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  • NZEI: Not Zealous Enough. Ick.

    Three years ago the government announced their latest plan for collectives of schools to get together and share in the pot of $359 Million to share teachers, resources, and knowledge. Naturally, and rightly, NZEI took the initiative to their members. The following was the result:

    Primary Teachers and Principals vote to put kids first… 21 August 2014

    “Teachers and principals have voted overwhelmingly against the Government’s controversial “Investing in Educational Success” policy, including proposed highly-paid principal and teacher roles.

    A resounding 93 percent of teachers and principals voted “no confidence” in the government’s plan.

    When asked whether they wanted to try to reshape the policy or start again, 73 percent voted to reject the proposed new roles outright rather than try to change the policy through negotiation.”

     

    Since then, despite 93% of its members saying no thanks, NZEI have gone into negotiations with the Government, and come up with a revised outline for the IES, and a new label called “Communities of Learning”. But essentially they’ve ended up with the same turd, it’s just slightly more polished – as I wrote about here.

    Now, with the arrival of an election in September, the latest campaign from NZEI is to get more people in to vote, assuming that the more people they get in to vote, the more likely they are to get votes in ‘Teachers’ favour. The initiative is not targeting parents, it is in fact, targeting the students to get them to bring their parents along to vote.

    Quite frankly, I’m disgusted by this approach to working for Teachers.

    It is less than amicable, and has a range of issues that all lead to NZEI losing face. Big time.

    For a much more succinct account of these issues, head over to Whale Oil’s take on things. The fact that this has been picked up by Whale Oil, should be reason enough to look at this skeptically.

    As a teacher, I don’t pay NZEI to meddle in politics. I pay them to support me. To listen when we have a vote and do what we ask them to do (since they asked us what we wanted them to do). I pay them to negotiate on my behalf with the government, not go into political propaganda against them and try and influence votes through children. I find that intolerable.

    Some will say that if I don’t like it, then I should cease membership with them.

    While that’s fine in theory, I’m caught in a rock and a hard place. Don’t forget – I am a male primary school teacher. Few and far between – for a reason. It’s an incredibly risky workplace, and while I can safely say nothing is ever going to happen, I prefer to have the backing of NZEI’s lawyers than having to wrangle myself out of any false accusations. So unlike many who can, and have, and will, I can not just simply cease paying my membership, as it is security for me in my position as a male teacher.

    In conclusion; NZEI have lost any mana they might have had. I have no confidence in them, and will not be supporting them in any future plans.

  • Academic or Mechanic?

    The old smell of oil, diesel and grease fills the nose. The hunched over worker looks sideways from under the hood of a new Mercedes Benz and sighs with disappointment at the new arrival to his workshop. As I get out from behind the wheel of my pride and joy, my very first car, he wipes off his hands on a rag and comes over, somewhat disapprovingly. My light yellow, 1980 Daihatsu Charade coughs to a stop as the ignition switches off. The mechanic folds his arms.

    “It’s not quite up to standard.” I begin. “It needs a few new bits and pieces. I have the original owners manual, it’s in the back. The spare tire is inflated enough, and there air freshener inside has just been replaced.”

    “So what’s wrong with it?” muttered the mechanic, not at all impressed that I’d chosen his workshop to drop into. Usually cars like this go down to the wreckers.

    “Well, the Ministry of Environmental improvements have release New Standards for all cars, and this one seems to fail in most areas. It runs rich, costing lots more when I go to the pump. The emissions are through the roof evidently, and the steam coming from the bonnet after I run it flat out is a bit concerning. Also, I can’t remember the last time I changed the oil. I haven’t had time to get it serviced on any regular basis. The standards suggest that all cars need to be tuned to the optimal running speed of the Ferrari 458 Italia, which I assume won’t be too much to ask for?”.

    “Of course. The good ol MoE and their NS BS.” the mechanic replies in some sort of mixed up code.

    “So can you help me?” I ask, almost pleadingly.

    “Well, I’ll give it my best shot. But it’s going to take me quite a bit of time, effort, and of course, money.”

    “How about, if you just get paid your standard hourly rate. You can pay for some of the materials yourself, and after 5pm, you’ll be able to keep on working on it in your own time, I’m sure. I will need it back for the MoE by the end of the week.”

    “You’ve got to be joking?” laughed the mechanic, though obviously not in response to anything that would be considered humourous.

    “Well, that’s what the New Standards say customers should expect.” I reply. I’d done my research.

    “Like I say. I’ll give it my best shot.” retorted the mechanic, resigned to the fact that all he could do was try his hardest, knowing full well that getting the best out of this machine was one thing, getting it up to these New Standards was another.

    The mechanic returned to work on the Merc. It wasn’t far off the standard. It was new, and had obviously been looked after. The records showed regular servicing, and the fresh leather seat smell still lingered in the air. It was well fed too, with 98 octane premium fuel, and the best of synthetic oils. The engine ticked over into a gentle purr. It didn’t need much work to meet these new standards.

    Needless to say the Daihatsu never made it anywhere close to the speed of the 458. Not for lack of trying though. The mechanic worked night and day, and every working hour he had was poured into it and the other 29 cars in his workshop that week.

    In fact, the mechanic worked on it for a year, each and every day.

    By the end of that year, he had the little Charade up and running smoothly. The steam had gone, as had the oil leak. It got up to speed of around 100km/hr with little more than a sigh, and the coughing and spluttering that happened when ignition ceased was a thing of the past.

    Unfortunately, the mechanic was labeled a failure by the MoE because the 1980 Charade did not meet the expected level that they had set for all cars.

    Why is a short story about a mechanic and cars featuring on my education website?

    Well, as I’m sure you’ve worked out by now, this is a very simple analogy using comparison. In this particular example, the mechanic is a teacher, the selection of cars; students. Each and every year, teachers are expected to work miracles with some students, who face a range of challenges to meeting the standard, none of which are their fault. Some have had good support and upbringing, and others have had to face poverty, hunger, anger, and violence. Some have the essentials required to learn in a efficient way, others lack the basics to face the day.

    There is little doubt that the current Ministry of Education (MoE) and their National Standards (NS) seem ridiculous when applied to cars. But on many levels, the correlation in this analogy rings true, and holds firm.

    Maybe, just maybe, we should be educating students differently. Rather than getting each and every child up to a somewhat unattainable level, maybe we should focus on just getting from A to B, just like a good car should.

  • Chrome Apps for Students with Learning Difficulties

    There are a number of students who are displaying signs of having learning difficulties, such as dyslexia, in schools across the country. While there are some troubles in getting a diagnosis for these students, there is no reason why we should not begin to help these students out where we can. In a senior school for example, you might have 4 classes with about 28 students in each. That is 112 students. It is said that one in five students have a learning difficulty such as dyslexia. That means that there is potentially 23 students who suffer from learning difficulty. That’s nigh on an entire class. Obviously, there will be many more who have difficulties developing through the junior school as well.

    One way that can help these students immensely is through the use of technology. (Please also read “The Answer to everything is not an App“). There are a number of different resources available online for these students. Some of these apps are free and open source for students to use as they see fit. These can all been installed on each student Chromebook account. Students with learning difficulties can then need to enable them on their accounts, and make sure they are turned on for them to work. Some teaching around these tools also needs to be done, so the students know they are there to help and assist them in dealing with their learning struggles.

    There is always a tendency to download and install absolutely everything, with features doubling up and too many to choose from (which to leads to none being chosen). I have personally installed each of these tools below and can personally recommend them. Each performs a different function to the other, and each has been designed to deal with learning difficulties that students face.

    Free Apps

    Open Dyslexic

    Open-Dyslexic is an open sourced font created to increase readability for readers with dyslexia. This extension overrides all fonts on webpages with the OpenDyslexic font, and formats pages to be more easily readable.

    Mercury Reader

    The Mercury Reader extension for Chrome removes ads and distractions, leaving only text and images for a clean and consistent reading view on every site.

    Read and Write for Google Chrome (Free Version)

    Boost reading and writing confidence across all types of content and devices, in class, at work, and at home!

    Wonderfully intuitive and easy-to-use, Read&Write for Google Chrome™ provides personalized support to make documents, web pages and common file types in Google Drive (including: Google Docs, PDF, ePub & Kes) more accessible. It’s designed to help everyone engage with digital content in a way that suits his/her abilities and learning styles.

    BeeLine Reader

    BeeLine uses a color gradient to guide your eyes from the end of one line to the beginning of the next.  This seemingly simple tweak makes reading substantially easier and faster because it allows you to transition between lines quickly and effortlessly.

    MagicScroll Web Reader

    The MagicScroll Web Reader turns every page on the web into a MagicScroll book.

    Its unique scrolling system lets you scroll web pages without moving them, making it easier to read long articles without being distracted.
    Many of the suggested apps that assist learning for these students have premium versions or require subscriptions for them to be useful. In some sense, this applies for all apps in learning, but the difference being that we would be targeting those students who need it most, rather than supplying it to everyone. Obviously this depends completely on the cost of the app, or ongoing subscription as to whether it is viable to purchase for all students to use or not. If I was to recommend any app to purchase for a student with dyslexia or other learning difficulty, it would be Read&Write for Google Chrome, as outlined below.

    Read & Write for Google Chrome

    As mentioned earlier, the free/trial version is already installed for all students, and some are using this to good effect in class. However, many of the specific tools that assist students with learning difficulties are reserved for only the premium version. Luckily, teachers can sign up for an education account, and the premium features will be unlocked for you. Having done this myself, I can tell you that the premium features clearly show how they assist struggling students.

    The app is developed by a company called Texthelp, and should go some way to explaining why they developed the features in this app. On their website, they describe their involvement in schools as “…award-winning assistive technology solutions [that] help school students of all ages with reading, writing and literacy in classroom lessons and at home. Used daily by millions of young people around the world, Read&Write literacy support software makes the web and documents more accessible for reluctant readers, individuals with dyslexia and other learning difficulties, as well as students whose first language isn’t English.” Their values as a company is all about the inclusive environment that all schools should be working towards. Their company values state that “At Texthelp we believe that absolutely everyone deserves the opportunity to reach their full potential – at school, in the workplace and in later life, too. We believe there’s a whole world of avid readers and fluent writers, waiting to emerge with the right tools and encouragement. We believe in digital inclusion – where life stage, visual impairment, dyslexia or dis/ability aren’t barriers to the online opportunities that others enjoy. Most importantly of all, we believe that everyone’s entitled to the best possible learning and language support on their own personal journey – from literacy to life.”

    It is quite obvious therefore how they came about developing the Read&Write app, and the features they decided to include in their premium version.

     

    Features of Read & Write Specifically for Students with Dyslexia

    • Text to Speech feature (Free)
      Highlights each word as it is spoken, proven to help improve comprehension and understanding.
    • Dictionary
      Quickly brings up definition of the selected word.
    • Picture Dictionary
      Displays a selection of pictures that relate to the of the selected words.
    • Prediction
      Displays a range (between 3-10) of words that could go next in a written sentence.
    • Screenshot Reader
      Students can select an area from the screen and it will analyse any text in that part of the screen and read it out loud.
    • Highlights
      Students can choose from 4 colours to highlight parts of text for research and finding key parts from information..
    • Vocabulary List
      Creates a document that students can add words for their vocabulary to.
    • Talk & Type
      Students can talk into the microphone and it will type in the words for the students. The accuracy of this takes some time to get used to.
    • Screen Masking
      Masks off top and bottom of the page, so that a light line can be moved up and down. This allows students to focus on the line that they are reading.

    While the free version allows for the main aspect of this app, where they can have what they have written read back to them, the features of the premium version are all highly valuable for students with learning difficulties.

    While it is entirely possible that these features can be found independently within individual free apps, there is something to be said for having them all in one easy-to-use app, even if it is at a cost.

    Read&Write for Google Feature

    Free Chrome App Alternative
    ✔    Text to Speech* Speakit!

    SpeakIt reads selected text using Text-to-Speech technology with language auto-detection. It can read text in more than 50 languages.
    ✔    Dictionary Google Dictionary (by Google)

    With this extension, you can:

    1) Double-click any word to view its definition in a small pop-up bubble.

    2) View the complete definition of any word or phrase using the toolbar dictionary.
    ✔    Picture Dictionary No free alternative
    ✔    Prediction No free alternative
    ✔    Screenshot Reader No alternative – see Text to Speech though…
    ✔    Highlights ClipTo

    Simplifies online research – Keep your highlights and notes on any page.
    ✔    Vocabulary List EachWord

    Add new words to the dictionary and they will be occasionally shown as cards.
    ✔    Talk and Type Click to Dictate

    Use this app to speak to dictate using speech recognition (voice-to-text, speech-to- text, instead of using your fingers typing)
    ✔    Screen Masking

    Visor

    Screen dimmer and reading aid, may help with fluency, eye-strain, concentration and comprehension whilst reading.

    * Note: This part of Read&Write is free, so does not necessarily require an alternative.

     

    There’s not really much more I can say in conclusion. In summary, get Read&Write for Google, and if you can justify it, purchase the premium version. If you can’t, don’t panic, there are several options to choose from that will provide students with assistive technology for a lower cost, though obviously, come in several packages, rather than in one easy-to-use app.

  • Paul Jennings – Legend

    His books still grace the ears and eyes of my class, even 30-40 years after they were written.

    Naturally, I make sure I read them to each and every class I can. This video shows the man behind the words in a beautiful way. Words won’t do it justice.

  • Killing Cortisol: What if Education and Poverty aren’t to blame?

    Over the last year and a half, I have been thinking on this, ever since being introduced to the stress hormone cortisol. 
As always, I looked for a different way of presenting what I found out, and what I think could be a game changer in education - if anyone will listen. 
It is always quite scary and nerve racking being at the forefront of anything new. Essentially what I need are a few more knowledgeable people in the area of brain chemistry, learning, child development, and stress disorders, to confirm that what I have is legitimate, and will make a difference.
At this stage, it is merely speculation. It is paper proof - but now it needs to be put into action, which requires a big step of faith.
Either which way, here is my inquiry into the stress hormone cortisol and the effect it has on our children, especially the impact it has on those attending low decile schools, and why those of lower socio-economic areas generally have lower achievement rates.

Enjoy! 
<iframe width="800" height="11208" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="overflow-y:hidden;" src="https://magic.piktochart.com/embed/21674759-kicking-cortisol"></iframe>

  • Decile Ratings to be Replaced

    “A controversial risk modelling tool to guide Government spending in schools is reportedly close to being signed off as a replacement for the decile system.

    The predictive risk modelling index would replace the decile system, Newshub has reported. The Government had long been in talks with organisations including the New Zealand Education Institute (NZEI), which also wanted the decile system scrapped.”
    – Decision close on controversial predictive risk

    So, now that we have moved forward from the initial outcry over this model, what has changed?

    Not a lot – otherwise you’d think they would have announced those changes to smooth over the transition with the profession.

    Like I expressed in this post, there is a bigger picture at play here. Students will begin to get linked entirely to social, poverty, and criminal factors that they have little to do with. We will begin to judge parents over their pasts, and any record that they have that contributes towards funding. The Government will then have a complete and all encompassing database of every parent and every child in the country. Chances are, that while all good intentions may be behind this, at some point, something will go wrong. Chances are, they already have said database.

    A year ago this all hit the headlines. No surprises that John Hattie was in the thick of it throwing his virtual educational powers in the Government’s favour as per usual.

    So it would seem that regardless of what the sector say, the Government will just keep on rolling on with whatever they want to do.

    I’m quite glad I live in a democracy.

  • When Behaviour gets Brushed Off

    Thanks Minister.

    Thanks for belittling every single effort that principals, teachers, and support staff make in trying to redirect student energy away from problem behaviour and towards learning.

    Thanks for having a strong behavioural theory that is based on solid evidence based research that has been developed to work in many, if not all situations.

    Thanks for implementing this practise throughout the country so that every teacher feels safe and supported with students who have violent tendencies in their class.

    Thanks for working with principals to develop systems that can be used, words to say, and structures for parental meetings to address the rising state of behavioural problems that schools are facing in the 21st century.

    Thanks for widening the ‘wrap around service’ to include the police motto of ‘Safer Communities Together’.

    Thanks for suggesting that schools just call the police to deal with violent students.

    I’m sure that it will solve many problem schools face with behaviour. I’m sure that the police will be on board, given that they must have finished all their other work to be on call for schools.

    We will be so sad to see you go when you leave your post as Minister of Education. We’ll have to organise a farewell party.

    The invite is in the mail. It may get lost…

     

    In relation to:

    http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1704/S00081/questions-answers-6-april-2017.htm

  • Waterfull

  • Community of Learning: Devoid of Individuality

    Over the last few nights, I have worked away going through all 61 of the accepted and approved Achievement Challenges that active CoL’s have put out.

    I spent time going through each one and noting down the key aspects of each. This included noting if they were based around National Standards, NCEA, Curriculum subject, and any other factors, such as Ethnicity or Gender focus, or a mixture of everything.

    These Communities of Learning are all unique. They all represent different parts of the country, and the schools in them reflect the communities and whanau who they serve. They are made up of a myriad of individuals who teach and lead within them and who work tirelessly at solving a range of different achievement challenges daily.

    Yet, out of the 180 CoL’s, only 61 have been accepted so far. Many, many of them have had to be returned with a “FAIL” on the grade paper, and asked to resubmit. Countless have been adjusted and modified to include certain aspects that the Ministry and the Government want to see in them. The following infographic shows this beyond doubt, that there is a definite agenda behind what the Ministry will accept as appropriate achievement challenges. Very few of them take into account any kind of individual or creative focus in which a Community of Learning might wish to operate and instead, pushes and prods until that CoL fits into the pre-determined box, ready to be shipped off.

    [su_box title=”Communities of Learning – March 2017″]View the enlightening infographic I made here.[/su_box]

     

    In the initial stages, schools were gun ho, with vast varieties of creative innovations for what these challenges could be and what would lead to set one community aside from another. Many delved into what was important to them and their community when deciding on their achievement challenges.

    In a quiet hush of excitement and trepardation rolled into one as the response envelope was opened. A quick skim to see if the achievement challenges had been accepted.

    No. Instead what many CoLs got was a rejection letter of their achievement challenges, with some suggestions and examples of what might be a better challenge.

    The result of this is quite evident where two years of returned achievement challenges until the CoLs came up with one that would fit into the box that the Ministry aresqueezing is all into.
    Of the 61 CoL’s that have currently (March 2017) had their achievement challenges accepted, I worked out the following stats:

    83% have something about Maths.

    88% have something about Writing. Of those, 60% are about National Standards.

    70% of CoLs want improvement at Achieving Level 2 NCEA.

    36% are focussed on Maori achievement in some way, and 29% on boys achievement.

    10% focus on additional learning needs.

    Next to none have anything holistic, such as Hauora (wellbeing) or creativity, mindfulness or community focuses, or other curriculum areas such as Science or the Arts.

    Make what you will of that.

     

  • CoLs: Achievement Challenge Numbers

    Part of establishing a CoL has been the task of setting an “Achievement Challenge” that all schools in your CoL will aim for and target.

    In the initial stages, schools were gun ho, with vast varieties of creative innovations for what these challenges could be and what would lead to set one community aside from another. Many delved into what was important to them and their community when deciding on their achievement challenges.

    In a quiet hush of excitement and trepardation rolled into one as the response envelope was opened. A quick skim to see if the achievement challenges had been accepted.

    No. Instead what many CoLs got was a rejection letter of their achievement challenges, with some suggestions and examples of what might be a better challenge.

    The result of this is quite evident where two years of returned achievement challenges until the CoLs came up with one that would fit into the box that the Ministry aresqueezing is all into.
    Of the 61 CoL’s that have currently (March 2017) had their achievement challenges accepted, I worked out the following stats:

    83% have something about Maths.

    88% have something about Writing. Of those, 60% are about National Standards.

    70% of CoLs want improvement at Achieving Level 2 NCEA.

    36% are focussed on Maori achievement in some way, and 29% on boys achievement.

    10% focus on additional learning needs.

    Next to none have anything holistic, such as Hauora (wellbeing) or creativity, mindfulness or community focuses, or other curriculum areas such as Science or the Arts.

    Make what you will of that.