Category: Archived

All the old posts from years gone by.

  • 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.

  • CoL: Corruption on Learning

    The next phase of the privatisation of the education system is in full swing, with a series of schools being lured by the promise of $365million into Communities of Learning.
    Although there was a slight majority of 93% of NZEI voters voting to exit the negotiation tent when the Corruption of Schools initiative was announced, they continued working with the Ministry to develop a watered down version that is supposedly more palatable version of it.

    Unfortunately, as I have written in the past, a poisoned apple is still poisoned even if you polish it up nice, red and juicy. Or in slightly more crass terms; I’m not going to be eating a turd just because you’ve put chocolate icing on it.

    Groups of schools were then asked to submit expressions of interest into forming or joining a CoL and many did to explore the options. However, an “expression of interest” was taken by the Ministry as a firm “yes” of commitment, and when consulted about whether a CoL was to be formed, the Ministry responded with “well you’ve signed an expression of interest so you’re in one”. Fantastic. This is of course a numbers game, and the Ministry will spin it whichever way it can to show that it is working. Take this map for example. It says where all the communities of learning are around the country and all the schools involved, and all the students from those schools – failing to actually realise that as of March 2017, 61 CoL’s have approved achievement challenges. As of December 2016 there were 180 CoL’s, so only one third have had the go ahead on an achievement challenge. These achievement challenges essentially set a direction for the CoL and until they have been approved, the CoL is somewhat rudderless and ceases to exist. Thus, the Ministry’s numbers are overly inflated as to how many CoL’s there are, and how many schools are actually participating in one.

    At the NZPF Moot last week, Whetu Cormick spoke of the plans the Government is making, with international visits to the UK where Communities of Learning models have been rolled out and the devastating nature of them has become evident. They all centre around privatising education, and will spell the biggest asset sale in recent New Zealand history.

    Of course, as Whetu states, all of this is presented to the public and parents as a way for schools to be equally equipped, for resources to be shared. It’s far too difficult to argue, because all of these things seem very appealing at face value. However, the implications of these lead us to the issues that the UK and US are facing; neither of which has raised any kind of improvement in the achievement results of students. Of course, using National Standards to measure this is completely flawed anyway.

    What I find somewhat amusing is that every opportunity the minister gets at the moment she seems obligated to say “parents should get the choice”. But under this CoL model, schools will have a set of expectations dumped on them and they will all conform to eventually all be the same, with no room for individuality or working with the community. No chance to build a school curriculum or focussing on what is important to that school’s culture.

    I would be very interested to hear from anyone who is in a school involved with a CoL;

    • What are your experiences of it so far? Positive? Indifferent? Negative?
    • What are your “achievement challenges”? How do they relate to your students at your school?
    • Is the CoL having a positive impact on your school, and on student achievement?

    Related Reading

  • Unleashed Members Closed

    Hi all

    Over the last few months, I’ve been taking registrations for my site. It has been quite a good exercise for me to give it a go.
    However, the sign up rate, as well as what I could actually offer members at this stage, is not worth the time, effort, and security issues this has caused. So I have shut down my members area for now.

    Thank you to all those who expressed an interest, but I have had to disable your accounts now.

    You are still more than welcome to follow the website, as well as our social media accounts.

  • Dyslexia in New Zealand Schools

    The current support for dyslexic students in New Zealand schools is a joke. An absolute joke.

    When there is a reportedly 7% of students in New Zealand Schools have Dyslexia, it doesn’t sound like much. However, in a class of 28 students (the funded class size), that’s 2 students who will be struggling with dyslexia. Statistics say that as many as 20% of students will have learning disabilities, and it’s been noted that overall, dyslexia makes up about half of those disabilities. This means it could be even 3 students in your class that will be struggling with dyslexia.

    I also suspect, that the aforementioned 7%-10% is just those that have been diagnosed, and as a teacher, there are many more that are never picked up for a number of reasons.

    That’s not good enough.

    What’s more, is the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health, and the Government all turn a blind eye about dyslexia support in schools – mainly because if they admit that it is a problem in New Zealand schools that dyslexia affects student’s learning, then they’ll be called upon to do something about it and support schools to address the problem. That comes at a cost to the Government. Essentially, what this has led to is a bunch of private organisations filling this void. However, this of course, comes at a cost.

    From the figures I have heard, to just get assessed for dyslexia, it will cost schools or families anywhere from $250-$400. This goes some way to explaining why so many more students are not picked up and struggle their way through the system with little or no support for them, their teacher, or their parents.

    Go figure.

    As a teacher, I am passionate about this. Not to find a reason for under-achievement or raise excuses, but to get support for these students who are struggling. It frustrates me to see these kids come in, and feel like I have nowhere to turn to get support for them, and if there is, how it always seems to come to a dead-end.

    In trying to understand dyslexia a bit more, and hopefully be able to support dyslexic students within my classroom myself (seeing as I’m getting no support), I have purchased a couple of books. One is ‘The Gift of Dyslexia’ by Ronald D. Davis (which I have leant to a friend when her child was diagnosed), and the other is ‘The Dyslexia Checklist’ by Sandra F. Rief and Judith M. Stern.  Hopefully they both offer some insight into how I can better support learners with dyslexia in my classroom.

     

  • Teacher Back to School Bingo

    The new year begins tomorrow for most teacher’s, and I felt that what better time to have a bit of fun to make those first days back at work a little more bearable. So here it is, the inaugural Teacher’s Back to School Bingo.

    Have fun as you go back to school!