Gendered education

Coasting around some teaching resources I came across this blog post from an educator in Thailand who is connected to an international school.

The author has been looking into boys education and they're concerned with the way education seems to have been benefiting girls in the past few decades. He says:

...the evidence has been emerging around the world since the late 90’s showing that boys are struggling in school far more than their fathers’ ever did. The evidence shows that "girls on average outperform boys in school, when measured by report card grades, in most subjects and in all age groups."

I don't know if these grades are against criteria or against groups, but there are a lot of factors that could skew these results. For instance, in my father's generation, students who were typically non-academic would have left in Year 8 and gone onto (respected) career-specific training, thus removing themselves from the cohort who would contribute to this kind of data. These days non-academic students are kept in school and their contributions may create a lower average. There're also the changes in teacher education and possibly generational attitudes towards genders and how teacher might grade a student's understanding. Although I don't understand how this kind of skewing could be accounted for in statistics, I am trusting it's been absorbed and suitable allowances made.

Now, I've read a few things about gender and gender issues in education, but I haven't written much on the matter. So please bare with me as I bash out my gut feelings about this***. These are the areas that the author is discussing. They seem to be sourced from some texts on the topic. I'm going to group them into two areas: differences that can be quantified and differences that are hard to quantify.

Areas that I think can be quantified:

• Girls are born with more sensitive hearing than boys and this difference increases with age.
• Girls develop a link between the amygdala and the cerebral cortex much earlier than boys.
• There is apparently a difference in the anatomy of the eye in which the male retina is thicker than a female’s due to cell composition. This leads to preferences regarding colours and motion.
• ... males and females navigate differently and will give directions using different words.
• And one I'm tentative about: ...boys tend to be ready later for being introduced to the skills of reading and writing than girls. This is most probably due to the fact that boys and girls brains develop in a different sequence

Areas that I think are hard to quantify:

• Boys and girls like to read different types of books because of the way their brain develops. Girls enjoy fiction, short stories and novels....Boys on the other hand prefer nonfiction, action books with strong male characters who often act as brave heroes.
• Boys and girls have different perspectives about friendships. Girls enjoy spending time together, face to face, talking and sharing secrets and self disclosure. Whereas boys friendships tend to develop out of shared interest in a game or activity.
• Males are innately more aggressive than females due to the hormone testosterone. Boys enjoy ‘rough and tumble’ play fighting as it releases aggression, whereas girls do not have this need.
• Boys find risks irresistible, they admire others who take risks and get a thrill from physically risky activities.

So about half the differences of concern are, in my non-psychologically-qualified opinion, very difficult to measure. As far as gathering evidence goes, how these conclusions can possibly be separated from a child's training and cultural influence concerns me. So I shall go through these assertions with these disclosures*:

• Types of books: In my class, on average, there are a few more boys than girls who enjoy war stories, and the Horrible Histories. The war stories ones are clearly pitched at boys, though, so it's hard to gauge what's causing that preference.
  However, series that are about child spies, or apocalyptic situations where violence or death are involved, are enjoyed equally by boys and girls. The girls love strong characters like Ellie Linton, or James Adams, just like the boys do.
  I had a new student start with us, from South Korea, and he was a fantastic person and quickly settled into the class, making lots of friends. His first books were The Baby Sitters Club, partly for the reading level and partly for the topic. It was two weeks before one of the boys pointed out it was generally 'a girls' book' but I did like the way he said "Just so you know" to insist that he wasn't teasing.
  The boys don't read the 'girls'' stories as much as the girls read the 'boys''. But I don't think this is an 'topic per gender' issue. Most of the stories promoted to us are male stories, and just as it's now OK for girls to wear pants, its more acceptable for a girl to read 'boys'' stories than vice versa. This issue is more complicated that individual preference.
  
• Perspectives about friendship: The boys worry and care about friendships as much as the girls. Not every girl wants a 'friendship' with their teacher, and many of the boys do. Physical contact (or lack of) from a teacher has its place for all students, and whether and when it's used depends on the student and their needs at the time much more than their gender.
• Boys being 'more aggressive': This is a gross simplification of the way boys play. Their play can be better characterised by contact and this is sometimes aggressive.
  When Year 5 and 6 classes move around the school there are often pairs of girls, individual girls and boys and one or two amoeba-like masses of boys. They're not fighting or rough-housing as such, but they like the contact. The way they seek contact with their female friends is different. (It's worth noting too, that there are fewer acceptable ways for them to do this, without people linking it to romance, even if it isn't there.)
  I suspect it would be hard to tell the difference between a desire for aggressive play and a desire for contact that can be justified with socially-acceptable aggressive play. This aspect relates back to the previous point of contact in friendships and contact when working with boys.
• Boys find risks irresistible: If I say "Well, boys will be boys" is it clear that I'm using that phrase ironically? Boys are taught that risky behaviour is boyish. I just don't see it at school. Girls do risky behaviour as well, often during class, and both groups do it physical and socially.

With differences that are quantifiable, I believe these needs can be supported in the classroom with differentiated lessons and delivery. With the other points, there are simply too many contradictions to the rule to allow these trends to be guiding forces in large educational reform.

The author finishes with some questions, including these two, which I'll answer from my point of view.

Should boys and girls be subjected to the same set of discipline codes and procedures?

Yes, as we all should (and often do) in the rest of the world.

Biggest question of all, should boys and girls be educated in the same school?

Yes, if a family should choose it and they should have the right to decide this.

I think some boys and some girls would be suited to gendered education, but not all, and possibly not for their entire education. Consider this:

• If men are so different to me, how would an "exclusive girls' education" prepare me to understand, work and live with them?
  
  
• How many wonderful, enriching friendships would I miss if I couldn't meet all those male people?
  
  
• How would a boys' school counterbalance the 'boys will be boys' excuses in the more damaging behaviours in our society. There are men who have an overblown sense of entitlement and are dysfunctional towards women**; how will a boys' education adequately and respectfully support equity and equality across the genders when one is absent and (possibly) silenced? How would an exclusive girls' education address this issue?
  
  
• How would gendered education, which is basing itself on generally shared tendencies, cater for and support intersex or transgender students?

The author's ultimate suggestion is to seriously consider an education system that is completely single-sex (possibly with boys and girls classes within a co-ed campus, but this is me hoping). Shall I expect, then, a suitably divided society in the future? Shall I expect blog posts on "We need schools for slightly effeminate boys who may or may not be gay"?

There are differences between girls and boys, but there is an significant overlap in that Venn diagram. I'm not suggesting we ignore the needs of boys or the needs of girls; I am suggesting that to treat them all as though they're two distinct and separate groups is risky for their education and disrespectful to their individuality.

*I teach 10-12 year olds in a co-ed government school in eastern Melbourne, Australia. We have a thriving and competitive sport program and a number of extension opportunities for academically strong students. On average the cohort performs at or above standard against our curriculum and on most competition tests. The community is very culturally diverse with families coming from Angelo-Saxon Australian, Indian, Chinese and many other countries. Last year I have 11 different languages spoken at home, this year, seven. Our families would be considered affluent, with a strong work ethic and value for education. We have girls teams for both soccer and Australian Rules Football.

** Need I mention the challenges presented in male sports?

*** Any tips? I've made an effort to keep the gendered language neutral but I'm unpractised - any advice welcome.

Ire is annoyered.

Recruitment processes seem to suck.*

When I was shifting from uni to (hopefully) a classroom teaching job, I sent out 48 applications, got three interviews and one job offer. The job offer came from an interview that was a kick-on from the second interview. Teaching job applications are, to say the least, overwhelming - 5 to 8 questions that required a page-long response each. (Can anyone tell me what other industry does this? Having to read those is a reason I'll probably never aspire to principal-ship. )
I wondered: how on earth can you tell from these convoluted responses**, a few referees and AN interview whether I'm a good teacher, or even a teacher with potential? If I were them, I would put an awful lot of weight on the referees contribution, and hope that the applicant had used people who were not nuts. Even now, when people say "Oh, but you're a great teacher?" I think, how would you know? You've never seen me teach. Clearly, "no blood or tears" = I know what I'm doing. :
I've seen recruitment happen in an office environment, too, where resumes are pretty easy to interpret. Those gloriously overblown positions like Documentation Manager (I file stuff) and Public Liaison Officer (receptionist). Everyone knows what they mean. Really, all that's left is to find out if they're a complete odd-bod via an interview.
Strangely enough, I used to LOVE interviews. LOVE love loved them. Not sure why. I can only assume I thought I was awesome. (Was I the odd-bod?)
But then, I'm probably known as a somewhat extroverted person - not all the time, but I can be - and I did to a drama degree so I suppose I have what would be called a "flexible demeanor".

Now. My gripe.
Some of my friends are in IT - programmers, engineers, nerds. (I consider myself a nerd with pride! But its prolly only coz I like to think I know obscure, lofty, superior crap.)
These are people who are stereotypically known as 'socially challenged', especially if you consider current telly types from shows like The Big Bang Theory.
I suspect, too, that of all the careers that people with any ASD or even seem simply 'quirky' or eccentric, some sciences/IT would seem very attractive to them. (I'm basing this completely and solely on the high ratio of eccentric vs non-eccentric scientists I know.)
I know a few cases of very good scientists who aren't the greatest socialisers, or sometimes not-that-excellent at representing/promoting themselves. I know of an excellent programmer who needs specific behavioural support from his workmates, but he's one of the most effective and skilled engineers in the business. The benefits completely outweigh the challenges.

So, what I want to know is this: when you start incorporating Human Resources into recruitment processes - groups who aren't going to work with these employees, won't see them day-to-day, and don't have to manage these employees - what kind of person to they expect to see? What characteristics do they want to hire? What share do they have in these choices?

For the few people I know who are job hunting in science and IT fields, I trust their searches continue for good reasons. I trust they're missing out because genuinely better applicants were successful. But that those decisions had better be coming from the recruiting scientists, and not the freaking HR department.


* I write this as a completely biased, emotional stakeholder in a particular aspect of this process, as well as someone who's experienced it from the pointy end, and a little from the fat end.
** I have to say, I know people who blatantly copy/pasted other people's responses and for lots of reasons: a lack of time, a lack of respect for the process, being overwhelmed by the questions, and/or being unable to answer them.

Chain and balls

It's been ages (again) since I posted here. From my analytics, no one visits my site unless they're looking for a craft something-or-other, so I'm going to care a little less about the high-brow-ness of my thoughts, but I am going to use this for what it was intended - putting my thoughts away so I can move on. Here goes.

At work we've been doing emotional intelligence analysis for some of the staff. I've found that although I'm great at being aware of my feelings, and the feelings of others, I'm not too great at managing my own emotions. Turns out EI includes management of your and others' feelings. Hmph.
So, here's what I've noticed.

Yesterday we competed against another school for sport and their supervising teacher was a grad, straight out of uni, loud, enthusiastic, quick with the mouth; in short, he had vitality. And that's when I realised my own vitality is missing.

In my first year out of uni I expected to suck at teaching; I expected mistakes, stuff-ups, faux pas, rushed preparations, last-minute efforts, messy lessons and grumpy parents. I was loopy as all get out, thrilled to have my own group. I clearly recall looking at the class in my first week and seeing "What the hell?" faces amongst them, just because I was so off-the-graph-happy. It was awesome. I know our discussions went off on tangents a lot, and there was a lot of time lost to 'chats', but on the whole, it was a good year. In fact, my best so far. We were happy, enthusiastic, generous, with a commitment to being proud of our work, looking after our people and being a community.

Last year, this happened in a similar way, but a student from my first group passed away over the holidays and a grey wash was laid over my first term. It rattled me and I started talking less and started watching when I worried and when I didn't. A few people noticed. I got better over the year, but my non-work time at home became a noted effort in creating a work/life balance, so much so that it actually wasn't working - I was thinking about work while I wasn't doing it. Fail. I started to list my oversights and failures and ignoring my successes.

This year I have a really different group. In these last few weeks I've noticed my headspace is crowded with the feeling of failure and commotion. About a third of the class talk when they shouldn't, and I have one student with ADD (and possibly ODD and ASD) who influences the behaviour of others in that my tolerance for his problems sometimes leads them to think that they can get away with such behaviour too. His constant interruptions, and the ripple effect they have with other talkative types, means I spend a lot of time in behaviour management mode. These kids are quite immature compared to the rest of the class. They display behaviours like unaccountability, arrogance, evasion, lying, back-chat, sooking and generally acting like they're a year younger than they should be. (Or, they have an over-blown sense of entitlement - I way-too-casually call it "Little Prince syndrome". Eeer, yes, they're all boys.) (For the record, I have a discipline system that is working: after one warning, most of them pull their heads in, but they all get one warning every block, which is concerning. And sometimes 7 people talk at once, which is hard to respond to when one of them has a legitimate contribution.)

I notice too, that frustration happens when people are surprised - this thing wasn't expected, it interrupted them, and they're annoyed. Any one of these kids will interrupt a short instructional talk (I keep them quick on purpose) with a random, completely unrelated question or thought and its really hard to not immediately think What the crap, child? What is your head doing? Half the time, its an attention seeking comment: "Look how cute I am! I'm asking a dopey question and its cute and funny!" Why do I expect it isn't going to happen? Because, at this age, it shouldn't. I've been teaching long enough to know that they should be able to manage their mouths by 10-11 years old, unless they have an undiagnosed impulse management disorder.

It's also very hard to drop grumpiness, and hard to not feel it when you know they know what the expectations are*. With 4-7 kids who need to hear the disappointment in your voice, or believe your threats, the others don't deserve the same grump, and this has been tricky to manage and taxing. I think this has happened because the feelings (the care and concern) I have for the misbehaviour is what I think about when I manage the behaviour, and those things don't have to happen at the same time. I don't want to go too much into my classroom management strategies, or be specific with anecdotes of behaviours, but this is my end point at the moment: I have reigned in my enthusiasm and happiness because this portion of the class gets too excited too quickly, and its getting me down. I didn't spot that this would be a consequence of such a group and didn't prepare to redirect my enthusiasm for teaching into other opportunities.

So this is what I'm going to try for: I'm going to be happy and optimistic, like I used to be, and let the misbehaviour be managed with the system I have in place, but not think or feel anything about it when its happening. Those who are good can enjoy the warmth of my good mood, those who aren't can feel the wrath at recess or lunch.

Why haven't I done this before? Because I'm still inexperienced, or I am at least with this sort of problem. I also don't wear much of a mask in the classroom so my emotions are bare. (In fact, the students get my best - I often don't chat much in the staffroom because I'm beat from all the talking during student conferences and teaching.) A few of my students, including my ADD student, are also random with their empathy and work ethic, so my hope and emotional investment in them (particularly the way I negotiate my ADD kid's friendships and work habits) is often crapped on or ignored, which feels a little abusive but I don't yet know how much they can help it. (He's also a very young character, so may not get how he affects other people around him. That's not to say that I look to him to validate what I do - I'm really looking for signs of progress and self-efficacy and they are small and rare.)

What's amazing is that this is all classroom management - it's the weather of our room. If it isn't right then people don't learn at their best. They're distracted, or threatened, or depressed, or negative and they can think with a clear head about what's in front of them. I'm not going to get their best if I don't figure this out. And it comes before effective assessment, for both planning and learning, or lesson planning, or task planning, because it affects things like student groupings, seating, being able to working independently and student autonomy.

So, I'm going to do my best to figure myself out first, so I can think straight, and protect my well being. I'm going to try to put aside the things I can't change: the cyclical testing and how it can reveal nothing or maybe something; the perpetual interruptions to our weekly programs and losing any sense of constancy; the units or lessons I just cannot fit into the time I have; the kids who may not care; the parents who may not care; the homework that I prepare so carefully but it lost/forgotten/wrecked; the rudeness, spite, defiance or immaturity I experience each day**. I'm going to try to get back to being happy to be at school;

• being grateful that I do have sweet, funny, committed, generous people in my room;
• remembering why I was told by people how glad they were that I was going to be a teacher;
• get back on top of my pragmatism and confidence;
• stop trying to be so freaking perfect.

Remember:

• Dumber people than me have taught - heck, they taught me! - and students turn out OK;
• My students do learn & improve;
• My students are happy;
• I am not the only thing that influences their success, even in this period of time;
• Their behaviour is not all about me;
• I may not be as good as some of my colleagues, but I'm not that bad either;
• I still have my job, I still have kids who make me gifts and visit me from previous years, and it must mean something.

* Seriously, we have talks about what respect looks like, what would be exemplary behaviour for a Year 6 student, and what reasonable expectations are. Can this be achieved in our room? (Yes! they say.) Are my consequences unreasonable - have you had difference consequences in the past that you'd prefer? (No, these are fair! they reply.) What attitudes and behaviours will we commit ourselves to? (These ones, they're ideal! they profess.) ugh.
** Previously, I knew about these things, and might have been annoyed, but they didn't get me down. Now they're part of the raft that I growl about. Ironically, I will spend this weekend writing reports, the bulk of this dedicated to page-long comments for parents, many of whom will most likely not read them due to either ESL problems or only caring about the scores. Of which there are 33 per student. Way too many for one teacher. Tra-laa!

You know what...?

I think it's been a hard year.

It's late, and I should be in bed. I seem to be using report writing seasons to semi-annually update things here. If none of my 'friends' will interrupt me then, darn it, I'll just have to procrastinate myself...

One of the reasons I haven't posted much is because I haven't been very happy. That is to say, I haven't been categorically 'unhappy' as such, just not my usual bubbly self, and it's for a range of reasons I think.

The wedding, although wonderful and awesome and perfect and ended with me married to the right guy (as promised), was followed by something of a slump. Twelve months of talking about this massive party and then a week of honeymoon to find something else to say... well, it got a bit quiet afterward. And 13 years of going-out with someone actually doesn't prepare you for being married to them. But I think I'm finally getting my groove as a wife and becoming more and more delighted that he's my husband.

When school started this year I learned that a student of mine from last year had passed away over the holidays. It was completely unexpected, and I found out in an unexpected way. Her funeral, where I gave a eulogy and last talked with her mum, was hard and gave my first term (at the least) a grey stain that was hard to shake. She had just begun to figure out that she was going to be fine the way she was; that the way she was, was awesome and loved, and she was going to be pretty cool. Her Christmas card to me said "You taught me that I'm fine the way I am" I thought "Well, that's a success. I did ok there." So I was fairly miffed that I wouldn't get to see that particular kid from my first ever class grow up and be awesome.

And then it turns out that my second year hasn't been as easier as I'd hoped. I should have been more careful to extend my self-forgiveness all the way through my graduate years, not just the first one. Unfulfilled high expectations of myself have just left me frustrated and disappointed and, after a kick in the shins from the funeral, its been pretty grindy.

So my update is more a series of reasons for why I've not been updating.
I have, however, been reading lots of awesome blogs and wishing I'd been enthusiastic/time-rich enough to try cooking up an articulate contribution to these great discussions about sexism on the Footy show, league tables for schools, rape culture and misconceptions, bogus feminist spokespeople and a rainbow of other fantastic commentary that's probably gone unread by the wrong people.
I must say, I do try my best to keep an equalitist voice in my classroom. It's surprisingly hard, considering our school is so sports orientated and a few key male teachers in our school are rather 'blokey' - which has its pros and cons. The girls in my room are very good at maintaining feminist/equalitist points of view and voices, but the boys aren't so good and have been taking their cue form other poorly informed males. This is particularly apparent when the boys say something inflammatory (you know, some dopey joke about women drivers or something), clearly to get a rise out of the girls, and the girls can't explain why its so frustratingly infuriating. (I challenge feminist/equalitist to explain that response in one sentence... In the meantime, I'm am presenting an articulate, somewhat formidable, respectable and feminist to them for a year, so that's something.)
My main hurdle is that, although I'm good friends with these guys, now they're perpetually cautious around me with their stories and jokes (or purposefully not), yet they have no idea how undereducated they are about feminism or how sexist they are. Poor chaps. At least they were able to have a chuckle with me when I noted this:

Blokey humour has helped to boost its ratings, but Newman goes over the top when audiences appear to be dropping off. (HS, 17/11/09)

The HS suggests that Newman, a man educated in the old school system, apparently shouldn't bother to (or isn't able to) call on his morals or ethics to gauge the appropriateness of his behaviour, nor should anyone else try to mend the error of these ways: they should rely on ratings. Yes, it's the ratings that will tell you the true quality of a joke, and whether you've gone 'over the top'. Never mind if you've been pointing at the top for years.
Almost HS, but you have some Equal Opp. training to go yet.

Mrs WoozleWazzle

I got married. It was awesome. It was wonderful. I didn't cry - I was delighted. Everyone looked great. The venue looked great. He looked great and was very happy. Barely a single mishap. The honeymoon was really relaxing and too short. It was all divine.

I haven't changed my name, but I've noticed a lot of my students are now called me Mrs Woozlewazzle instead of Miss Woozlewazzle. Aaaw! Other things I have noticed:

• My signature is much less necessary now that I'm Mr + wife
• No one asks how long we've been together anymore.

I have many things to say about both matters but won't because I'm too busy.

So this is what the future looks like...

For a few days now I've been thinking that I should be back on here updating something, but I assumed that no one was watching. And then I got this lovely comment from angry-man and though "Aaw. Someone cares."
I read back over that post and thought that I could very well be read as someone who support strip shows (sorry, did I mention the theme of that commented-upon-post?). Little things in my story - such as us dancing up the back of the venue, away from the function, during the end of the show - didn't indicate enough how much I'd disengaged from the whole thing. ...hmm.
No, I'm not okay with them. Well, I'm torn. I hate, hate, hate the idea of someone being objectified or valued for their appearance/gender above who they are, and I'm practically violent about people doing it to me. But I know that people do it to others and themselves (and encourage it in some cases) and I suspect that that practice will always be around. If people are informed and consenting, well, who am I to limit them?
They don't attract me. I won't promote them. I won't go to another, and I won't have such a thing for my Hen's/Kitchen tea. In fact I don't want any sex-related item anywhere near my pre-wedding celebrations. But what's done is done, and I went to my friend's Hen's night with the intention of helping make a happy time, regardless of what was organised for us. I don't think there much else I can say about this.

So, for the record, in case anyone's listening, here is a calmer, hopefully more articulate post than I have recently provided.

I finished my last semester in a much more organised and sensible fashion than Semester 1. I got my reports done with much more calm, although my frustration with the reporting program and the obscure curriculum elements hasn't changed too much. I didn't think I would cry when they all went off to high school but I did a little in the end - I did have an excellent collection of people. I found out I'll be at the same school and grade next year, which I'm taking as a compliment. Better still I'll have 24 students instead of 30! What will I do with myself?!
I've become a fully registered teacher and had an excellent interview with our Assistant Principals - which is part of the registration process. My mentor was awesome and I'm generally looking forward to next year, except I will miss these holidays (but for the heat).
Most of these holidays will be spent preparing for the school year and preparing for our wedding in April. Which is a very strange process...

This industry of weddings is fascinating, frustrating, wonderful, absurd and grotesque. I'm trying not to engage with it too much, because it will be behind me soon enough, and I don't want to spend my energy angsting over something this massively beyond little ol' me.

First. Getting the venue wasn't too hard, porbably a day or so of driving looking and talking, and it turned out that, when we figured out what we wanted, it existed.

Second. When you try on a wedding dress its all about YOU, which is hard to get used to. I have a conspiracy theory that if it looks like you're going to buy that dress, any spare employees of the store will gather nearby and reverentially say "Oh yes, oh that is beautiful on her. Won't she look lovely, Angela? Beautiful". When you sit in it - to check that you can sit in it - they bring a mirror so you can see what you look like when you sit in it.

Third, the celebrant. This was relatively smooth and I'm actually looking forward to this part of it - the talking, explaining, expressing the whys of it all. I'm expecting it will be confronting and I'm up for it.

And then. The rest if it. Besides the expense, it's the amazing performance of it. The cake, the flowers, the dresses, my dress, their suits, the music, the photos, the venue options, the colours you choose, the colour range you could choose, the shoes, the hair, the make-up, the stationery (oh my word its a massive part of it), the honeymoon, and everyone you're related to who has a stake in it... I'm just trying to keep it fun, and remember that the wedding is not as important as the marraige.

I've also been taking great pains to try and find a balance in the way I attend to things - not too big, not too much, something I like, that he can stand, that represents both of us, but it doesn't have to be our soul, it can just be nice.
Ironically, this is almost the opposite of what my partner thinks I've been doing, which is a massive amount of research and exploration, in his opinion. But I'm ok with that because it's the way I work - I like to read up and learn a lot (immerse, you might say) and after a while what I want/like/need rises to the top. On the other hand, I want most of this done, tied, wrapped and going by the time we start Term 1, which gives me this week and next week, basically. So yeah, I'm going hammer and tongs.

I'm also deciding what to do about my last name, partly due to this very interesting debate in Blue Milk's household. Fiance says it didn't occur to him that I would change my name: He is officially not fussed about it. Which is comforting because, as much as I'm looking forward to being married, I don't particularly want to change my name. I'm quite attached to mine. And all the tradition, implications of it, are skewed. He's becoming a part of my family as much as I will be a part of his. There's no dowry, no glory box (no puns), no 'white wedding' criteria, and I moved out of home a long time ago... So the justificatoin for me changing my name, well it seems unfair and nonsensical. People ask us what our kids will do when they marry with their already hyphenated name, but at this stage I'm thinking "I don't mind - they'll be adults, they can do as they please, just as I have". I can wait, I suppose, to see if I want to have my maiden name as my professional name and his name when I'm a parent, but it still seems to miss the point... and then someone was all, "well why don't you take your mum's mum's mum's (etc) maiden name? Where woudl it end?" I think I answered with a "I'm going to make a name surname for us both - a blend of the two!" (There must common somewhere.) The main problem is how we'll be announced at the reception. I think we'll just go with first names.

No I'm not dead...

...just teaching. It's a busy job.
Rather than say 'more later' here's a bit now...

I thought most teachers I knew voted against the new agreement but no, they didn't. Hmmm. Disappointing. Although I got a raise - which I could do without BTW - what I have now is an inconvenience: Our curriculum days are ALL prescribed, with three of them using the first three days of Term 1.
Whole staff training would need to happen on one of these prescribed days, rather than a day that suits our school.
Whole staff training that needs a trainer or incursion would also need to be organised for one of these days. Schools will have to compete with each other to getthe trainers for one of these three days. That is, all the government primary schools will have to compete with each other to get someone in this 3-day window. head-desk

Progressive Points

I'm doing reports. See last post.

In the English domain there are three dimensions to assess: Reading, Writing and Speaking & Listening.
In the Communication domain there are two dimensions: Listening, viewing & responding and Presenting...

Guess which English dimension overlaps with both Communication dimensions? I could make a big fat Venn diagram of how LV&R practically doubles-up with the listening elements of L&S and how Presenting doubles up with the speaking elements.
BUT I STILL HAVE TO CAREFULLY CHECK THAT THE STUDENT HAS DEMONSTRATED EACH COMMUNICATION ELEMENT SO I CAN DEFEND IT TO THEIR PARENT IF THEY ASK ABOUT IT.

WHY there isn't more separation bw them I don't know.
Why they don't have a single communication dimension what is only about the bits that don't overlap, I don't know.
And why they don't just rename English as Literacy and consolidate Communication with that, I cannot begin to explain (though I could have a good stab at it).
But it's frikkin shirting me no end.

And while I'm at it, thank you VCAA for requiring Year 5 & 6 teachers to assess against the entire curriculum. It's awesome to have to vouch for all this knowledge and all these skills while safely delivering 29 students to high school. Cheers.

Almost an update

I've finally caught a cold, after about half the staff at my primary school. It was bound to happen eventually.

So last week, in my 13th week of teaching, I just felt like I was getting traction with my class; just beginning to be able to get my hands around what I was teaching them and being able to identify positive returns.
And then people started talking about reports.
I've got 29 students, and each of them need a mark from me about 33 subject elements (33 dimensions under 13 domains, in the jargon.) If I was sending to post secret it would say something like "I'm scared that I'll have to guess about half of the grades for all my students. I feel sick when I know I'm lying". But I know I'm not alone - we haven't yet addressed some of these things so will properly mark them next semester; some of these things we cannot fit in. (I certainly can't - I'm still figuring out what makes sense to most of my students, with children and teenagers within the mix.)
I suspect it will be years before I can expertly wrangle in all the knowledge they're to receive and the skills I need to observe. Of course, the Dept. has most likely created a framework within which all this would work, but - of course - no school follows a dept. framework; they have their own inquiry schedule or something fancier. And of course my school is going for the IBO, which is a whole other kettle of international fish. (Hopefully, by the time I figure out how to address all this, I'll be good enough at it that I can cope with the chance in curriculum.)

Anyway.

In other news, I got engaged and turned 30.

Must call my mum.

When am I ever gunna use this Miss?

When you become a teacher, it turns out.

My mentor and I are getting 'new' classrooms (new to the school, not the world) and as such we have to set them up for Day 1 using skills someone people may never use after Grade 5. The New Year means we have to divide up the stationery amongst all the Year 5 and 6 classes (insert division, multiplication and tetris (spatial) skills here).
So after the EWBs, shelves, cupboard, filing cabinets, PCs, desks and chairs have all been put in I have to figure out an arrangement that fits all 29 children at a desk and able to see me... (insert tessellation skills here, and a bit of common sense because you have to leave room for them to move their chairs and no back onto anyone).
We even tried rearranging the PC tables into something more conducive to team work - cable length and access are a challenge (measurement and tetris).
And then there's the 'getting people to do things for you" skill: diplomacy, hard to teach.

Otherwise, I'm sorta treading water in these lead-up days. I have the first 2 weeks pretty much mapped out and am extremely grateful that my first week is only 3 days (and should for the next few years :D ). I cannot begin to imagine what I'll teach them in the following month*, but I know the 2nd and 3rd weeks are interrupted with daily swimming anyway, not to mention the Chinese, Art, PE and Performing Arts lessons with other teachers... So my brain has sort of slipped into neutral.
Normally I would be frantic with preparation, making lessons, plans, templates, worksheets, anything to fall back on, but I don't really know what my guys are capable of yet, or what they need... so I'm waiting to see. My stress hsa sunken deep and dormant under naivety, or stupid, or whatever: I think its going to bubble up in about 10 days, with reinforcements, as I begin to have to think of stuff for them to do. But I'm a beginner, and these kids are bright - I'm not bad enough to do any long term damage - so I think I'll be ok in the long run, if not satisfactory. Which I will tattoo on myself somewhere: "I am a competent person"

*which isn't true. I've imagined lots, but I'm not game to commit to it until I've met/measured the class. I don't know if this is normal or sensible.

The Intelligence Rainbow

From the Age letters...

HOW is a potential teacher with an ENTER score of 56 going to have the capacity to teach students who may be capable of an ENTER score of 99?

Pauline Ashton, Maribyrnong

Hmm. Gee Pauline, I suspect it might be the 4 years of tertiary education - and its compulsory professional practice and assessment - that might give your average teacher the edge on your average VCE student.

I'm almost too angry to answer this one. But if Pauline, and the rank of muppets who'll reply in support of this, had half a clue about

1. ENTER scores, how they're calculated and what they're for, OR
2. The VCE and what you need to do it; OR
   
3. Teaching and what you need to do it,

then they wouldn't even get so far as signing their names on this type of cringe-worthy, forehead smacking, teeth-sucking, gawking stupidity.

On Losing Weight

I feel I should update those tenacious few who read this blog (Mr Larry Pants, you've been there for me since kindy).

I got a job teaching grade 6 in the eastern suburbs (govt P-6 school). Oh migod. I'm nervous, excited, and nervous: by all accounts it sounds like a school that on par with many private providers - lots of the kids are at least 12 months ahead in maths and literacy, they're keen kids with lots of self efficacy and awareness. The greatest challenge shoudl be keeping them challenged.
My mentor is excellent. And I don't mean "All things considered, she really is quite good". I mean "I feel guilty when I'm in her presence; I should be a better person than this". She's nice, professional, thorough, patient, doesn't say more than is necessary, gets along with everyone (everyone) and seems to epitomise integrity. Already, in almost two days of planning, I feel I've talked too much about stupid or irrelevant things, pointlessly banged my drum, and generally therapied my way through a few conversations. I cringe -Cringe - in recollection.
BUT, if I keep my head on and start acting like someone I'd be proud of, I think I'll have a good year. I've already got a few suggestions in the works and they seem to have been received well. Conversely, everyone is nicer than me, so I'll probably be forgiven.

So yeah, I could worry about getting enough exercise but I don't think it'll be an issue.

In other news, we bought a car. I loves it, even if it is a bit big for my first. Its a 2000 Nissan Pulsar, 4door, 5sp manual, 1.8L with driver airbag, electric side mirrors, manual windows and a CD player (yes, I did the research for this purchase, so am quite well versed in the jargon). AND its the prettiest blue ever!

AND, I'm going to be a bridesmaid for a very sensible bride. The wedding is in November and she's already confirmed the ceremony and reception locations. Buying the dress has been pretty fun (although not actually purchased though) and has provided the perfect example of how you shouldn't let a shop assistant determine if you buy something of not, especially something like a wedding dress. In the following recount, I play the bad cop.
Bride: "Do you know what other colours it comes in?"
Assistant: "No, I'd have to call and find out"
Me: "That'd be good to know please"
We chat, assistant stares.
Assistant: "So, you do want to know about the other colours? I'm going to have to call..."
Pause from us.
Me: "Yes please"
Assistant walks away to make the call.
Me to Bride:"Which part was unreasonable?"
Later...
Me: Do you have a hoopless petticoat we could try with this one?
Assistant: "I think we have one but I don't know where it is."
Pause.
Me: "Would you mind seeing if someone else knows, because I think it'll make a lot of difference."
I mean, really.

So, where have I been?

Away, dammit. Back off.

I haven't really posted since the start of this semester, and for various reasons.
To begin with I had a part-time job, and woe is me, between that and uni, life wasn't interesting enough to find the time to post about anything. It's not like I didn't have anything to complain blog about, it is uni after all, but after the complaining and figuring-out in real life I didn't have the energy to post it.
I just finished the first week of secondary teaching rounds and I have two more to go.

To be honest, I have mixed feelings, mkay?

I'm doing dance, which rocks no end - really, I didn't expect to get a placement with a dance method. So I'm mad chuffed I got one, and with an uber experienced teacher no less. But it stresses me out no end that its VCE and VET dance and I'm unfamiliar with that (we do VCE stuff in 2nd semester). So I read like a librarian about that last week.
I'm not able to see Yr7-10 dance, because there is none, but there is drama and it has the full rainbow of classroom challenges. There's a little bit of streaming in the school so the groups behave really differently, and then there's differences in year levels again, just because of maturity.
What shits me the most is the uni hasn't prepared us for this aspect.

This year we're doing secondary teaching and we have four units each semester - two methods (mine are dance and drama and have provided buckets of practical material), one about curriculum, assessment and reporting (very relevant and applicable) and another called 'Bridging the Gap - Mathematics and Language Education in the Middle Years'. We call it Bridging the Crap. nuf said.
But that won't stop my rant, even if I promised myself I wouldn't mention it on my blog, there's no turning back from this avalanche.

I've had numerous issues with this unit, so I'll try to be direct and quick, lest those of you who are clinging to this post in the grim hope that it gets interesting, sassy or funny actually come-to and nick off. At the risk of committing blogger suicide, those of you not interesting in teacher education, click off now.
The Unit Guide says:

UNIT AIMS
The unit aims are to raise student teachers’:

• awareness of the needs of middle years students ;
• familiarity with curriculum documents;
• proficiency in designing units to meet student needs and curriculum requirements;
• skills in developing/selecting appropriate assessment techniques for a variety of purposes; and
• capacity to develop a portfolio reflecting their intended focus as a teacher.

Right.

About half way through the unit we defined 'middle years' as years 5 to 9 or 10 (dunno what happens to 10s if they're not in that group...) because people were getting confused about all the grade 6 content.

The second point has been partially addressed through our first assignment - an inquiry based unit - but that itself was flawed for a number of reasons.
We have done nothing to do with:

• engaging middle years students or addressing their needs.
• designing units addressing 'student needs'
• skills in 'developing/selecting appropriate assessment techniques for a variety of purposes' (although that has been touched on in other units) and
• the portfolio hasn't been discussed in lectures, tutorials or online, even though its due two weeks after our teaching rounds finish.

Its just so... WEAK
Normally, a uni student might say 'well, stuff it, we'll just do enough to pass and forget the rest of it because its useless', and a lot of us have. This seems to happen because, at about week 6, people run out of puff to complain about or redeem the situation and their priorities overwhelm any good will.
There has been a lot of material for doing maths and English topics, and I'll be gleaning that off the online site for future handiness. I'm expecting that these will be great little nuggets for CRT or maths/eng work in the future, because, as far as I understand, we're supposed to be qual'd for teaching junior high maths/English too.
But the supporting content is too flimsy.

The lecturers don't know what we've done before: so when they gave us a task for designing and Inquiry Unit and we said 'Do you mean a unit about an investigation, or an Inquiry learning unit?' they didn't know what we were talking about and we had to teach them the pedagogy of Inquiry Learning. And we'd already done an equivalent task in the pedagogy unit last year. But they didn't know that.

That Inquiry task asked us to design a unit in our method (dance/drama for me) and identify the maths and English in it. Most middle years levels are in high school, and we spent last year doing primary school levels, so we were keen to get into year7+ areas, but in high-schools the opportunity to use an interdisciplinary unit is slim - you get a few hours each week to do your subject, so you won't water it down with other areas... how will this work be useful in the future in a regular high-school? Its unlikely, so I did yet another something for year 6. Surely a task that asked for, say, an investigation in one high-school level of english and different high-school level of maths would've been more useful for our portfolios?

The semester started with 'What gaps to you want us to cover?" A: Uh, all of them? They clearly don't know what we've learned, and we don't know what we're missing, so how the hell are we going to identify 'the gap'? It's a two year course for the whole of VELS and VCE; the bottleneck's too severe to be leaving up to us to pick and choose topics without any guidance.

EVEN THEN, when someone requested topic about 'engagement in the middle years' (okay, it was me) we got back two articles. And as fantastic as they are, I WANT PEOPLE, NOT ARTICLES. How about a guest lecturer from a school who had middle-years challenges, somewhere where they had absenteeism, or benchmark problems, and what they did on a school-wide level and in the classroom to tackle that? What about some research into the problems and challenges that are common in middle years levels, their learning styles and needs - hello? adolescence? teenage boys? puberty?

In the end, we're post-grads. We've got different demands on us to undergrads. If our uni time isn't worthwhile its not just 'a break', its a waste of our lives: we could be earning money, being with our kids/partners, not paying for childcare, or doing uni work. I know that there are a lot of undergrads who have high standards about their unit content, but its hard to know what's relevant and what's not at that level. And you have a lot more time to get through it all, not just two years for prim and sec teaching.

I do my best to support Deakin - I know all the other tertiary providers suck just as much in their own ways - but this unit bites. They had the same problems last year and they should either adjust it to incorporate classroom management skills (as we have none this semester) and middle-year's issues or scrap it and start again.

I wonder what I'll rant about next semester...

Who am I kidding...?

I've sent these to nearly everyone I've spoken to since 2001, and really, I should just blog them.

I don't care where they came from - they're from an email ergo they're public.

I just hope I have at least one of these types in my future classes...

------------

The absurdist:

The Vet:

The Literal type:

The l a t e r a l thinker:

The one who's like a knife:

The early developer:


The poet:

and The genius:

Ready to Teach

With each teaching round you supervising teacher has to produce a report for your university. At the end of the report are two boxes, essentially saying Ok, or Not Ok. On your last round the 'Ok' option says 'Ready to teach'. And my teacher ticked that one. :D

The report has to be agreed on by both student-teacher and supervising teacher, and my ST seemed to have only one critical comment: Something to the effect of 'Should step back when more experienced teachers are present to take charge'. Which I think is code for 'bossy' and 'talks too much'*.

This has been a recurring problem in my life. I can cite being young for my year level (inferiority complex?), oooor being the youngest (by a long way) in my family (who chronically interrupt each other), or being bossy, or my previous post. But in the end I wasn't that worried about it... I've decided to put it down to reckless enthusiasm. I think that a few of the stepping-on-toes events might have been because of presumptions about student-teachers; how are they to know that I've worked with databases, or have a drama/dance background? Or that after 4 years of FT work I just can't be bothered acting recessive and/or submissive just to let people feel justified? I'm too old for that crap.
Ah, well,... its as good for them as it was for me, eh?


*I know that it may, mind you, also mean 'Overestimates her ability'. But I didn't take charge of anything in place of anyone else, or when uninvited, and I didn't get that message in her report either.

Book Review : Among Schoolchildren (Tracey Kidder)

The year in the life of a form four group in the States, sometime in the late 1980s, I think. I read this book for uni studies and found it awfully compelling and now I've bought it to read again. The emotional intelligence requried to do what Mrs Zajak does is enough to keep me enthralled with the process.
I recommend to anyone associated with primary education or interested in journeys.