UNLEASH
ED
After another Ministry of Education hui for principals, a comment was made that the whole fiasco of the Community of Schools / Community of Learning negotiations with NZEI, have left teachers “…with the Deathstar, but we get to choose what colour lasers they use!”. I found it quite comical, and certainly falls inline with my views on the IES which can be found here.
In relation to Ministry comments at a recent Community of Learning hui for Board of Trustees.
“The Community of Learning… is a pathway… to move a student through the pipeline…”
Change seems to be addictive in today’s culture. We always want the latest and greatest, and tend to shun anything that is deemed too old. We strip back perfectly good wallpaper, desire the latest iDevice even though our current one is more than adequate, and as for the latest fashion trends – well we all know they go in circles.
It’s somewhat controversial news that Reading Recovery is supposedly outdated; though I’m not sure why.
Maybe it’s because it’s a well established teaching programme in our country now.
Maybe it’s because so much money is poured into it.
Maybe it’s because one to one teaching is the most ideal scenario.
Maybe it’s because our reading recovery teacher is bordering on the perfect definition of “legendary” and “awesome” combined in one.
I therefore am not going to debate the issue of whether reading recovery is outdated, or whether groups of five or six is better, as is outlined in the Quick60 programme.
When we look at these two programmes, they have one thing in common.
They both have a small teacher to student ratio, allowing the teacher to offer quality, focussed, and individualised teaching for the students.
They allow for targeted learning, often to address specific needs of each child.
As we move further into the 21st Century, there seems to be an ever increasing demand to address all the different needs in the class, to meet each individual need, and to provide differentiated learning based on all of those needs. National Standards has all centred around where the individual child lines up against the whole country, and individualised testing and assessment has proven to be far more accurate, or understanding, about each child.
Yet at the same time, teachers (and some parents) continue to fight the direction of the government to raise class sizes up to phenomenal levels based on whatever research they can get their hands on that supports their agenda.
Add to this the ever increasing number of special needs requirements within the class, and you start to get the picture of a classroom teacher who is going to find it hard to individually meet the needs of their class.
And so this is why programmes like Reading Recovery and Quick60 thrive. It’s learning at its most ideal level. It addresses the needs in front of them. It’s focussed. It’s individualised. It’s differentiated.
And that is why it works; regardless of how much progress is made by those students. A teacher can only do so much; at some point the student will reach the point where their potential and their obstacles meet. They will require more than just a teacher, and more than just 6 hours a day, for some of those obstacles to be removed. It takes a concerted effort of all involved; the school, the parents, and the child, to overcome these and continue to make progress.
I don’t believe we can label and programme a failure or “outdated” purely based on any kind of results or lack of achievement when they’re are obviously so many factors which contribute to it.
I did some “on-the-ground” research of my own.
Turns out, Massey do this at nearly every opportunity. You see; back in the late 70’s, early 80’s, when applying to the Government for the tender of a nationwide literacy programme from the Government for funding, the powers that be decided to go with University of Auckland’s “Reading Recovery” programme by Marie Clay.
You see, another university also applied for the funding for a nationwide programme. You guessed it: Massey University.
The bitter rivalry continues through to today; some thirty years later. Take a look at these recent articles, all quoting comments, research, and articles by Massey University professors, in particular Professor James Chapman, who is cited on numerous occasions.
Schools’ Provision for Students at Risk of Not Achieving – 2009
Reading Recovery not the solution – Massey University – Sept 10, 2012.
Expert hits out at Labour policy | Stuff.co.nz – Sept 11, 2012
NZ’s literacy strategy failing to reduce the gap – report … – August 5, 2013
Reading on the cheap | Stuff.co.nz – August 22, 2013
Reading Recovery and the failure of the New Zealand … – November, 2013
When pieces of research are conducted under such circumstances, it is hard not to see that they are under the duress of bias, and need to be somewhat disregarded, given that they are looking for the failings of Reading Recovery, rather than conducting independent and unbiased research.
Newstalk ZB Article
Finally. Some worldwide recognition. Sick of not getting it from the NZ Government, we’ve thrown caution to the wind and worked tirelessly for our tamariki; our future. We’ve done what we know is best, despite a climate of data, testing, judgements, and dictatorship. It’s almost like we’ve just set the world record for the high jump, all whilst having a four poster bed strapped to our ankles.
And yet, as New Zealanders, we’ll humbly accept it, acknowledge it, forget about it, and resume normal life in about an hours time. After all, life doesn’t stop just because the world rates us highly. There’s still children to feed, hungry minds to teach, and the odd attention seeking kid to deal with as the class falls into chaos again on Monday.
Yet as the article suggests that there needs to be more done from the Government to “improve support for teaching research and professional networks.”
The Minister for education scrambles for cover, and quickly puts together a front and an excuse about Investing in Education Success, saying that their Community of Schools are already in the pipeline and will address these issues; despite the initial findings that all the Community of Schools will do is cause division among schools, and boards; principals and staff. Current principals all fighting for Lead principal roles, and schools not wanting to “take orders” from a Lead principal who does not know a school or its community. Some principals want nothing to do with it, sighting they don’t want to be the one to go into other schools, and weed out ‘poor’ teachers from that school. The additional workload does not match the addition in pay, especially for lead teachers, and so I struggle to see how this promotes “teaching research and professional networks”. Instead it creates competition, in-fighting, corruption and will create a climate where schools all end up teaching a very narrow curriculum in the same way as each other, which restricts any kind of teaching research.
Aside from this, it is quite interesting to see the initial responses to the news. It’s hard to determine if these are people from the sector, or general members of the public, but they sure are following a similar theme.
I don’t even care to know about what the Education Minister has to say about this. It has been quite clear through all of her speeches, her written letters, her policies and ideas, that teachers need to work harder. Yes, on the odd occasion she mentions what a good job teachers do, but always, ALWAYS, has followed that premise with “but they need to do more” statements to put the kaibosh on any feelings of accomplishment they might be having.
No, instead, let us celebrate that even if we’re not recognised by this country, we are seen as up with the world leaders in teaching internationally. Let’s face it, a World Record is worth much more than a National one anyway!
———- Forwarded message ———-
From: “The Right Honorable Minister” <HerMajestyParata@ministryofed.govt.nz>
Date: 4/02/2016 7:26 PM
Subject: Ongoing Expenditure and Orders
To: “Accounts” <MrFudge@ministryofed.govt.nz>
Good morning sir,
However, it is a short lived good morning as this morning has not been good at all. In fact it has been dreadful.
We are all out of manuka honey which I was feeding to the Ministry’s prized stallion, “Whinnie”. His coat was looking a little dreary and I heard somewhere that smearing honey on their coat helps bring out a certain lustre. Of course, Whinnie deserves only the best of honey, and so I have ordered a large batch of 750g jars of Northern Hawkes Bay manuka honey. Of course, I will have the local supplier thrashed if these do not arrive on time. Please just add this to our outgoing expenditure for the month.
In addition to this, I would like to make note of the lightbulb that has blown in the caretakers cupboard at our Horowhenua office. This is of course a huge breach of occupational health and safety, and will require a further seminar for all cleaners and custodians to attend. The only provider I have been able to find at short notice is in Sydney, and so I have gone ahead and booked flights and hotels, as is company government policy. I have also been in touch with Big Mike for him to start getting plans in place to rebuild the entire reception area in the Ministry of Education building in the Capital, seeing as Horowhenua are required to report to us. Seeing as this is a huge imposition on our staff, it is only right that they benefit in the way of being able to enjoy a fresh look as they enter their work place. I am hoping this will raise moral a little.
I have told Big Mike, however, to watch the bottom line. He mentioned to me that instead of putting in an additional elevator, that he had a contact who had managed to get a cheap golden staircase which he would be willing to sell to us at minimal cost. This should cut the upgrade by at least $2million dollars from the proposed $30million.
I am aware of the significant costs already spent on the stationery upgrade last month. Our custom made gold coated biro pens had “Ministry of Enducation” printed instead of “Ministry of Education”. I have been in touch with the printer, who while they cannot refund us, they can make another run at only 80% of the cost, seeing as there is now one less letter they have to print. I have okayed this deal.
Lastly, I have asked our hygiene stockists to supply instructions on the inside roll of the Ministry designed loo paper. This should assist members to replace the toilet paper themselves, instead of having to hire the wait staff to come and perform their wipe duties. This should save the ministry about $400 a year. I have already terminated the contracts for the hygiene team.
Please advise as to the arrival of my personal hover desk. The legs on my desk are getting tired, and will need to have a rest soon. The hover desk, while still being developed, should alleviate the health checks and risks that the legged desks have. I have gone ahead and approved the purchase of more of these for every Ministry of Education office around New Zealand, even though it may not be fully finished yet.
I’m sure you’ll let me know if there are any issues with this. As usual, I’ll no doubt ignore your advice and refer you to HR. We cannot afford another Novopay debacle; although this was not really issue as it meant we did not have to pay the teachers for a while. I’m pretty sure they didn’t care anyway.
Right. Off to set up the new charter school. This one is teaching purely in Latin, and will feature upside down learning. Evidently it’s been scientifically proven that any new learning actually has weight, and for children to really learn something properly, they should be turned upside down so that the information seeps down into their heads. Sounds more than plausible.
Sincerely
Her Majesty
Ministry of Education
New Zealand Government
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This article has been a follow up to the posts here: http://unleash.alingham.com/2015/the-true-cost-of-charter-schools/ and here: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/76717264/ministry-of-education-spends-25m-on-stairway-to-heaven-in-office-revamp with more to follow, no doubt. http://www.newshub.co.nz/tvshows/story/ministry-of-education-faces-backlash-for-20-million-fit-out-2016021019#axzz3zXcRH7g8
But they do their work. They get on well enough with others. They coast through the year, and by the end of the following year you’ve already forgotten them.
This here is a story of what I would consider one of those kids. She even describes her highschool years as “very dedicated, very studious, very disciplined” but also “a bit insecure” as she told in an interview, “I used to get made fun of for being either too provocative or too eccentric, so I started to tone it down. I didn’t fit in, and I felt like a freak.”
Fast forward to 2016, and this eccentric, provocative, insecure girl has just performed the most loud, proud, and magnificent performance on a world stage.
As the 50th Super Bowl kicks off, the voice of Lady Gaga, accompanied beautifully by the soft chimes of a piano, rings out around Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara as she sings the National Anthem of her country. There is no bravado. No arrogance. No ego. No overperforming. No bizarre meat dress. Nothing weird. Just a simple, humble voice piercing the aura of the occasion, and reaching in and touching hearts around the stadium and the world.
[su_note note_color=”#f4f4f4″]Apologies, but the NFL has insisted that the content only be played on Youtube. Please click the video to watch it there.[/su_note]
As tears roll down her cheeks, you can see that this isn’t just about singing the National Anthem. This isn’t just the sense of occasion on the world’s biggest stage. This isn’t a show, or even a performance. This is much more than that. This is that small, quiet, insecure, weird kid in the class making it.
And making it big.
Not a single note falls out of place. Not a note out of time, or a word unfinished. Not a miscued start, not a preempted moment. She conducts herself, and works seamlessly with her accompaniment throughout the stops, pauses, pianissimo, forte, and crescendos. She softens her tone and draws everyone in, then belts out the strongest line flawlessly. She connects with everyone in the stadium. The players forget about singing, and even the reason they are there. Their coach’s hearts melted, and tears appear in the eyes of the toughest of men on the field.
As the middle of the anthem hits home, you get the feeling that the glamour and glitz of her career are now forgotten. The 28 million albums she has sold are incredibly insignificant, as are her 6 Grammy Awards.
No. This is Lady Gaga making it on the world stage.
So, I implore you, as a teacher; never ignore the weird kid. Never underestimate the quiet, insecure kid. Don’t quash the creative kid, just because they aren’t “academic”.
Here is a determined, powerful woman showing the world how it’s done. She has embraced her individuality, enhanced her creativity, mastered her skills, and blown the world away with her passion, her drive, her voice, and her ability to make the most of the once in a lifetime opportunity.
Hashtag: #Made_It.
Hekia Parata: Improved Maori education shows gap is closing
As mentioned in Part I of Microsoft OneNote – Teacher Planning, every teacher, every school, plans differently. The method that follows is just one way in which teachers could use Microsoft OneNote to plan. It is not necessarily my prefered method, but is one that I can see working well with how OneNote operates, and therefore is a good example of how OneNote can be used to enhance and organise teacher planning and paperwork.
Below, I will outline how I have set up Microsoft OneNote as a planning folder for unit plans, lesson plans, and subject based information.
However you like to, create a Notebook. Clicking on the existing Notebook reveals a drop down list in the Mac version, with a grey plus (“+”) button in the top. This will allow you to open or create a Notebook. I called mine “2016 Planning”.
Along the top I clicked the tab with the “+” sign to create a new tab and labeled each one accordingly. I had a generic “Plans” folder, along with a folder for Mathematics, Literacy, and Inquiry; which make up the three blocks in my day. I added P.E. and Health as there are additional plans that do not fit under inquiry that I will be using. In turn, there may also be additional plans in the other curriculum areas, such as The Arts, which don’t fit under any of the Inquiry units. I changed the colour of each to match the colours I associate each with thanks to previous curriculum documents. These also match the colours that I used in Google Sheets last year.
In the plans folder I created a series of pages on the right hand side. These are as follows:
*Note: The menu holder is a blank page that reads Term 1. This is merely to organise the sub pages into Terms, so within this folder, there will be Terms 1 through 4, and under each, a Long Term Plan, Weekly Overview, and the Weekly Plans. Two of these are school requirements that may or may not be necessary in your school. You’ll also see that Week 1 is a sub-page of “Weekly Overview”, though Weekly Overview is not a menu holder, in that a generic plan outline is included in this plan, with the sub pages sitting under it.
There’s little point in throwing out the baby with the bathwater here.
Instead of creating plans and units within Microsoft OneNote, you can insert or “attach” existing documents; much like you would be able to insert plans, notes, or newspaper cuttings into a clearfile folder.
For the long term plan, rather than attempt to create the complex table in OneNote, (especially seeing as I’ve developed this plan to automatically shade in particular subjects if they are not being covered) I have merely “attached” or inserted the excel spreadsheet into the OneNote page called “Long Term Plan”.
Another option, and great feature, is Inserting a PDF printout. OneNote will go and open the selected file, print out a PDF copy of it as it is, and then insert that PDF as a page in your folder for display. A very useful feature that I am sure I will make the most of throughout the year.
Initially, I thought about doing the same for Unit Plans, but quickly realised this would become tiresome as the year goes on. Essentially I would not be using OneNote at all, merely gathering files, which I may as well use Google Drive for.
So to use OneNote a little more, I decided to copy the Unit template from Google Docs and paste it into OneNote.
Seamless; aside from the superfluous Drawings/Shapes I had added as additional flare for the unit plans. These were quickly inserted by using screenshots and entering them into OneNote separately. I was amazed at how accurately it copied the table from Google Docs and added it into OneNote without any formatting issues.
I then used Onetastic to create a number of custom headings and font formats, and went through and edited the template using these. This is not a necessary part of the process, but one I like to do as a designer.
Creating Page templates is very easy in the Windows version of OneNote. I have yet to find if the OS-X version has this capability. Visit here to find out about creating page templates. Essentially, I created a blank Unit Template with the relevant headings and sample content. Saving these as templates then allows me to open them up as pages for following terms, and following years.
Early in my teaching career I separated all my plans out, so I had a weekly overview, a mathematics weekly plan, a reading weekly plan, a writing plan, as well as an afternoon plan. I know many teachers who plan like this, and it hasn’t been difficult to go back to this after collating all those plans into one Google Sheet last year (Read here).
By creating a folder for each subject, I have somewhat forced myself to return to this system. In each subject folder, I have created a “Term 1” menu holder, much like the page structure in Step 3. This is a blank page. I then made two sub-pages; “Unit Plan” where I inserted the Unit Template from Step 5, and a “Week 1” plan, which is displayed above.
This is essentially a table copied from my Google Sheet from last year to show what happens in Literacy each day of the week, according to the Weekly Overview in the “Plans” folder (See Step 3).
As I explored more and more of Microsoft OneNote, I needed to make sure I made use of its many facets. One of those is linking to the different pages from within OneNote, so that when I have my planning folder open, I can quickly click once on a particular part of the weekly plan and jump straight to the related week plan for that subject.
The screenshot above is the “Week 1” page within the “Plans” folder (See Step 3). As you can see, I have made five “Week 1” links under Whole Class Maths for the week.
These link to the Week 1 plan in the Mathematics Folder. This allows me to view the week overview, and directly click once on “Week 1” to automatically go to the Week 1 plan for Mathematics, rather than having to click on the Mathematics folder, and then find the corresponding week.
Next week, in the Plans folder > Week 2 page, I will change these links to point to Mathematics folder > Week 2 page.
And that’s about as far as I’ve got. I’m sure that there is much more to learn about Microsoft OneNote that I will no doubt come across throughout the course of the year.
I am also very aware that there may be other ways of using OneNote for planning, and in teaching. If you do, please share these with us in the comments below. I would be more than interested in seeing how others use it and see whether such methods I could incorporate into my own planning.
There are numerous ways in which Microsoft OneNote can be utilised in education. There are plenty of posts about the versatility of this software, and how it can be used.
This is a little different.
Obviously, one of those ways is for lesson planning and teacher organisation. Having a central place where lessons and units alike can be located and linked to within, with a seamless transition for the teacher to manage the learning and paperwork within their class.
It is all well and good knowing that OneNote can be that one place where this can happen; but the resounding question I always had was “How?”. How do you make it so that OneNote takes care of all your planning and paper-work.
Obviously the way teachers plan varies from teacher to teacher, and requirements for planning vary from school to school. There is no set requirements as such. Each teacher will have their way of creating their plans, and over the last few years I have explored many different options to find a method of planning that I can manage, that works for me, incompasses technology and, if possible, is void of paper.
Last year I utilised Google Sheets for my planning. Week plans, Overviews, etc all had their own sheet which was then duplicated as each week progressed. Each Term of the year had its own Google Sheet. Unit plans for the school had been converted into Google Docs for collaboration, but very few units required planning with other classes. It worked well, and is a system I am happy with and comfortable with.
Along came OneNote. I had heard a lot about it, but hadn’t looked much into it, as Microsoft had lost its way somewhat with its focus around Surface, Windows 8, after a somewhat rubbish MS Office 2008 and 2010. Luckily, 2013 has been much better, as has Windows 10, and the Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book look the money as well.
So this year, I have been looking into how I can use Office 365 and of course OneNote as a way to organise the myriad of paperwork teachers encounter.
The most obvious way to begin was to tackle planning. But like many, that question of “How” lingered as I began to get to grips with the OneNote interface.
Then I saw this video. In it, the process for using OneNote for teaching and planning is outlined. Within 30 seconds, I had it full screen and was zooming in to see how her folders were arranged, and what pages she had added to each.
Over the next few weeks I developed this video into my own working templates, copying some layout features from the Google Docs I had set up last year. It took a little longer than I had planned, but hopefully set it up in such a way, that it will be robust enough to survive the year ahead without too many adaptations needing to be made.
To see how I did it, please continue to my next post – Microsoft OneNote – Teacher Planning – Part II
It’s been a bit of a rough start to the year for education.
If it’s not people complaining about the amount of holiday the teachers get, then it’s the cost of education and how supposedly it is meant to be free.
Last week there was an article in the Dominion post, announcing the property funding of $6m building upgrade for Khandallah School.
In it, it mentions six Wellington schools that have received close to $90m dollars in property upgrades.
Now don’t get me wrong; some of these schools have said they have been asking for these upgrades for a good long time, and there should definitely be some relief that their requests have finally been listened to.
However, it is incredibly interesting when you start to unpack the schools, especially being aware of the types of schools these are, and the communities they belong to.
Khandallah School has a decile rating of 10, and it’s not surprising given it is one of the richest suburbs in the Capital. They get the princely sum of $6m to upgrade 9 classrooms from leaks.
The other schools mentioned follow a similar pattern.
Kelburn Normal School; decile 10, Ngaio School; decile 10, and Newtown School; decile 3 get to share $20m. It will be interesting to see how much of that $20m will be distributed to the lower decile school. But benefit of the doubt gives each school $6.6m.
Wellington East Girls College; decile 8, and right in the heart of Wellington (Mt. Victoria), gets a massive $39m upgrade to replace a demolished main building due to ‘seismic concerns’.
And the last of the big spenders, Aotea College; decile 5, got given a massive $24m upgrade approval at the end of 2015.
Information on school deciles were mostly gathered from here.
In stark contrast, my own school has also been asking for an upgrade to four of our classrooms. They are old, somewhat run down, and very much still the same as they were in 1960 when it was built, aside from the furniture and possibly the carpet. In 2012 we were all but confirmed for a remodel and were even given a time estimation of end of Term 3. But, as pencil pushers began to get involved, and earthquake testing and engineers reports got involved, suddenly our budget got revised and we were unable to do anything. For three more years we were unable to do anything with our 5YA, and when repairs to some prefab roofs and upgrade leaky walls and windows in those prefab had to be carried out, the upgrade to the sturdy brick 1960’s buildings became all but a dream. The four teachers and their 30 odd students would just have to make the most of the tatty walls and rotting wooden windows with mismatched glass and colour schemes, as well as the sun bleached PVC skylights that acted like timpani drums when it rained,not to mention all the patch up repairs, non-functioning pipes for the old boiler, and bending shelves and storage from the last 50 years.
We are a decile 2 school, although for the majority of the aforementioned time, we’ve been listed as a decile 3.
In 2015 we finally got approval for one part of the needed upgrade. The roof. And yet we are made to feel guilty when we feel hard done by here, for not feeling incredibly grateful for what we WERE given. There is a marked difference in teaching now in that when it rains, we no longer have to compete with the “ratter tatters” on the roof, and instead just look outside and try to make out the “pitter patter” of rain drop. But in comparison to what was all but confirmed, only ¼ of the necessary work has been carried out.
But because most of the “upgrades” we’re asking for are merely cosmetic, and not driven by health needs or leaky buildings, (and possibly because our decile suggests we’re not important!) our priority on “the list” keeps dropping down the bottom. Don’t worry though, because we will keep teaching a 21st Century curriculum, with modern technology and contemporary teaching practises within 4 mid 20th century walls and classrooms.
I’m not even going to go into any of the troubles Christchurch schools have been facing, because I’m not there and not up to play with where things are at; but I can only suspect that there will be some very frustrated principals, staff, BOT’s, and communities.
It does seem intriguing that a massive amount of money is being poured into the high decile schools in Wellington; communities that are more than likely in high support of this Government, and who will continue to support them as long as their schools are made a priority.
Oh but what about Newtown and Aotea, I hear you say. Well, as mentioned, there is no figure given for Newtown; just that they get a share of $20m with two decile 10 schools.
Aotea College is a decile 5 school, based in Porirua; an area with a low socio-economic reputation. But whose constituency does Aotea College fall under? Kris Faafoi – Labour. Who is his National counterpart?
One Ms. Hekia Parata.
Read into this what you will. Some, even most, might say it has nothing to do with decile, and all to do with leaky buildings or seismic strengthening.
But the numbers speak for themselves, and any school that fits into the leaky building syndrome, was built sometime within 1994 to 2004, so has already had significant funding. My example of a low decile school still waiting for a “confirmed” upgrade from 2012, hasn’t had any classroom upgrade since the 1960’s for four of its senior classes.
Just saying.
If you have any stories from other examples of this, or any comments, please leave a comment in the form below. It would be really interesting to hear your views.