Showing posts with label secondary. Show all posts

Wearing two hats

by Pinelopi Zaka (pinelopi.zaka@gmail.com, @paz11uc)

With the beginning of the new school year down under, teachers set their own new goals and many decide to apply some new strategies. For some this might involve using ICT and perhaps trying out blended online approaches that combine both online and face-to-face teaching and learning. In New Zealand and worldwide blended education is a fast developing area that is expected to continue growing, especially in kiwi schools with the rollout of UFB. This is an exciting opportunity to experiment with new tools and approaches, but also to motivate teachers to take one step further and investigate how they and their students experience the whole process, through research. Here are some of the reasons:

Knowing yourself! Through the process of researching your own class you wear two hats – that of the teacher and that of the researcher. This twofold role helps you to continuously self-reflect on what you are doing as a teacher and why you are doing it.

Knowing your students! Similarly to knowing yourself, through research you investigate your context in a more systematic way. You collect and analyse your data from your students, either through interviews, surveys or observations in a thoroughly designed way, preferably informed by the literature and other studies looking into similar topics.

Improving your teaching! While you research your class you collect lots of evidence regarding the success or not of your approaches. It is an ongoing process where, at any stage, you can adapt your practices, change your approaches, use different tools or do anything else that you think might improve your students’ experience.

Sharing your results and your learning journey! Nobody can deny how great the feeling of sharing is. Learning about what other teachers did, how they did it and what the results were is always interesting for educators who want to improve students’ learning experiences. A presentation at your school’s staffroom, a poster at a conference, or even better a published article in a research journal, are a few ways to communicate your class story to inspire others and contribute to the body of knowledge for the improvement of teaching and learning. Even if you think that your results are not that impressive, the learning journey you went through and your growth as a teacher is something that is definitely worth sharing!

Resources:

Photo by Jonathan_W
Educators sharing their stories through the CORE Education community
Educators publishing their research in Computers in New Zealand Schools: Learning, Teaching, Technology
New Zealand Council for Educational Research
Enabling e-Learning - Research and Readings
Riel, M. (2010). Understanding Action Research, Center For Collaborative Action Research. Pepperdine University

Opening your classroom to the world

by Pinelopi Zaka (pinelopi.zaka@gmail.com, @paz11uc)

Many teachers are using blogs in the classroom, exploring their unique potential to engage learners through sharing their work with a real audience. A recent article in the online journal Computers in New Zealand Schools: Learning, Teaching, Technology gives an example of using blogs in a primary classroom from the teacher’s point of view. Gillian May started blogging with her students at the beginning of this school year and through her article she unveils some of the unique advantages that this had for her as a teacher and her students. Some of them include:

· Strengthening home – school connections, by enabling families to have access to student learning.

“Our class blog has changed the way our classroom operates and it has improved the link between home and school beyond our wildest dreams”.

· Enhancing student engagement, by motivating them to share their learning with a real audience.

“It gives the students ownership but more importantly it gives their learning real-life purpose that means something to them.”

Sara Kajder talks about the potential of emerging technologies such as blogs to provide students the opportunity to write for a real audience, share their learning and become active members of online communities (Kajder, 2007). Not many years ago, the web was a place where people could find and retrieve information. Now, the read/write web gives everyone a voice and instead of passively consuming information we can actively create it through online collaboration (Richardson, 2006).

As teachers, we have the responsibility, but also the power to teach students how to effectively and responsibly take advantage of these opportunities that the read/write web offers. Teachers don’t need sophisticated computer knowledge to do that. As Gillian May said

"Prior t o June 2010 I had no experience with blogging. I was introduced to the idea at a professional development session, and decided that I might have a play with setting up my own class blog”.

Trial and error is probably the best way to do it! As we experiment with new tools and as we observe the advantages, especially with student engagement and motivation, but also with parents' involvement in student learning, we get further motivated to continue. Of course, the more we commit to it, the more sensitive we need to become on consequent implication, such as privacy, security and ownership; the web provides many opportunities for professional development about these issues. Lifelong learning - isn't it?

Resources:

Photo by Cathy Cassidy
Kajder, S., B. (2007). Unleashing potential with emerging technologies. In K. Beers, R., E., Probst & L., Rief (Eds.). Adolescent literacy: Turning promose into practice (pp.213-229). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
May G., (2011). A teacher’s experience of using blogs. Computers in New Zealand Schools: Learning, teaching, technology. Vol. 23, No. 2.
Richardson, W. (2006). Blogs, wikis and podcasts and other powerful web tools for classrooms. Chapter 1: The read/write web. Thousand Oaks, Ca: Corwin Press.
Open content licencing for educators: A free online workshop designed for educators who want to learn more about open education resources, copyright, and creative commons licences. 23-27 January, 2012.

Mangakahia Area School win gold

A Northland area school has scooped up a prestigious gold medal in environmental education.

Congratulations to Mangakahia Area School for their win.
"The caretaker suggested the students were trying to put him out of work. They have managed to reduce the volume of waste going to their local rubbish transfer station from one ute-load a week down to one every three weeks."
The environment is such a precious resource. There are so many schools doing so much in the way of promoting recycling and engaging the community in 'Making the world a little cleaner, and greener'

Further information:

100 Ways to Save The Environment - A neat way to prompt class discussion and social action.
Education for sustainability- Enviroschools newsletter and information.
Waste education for schools - some initiatives for schools to get involved with.

Literacy to You

CORE Education in conjunction with South Pacific Press have developed a new online professional learning programme which begins shortly. The Literacy to You programme focuses on increasing teacher knowledge of how to effectively teach reading comprehension strategies to students in the middle years (ages 8-13).

The Literacy to You programme offers each participant:

10 modules on in-depth literacy learning
Individual support and feedback from expert facilitators
Access to a wide range of digital texts for classroom use
Strategies to increase student engagement
Instruction to meet the needs of diverse classroom settings
Increased knowledge on interaction and reflection during literacy
Practical classroom approaches grounded in the latest research

Find out and Register here

Does lack of fluency in te reo make you a bad teacher?

A quick straw poll from NZHerald has shown that the majority of readers agree with the President of the Secondary Principals Association when he poo-pooed the idea of making Te Reo compulsory for all secondary school teachers.

As sad it as it may be but the older one becomes the harder it is to learn and maintain a second language. To make your ability to know and speak Te Reo a reflection of how great a physics teacher you are seems nonsense.

The idea is noble, the implementation complicated and questionable, the cost involved, huge. This would become a massive time commitment for staff with the potential of such damage to educators credibility that some would become further disheartened by the profession. Then it could sway so much with the political climate that it becomes an unreal expectation.

Current teacher training institutions deliver Te Reo and Maori studies as compulsory units toward a teaching degree, ensuring new grads have an awareness of the language at the very least if they have not been able to become fluent.

Asking my 58 year old Chemistry teacher to become fluent goes way beyond reasonable expectations.

Further reading:

Te Reo training needs resourcing

Principals welcome compulsory te reo

NZC Online

NZC Online has a newsletter which comes out regularly. I have identified a few lead stories but there is far more contained within each newsletter than I can reproduce here.

School stories

The NZC Online team interviewed educators at Learning@School 2011 in Rotorua about the curriculum based workshops they were presenting at conference.
Willowbank curriculum map
Jane Danielson and Julie Cowan explain how they used a map analogy to guide their curriculum development, because on a map you can go to different places, get to different points, take detours, and take different ways of travelling.

Middle schooling

Once Upon a School is a site designed to collect stories of how individuals engage with their local schools. This is a global project, inviting people to share their own stories of how 'private' individuals connect with 'public' schools.
EDtalks: Using teaching as inquiry to guide an eLearning action plan
Claire Amos is Director of eLearning at Epsom Girls' Grammar. Claire talks about how the school is using a 'teaching as inquiry' cycle to inform the eLearning action plans that will be implemented by professional learning groups in each of the school's curriculum areas.
Youth Mentoring Network - He Ara Tika
He Ara Tika is a programme that mentors Māori students, and is run by the Youth Mentoring Trust. A Gisborne secondary school has picked up this programme and, instead of using it to focus on Māori students, they have used it to give all students from year 10 upwards a teacher mentor. These mentors become the first port of call for parents, and follow the students right through their schooling.

Secondary

Secondary Education Gazette stories
These articles have a secondary focus and are published in the New Zealand Education Gazette. Each link will take you through to the story on the Education Gazette website.
Secondary Literacy Website
The new secondary literacy website has been launched on Literacy Online. It provides literacy in the learning area; leading literacy in your school; professional readings; links to Literacy Progressions, NZC, ELLP; NCEA and literacy; and much more.
Understanding NCEA: A relatively short and very useful guide for secondary school students and their parents
New from NZCER, this book explains the NCEA system in plain language and includes stories drawn from the real-life experiences of students who have followed different NCEA pathways.

Getting to grips with teenage issues

Sir Peter Gluckman, says one in five young New Zealanders will face problems as they grow up that will affect the rest of their lives.

There are many issues facing teens today:

Suicide
Drinking
Pregnancy
Drug use
Depression

The teenage years are associated with high risk taking. That is a natural part of growing up but it is the skills and abilities that New Zealand teenagers lack that is such a concern.

Sir Peter Gluckman releases the report stating that, compared internationally, New Zealand teenagers are in pretty poor shape.

"The solutions rely largely on preventative approaches very early in life, particularly in early childhood education years," he said.

It is essential that children as young as 2 or 3 are supported and encouraged by caregivers. The development and growth of self esteem is essential to how teenagers can cope with the issues and pressures they face. Positive self-image leads to good self-esteem and confidence in ones ability and worth. These, with the appropriate support network,s strengthen the develop self-control and the ability to act ethically and morally when faced with challenges and choices.

Gluckman hopes with the evidence included in the report, decision makers and society can set about what has been described as an "unacceptably high level of poor social and health outcomes for our young people".

The report will be released later today and further links will appear below:

Child Protection Training Programme adds new dates

South Auckland – 18-22 July
Central Auckland 25-27 July
North Shore 7-11 November

Further details...

New Zealand is one of the only OECD countries that does not have mandatory child protection training for people working with children. Many of the key people in NZ working with children have not had sufficient training in knowing how to identify suspected child abuse and act confidently. Professional training in child protection WILL make you more effective in keeping children safe

Staff PD is now cost effective

CORE Education are responding to a need schools have for accessible professional learning and development (PLD).
Far too often the shrinking time and budget puts pay to professional development but CORE Achieve seeks to address this problem with their innovative, flexible courses.

The internet provides a range of delivery methods, both synchronously and synchronously, which CORE have tapped into.

The courses are modulor and can be delivered to individuals or a whole staff via the online environment.

“Achieve allows individual teachers to study their choice of topic at a time and place suitable to them, with the focus being on participation, collaboration and interaction rather than just delivery.”

Don't forget to register.

Things to do:
Discover CORE’s approach to PLD
Find out more about cost effective PLD
Register with CORE Achieve.

Our kids should be choosing life

FEELING disconnected from Pakeha culture heightened the risk of suicide among young Maori, an international study found. Reported the SundayNews

click to enlarge

The article is written in such an emotive way as to enflame the debate over Maori youth.
Perhaps the figures indicating that Maori youth suicide is effectively double what it should be, representing 20% casualties. However, there was no reference to the remaining 80% and how they breakdown in terms of ethnicity.

Disappointingly, there is only quoted reference to the study carried out by Terryann Clark. I for one would have liked to have gone and read some of the source material.

I’m not saying Maori youth suicide is not a tragedy. Far from it. Youth suicide is tragic period. I mourn the loss of a single life from such a totally preventable manner.

There is clearly a disconnect between many youth and their parents. Without the feeling of unconditional love that we can only receive from our parents then life can be brutal. Friends are friends, but they still can let us down. Teachers play their role as do social workers and pastoral care workers, yet still it is the closeness of family that really counts.

Kids need to feel wanted and needed. Even during times when they themselves refuse to acknowledge that need. Through the good and the bad family needs to be there.

Today’s families look very different to those a few years back. But regardless of what a kids family is made up of they need that safe place to be alone. To be with those who will love them regardless. Provided that ‘home’ is a supportive place then we all can bear the trials of the wild-world outside.

Let us all love, support and care for those kids in our care.

Useful link:
Teenage suicides- OECD report (87.6k, pdf) Last updated 20/12/2010

Cyber-Safety: What can you and your school do?

Brett Lee is fast becoming a leading expert on Cyber-safety and what young people need to be aware of while navigating social media sites.
His unique experience in the cyber-crime unit enables him to share with teachers and parents some of the dangers facing students today and some of the simple precautions they can take.

Back in February he was the keynote speaker at Learning@Schools conference in Rotorua. View his keynote address below.

Things to do:
Use Brett's keynote to provoke staff meeting discussion this term.
Book Brett to visit your staff and parents
Subscribe to Edtalks
Subscribe to Brett’s newsletter
Join the Software for Learning discussion about Facebook

Dr James Hansen - Tour

"Human-made climate change:

a scientific, moral and legal issue"

Dr James Hansen

Head of Nasa's Goddard Science Institute

Given the inevitible CO2 impact that would follow were the current focus on coal and oil exploitation to go ahead as a panacea for our nation's financial challenges, Hansen's visit is an opportunity for the local climate change/global warming conversation to have a champion of excellent scientific credentials who has been asked to explain the risks to several White House incumbents.

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