social lives of students (such as discussion around their relationships)?  
6. Texting students personal mobiles after hours (late night texting about courses/assignments)? 

This post is to do with RTC #1. "Establish and maintain effective professional relationships focused on the learning and well-being of ākonga." and RTC#2. "demonstrate commitment to promoting the well-being of all ākonga i. take all reasonable steps to provide and maintain a teaching and learning environment that is physically, socially, culturally and emotionally safe."

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



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