Last Chance

Tomorrow we decide

Do we want an Education system based on passing Standards or based on meeting children's needs?

Do we want a system based on schools competing against each other for ranking on league tables or co operating and collaborating?

Do we want teachers pay based on how many children they get to meet the standard or based on value added?

Do we want schools recognised for their innovation, quality practices, systems of self review by the Education Review Office or recognised for their Decile Rating (which will in turn impact on ranking for National Standards)?

Do we want to retain our World Class Curriculum and Internationally recognised teachers or do we want to revert to a 1950's system of Standards and failing children as young as possible?

Wake up New Zealand our Education system that ranks so high in the world is at risk tomorrow.

This Government have made their policy clear. The implications are very serious.

What is the purpose of school?

Often we are told that our business is to improve outcomes for learners- and to some degree this is true.

We are also told to fix the ills of society (teenage pregnancy, environmental destruction, financial woes, crime, racism, bullying,religious intolerance and hatred) and while schooling can't actually 'fix' these things it does have a part to play.

Usually these expectations come on schools when society is failing in some way or another or when a group wants to exploit schooling for some other agenda.

Our National Curriculum states:

Our vision is for young people:

• who will be creative, energetic, and enterprising
• who will seize the opportunities offered by new knowledge and technologies to secure a sustainable social, cultural, economic, and environmental future for our country
• who will work to create an Aotearoa New Zealand in which Māori and Pākehā recognise each other as full Treaty partners, and in which all cultures are valued for the contributions they bring
• who, in their school years, will continue to develop the values, knowledge, and competencies that will enable them to live full and satisfying lives
• who will be confident, connected, actively involved, and lifelong learners.

It is perhaps the last bullet point that is most compelling. If we as a nation are to succeed (and I don't just mean economically) we need individuals who are lifelong learners. Herein lies the challenge of schooling. How do we create/enable/encourage "confident, connected, actively involved, and lifelong learners".

I believe that Schlechty sums it up beautifully below:

The business of schools is to produce learning that is so compelling that students persist when
they experience difficulties and that is so challenging that students have a sense of
accomplishment, of satisfaction- indeed of delight, when they successfully accomplish the task
assigned (leaning)
so...
The job of the teacher is to make learning so compelling that young people find it more satisfying
to learn than to attend to any one of a score of competing possibilities”
Phil Schlechty in H Lynn Erickson “Concept based Curriculum and Instruction” pg viii 2002

So our challenge/ my challenge to schools is to unpack how we might make learning "so compelling" that all else falls aside. All inappropriate behaviour, all distractions, all texting....

Our challenge (and I understand that it is a big challenge) is to engage children and through exciting/ challenging/ motivational/difficult learning.

I believe we can achieve the vision in the New Zealand Curriculum rather than that which is dolled out in truck loads every time there is a problem in society (or an election). I also believe that this is a far more exciting challenge than any National Standard or Ministry imposed "3R" challenge.

Maths

It the numeracy project the answer?

Some schools in New Zealand have been implementing it for over 10 years. Is it making a difference? Well the NEMP report released in Sept 19 2010 showed that there had been no improvement in achievement for Y8 for over 12 years and overall between 2005 and 2009 no improvement for any year level. There could be a lot of reasons including:

- a lack of skill and understanding on the part of teachers in the numeracy framework

- variation in implementation of the numeracy project nation wide (it is not compulsory)

- where it has been implemented variation in the quality of teaching

- confusion over how and when to promote children through the stages

- lack of rigor around follow up activities after teaching time

- removal of maths from a real life context and problems

The last reason may also impact on enjoyment. Children need to know more than having several strategies. Then need to know and understand maths in a real life problem solving context. Is it time to make time for real problems, real issues and then teach maths in context just in time rather than endless amounts of just in case teaching?

It is time to look at what we are doing in maths once again.

National Standards con't...

We are doing our best with National Standards despite:

- A total lack of effective PD

- Confusion at the highest levels about specifics around implementation

- A lack of research and meaningful justification as to why we would report against age for the first three years of a child's schooling and then suddenly switch to year end reporting

- Conflicting statements from the various PD providers about how to implement the standards

- All the providers suggesting that we go back to school and determine what the standards mean to us (are they or are they not National Standards?)

- funding

But this is not the biggest issue. The biggest issue is that the standards have done and will do little if nothing to help the underachieving children in NZ. It was interesting to hear the media and Government acknowledge the massive issue of child poverty in NZ (200 000 children!)- Start there folks- look at the link between poverty and underachievement, address poverty and social inequities and you will begin to deal with under achievement.

National Standards will not help!

Despite this my staff and I continue to comply and do all that we can to ensure that the children at Windsor are not disadvantaged because of the standards (i.e being labelled "Below" in 2011- a year of unprecedented change, disruption, crisis and turmoil!)

We have entered the stage where our children are now guinea pigs for an untried, unproven and questionable practice- what a shame

Neill

Canterbury Children

I was amazed last week.

At our Learning Celebration Assembly (LCA) we had so much to celebrate that we were still going well after 3:00pm! Our children started the LCA with a moving rendition of the National Anthem on the eve of the launch of the Rugby World Cup. This was followed by children sharing their learning, their PRIDE challenges, our Jump Jam teams (who came 2nd and 7h respectively out of 143 teams nationally) performed and then Chris from World Vision spoke. This was the highlight for me. In a year when so much has been taken from the families of Canterbury the children of Windsor raised more money than they ever had for the children of Timor. Such was their generosity that our school was the top school in the South Island. Go Canterbury, Go Windsor , Go our children!

Lifelong and Self Regulated Learners

Randomly interview 32 children from 16 classes about their learning goals with no warning and allowing no prompts and what would you expect? I expected they might know something about their learning- like perhaps a few goals.

What I found was really exciting.

The majority (80%) could talk to me about their goals and next steps in reading, writing,maths and even a Key Competency (especially self management) goal.

These children could articulate what they were learning, why they were learning it and how they would know if they were successful. What a transition from 10 years ago when we "Did" learning to children. Now we engage and empower them, we encourage them to take responsibility for their own learning and we have an expectation that they can communicate their progress.

The aim of developing lifelong learners is very admirable, the reality- seeing it in practice is awesome!

The next step- if I, or someone asks a child What are you learning at the moment and why?"- can they respond in a meaningful manner, is there a close link between what the teacher was intending (the learning intention) and the learning that is taking place?

Skillful Thinkers

I recently had the pleasure of attending a workshop by Edward de Bono in Belfast Northern Ireland. His presentation regarding "Thought full lesson design" really resonated with me. Two key aspects struck a note:

1. To ensure that we are fully aware and plan for the understandings that we want the children to develop in a rich context

2. To plan to develop skillful thinkers by the language we as teachers use in the lessons as well as the teaching strategies we teach the children.

It sounds so simple yet it is so critical. What are we trying to do if not to develop skillful thinkers?

Yet to do this a teacher needs to consider:

- the type of thinking that is required for the child to be successful

- replacing "I want you to think about..." with " I want you to consider or debate, or discuss, or analyse etc..."

- the understandings (and what this actually means) to be developed and then the process to achieve this- this goes well beyond rote knowledge and is based on a conceptual curriculum

That is we become more precise about the type of thinking we are asking to child to engage in.

At Windsor we staff have placed large copies of words to use in place of "think" on the wall to provide prompts to themselves and children. Just one small step but I believe a powerful one. In addition they have planned for the type of thinking that will be required in the lesson and they have continued with developing specific deep understandings of concept based curriculum in their Inquiry Modules.

Thank you Edward for complimenting our work and providing some very useful insights to develop our children's thinking!