2011 - Term 2 - Good Teacher Magazine

Term Two 2011

“The best teachers don’t give you the answers...

They just point the way ... and let you make your own choices.”

New Zealands teachers magazine Good Teacher Magazine

Term 2 2011 1

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Agitated, Disruptive – Even Aggressive Students?

We can help!

Are you concerned about the risk of violence in your school?

Are you prepared?

Since 1980, CPI has been teaching professionals proven methods for managing difficult or assaultive behaviour. To date, over six million individuals—including thousands of teachers and other education professionals—have participated in the highly successful CPI Nonviolent Crisis Intervention® training course.

This course not only teaches staff how to respond effectively to the warning signs that someone is about to lose control, but also addresses how staff can deal with their own stress and anxiety when confronted with these difficult situations.

For further details on the CPI Nonviolent Crisis Intervention® training course, call us toll-free at 0800 449 187, visit crisisprevention.com, or email us at information@crisisprevention.com.

Join us at an upcoming training course: 5–8 July 2011

Auckland (Otahuhu) International Headquarters: 10850 W. Park Place, Suite 600 • Milwaukee, WI 53224 Toll-free: 0800 449 187 (Please ring before 11:00 a.m. Tues.–Sat.) Fax: 00 1 414 979 7098 Email: information@crisisprevention.com • crisisprevention.com

2 Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2011

Priority Code: GT111

Index

3

Your Soapbox

Tony Schwartz

4

Poster schools and Principals

Bruce Hammonds

5

Call to embed Arts in all curriculum areas

8

Show that teachers count

9

Changing Education Paradigms

9

From Australia to Abu Dhabi - and other countries along the way

10

The Gifted/Talented Student and Moral Sensibility

Elaine Le Sueur

14

Of Gaps and Holes

Laurie Loper

20

Think World Conference - think New Zealand

23

Curriculum, Connections, Contexts... Pulling it all together

Lucy Literacy...

24

Preparing a School for a Principal Appointment?

Neil Couch

30

De-Stress for Success

Michelle LaBrosse

38

Clever Bike Rack Concept

40

Word Puzzle

42

Fred

Recipe competition winners

43

books and things

44

Astonishing toothpick sculpture

46

Scott Weaver

Roger’s Rant

48

The Economic Theory of Hemlines

49

Education Resource Centre

50

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Cover Picture: Discovered in a large bin after a few days of rain Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2011 3

Your Soapbox!

“

Do you have the feeling, as I do, that in the tsunami of everyday life, we’re getting too much of stuff we don’t need, and not enough of what we do?

Herewith my first set of suggestions about how to redress the imbalance: WE NEED LESS:

WE NEED MORE:

Information

Wisdom

Shallow billionaires

Passionate teachers

Self-promotion

Self-awareness

Multitasking

Control of our attention

Inequality

Fairness

Sugar

Lean protein

Action

Reflection

Super sizes

Smaller portions

Private jets

High-speed trains

Calculation

Passion

Experts

Learners

Blaming

Taking responsibility

Judgment

Discernment

Texting

Reading

Anger

Empathy

Output

Depth

Constructive criticism

Thank-you notes

Possessions

Meaning

Righteousness

Doing the right thing

Answers

Curiosity

Long hours

Longer sleep

Complaining

Gratitude

Sitting

Moving

Selling

Authenticity

Cynicism

Realistic optimism

Self-indulgence

Self-control

Speed

Renewal

Emails

Conversations

Winning

Win-win

Immediate gratification

Sacrifice

from HBR.org by Tony Schwartz, sent by a reader.

”

If you want to haveYOUR SAY please email your offering to: soapbox@goodteacher.co.nz

4 Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2011

Poster Schools and Principals

Bruce Hammonds Independent Education Adviser

‘We need more black sheep leaders prepared to make their own tracks into the future not ones meekly following a standardized pathway.’

Kelvin Smythe’s last posting is too important to post only once so here it is again .

But first a few words: It has aways been a concern of mine that over the past decades, for all the leadership courses, there seem to be so few true leaders prepared to stick their necks out. Plenty of compliant managers getting on with doing the wrong things right. A phrase that was used few years ago was that our schools have been ‘over managed and under led’ still holds true.

The trouble is leadership is something that arises due to a combination of timing, need and personal courage. In war time leaders arise like General Montgomery in the desert, Wingate in Malaya, and US General Patton. Ironically as soon as peacetime comes along such individuals are replaced by more conventional ‘leaders’. Churchill, one of the great leaders was ignored until the Second World War started ( and dropped the election after!). Leaders lead by example and not by rule books. One of the greatest was Ernest Shackleton -an man of his word.

It was Patton who once said. ‘If everybody is thinking alike then no one is thinking’.

Susan Anthony, American woman’s rights activist (1820), said, ‘Cautious careful people aways casting about to preserve their reputation or social standards never bring about reform’. That quote fits far too many New Zealand principals.

Read Kelvins posting. It seems that we have a number of collaborators, or quislings, in our schools - ‘Judas sheep’ acting as ‘posters’ for others to follow.

Read what Kelvin wrote: Poster schools and principals One of the sad things about education controversies between governments and schools is the use and promotion by governments, for propaganda and ideological reinforcement, of poster schools and principals.Like all matters in education none are simple but, like most matters in education, they do become more comprehensible and realistic if, first, everyone accepts that nothing in education is simple, thereby accepting the valuing of difference and variety, and, second, looks to the wider context and accepts that what might seem relatively simple from a narrow perspective becomes much less so from a wider one.

Take, for instance, the poster principals for national standards. These principals, by definition, favour a solid regime of testing in literacy and numeracy. They also use such a regime as a driver of their schools, as a selling point in the education market, and as central to their philosophy. I’m not too struck on such a regime occupying such a place, but because I value difference and variety in education and the accompanying free interaction of ideas and philosophies, I say that should be their right.

Then along comes the government and says that such a solid regime in literacy and numeracy must be undertaken by all schools, and in the approved way.

At this stage, I would expect that a fair-minded principal of a school with the kind of testing regime referred to above, one with a feeling for social democratic ideals, an understanding of how education change best occurs, would say, such a regime suits my personality and philosophy, but I know it won’t suit all principals’ personalities or philosophies; neither is the uniformity or degree of government Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2011 5

interference in the running of schools good for education; as a result, though I’m in favour of standards set by a solid regime of testing, I am adamantly opposed to national standards.

The important thing to note here is that some of the leading opponents of national standards do, indeed, undertake a solid testing regime in literacy and numeracy, though not to the extent of allowing it to define their schools or their curriculum. But what these principals recognise is that there is a world of difference between a systematic testing regime decided by schools for themselves, and a centrally devised, bureaucratically imposed, one imposed from the centre, with high stakes’ assessment an inevitable part of the mix.

Then there is the crucial wider context. Underlying the promotion of national standards is a destructive metaphor

Quality Teaching and Learning Bruce Hammonds has revised and added to his previous resources to develop a new 240 page book ’Quality Teaching and Learning’.

In this new book Bruce shares the practical ideas gained from creative teachers he has worked over the years.

Also included are ideas and quotes from educationalists that contribute to what Bruce calls ‘A More Informed Vision for the 21stC’.

Simply this is a book that values the ‘artistry’ of classroom teachers and the need for students to ‘do fewer things well’.

The ideas in the book align well with the intent of the New Zealand Curriculum.

To order book

– the pyramid. The idea being that before children can reach the apex of being imaginative and creative in their learning they need to have spent years on building the base. In other words, children are put through years of routine, highly controlled learning before lively, challenging learning can occur. Why then should we be surprised that when children reach secondary school many of them have lost interest in learning; that they have become so accustomed to such controlled learning – that they reject any other kind.

A paradox about the current campaign for national standards, with its declared purpose of preparing children better for NCEA, is it will prepare children worse. The main reason a significant group of children, especially boys, fail to succeed at NCEA is not because of a lack of learning skills, but a lack of learning interest. They just don’t care a damn and haven’t cared for some time.

The wider context of learning, in relation to national standards, demands attention. I know the metaphor of a pyramid with the attention to the skills’ base is initially compelling, which is why it has been easy to sell to governments looking for simplistic answers in education, and for governments to sell to voters. I know I should propose here a contrasting metaphor but, while I can describe the contrasting teaching and learning process, I haven’t decided on a metaphor to fit, perhaps I will have by the end of this posting, perhaps a reader will make a suggestion.

There can be no question that imaginative and creative teaching and learning in schools is diminishing. If there is one thing all educationists agree on is that under a national standards’ regime the wider curriculum, and the richness of the curriculum, suffers. And it is suffering already in New Zealand schools: suffering from the time allocated; the quality of the wider curriculum programme; the sweeping away of the advisory support for the wider curriculum (ministry-based professional support is focused on ministry demands not children’s needs); and a marked sameness in the way schools function.

I am talking about reality and of direction.

Readers, I hope will give me leeway in my claims to some understanding in social studies (my feeling for approach, for instance), science (my writing of much of the Science Alive series, for instance), written language and drama (my writings and taking of courses), and my championing of the arts (for understanding and guidance, though, I rely on key ex-advisory people). As well, I still go into classrooms in an official and private capacity. To preface what I want to say in this manner is, I know, somewhat pathetic, but it is a measure of my desperation.

What is happening in these areas can be described as constituting a very low challenge to the imagination or encouragement to originality.

6 Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2011

•

The use of computers in social studies and science is disguising that what is happening is little more than old-style projects in a digital make-over.

•

The following of the enquiry process is disguising that no genuine enquiry is occurring and little prospect of transformational learning.

•

Written language has become caught up with teaching progressions to objectives rather than holistic processes to criteria.

•

Drama is virtually non-existent and

•

art is being much undertaken but, in the absence of

advisory stimulus, very much in a rut, a showy rut but nevertheless a rut.

Mathematics is in a somewhat different situation from the rest of the curriculum. The numeracy programme was more successful than the literacy one: partly because there was more ground to make up in numeracy, and partly because the programme used by the advisers was more holistic. The situation now with mathematics is that I go into schools and find that there are children raring to go, but bewildered (birds returning to a missing nest, a pub with no beer) because things have stalled. The stimulus from advisers to teachers to continue has been taken away to finance national standards with the ostensible purpose of improving national standards in numeracy. Put another way, money has been taken away from teaching and learning for the assessment of it at the expense of the teaching of what is to be assessed and the learning that results.

The key point I want to make is that imaginative and creative learning should not be made to wait, a la the pyramid base, until certain skills (often called ‘basic’ but I don’t use this term because it is pointing to the pyramid metaphor) have been learnt – but that the whole host of skills, attitudes, and understandings (far beyond those described as ‘basic) should be learnt together in a stimulating context – to the benefit of those certain skills but also to the benefit of those wider attitudes and understandings.

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Any concept from any curriculum area, employing the full range of skills, attitudes, and understandings, can be taught to any age group, to the advantage of those certain skills, as well as those attitudes and understandings.

I make the challenge to any school that doesn’t believe that, can’t accept that – that I will come to your school and prove it in social studies.

So that’s my key point to poster schools and principals: by all means use what should be your right of choice – to run your school in any way you think appropriate, but be careful in the way your exercise your choice that it isn’t picked up by the government and used to help impose national standards, leading to an inevitable narrowing of the curriculum, a dismantling of a genuine and free-thinking advisory support, increased centralised control, and a reduction in genuine local control by schools.

All the research evidence points to imagination and creativity coming from local initiatives exercised within a light regulatory framework. When I talk to Southland principals next month, it is the nature of just such a regulatory framework that we will be discussing. I will be reporting back via a posting just what they have to say.

Meanwhile, poster schools and principals, tread carefully lest you tread on the dreams of others.

I believe it is called professional ethics

Agitated, Disruptive – Even Aggressive Students?

We can help!

Are you concerned about the risk of violence in your school?

Are you prepared?

Since 1980, CPI has been teaching professionals proven methods for managing difficult or assaultive behaviour. To date, over six million individuals—including thousands of teachers and other education professionals—have participated in the highly successful CPI Nonviolent Crisis Intervention® training course.

This course not only teaches staff how to respond effectively to the warning signs that someone is about to lose control, but also addresses how staff can deal with their own stress and anxiety when confronted with these difficult situations.

For further details on the CPI Nonviolent Crisis Intervention® training course, call us toll-free at 0800 449 187, visit crisisprevention.com, or email us at information@crisisprevention.com.

Join us at an upcoming training course: 5–8 July 2011

Auckland (Otahuhu) International Headquarters: 10850 W. Park Place, Suite 600 • Milwaukee, WI 53224 Toll-free: 0800 449 187 (Please ring before 11:00 a.m. Tues.–Sat.) Fax: 00 1 414 979 7098 Email: information@crisisprevention.com • crisisprevention.com

Priority Code: GT111

Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2011 7

Call to embed Arts in all curriculum areas “A fairytale Once upon a time, all over the world, no children went to school, because schools hadn’t been invented. But children and young people still learned all they needed to become useful grown-ups in their community. They did this by listening to their elders, who told them wise stories and sang songs with them; together with the adults they danced and made music and performed the deep ceremonies and necessary lore and laws of the people; with the adults and each other they drew patterns and painted pictures and fashioned sculptures to create and communicate images and meanings; they invented stories that, although make-believe, were models of both the real world and other possible worlds – and they brought the models to life by acting them out. They learned by making artful and art-full play, and from all these experiences, where the body and senses, the brain and the emotions were all working together in constructive harmony, they made order and meaning for themselves in their personal, relational and objective worlds.

Then as life for humans got more complicated, some very odd people invented a special place to learn, and called it ‘school’. And the idea caught on, at least among grown-ups, who decided that in school, knowledge and compliance were the same thing. So they invented the Protestant Work Ethic, which divided work and play, and led to places for work called ‘classrooms’, where you learned sitting down – a good class was a quiet class, and play was left firmly outside in a special place called the playground where nothing important happened. The body and senses were ignored, and the emotions banished, and the brain was the only thing that counted. And they turned learning from a verb into a noun and called it ‘The Curriculum’ – a document in which what young people needed to know was all written down and could be carefully controlled, and what they did not need to know could be excluded.

The excluded bit included the Arts. This was because the odd grown-ups thought that music was noisy, the visual arts were messy, and that dance and drama were both noisy AND messy. If they happened at all, they were allowed to happen outside school time or on wet Friday afternoons.

Their exclusion was also partly because another strange thing had happened in the world beyond schools. Proper Art had become something only for grown-ups, and could only be created by special people who had a gift from the muses and had to have special training, which of course was available outside the schools.”

The full paper is available on: http://www.acer.edu.au/research/publications/aer Well worth taking the time to read!

The Arts and Australian Education: Realising potential Robyn Ewing First published 2010

by ACER Press Australian Council for Educational Research 19 Prospect Hill Road, Camberwell, Victoria, 3124 Copyright © 2010 Australian Council for Educational Research 8 Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2011

As Australia moves towards the implementation of a national curriculum in the Arts, a new review of research, released today by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), calls for the Arts to be embedded in all academic disciplines and fields as a way of cultivating creativity and imagination.

Australian Education Review 58, The Arts and Australian Education: Realising potential by University of Sydney academic Professor Robyn Ewing stresses that the Arts (dance, drama, literature, media arts, music and visual arts) must not be seen as servants to other curriculum areas.

Releasing the review ACER’s chief executive Professor Geoff Masters said the review outlines the potential of the Arts to reshape the way learning is conceived and organised in schools.

The review highlights international research that shows those students whose learning is embedded in the Arts achieve better grades and overall test scores, are less likely to leave school early, rarely report boredom and have more positive self concept than those students who are deprived of arts experiences.

Examples from education and community education programs that embed quality arts processes and experiences demonstrate the potential of the Arts to change the lives of children and young people, particularly those experiencing difficulties.

“Despite the growing body of evidence pointing to educational and wider social benefits of the Arts, to date equitable provision and resourcing of the Arts and monitoring teaching quality in arts education has received insufficient attention in Australia,” Professor Ewing said.

“Similarly, provision of quality teacher preparation in the Arts and ongoing professional learning has been almost nonexistent.”

Many successful arts programs have been established by philanthropic groups. Professor Ewing argues that such initiatives should be the province of government through both educational and broader social policy. She calls upon Australian governments to invest in high-quality arts education initiatives as well as high-quality research and evaluation of these initiatives.

According to Professor Ewing achieving the demonstrated educational and social benefits of Arts in education will require a change in thinking by policy makers to ensure that cultivating imagination and creativity become the priorities rather than ‘add-ons’.

“It will be important for policy-makers and those developing the new national curriculum to seriously consider the evidence and stances adopted in this review.”

Robyn Ewing is Professor of Teacher Education and the Arts at the University of Sydney. Her teaching, research, publications and extensive work in schools include the use of drama with literature to enhance students’ English and literacy outcomes.

Australian Education Review number 58, The Arts and Australian Education: Realising potential, by Robyn Ewing with a foreword by John O’Toole, Foundation Chair of Arts Education at the University of Melbourne and currently lead writer for The Australian Curriculum: The Arts is available for download from the ACER website at http://www.acer.edu.au/aer.

Show that teachers count Your chance to nominate the outstanding teachers and leaders in your school community It’s nomination time for parents and secondary school students as they consider the outstanding teachers and leaders in their school or centre who positively influence learning and performance.

Nominations have opened for the 2011-2012 round of the National Excellence in Teaching and Leadership Awards, with the theme, Teachers Count.

Terry O’Connell, chairman of the NEiTA Foundation, says the awards programme acknowledges the profound impact outstanding teachers have on our students, our community, our education system and ultimately our country.

“We’ve long recognised that outside the family home, a teacher is the greatest influence on a student’s learning and performance.

“For 15 years NEiTA – with the support of ASG Education Programs New Zealand and Cognition Education Trust – has helped pioneer teaching awards as a way of acknowledging the important work of teachers within the community. During this time over 3,000 early childhood education, primary, intermediate and secondary school teachers have been nominated for awards. These teachers continue to positively contribute to the reputation of the profession, said Mr O’Connell.”

Mr O’Connell urged school and early childhood communities to demonstrate how much Teachers Count by nominating a teacher or leader from their school or early

childhood centre for an ASG Excellence in Teaching Award or a Cognition Excellence in Leadership Award.

Nominations are open until 31 August 2011. Forms can be downloaded from the NEiTA website www.neita.co.nz and are also available at schools and early childhood education centres nationwide, libraries, or can be obtained by contacting the NEiTA Foundation on 09 308 0576 or email mventer@asg.co.nz The NEiTA awards are jointly sponsored by ASG Education Programs New Zealand TM, a not-for-profit organisation which operates trans-Tasman assisting parents to plan for their children’s future education, and Cognition Education, a provider of a wide range of support, services and consultation provisions to schools and education sector clients in New Zealand and internationally.

All teachers and leaders nominated receive a Certificate of Nomination, with 20 area representatives selected to go forward to receive Regional Awards for Excellence in Teaching and Leadership in Wellington during May 2012. From these, ten teachers/ leaders will go on to receive National Awards at their schools or centres later in the year.

National awardees will receive professional development grants from a pool totaling $35,000. Two $5,000 and three $2,500 grants will each be made for excellence in teaching and for excellence in leadership.

Changing Education Paradigms This animate was adapted from a talk given at the RSA

by Sir Ken Robinson, world-renowned education and creativity expert and recipient of the RSA’s Benjamin Franklin award.

For more information on Sir Ken’s work visit: http://www.sirkenrobinson.com

Sir Ken Robinson Link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U

Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2011 9

From Australia to Abu Dhab and other

Charles Tripolone in India. ISA School and Fort

Charles Tripolone is explaining the rains: “In my first few months in India, back in 2008, we had 5 ½ metres in 4 months!” he says.

“That’s quite a contrast to the millimetres of rainfall that we measure in Australia.”

And then he adds: “Well maybe not so in the last few months!”

Charles goes on: “In 2009 the monsoons were very light. It was fascinating for science teaching; soil erosion, sedimentation; it could easily by taught through real life experiences there.”

10 Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2011

Since moving on from India, 39 year old Charles, now works with Taaleem Edison Learning in partnership with the Abu Dhabi Education Council, as a Science Consultant for local schools. This has been an excellent move which has allowed him to consolidate his teaching experience – experience that has spanned several countries.

Prior to his current post, Charles was teaching at the International School Aamby in India and, since leaving Australia as a qualified teacher in 2001, has also taught at an international school in Turkey. “This whole international teaching experience has definitely been a positive move for me,” he says. “You just learn so much by moving out of your comfort zone. I’ve learnt five languages at various levels, travelled to about 100 countries, taught a whole mix of national and international curricula, and have done things I’d never thought I’d do before I left Australia,” explains Charles. “I’ve got so much more confidence because I’ve not been placed in one education system for an extended period of time, and, as for teaching in India, that experience definitely helped me to calm down. Life happens at a much calmer pace there; things always get done but everything is so much more chilled.”

Charles taught Science and IT at the International School Aamby which involved working with a wide range of curricula including the IPC, CPC, IGCSE and IB. “I really enjoyed the blending of different curricula as it helped me to crystallize in my mind how children learn best. This definitely benefitted my career,” he says.

bi countries along the way As with most international schools, the intake of students at Aamby was a mix of local children and expatriate children and, as with all international schools, every child was learning through the medium of English. As for teaching colleagues, Charles worked alongside UK, American, Indian and other Australian teachers. “It’s a great atmosphere,” he says. “International school teachers are all very supportive of each other. And the children are fantastic. Their behaviour is excellent. You never need to raise your voice. I spend most of my time teaching rather than managing behaviour and that makes such a difference academically and on a personal level too.”

Charles is one of over 260,000 English-speaking teachers now teaching internationally and many more are heading that way thanks to the significant growth in international

schools. In the last year alone, over 500 new Englishspeaking international schools were opened across the globe, taking the total number of international schools worldwide to 5,700. This is anticipated to grow to 8,000 international schools within five years according to data provided by ISC Research, the organisation that analyses developments in the international schools market.

“Recruiters from international schools are looking for qualified teachers from countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, South Africa and Canada,” says Andrew Wigford, Director of Teachers International Consultancy (TIC), an organisation that specialises in international school recruitment. The reason why: “English is the language of choice for international schools wherever they may be in the world.

Kerala Field Trip Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2011 11

So if you’re an English-speaking teacher and have a few years teaching experience, you can literally work anywhere in the world,” says Andrew.

Charles was helped by Teachers International Consultancy to find his job and offers this advice to other teachers considering working in an international school: “Do your homework. Make sure it’s somewhere you’d like to live for a while. Research the school and the contract they offer.

Charles Tripolone in India.

Alibag Excursion

12 Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2011

Ask as many questions as you can before you make the decision; it’s important to know exactly what you’re getting in to. Use all resources available to you including friends, recommendations, the internet and specialist organisations.

You also need to very flexible and accommodating to changes along the way. TIC provided me with a lot of insight and guidance that I couldn’t get anywhere else. They helped to match me with the right job and, before my interview, spoke to the school about me and that was all so important. It was much better than applying independently.”

As for home in Sydney, Charles says he does miss it and he does miss his family and friends. “The internet can sometimes be patchy and communication can be a bit of an issue, but I wouldn’t have missed these opportunities for anything,” he says. “There’s a whole world out there and the options now for me are tremendous. This experience has opened up many new doors and when I’m ready, I’ll head back home. But not for a while!”

Something does not feel right!

For more advice about international teaching opportunities, visit the Teachers International Consultancy website at www.findteachingjobsoverseas.co.uk

Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2011 13

The Gifted/Talented Student According to James Q Wilson, a professor of political science at Harvard University, the four sentiments that characterise moral sensibility are sympathy, fairness, self control and duty. Honesty, fairness, global concerns and sensitivity towards the feelings of others are common within the concept of giftedness. This article focuses on spotting talent in this area by recognising those who have an intense need for fairness and justice, and take action to resolve injustices.

Look for the child in your class who •

Is highly perceptive of other people’s emotions and is often aware of problems that go unnoticed by the majority. This child seems very mature and compassionate for his/her age and often champions, befriends and protects the needy classmate.

•

Is unfailingly honest and will tell the truth even if means involvement in trouble.

•

Is easily upset when criticised or when her/his suggestions have been ignored but if offended, does not hold grudges and forgives readily.

•

Is prepared to support a cause that he or she feels drawn to, regardless of opposition or ridicule by others.

•

Has a strong sense of right and wrong. ‘I’ve always felt that when I do something in the name of fairness, it’s not just for me--it’s for everybody.’ (Janet Peckinpaugh)

•

Has a very strong emotional connection to animals in general, to a particular species or to a pet.

•

Asks difficult or perceptive questions about concepts that are difficult to explain, such as... Do animals feel pain like we do? Why do people have to suffer? Is violence inevitable?

•

Responds emotionally to music, art, photos, books, and shares these feelings and ideas through one or more of the arts. For example, the child who writes poetry that reflects the anguish of cruelty in the world.

‘Feelings are much like waves, we can’t stop them from coming but we can choose which one to surf.’ (Jonathan Martensson)

•

Takes everything personally and seems fearful and unduly sad or anxious

experience emotions in the same way will help to create a classroom environment of acceptance.

1. All differentiation of learning begins with student assessment 2. Since differentiating requires a considerable degree of self direction and intrinsic motivation, it is necessary to focus on developing intrinsic motivation skills. http://members.shaw.ca/ priscillatheroux/motivation.html 3. It is necessary to clarify the concept of fairness. Students often get hung up on the idea that it isn’t fair for the teacher to have different expectations for different students. They often feel that all students should be doing the same thing or “it isn’t fair.” It is important for the teacher to establish the fact that each student is a unique individual and has different learning needs.

Consequently they will be working at different tasks much of the time.

Notes on Strategies for Gifted Learners: Readiness and Ability Teachers can use a variety of assessments to determine a student’s readiness. also, to learn new concepts students may be generally working below or above grade level or they may simply be missing necessary prerequisite skills.

However, readiness is constantly changing and as readiness changes it is important that students be permitted to move between different groups (see flexible grouping).

Activities for each group are often differentiated by complexity. Students whose understanding is below grade level will work at tasks inherently less complex than those attempted by more advanced students. Those students whose reading level is below grade level will benefit by reading with a buddy or listening to stories/instructions using a tape recorder so that they receive information verbally.

Varying the level of questioning (and consequent thinking skills) and compacting the curriculum and are useful strategies for accommodating differences in ability or readiness.

Adjusting Questions

Such children may conflict with the concrete rules and laws of the group in which they find themselves because their actions are motivated by the need to uphold the rights and values of the greater society. Identification is just the first step. The following are some ideas to support such students...

During large group discussion activities, teachers direct the higher level questions to the students who can handle them and adjust questions accordingly for student with greater needs. All students are answering important questions that require them to think but the questions are targeted towards the student’s ability or readiness level.

Encourage involvement in volunteering. The Make a Difference Day website has information on how to get involved with projects on an international scale.

An easy tool for accomplishing this is to put posters on the classroom walls with key words that identify the varying levels of thinking. For example I used to put 6 posters on my walls (based on Bloom’s taxonomy) one for Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis and Evaluation. These were useful cues for me when conducting class discussions and useful for my students when they were required to develop their own research questions.

Different students may be referred to different posters at certain times depending on ability, readiness or assignment requirements.

As a class, investigate what it would be like to have a disability or ...(fill in your own suggestion here) and use the experience to improve an aspect of the classroom environment.

Remember that the feelings a child expresses are often beyond his or her control. Avoid passing judgment with words such as ‘What a drama queen’ or ‘Stop overreacting.’ Helping the class to understand that we don’t all 14 Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2011

With written quizzes the teacher may assign specific

and Moral Sensibility questions for each group of students. They all answer the same number of questions but the complexity required varies from group to group. However, the option to go beyond minimal requirements can be available for students who require an additional challenge for their level.

Compacting Curriculum Compacting the curriculum means assessing a students knowledge, skills and attitudes and providing alternative activities for the student who has already mastered curriculum content. This can be achieved by pre-testing basic concepts or using performance assessment methods.

Students who demonstrate that they do not require instruction move on to tiered problem solving activities while others receive instruction.

Tiered Assignments Tiered activities are a series of related tasks of varying complexity. All of these activities relate to essential understanding and key skills that students need to acquire.

Teachers assign the activities as alternative ways of reaching the same goals taking into account individual student needs.

Acceleration/Deceleration Accelerating or decelerating the pace that students move through curriculum is another method of differentiating instruction. Students demonstrating a high level of competence can work through the curriculum at a faster pace. Students experiencing difficulties may need adjusted activities that allow for a slower pace in order to experience success.

Flexible Grouping As student performance will vary it is important to permit movement between groups. Student’s readiness varies depending on personal talents and interests, so we must remain open to the concept that a student may be below grade level in one subject at the same time as being above grade level in another subject.

Flexible grouping allows students to be appropriately challenged and avoids labeling a student’s readiness as static. Neither should students be kept in a static group for particular subjects as their learning may accelerate from time to time.

Even highly talented students can benefit from flexible grouping. Often they benefit from work with intellectual peers, while occasionally in another group they can experience being a leader. In either case peer-teaching is a valuable strategy for group-work.

Peer Teaching Occasionally a student may have personal needs that require one-on-one instruction that go beyond the needs of his or her peers. After receiving this extra instruction the student could be designated as the “resident expert” for that concept or skill and can get valuable practice by being given the opportunity to re-teach the concept to peers. In these circumstances both students benefit.

Learning Profiles/Styles Another filter for assigning students to tasks is by learning style, such as adjusting preferred environment (quiet, lower

Elaine Le Sueur

lighting, formal/casual seating etc.) or learning modality: auditory (learns best by hearing information) visual (learns best through seeing information in charts or pictures) or kinesthetic preferences (learns best by using concrete examples, or may need to move around while learning) or through personal interests. Since student motivation is also a unique element in learning, understanding individual learning styles and interests will permit teachers to apply appropriate strategies for developing intrinsic motivational techniques.

Student Interest Interest surveys are often used for determining student interest. Brainstorming for subtopics within a curriculum concept and using semantic webbing to explore interesting facets of the concept is another effective tool. This is also an effective way of teaching students how to focus on a manageable subtopic. Brainstorming using the blackboard or better still, using Graphic Organizers such as Mindmanager and Inspiration can be a highly effective way for teaching students how to explore a concept and focus on manageable and personally interesting subtopics.

Reading Buddies This strategy is more useful for younger students. Children get additional practice and experience reading away from the teacher as they develop fluency and comprehension.

It is important that students read with a specific purpose in mind and then have an opportunity to discuss what was read. It is not necessary for students to always be at the same reading level. Students with varying word recognition, word analysis and comprehension skills can help each other be more successful. Adjusted follow up tasks are also assigned based on readiness level.

Independent Study Projects Independent Study is a research project where students learn how to develop the skills for independent learning.

The degree of help and structure will vary between students and depend on their ability to manage ideas, time and productivity. A modification of the independent study is the buddy-study.

Buddy-Studies A buddy-study permits two or three students to work together on a project.

The expectation is that Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2011 15

all may share the research and analysis/organization of information but each student must complete an individual product to demonstrate learning that has taken place and be accountable for their own planning, time management and individual accomplishment Learning Contracts A learning contract is a written agreement between teacher and student that will result in students working independently. The contract helps students to set daily and weekly work goals and develop management skills. It also helps the teacher to keep track of each student’s progress. The actual assignments will vary according to specific student needs.

Learning Centres Learning Centres have been used by teachers for a long time and may contain both differentiated and compulsory activities. However a learning centre is not necessarily differentiated unless the activities are varied by complexity taking in to account different student ability and readiness. It is important that students understand what is expected of them at the learning centre and are encouraged to manage their use of time. The degree of structure that is provided will vary according to student independent work habits. At the end of each week students should be able to account for their use of time.

Carol Anne Tomlinson’s book The Differentiated Classroom and ASCD’s video tape kit Differentiating Instruction (VT 7600) list the following additional strategy for differentiating learning in a mixed ability classroom.

Anchoring Activities This may be a list of activities that a student can do to at any time when they have completed present assignments or it can be assigned for a short period at the beginning of each class as students organize themselves and prepare for work. These activities may relate to specific needs or enrichment opportunities, including problems to solve or journals to write. They could also be part of a long-term project that a student is working on. These activities may provide the teacher with time to provide specific help and small group instruction to students requiring additional help to get started.

Students can work at different paces but always have productive work they can do.

Some time ago these activities may have been called seatwork, and should not be confused with busy-work.

These activities must be worthy of a student’s time and appropriate to their learning needs.

Tomlinson also recommends tiered activities, adjusting questions, learning centres, flexible 16 Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2011

grouping, independent study and curriculum compacting as defined above.

The teacher becomes a facilitator, assessor of students and planner of activities rather than an instructor. This is what Roger Taylor called the Guide on Side rather than the Sage in the Stage approach in the early 80s. It is less structured, more busy and often less quiet than older teaching methods. However, differentiation engages students more deeply in their learning, provides for constant growth and development, and provides for a stimulating and exciting classroom.

Step 1- Know Your Students Determine the ability level of your students.

This can be done by surveying past records of student performance to determine capabilities, prior learning, past experiences with learning, etc.

Survey student interests.

It is also important to get to know your students informally.

This can be done by an interest inventory, an interview/ conference, or asking students to respond to an openended questionnaire with key questions about their learning preferences (depending on the age group).

Is behavior management a problem?

This is key when planning for activities that require less structure. However, it is still important to determine learning styles and preferences for students who may have a hard time controlling their behaviors.

Sometimes knowing preferences can help to motivate students to attend to any tasks that are presented.

Step 2- Have a Repertoire of Teaching Strategies Because “one size does not fit all,” it is imperative that a variety of teaching strategies be used in a differentiated classroom. Among many teaching strategies that can be considered, there are four worth mentioning: direct instruction, inquiry-based learning, cooperative learning, and information processing models.

Direct Instruction This is the most widely used and most traditional teaching strategy. It is teacher centered and can be used to cover a great amount of material in the amount of time teachers have to cover what students need to learn. It is structured and is based on mastery learning. More information can be found on: http://www. teach-nology.com/teachers/methods/models/ Inquiry-based Learning Inquiry-based learning has become very popular in teaching today. It is based on the scientific method and works very well in developing critical thinking and problem solving skills. It is student centered and requires students to conduct investigations independent of the teacher, unless otherwise directed or guided through the process of discovery.

For more information, go to: http://www.teach-nology.com/ currenttrends/inquiry/ Cooperative Learning Probably one of the most misunderstood strategies for teaching is “cooperative learning.” Yet, if employed properly, cooperative learning can produce extraordinary results in learning outcomes. It is based on grouping small teams of students heterogeneously according to ability, interest, background, etc. However, one of the most important features of cooperative learning is to pick the best strategy that will be used to assign the

task for students to accomplish. The more popular strategies include JigsawII, STAD-Student Teams, or Group Investigation. For more information, go to: http://www. teach-nology.com/currenttrenss/cooperative_learning/

not assume that all students need a given task or segment of study, but continuously assess student readiness and interest, providing support when students need additional instruction and guidance, and extending student exploration when indications are that a student or group of students is ready to move ahead.

Information Processing Strategies Teaching students “how to” process information is a key factor in teaching students how to strategically organize, store, retrieve, and apply information presented. Such strategies include, but are not limited to, memorization, KWL, reciprocal teaching, graphic organizing, scaffolding, or webbing. More information on this topic can be found at: http://www.teach-nology.com/teachers/methods/info_ processing/

Step 3- Identify a Variety of Instructional Activities Engaging students in the learning process using activities that motivate and challenge students to remain on task is probably one of the most frustrating events in the teaching learning process. But if you know your students’ profiles, you have a better chance at keeping them on task to completion of any given assignment or activity. In a differentiated classroom, activities are suited to the needs of students according to the mixed ability levels, interests, backgrounds, etc. For example, if you have English language learners in your class, you need to provide activities that are bilingual in nature or that provide the necessary resources for students to complete the activity with success. Good activities require students to develop and apply knowledge in ways that make sense to them and that they find meaningful and relevant. Ideas for activities can be found at: http://www.teach-nology.com/teachers/ lesson_plans/

Step 4- Identify Ways to Assess or Evaluate Student Progress Once again, we cannot assume that “one size fits all.” As a result, varying means of student assessment is necessary if students are to be given every opportunity to demonstrate authentic learning. Authentic assessment has been around for a long time and is now taking the limelight as we attempt to measure students’ progress in a fair and equitable way Characteristics of a Differentiated Class Four characteristics shape teaching and learning in an effective differentiated classroom (Tomlinson, 1995a): 1. Instruction is concept focused and principle driven. All students have the opportunity to explore and apply the key concepts of the subject being studied. All students come to understand the key principles on which the study is based.

Such instruction enables struggling learners to grasp and use powerful ideas and, at the same time, encourages advanced learners to expand their understanding and application of the key concepts and principles. Such instruction stresses understanding or sense-making rather than retention and regurgitation of fragmented bits of information. Concept-based and principle-driven instruction invites teachers to provide varied learning options. A “coverage-based” curriculum may cause a teacher to feel compelled to see that all students do the same work. In the former, all students have the opportunity to explore meaningful ideas through a variety of avenues and approaches.

2. On-going assessment of student readiness and growth are built into the curriculum. Teachers do

3. Flexible grouping is consistently used. In a differentiated class, students work in many patterns. Sometimes they work alone, sometimes in pairs, sometimes in groups. Sometimes tasks are readiness-based, sometimes interest-based, sometimes constructed to match learning style, and sometimes a combination of readiness, interest, and learning style. In a differentiated classroom, whole-group instruction may also be used for introducing new ideas, when planning, and for sharing learning outcomes.

4. Students are active explorers. Teachers guide the exploration. Because varied activities often occur simultaneously in a differentiated classroom, the teacher works more as a guide or facilitator of learning than as a dispenser of information. As in a large family, students must learn to be responsible for their own work. Not only does such studentcenteredness give students more ownership of their learning, but it also facilitates the important adolescent learning goal of growing independence in thought, planning, and evaluation. Implicit in such instruction is (1) goal-setting shared by teacher and student based on student readiness, interest, and learning profile, and (2) assessment predicated on student growth and goal attainment.

How Learner Outcomes for Gifted Students Differ from Generic Outcomes Typically, major differences lie in the scope of the outcome, the stage of development at which it is expected, and the implicit proficiencies necessary to achieve it at an exemplary level. Below is a set of ninth-grade English curriculum outcomes for all learners juxtaposed with outcomes that were developed specifically for gifted students at that same grade level.

Generic 1. Comprehends a variety of materials.

2. Is familiar with the structural elements of literature.

3. Develops an understanding of the chronology of American literature.

Gifted 1. Evaluates diverse materials according to a set of criteria or standards.

2. Creates a literary work in a self-selected form, Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2011 17

using appropriate structural elements.

3. Analyzes and interprets key social, cultural, and economic ideas as expressed in the literature, art, and music of America at 40-year intervals.

The examples in the gifted set are consistently more challenging, broader in scope, and more focused on specific higher level thinking tasks. They imply that students have mastered the basic underlying skills necessary to undertake required tasks (e.g., that students can basically comprehend what they read), and demand the development of multiple perspectives within and across areas of knowledge.

These aspects of differentiation are central in comparing generic and gifted outcome statements.

Assessment Just as gifted learners need differentiated outcomes, so too, must the assessment approach be consistent with the stated outcome. This is different from the way the more generic outcome for all learners would be measured. The assessment approach should be developed at the same time as the outcome in order to maintain unity of purpose and to ensure that the proposed outcome can in fact be satisfactorily assessed. Incorporating assessment into the teaching-learning process is essential to creating an authentic process. Assessment of outcomes will involve rating student products, whether they are written essays, projects, or original creative work.

How to Think About Differentiating Instruction There are many ways to shake up the classroom to create a better fit for more learners-including those who are advanced. In general, interest-based adjustments allow students to have a voice in deciding whether they will apply key principles being studied to math-oriented, literaturebased, hobby-related, science-oriented, or history-associated areas. For example, in studying the American Revolution, one student might opt to write a short story about the life of a teenager during the Revolutionary period. Another might elect to apply key ideas about the American Revolution to an investigation of heroes then and now. Yet another might prefer to study ways in which the Revolution affected the development of science.

Adjustments based on learning profile encourage students to understand their own learning preferences. For example, some students need a longer period to reflect on ideas before beginning to apply them, while others prefer quick action. Some students need to talk with others as they learn, while others need a quiet work space. Some students learn best as they tell stories about ideas being explored, others as they create mind maps, and still others as they construct three-dimensional representations. Some students may learn best through a practical application of ideas, others through a more analytical approach.

Readiness-based adjustments can be created by teachers offering students a range of learning tasks developed along one or more of the following continua: 1. Concrete to abstract. Learners advanced in a subject often benefit from tasks that involve more abstract materials, representations, ideas, or applications than less advanced peers.

2. Simple to complex. Learners advanced in a subject often benefit from tasks that are more complex in resources, research, issues, problems, skills, or goals than less advanced peers.

18 Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2011

3. Basic to transformational. Learners advanced in a subject often benefit from tasks that require greater transformation or manipulation of information, ideas, materials, or applications than less advanced peers.

4. Fewer facets to multi-facets. Learners advanced in a subject often benefit from tasks that have more facets or parts in their directions, connections within or across subjects, or planning and execution than less advanced peers.

5. Smaller leaps to greater leaps. Learners advanced in a subject often benefit from tasks that require greater mental leaps in insight, application, or transfer than less advanced peers.

6. More structured to more open. Learners advanced in a subject often benefit from tasks that are more open in regard to solutions, decisions, and approaches than less advanced peers.

7. Less independence to greater independence.

Learners advanced in a subject often benefit from greater independence in planning, designing, and self-monitoring than less advanced peers.

8. Quicker to slower. Learners advanced in a subject will sometimes benefit from rapid movement through prescribed materials and tasks. At other times, they may require a greater amount of time with a given study than less advanced peers so that they may explore the topic in greater depth and/or breadth.

NOTE: We regret that, in the layout process, we omitted to acknowledge that the information contained in the latter part of the article The Gifted/Talented Student and Moral Sensibility, was the author’s notes, accessed and downloaded from a variety of sources on the internet.

As they are notes we are including the hyperlinks to those sources (below).

GoodTeacher Magazine would like to acknowledge the thinking and research which underpinned the writings and the authors willingness to share.

The following were the sources used within the preceding article.

Differentiated Instructional Strategies - West Virginia Department .... http://www.tlicho.ca/tlichocommunityservices/ programsandservices/education/k-12/kindergarten/ differentiatedinstruction Characteristics of a Differentiated class http://www.nagc.org Good Teacher Magazine apologises for the original omission.

Dear Teacher, Visit my website and register for your FREE resource to use in your classroom with your able students. No strings attached. It is my thanks to you for taking action and following through on this flier.

If you would like heaps more ideas and strategies for differentiating your lessons to meet the needs of these students, check out my new teacher manuals, available from www.thinkshop.org.nz

Check out the LSSNA (Le Sueur Student Needs Analysis) and the link to University on wheels for even more help. www.universityonwheels.org.nz Thank you for your interest.

From Elaine

Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2011 19

Of gaps and holes Though underachievement is constantly in the media, the actual amount of it in our schools will come as a real surprise to most people. Nobody thinks of counting in the “hidden” stuff – the student performance shortfall that you can put down to undeveloped learning capacity – for that simply goes unnoticed. When that’s added to the tally, one could be excused for thinking that underachievement is the espoused aim of the education system.

The sheer amount of it implies a deliberativeness for it’s on a scale far greater than you’d expect, say, if there were only a few minor, unintended consequences involved. As a means of rationing academic success, though, it’s pure genius, just as it’s perfect for maintaining social inequalities. Of course, we know nobody ever sat down and deliberately designed things to work that way. For starters, can you imagine anyone making such a good fist of it – having underachievement operate as smoothly and consistently as it does across the board, sector wide?

capacity to learn (Nuthall, 2001). Yet what’s being experienced in our schools and other places of learning is a distribution of academic success that in no way reflects that fact.

Continuing to use findings from that outstanding research, let’s keep building substance into the analysis. Hold in mind that the success of our socalled top students is being obtained in an “inherently inefficient” learning regime (Nuthall, 2001). That aside for the moment, by using their success as a bench mark, we have a measure of two things. We can see how many students – given their virtually even capacity to learn – are underachieving, and by how much. We can also see how much of the total capacity to learn of any given student population has been developed, simply by comparing the combined shortfall with what the situation would be if every one them turned in benchmark performances – something their “remarkably similar” capacity to learn should certainly be leading us to expect.

Surprisingly enough, the origins of underachievement are even far more bizarre than anything most might imagine. For like Topsy, it just growed, all of its own accord. It’s just evolved that way, over the course of human history, simply because the act of learning has not been properly understood.

A notional graph diagram developed on that basis reveals that only a tad more than half of the overall capacity to learn possessed by our nation’s young is being developed (Loper, 2007) . That means something less than half is not, with the “hidden” component, as will be apparent shortly, being a very significant proportion of that.

To bring more substance to this expose, let’s look to some of the more pertinent detail. As things stand, the odds against any student learning as well as nature intended would be very high indeed. That’s because quality research – now a decade old, but still new to many – tells us that almost every student has virtually the same capacity to learn as do the best, each possessing a “remarkably similar”

But even that’s not the full picture. As said, top students are doing their achieving in an inefficient learning environment. That they, like the rest, are functioning below what they’re capable of and have undeveloped learning capacity going spare, is easily enough demonstrated. Watch the performance increases they show when they take part in hot-house type activities, elite programmes,

and the like. Any use of their more 20 Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2011

everyday performance as a benchmark, then, is understating their value in the comparison. How much that’s so can only be guessed at.

On that point, reference the notional diagram mentioned, adding a modest ten per cent compensatory increase to the performance level of the top students raises the bar sufficiently to push the total of undeveloped learning capacity, in respect of the whole student body, above the fifty per cent mark. As said, we simply don’t know by how much top students are under performing, learning wise. It will be appreciated, then, that if that ten per cent itself is an underestimation, the situation’s much worse than described.

As it is, limiting the increase to ten per cent, underachievement now is able claim the dubious status of being the major academic outcome. An example of what this looks like in real life comes from checks kept over recent years on the NCEA results of the eight most “successful” secondary schools in the local region. These show not only the existence of “hidden” gaps to a disappointing extent, but that the proportions of students not achieving top level passes, has remained high and is virtually static.

As already signalled, what such a notional diagram also makes clear is that, depending on where the benchmark sits for those top students, the amount of “hidden” underachievement is some three to four times the amount of the “visible” underachievement – taking that to mean what’s contributed by the lowest achieving twenty per cent of students. This “visible” group, of course, is the only group that everyone thinks of as being in need of help.

Certainly, they’re the group with the greatest ground to make up. From

Laurie Loper Psychologist a policy perspective, though, there’s no doubt which group, the”hidden” verses the “visible”, offers the possibility of reclaiming the greatest part of that currently unused, fifty per cent plus portion of learning capacity. Or which of the two offers the chance of easiest gain. Findings of this nature have obvious policy implications. It’s not the intention here, though, to argue for one group getting the resource against the other, but to prompt a solution that would ensure the needs of both get served. That there’s a viable means of doing this – increasing the efficiency of the learning process – is something I’ve been sounding off about now for more than a decade.

Now comes the final and most bizarre aspects of this whole sorry saga. None of the sort of researchbased thinking being advanced here is evident in current policy, nor is it ever likely to feature in the future. For none of the research that’s underpinning what’s been discussed is being taken notice of by the education sector. Hence efficacy is still something that’s being taken for granted, much as has occurred in the past. Where is Wikileaks when it’s needed?

If you believe the hype, though, where efficacy is concerned, the proponents of present day approaches to learning think they’re well on to it. But they’re not. Continuing to display their ignorance of the nature of learning, the approaches being used are mere donkeys masquerading as the thoroughbred race horses they can never be, but must be, if learning efficacy is ever to be established with the surety, speed, and to the across-the-board extent required.

What’s being highlighted, then, is that there’s a need for a better understand-

ing of how little of the capacity to learn possessed by the entire student body is being made use of. Especially in view of the demands of today’s world, this underuse of the capacity to learn has to be seen as an entirely unsustainable impost. The tragedy is, though, that this situation has always existed and it bids fair to continue ad infinitum, ad nauseam. Put it this way, the potential’s there to double educational outcomes for virtually the same teaching input. That fifty per cent plus of undeveloped learning capacity says there’s an awful lot of slack to be taken up.

To date, the education sector has only had eyes for one form of underachievement, the “visible” type. To its credit, it’s always been something that’s been regarded with concern. However, over the years, the sector has never been able to make much headway in reducing it, especially across the whole student population. That concern, then, looks pretty thin. Critics could argue with some justification that, in effect, concern is all the sector has ever been able to come up with. It’s also provided too convenient a shield from the criticism that not enough is being done.

Of latter years, that concern has become coupled with a growing complacency, it being evident in the conviction that any new intervention approach – take your pick from amongst the current ones – is always said to be on the right track, to be well based and to possess the wherewithal to do the job. Given the many that don’t actually get the job done in any truly across-the-board and enduring fashion, in its search for better approaches, this is a complacency that switches its favouritism more often than political parties do u-turns. It’s

also evident that there’s more than a tinge of arrogance associated with this complacency and that these values are now well embedded in policy.

But the addition of the “hidden” group to the underachievement equation puts an entirely different face on things. Complacent concern, arrogant or otherwise, has never been an adequate response. The sheer scale of performance shortfall across the whole student population, as has been revealed, indicates just how much that calibre of response is out of whack with what’s required.

As said, there’s definitely a way out of this impasse. But the way things are at present, all talk concerning that has unfortunately become somewhat beside the point. For the whole scene in which both the “visible” and the “hidden” types of underachievement are occurring, is so conflicted, nobody seems capable of thinking straight. Nobody either seems to have the sort of handle on things to know what to do. Or to be able to recognise a solution when one presents itself, let alone gauge it’s calibre. Or to be able to think beyond the constrictions of their own beliefs and habitual practices, these after all being the two main causative factors that are involved here. Until there’s been a change of mind set, until the elements of the confliction that surrounds this issue are de-conflicted, until there’s a proper understanding of what breakthrough research says is going on, we’ll simply have to put up with the current situation.

Let me now answer some queries a friend put to me recently – his wording is retained as best I could. Is the achievement gap as bad as it’s been made to seem? Absolutely, no doubt

Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2011 21

about it. Shouldn’t someone blow the whistle on what’s happening? Certainly, the sooner the better. Shouldn’t there be questions asked as to why we spend so much to achieve so little, by not doing enough that’s a match of what the relevant research says needs doing? I couldn’t agree more.

But digging oneself out of a hole, while remaining ignorant of the nature of the hole you’re in, has never been rated smart any place on the planet. As long as we demonstrate that we’re content with the amount of across-the-board, sub par achievement we have, and as long as the perception remains that underachievement is due to everything else other than the “inherently inefficient” process that’s inflicted daily on every one of the nation’s young, that hole ain’t going away. No sir, it’s just going to get bigger and deeper.

Let me finish with these thoughts on the plight of the “visible” group.

The impact of underachievement on them is as disproportionate and cripplingly inhumane as is the injustice and unwarranted hardship that any ill-targeted tax inflicts upon the poor. That most of those involved are children of the poor anyway lends added force to the metaphor, not that it requires more. That there’s already been a decade of non recognition of the efficacy based reasons for underachievement, further compounds a situation that’s of very long standing.

But it’s plain that this situation of gross inequity – of equally glaring iniquity as well – isn’t something that just they have to bear. The rest of us have to bear both the cost, and the shame of it. We’ll have to bear both for as long as this impasse over the understanding of causes continues. By the look of it, that’ll be for as long as it’ll take hell to freeze over. \References: Nuthall, G. 2001 “The cultural myths and the realities of teaching and learning”. Address to the NZEA Annual Conference, Dec 2001, at Christchurch.

Loper, L. 2007. Notional diagram. Unpublished

22 Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2011

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Think World Conference – think New Zealand!

New Zealand’s gifted education community has scored a huge success. In 2013, for the first time ever, the biennial conference of the World Council for Gifted and Talented Children will be held in New Zealand.

The World Conference is the highlight on the international calendar for those involved in this field. It attracts leading researchers and practitioners from all points of the globe. Hundreds of teachers, administrators, counselors, psychologists and parents meet to share new research findings and practical developments for able students.

Held every two years, the WCGTC conference is usually located in Europe, America or Asia and has never ventured this far south before. Bringing it to New Zealand will open vistas of knowledge and experience only a handful of New Zealand teachers have had the opportunity to engage with before now.

It will also create an opportunity to showcase what New Zealand itself can do in this field. The Kiwi reputation for taking the initiative has led to some outstanding work in some schools and in some individual programmes, which will be reflected in some of the conference activities.

Many months of planning, organising and fundraising now lie ahead. However the committee which submitted the successful bid to bring the World Conference to New Zealand has a remarkably comprehensive membership including professional and parent groups and key individuals from throughout the entire country. Co-chairs Elaine Le Sueur and Rosemary Cathcart say they will be drawing on the diverse strengths of the committee to create a conference that’s as exceptional and interesting as the children themselves. “The ideas are flowing in already,” they say. “Watch this space!”

Contacts:

Rosemary Cathcart Elaine Le Sueur

07 357 4232 reacheducation@xtra.co.nz 09 239 2852 elaine@giftededucationservices.co.nz

Photos courtesy of the Gifted Education Centre and the Gifted Kids Programme.

The conference website www.worldgifted2013.com is expected to be live very shortly.

Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2011 23

Lucy Literacy... Curriculum, Co As we worked our way through the book talking about what we were seeing and linking our conversations to our Social Studies topic around man’s interaction with the environment.

•

Understand how people view and use places differently

•

Man’s interaction and impact on the environment.

We were: •

Engaging with the text – reading skills. Reading static images

•

Thinking critically – asking a variety of questions

First we worked in groups of 4, looking at one page of the book at a time, using: •

Observation and prediction skills to read a picture

•

Recording features of the picture and making predictions about what the next one may represent.

One student suddenly said “we should look out our window”.

Literature can be such a good way of making links across the curriculum and giving your students some purposeful learning opportunities.

One book that unleashed some of these amazing learning opportunities turned out to be “Window” by Jeannie Baker.

This book chronicles the life of a small baby until he reaches adulthood by looking out of this window.

The unusual thing about this book is that it has no text, and the illustrations are created by collage.

As the children and I were reading this book, we came up with lots of questions about the changes that we could see over time and we thought about how we could make the most of this opportunity.

The following things struck me.

We could be: •

Working through Inquiry

•

Looking and learning about changes in the environment

•

Using what we know about how visual text works to make sense of the story

•

Applying our mathematic understandings (you will see where this fits in later)

24 Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2011

It was sheer coincidence that right next to the school a subdivision was about to be developed.

onnections, Contexts...

Pulling It All Together These students had an amazing chance to engage with their learning in a very real way. The students decided to develop their own sub division and to create a 3D model to represent a typical section.

The learning was amazing. We learned about strategic planning, the choices that people make and the effect those choices have on communities.

Here’s what happened for some year 7 and 8 students at Ngahinapouri School...

What....do I

need to find out?

What ...are the similarities and differences?

Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2011 25

We gathered ideas

We gathered data

26 Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2011

We measured

We wrote

Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2011 27

By the time we finished and it took about a term we had engaged in a number of purposeful activities.

Students were involved in writing activities for a variety of purposes: •

Captions for each of the pictures in the book

•

Creating and writing a brochure promoting their “Estate” giving convincing reasons for purchasing a section

•

Sent faxes and emails to County Councils, town planners, Energy companies and Transit New Zealand with questions about regulations and requirements for developing subdivisions

•

Creating their own cadastral map ( they did about four maps as they found out new information over time)

How did our plans compare?

The students didn’t see the cadastral map until they had come up with their own design)...

28 Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2011

Mathematics opportunities included:

Social Studies learning included:

•

Measurement

•

Man’s interaction with his environment

•

Geometry

•

•

Scale and gradients

One of the most interesting outcomes of this learning was that the student’s attempts were so close to the developer’s plan.

I guess it is just about asking the right questions!!

Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2011 29

Preparing a School for The appointment of a Principal is probably the single most important decision that a Board of Trustees will make in its three year term of office.

This paper looks at the resources available to support a Board of Trustees, and the role of an external adviser working with the Board.

In particular it focuses on strategies used by the writer to help Boards identify the person specification criteria for the position of principal in their school, and how the appointment committee members can recognise the different ways applicants’ might present themselves against the criteria.

How does an appointment committee distinguish between a show pony and an applicant with substance?

30 Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2011

Introduction In this paper I will be presenting a range of personal views that I have developed about the appointment of principals in New Zealand Primary schools. These views come from my experience of working on principal appointments with a range of school Boards from U1 to U5 over more than ten years. They have also developed through my work as a Leadership and Management adviser working with School Support Services in the University of Waikato region, and as an NZEI Counsellor (until 2005).

This work has highlighted the strengths, weaknesses and variations in quality of the appointment processes. I am also a member of the School Support Network for the Central North region of the Ministry of Education. The brochure highlighted at the end of the paper has come from development work done through this network.

The phrases person specification and selection criteria are used interchangeably throughout this paper

A School Has A Vacancy.

For the many small schools in this country a vacancy caused by their principal moving on also creates a classroom teaching vacancy. Boards and communities with these small schools are, naturally enough, anxious to replace the person as quickly as possible so that there is a teacher in front of the class. In some cases the criteria for appointing someone has been “a warm body” because the quality of applicant does not meet any criteria that the board may have. In many of these cases the Board is going through the appointment process so regularly (at least once a year) that the cost of having good quality independent professional

a Principal Appointment? advice is beyond the means of the school. One recent case that I was made aware of was thirty calendar days from the advertisement going out electronically on vacancy subscription, to public confirmation of the appointment.

Where possible I take every opportunity to persuade Boards to think carefully about the process before even considering placing an advertisement. In my view, the extra time taken to think through the process, and work out carefully the scope of the appointment criteria, offers the better chance of getting a suitable match. It is disappointing to hear of a principal from a school being appointed to a new position one day, and the next day receiving a vacancy subscription notification for that vacancy. That Board is sacrificing a quality process for the sake of getting whoever is available. In the central North Island area we have had a significant number of Provisionally Registered Teachers appointed as Principals – in some cases in sole-charge schools. While many people will argue that that reflects the weak career path system in New Zealand, I believe Boards can improve their chances of employing quality applicants by ensuring a quality process which sends out messages to applicants that they will be valued.

Resources Available To Assist School Reference to the many generalised handbooks for schools on the principal appointment process give good coverage to the key principles of the process and highlight the need for an appointment criteria or person specification. In some cases they also recommend that such criteria be weighted.

However my general observation is that very little advice is given on how to establish the criteria and define what that might look like when presented by an applicant in a CV or at an interview. The New Zealand School Trustees Association Guidelines for Boards of Trustees: Principal Appointment has a short section on Person Specifications and the benefits of consulting with staff and community. My experience is that when working with a Board that particular part is a relatively functional process. What is critical is the time to interpret, reflect on and assimilate that information into a meaningful form so that when the actual selection process begins Board members have a good understanding of what they are looking for, and what that might look like when presented to them.

All of this needs to be done prior to the position being advertised because the person specification list goes out with the package. In fact the time between sending the advertisement to press (normally the Education Gazette) and the closing day for applications is a low involvement time for the Board. Their busiest time is pre-advertising and post closing of applications. The month in between is a welcome respite in the process.

Role of A Consultant / Facilitator There is no doubt that an external facilitator/consultant is important in the principal appointment process. It is my view that the time I spend with the Board pre-advertising is critical. For this reason I choose not to work with Boards who request my help post advertising. I also think it is important that the Board and I have a mutual

respect and understanding of our respective roles.

For that reason I like to meet with the Board for about one and a half to two hours talking about process in general and exposing all the assumptions and prejudices before deciding whether we wish to work together. That first meeting is not included in any costing to the Board and any information I share with the Board is made available on the understanding that they may use it whether working with me or not. I have only had one occasion recently where the Board has decided to work with other people and in fact worked with different people pre-advertising and post closure of applications – a process which, in my view, is flawed because of the potential for different interpretations of the criteria. I have meet with Boards to set them up with someone else knowing that my own commitments prevent me from continuing with them. To date I have not turned down a school because I don’t feel I can work with them.

My first major input to the process is to facilitate the establishment of the person specification and then to help the Board flesh that out into meaningful statements which de-jargonise the discourse. I also provide a lot of preformatted electronic material of a functional nature.

My second major role is to do as much checking as I can within the provisions of the privacy act. One of the challenges for me can be a conflict of interest between my work as a Leadership and Management adviser and that of an independent consultant. However I usually find that because of the preparation done in identifying the selection criteria and fleshing that out, Boards are able to identify mismatching applicants without me ever having to reveal information I have gained through my normal work.

My third major role is to ensure that the process of selection is fair to all applicants and incorporates the principles of Equal Employment Opportunities (EEO), the provisions of the State Sector Act and the Human Rights Act. My observations over the years have been that approaching the process of identify the selection criteria, and fleshing that out carefully, helps to reduce to a minimum any subconscious thinking especially around gender or prior principal experience versus a First Time Principal. The process has generally led to the selection of the “best person” for the position. In retrospect that “best person” hasn’t always turned out to be the best fit but we are dealing with people and personalities and we won’t get it right all the time.

Designing the Person Specification The approach I take to establishing a person specification with a Board is a very developmental approach based on the recognition that Boards do have a good idea of what they want but need a process to clarify those ideas. I have used different approaches over time but generally the process starts with asking the Board to just talk among themselves about what it is they think they want while I listen. Some key indicators usually surface quite quickly.

After a period of time I try to summarise their discussion into a series of key ideas and from there they are then analysed to try and flesh them out into expressions that have Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2011 31

meaning for the Board. With small schools one of the techniques I use to get the process started is to ask the Board “Do you want a manager (leader or Principal) who can teach or a teacher who can manage?”

This immediately focuses the board’s considerations on what is important for them. Generally the bigger the school the more the Board tends towards the leadership qualities.

A recent process I used with a Board was to ask each individual to write down their key criteria and then in two groups negotiate where those criteria would fit on a plan of 25% Vital, 25% Very Important and 50% Important (see diagram 1). The two groups then had to renegotiate their joint arrangement. Diagram 1 was the outcome of that discussion. This helped focus the Board on the importance of the process and from there they went on to consult with their school community and their staff. The person specification that was then drawn up from the Board’s discussions, and the consultation process led to a list of criteria that was included in an application package

Diagram 1

Has credibility and motivation in the classroom. Fun education

IMPORTANT

Focus on working with Children and their families

VERY IMPORTANT VITAL Charismatic strong visionary leadership

Manage Resources

Excellent communication skills

Previous and proven experience in similar size school A people person who is comfortable in the public eye

Developing Kaupapa Māori activities.

Cultural awareness

Diagram 2 is an actual copy of a page that was included in a package some time ago. This particular school included some Historic Building with a heritage coding, and was centrally located in an urban area where there was a lot of in-fill housing development especially for retirement purposes. These considerations had an impact on what the Board were looking for.

The list is not published in any priority order because I believe we want the applicant to address all the areas equally and for the Board to decide which applicant has the 32 Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2011

Legislative knowledge & internal/external stakeholder requirements

Running of the school in collaboration with the Board

best match against the criteria and against its own (unpublished) priority list).

I always include a copy of the advertisement with the person specification as part of the process of ensuring that the Board is being consistent with what it is saying in both its advertisement and its person specifications. I have seen many information packs where the person specification is at variance with the advertisement – which indicates to me they have been worked out separately, or that the Board doesn’t know exactly what it is looking for.

Diagram 2

PERSON SPECIFICATION Candidates should address these specifications in their application.

Principal Kapai Primary is a well-regarded school, offering high quality programmes. Early school buildings have historic significance and have been well maintained and remodeled. Due to promotion, the school is seeking a dynamic, motivated person with proven leadership ability and open communication skills who is committed to providing quality learning for all students. (Gazette statement) Applicants should provide evidence of a proven track record in:  Team Leadership and Co-operative management  Resource Management  Use of Information and Communication technology as a learning tool  Promoting Kapai Primary School to the current, potential and future school community  Supporting learning for all students  Implementing national curriculum initiatives  Strengthening relationships with the business community Furthermore the successful applicant must:  Have strong personal qualities  Take an active role in the school’s behaviour management programme.  Have a holistic approach to education  Be a highly motivated and dynamic educationalist.  Be able to manage and implement the Kapai Primary School Strategic Plan  Be able to build relationships with parents / caregivers / whanau

… and have a “can do” attitude

Having established the person specification or criteria the next step is to prioritise these and flesh them out.

individuals against each of the weightings to see who comes out as preferred.

I usually ask each individual on the Board (appointment committee) to rank them individually and then compare the rankings to get a collective ranking. The next step is to weight the rankings (usually totalling 100) so that the Board remains focused on what is most important (See diagram 3). The secondary benefit of weighting the criteria is in the event of two candidates of equal fit for the job. With a weighted system it is then possible to compare the

An explanation of the headings used in diagram 3 is given in diagram 4 although these come from different schools.

They provide clear guidelines for Board members to use when considering each applicant or interviewee.

Diagram 3 shows this weighted criteria on a marking sheet that is used for shortlisting purposes and again later to compare interviewees.

Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2011 33

KAPAI SCHOOL – PRINCIPAL APPOINTMENT – SHORTLIST RATINGS APPLICANT

1

Team Lead

Learn 4 All

Nat Curric

13

12

11

Prom Kapai Sch

10

Res Man

ICT

Bus

Mot. & Dyn

Pers Qual

9

8

8

7

7

Holis Relate Behav Ed Parents Man

6

4

3

Strat Plan

Total

2

100

2

3

4

5

Diagram 4 shows the criteria used by one school spelt out into meanings and possible indicators

Key Indicators Team Lead

Diagram 3

Examples

Team Leadership and Co-operative management

Involves teachers/staff in management. Involves Board in Governance decisions Has a shared ownership of the Senior Management role

Res Man

Resource Management

Finance, Property, Human Capital (staff), Teaching resources

ICT

Use of Information and Communication technology as a learning tool

ICT is about using the tools to get information and use it for learning. ICT is more than just computers – it is about using the information highway

Promoting Kapai Primary School to the current, potential and future school community

Attracting more families, encouraging more participation by current families, Promoting CPS to preschool families

Supporting learning for all students

Special ability and special needs. What is being done to help students do better than they are currently? Inclusive school programme …

Nat Curric

Implementing national curriculum initiatives

Personal professional development especially Literacy Taskforce, Health & PE, The Arts. Also assessment, Maths

Relate Bus.

Strengthening relationships with the business community

Entrepreneurial ideas, Member of local groups (eg Rotary, Chamber of Commerce…

Have strong personal qualities

A sign of strong values about student education and the role of parents. Communication skills, Ability to present self. Community involvement can be an indicator

Behav Man

Take an active role in the chool’s behaviour management program

Be prepared to be part of playground duty team. Participation in Cool Schools, Peer Mediation type programmes

Holis Ed

Have a holistic approach to education

Learning is about academic, physical and spiritual well-being. Learning is about the relationship between the student-parents-teachers and peers. Has a learning philosophy

Mot. &Dyn

Be a highly motivated and dynamic educationalist.

Learning initiatives. Being in the classroom. Community initiatives

Strat Plan

Be able to manage and implement the Kapai Primary School Strategic Plan

Has a vision. Provides evidence of working to a long term strategy (not just property and curriculum) for the school

Be able to build relationships with parents / caregivers / whanau

Whanau support meetings. Friends of the school group. Parental involvement in school

Prom CPS Learn 4 All

Pers Qual

Relate Parents

And have a can do attitude 34 Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2011

Diagram 4

2

APPLICANT:

Gary

In our person specification we made statements about Learning for all and about an holistic approach to education. What do these mean to you?

All children can learn Developing lifelong learners

Kevin

Covering academic, physical and spiritual needs of learning Taking children from where they are Acknowledging the learners contexts

What do you understand by “Resource Management� and what skills do you bring to that process? When looking around the school we looked at the multi-purpose room under construction – what do you consider is the most beneficial way of using this resource?

Peter

3

Catering for all types of learners and abilities

Making sure that people with the responsibility and expertise are utilising the limited resources for the maximum benefit to students People Financial Physical Stock Property Diagram 5

Having completed the short-listing process... but before inviting people for an interview it is important to design the interviews in such a way they will elicit the type of information the Board is after and to follow the selection criteria. I usually ask people to do a presentation at the start of their interview so the interview process needs to be confirmed so interviewees can be told the topic for their presentation.

Diagram 5 is an example of a typical page from an interview schedule. It shows the interviewee, the person asking the question, the question, some possible indicators, and has space for notes. The possible indicators are again designed to help keep the Board focused on what they are looking for.

They are not intended to provide expected answers.

When you are not used to interviewing in such high stakes environments I find this process very important to support Board members as they move from one question to the next. The appointment process I use, and in particular the interviews, are usually structured in such a way that there will be more that one opportunity for applicants to provide similar information (CV, Presentation, Questions, Referees). Part of what the Board is then looking for is consistency of beliefs, practices, espoused theory etc in differing situations. This is designed to reduce the chance of selecting a show pony who has limited substance or depth to their principalship.

Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2011 35

✔

✔

2

How will you foster the school’s communities and learning communities to benefit the students at Kapai?

✔

3

In our person specification we made statements about Learning for all and about an holistic approach to educations. What do these mean to you?

4 5 6 7 8 9

✔

Kapai school has students who are gifted and talented.

How will fulfill the requirements of the National Administration Guidelines?

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔ ✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

Where do you see Kapai fitting into you career path?

✔

✔

✔

Dealing with strong personalities in the school’s communities and staff creates tensions for any principal.

How do you deal with these tensions?

✔

✔

✔

Kapai School receives a point 7 management component in its staffing allocation. How can we be assured that you will give the appropriate priorities to leading learning, leadership, and management in this school?

✔

✔

✔

2

✔

✔

✔ ✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

4

✔

✔

✔

What are the special qualities about you that you will bring to the community, school and students at Kapai?

4

✔

How would you describe your leadership / management style particularly for a school of this size?

✔

6

Bus

✔

✔

7

Holis Ed

What is your vision for rural education in general and for Kapai School in particular?

1

7

Behav Man

✔

8

Res Man

✔

8

Relate Parents

✔

8

ICT

10

Strat Plan

10

Prom Waite.

13

How will you support ICT development for the students at Kapai School who will leave here in 2010?

Pers Qual

Learn 4 All

13

Team Lead

Mot. & Dyn

Question

Nat Curricl

KAPAI SCHOOL – PRINCIPAL APPOINTMENT – INTERVIEW QUESTIONS MATRIX

✔ ✔

✔

✔ ✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

Diagram 6

The last part of the preparation for the interviews is to ensure that the questions and criteria are interrelated.

Because open questions can elicit a broad range of responses it is important to see that the balance of the questions and the priorities of the board are aligned.

Diagram 6 is an example of this from another school I have worked with.

Selecting the Best Applicant It is my view that if all the above preparation is carried out carefully the actual selection of the best applicant becomes a relatively easy process for the Board. Easy in terms of it usually becomes obvious who is or are the best applicant(s). Where two applicants are of equal ranking it is important to go back to the criteria and check the applicants carefully against the criteria.

In all cases the best applicant won’t meet all the criteria and I have developed strategies for the Board to consider what is the risk analysis and management for the preferred applicant.

Finally the Board makes the decision of its preferred candidate and the process of notification and confirmation proceeds. The outcome should be a person who is not a show pony . . . . . . but has substance.

36 Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2011

The paper was presented by Neil Couch to the NZEALS Conference 2006, Nelson, NZ.

Neil S Couch Associate Director School Support Services Faculty of Education University of Waikato Private Bag 3105 Hamilton New Zealand Phone: +64 7 858 5071 Email: ncouch@waikato.ac.nz

✔

✔

Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2011 37

De-stress for Success Are you proactive or reactive in your work and personal life?

Think about your career. Do you jump on tasks as they pop up, putting out fires as you go? Now consider your weekend. Do you wait until plans come to you, or do you make plans to ensure that you are having the kind of free time that you want with family and friends?

Much stress in life comes from not feeling in control and maintaining a state of reactivity to deal with issues and problems that arise. The good news is that there is another way! When you learn simple project management processes, you can reduce your stress load in every facet of your life. Here, at Cheetah Learning, we call this “Being a Cheetah.” Cheetah’s don’t allow stress to control them they strategically plan out the best route to achieve success, and they stick with it. To be a Cheetah, there are some important concepts to remember:

Life is a Series of Projects When you think “project,”

many of us think of a concept that lives within the four walls of our office space, unable to escape and be a part of the “real world.” In reality, projects are in every part of our life.

The more practice you have at treating all aspects of your life as a project, the less stressed you will be and the more success you will find.

Family- The most stressful time of year is often the holidays.

And how is a holiday different than most times of the year? You are getting your lovely family together. While this, in most cases, is a good thing, stress can arise because of varying expectations (“I thought we were celebrating with MY family this year?”), unclear scope (“Instead of having a potluck- we have to make the whole dinner!?”), and lack of stakeholder buy in (“I didn’t even want to go to your mother’s house, this was all your idea!”). If this sounds too familiar, it’s time to stop the madness and start the management - Project Management, that is.

Community – As project managers, you have a fantastic asset that your community needs, whether they know it or not. Whether you volunteer at a soup kitchen or on the PTA, you can help implement PM processes at any organization to help them stand on their own Cheetah paws while you are not there.

Recreation – Whenever I go on vacation with my friend, I am in awe of how much detail she plans; right down to the estimated time of how long it will take us to taxi from the airport to the hotel (taking traffic into consideration), and detailed excel spreadsheet covering all expenses, converted at the most current exchanged rate. I do admit that I am more of an ad-hoc traveler, but I had an epiphany one day when I was standing in the rain looking for a hotel and only finding “no vacancy” signs. Maybe she had a point in her detailed anal-retentive vacation planning after all? I now treat my vacations as a project, and find much more success (and less stress) while enjoying my time away.

Career Development – Any career advancement process, whether it is additional education, obtaining a credential, or starting a business, takes careful planning and special attention to lead time of important PMP is a registered trademark of the Project Management Institute.

38 Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2011

activities. Imagine you studied extremely hard for your GMATs, only to find that you missed your top school’s admission deadline by a month and have to wait until next year. Career development requires focused planning and discipline. You got it - now apply it!

Home – You know that unfinished home improvement project that has been hanging over your head for far too long? What would happen if you were managing a project at work that had the same dismal fate as your halfway done fence? You would get moved off that project, and not invited back. Treat your home projects in the same fashion to ensure they are completed. Set up a schedule and stick with it!

Make it Fast, Fun, and Easy to do Projects To be successful at projects, you need to make them ENJOYABLE! Follow these guidelines to create meaningful deliverables for yourself and those around you.

Vision – Incorporate your vision and values into every project that you do. When you focus on the intrinsic rewards that are associated with a project (such as the satisfaction of a job well done, or knowledge that you are working towards a greater goal) you can more easily get past the stresses that come in every project because you have your eye on the big picture.

Service – The more you help others succeed with their projects, the more you help yourself. Use your innate strengths in PM to relieve the stresses that others have in life, and you will find the favor returned where you least expect it and need it most.

Learning – While many things in life are uncertain, you can be certain of this: the more you practice a skill, the better you will get at it. It takes most individuals approximately 50 hours of practice before they become proficient at a skill. At that point, most people stop practicing. The difference, however, between those that are proficient and those that excel, is the extra time beyond 50 hours spent practicing diligently. Use your life playground to practice managing projects wherever and whenever you can.

Completion – Unfinished projects can make your hair turn grey - believe me I’ve seen it happen. Throw away any projects that are hidden in your garage or closet that you have no intention on completing, and finish the ones NOW that you do keep.

Gratitude – It is an old native tale that says in each of our hearts, there lives a kind wolf and an angry wolf. Which wolf is stronger depends on which one you feed. Make the conscious choice to feed the kind wolf every day by letting others know that you appreciate them. Saying thank you is one of the greatest gifts we can give to others, and it costs us nothing.

To help you remember how to “be a Cheetah,” print out this mind map (right) and keep it on your refrigerator, your bathroom mirror, or your office desk. Join the ranks of Cheetah’s who practice proactive life skills every day and who find success defined in their own terms, not anyone else’s.

Michelle LaBrosse, MSME, PMP, Founder Cheetah Learning and Cheetah Power

About the Author: Michelle LaBrosse, PMP, is an entrepreneurial powerhouse with a penchant for making success easy, fun and fast.

She is the founder of Cheetah Learning, the author of the Cheetah Success Series, and a prolific blogger whose mission is to bring Project Management to the masses.

Cheetah Learning is a virtual company with 100 employees, contractors, and licensees worldwide. To date, more than 30,000 people have become “Cheetahs” using Cheetah Learning’s innovative Project Management and accelerated learning techniques. A dynamic keynote speaker and industry thought leader, Michelle was previously recognized

by PMI as one of the 25 Most Influential Women in Project Management in the world.

Michelle’s articles have appeared in over 100 publications and web sites around the world, and her monthly newsletter goes out to more than 50,000 people. Her radio program, Your World Your Way, is a weekly broadcast that is an inspiring and practical look at how Project Management fuels success. She is a graduate of the Harvard Business School’s Owner President Manager’s (OPM) program and also holds engineering degrees from Syracuse University and the University of Dayton.

Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2011 39

Clever Bike Rack Concept: Park 10 London firm Cyclehoop came up with an original idea to promote the use of bicycles over vehicles.

This ingenious project was commissioned for the London Festival of Architecture and consists of carshaped bike racks painted in vivid colors.

The concept behind this initiative is that ten bicycles take up the space of one car, which is why people should reconsider the role of the two-wheel vehicles.

The racks are portable and each fits perfectly in parking spaces especially designed for cars.

Easy to assemble, the unusual objects are also equipped with a bicycle pump.

According to Inhabitat, it only took a few minutes for the colourful racks to be filled with bicycles, once Cyclehoop installed them for the Festival of Architecture.

Are you a biking fan, or would you much rather take your car out for a ride in order to move from one part of the city to another?

http://freshome.com 40 Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2011

0 Bicycles Instead of a Single Car

Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2011 41

EDUCATIONAL WORD PUZZLE #14

by FRED

This is an internally assessed achievement standard in Puzzle Solving Level 1 Print your answer in the box provided.

Group work is permitted.

Each puzzle is worth 1 credit.

Time: all afternoon These credits can be used to gain the literacy requirement for Level 1

ACHIEVED

meal ward ward ward ward

EXCELLENCE

MERIT

teache

SCHOLARSHIP

strelearningss

42 Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2011

4 Ingredients - Fast, Fresh & Healthy Kim McCoster, Rachael Bermingham, Deepak Chopra Published by Hay House RRP $26.00 (NZD) or $19.99 (AUD)

Recipe Competition Winners Fish with garlic, tomato and lemon.

Serves 4

Baked Brie with Peaches Prep Time: 10 minutes

•

4 large fillets of fish – your favourite

Cook Time: 10 minutes

•

1 punnet cherry tomatoes

Total Time: 20 minutes

•

4-6 cloves of garlic

Ingredients:

•

1 large lemon

• 8 oz. round Brie cheese • 2 Tbsp. raspberry preserves • 1 cup diced peeled peaches • 1 Tbsp. brown sugar Preparation: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place Brie in small shallow baking dish. Spread preserves evenly over cheese and top with peaches. Sprinkle with brown sugar. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until cheese softens. Serve with crackers and french bread slices. Serves 8-10 Sandra

Preheat oven to 180 fanbake.

Crush or chop the garlic. Slice cherry tomatoes in half. Zest the lemon.

Spread out baking paper in a roasting dish – a big piece so you can wrap the fish up.

Place fish fillets on the centre of the paper. Toss over the tomatoes, garlic and half the lemon zest.

Squeeze over the juice of half the lemon .

Cheat on the 4 ingredients and put in a splash of extra virgin olive oil or a few little knobs of butter (because I know you have one of these sitting around). But don’t worry, it will still work if you don’t.

Wrap the baking paper up and do some snazzy origami work. Or just fold it in a nice line down the middle. It’s a very forgiving technique.

Cook for about 15 minutes or until done. Squirt over a bit more lemon if needed, and sprinkle over the other half of the lemon zest.

Catherine

Yummy Chicken for 5 •

5 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

•

2 onions - sliced

•

5 potatoes, peeled and chopped into cubes

•

1 tin of concentrated tomato soup

Place chicken breasts in a greased baking dish.

Put onion slices on top of the chicken Surround the chicken with the chopped potato Heat soup with 1/2 cup water (just enough to be able to pour the soup over chicken and vegetables).

Bake covered at 325 degrees for 1hour and 10minutes.

Dianne

Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2011 43

A Bigger Digger

By Brett Avison, illustrated by Craig Smith Published by The Five Mile Press, distributed by Books R Us Ltd RRP NZ$24.99 – Available from the 18th May 2011 Bryn and Oscar experience every little boy’s dream adventure when they start digging and continually require a ‘bigger digger’.

A delightful story book by ‘uncle and great uncle’ Brett Avison, with clever and amusing illustrations by Craig Smith... this book should be a must in any little boys book collection (and possibly quite a few girls collections too!) Boys seem to have a never-ending fascination with machinery, and diggers in particular.

This fascination should be assuaged with the read aloud (and later on read alone) nature of the rhyming found in the book... clever and not always predictable it makes the reading enjoyable while building anticipation for the inevitable which you feel should come next, tempered with just the right amount of alliteration.

A fantastic book for reading with littlies or for young readers... the surprise at the end is really the icing on the cake!

About the Author and Illustrator: Since 1983, Craig Smith has been a prolific, award winning illustrator in Australia. His witty , Humorous artwork is enormously popular with children. He has a wonderful sense of the absurd and a terrific eye for detail.

Brett Avison is an uncle and a great-uncle – with two great nephews. One of them is, Bryn and Brett’s clever little dog Oscar were the inspiration for his first book, A Bigger Digger. He lives with his wife and a very fast cat called Couscous in Auckland, New Zealand.

I am a Whale Text and Photography Barbara Todd Illustrations Helen Taylor Published by New Holland RRP NZ$ 16.99 This fourth book in the ‘I am a ...’ series written and illustrated by Todd and Taylor is aimed at four to six year olds.

The language and rhythms are catchy and will appeal to young readers while telling them a large amout about these mammals.

The superb photos and illustrations combine seamlessly and ensure identification is obvious.

While there is a huge amount of information within the text of the book there is also a ‘Did you know’ section at the back with even more in-depth facts. This is followed by a page of Teacher/Parent notes offering suggestions for follow up activities.

I am a Whale is great resource book for young students, and a welcome addition to the ‘I am a ...’ series.

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All About New Zealand’s Sea Life

By Dave Gunson Published by New Holland RRP NZ $24.99 PB Children in New Zealand all live a driveable distance from the sea, so there are frequent opportunities for class trips to the beach and for in-depth studies to be done on the life of the rocky shore and further out.

All About New Zealand’s Sea Life is the 6th in author/ illustrator Dave Gunson’s ‘All about’ Series of books. He has already published Birds, Plants, Insects, Seashore and Wildlife of the Past. The current book carries on with brief, concise, interesting information packed descriptions with accompanying large accurate indentifying illustrations.

This book would be a great addition to any class collection, or school library, for children to use as a reference source.

Dirt Bomb

By Fleur Beale Published by Random House RRP NZ$19.95 There is a distinct lack of great stories for teenage boys but this one will probably have to be near the top of the list. It includes all the best attributes, three friends, a summer holiday, an old car in a ditch, and to possibility of using it in a hair-raising manner. After finding the car the need for funds to achieve their aim is where the boys differ in approach.

Boys like cars, they like having harmless fun, and they like achieving their aims with as little output of effort as possible. Eureka... Fleur Beale has hit the jackpot!

Fleur Beale who is focussed on encouraging boys to read, has published more than 30 books internationally and is a multiple award winning author.

The Really, Really, Really Easy Step-By-Step Computer book (Windows 7 edition) for absolute beginners of all ages.

By Gavin Hole and Cheryl Smith Published by Random House Struik, distributed by New Holland RRP NZ $25.99 PB This has to be the perfect book to give the technophobe who suddenly has to gain some basic knowledge of computers and their operation.

Any beginner who took the book in one hand (or propped it up in front of them and followed the steps and colour coded instructions could not help but end up with a good understanding of typing and printing documents, accessing information, the internet, email. Add to that being able to open programmes, and protecting the computer and user from phishing scams, and the basics are pretty much covered.

Gavin and Cheryl have presented a logical easily read and understood book which is perfect for what is intended... I wouldn’t hesitate to give this to an elder person who wants to email children and surf the internet... or to any staff member whose attributes are lacking the ability to use email, research on the net and construct and send letters. All helped by great illustrations including screen shots of what to expect giving invaluable assistance to those who are more visual than text learners.

Frequently computer books are dated before they are distributed... however I don’t think this one fits in this category... the sensible intention and practicality of the book will ensure it has a longer life span than others.

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Astonishing Toothpick Sculpture: Ro With enthusiasm and hard work, a gifted artist can create stunning things. What you are about to see is a fantastic toothpick sculpture depicting the life in San Francisco.

Made from over 100,000 toothpicks over the course of 35 years, the “Rolling through the Bay” toothpick sculpture was created by Scott Weaver, an artist who has been building toothpick sculptures since he was 8 years old, back in 1968.

The sculpture features four ping-pong balls that take you on a tour across the toothpick city.

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The idea for this sculpture came in 1974, when constructing a new sculpture, Scott Weaver added the Golden Gate Bridge and Lombard Street, which had a ping-pong ball roll through it.

Building on that idea, after a long and sinuous artistic journey, the “Rolling through the Bay” toothpick sculpture is finally done. The artist has worked on it on and off, staying busy with other projects too. It is on display in theTinkering Studio. Until you get the chance to see it in front of you, enjoy the pictures and the link to the artist’s video at the end of the article.

olling through the Bay by Scott Weaver

http://www.rollingthroughthebay.com/ video/rollingthroughthebay.mov

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Roger’s Rant There has been recent controversy surrounding one of our prominent scientists, Dr Anton Wannabee, who has published a book in which he predicts the outcome of elections by examining the length of women’s dresses. The book presents a sizeable amount of data, garnered from world-wide sources since 1921, which is presented in graphic form against the past democratic elections of several dozen countries. The author predicts outcomes for the next thirty years.

The book has generated polarities of opinion. Avid devotees of Dr Wannabee point out that his predictions are invariably accurate and that they are able to use them at dinner parties to amaze their friends. One such acolyte, Charlene Proust, recounts one such event in her blog: ‘Ants da bom. He said there was a fiftyfifty possibility of da nats winning the last election, so I told me mates. They think I’m a #$%^%& genious.’

On the other hand, critics of Wannabee decry the lack of scientific process and data fudging. Quoting Wannabee’s assertion that the German National Socialist Party gained power during a time of mid-thigh flapper skirts, the sceptics argue that there have been other times, in other countries, that bare legs have coincided with left-wing governments. President of the NZ Septic Tanks Society, Professor Isaac Skinner argues: ‘Even if there were a correlation between skirt length and politics in one country, there is no evidence to show that the phenomenon is universal. Look at the Amazon. They don’t even wear clothes there and there are no storm-troopers goose-stepping amongst the piranhas.’

Wannabee remains unfazed about the criticism. ‘I stick to my beliefs and leave it to the good people of this country to judge for themselves. I have perfect faith in their ability to recognise faulty 48 Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2011

logic and pseudo science when they see it, which, in my case, they don’t.’

A concern has been expressed by political scientist, Perry G. Syzygy. In a recent address to the Morrinsville branch of the Young Nationals-Trotsky Party Alliance, he articulated his fears: ‘ Using Dr Wannabee’s data, it is certainly a possibility that during a future election campaign, supporters of a political party could collude to wear long dresses, or short ones, depending on their leaning. ‘ Most prominent politicians have so far remained quiet and have been accused of skirting the issue. Party whip, Frazer Petomane, did issue a short press statement in which he semi-jokingly suggested that for the next sitting of parliament, all MPs attend in hot pants, as a unified stand against the egregious utterings of Dr Wannabee.

Media have been criticised from various quarters as inflaming the situation by giving Wannabee unnecessary publicity,

something which is most unusual in western democracies. In particular they have focussed on his predictions for the next Fijian elections in 2033. The prediction, based on the forecast average length of skirts being 20cm above the knee, when kneeling on sand, is that a leftist government will be elected and then be ejected by the military. Editorials have accused this as scaremongering and will influence the number of tourists and rugby players wishing to visit the island nation. Some even predict that it will add an extra dollar to the price of a millilitre of petrol and make it necessary to obtain a second mortgage for a dental inspection.

At present, Dr Wannabee is engaged in the initial stages of refining his predictions for another book.

‘To me, there is an obvious correlation between dress length and colour, with oil deposits. I firmly believe that long, black attire in a country’s female population indicates an abundance of oil. Look at Saudi Arabia and all those other MiddleEastern States. Geologists will argue otherwise but to me it is obvious that there is a strong sartorial link to natural deposits.’

Meanwhile, the controversy has gone viral online. Everyone seems to have an opinion and most are unafraid to express themselves vehemently. Blogger P-Doddy sums it all up succinctly: ‘Weather hes right or weather hes wrong, hes certainly one or the other. Innit?’

Roger

Fred’s Answers # 14 • feedforward • teacher shortage • flat management • learning intention

The Economic Theory of Hemlines “The hemlines theory was invented back in the 1920s. But it just doesn’t hold up. Take the 20s - hemlines actually began to fall in 1927, two years before the crash. They were falling by 1969, two years before the downturn of 1971,” says Steele. In many cases, fashion designers appear to have an ability to read the writing on the wall, without waiting for the newspaper headlines. Between 1936 and 1939 fashion began to pick up on the rumble of warmongering, with military-inspired square shoulders teamed with lower heels. Even nightgowns sported three-inch shoulder pads.

At other times, we may misinterpret clothes in retrospect in the light of world events. Christian Dior is usually credited with grasping the mood of the moment with his joyous, full-skirted Corolle collection of 1947, which launched Dior’s New Look - but in 1939, before the outbreak of war, the Paris collections of Chanel and Mainbocher were both modelled on a full skirt and a wasp waist. With the war came a dampener on fashion, and the trend did not catch on until Dior revisited it. Rosemary Harden, curator of the Fashion Museum in Bath, agrees that the notion of a catwalk aesthetic which straightforwardly reflects the economy “feels quite glib. It’s much more complex than that, and I think it’s important to unpack it a bit. The 20s and 60s were a time not just of boom but of liberation. The short skirts of the 20s were driven as much by the rise of sportswear as by the stockmarket. The sense of liberation cut across the social spectrum - there are photos of my grandma in south-east London wearing short knitted skirts.

The 20s, like the 60s, was a time of opportunity, a time of people not feeling shackled. Opportunity led to newness and experimentation. It is connected to a buoyant economy, but the link is not as direct as people imagine.”

Simon Doonan, creative director of Barneys department store in New York and author of the memoir Beautiful People, is rather more blunt. The notion of fashion design reflecting the economic mood is “a total fallacy. Fashion people live in a creative hermetic bubble, and are rarely so tuned in to the political or financial vicissitudes of the world.

The idea that they might have a Dr Strangelove conclave where they confer about hemlines and the economy is hilarious.” Nonetheless, he says, “there is one certainty about recession, which is that fashionistas will buy less - by which I mean one pair of Louboutins instead of three.”Those expecting to find Grapes Of Wrath chic in the stores - dungarees and grubby faces as the hot new look come spring - will be disappointed. Next season’s clothes are, if anything, rather more upbeat than those on sale this winter.

At John Lewis, recent weeks have seen an upturn in sales of miniskirts and opaque tights, rather than catwalk-led trouser styles. It seems we are in tune with Doonan, whose advice to customers “is always to dress up rather than down, in tough times. You owe it to your pals, family and colleagues to present yourself in an optimistic and fabulous way. Remember what Quentin Crisp said? ‘When war broke out, I bought five pounds of henna.’ “ http://economicmeltdowns.com/lean-times-hemlines302916a

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Now online!

www.educationre sources.co.nz

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