tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-162931372024-03-08T23:39:11.555+11:00The Fraudulent TeacherI'm a secondary English teacher in a co-ed state school in a north-western suburb of Melbourne, Australia.Judith Middlemarchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07285709209953730580noreply@blogger.comBlogger80125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16293137.post-54457316637542653362017-06-12T12:02:00.000+10:002020-05-29T13:46:56.291+10:00No longer teaching, what am I not missing? Abuse.Was thinking I'd give writing about teaching a rest, seeing as I'm no longer teaching. In fact, apart from the normal life and death vicissitudes which continue to assail me, I'm finding my stride as a non-tax paying person who exists in the twilight demographic. That is, the advertising directed my way is no longer suggesting I can lose belly fat if I stay away from 'these' foods. Now it's about selling me a cruise on a European river, retirement accommodation or funeral insurance,<br />
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I've always loved teaching. Or so I thought. Trawl back through this blog and you'll get a sense of it. If you're a passionate sort of person who likes other people's kids and wants to see them learn and develop, teaching is a good job. So why was I so relieved that my own kids didn't become teachers? I was relieved in the same way as when I found out that neither of them was likely to develop Type 1 diabetes, which I have. <i>I </i>could handle it but I didn't want them to have to suffer. (<i><a href="https://www.google.com.au/search?q=suffer+synonym&rlz=1C1CHBF_en-GBAU731AU731&oq=suffer+syn&aqs=chrome.0.0j69i57j0l4.8141j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8">Suffer</a></i>. What is with that word? I've done a quick definition check and the word fits, for both teaching and having diabetes.)<br />
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Not having taught for six months now, a weight has lifted. Basically, I feel like I've left an abusive relationship. You know how people get caught in a cycle of abuse? Battered women return to their abusers. They go back because that abuse feels normal. Well, don't think it's too much of a stretch to say that was me and teaching. I never developed the thick hide you need in that job. I took things personally: a strength and a weakness.<br />
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I found a notebook from twenty years ago. I'd been teaching part-time on a contract at a private college. Parent-teacher interviews were happening. This is what I wrote:<br />
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<i>I'm at the back of an empty class room waiting for two parents to arrive in twenty-five minutes. The grey carpet has ground-in mud stains. The clock ticks, the desks are grey. So much energy was released into the room during the last two lessons. I found myself getting personally distressed. Fuck, I kept saying in my head. I wanted to call the kids names; to vent my spleen. How remarkably controlled my own children seem because they are trained the way I like them.</i> [Why lie? They were nine and ten. I didn't know the half of it.] <i>Turd, I wanted to say to a boy in the front who seems spoilt; a polished good looking boy; so capable of both work and rudeness. As I try to settle the class some students call out into the quiet I'd created for an instant. It's as if silence is not allowed; silence must be filled; every bit of air space must be utilised. They look like young adults yet they behave like two year olds, out of control, throwing tantrums, unable to sort out their ideas. So many demands.</i><br />
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Was quite earnest back then, at least in my notebook. <i>Utilised</i>! Like to think I've lightened up over the years. That was a year 8 class and if memory serves we'd just had a double period of geography. The fact that I wasn't a geography teacher could go some way to explaining why that particular lesson was going badly.<br />
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I've taught masses of wonderful students over the years. But when I think of potentially returning to teaching next year, it's the oppositional defiant disrupters who come to mind. Don't think I want to go there.Judith Middlemarchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07285709209953730580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16293137.post-40469439692953213502016-12-14T08:33:00.000+11:002018-05-11T17:19:30.956+10:00Essential reading when missing schoolMixed emotions about <a href="http://fraudulentteacher.blogspot.com.au/2016/11/trial-separation.html">my decision to leave teaching</a>, Anxiety levels high. Like a balloon spluttering around the room cos some idiot didn't tie a knot in it. The balloon, not the room. Have had flashes of panic, heart pounding, wondering whether giving up the security of fortnightly pay, routine, students and teachers who've become friends is a huge mistake.<br />
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I'm Red in Shawshank Penitentiary. (I've written about <i>The Shawshank Redemption </i><a href="http://fraudulentteacher.blogspot.com.au/2015/10/teaching-shawshank-redemption-again-and.html">here</a>.) There's a telling shot of Red amongst the gravestones. Andy's already made his great escape. Red's 'an institutional man' at that stage. Thinks he's never going to leave the walls and routine of Shawshank. He's been inside for so long he's perhaps afraid he might fare no better than Brooks Hadlen on the outside. And we all know - if we've seen the film - what happens to Brooks. Red, after the cynical speech that saw him paroled, needs to 'get busy living.'<br />
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So do I. Doesn't matter that I could keep teaching; that kids still enjoy being in my classes - well, most of them do. I need to go.<br />
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Before I get even more mawkish, this is what I've been doing to hold back the tears as I've packed up my desk and office and done all the final things that you do when you're leaving. As you know, if you're a teacher who's not just paying off a mortgage and actually likes teaching, along with the good there's plenty of bad and loads of hard work.<br />
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I've been listing things I won't miss in no particular order.<br />
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<b>Marking</b>. I've had a long standing arrangement with Mr Incredible, the work husband, that should I die on the job, he will throw a pile of marking on top of my coffin as I'm descending towards my imminent vaporisatiion. He won't have to do that now.<br />
<b>The letter H pronounced as 'haitch'.</b> Yeah, I know. Common usage. But it's something that makes me cringe. (Me to class: 'Are you 8 aitch?' Them to me: 'It's 8 'haitch'! Oh my god! She said aitch. It's not aitch it's haitch.' Did I mention that year 8s are often sure of their own rightness about everything?)<br />
<b>Incursion used to denote a visitor, or visitors, to the school</b>. Announcement at briefing: 'It's the Medieval Day incursion on Thursday.' What? The Visigoths are attacking? My principal told me to get used to it because everyone in the education department uses it. In my book an incursion will always be a hostile attack. And yes, I know. English is a changing language or we'd all be speaking Chaucerian. Or grunting.<br />
<b>'Pronounciation'</b>. A colleague - teaches English - argued that this was now acceptable English usage. I think not, sir. I put a sign on my wall for the benefit of language teaching colleagues who had classes in my room. <i>To pronounce is the verb but the noun is pronunciation, not 'pronounciation'. Who knew? </i>Doubt whether anyone read it, given the regular mispronunciation of the word.<br />
<b>'Compliance'</b>: Scope and Sequence; Victorian Curriculum (until the powers that be decide to change it again. The one thing you can be sure of: change.) "Visible learning"..."darda" - not data. Guaranteed Viable Curriculum. Documenting 'units' of work that no one ever reads for accountability's sake.<br />
<b>NAPLAN</b>. Oh-oh. Just vomited in my mouth.<br />
<b>'Reading is shit. I don't do reading. Why do I have to read? Reading's boring.'</b> And so on.<br />
<b>'I'm not racist but...'</b> Won't have to facilitate those necessary but ugly class discussions where I'm fighting all the hate fomented in students' homes and by tabloid media.<br />
<b>Morning briefing</b>. An email would suffice.<br />
<b>Sports reports at morning briefings</b>, after which we all dutifully applaud, cos we're 'strayan'. (That's Australian. We apparently love sport.) I've often wanted to say, 'Costa wrote a really good essay on the class text. It wasn't an HD - a <i>haitch </i>D - but he really made an effort. If you see him around the yard give him a pat on the back.' Enthusiastic applause follows.<br />
<b>Meetings.</b> Because meetings. God forbid that anyone should have a spare hour after teaching all day to do some preparation and marking.<br />
<b>'Can I go toilet?'</b> (Only if you say Can I go <i>to </i>the toilet.) And why do they have to say, and act out, 'I'm busting'?<br />
<b>Can I have a tissue? </b>Don't get me started on the snotting and hawking.<br />
<b>Can I get a drink?</b><br />
<b>You didn't tell me I had to do it.</b> The passive aggressive whine of the kid who hasn't done its assessment task.<br />
<b>You said it was due tomorrow. '</b>Didn't she?' 'Yeah, she did.' Strength in numbers. All agree that it was due tomorrow, except for the eight kids who did it by its due date.<br />
<b>You failed me.</b> It's all my fault.<br />
<b>I'm telling my mother/father. </b>Ooh, I'm scared.<br />
<b>PDPs</b>. Professional development plans.<br />
<b>Pending Ns</b>, for kids who haven't completed work requirements and therefore risk being Not Satisfactory.<br />
<b>Phone calls to parents of kids receiving Pending Ns</b><br />
<b><a href="http://fraudulentteacher.blogspot.com.au/2011/04/fifty-four-parent-teacher-interviews.html">Parent teacher interviews</a></b>. Hoo-freaking-ray.<br />
<b>Professional Learning Teams.</b><br />
<b>Daily form assembly</b>. Unnecessary.<br />
<b>Weekly Whole School Assembly</b>. Power trip. And get a new version of the national anthem.<br />
<b>Delinquent disruptive kids from damaging families.</b><br />
<b>Whole school approach to discipline</b>. The 'token economy' where you have to pay kids for doing the right thing. Documenting how many tokens you've issued so middle management can gather 'darda' to prove - pretend - it's working.<br />
<b>Uniform checking</b>.<br />
<b>Kids barging through me</b>. In the yard. In doorways.<br />
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I could go on but that will do. If I get depressed next year, missing teaching, I'll read the list.<br />
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<br />Judith Middlemarchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07285709209953730580noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16293137.post-74597841873132057052016-11-21T19:05:00.000+11:002016-11-21T19:05:53.165+11:00Trial separation.<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX124395758" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 8px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative;">
<div class="Paragraph SCX124395758" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<span class="TextRun SCX124395758" lang="EN-GB" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-GB">Notice how I haven't been blogging much about school lately? It's because I'm caught in a loop. Same shit, different day. So after 37 years, I've decided I need a trial separation.</span><span class="EOP SCX124395758" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX124395758" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 8px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative;">
<div class="Paragraph SCX124395758" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<span class="TextRun SCX124395758" lang="EN-GB" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-GB">I've been agonising over this for months. In fact, it's the hardest decision I've ever made in my life. <a href="http://fraudulentteacher.blogspot.com.au/2016/08/curriculum-day-another-day-in-paradise.html">Getting evicted from 'our place' at school probably gave me the shove I needed</a>. So too did turning sixty. When you get there, dear reader, remember this: you still feel the same inside but everything around you makes you conscious of your age and time running out. Especially having a couple of dads die – mine and my husband's - and a couple of eighty-something demented mums in aged care. </span><span class="EOP SCX124395758" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX124395758" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 8px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative;">
<div class="Paragraph SCX124395758" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<span class="TextRun SCX124395758" lang="EN-GB" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-GB">Ah, normal vicissitudes notwithstanding I've had everything I've wanted in my teaching career. But it's really hard to give up something for which you intuitively prepared throughout your childhood. I liked the whole idea of teaching from the minute I became a student. Not a student teacher, a kid at school. School felt comfortable. I must have had some good teachers. Some weren't, but that's another story.</span><span class="EOP SCX124395758" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX124395758" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 8px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative;">
<div class="Paragraph SCX124395758" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<span class="TextRun SCX124395758" lang="EN-GB" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-GB">A week ago, after much deliberation and an emotional pain in the core of my being - drama queen? - I called my principal and asked whether I could see him the next day regarding taking twelve months leave. After I made that call, I stood outside the green grocers in the local shopping centre hyperventilating. Because until I suddenly made the decision to make that call I had no idea I was going to leave. </span><span class="EOP SCX124395758" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX124395758" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 8px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative;">
<div class="Paragraph SCX124395758" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<span class="TextRun SCX124395758" lang="EN-GB" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-GB">Despite having largely relished my teaching career, I'm generally under-stimulated by teaching year 8 and 9 students. Careful what you wish for. Back in 2011, I wanted an easier life – less responsibility and less marking. <a href="http://fraudulentteacher.blogspot.com.au/2011/05/playing-wild-card.html">Thus I went part-time, relinquished English coordination </a>– a role I was enjoying 'at the governor's pleasure' - and gave up teaching my regular allotment of two year 12 VCE classes. It was a great relief to reduce my full-time load to three days. </span><span class="EOP SCX124395758" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX124395758" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 8px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative;">
<div class="Paragraph SCX124395758" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<span class="TextRun SCX124395758" lang="EN-GB" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-GB">Back to those year 8 and 9 students. I'm assuming you're all teachers reading this so you know how challenging class management can be at this level. Yes, I really like most of the students I teach but I teach about ten students over my three classes who are very difficult to manage. Of course they all have their own back story and we work with that as we try to educate. But really. Sheesh. </span><span class="EOP SCX124395758" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX124395758" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 8px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative;">
<div class="Paragraph SCX124395758" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<span class="TextRun SCX124395758" lang="EN-GB" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-GB">Many middle school kids, even those without difficult home lives, are hard work. They are wrestling with hormones and drives they've never experienced before. They're emotionally charged, histrionic and will argue that black is white. (If they read that last line I'd be accused of being racist. I kid you not.) They argue and bicker amongst themselves and their allegiances are constantly shifting. Suddenly, almost overnight, they are sure they know everything, much more than any adult, particularly one of my gender and age. It is incredibly difficult to educate these kids. But we do it, year after year. And when it's working – as it has been every day with one of my year 8 groups this year, it's magic.</span><span class="EOP SCX124395758" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<span class="TextRun SCX124395758" lang="EN-GB" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX124395758" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Then there are those adversarial -'oppositional defiant' - students. Usually it's girls in my classes. They're always there waiting to pounce on any perceived transgression. They can be downright rude, and when they gang up, holy mama, it takes all my wiles to ameliorate the situation. (I'm not bad at this. I can make them feel like I'm issuing a detention because I love them so much! You know the line: I care about you too much to let you think that your behaviour is in any way acceptable, and words to that effect.) One rude, bold student who's 'not afraid to express her opinion because she's going to be a lawyer and earn lots of money', can instantly destroy the learning of an entire class – sometimes for the rest of the year if it's not skilfully managed. (Ah, memories.) If one loses patience with this type of student, one is fucked. They can, and will do or say anything but one must keep calm and follow one's management plan, but by god they push the buttons. Some of them will grow out of this behaviour but some of these students will just grow </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCX124395758" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">into older ignoramuses, constantly convinced of their entitlement to their own opinion, loudly voiced, no matter how self-absorbed and ill-informed they are. </span></span><span class="TextRun SCX124395758" lang="EN-GB" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX124395758" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">You know </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCX124395758" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">the type.</span></span><span class="EOP SCX124395758" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<div class="Paragraph SCX124395758" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" xml:lang="EN-US">
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<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX124395758" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 8px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative;">
<div class="Paragraph SCX124395758" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<span class="TextRun SCX124395758" lang="EN-GB" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-GB">There's a lot of anxiety in a teacher's life, isn't there? You're constantly on stage and expected to perform. You're judged to within an inch of your existence. Anyone else have anxiety dreams at the start of a new term? You know the one. You're totally unprepared and you get caught out. Or is that just me? One of my recurring dreams involved variations on a scenario where <a href="http://fraudulentteacher.blogspot.com.au/2016/08/curriculum-day-another-day-in-paradise.html">Mr Incredible and I have been evicted from our classrooms</a> and office. I've dreamt that our area has been trashed, bulldozed and reconfigured in some unsuitable way. Meanwhile I'm floundering around the campus facing the impossible goblin's riddle of trying to find my way home to my class, but my home is gone.</span><span class="EOP SCX124395758" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<div class="Paragraph SCX124395758" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" xml:lang="EN-US">
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<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX124395758" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 8px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative;">
<div class="Paragraph SCX124395758" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<span class="TextRun SCX124395758" lang="EN-GB" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-GB">Well, in real life on the last day of last term, my nightmare having eventuated, I'd packed my car with my swivel chair and boxes of stuff I thought I couldn't manage without. It was pouring rain and I was alone unpacking my car at 5pm, trying to make my new office – no heating or cooling but more space – look less bleak. There was something premonitory about it. </span><span class="EOP SCX124395758" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<div class="Paragraph SCX124395758" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" xml:lang="EN-US">
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<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX124395758" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 8px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative;">
<div class="Paragraph SCX124395758" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<span class="TextRun SCX124395758" lang="EN-GB" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX124395758" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">First day of the new term, I didn't know where my period 1 class would meet. My nightmare again. Turns out my new classroom for six periods a week would be a windowless converted former locker bay. My challenging year 8s, in a classroom situated in what we call Siberia, went ape-shit in their new room with its different seating arrangement</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCX124395758" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">. One day I puzzled over the unusual absenteeism, marked the roll, wrote my goal – don't get me started – on the </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCX124395758" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">board, got twenty minutes into the lesson before about ten kids emerged bright </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCX124395758" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">eyed with hilarity from</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCX124395758" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> a back office where they'd secreted themselves. </span></span><span class="EOP SCX124395758" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> (Everyone's a winner: I enjoyed the twenty minutes without them.)</span></div>
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<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX124395758" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 8px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative;">
<div class="Paragraph SCX124395758" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<span class="TextRun SCX124395758" lang="EN-GB" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-GB">But we all got used to it and life went on. On the up side, I probably walk an extra k a day getting around the campus. On top of my cycling commute to and from school that's a good work out.</span><span class="EOP SCX124395758" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<div class="Paragraph SCX124395758" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" xml:lang="EN-US">
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<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX124395758" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 8px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative;">
<div class="Paragraph SCX124395758" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<span class="TextRun SCX124395758" lang="EN-GB" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-GB">Now when I'm up at briefing in the main staffroom, I look out through the windows at my fenced off, former haven standing forlornly amidst the rubble incurred during a major school renovation. My nightmare realised. Having coped with that change I'm hoping I'll cope even more easily with a trial separation from teaching.</span><span class="EOP SCX124395758" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX124395758" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 8px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative;">
<div class="Paragraph SCX124395758" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<span class="TextRun SCX124395758" lang="EN-GB" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-GB">I'm interested to find out who I will be if I'm not a teacher. </span><span class="EOP SCX124395758" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<span class="EOP SCX124395758" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></span></div>
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Judith Middlemarchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07285709209953730580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16293137.post-67019557531442406232016-08-13T16:34:00.001+10:002016-08-13T16:34:53.592+10:00Curriculum day. Another day in paradise. First world problems.<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX58438428" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 8px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative;">
<div class="Paragraph SCX58438428" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-size: 6pt; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<span class="TextRun SCX58438428" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 23px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX58438428" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Warning: there are no educational tips on classroom teaching to follow. This is just a bit about my life at school and probably gives some insight into how I'm dealing with being the fourth eldest person on staff. (I was the youngest once when I began teaching aged 21. Let's have a cheer for me. I'm still teaching after 37 years. Raise your glasses and throw me another pile of marking.)</span></span></div>
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<span class="TextRun SCX58438428" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 23px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX58438428" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="Paragraph SCX58438428" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-size: 6pt; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<span class="TextRun SCX58438428" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 23px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX58438428" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">So, Mr Incredible and I have 'lived' in these two portable classrooms for nigh on 15 years. <a href="http://fraudulentteacher.blogspot.com.au/2009/08/my-space.html">They are basically two grotty classrooms</a>, a couple of storerooms and an office that we call home when we're working. This space is very important to both of us. While we're close to the admin block and the main staffroom, we're also in the corner of the school campus, not adjoined to </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCX58438428" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">any other</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCX58438428" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> building. Neither are we on a walkway. People don't interfere with us out in our space. We teach out there and can do our own thing without being in the fishbowl that comprises lots of the rest of the school. It's good. It's also our safe space where we say what we want to each other in confidence and let off steam if necessary. I admit to doing more of this than Mr Incredible. He's calmer than I. He's also a huge part of me staying sane in the workplace. We get each other and are good friends. Hence, he's my work husband and I, I suppose, am his somewhat old work wife. </span></span><span class="EOP SCX58438428" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 23px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX58438428" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 8px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative;">
<div class="Paragraph SCX58438428" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-size: 6pt; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<span class="TextRun SCX58438428" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 23px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">Imagine our chagrin, then, to have it announced by the acting principal, at the plenary at the beginning of a curriculum day, that when a new admin block is constructed, we will lose our rooms. There was no consultation about this. Nor any 'heads up'. We, and the rest of the staff, who, incidentally, couldn't care less, were simply told. It was just the acting principal taking the podium and unnecessarily sharing some 'important' news the purpose of which was to remind us that he is acting principal. Possibly.</span><span class="EOP SCX58438428" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 23px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<div class="Paragraph SCX58438428" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-size: 6pt; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX58438428" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 8px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative;">
<div class="Paragraph SCX58438428" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-size: 6pt; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<span class="TextRun SCX58438428" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 23px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX58438428" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">I was devastated. Mr Incredible was upset. </span></span></div>
<div class="Paragraph SCX58438428" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-size: 6pt; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<span class="TextRun SCX58438428" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 23px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX58438428" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">"Pull </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCX58438428" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">yourself</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCX58438428" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> together, idiot</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCX58438428" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">," I rebuked myself. "It's a room. It's not that important. You can cope with this." (And you know, it is just a room, a person and a place and I can and will cope.) I was giving myself this little pep talk as I headed towards an English meeting at which my presence was required, it being curriculum day and all. On the way, one of the young male staff, who'd noticed my reaction to the news, decided it would be fun to tease me about the impending move. I'm normally a jocular sort of person, so I get it. However, I told him, very clearly, that I was upset and asked him to stop. </span></span><span class="EOP SCX58438428" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 23px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<div class="Paragraph SCX58438428" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-size: 6pt; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<br /></div>
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<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX58438428" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 8px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative;">
<div class="Paragraph SCX58438428" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-size: 6pt; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<span class="TextRun SCX58438428" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 23px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">"Can you not?" I pleaded. "I'm really cut about this." </span><span class="EOP SCX58438428" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 23px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></div>
</div>
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<div class="Paragraph SCX58438428" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-size: 6pt; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<br /></div>
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<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX58438428" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 8px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative;">
<div class="Paragraph SCX58438428" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-size: 6pt; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<span class="TextRun SCX58438428" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 23px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">Somehow, this was red rag to a bull and he upped the ante. </span><span class="EOP SCX58438428" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 23px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX58438428" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 8px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative;">
<div class="Paragraph SCX58438428" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-size: 6pt; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX58438428" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 8px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative;">
<div class="Paragraph SCX58438428" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-size: 6pt; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<span class="TextRun SCX58438428" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 23px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">"We can have farewell drinks in your room when you retire," he joshed. Oh, he's hilarious. Not. "Invite your family and friends. It'll really be fun." Ah, he's a riot.</span><span class="EOP SCX58438428" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 23px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></div>
</div>
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<div class="Paragraph SCX58438428" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-size: 6pt; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<br /></div>
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<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX58438428" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 8px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative;">
<div class="Paragraph SCX58438428" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-size: 6pt; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<span class="TextRun SCX58438428" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 23px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX58438428" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">At that </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCX58438428" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">stage</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCX58438428" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">, tears spilling from my eyes, I raised a hand in his face and withdrew, </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCX58438428" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">again</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCX58438428" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> trying to compose myself to tackle the sodding Victorian curriculum and year 9 language analysis. </span></span><span class="EOP SCX58438428" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 23px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></div>
</div>
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<div class="Paragraph SCX58438428" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-size: 6pt; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<br /></div>
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<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX58438428" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 8px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative;">
<div class="Paragraph SCX58438428" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-size: 6pt; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<span class="TextRun SCX58438428" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 23px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">Well, I nearly coped. Sat up the back of the English meeting. Breathed deeply. Distracted myself by turning on my computer and finding the requisite documents so I could start my work. Then, unfortunately, the coordinator asked me what I'd be working on for the day. (Don't know why. She'd emailed me to tell me what I'd be working on. Suppose she was checking to see that I'd received my instructions.) Suddenly, I was tongue-tied and every bit my pathetic almost 60 year old self. (Fuck, yeah.) I started crying. At a meeting. In public.</span><span class="EOP SCX58438428" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 23px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> Grrr! </span></div>
</div>
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<div class="Paragraph SCX58438428" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-size: 6pt; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<br /></div>
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<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX58438428" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 8px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative;">
<div class="Paragraph SCX58438428" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-size: 6pt; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<span class="TextRun SCX58438428" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 23px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">Let's put it down to the emotional lability of the 'elderly'.</span><span class="EOP SCX58438428" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 23px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></div>
<div class="Paragraph SCX58438428" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-size: 6pt; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<span class="EOP SCX58438428" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 23px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Paragraph SCX58438428" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-size: 6pt; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<span class="EOP SCX58438428" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 23px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">And then I got over it. I mean it's not all doom and gloom on the week where you are given a brand new note book computer, courtesy of the education department.</span></div>
</div>
Judith Middlemarchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07285709209953730580noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16293137.post-42874342308090733832016-03-25T10:53:00.001+11:002016-03-25T10:53:35.164+11:00Teaching now. And then.<div class="MsoNormal">
It's been an easy term of teaching, freed as I am
from the massive workload of senior English.<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Oh, there’s lots of burgeoning bum-fluff on the downy faces
of my year 8 boys. There’s a bit of swagger; a mini-potentially-swarthy
character in the back row. Watch him. Quick to take umbrage; hyper-aware of his
power as a student with all the rights. Printed dark tee-shirt visible and
hanging down a couple of inches beneath his white uniform shirt. In a couple of
years time, gypsy-boy could be brutish and challenging but for now, for this
old campaigner, he’s too easy. <br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Same with mischievous Martina. She stirs the nearby boys; a
surreptitious swipe and their books and pencils fly off the table. She’s out of
her seat again. Quickly kicks the shin of the same boy. ‘Miss, did you see
that?’ He pretends outrage but can’t wait to retaliate. She rocks back on her chair,
swings her legs coquettishly. The seating plan nips that one in the clichéd bud.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Kids are kids this year in my year 8 and 9 classes. It seems
to me I don’t have any severely damaged students. <br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Touch wood. <br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’m following the school <a href="http://fraudulentteacher.blogspot.com.au/2015/10/so-hard-to-sum-up-experience-of-being.html">GANAG </a>protocol and writing the goal of
the lesson on the white-board at the start of each period. I’m encouraging
students to assess their own efforts and achievement at the end. Well,
generally.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But basically, I’m largely doing the same thing with my
middle school kids as I was back in 1979. We called them juniors in those days.
Reading, writing, speaking and listening. They were more inclined to read given
they weren’t BYOD-ing. That’s ‘bringing your own device’. Or devices, given the
ubiquitous mobile phones. The government has stopped giving out free computers. Final drafts of their work will generally be word-processed
and printed out. There will be the inevitable submissions on USBs because
printers will have run out of ink or won’t be working. I’ll be incurring extra
work marking on line, or, to expedite the marking process, printing them out at
the school’s expense.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Am I really doing the same thing as I was in 1979, aged 22? At its fundament, yes. I'm the teacher working with a number of students; reading, writing, speaking and listening. However, the previous paragraph reveals that things have indeed changed. Being able to draft on a computer is a huge difference in itself. And what's more, I'm a vastly improved teacher.<br />
<br />
In 1979, I taught an all girls class. Thirty-two students. The commercial stream. That is, they learned typing - on mechanical typewriters - and shorthand instead of some more academic pursuit like another language. They sat in four long horizontal rows facing me. I would usually stand on the dais, given there wasn't much room to move among the students. If they needed my assistance, they came to me. My wooden desk was in the corner in front of what had been a fireplace, now sealed up.<br />
<br />
In the middle of about the second row sat Vicky, an unruly, threatening fifteen year old. It was early in the year. Arms crossed defiantly, Vicky was sprawled back in her chair, sneering at me. She scared me. Think I'd already told her to remove her feet from the desk. She was wearing mirrored aviator sunglasses which she refused to remove claiming they were prescription.<br />
<br />
'What are you staring at?' She snarled, because I'd dared to look in her direction.<br />
<br />
'Don't know,' I quipped. ' I haven't got my animal book with me.'<br />
<br />
This was one of the lines I'd throw at my sister, or vice versa, when we were fighting. At the time, in that class, it was hilarious and even Vicky joined in the laughter. The class dynamic improved immediately because I'd somehow got Vicky, the disruptive girl, on side.<br />
<br />
At 22, I was still a kid myself, seven years older than these year 10 girls. I was teaching instinctively. I'd been raised on sarcasm. My teachers training hadn't taught me how to build students' self-esteem, rather than insulting them, nor how to manage a class without somehow subduing the students, which I found I could do through humour rather than terror.<br />
<br />
I certainly wouldn't make a comment like that in 2016. I don't think a graduate teacher would either. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I know better now. (Thank you, years of experience, professional development, self-education and parenting.) You need more in your teaching repertoire than a good sense of humour, but it certainly helps.<br />
<br />
However, one thing remains the same: if your students don't respect you, you can't really teach, no matter how qualified you are. And if you don't really like kids, please leave the profession. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFnMTHhKdkw">(Educator Rita Pierson, says it far more eloquently than I.)</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
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Judith Middlemarchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07285709209953730580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16293137.post-12074326619415597382015-10-29T18:52:00.000+11:002015-10-29T18:52:18.647+11:00Teaching 'The Shawshank Redemption'. Again. And again...<div style="border: 0px; color: #383838; font-family: gotham, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 0.714285em; padding: 0px;">
I was slumped at my front desk during period 4, the last period of the day. My laptop was plugged into the data projector, blinds were drawn, the room was dark; a tad warm. My year 10s were watching – their third viewing – <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111161/">The Shawshank Redemption,</a> </i>the story of a banker, Andy DuFresne, wrongly accused of murdering his wife and her lover and sentenced to serve two life terms in the fictitious Shawshank Prison. During the students' first viewing they just watch; the second is stop/start and includes commentary from me and discussion. They concurrently complete written tasks to develop their understanding of plot, characters, themes and cinematography. The usual. You know the drill if you’re an English teacher teaching a film text</div>
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It was about 2.50 pm; 25 minutes until the final bell. I closed my eyes briefly and did that slight drift into sleep from which I awoke with a start. Don't think anyone saw, given the dark. (Have never actually fallen asleep in class but I need to watch myself.) To engage my mind and see if I could prevent the barely stifled yawning, I started writing. (Think I've already mentioned elsewhere that this is a great tip for staying awake during a boring meeting.)</div>
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I calculated that given I’ve taught year 10 for at least ten years at my current school, that’s at least thirty viewings of <i>Shawshank</i>. Add to that an extra fifteen viewings for the years I’ve taught two year 10 classes. Forty-five viewings. Plus the initial couple of viewings when I prepared my lessons. Consequently, I can just about recite every line.</div>
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We don’t mix it up much in English in these days of the ‘<a href="http://fraudulentteacher.blogspot.com.au/2015/06/content-or-skills.html">guaranteed viable curriculum</a>’. No variety permitted. Seems there’s too much team planning incurred if we choose another film.</div>
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But never mind that. I love <i>Shawshank.</i> It’s an engaging, uplifting story with plausible characters and a terrific plot. It was written by Stephen King and effectively rendered for the screen by Frank Darabont. With its important themes of justice and the prison system and whether it rehabilitates it is perfect for our year 10s. It also addresses the idea of hope, of having an inner life and the importance of education and a sense of purpose.</div>
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But what really gets to me is that notion of people becoming institutionalised, being so enmeshed within a system that they can't function beyond it. Red, the narrator of the film, in a dialogue with Andy DuFresne, the main character, wonders where the last thirty years of his life has gone while he’s served time in Shawshank Prison. I watch the film, with this current generation of students, and wonder the same thing about the years - 35 - I've served in education.</div>
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Brooks Hadley, another significant character, paroled after 50 or so years in Shawshank, can't cope with the outside world. "He's an institutional man," says Red, explaining how the walls of Shawshank have a curious effect. At first you hate them and then you get used to them. On the inside Brooks is an important man, an educated man, the custodian of the library. On the outside, as an ex-con, he probably can't even get a library card. ( I said I could recite it but I paraphrased because I'm not quite sure.)</div>
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A student stayed back at the end of that class where I nearly fell asleep. He asked me to explain again what it meant to be institutionalised. While I was explaining about Brooks, again it struck me how I am also institutionalised. I've always been either a student or a teacher. At 59 - yeah, I know - I'm struggling to imagine myself retired. Sad, perhaps, but I feel I am very little without my profession. I'm totally used to running to bells and whistles.</div>
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The irony of teaching <i>Shawshank </i>again and again is that it has become part of the institution of our school. While our school is devoutly embracing the latest educational research it seems some of us are making safe reliable choices for which there is already a scheme of work and resources.</div>
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Another irony. when we first taught <i>Shawshank </i>we were concerned about its profane language, its brutality and its references to male rape. Today's kids seem almost inured to that kind of thing. They know it all. They've seen all the horrors of the real world on the internet. To think that fifteen years back we were so concerned about MSN messenger and kids creating MySpace profiles..</div>
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Final irony. Teaching <i>Shawshank </i>has become part of my own institutionalisation.</div>
Judith Middlemarchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07285709209953730580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16293137.post-74458617241821468492015-10-14T10:14:00.000+11:002015-11-12T19:07:07.644+11:00GANAGSo hard to sum up the experience of being GANAG-ed. Let's say, initially, after the two day professional development with <a href="http://www.learninghorizon.net/ganag-lesson-planning/">GANAG guru, Jane Pollock</a> and her incredible below bum length blonde hair, I barely had time to reflect on what I'd been teaching. The hair comment suggests I'm taking the piss. I'm not, but her hair was a presence at the PD. In a fascinating way. (Sorry, Jane, if you ever read this, but you must know everyone was thinking it, if not chatting about it.)<br>
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I'd been quite cynical about my school's approach to GANAG. It's non-negotiable; part of our professional review. We are required to implement this teaching and learning methodology. You can read my previous whining <a href="http://fraudulentteacher.blogspot.com.au/2015/05/still-teaching-because-i-believe.html">here</a>, if you haven't already. But given that I'm a cynic/zealot special combo, I put my hand up for the Jane Pollock PD, about which admin and several subject coordinators were singing the praises. Happily, I got to go.<br>
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There's almost too much irrefutable research informing GANAG. As I've written before, the research based text, <i>Classroom Instruction That Works (CITW) 2nd edition</i>, seemed to me to be a bit of a tedious read. How good it was, therefore, to have the information presented in a compelling, highly engaging way by the charming and unwreckable Pollock. I haven't read the first edition of the text yet, but I'm hoping it will be more readable because Pollock was a co-author. <a href="https://katiedevine.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/classroom-instruction-that-works_pdf.pdf">And here's a link to the PDF</a>. Read the introduction to that first edition and it will sum up what GANAG is about.<br>
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Meanwhile, Pollock's PD training excited me. After the PD I couldn't wait to type up the notes I'd furiously made during each session. Couldn't wait to return to school and deliver lessons that were going to engage and inspire even the most reluctant kids.<br>
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That was eight weeks ago. GANAG initially made me work mind-blowingly harder as I tried to implement new systems, some of which have worked. So what's changed?<br>
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1. I rearranged the desks in my room into rows of pairs to facilitate 'pair/share' - see CITW - because it's a 'high yield teaching strategy' which enhances students' learning. Students protested loudly. One year 10 boy almost cried and refused to come out of the corner. The year 11s got into one lesson ahead of me and returned the desks to their previous formation. I re-rearranged them and encouraged the pair/sharing so students, through discussion, could clarify and reinforce their learning.<br>
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I persisted for about two weeks before the resulting chaos started to seriously interfere with my chi - the energy force that runs through all living things. Call me anally retentive but I reverted to the previous 'horse-shoe' desk arrangement. Apart from my chi hurting, I was sick of looking at students' backs; found that students' talk was unrelated to my teaching goals; that I'd actually facilitated little gossip hubs and <i>reduced </i>the learning in the classroom. Was wasting time getting students to stop chatting and turn around so they could actually read the learning goal on the board.<br>
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Pair/share worked so well during Pollock's PD with a group of enthusiastic teachers. My kids thought it was party time; that their teacher had 'lost it'.<br>
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2. The goal - the initial G of GANAG. At the start of each lesson, the learning goal, derived from the appropriate curriculum standard, is displayed on the white board . Students have been issued goal sheets and have immediately copied the goal and given their initial self-assessment of their effort and understanding.<br>
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No, I'm kidding. I write the goal on the board, then I have to distribute the goal sheets so students can copy out the goal. I collect the goal sheets at the end of each lesson because if the sheets leave the class room with the students several students won't bring them back next lesson. (Funny. They never forget their mobile phones.)<br>
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At first, when I distributed the sheets many students moaned. But I've persisted with this one and the students did indeed get used to it, as Pollock assured us would be the case. It's been a worthwhile process. Students know what they are supposed to be learning; they make honest judgments about their effort and understanding. Collecting the goal sheets each lesson allows me to quickly gauge students' learning. Yes, there are other ways of assessing this but the goal sheet provides an efficient record for me and the kids.<br>
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3. A is for accessing prior knowledge. This is the part where I begin the lesson by projecting a visual onto the front screen and writing a question next to it. For example, we'd been studying the text <i>Chew On This</i>. It's about the fast food industry. Prior to the lesson I Googled 'fast food images' and found a photo of an infant facing a huge plate of french fries. How does this relate to what we've been reading? I wrote on the white board.<br>
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Students instantly start talking about the image. They connect with their prior learning. Their neurons start making connections. They drop their gossip and tune in.<br>
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Have to say, this <i>unfailingly </i>works. Meanwhile, I mark the roll and after a few minutes we're into the lesson.<br>
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I thought this 'accessing prior knowledge' would be the most challenging aspect of GANAG for me; that it would increase my already heavy workload. In fact it's easy to find relevant images while I'm reading various media and social media on-line. I use <a href="https://evernote.com/">Evernote </a>and Everclip to save articles and images. It only takes a few minutes at the start of the day to set up my 'APKs' - GANAG-speak - as open tabs on my computer, <br>
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As for the final NAG, I may or may not write about that later.<br>
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There is heaps more to being an effective teacher than GANAG, of course. However, I'm grateful for having participated in Pollock's GANAG in-service and love it when I learn something new that actually improves my teaching effectiveness.<br>
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Judith Middlemarchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07285709209953730580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16293137.post-29274130497366593932015-07-04T16:43:00.000+10:002015-09-04T17:10:06.508+10:00A fraudulent teacher attempts to analyse a Bruce Dawe poemTip: when analysing a poem, read the entire poem first.<br>
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Here I am, armed with sticky notes, reading Bruce Dawe's <i>Sometimes Gladness</i> on the middle Saturday of my winter two week break. This anthology is part of the Identity and Belonging Context which we are teaching in Year 11 English this year. I've never really studied Bruce Dawe, apart from three poems that I recall - <i>Enter Without So Much As Knocking, The Not-so-good Earth </i>and <i>Life Cycle</i> - back in the mid-seventies, perhaps in form 5.<br>
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The best thing to do, I tell myself, is start, not with the internet, but with the actual text. So I did. Read Dawe's introduction to the sixth edition of the anthology. Found something in common with Dawe. "...we write out of a need to come to terms with some concern, something 'bugging' us - the popular American expression fits well here for that inward feeling which we need to get out there, where we <i>can </i>come to terms with it, where it can be seen to have a shape, a character." (xvii) And there, I suppose, all similarity between me and Mr Dawe ends.<br>
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I've never taught English literature so am unsure of the methodology of teaching poetry to VCE students. (Which is ridiculous, given how many years I've been teaching English, BTW.) So I decided to approach Dawe in the way I'd approach teaching using language to persuade. That is, what is the writer's main contention? What is the writer saying? How is he saying it? Then, basically, let's look for 'interesting' language and consider how it prompts us to take a particular point of view. Fair enough.<br>
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But the point of this post, that 'inward feeling which [I] need to get out there where [I] can come to terms with it', is how I went up my own backside trying to analyse a poem. Somehow, my close analysis meant I became stuck in the trees, taking quite a while to see the wood. The poem I was reading was <i>The Flashing of Badges</i>. Between the title, and the term 'dead-beat' in the first line, I got lost.<br>
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On my pink sticky-note I've written: dead-beat, very negative; flashing of badges - establishing of credentials. Sounds like a know-all.<br>
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Furthermore, I've noted: the dead-beat always has a stake in everything, pretends to be on the same side; religious? so's he/she?? Student/academic? - dead-beat says he has some literacy in his background, trying to impress.<br>
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By the second stanza I've realised the dead-beat is collecting money. That was a light-globe moment.<br>
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My notes continue: And 'you' want to donate but he won't stop talking. Is he a beggar? I've asked myself.<br>
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Whoah. The penny drops.<br>
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By the time I'd arrived at some sort of understanding of the poem, I actually thought it was really amazing; a very compassionate portrait of someone clinging to the last scraps of what it is to be human. But my misinterpretation of the term 'dead-beat' led me a merry dance.<br>
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I read the poem aloud to Al, my old man. Asked him what he thought. It's about a street beggar, he immediately responded. I'll put it down to me having read it aloud to him, with appropriate inflection bringing it to life, rather than accepting that I'm actually quite slow.<br>
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Can't find a transcript on line, so rather than heading out into the bleak Melbourne winter, I'll transcribe it here for your reading pleasure. (Trust I'm not transgressing copyright. If so, please let me know.)<br>
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<i>The Flashing of Badges</i> by Bruce Dawe<br>
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The first thing the dead-beat does<br>
Is flash his badge...<br>
If you're in uniform,<br>
I'm an old digger myself, he says. If coming from Mass,<br>
He's Catholic of course and loyal as hell,<br>
While if you're wearing corduroys, carrying books,<br>
He'll grimace towards learning's obscure god,<br>
And - like a child opening its hand revealing<br>
A pet frog for your wonderment - disclose<br>
Literacy squatting somewhere in his family.<br>
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Which makes you wish to God he'd only stop<br>
Long enough for you to acknowledge freely<br>
(Via your pocket) the world's rank injustice,<br>
Yet if by such magnanimous means you should<br>
Cut him off halfway through some bleary anecdote,<br>
You do him double harm, since what sustains him<br>
In that Tierra del Fuego which distinguishes<br>
Dignity's southern limits is the faith<br>
That somewhere still, in a sheltered corner of the bleak<br>
Island, in the lee of the storm, it's possible<br>
For a frail personal herb of deception<br>
To take root and survive where awareness shrieks<br>
Nothing but wintry truths from year to year<br>
And value, the essential topsoil, sluices<br>
Seaward with every small indifferent stream.<br>
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<br>Judith Middlemarchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07285709209953730580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16293137.post-7712712598398845212015-06-17T10:12:00.000+10:002015-09-04T17:16:32.794+10:00Content or skills?<div>
Should we teach content or skills?</div>
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My first impulse is to opt for skills. Teach the same skills to the students at a particular level. We must do this to make sure they can proceed to the next level and be on track with course requirements and their learning.
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Part of the mantra at our school is 'Guaranteed Viable Curriculum'. I agree. We should aim to guarantee the learning. But I disagree with its interpretation at ours. And I suppose at many secondary schools. (It was on my list of reasons to leave the last private school at which I taught.) Guaranteed Viable Curriculum has been interpreted, in my words, as everyone lift your left bum cheek and fart at the same time. Crude and basic, I know, but not an inappropriate analogy.</div>
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It's about 'auditing' the curriculum - like accountants, no less - on a 'Scope and Sequence' grid. Thanks for that one assessment authorities. I can't even bear to hear certain people say it aloud with its Gollum-like sibilance.</div>
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Auditing is about filling in boxes on the Scope and Sequence grid, treating each <a href="http://ausvels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/English/Overview/Scope-Sequence">AusVels </a>outcome as a discrete entity then signing off, assuring 'prin class' that all elements of AusVels are accounted for.</div>
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Thus, every teacher at every level provides the same teaching materials in the same weeks as every other teacher, preferably on the same days. Thus, we are organised. And I've just remembered a few lines from Blake. He used the word 'charter'd' and was talking about something else, I suppose. But here it is, powered by Safari:</div>
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I wander thro' each charter'd street,</div>
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Near where the charter'd Thames does flow. </div>
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And mark in every face I meet</div>
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Marks of weakness, marks of woe.</div>
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Certainly fits my mood in regard to our Guaranteed Viable Curriculum. </div>
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Look, I totally get it. I'd say most teachers prefer this method of curriculum design. There's safety in numbers. And sharing; collegiality. Nothing wrong with that. It also works for those who like to be given a <span style="text-indent: -1em;">sheaf </span><span style="text-indent: -16px;">of materials </span><span style="text-indent: -1em;">- digital or otherwise - to deliver to their students - especially if they haven't read the </span>book. (I kid you not.) Working on a 'team' designing such curriculum materials is mandated at our <span style="text-indent: -1em;">school. Means another hour meeting every week, of course. In an ideal situation, with abundant time that </span><span style="text-indent: -1em;">wouldn't be bad. Seems to me, though, that the only way to accommodate all these meetings is to continue </span><span style="text-indent: -1em;">working on one's own time. Which most of us do.</span></div>
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And therein lies the rub. The GVC is designed, amongst other reasons, to foil those teachers who err on the slack side in class. If they can be forced to attend meetings, forced to write each teaching unit according to a specific framework, forced to write their Learning Objectives on the whiteboard, forced to deliver uniform teaching materials to their students and forced to assess their students on a common rubric, then they will be better teachers.</div>
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Unfortunately, it doesn't work like that. They continue along their way while others work even harder to meet the accountability requirements at their schools.</div>
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Meanwhile, creativity and spontaneity is stifled. Well, mine, anyway.</div>
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I actually like a couple of common texts to be taught at each year level in middle school. Wide reading, of course. Then I prefer to research widely to find appropriate curriculum material; content that inspires me so I'll be inspirational and fresh when I teach my students. As long as I'm teaching the same skills as my colleagues, what does it matter if I use different content? </div>
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Fraud or maverick? Whatever. It's hard work.</div>
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My hope is that by thinking out loud I can stop worrying about it and get on with my job.<br>
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So content or skills? On reflection, special combo.<br>
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Judith Middlemarchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07285709209953730580noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16293137.post-19161462998664658122015-05-31T17:50:00.000+10:002015-05-31T17:50:34.229+10:00Still teaching, because I believe the children are the future.So easy to bitch about what's going on at school. Seems it's all I do these days when I write, in my journal or or any handy scrap of paper. Writing notes during meetings helps me to keep my focus, to retain some of the information bombardment. Who am I kidding? The notes I made during a recent presentation on the adolescent brain descended quickly into me writing out the lyrics to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYzlVDlE72w">The Greatest Love of All</a>. (BTW enjoyed belling that out to the computer screen just now. Extraordinarily therapeutic. Recommend highly.) But at least writing out those lyrics prevented me from falling asleep, or being sick on the floor at hearing the same old stuff for an hour that I could have spent getting through my marking. (The adolescent brain is still developing. Who knew?)<br />
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I spend lots of time doing positive affirmations during meetings to keep my spirits up. You can do this, I tell myself. I was sitting at a little plastic table in the library. About 80 of us were seated in exam formation given the meeting was held during NAPLAN week. The meeting was about completing our Professional Development Plans. Very prescriptive little beggars, these PDPs. It was all about accountability. Don't get me wrong. We should be accountable. But GANAG. Ugh, there's that hint of chunder in the back of my throat.<br />
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I've just had a flick through my school provided copy of <i><a href="http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/classroom-instruction-that-works.aspx">Classroom Instruction That Works</a></i> and my heart rate increased, but not in a good way. This book is our school's bible; guaranteed to turn me into Super Teacher as I follow the principles of GANAG and teach according to High Yield Strategies. I will teach in this research based formulaic way and then after some 'pre and post-testing' I will check my Effect Size - whether I've 'value added' to my students' learning - on a couple of Bell Curve graphs.<br />
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What the hell have I been doing for the last 35 years?<br />
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I take comfort from the research that says that if I don't do anything other than write notes on the board and give out a few handouts I will still make a .4 percent difference to my students' learning.<br />
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Enough already with my cynicism given that, as I've said before, my school admin genuinely wants to improve student learning outcomes.<br />
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So apart from being GANAG-ed, this year I've been very challenged by being forced back into teaching VCE English, albeit Units 1 and 2. I haven't taught VCE at our school since 2011. That year I decided to pack it in after having taught Year 12 for thirty years straight.<br />
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Couldn't really refuse to teach VCE when I saw it on my timetable. I assumed that given I didn't request to teach it, the fact that I'd been given it was because I'm an experienced, competent teacher. Sorry, back to cynicism for a sentence or two. It suited the time table to give me VCE English. Nothing more than that.<br />
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Trouble is, I'd let the entire VCE Study Design drop out of my brain, thinking I wouldn't be dealing with it again. Suddenly I'm jolted back into Outcomes 1, 2 and 3 and Identity and Belonging as an unfamiliar Context. Work Requirements, SACs - School Assessed Coursework - Pending Ns - notifications to parents that their kid is on the verge of failing - pressure, shit-loads of marking and twenty-six needy students. Twenty-six students, five of whom began the year by challenging every remark I made because, to them, I had no VCE teaching credibility, not having been on that team since these kids started at the school.<br />
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There's a culture amongst our students of comparing teachers and classes. It's possibly endemic in schools but I haven't fallen victim to it before. Ms X gave this to her students, they lament; Ms Y did it this way; Ms Z's class have already finished their questions. You can perhaps imagine how much I love being compared to teachers who weren't even born until I'd clocked my tenth year of teaching. (That's a whole other post waiting to be written, possibly entitled What Will I Be If I'm No Longer A Teacher. I'm getting on, dear reader.)<br />
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Some of these students have been toxic in their undermining of the class. It's better now, because I am actually an experienced, competent teacher. But I've been tested, and GANAG's not much help until one's class dynamic is sorted. Bottom line is class management.<br />
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Apart from dealing with disruptive, passive aggressive students though I've really resented the extra ten or so hours marking I have to do on my own time; on those precious days off. When I'm not being paid. Suppose it were ever thus. I've just had three blissful years not doing it.<br />
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Ends rant. For now.Judith Middlemarchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07285709209953730580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16293137.post-53920438564497025032015-03-23T10:56:00.000+11:002015-03-23T10:56:14.282+11:00What? No curriculum? Teaching back in the day.Nineteen-seventy-nine. Big year for me. My first real year of teaching English. 'Seventy-eight didn't count given my first posting was as a 'teacher-librarian' - something that didn't 'take' in my case. That year I also did a little remedial English teaching with a small group of Form 1 girls - it was an all girls school. Gave me a bit of practice in teaching so in '79 I wasn't quite a novice.<div>
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There was no curriculum in English except at Higher School Certificate; year 12. No one handed me a course outline. There were no common assessment tasks apart from exams in the senior years.</div>
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So how did I know what to teach?</div>
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Suppose there was a trickle down from HSC. That was ultimately where the academic students were heading. This determined what we taught.</div>
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At 22 I knew a bit about how kids learned but it was based on my own experiences. Played at being a teacher from the time I started school. My mother then kindly produced a sister upon whom I could practise. (Janey, you didn't stand a chance of escaping education as a career. It was inculcated into you from about your second year.)</div>
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Oh, and I'd completed a four year Bachelor of Education. That probably helped in my knowing what to teach. </div>
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But still, no curriculum. Seems we made it up. We'd done our academic studies, were expected to be at a particular level and were trusted to do our job. (Didn't know at the time that they were the good old days. Does one ever?)</div>
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In English we taught reading, writing, speaking and listening as we do today but sans computers and photocopiers in my first few years. Our lessons were inspired by our passion for the subject and the novels and text books on the course. We had a selection of 'class set' novels and text books from which to choose. We added new texts as we discovered them.</div>
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In my first year of real teaching I taught forms 2 and 4 - 30 students per class - and form 5 - slightly fewer students.</div>
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To teach my form 5s, without a curriculum, I unearthed my own form 5 texts and used them as a guide to what to do. There was also amazing wisdom and mentoring from more experienced teachers who shared and guided. </div>
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Did you notice something there? In my first year of teaching I only taught three full classes of English. That is, fifteen periods out of a possible thirty. I also spent two periods a week teaching remedial English to two year 8 kids. Seventeen periods a week. Wow. That's about the same as I'm teaching now and I only work three days a week.</div>
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The following year I taught four English classes as my full load. </div>
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The thing is we worked those kids hard. Heaps of reading, writing and discussion and loads of marking outside school hours, despite all that extra time in our teaching day. Was always preparing and correcting.</div>
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Today's younger teachers would perhaps also marvel at the lack of meetings. We had staff meetings after school on Tuesdays and occasional year level meetings. Had an English meeting about once a term - three terms a year back then. Nothing like the bombardment of meetings these days, forcing teachers to complete even more work outside regular hours - that is, 8.30 to 4.30; not the easy hours that the general public think we enjoy.</div>
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Judith Middlemarchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07285709209953730580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16293137.post-68304021140568766182015-02-09T16:26:00.000+11:002015-02-09T16:26:56.486+11:00Confidence Crisis.Happy new school year. The anxiety dreams of the final days of the long vacation are over and now I'm waking up in the small hours trying to remember the names of my 75 new students. That will stop soon enough. Doesn't take long. I'm almost there.<div>
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However, I have been suffering a confidence crisis, in this, my thirty-fifth year of secondary English teaching. I blame the education department. but more than that I blame my school admin for assiduously sucking up to it; trying to get the most ticks in those bureaucratic boxes. </div>
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Yes, I know it's complex and that schools must adhere to standards and aim to educate students in the best possible way. But really?</div>
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My first day back, a pupil free day and I was sitting towards the rear of our auditorium. Ninety or so teachers and support staff had been listening attentively - or feigning attention - for ninety minutes of acronym heavy drivel. And then we got onto data, sorry, dada. It was at that point that tears sprouted in my eyes, the hairs stood up on the backs of my arms and I felt the urge to scream. </div>
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The theme was the importance of NAPLAN, how the 'dada' - NAPLAN and AusVELS - would reveal who had been a 'bad' teacher.</div>
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I thought of the individual students I'd taught in previous years and the progress they'd made, immeasurable in a series of NAPLAN tests. The tests would reveal some students had very low literacy and numeracy skills. As for the AusVELS data, teachers are responsible for keying that in and it's easy enough to just move the students up through the levels based on where they're supposed to be ranked.</div>
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And then there was the holiday reading. Not the reading and revising of the texts I'll be teaching in my English classes. No, this was a theoretical research based text written by a team of erudite education leaders high in the academic ranks who are clearly no longer actually teaching real kids, if their CVs are anything to go by. This turgid text was going to tell me how to be a better teacher. More fool me, I actually read the first half of it before I could take no more. My conclusion: yep, all fine in theory.</div>
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Despite my cynicism, I try to be good; try to implement the initiatives insisted upon by our school admin who are genuinely concerned about improving teaching and learning. Lesson plans must be written according to a particular methodology, learning objectives and learning activities must be written on the board in each lesson, blah blah blah blah blah.</div>
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This theoretical framework becomes the focus, befuddles my brain, without 'value adding' - oh they love that expression - to my teaching. It infuriates me; robs me of confidence. Not sure that I'd have lasted in this profession if it had been like this when I began my career. Surprisingly, most of us were effective teachers without all the <a href="http://www.learninghorizon.net/ganag-lesson-planning/">GANAG</a>. </div>
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My best lessons are those when the students and I are so engaged in the discussion and learning that the bell rings and everyone is startled wondering how the lesson could have flown by so effortlessly. </div>
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Judith Middlemarchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07285709209953730580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16293137.post-76469355613454699172014-12-06T11:58:00.000+11:002014-12-06T11:58:21.519+11:00Teaching Freedom Writers to Year 9s<div class="MsoNormal">
Dear Diary</div>
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I’ve been teaching the film, <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0463998/?ref_=ttfc_fc_tt">Freedom Writers</a></i>, to my Year 9
English students for a couple of years now. It’s one of those films about a
charismatic young English teacher who, against all odds, works miracles with a
class full of apparent misfits and delinquents, transforming them into model
students. (See also <i>To Sir With Love, Stand And Deliver, Dangerous Minds</i>. The
list goes on.)</div>
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<i>Freedom Writers</i>, with its action, rap music and sympathetic ‘gangsta’
kids, invariably engages every student. The students in the film are fourteen year
olds; Freshmen; the equivalent of our Year 9. (Challenging to find a kid in
Room 203 at <st1:placename w:st="on">Wilson</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">High School</st1:placename> who actually looks fourteen, but that’s <st1:city w:st="on">Hollywood</st1:city>.)</div>
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And of course, <i>Freedom Writers</i> is a film. Easy. Students see
this as a soft option. Oh how they curse me when I pause the film and ask
questions about the mise-en-scene. </div>
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<i>Freedom Writers</i> is based on <i>The Freedom Writers Diary</i>, by <a href="http://www.freedomwritersfoundation.org/fw-outreach-EG">ErinGruwell,</a> the Ms G of the film. (Most of my kids might not be so thrilled if
they had to read the actual book although some of them would enjoy it.) In the
film, Ms Erin Gruwell, a first year teacher, is assigned to teach the ‘integration’
students: disadvantaged students who’re all together in their English class. No
one wants to be lumbered with the class. The kids are seen as hopeless by the
school admin. Then along comes Ms Gruwell.</div>
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It’s a really inspiring film. I tear up every time this
particular boy reads his diary entry to the class. In it he describes his
horrific life and how Ms G’s classroom is home. She certainly made a difference
to those students.</div>
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However, teaching this text can be problematic. Beware if
you’re past your prime. Your students are going to compare and you might not
measure up. </div>
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Erin Gruwell is rendered delightfully by toothy, pretty
Hilary Swank. Youthful, coltish vivacious, irrepressible Erin – Hilary Swank -
Gruwell. She’s cool and she can really teach. Consider yourself warned.</div>
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Another problem I have with this film is its stereotyping. Head
of Department, Margaret Campbell, looks to be in her fifties. She’s depicted as
a frustrated crone who’s been unable to roll with the changes in her school.
She guards class sets of books, not wanting to sacrifice them to Ms Gruwell’s
students who she is sure will destroy them. Bitter, vicious and condescending, <st1:place w:st="on">Campbell</st1:place> tries irrationally
to thwart all Gruwell’s efforts. </div>
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Ms Campbell makes me sad though. In one scene she berates <st1:place w:st="on">Erin</st1:place>. “I know what it’s like to be loved by a class of
students!” She probably does, given she’s been teaching for thirty years.
Whether she’s a composite of a few jaded old teachers or based on a real
person, I do feel for her. In the closing credits of the film we find that Erin
Gruwell only taught high school for three years before following some of her
students to college. Ms Campbell, on the other hand, has endured. She may be
afraid to teach ‘integration’ students, with their gang affiliations, but she’s
probably been a decent teacher with the right sorts of students. That would be
a different film though. In <i>Freedom Writers,</i> Ms Campbell is the archetypal
harridan who shouldn’t be inflicted on any students.</div>
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There’s another thing I'm sceptical about in the film: the
way those supposedly educationally delayed students take to reading and
writing. I, too, have bought books for my students, sometimes out of my own
money. I devote hours to matching kids to books to try to get them reading. I'm
ecstatic when a student finally reads an entire book. It does happen
occasionally. More often, I struggle to get most students to read anything
beyond the classroom. So when I see Ms Gruwell’s students reading on buses, in
locker bays, in squats, I'm cynical. Perhaps it’s different in the <st1:country-region w:st="on">US</st1:country-region>.</div>
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I'm currently reading <i>The Freedom Writers Diary</i> and it’s
incredibly articulate. Must have been some heavy-handed editorial assistance
happening.</div>
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Perhaps it’s the <st1:place w:st="on">Hollywood</st1:place>
effect that allowed Ms Gruwell to have total success with all her students. I've
witnessed some of our kids behaving badly on a visit to <st1:city w:st="on">Melbourne</st1:city>’s
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Holocaust</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Museum</st1:placetype></st1:place>. Have also had bored year 11
students moaning through <i>Schindler’s List</i>, complaining because there wasn't
enough action in it.</div>
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Ah, enough of being Ms Campbell. I love teaching this film
and I love the way all students respond to it, even those kids who don’t do a
lick of learning. <i>Freedom Writers</i> may be Hollywood Over The Top but it’s so
worthy. You'll find heaps of ready made teaching resources on line and your kids will love it.</div>
Judith Middlemarchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07285709209953730580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16293137.post-42961968138006578032014-06-15T12:33:00.001+10:002014-06-15T12:33:18.677+10:00Report writing again.Couldn't move my fingers much this morning when I woke up. Tendonitis had flared after two days' solid typing of student reports. Old age sucks. (And why am I typing again today??)<br />
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Proud of those reports though; proud of myself for refusing to use 'comment bank'.<br />
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For the past few years, as directed, I've used the school 'comment bank' when reporting. Using the 'comment bank' supposedly cuts down on errors, providing there are no mistakes in the rubric, in which case errors are multiplied. The comments in the bank correspond with the descriptors in AusVELS, the Victorian version of the Australian curriculum. They've been simplified to some extent, but they're bland and generic. Furthermore, students can end up with the same comments from year to year, depending on their progress along the AusVELS continuum. Oddly, there don't seem to be any complaints from parents or students.<br />
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Reporting on students is agonising. Lots of data entry. (Love Mr Fill Down, BTW.) Lots of writing. I'd estimate it's taken me 20 hours to create reports for 75 students. Would have been much quicker using the comment bank.<br />
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Then there's the proofreading meeting after school. About 80 of us print off our report comments and we swap and check. Last year, some of my comments were checked by a colleague who pointed out some really poor expression. 'It's not me. It's the comment bank,' was my lame response. It wasn't the first time I'd been ashamed of what the comment bank, with my assistance, had produced.<br />
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The comment bank may produce uncohesive, bland, generic descriptors of 'what the student has achieved' but it won't allow making even slightly negative remarks about a student. Negative remarks are verboten in these days when a few aggressive parents rule the school and we quake in fear of their wrath.<br />
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Reporting what some students have achieved is challenging. What to say about a student who has done nothing all semester except disrupt the learning of others? Who has resisted all my canny efforts and encouragement? "X enjoys contributing to class discussions, often in a racist mock-Indian accent. He has successfully resisted attempting any reading, writing or formal speaking and listening tasks." Suppose that's an achievement.<br />
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About 35 years ago, when I began teaching, it was perfectly acceptable to write this in a report: "X is an excellent student in every respect." Done. Too easy.<br />
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My first student reports were hand-written in a rectangular box - about 6 x 18 centimetres - on a piece of plain foolscap with the texture of blotting paper. Under that was a sheet of royal blue carbon paper and another sheet of foolscap for the second copy. A metal paperclip held it all together. After you'd written your little comment you passed the pages back to the coordinator who'd pass it to the next teacher of that student. Depending on how early you'd done your reports, you'd be able to see comments written by students' other teachers. 'Good' kids' reports glowed with superlatives. 'Bad' kids were described as disruptive, distracting, talkative, hopeless.<br />
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Unacceptable, of course. Even at 22 I knew it was inappropriate to take one's frustration and vitriol out on a student, even if they had caused it.<br />
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We moved to 'goal based descriptive assessment' at our school in the early 1980s. No grades, if memory serves. (No exams for 'junior' students either.) We also received our own 'no carbon required' report pads, designed to fit about four hand-written reports on each A4 page. Had to remember to put a sheet of cardboard between the reports so you didn't accidentally write extra copies<br />
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Didn't mind those descriptive reports. If necessary, you could still be honest about a kid's tendency to subvert learning in the classroom. Parents tended to support us back then. (Think that's a fair generalisation too, based on my experience teaching in three state secondary schools.)<br />
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Those reports were probably issued three times a year to correspond with three school terms. Don't remember anyone ever criticising my hand-written reports.<br />
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We thought we were working hard back then getting those reports out. Now we have computers and the internet you'd think it would be simpler.<br />
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At our school, as well as semester reports and two parent-teacher meetings we issue six interim reports.We're also expected to phone and email parents regularly so they 'don't get any surprises' on reports.<br />
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In the words of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1w9DiGlZksU">Redfoo , let's get ridiculous</a>.<br />
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<br />Judith Middlemarchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07285709209953730580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16293137.post-72612754283539650952014-04-30T12:40:00.000+10:002014-04-30T12:40:48.399+10:00Lazy teaching?<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX95678420" style="margin-left: 0px;">
<div class="Paragraph SCX95678420" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,'Sans-Serif'; font-size: 6pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun SCX95678420" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri,Sans-Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX95678420" style="background-color: inherit;">I'm mixing it up in the classroom. Again.</span></span><span class="EOP SCX95678420" style="font-family: Calibri,Sans-Serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px;"> </span></div>
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<span class="TextRun SCX95678420" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri,Sans-Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX95678420" style="background-color: inherit;">I'm trying to make my Year 9 English classroom less teacher-</span><span class="SpellingError SCX95678420" style="background-color: inherit;">centred</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCX95678420" style="background-color: inherit;"> as students develop and 'deepen' their understanding of the plot, characters and themes in their class novel, Phillip Gwynne's </span></span><span class="TextRun SCX95678420" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri,Sans-Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX95678420" style="background-color: inherit;">Deadly Unna?</span></span><span class="TextRun SCX95678420" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri,Sans-Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX95678420" style="background-color: inherit;">. I'm also supposedly being a 'lazy teacher', re-inspired as I am by </span></span><a href="http://www.lazyteacher.co.uk/about_book.html"><span class="TextRun SCX95678420" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri,Sans-Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX95678420" style="background-color: inherit;">The Lazy Teacher's Handbook</span></span></a><span class="TextRun SCX95678420" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri,Sans-Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX95678420" style="background-color: inherit;">, which I recommend, by the way. </span></span><span class="EOP SCX95678420" style="font-family: Calibri,Sans-Serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px;"></span></div>
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<span class="TextRun SCX95678420" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri,Sans-Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX95678420" style="background-color: inherit;">I'm
employing "a series of strategies that put the responsibility of
learning directly and consistently onto the students... they learn to
engage with their own learning, and not just in </span></span><span class="TextRun SCX95678420" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri,Sans-Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX95678420" style="background-color: inherit;">what </span></span><span class="TextRun SCX95678420" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri,Sans-Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX95678420" style="background-color: inherit;">they have learned but in </span></span><span class="TextRun SCX95678420" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri,Sans-Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX95678420" style="background-color: inherit;">how </span></span><span class="TextRun SCX95678420" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri,Sans-Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX95678420" style="background-color: inherit;">they learned it." That's from the introduction to <i>The Lazy Teacher's Handbook</i>. Hey, baby! Yeah! High five!</span></span><span class="TextRun SCX95678420" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri,Sans-Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX95678420" style="background-color: inherit;">
Students taking ownership of their learning. That will look impressive
on my Professional Learning Plan. I can write up my Understanding By
Design unit plan and cite the relevant Australian Curriculum learning
outcomes. </span></span><span class="EOP SCX95678420" style="font-family: Calibri,Sans-Serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px;">(All that onerous (unnecessary) extra paperwork is about accountability, after all.)</span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX95678420" style="margin-left: 0px;">
<div class="Paragraph SCX95678420" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,'Sans-Serif'; font-size: 6pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX95678420" style="margin-left: 0px;">
<div class="Paragraph SCX95678420" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,'Sans-Serif'; font-size: 6pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun SCX95678420" style="color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri,Sans-Serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX95678420" style="background-color: inherit;">I've '</span><span class="SpellingError SCX95678420" style="background-color: inherit;">scaffolded</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCX95678420" style="background-color: inherit;">' my students' learning; given clear instructions, a rubric, even</span></span><span class="TextRun SCX95678420" style="color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri,Sans-Serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX95678420" style="background-color: inherit;">. I've set clear expectations for the learning and </span><span class="SpellingError SCX95678420" style="background-color: inherit;">behaviour</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCX95678420" style="background-color: inherit;">. They've done their 'think, pair, square' and now they have to 'share'. </span></span><span class="TextRun SCX95678420" style="color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri,Sans-Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX95678420" style="background-color: inherit;">The Lazy Teacher's Handbook</span></span><span class="TextRun SCX95678420" style="color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri,Sans-Serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX95678420" style="background-color: inherit;">,
again. After they've completed their group work, students will present
their findings to the group using ICT and presentation software. Don’t I
sound competent?</span></span><span class="EOP SCX95678420" style="font-family: Calibri,Sans-Serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX95678420" style="margin-left: 0px;">
<div class="Paragraph SCX95678420" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,'Sans-Serif'; font-size: 6pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX95678420" style="margin-left: 0px;">
<div class="Paragraph SCX95678420" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,'Sans-Serif'; font-size: 6pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun SCX95678420" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri,Sans-Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX95678420" style="background-color: inherit;">This, however, is what 'learning' sounded like at about 2.45 yesterday </span><span class="SpellingError SCX95678420" style="background-color: inherit;">arvo</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCX95678420" style="background-color: inherit;">. Bedlam. Screaming. Shouting. Bursts of maniacal laughter, occasionally my own, </span></span><span class="EOP SCX95678420" style="font-family: Calibri,Sans-Serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX95678420" style="margin-left: 0px;">
<div class="Paragraph SCX95678420" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,'Sans-Serif'; font-size: 6pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX95678420" style="margin-left: 0px;">
<div class="Paragraph SCX95678420" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,'Sans-Serif'; font-size: 6pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun SCX95678420" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri,Sans-Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX95678420" style="background-color: inherit;">'Learning', group work, looked like chaos. Scrunched up paper flew across my peripheral vision. </span></span><span class="TextRun SCX95678420" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri,Sans-Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX95678420" style="background-color: inherit;">It seemed to be snowing litter. </span></span><span class="TextRun SCX95678420" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri,Sans-Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX95678420" style="background-color: inherit;">Suddenly
a pen skimmed across the asphalt outside my classroom door, closely
followed by one of my students who'd darted out to retrieve it. Sorry,
miss, she said upon re-entry. </span></span><span class="EOP SCX95678420" style="font-family: Calibri,Sans-Serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX95678420" style="margin-left: 0px;">
<div class="Paragraph SCX95678420" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,'Sans-Serif'; font-size: 6pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX95678420" style="margin-left: 0px;">
<div class="Paragraph SCX95678420" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,'Sans-Serif'; font-size: 6pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun SCX95678420" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri,Sans-Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX95678420" style="background-color: inherit;">I
circumnavigated the room again, swooping on groups. Interfering but
trying not to because it seemed I was dominating again. At my
approach, some students vaguely pretended to be on task, frowning at their
computers, tapping a few keys, twisting their screens towards me so I could
see a bit of allegedly legit 'work'. So what are we supposed to be doing
again? asked a bright student. And this is their second session working in their groups.</span></span><span class="EOP SCX95678420" style="font-family: Calibri,Sans-Serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX95678420" style="margin-left: 0px;">
<div class="Paragraph SCX95678420" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,'Sans-Serif'; font-size: 6pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX95678420" style="margin-left: 0px;">
<div class="Paragraph SCX95678420" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,'Sans-Serif'; font-size: 6pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun SCX95678420" style="color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri,Sans-Serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX95678420" style="background-color: inherit;">I worry that no one is learning. I worry that students will see this as </span><span class="SpellingError SCX95678420" style="background-color: inherit;">bludging</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCX95678420" style="background-color: inherit;">.
I worry that the principal will walk in and judge me. I worry that the acrid smell in the room is me. I sneak a surreptitious
sniff of my armpit. It's not. Hurrah. God knows I've worked up a sweat
pacing around the room trying to look and feel in control. </span></span><span class="EOP SCX95678420" style="font-family: Calibri,Sans-Serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX95678420" style="margin-left: 0px;">
<div class="Paragraph SCX95678420" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,'Sans-Serif'; font-size: 6pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX95678420" style="margin-left: 0px;">
<div class="Paragraph SCX95678420" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,'Sans-Serif'; font-size: 6pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun SCX95678420" style="color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri,Sans-Serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX95678420" style="background-color: inherit;">Five
minutes before the bell I gathered the troops and assumed the position,
barring the door. I blew my whistle - now there's a useful teaching
tool and not just in </span><span class="SpellingError SCX95678420" style="background-color: inherit;">phys</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCX95678420" style="background-color: inherit;"> </span><span class="SpellingError SCX95678420" style="background-color: inherit;">ed</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCX95678420" style="background-color: inherit;">
classes. "No one is leaving until the desks are straightened, the
rubbish is off the floor and chairs are on tables." i bellowed. They complied and
the natural order of my teaching world was somewhat restored, or so I told myself.</span></span><span class="EOP SCX95678420" style="font-family: Calibri,Sans-Serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px;"></span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX95678420" style="margin-left: 0px;">
<div class="Paragraph SCX95678420" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,'Sans-Serif'; font-size: 6pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX95678420" style="margin-left: 0px;">
<div class="Paragraph SCX95678420" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,'Sans-Serif'; font-size: 6pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun SCX95678420" style="color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri,Sans-Serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX95678420" style="background-color: inherit;">The
positives? The students seem happy. They're not fighting me. They're
not complaining of boredom, which many do if one reads sections of text aloud to the entire class. I'd like
to think that they are working at their own level. Their presentations
will demonstrate that, I expect. I've been able to 'differentiate' the
learning and monitor individual students much more effectively that I
can in a teacher-</span><span class="SpellingError SCX95678420" style="background-color: inherit;">centred</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCX95678420" style="background-color: inherit;"> classroom.</span></span><span class="EOP SCX95678420" style="font-family: Calibri,Sans-Serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX95678420" style="margin-left: 0px;">
<div class="Paragraph SCX95678420" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,'Sans-Serif'; font-size: 6pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<span class="TextRun SCX95678420" style="color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri,Sans-Serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX95678420" style="background-color: inherit;">Lazy teacher? Not so much. And I'm still reaching for the wine bottle as soon as I get home.</span></span><br />
<br />
Judith Middlemarchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07285709209953730580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16293137.post-47961806071857776532014-03-20T19:44:00.001+11:002014-03-20T20:26:07.947+11:00Just another day of 'teaching'.Should have known it was going to be another challenging day when I got an extra for period 1: my only free period. No matter. An extra per fortnight is part of my job. It was the year 11 VCAL class. Gave me a chance to see government funds at work; the brilliant "1:1" program in effect. You see, all these students were issued their own Netbook computers, at no charge, a couple of years ago. Our students are going to lead the rest of the world because they've been provided with this state of the art information and communication technology. <div><br></div><div>Or not. </div><div><br></div><div>Besides giving the words 'fucken' and 'cunt' a bit of a workout, two students decided it would be edifying to pop all the keys from their keypads and stick them back on in random order. That was clearly lots of fun until they realised that they didn't know how to return the keys to their rightful places and that some of the keys were now irrevocably damaged.</div><div><br></div><div>What was I doing during all this? Trying to encourage students I don't regularly teach to do the set work; trying to discourage the gratuitous 'try-hard' swearing without getting palpitations myself. You've got to feel for the CRTs - casual replacement teachers - who do replacement classes all day. </div><div><br></div><div>Off to year 9 for more larks. The students have been presenting their oral book reports this week and some of them have been damn good. The entire purpose is to encourage reading. Every week since the beginning of the year students have had half an hour of sustained silent reading during class and they're supposed to supplement this with regular reading at home. I really push this because it is so important that students become fluent readers. </div><div><br></div><div>So, Anna is at the front of the room. She's plugged her Netbook computer into the data projector. She's nervously shaking her page a little as she waits to start. </div><div><br></div><div>But what's this? Two girls stand up at the back of the room. 'Someone stole my pencil case, Miss,' says Zoe. She folds her arms, slumps aggressively. </div><div><br></div><div>'Could whoever's got Zoe's pencil case just return it please? I'm not saying you took it, but please give it back.' </div><div><br></div><div>No response. </div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div>So two girls are up the back glowering around, pouting. <span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">One is out in sympathy with the other. It's how they function. What am I supposed to do? </span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Apparently it's in the rubbish bin. I fish it out. 'Eeuuw!' Yeah, whatever. </span></div><div><br></div><div>This is the way the 'lesson' proceeds. I can't see who's spiriting other kids' belongings away. I endeavour to keep calm.</div><div><br></div><div>And then there are 'the lads' who've been in my face since week one. They swagger around the room at will, perhaps to share a confidence with someone on the other side of the class. Bugger the seating plan. That only works if they choose to sit in their places. </div><div><br></div><div>An older generation mobile phone slides, hockey puck style, from one side of the floor to the other and back again.</div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Meanwhile, Anna waits patiently. </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Eventually she is able to present and she's read John Steinbeck's The Pearl. Wow.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">So while some kids are 'disrupting the learning of others', as it says on our discipline reports, and being enabled by parents who believe that their children are angels - parents who complain if anyone tries to discipline their precious offspring - other students are quietly learning.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Me? I'm checking my super cos I'm a little bit over it.</span></div>Judith Middlemarchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07285709209953730580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16293137.post-28598004727253610722014-02-13T18:40:00.001+11:002014-02-13T18:40:59.686+11:00Slam poetry. And the other stuff.Nearly finished week three of term one now. It's challenging, the start of the school year, isn't it?<br />
<br />
If you're lucky you score a group of amenable students who know you and already approve. You just roll happily with it. This is me this year with my year 10s given all those teething battles were played out back in 2010. Our first session was an emotional reuion. Even teared up a bit seeing how they'd grown. They were all smiles and sheepish laughter as they automatically sat in their year 8 'seating plan'. <br />
<br />
In a big school like mine - nearly 1200 students - you can easily go for a year without seeing any of your former students. It was great to see my year 10s and I look forward to watching them develop as the year progresses.<br />
<br />
And then there's that other class; amongst the 25 students there are five fourteen year old boys giving me what for, yelling over me in a constant barrage of testosterone-fuelled insolence. These lads are IN MY FACE and DID YOU SEE THAT? SHE'S PICKEN ON ME! WHY ARE YOU PICKEN ON ME?? They're chesting up to me, anything to disrupt, to draw my attention, to grab an opportunity to assert themselves over me. My adrenal gland's been getting a bit of a workout. Have to remember to breathe; act angry before I'm really angry. Be patient, tolerant, understanding. This isn't about me, I'm just generic 'old female teacher' now.<br />
<br />
Leap on those opportunities to praise, to build self-esteem like a seagull on a cliched chip. Oh so many complex personalities to fathom before it subsides. Well, usually.<br />
<br />
My other year 9 class has been a gift; 25 bright, eager students who are open to possibility so why not try out some slam poetry? I attended a VATE conference session last year on slam poetry. <a href="https://twitter.com/ProffPoet">(Thanks, Anthony Young @ProffPoet)</a> I showed the students some examples of other students performing slam poetry - a YouTube search was helpful here. The students were a tad skeptical but they gave it a go. I gave them a list of possible topics - places such as the city, the beach, holidays and so on, and emotions that they could write about. As per Anthony's instructions I got them to work in groups as a strategy to help them to overcome their performance anxiety.<br />
<br />
I used Anthony's formula for constructing their poem. Poems had to contain a metaphor, an anecdote, a repeated line, a really long line and a really short line. They brainstormed their ideas individually then collaborated with other group members. I darted around the class offering suggestions and encouragement, as you do when you're the alleged teacher. <br />
<br />
The students, bless them, ran with it. Today they presented. It was wonderful and they knew it as they savoured the power of their own and each other's words. <br />
<br />
If you haven't given slam poetry a try, it's worth doing. The kids loved it and so did I.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Judith Middlemarchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07285709209953730580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16293137.post-39362820575058044122013-03-26T18:30:00.001+11:002013-03-26T18:30:46.338+11:00Padlet in Year 10 EnglishThe plan. Utilise <a href="http://padlet.com/">Padlet </a>- the web tool formerly known as Wallwisher - to engage year 10 students in a meaningful discussion about youth justice. Basically, with Padlet, you can create a 'wall' upon which you can post things.<br />
<br />
At the end of the lesson, the teacher and her students will have created a number of discussion 'walls'. Students will have participated in on-line discussions on the causes of, and possible solutions to, youth homelessness. They will have shared their own opinions, as well as considering, and responding to, a variety of views from their fellow students.<br />
<br />
Prior to the lesson, I'd played around on Padlet so I'd be confident with the tool. In class, we'd also discussed various issues concerning youth justice and had just watched the harrowing <i>Oasis </i>documentary. I'd prepared a few questions to promote discussion. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40f2p5JQ57s">(By the way, if you haven't yet seen it, the <i>Oasis </i>documentary is essential viewing.)</a><br />
<br />
As a background to all this, I've done some school based professional development using Padlet. This involved participating in an educational on-line discussion with my school colleagues. We pasted a particular URL into our browsers then responded to a question. The 'wall' quickly filled with thoughtful, earnest remarks. It was the first day of the new year and the principal who facilitated looked pleased with the outcome. I think he mentioned something about aiming to be a paperless school somewhere down the track.<br />
<br />
You see, we're in the 'one to one' age now. Every student from years 9 to 12 has been given, gratis, courtesy of the federal government, a netbook computer. What's more, we've been urged to use these computers, especially since the school is expecting years 7 and 8 students to buy their own. We don't want the older students telling the younger ones that the computers aren't being used, do we? That wasn't a question. It was a directive from an AP. Parents Will Complain.<br />
<br />
So what happened in my classes today?<br />
<br />
First, I had to send several students back to their lockers to get their computers. The government may have funded these computers to make our students the smartest in the world - whatever - but that doesn't mean the kids are going to charge them up overnight, or even bring them to school. (It's a discipline thing and we're working on it.)<br />
<br />
Second, I recapped our previous lesson about youth homelessness to remind students of the gravity of the issue.<br />
<br />
I gave them the URL for our first 'wall' and made a couple of rules. No anonymous comments. No profanity.<br />
<br />
As if. (My favourite phrase.)<br />
<br />
The wall was instantly and hilariously covered in totally inappropriate, often misspelled, sexually explicit posts. Students quickly discovered that they could also take photos of themselves and other students and tag them.<br />
<br />
In nano-seconds I had a wall plastered in posts that had the students in hysterics. The comments were posted faster than I could delete them - it was my wall so I had some editing control for all the good that did me.<br />
<br />
I suppose at least they were all engaged in the activity.<br />
<br />
Seriously, I'd like to know what really happens in other teachers' classes when they do these activities.You know, teachers who work, like me, in western suburbs state secondary schools. During the PD session, this activity was presented as a highly effective teaching and learning tool and of course I can see its potential. But if kids can write anonymous comments - and get away with it because it's impossible to monitor - how does this occur?<br />
<br />
Will it get better if I persist, once the novelty wears off?<br />
<br />
Help. <br />
<br />
Seriously, comment below. I really want to know.<br />
<br /><br />
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<br />Judith Middlemarchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07285709209953730580noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16293137.post-85334417153064813152013-03-25T09:17:00.001+11:002013-03-25T09:59:54.830+11:00Back to high school.Attended a high school centenary yesterday. Probably wouldn't have bothered except a friend reminded me it was happening and another friend came along with me.<br />
<br />
Didn't give it much thought before we turned into the car park where we were lucky to find a space. You see, this event was packed. The school 'playing fields' had even been converted to parking space for the day and they were chockers with cars.<br />
<br />
However, I felt really odd, crossing the side street and walking through to the quadrangle, past the staff room. Appeared as though nothing had changed since I'd left there nearly 30 years ago.<br />
<br />
I spent the first six years of my teaching career at that school. Those six years went on for a very long time, much longer than the 14 years I've been at my current school. The years flash by a bit these days. My dad used to say that when he was around the age I am now, but in my twenties I had no concept. I was still waiting for the big things to happen: travel, marriage, mortgage, children. In that order.<br />
<br />
I encountered a former student almost immediately. An older man: fifty-something? Shaved presumably bald head, portly, acting more confident with me than he should have been. 'I'm going to kiss you,' he said, grabbing me by the waist and pulling me close. I got an unwanted wet one to the corner of my mouth. I generally avoid random kissing.<br />
<br />
He invited me to 'stroll' over to the registration table; offered me his elbow. I hooked my arm through his for about ten seconds. 'Sorry,' I said, letting go. 'This feels really uncomfortable. I wouldn't even do this with my husband.' I didn't like the feel of this guy's arm under his shirt sleeve. <br />
<br />
I didn't see him again after that. He was in my first ever form five English class. I was 22, in my second year of teaching. Interesting that I could remember him and the quality of his English. Now, I can barely remember the names of kids I taught last year.<br />
<br />
I saw a few familiar faces, all former teaching colleagues. Mostly, I was incredulous that all these people were so delighted to be there. Masses of them milling around, greeting very old friends. Lots of white hair and quite a few walking frames. They'd all made the effort to go back to their old school with its almost unaltered central quad.<br />
<br />
I had my moments back there, made a few life-long friends, learned heaps, had some great memories. But somehow, my experiences left a slightly bitter aftertaste. I think of clashes with a couple of colleagues: people being really unprofessional; some awful behaviour. And of course, i think of my own immaturity back when I knew everything, as many of us do back in our twenties. I was glad to leave that version of myself behind in that place. As if.<br />
<br />
I heard bits of a couple of speeches yesterday - the sound system swallowed the rest as I strained to hear beneath those quadrangle eaves. Two former students, one In his 70s, one in her 40s, spoke so fondly of their own six years in the place. Around me, former students and teachers tittered and nodded at remembered characters and anecdotes. The woman who spoke was overwhelmed by emotion. It really got to me.<br />
<br />
People's school days are really precious. That's a statement of the bleeding obvious. But yesterday was a bit like a church gathering; worship. <br />
<br />
Despite having spent my professional life, since 1978, in secondary schools, I really hadn't thought of schools like that before.<br />
<br />
I did make my own pilgrimage to my primary school back in Sheffield, UK, a couple of years ago, but that was about emigration, memory and being severed from my childhood when I was eight.<br />
<br />
School, for me, and perhaps for most teachers, hasn't been something intense in my formative years. It has been my life. The continuum. Suppose that's why I was so incredulous that those six years of high school had been so precious to so many people who did the pilgrimage yesterday.<br />
<br />
Thanks to the organisers.Judith Middlemarchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07285709209953730580noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16293137.post-32324677003057356892013-03-17T13:35:00.001+11:002013-03-17T13:35:38.763+11:00"The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas." Why I love reading. And teaching.Friday, home time. I'd held a couple of Year 10 students back after English. I was giving my annual plagiarism lecture, which usually occurs at about this time of year.<br />
<br />
"Look," I pointed to my laptop screen. The girl was standing next to me, arms crossed defiantly. "You'll have to admit that it's quite strange that your essay is identical to this one."<br />
<br />
"I swear I didn't read it," she persisted in the face of contrary evidence.<br />
<br />
Her friend, packing up her books, was listening in. "I copied an essay from the internet when I was in year 7," she said, matter-of-factly. "I was really embarrassed when I got caught." Had a bit of a laugh at the memory.<br />
<br />
The boy was all outraged innocence too when I showed him how easily I'd Googled a few words from his essay, enclosed in inverted commas, and found what he was passing off as his work<br />
<br />
I wasn't particularly angry. Plagiarism happens even more regularly in these 'one to one' days - every kid has a computer and internet access - and it's easy to spot. It's good for students to find out early that this is cheating. It avoids more serious consequences in the future.<br />
<br />
They left, ruefully promising to repeat the work.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, Chris was waiting to see me. He's a quiet, intelligent student.<br />
<br />
"You said you wanted to read this, miss." He placed a copy of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boy_in_the_Striped_Pyjamas"><i>The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas</i> </a>on my desk.<br />
<br />
I taught Chris for a couple of semesters in years 7 and 8. He was one of the more talented students in my now defunct Creative Writing class. A couple of days earlier he'd asked for help with his 'wide reading' essay. He was working on the topic "A worthwhile text makes you view the world a little differently". This is one of five generic topics that my Year 10s must respond to. I'm trying to teach them to write well structured introductions including at least three general points that they'll develop in the bodies of their essays.<br />
<br />
I hadn't read Chris' novel but knew vaguely that it was about the Holocaust. I took a stab at an answer. Suggested he could write about those awful perennial themes, survival, racism, inhumanity, good versus evil. He seemed satisfied with this and set about writing his essay. I'd also asked if I could borrow his book, given several students had expressed an interest in reading it.<br />
<br />
Well, Chris, your old teacher started reading your book on Friday evening and was easily engaged, as one is by an apparently simple driving narrative. I finished it this morning and I have to say it's made me see the world a little differently.<br />
<br />
The simple narrative cleverly belies the wisdom and strength of this story. It is the story of 9 year old Bruno, whose quite self-satisfied life is somewhat spoiled when he, his small family and their servants are transported to 'OutWith' as he pronounces the unfamiliar Polish word Auschwitz. However, at Auschwitz he is on the protected side of the fence, his father being the camp commandant. Bruno's naive remarks on his life in what becomes his new home are profoundly ironic.<br />
<br />
<i>The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas</i> has given me another poignant indelible impression of the horror, injustice and cruelty of the Holocaust. I highly recommend that you read it. (Having done a bit of Googling myself, I'm thinking I'm perhaps the only English teacher around who hasn't read it.)<br />
<br />
Chris, thanks for putting up with my plagiarism lecture, cos you were subjected to it too on Friday arvo. I'm really moved that you remembered I'd said I'd like to read your book. You've reminded me why I love both reading and teaching. (And you know how I said you might really appreciate Markus Zusak's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_Thief"><i>The Book Thief</i></a>? I'm sure you would.)<br />
<br />Judith Middlemarchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07285709209953730580noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16293137.post-42482680751171796342013-02-20T12:22:00.002+11:002013-02-20T12:22:48.606+11:00Walking target: an apple for the teacherAll teaching staff have been issued with fluoro vests. These must be worn when one is on yard duty. I've already written about <a href="http://fraudulentteacher.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/fruit-watch-another-side-of-secondary.html">yard duty/aka fruit watch</a>. Well, I'm on duty in the same area this year<br />
<br />
'Prin Class', as it likes to be known, has added to our pleasure by increasing our visibility whilst we're on patrol. Suppose this helps the friend of the kid who's having an anaphylactic reaction to find me in a crowd.<br />
Teachers do compulsory anaphylaxis training annually. A good thing. As a parent, I'd want to know that teachers knew first aid in this event. I'm not knocking it.<br />
<br />
But as a teacher on duty, I'm highly visible anyway, given I'm in my mid-fifties - albeit with dyed hair. Perhaps I could be mistaken for a dumpy, jowly girl with a dowager's hump? Oh, hang on. I'm not wearing a <i>school uniform. </i>I'm possibly going to be visible as I amble around the yard with my tongs and beatific smile. As I've previously written, kids easily find me when they want someone to hide behind when another kid's chasing them.<br />
<br />
Yesterday I experienced my second real assault, in 32 years of teaching. I'm naming the beast. It was an assault. I may be mistaken, but I think my fluoro vest turned me into a target. As I walked through my little slice of the danger zone I was pelted, at close range and with considerable force, by a 'projectile'. I'm reluctant to say it was a piece of fruit cos it sounds so freaking benign and ridiculous.<br />
<br />
That apple for the teacher really hurt, so much so that tears sprouted on impact. I turned to see who'd thrown it but just faced a row of hefty 'innocent' year 10 boys, none of whom I teach. Had I known them, it wouldn't have happened.<br />
<br />
I was unable to take any retributive action against the culprit, who simply had the delight of seeing he'd hit his target and that his target was really angry and hurt. What a hero.<br />
<br />
I went in search of a fluoro vested colleague. Lucky he was wearing it cos I'd never have identified him by the business attire, tongs - de rigueur for prin class on duty - and sun glinting off his bald pate.<br />
<br />
He bawled out all the kids in the area, but basically they got away with it. Trouble is, you can't identify your assailant (and issue a 5 day suspension) when it hits you from behind. And of course, none of the kids saw anything.<br />
<br />
I felt like packing in teaching. Had I driven to school, instead of cycling, I would have taken the rest of the day off. I was shaky and profoundly hurt by the incident. In my time I've stepped between warring boys and grabbed them by the shirt-fronts, narrowly avoiding being clouted in the process. But that's not about me. I don't think yesterday's incident was particularly about me either. I was just 'generic teacher'. <br />
<br />
My assault yesterday was about disrespect. Made it really hard for me to teach my year 9s and 10s for the next two lessons. But I'm okay now. I got to document it on <a href="http://www.education.vic.gov.au/hr/ohs/edusafe.htm">Edusafe</a>, so everything's all right, isn't it? I've got my day off to get over it.<br />
<br />Judith Middlemarchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07285709209953730580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16293137.post-69447818883596051982013-02-12T16:31:00.001+11:002013-02-12T16:32:11.885+11:00Help! I can't teach but I've been practising for 32 years.I read lots of inspiring educational blogs. I find them through Twitter, or other people's blogs. I also read lots of educational articles. All these wonderful things are happening in these other educators' classes. It both inspires and overwhelms me. I began my day reading the wonderful things that are happening in <a href="http://richlambert.edublogs.org/">Rich Lambert's</a> school. I was put to shame before I'd even had my breakfast.<br />
<br />
I must confess that no one really learned anything in the past 75 minute period I spent with my Year 9s. I know that for a couple of reasons: <br />
1. My feeling of despair as I charged around the room, vainly trying to keep abreast of what 19 kids were variously doing on their brand new free government issue netbooks. <br />
2. I asked them at the end of the lesson. 'Put your hand up,' I demanded, 'if you've learned anything this period.' Shrugs. General uninterest. Resumption of various conversations that I'd briefly interrupted with my stupid question. One boy did say he'd learned how to create a Google account. Suppose that's something.<br />
<br />
The teacher's aide - I have 3 integration kids in the mix - shuffled past me to get out the door early but the kids weren't going anywhere.<br />
<br />
With about a minute til the bell, I asked students, as I do, to put their chairs up and stand behind their seats. I was blocking the doorway and shooing kids back to their places, because some try to barge past me and make a run for it.<br />
<br />
Seeing that all the chairs are up, the desks are straightened and the rubbish generated by a class full of 14 year olds is in the bin, I release them. No one learned anything, but at least they left the classroom tidy.<br />
<br />
The lack of learning resulted from a number of things:<br />
1. New computers. I'm hoping the novelty will wear off, that we'll get a couple of decent routines happening and that I'll be able to teach the class.<br />
2. It's a new year and the class dynamic hasn't found its level yet.<br />
<br />
Another big problem for me this year is the texts that have been booklisted. Won't mention company names here, but a 'package' of texts, complete with hard copy dictionaries and thesauruses, was on the booklist. It seems to me that no one closely investigated these texts, back when booklist decisions were made. (That's a bother, isn't it?) The books include their own unique codes so kids can join an internet site and access the entire book and a couple of lame games on line. And of course, the texts are related to AusVELS.<br />
<br />
You know what though? I'm not sure that my particular kids, who've reached age 14 with no real exposure to grammar, are going to see any benefit from being able to identify phrasal verbs, gerunds and the future perfect continuous tense. My throat closes over just thinking about it. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Judith Middlemarchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07285709209953730580noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16293137.post-45903424240369509162012-10-25T18:11:00.001+11:002012-10-25T18:11:31.928+11:00Shakespeare's sonnets with middle school studentsExperienced a little frisson this morning as I was preparing for my year 8 poetry lessons. Shakespeare telepathically communicated with me from somewhere circa 1590. He was talking to me.<br />
<br />
In my youth I wasn't a big fan of Shakespeare. I enjoyed Macbeth in Form 5, taught by a great teacher. At fifteen, I also liked the idea that I was studying Shakespeare. But more or less left to my own devices in Form 6, through a special combination of my own ignorance, immaturity and an uninspiring first year out teacher, Othello was pretty much lost on me. I'm better now, you may be glad to hear, given I've been teaching English for over 30 years.<br />
<br />
My copy of Shakespeare's sonnets is a Signet Classic. In 1975 I covered it in some recycled plastic. The plastic has a red RCA records logo on it. I'd saved it from some throw out pile when I was a sales assistant at John Clements Records in the city. Melbourne, that is. Loved that holiday job. Was actually sad to leave when I finished my degree and had to start teaching. (Sorry, can't remain focused and don't really care. Just saying.)<br />
<br />
The pages of my Signet Classic are 'maiden' - see paragraph 2 - and yellowing with time. There's an irony there, if you're familiar with Shakespeare's sonnets. That tyrant Time, 'Devouring Time', has been at my little book, and the rest of me.<br />
<br />
I've been 'doing' some poetry with my year 8s. I always like to begin this work, as you do, by getting the students to write out the lyrics of a song they like that they can remember, or look up on their phones. This really appeals to most of them, despite my 'no profanity' clause. (Have to explain what profanity is, but that's okay. Vocab development.) I tell them they can choose anything, even a nursery rhyme - sad how many kids don't know what they are (and these same kids watch <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underbelly_%28TV_series%29"><i>Underbelly</i></a> and other unsuitable stuff on their own in their rooms). I tell them they can even choose the theme from a television show. <br />
<br />
To demonstrate I sang the theme from <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfR7qxtgCgY"><i>Gilligan's Island</i></a><i> - </i>a ballad? They loved that, and how surprised they were to hear me singing, quite tunefully and going the full soprano on the last line. Have to say it took some courage to sing the whole song, complete with swaying motions when the weather started getting rough. <br />
<br />
The kids didn't mock me. They clearly enjoyed the show and understood the task. I told them they could sing their lyrics if they felt confident.<br />
<br />
They also listened respectfully when I recited Vanessa Amorosi's <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kS_HN5WGLRw"><i>Shine</i></a>, especially given I'd told them that her original refrain had been 'Everyone you see, everyone you know is going to die'. Considered too dark, apparently, hence the change to something quite different, if perhaps less striking. Or so I've heard.<br />
<br />
So the students wrote their song lyrics and recited or sang their lines in front of the whole class. Quite confronting for them. A few students opted out but most had a go. My theme was that words have power. Even a pair of students reciting Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star created a certain mood and presence when they took turns to say each word. They added value to the words and the student audience could tell.<br />
<br />
One boy with a lovely voice sang Bruno Mars' <i><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SR6iYWJxHqs">Grenade</a></i>. The audience was moved by his rendition and easily able to appreciate the power of the imagery in the words. I was able to segue into a talk about the pain of unrequited love; how so many songs - so much poetry - is about these human emotions.<br />
<br />
Which led me to dig out my old Signet Classic and read a few sonnets; wonder whether I could possibly read these arcane verses with my year 8s, many of whom are below their expected <a href="http://vels.vcaa.vic.edu.au › Standards">VELS </a>level in reading and writing. <br />
<br />
I photocopied sonnets 16 to 19 on one A4 page for the students and searched for some translations on-line. Too easy. It was <a href="http://www.nosweatshakespeare.com/sonnets/18/">sonnet 18</a> that worked its magic on me. I had shivers and tears sprouted, because there was Shakespeare's adoration for his love, and his love alive in his words, just as he said it would be. Shakespeare writing it back there in 1590 something, and me thrilling to it in 2012. Felt amazing.<br />
<br />
And what's more, my year 8s, who've never heard any Shakespeare before and often struggle with the simplest text, were moved by the words and the experience. They listened respectfully to my very brief history of Shakespeare's times and enjoyed the sound of the words in the sonnets. <br />
<br />
Once more Shakespeare was immortalising his love down through time.<br />
<br />
It worked.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Judith Middlemarchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07285709209953730580noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16293137.post-33280778525978900592012-09-02T12:29:00.004+10:002012-09-02T12:29:58.373+10:00Fruit watch. Another side of secondary teaching.Best to keep on the move on yard duty, twenty-five minutes of which I endure each week. (Full-time teachers get more.) Even better to grab some barbecue tongs and a bucket and pick up kids' rubbish. The time goes more quickly, the yard gets cleaned up and I can avoid engaging too closely with some of the bestial behaviour one is sure to encounter on one's tour.<br />
<br />
But on this particular Friday, fate had other plans for me.<br />
<br />
Morning briefing.<br />
"Teachers on yard duty in Zone A need to be particularly vigilant. Especially at recess. We've had some serious fruit throwing incidents." That's the principal speaking. He does a spoonerism on fruit-throwing and laughs at his tongue trip. It is hard to say fruit-throwing fast.<br />
<br />
Guess who's on yard duty in Zone A at recess.<br />
<br />
I'm to plant myself amongst the picnic tables and watch for rogue Year 10 fruit throwers. Great. Standing still on yard duty invites confrontation with randoms: kids who don't know me and don't care that I Am A Respected Former VCE English Guru and Coordinator. Kids will generally utilise me as they see fit.<br />
<br />
On good days, especially when the sun's shining, some kids will bail me up for the simple pleasure of a catch up. I love that. <br />
<br />
Other days, I can be a prop in whatever boisterous game they're playing.<br />
<br />
"Miss! Miss! Did you see what he did?" they cry as they climb up each other. I'm also 'barley'; the safety zone. If a kid's chasing you, run behind 'Miss'; dodge behind her, grab her by her hips and whip her around, your human shield preventing your assailant from catching you. That's me. Buffer zone. No matter that buffer zone is a 56 year old woman.<br />
<br />
That's all good; part of what I signed on for back in 1974 when I accepted my studentship and guarantee of three years work in one of our state secondary schools. Thirty-two years later...<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">But on this particular TGIF, I am stuck guarding Zone A, at recess. I'm eating an apple. Several teachers scurry by on their way to the refuge of the staff room. "Now don't throw that apple core!" They all say words to that effect; wagging fingers. Hilarious. </span><br />
<br />
I'm already attracting student attention. A couple of big boys gawp at me and laugh. I resist flipping them the bird. <br />
<br />
My problem? I can't ignore all the blatant littering going on around me when there are three big green bins in the immediate area.<br />
<br />
Girls are generally more discreet than boys. Girls gather in groups on the very expensive and quite aesthetically pleasing fake lawn. (Seriously, this stuff works.)<br />
<br />
They cross their ankles and lower themselves effortlessly to the ground as thirteen year old girls are wont to do. Some hands are thrust deep into those little multipack snack bags. They blithely drop empty bags by their sides and let the breeze have them. Or they stand simultaneously and walk away, leaving a circle of tetra packs, orange peel, half eaten apples and sandwiches. <br />
<br />
"Girls! Pop your rubbish in the bin, thanks!" I have to shout over school yard noise but my tone is polite.<br />
"That's not ours. It was there when we got here." They're all stunned by my rude accusation. "Is she serious?? Oh my god!! Get a life!!"<br />
"Put it in the bin! Now!"<br />
<br />
They sullenly comply, casting me filthy looks, muttering. <br />
<br />
How dare I demand that they put their own rubbish in the bin? Clearly I'm deranged and a Big Bitch to boot.<br />
<br />
If I have somehow communicated that this school yard interaction is benign, it's not. You have to really stand your ground. Doesn't affect everyone like this, but my little heart will be thudding in my chest. It's a battle of wills. Yes, I know. I could just ignore it, and often I do. But yesterday I was stuck there.<br />
<br />
That was when a portly boy strolled down the steps. He threw the lid of his icecream cup vaguely towards the bin. Suppose I should have just given him credit for trying and picked it up myself. But I didn't.<br />
<br />
"You missed," I say. Well, he's had eye contact with the hapless teacher on fruit watch. What could I do? "Go back and put it in the bin."<br />
<br />
He keeps swaggering towards his group of mates, all the time, eye-balling me.<br />
<br />
I step towards him to block his path. "You can either pick up your own rubbish, or you can clean up this whole area."<br />
<br />
Reluctantly he backs up. leans down and hurls the lid into bin, snarling at me now. He stomps to his group who've been watching the show, which unfortunately must go on. He scoops a huge spoonful of icecream and plops it onto the fake lawn. <br />
<br />
"Clean it up."<br />
"No." He's huge; towers over me. The crowd closes around me and Mr Plop, who continues to defy me. <br />
<br />
My hackles rise as I'm taunted by twelve year olds, none of whom I can put a name to. My arms are out now, clearing a space around me. I order them off.<br />
<br />
"Coordinator's office. Now." Mr Plop stands his ground. I reach behind him and steer him in the appropriate direction.<br />
"Get your hands off me!" this gruff giant threatens.<br />
"Yeah, what are you going to do?"<br />
<br />
Without further physical contact I barrel the kid along the gauntlet of year 7s who part in front of him, with his melting strawberry swirl in one hand and his plastic spoon in the other.<br />
<br />
He sits outside the coordinator's office and I feel ridiculous explaining the situation to the twenty-something male coordinator - who's in his second year of teaching, BTW, but, you know, he's the Year 7 coordinator; he has power - and a shitload of work that he's welcome to.<br />
<br />
Mr Plop, true to form, denies any transgression.<br />
"So you're calling me a liar?" I demand.<br />
"Yes," he sneers.<br />
"Leave it with me," says my young champion. <br />
<br />
I trail off back to fruit watch, dragging my dignity behind me. Definitely didn't win that one.<br />
<br />
Bet Mr Plop is in my class next year.<br />
<br />
First world problems.<br />
<br />
<br />Judith Middlemarchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07285709209953730580noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16293137.post-44629403847978586162012-08-18T13:47:00.001+10:002012-08-18T13:47:36.367+10:00PD workshop worked; Edmodo, Wallwisher and Changing the Paradigms<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875);">Even though the business of education is teaching kids, I find it a relief when they aren't actually in the school.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875);">Not that I don't generally enjoy teaching. It's just that one never knows how much stress - ie. shit - one is likely to incur in each 75 minute period. So Thursday, the day before a pupil free day, felt like a Friday, and Friday, Curriculum Day, felt like a gift; a junket.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875);">First mid-year curriculum day we've had for a while, like most Victorian state schools. For the last four years, under a different state government, the curriculum days had all been bunched up at the start of the school year. I've found that arrangement wanting. Lots of time wasting for various reasons. And I'm quite cynical too, in case you hadn't noticed. Most of the PD offerings at school have seemed to me to be 'under-graduate' and I'm too long in the tooth for that. There have been exceptions, of course. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875);"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875);">Today's focus was ICT. Given all our year 9s and 10s have been issued with notebook computers, this was timely. <a href="http://fraudulentteacher.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/fahrenheit-451-welcome-to-my-year-10.html">As I've said</a>, I'm keen to use the computers with my year 10s more effectively, even if it does mean assessing student work on-line. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875);"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875);">The day began inauspiciously when 80 plus of us crammed into the learning centre. The principal had made a powerpoint. The screen was so low as to prevent all bar those in its immediate vicinity from being able to see it. I struggle with my eyesight at the best of times so that first half hour was literally a blur with me twisting, squinting and craning to see between the heads and shoulders of my colleagues. Something about how we're no longer preparing students for one life-long career; things have changed. To be honest, I don't remember much other than writing a note to my mate asking her if she thought I'd had my hair cut too short. I did notice a student teacher opposite earnestly taking notes with a fountain pen. Or perhaps she's already learned my trick of 'journaling' whilst feigning interest in the proceedings. Just keep that brow furrowed, nod occasionally and incline your head in the direction of the speaker. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875);">Next hour for me was a KLA - Key Learning Area, ie. Faculty - meeting. More of the same, but not too bad now I'm not the coordinator. Time to 'booklist' texts for next year. Same old discussion. Basically, the sixteen or so members of the English KLA have divergent tastes for various reasons. What some want to teach others want to drop and vice versa. I no longer care. I can 'teach' anything unlike some of my colleagues who fear setting a new text that may not have a prepared assignment. Sheesh.</span><br />
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During the next part of the program we'd elected to attend one of three ICT sessions. Unfortunately, before we could get started we all had to herd into the learning centre again for a useless ten minutes of the curriculum coordinator needlessly providing a summary of the contents of all three workshops. Why? Why not just send us our separate ways so we can get on with it? Power trip?<br />
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Happily, after this my day picked up. My workshop was led by three male science teachers, two of whom don't ordinarily lead. That was refreshing; different. One is my vintage and one of my friends on staff. So good to see someone who's seen it all, with 30 years of teaching experience, rolling creatively with the changes. The second speaker is probably in his forties but is still a 'beginning' teacher. (I could be doing this guy a disservice. I'm estimating his age based on his bald head and a five o' clock shadow that developed into a full beard during a two hour session. Yes, I know. Irrelevant, but nonetheless remarkable.) The third presenter is probably around 30 with perhaps four years teaching under his belt. </div>
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Basically, the three of them prompted in me a storm of emotions and ideas concerning the way I teach. I felt variously like an absolute beginner, an anachronism, borderline redundant and, happily, capable of changing and improving the way I teach some of my students. (Not all.)</div>
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They began their session with a short film, <a href="http://www.thersa.org/events/video/animate/rsa-animate-changing-paradigms">Changing the Paradigms</a>. (Perhaps you've seen this <a href="http://www.thersa.org/events/rsaanimate">RSA Animate</a> film already. Perhaps I'm the only teacher in Australia that hasn't seen it. Highly recommended.) It made a lot of sense. Based on a lecture by <a href="http://sirkenrobinson.com/skr/">Sir Ken Robinson</a>, it's one of those powerful, assertive pieces that seduces the viewer with its matter-of-fact confident tone. We didn't discuss the assertions in the film; it wasn't that sort of a workshop. But it's something I wouldn't mind doing in the future. </div>
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One thing posited in the film was the alleged 'epidemic' of ADHD and the consequential anaesthetising, with Ritalin and the like, of so many kids. Robinson suggested, I think, a link between the hyper-stimulation of the 21st century and the phenomenon of ADHD. Not so sure. Those hyper-active easily distracted disruptive boys - usually - were certainly around, unmedicated, when I began teaching in the late 1970s. I also remember how savagely they were beaten back in primary school in the 1960s, subduing all but the most extreme by my high school days in the late 60s and early 70s. Those boys continued to get 'the cuts' regularly, administered by the principal, who strode around our western suburbs school in his academic gown. Think it's more a case of some parents these days needing to 'pathologise' their kids' unorthodox behaviour and having the means to do so, given the willingness of medicos to prescribe Ritalin etc. (I say this knowing my own son would have been beaten to a pulp by those strap and cane wielding school masters of my youth had he been born a generation earlier.)</div>
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The point? This film made me think about things, rather than sitting cynically feeling my time was being wasted, and it led appropriately into learning about what seem to be potentially more effective ways of teaching my year 10s.</div>
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I'd chosen this particular workshop because it was about using <a href="http://www.edmodo.com/">Edmodo</a>, an educational Facebook of sorts. But I also learned about <a href="http://wallwisher.com/">Wallwisher</a>, a web program that could enhance the way note-making occurs during discussions with year 10s. </div>
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Love it when I learn something new, but I especially love it when presenters recognise that we're all teachers already and they take it to the next level. All three presenters spoke efficiently - I could learn something there! They didn't jaw on for the love of the sounds of their own voices; no time wasting. They showed us the programs and got started. It was easy to access the on-line tutorials and videos they'd prepared to explore the media. Meanwhile, they modelled effective teaching by roving and assisting as required. </div>
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It was very good, so much so that I, and many of my colleagues, turned up early after lunch for the second part of the workshop so we could get on with it.</div>
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Now to develop a bit of expertise and put it all into practice. That just might help my year 10s. My year 8s? Na-ah. That's a whole nother blog. </div>
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BTW, I hadn't heard of the brilliant <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html">Sir Ken Robinson</a>. It was worth going to school yesterday for that pleasure alone.<br />
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Judith Middlemarchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07285709209953730580noreply@blogger.com1