Good Teacher Magazine 2018, Term 3

Term Three 2018

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

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

WHEN:

Last Sunday of each month

TIME:

11am to 3pm

WHERE:

The Black Sheep Bar & Grill 21 Plummers Pt Rd Whakamarama

Every month, rain, hail or shine!

(Held indoors if raining - outdoors if the sun is shining!)

With loads of stalls there is something for everyone For more info - aaafair17@gmail.com +64 7 578 6767 Front Cover: Back Cover:

‘Summer Daisies’ Photographer: Kelly of barisa designs® Adelaide Zoo... Meditating meercat

Good Teacher Magazine would like to acknowledge the unknown designers and craftspeople internationally for the some of the images and art in the magazine, every care has been taken to identify and acknowledge artists/photographers... however this is not always successful... most were collated from a wide range of internet sources.

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Your Soapbox Performativity, Managerialism and Intelligent Accountability Jennifer Charteris Options when further study beckons Harvard “Almost nothing is about what you think it is – including you” John Hellner Children’s screen-time guidelines too restrictive, University of Oxford Grants to send hundreds of students overseas Flinders University Hydroponics For Education Matthew Baganz Why is the tail always brown?

Anonymous MOTAT Education Programme…

MOTAT The History Makers - Review Kelly Hudson What does a principal do about culture? Laurie Loper N4L helping TAKA Trust bridge the digital divide N4L Banksy Releases New Miniature Walled Off Hotel Souvenir Series Christopher Jobson Wanted – Students Smarter Than Their Smartphones C.M.Rubin Rural principals need help: study Flinders University The Incredible Cabinet of Wonders Book When teachers think differently about themselves as math learners.. Krysten Crawford Making a Difference as a Project Manager Michelle LaBrosse, NZ School of Dance News and auditions NZ School of Dance Parents who had severe stresses, trauma in childhood Amy Albin Principal - cafeteria lady too KSAT Stitched Sculptural Installations of Everyday Objects and Gestures Laura Staugaitis Students to broaden their horizons in China WINTEC Cathy Thomas named county Principal of the Year Libby Solomon Kiwis Want More Family Time - Research New nursing education promises a better future for Kiribati WINTEC Stanford welcomes middle and high school students Kathleen J. Sullivan Farmyard Frenzy!

Secret Teacher recipes for Messy Play Playcentre Book New Stanford education study shows where boys and girls do better Krysten Crawford 7 Strategies For Conquering Procrastination And Avoidance Alice Boyes Discarded Objects are Beautified with Colorful Coral-Like Growths Laura Staugaitis What to Do When You Can’t Face Your Team Mark Ellis Food trucks, music and festivals: Sports rethink how to get teens to play ball The star rower whose research examines teachers’ perceptions The University of Cambridge Students Failing to Follow to Doctors’ Advice – Research Around the World Fashion Sketchbook Book 11-Year-Old Kid From Nigeria Creates Hyper realistic Drawings Hidreley Australia’s Finest Team Up For Netball Game Changer Netfit Most Aussie Kids Still Eating Too Much Salt Victoria Health Accentuate the positive!

Julie Winkle Giulioni Air Traffic Control Tests?

Roger

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is produced in the first week of each school term and uploaded to http://www.goodteacher.co.nz The magazine is internationally freely available online NOTE: The opinions expressed in Teacher Magazine are not necessarily those of ed-media or the editorial team.

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Performativity, Managerialism and Intelligent Accountability Dr. Jennifer Charteris A colleague who works with teachers in literacy professional development turned to me this week and said that the machinations to promote teacher quality have become a ‘blood sport.’

Shocking and melodramatic as this sounds, the notion that teachers are performatively and intrusively measured in the interests of accountability, does give pause for thought.

Performativity and accountability are notions that manifest in media, in policy, and permeate the conversations that teachers and leaders have about their work.

It is worth interrogating these related notions of performativity and accountability.

Characteristics of the conditions of teachers’ work, they can appear to be common sense and important to the promulgation of quality education. But like the proverbial frog in the pot of water, are requirements for increased performativity and accountability connected with the intensification of teachers’ work over the last few years.

Performativity The discourse of performativity is characterised by a method of regulation that uses competition and performance as a means of motivation, incentivisation, reform and control (Ball, 2003).

Performativity relies on teachers and schools instituting policy so that quality is judged against standards and quantifiable measures.

We see performativity in the rhythm of policy language where phrases such as ‘standardisation’, ‘professional standards’, and

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Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2018 5

accountable for their actions, especially in Education where the primary benefactors of the service are children. However accountability can have damaging effects on all members of education communities. The publishing of data on school performance can have the potential to give parents and communities a skewed impression of schooling practices and create a flow on effect of withdrawals and enrolments.

Stephen Ball (2003, p. 216) notably defines performativity as “a technology, a culture and a mode of regulation that employs judgments, comparisons and displays as means of incentive, control, attrition and change based on rewards and sanctions (both material and symbolic)”.

Considering this definition, it seems highly intuitive that performativity discourse is central to the schooling improvement, with concerns over the legitimacy of teacher decisions (testing), dimensions of approved practice (standards) and comparisons that drive educational change (PISA results, data walls).

An exaggerated focus on performativity can deny the caring aspects of teaching, in particular if there is a relentless emphasis on schooling improvement that dehumanises teachers and the complexity of their work. It has been argued that teachers’ work has increasingly become “financialised”, with labour reduced in value to an ‘exchangeable financial instrument’ (Peters, Besley & Paraskeva, 2015, p. 15). A key mechanism that is used to exercise this financialisation is the notion of accountability.

Accountability There is a call globally for everyone to become 6 Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2018

International research tends to uphold a quite dichotomous and linear picture of changes in teachers’ work and professionalism, where accountability pressure reduces teacher autonomy and typically leads to more standardisation and micromanagement of teaching…. However, empirically, such tensions between autonomy and accountability are more likely to co-exist and be negotiated within the local context.

(Mausethagen & Mølstad, 2015, p. 31)

Through technologies of measurement and comparison, teachers can be held accountable for their work and consequently teachers’ work becomes ‘governed by numbers’ (Ozga, 2008).

Ball (2015) writes how numbers bite deep into practice in order to do the work of governing us better.

In 2003, Terry Crooks identified different rationales for accountability in the New Zealand context -the first pertains to ‘numbers biting into practice’ and the latters ones linking with support and feedback: that many teachers and schools will only do their job properly if tightly directed and carefully monitored; to believing that a minority of teachers and schools are performing poorly, and need to be identified and either removed from their roles or persuaded to improve their performance; to believing that teachers and schools

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https://www.flickr.com/photos/purpleslog/2881603057 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

‘teacher quality’ are mapped in simplistic terms. Counting measurable outcomes is the focus - where what can be counted counts and what can measured matters.

Teacher accountability discourse has its roots in a managerialist approach to education. Termed the ‘age of compliance’ (GroundwaterSmith & Mockler, 2009), managerialism is a powerful influence and the requirement for accountability, with mandates to furnish ‘evidence’ of quality, has become an integral element of teacher professionalism (Tuinamuana, 2011).

Mausethagen and Mølstad (2015) highlight the implications of accountability.

are generally well intentioned and professional in their work, but that it is helpful to them to have unequivocal external guidance about the goals they should be aiming towards; to believing that teachers and schools will find it helpful to have a systematic source of well informed feedback about their work (p. 1).

Although these rationales were listed 15 years ago, it is worth considering if schools and teachers are provided adequate support to implement the ongoing changes required of them in 2018.

It is easy to become disillusioned by a systemic emphasis on managerialism and this is apparent when there is an exodus from the profession or when there is a high attrition rate among young teachers. It is a concern that the processes that are introduced to enhance accountability, actually damage the performance of the first order tasks themselves. (An example could be the narrowing of curriculum with standards and testing, or strained relations between teachers or leaders and teachers.) As O’Neill (2013, p. 4) points out, “teachers and learners, like others, need to be held to account, but this requires intelligent systems of accountability that do not distort primary activities”.

So what is intelligent accountability? Terry Crooks is a ‘totara’ on the Aotearoa scholarly landscape, and he argues that politicians and administrators who are responsible for accountability processes can have an extrinsic motivation perspective which is problematic.

Challenging this extrinsic focus, he has 5 criteria of intelligent accountability that are worth keeping in mind (Crooks, 2003).

Firstly, there is trust among students and teachers, teachers and parents, teachers and the school leadership. Importantly, politicians’ also need to trust in teachers and their professionalism.

Secondly, there is professional responsibility and initiative. This positions teachers as agents in their own learning and professional practice.

Thirdly, there is the promotion of deep, high quality learning. This notion highlights how educators and students, when faced with high stakes accountability processes, often choose approaches designed to achieve good results on the particular measure. So, for instance, this may

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involve teaching narrowly to the specifications and approaches of the particular assessment or to strategically manipulate who takes a particular test. Crooks (2003, p. 3). argues that intelligent accountability can promote deep, high quality learning in the domain to be assessed. He argues that “deep learning takes time and focus, and is undermined by overemphasis on short-term goals”.

Fourthly, Crooks alludes to the importance of recognition of our limitations in capturing educational quality in performance indicators.

Crooks’ fifth criterion for intelligent accountability is that it provides well-grounded and effective feedback that has potential to enhance performance and encourage good decision making. This feedback details what can be celebrated and the changes that can be made. Judgment without additional support is an impoverished model of accountability.

Although Crooks’ framework was developed a while ago, it offers salient messages. With changes to school leadership under the adoption of Communities of Learning/ Kāhui Ako and the abolition of National Standards, it is timely to think about how schooling processes can provide generative frameworks for accountability that support teachers and leaders in their work and increase enthusiasm and motivation in the profession.

References Ball, S. (2003). The teacher’s soul and the terrors of performativity. Journal of Education Policy, 18(2), 215-228.

Ball, S. J. (2015). Education, governance and the tyranny of numbers. Journal of Education Policy, 30(3), 299-301.

Crooks, T. J. (2003). Some criteria for intelligent accountability applied to accountability in New Zealand. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, Illinois, 22 April 2003, within Session 36.011 – Accountability from an International Perspective.

Groundwater-Smith, S., & Mockler, N. (2009).

Teacher professional learning in an age of compliance: Mind the gap. Dordrecht: Springer.

Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2018 7

Mausethagen, S., & Mølstad, C. (2015). Shifts in curriculum control: contesting ideas of teacher autonomy. Nordic Journal of Studies in Educational Policy, 1(2), 20-41.

O’Neill, O. (2013). Intelligent accountability in education, Oxford Review of Education, 39(1), 4-16.

Ozga, J. (2008). Governing knowledge: research steering and research quality. European Educational Research Journal, 7(3), 261–272.

Peters, M., Besley, T., & Paraskeva, J. (2015).

Global financial crisis and educational restructuring. Citizenship, Social and Economics Education, 14(1), 15-18.

Tuinamuana, K. (2011). Teacher professional standards, accountability, and ideology: Alternative discourses. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 36(12).

Invitation to Contribute to Research If you would like to discuss Professional Development and/or Innovative Learning Environments with the author, perhaps with a view to contributing to research, please contact Jennifer Charteris. Email: jcharte5@une.edu.au This project has been approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee of the University of New England (Approval No HE15-282, Valid to 01 November, 2018.)

Options when furth Catherine Jacob-Dolan has studied Biochemistry and Cell Biology at Jacobs University. After graduation, she will move to Harvard to do her PhD. Harvard is a legend among universities. The oldest university in the US was founded in 1636 and is considered to be one of the best educational institutions in the world.

Catherine grew up nearby, in Boston.

Studying there was always a dream that seemed unattainable to her for a long time.

“I never thought that I could do it. My friends at Jacobs University encouraged me and provided an unbelievable amount of support – and I just gave it a shot.”

The application process started in late autumn of the previous year. She submitted certificates, letters of motivation, letters of recommendation and evidence of her research. Catherine is studying for a bachelor's degree in Biochemistry and Cell Biology at Jacobs University in the group of Prof. Dr. Sebastian Springer. She applied at Harvard for a five-year doctoral program that includes a master's degree. Her specialization is immunology, and she plans to do research on the HIV virus. "It fascinates me how the virus finds ways to bypass our immune system. I want to help contain it and outsmart it. Research on the virus is both exciting and important.”

The written application was followed by an invitation to Harvard for an interview with three professors and two students of the faculty. Then it was time to wait. More than 600 applicants had applied for the program, 30 had been invited for an interview and eight were finally accepted. "I was extremely pleased to have been chosen," says Catherine. "But I also have great respect for what's coming."

Catherine could have studied for her doctorate at Cambridge, too. In the end she chose Harvard because the university, like Jacobs University, has a particularly international and intercultural nature. "I wanted to keep this as part of my life,

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her study beckons

as I learned to appreciate it very much in Bremen.”

To have made friends from all over the world, to have spent three years learning, laughing and occasionally arguing with people from all over the world, that was all thanks to Jacobs University. "Even though we're all going to different countries now: we are a strong community, we stay in contact, and I can visit friends in Bremen, Madrid and England. That's really great."

Jacobs University has given her a "ton of specialist knowledge," she says. But most of all, the university has taught her to make something of herself. "If one wants something and draws attention to it, then one can get a lot of support." And this helps in achieving one’s goals.

The culture at Jacobs University also includes commitment to others. Together with the German Red Cross, Catherine organized the blood donation service on campus every semester. She has co-organized numerous student events such as Dancestoned, a dance competition, and the TEDx Innovation Conference.

Her time at Jacobs University and her time in Germany ends with the graduation on June 8th.

At age 16 she spent a year in Brandenburg as an exchange student, and when she was 18 she came to study in Bremen. What will she miss the most? “The Christmas markets. Even if it rains, the atmosphere is simply incredible.”

She will continue to speak German in the US, however, and has already registered at the Goethe-Institut in Boston. "I'd like to come back after my PhD," says Catherine. "I don't know to where yet, but that's my goal."

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What contributed to her success? "Early access to the laboratory courses and the involvement in the professors’ research right from the first semester were important factors," says Catherine Jacob-Dolan, who graduates from Jacobs University Bremen in a few weeks. The close interaction with older students, PhD students and her professors paved the way for her internship at the University of Cambridge.

This in turn helped her to take the next step: successfully applying for a doctoral program at Harvard University. “One builds on the other,” says the 21-year-old.

For more information: https://www.jacobs-university.de/study/ undergraduate/programs/biochemistry-and-cellbiology https://www.jacobs-university.de/graduation2018 About Jacobs University Bremen: Studying in an international community. Obtaining a qualification to work on responsible tasks in a digitized and globalized society. Learning, researching and teaching across academic disciplines and countries. Strengthening people and markets with innovative solutions and advanced training programs.

This is what Jacobs University Bremen stands for.

Established as a private, English-medium campus university in Germany, it is continuously achieving top results in national and international university rankings. Its almost 1,400 students come from more than 100 countries with around 80% having relocated to Germany for their studies. Jacobs University’s research projects are funded by the German Research Foundation or the European Research Council as well as by globally leading companies.

Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2018 9

“Almost nothing is about what y Did you ever find yourself scrolling along on social media and suddenly reading something you think sounds incredibly insightful or meaningful?

Or hearing a politician toss off a turn of phrase seemingly providing a profound pathway to the future?

Or listening to one guru or another demolish long held social, political, economic narratives with a barrage of precision and wit?

Or becoming convinced a product, idea, or service promoted in media advertising is just what you must have in order to gratify a need or want you think vital to you?

You may be a victim of bullshit. Climate change, conspiracy theorist, “Make America Great Again”, vegiematic, “trickle down economics”, homeopathic remedies, “Pizzagate”.

A “post truth” world The world is awash in bullshit. Advertising, television, social media, newsletters and magazines. Once you look for it, bullshit reigns.

In the age of information overkill, you have probably come across more bullshit this week than a person living in the middle ages came across in a lifetime. If you were to add up the number of words written or spoken in support of bullshit in the last decade, it would outrun the total number of words in every scholarly piece of work published prior to the American Revolution.

If you believe this you may be a victim of bullshit: how can I know how much bullshit you have come across this week? Or, how much bullshit a normal person had to deal with in the middle ages? What was a “normal” person in the middle ages? Who has ever counted the number of words in scholarly articles before 1776? Were those words bullshit then, or only now, in hindsight? And so on.

Bullshit led Oxford Dictionaries to declare ‘posttruth’ as its international word of 2016. The phrase relates to circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than emotional appeals. “Posttruth” could become “one of the defining words of our time”, said Oxford Dictionaries’ Casper Grathwohl.

In a more charitable approach, let’s view bullshit as imagination. And, as Deepak Chopra wrote, “imagination is the foundation of pure boundaries.” More poppycock from a master.

Profound sounding words put together in random order: What boundaries? How does that work?

What is a pure boundary? Do boundaries have a foundation? Do boundaries change depending on the situation? Give me an example. And so on.

No laughing matter But the real concern of this article is not the existence of bullshit, but instead, that in the age of mass information and misinformation, big and 10 Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2018

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you think it is – including you”

Neil Postman John Hellner

dutiful data generated by misinformed algorithms, and fake news, fewer and fewer people seem able to tell the difference between a dip of bullshit and a dip of vanilla. Too many faulty bullshit detectors around.

And failure of bullshit detection is no laughing matter. Donald Trump traffiks in it – doing for bullshit what Stonehenge did for rocks – nonetheless his supporters take him seriously, due to their bias and motivations. When the wellbeing of a nation and the world is at stake, truth should be the principal concern.

Measles and mumps seem to be making a comeback in the United States. One estimate offers a figure of 9000 deaths since 2007, due to failure to vaccinate. The reason: anti-vaxxers believe there is a link between the MRR vaccine and autism. The infamous 1998 article identifying the link has long been discredited and retracted. Explanations of this fact fail to dissuade the victims of anti-vaxxer bullshit.

Programme; modules on advertising techniques in food technology courses; “the language of media” within English curriculums; teaching and using the OPVL (origin, purpose, value, limitations) source analysis in history, science, English and other subjects. All lay a foundation for students to gain the knowledge and awareness needed to evaluate sources and information.

In your classrooms, no matter what your subject or topic, you can encourage and model critical thinking, scepticism, analytical thinking and a respect for evidence in decision making and problem solving.

In the context of your lessons, identify, discuss and evaluate confirmation bias, emotionalism, superstition, bigotry, pomposity of titles, words, phrases. Explain and contest false authority, ad hominem arguments, false analogy and other fallacies of reasoning. There are dozens and dozens of them.

In the online world, consumers should be even more alert for poppycock. Online sources rushing to boost clicks, resort to misleading or sensational information. We need to keep our guard up for “fake news” and “alternative reality” in the digital age.

Teach and relate research skills to everyday and real life examples. If you don’t know whether something is bullshit or not, research it. Don’t believe something unless there’s good reason to, especially if the information is guiding your decisions.

Bullshit is no laughing matter.

Identify where a source came from, the purpose it was created or why it is used. How useful or valuable is the source and how does it help and hinder what you want to know.

Assuming that bullshit is more prevalent and much harder to detect when we want to believe in it, what can teachers and schools do to vaccinate their students against a world awash in bullshit?

Combatting Bullshit One of the trademarks of a good school and a good teacher increasingly becomes how much they can help kids to learn how to extricate useful talk from bullshit.

Schools develop subjects and offer strategies within courses for addressing that task: Critical Thinking; logic, philosophy; Theory of Knowledge in the International Baccalaureate Diploma

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Another good way to go about it is to first identify the type of information being given (scientific statement, philosophical view, personal opinion, etc.), identify the reporter of the information (does he have authority on the subject and is he biased in any way?), understand the reporter’s intention (to inform, persuade, sell a product, etc.), review the sources/studies/facts that are being used to support the information, and finally, consider any criticisms raised by others.

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“Almost nothing is about what you think it is – including you” cont...

This need not be added on to the main course outcomes, but a means to achieve course outcomes. Choosing a real-life situation, news item or a TV episode of topical interest, teachers can examine the role of reason, emotion, evidence, bias and much more in our decision making about claims barraging us daily.

We all need to challenge everything and always ask: why? Can you clarify? Is there an alternative? Does this matter? What would happen if everyone did this or thought that way?

Just as importantly, if not most important, ask students to examine their own claims, beliefs and decisions. What is the basis of my thinking? What is the evidence supporting me? What is my bias about this information?

How reliable is that evidence? What are some counter arguments to my view?

In short, share, teach, model, promote the attitudes and the tools for detecting the truth in yourself as well as others. This kind of thinking applies to all aspects of life, ranging from making an informed purchase to reading something on the internet.

Knowing the difference Many people have an ability to produce a great deal of bullshit and it may be awfully useful in their lives, doing little harm. Bullshit also provided the foundations for many great stories, myths, legends and historical narrative. It’s not all bad.

Children’s screen-t according to new r Digital screen use is a staple of contemporary life for adults and children, whether they are browsing on laptops and smartphones, or watching TV. Paediatricians and scientists have long expressed concerns about the impact of overusing technology on people’s wellbeing. However, new Oxford University research suggests that existing guidance managing children’s digital media time may not be as beneficial as first thought.

Earlier this year the team published a paper disputing digital device guidelines for teenagers and proposing that a moderate amount of screen-time, known as the ‘Goldilocks’ period, might actually boosts teenage wellbeing.

In a new study, published in the journal Child Development, researchers from the Oxford Internet Institute and the University of Cardiff conducted a similar study, assessing the impact of screen-time on children aged two to five. The team tested screen use guidelines recommended by the American Academy of Paediatrics (AAP), which proposes a limit of one to two hours per day, as good for the psychological-wellbeing of young children.

But more value lies in possessing the ability to pick out the difference between bullshit and truth. Then you can make the best decisions in the context of the situation, deciding if the bullshit outweighs the benefits.

John Hellner 12 Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2018

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time guidelines too restrictive, research Using data from approximately 20,000 telephone interviews with parents, the authors assessed the relationship between their children’s technology use and wellbeing. Over the course of a month this relationship was measured in terms of caregiver attachment, impact on emotional resilience, curiosity and positive effect. The results revealed a number of interesting findings that suggest that limiting children’s digital device use is not necessarily beneficial for wellbeing.

The team found no consistent correlations between either the 2010 or revised 2016 advised digital usage limits and young children’s wellbeing. While children aged two to five whose technology usage was limited in-line with AAP guidance showed slightly higher levels of resilience, this was balanced by lower levels of positive affect.

Further research indicates similar results to those reported in the recent study of adolescents; that moderate screen-use above the recommended limits might actually be linked to slightly higher levels of children’s wellbeing.

Lead author Dr Andrew Pryzbylski, of the Oxford Internet Institute, said: ‘Taken together, our findings suggest that there is little or no support for the theory that digital screen use, on its own, is bad for young children’s psychological wellbeing.

‘If anything, our findings suggest the broader family context, how parents set rules about digital screen time, and if they’re actively engaged in exploring the digital world together, are more important than the raw screen time. Future research should focus on

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how using digital devices with parents or caregivers and turning it into a social time can effect children’s psychological wellbeing, curiosity, and the bonds with the caregiver involved.’

The paper’s other findings of note include observations that our digital screen use increases with age, is higher in boys, non-whites, children with less educated caregivers and children from less affluent households.

The authors found the AAP guidelines themselves to be based on out-of-date research, conducted before digital devices had become so ingrained into everyday life. As a result of this time lapse, they are becoming increasingly difficult to justify and implement.

Co-author Dr Netta Weinstein, a senior lecturer in psychology at Cardiff University, said: ‘Given that we cannot put the digital genie back in the bottle, it is incumbent on researchers to conduct rigorous, up-to-date research that identifies mechanisms by and the extent to which screentime exposure might affect children.

Pryzbylski adds in conclusion: ‘To be robust, current recommendations may need to be re-evaluated and given additional consideration before we can confidently recommend that these digital screen-time limits are good for young children’s mental health and wellbeing’.

For further information contact Lanisha Butterfield, Media Relations Manager, lanisha. butterfield@admin.ox.ac.uk or call 01865 280531 Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2018 13

Grants to send hundred

A NCP funded project team in Fiji earlier this year continue their biodiversity research. A local guide and his son with Flinders students James Dorey, left, Olivia Davies, Elisha Freedman, Cale Matthews and Justin Holder in a rainforest near the remote village of Drawa on Vanua Levu, Fiji. Photo courtesy James Dorey (www.jamesdoreyphotography.com.au)

Almost 250 Flinders University students will enjoy life-changing international experiences as they build relationships and contribute to communities in the IndoPacific region, thanks to impressive funding success under the 2019 round of the New Colombo Plan (NCP) Mobility Program.

In one of the winning projects, 12 students will work in inter-disciplinary teams across education, nursing and social work to support the development of children in Nepal – providing an opportunity for students to consider not only the impact of their field, but how a variety of disciplines work holistically together to improve the wellbeing of children and families.

Another project will see creative arts students hosted on Japan’s Okiwana Island, working alongside local university students to develop artworks for a local gallery exhibition while 14 Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2018

building Flinders’ connections with this fellow Pacific culture. Students from the Okinawa Prefectural University for Arts will then be invited to exhibit with the Flinders students in Adelaide.

A total of 50 students will immerse themselves in Indonesian culture and professions over several weeks in another opportunity, as they develop a deep in-country and cultural understanding – including of Indonesian electoral processes following the 2019 election.

The Australian Government confirmed on 6 July 2018 that Flinders University would receive $827,200 in funding to support 248 students in 14 mobility projects across the Indo-Pacific region during 2019 and early 2020.

Sebastian Raneskold, Flinders University VicePresident and Pro Vice-Chancellor (International), says living and studying overseas presents students with a valuable opportunity to participate in cultures different to their own, providing a unique environment to develop diverse cross-cultural skills.

“The continued funding success in NCP speaks of Flinders’ international mindedness, that our staff

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ds of students overseas

Flinders education students and Nepalese partners on a recent NCP-funded project. Under the recently announced NCP grants, this project will be expanded to include nursing and social work in an inter-disciplinary approach to health and well-being.

and students understand the value of international experiences and embrace this opportunity to get out into the world and strengthen their global understanding through study,” Mr Raneskold says.

“With funding from previous rounds included, Flinders will have access to over $1,400,000 in funding to support almost 400 students through New Colombo Plan grants over 2019-20,” he says.

This grant funding contributes significantly to the many international opportunities available to Flinders students, including the recently announced Nicolas Baudin ‘Internships in France’ scholarships.

Flinders projects covered by this latest round cover a diverse range of topics including ecotourism, culture preservation, science and technology innovation, health and wellbeing, creative arts, nutrition and environmental conservation; each involving collaborations with one or several international partners.

Participating students will study overseas in Mongolia, China, Thailand, Myanmar, Indonesia, Nepal, Timor-Leste, Fiji, Malaysia, Palau and Japan.

A 2018 NCP project team in Indonesia (at the Language Centre, Wisma Bahasa, Yogyakarta.)

The New Colombo Plan is an initiative of the Australian Government to deepen Australia’s knowledge of the Indo-Pacific and strengthen partnerships with the region through study and internship/mentorship undertaken by grant recipients.

Subsidies are awarded to Australian undergraduate students of between $1,000 and $3,000 for short term projects and $5,000 and $7,000 for semester length projects – with a fifth of the grant recipients also receiving languagetraining grants, which are a new government initiative introduced this year.

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Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2018 15

Hydroponics For Education Boosting air quality and student engagement by growing indoor plants

As much as teachers would love to claim that all students are motivated and involved in all activities at all times, this is rarely true. Sometimes students just don’t seem to be on board with the current task.

There might be several reasons: boredom, health issues, attitude, or adolescence could be just a few of them. Another reason not as often considered may be poor air quality.

As the winter months began to approach, however, Slough had to start closing his windows, and he believed he noticed a decrease in positive student engagement. Just for fun one day, Slough took a measurement of the air in his classroom and indeed found a reduction in the air quality due to the increase in CO₂. If the average person can increase the concentration of CO₂ in each breath by over five percent, it is no wonder that the CO₂ concentration in a classroom with dozens of students can increase quite rapidly.

This is why Mr. Chris Slough, a secondary science teacher at Strothoff International School, likes to keep his classroom windows open during the school day. He maintains that the fresh air from outside improves his students’ concentration, effort, and overall behavior.

As the winter days grew shorter, Slough knew that the reduction of sunlight could decrease levels of serotonin and vitamin D in students as well, and even trigger the onset of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). He explained this to his students, and they wanted to come up with something fast. Since plants are natural consumers of CO₂, and light is an effective agent against winter depression, one of Slough’s Diploma Programme students, Olga Obolenets, put one and one together to make, well, six.

According to a 2012 study by Twardella et al. on the effect of air quality on students’ concentration in classrooms, it was determined that to “ensure a high level of [processing] accuracy, good air quality characterized, for example, by low CO₂ concentration should be maintained in classrooms.”

With Slough’s support, Olga began a classroom hydroponics community service project beginning with the construction of a single system. When the project began to yield aromatic basil, word spread across the school, and other students and teachers wanted to get in on the action. Olga and Slough began the construction of five more systems to distribute throughout the school, both in classrooms and in common areas such as the library.

They encourage other schools to begin a classroom hydroponics initiative, and have provided the following information about how to reproduce the project.

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Materials: Matthew Baganz

• Reservoir plastic container (Anything that can hold water will work, and preferably a container that can be painted black in order to block sunlight from entering the system and promoting fungal and bacteria growth. A container for one plant can be as small as a two-litre bottle. Slough chose to use plastic storage containers purchased at IKEA; these containers were roughly 55 x 40 x 30 cm (21.7 x 15.7 x 11.8 inches) and housed six plants comfortably.)

• Air pump or water filter for a fish tank (An alternative to purchasing either of these would be to have someone routinely remove water with a bucket and pour it back in to produce the bubbles that oxygenate the water.)

• Plastic pots (Cups with holes in the bottom may also work, but pots specifically manufactured for hydroponic systems are recommended.)

• Lava rock (Any matrix material to support the structure and roots of the plants within the pots will be sufficient, such as plastic beads, rock wool, marbles, etc.)

• Nutrients (A general solution from a garden store, including nitrogen, potassium and phosphorous will suffice; alternatively, a general plant fertilizer could be used.)

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•

Full spectrum LED light (General florescent bulbs work as well, and no light is needed in systems near the equator where they receive consistent, year‘round light intervals.)

•

Potted plants (These are available at many grocery stores and include varieties such as basil, rosemary, lemongrass, and other herbs. Seeds and seedlings are also options.)

Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2018 17

Construction and Maintenance: 1. Begin by cutting holes into the top of the reservoir lid. In this case, students and teachers used plastic storage containers with plastic covers. They traced the circumference of the plastic pots onto the lid and cut holes slightly smaller so the pots could sit in place without falling through. A sharp scalpel heated with a butane burner will speed up the cutting process. Include a small hole to lead the air pump into the reservoir.

5. Fill the plastic reservoir with water until the water level reaches a centimetre or two higher than the bottom of the pots so the lava rock can soak up the moisture. As time passes, the water level may be reduced to encourage root growth; this forces the roots to grow longer when seeking water.

6. Add nutrients to the water as directed on the product label.

7. Cover the plastic reservoir and insert the air pump into the system through the hole on the lid. Lead the tube into the system until the air is pumped in from the bottom of the plastic container. If using a water filter for a fish tank, an extra hole will be needed in the lid for the filter to hang on the side.

8. Set potted plants into the holes in the lid.

2. Paint the outside of the plastic reservoir with black paint, including the lid. This will prevent sunlight from entering the system and promoting fungal and bacteria growth in the water, which will compromise the health of the plants and may even cause an unpleasant aroma in the classroom.

3. Fill the plastic pots with a matrix that will support the structure of each plant. Lava rock is preferred because of its light weight and rough texture, which promote root development by providing less resistance than regular soil.

4. Stabilize the plants in their pots. One strategy is to buy herbs or small vegetable plants at a grocery or garden store, remove the plants from the soil, and rinse them thoroughly before transplanting them individually into the matrices within the pots. Alternatively, seeds can be used after they are germinated by wrapping them in a warm, moist towel and storing them in a semi-closed plastic sandwich bag. Once the seeds have germinated and developed roots, they may be transplanted into the matrices within the pots.

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9. Place the full spectrum LED light next to the system, pointed toward the plants. LED lights are preferred because they do not produce heat and can therefore be placed quite close to the plants without causing tissue damage. Alternatively, a regular florescent bulb will do.

10. Lights can be set on a timer to go on and off each day. The lights may also be shut off manually at the end of the day and turned back on each morning.

11. Water levels should be checked each week and adjusted to promote root development.

In warmer weather, plant transpiration will occur more rapidly and may require more water replacement; in colder weather, roots may grow faster and water may need to be removed to encourage root development.

In terms of improvement in student engagement, Slough has commented that he believes that the cleaner air and lighting, in addition to even the bubbling of the water in the system, generally keep his teenage students in better moods than if the systems are not there. Happier, calmer students often mean better engagement and attention in class as opposed to students who are down or depressed.

Classroom hydroponics systems yield several other benefits. With the availability of year‘round vegetables and herbs, the products

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advocate healthy lifestyles for students.

Growing their own vegetables seems to have an impact on their willingness to eat them. With a large enough system in place, the classroom crops can be used for home consumption, donations to local homeless shelters or other institutions in need, and the school can even hold fundraisers by tweaking the classic “bake sale” with cookies and cake to the new and improved “hydroponic sale” with tomatoes and beans. Imagine a farmer’s market in the school’s front lobby, all year ‘round!

classroom has a system in place.

Another consideration is the expansion of hydroponics to aquaponics by introducing fish into the system. In addition to the aesthetics and nutrients the fish could add to the hydroponics systems, Slough imagines an even more idealistic vision of a positive classroom environment. There is a concept called “pet therapy” that suggests the presence of biological organisms may help develop better concentration, a positive attitude and overall effective mindfulness. Who knows, perhaps an aquaponics system could produce Slough grows leafy plants during the winter some of the happiest, most productive students in months, such as basil and mint, which can reach the world. harvest size from seedlings in as fast as about References four weeks. Of course, if the plants are “Amount of CO2 Exhaled in Human Respiration.” purchased at a grocery store and are already Issuu, Fourier Education, 19 May 2016. issuu. mature, one could harvest the next day. Slough com/einsteinworld/docs/amount_of_co2_ has also experimented with other crops exhaled_in_human_resp. throughout the year, such as tomatoes in March and chilies in April, with both plants producing Kilpatrick, Kerry, and Wynn L. White P.E. “Sick food in about two months. He suggests planting Classrooms Caused by Rising CO2 Levels.” beans in September as they grow quite rapidly The EAG of North America, 8 Mar. 2017. (harvest time of sometimes six weeks from energyalligancegroup.org/sick-classroomsseedling) and can be used for experiments in require-energy-efficient-solutions-2/. class from the beginning of the school year.

“Seasonal affective disorder (SAD).” Mayo Clinic, The systems also offer a plethora of learning Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and opportunities for students, especially Research, 25 Oct. 2017. www.mayoclinic. concerning science experiments, as the systems org/diseases-conditions/seasonal-affectiveare controlled and can be directly varied for disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20364651. multiple purposes. Students could set up Twardella, D, et al. “Effect of classroom air qualexperiments to measure transpiration rates or ity on students’ concentration: results of a test the effects of different nutrients or various cluster-randomized cross-over experimental light spectrums on plant growth. study.” Indoor air, U.S. National Library of Olga and Slough look forward to the future of Medicine, Oct. 2012. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ classroom hydroponics at Strothoff pubmed/22364552.

International School. They hope the project will grow into a school-wide initiative where every

Matthew Baganz is a Grade 5 teacher and the elementary maths coordinator at Strothoff International School in Dreieich, Germany. Contact him at matthewbaganz@gmail.com.

Learn more about this project via a video made Reprinted with permission from Green Teacher #115,

by Matthew and his Strothoff colleagues. You can Winter 2017-2018. One year subscriptions cost $25 view it here: NZD and are available from www.greenteacher.com. https://greenteacher.com/check-out-these-videos/

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Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2018 19

Why is the tail always brown?

As teachers’ there seems to be a relentless pressure to raise Maori and Pacifica student achievement.

Each year we are told to choose several priority students who are below their curriculum level in Reading Writing and Maths and specifically focus on raising their achievement.

In selecting these students, we are told to prioritise groups such as Maori boys and Pacifica boys.

These are known as our target students/priority learners.

Is not every student that attends school a priority learner, no matter what their culture or ethnicity, in multicultural New Zealand?

We are told to have high expectations for all children? It is one thing teachers having high expectations at school but the other part of the equation requires all parents to have high expectations of their children, Maori and Pacifica are no exception.

Why target specific cultural groups of students when we know there are other cultural groups that are missing out, Indian and European are just some of the many examples.

Needing to teach students about their culture so they have a sense of belonging is yet another responsibility that has been passed on to teachers.

What responsibility do parents have in teaching their children about their culture and giving them an identity that they feel secure with and are proud of and sets them up for success as learners?

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We know there is a co-relation between transience and poor achievement just as there is between attendance and under achievement.

Yet, the target student groups selected on the basis of the ‘brown tail’ contain students who are transient and have poor attendance, once again a parental issue.

Is it the education system or is it the lack of parental support students receive that contributes to their academic and social learning? If the system is not culturally responsive why do Asians and some other cultures do reasonably well in the New Zealand education system?

Is the problem with our education system or is it elsewhere? Why are many of our Maori and Pacifica students continually underachieving?

We put extra support in place for these students at school but are still going two steps forward and two steps backwards and making minimal progress.

Knowing people of a variety of cultures, Maori and Pacifica included, there is one common denominator that their children who are making progress have... these kids have support from home and their parents often play a part in affirming their cultural background.

The nature versus nurture debate... that opens up a whole new can of worms.

The age-old argument that people are disadvantaged because of socio-economic status is not relevant. Social economic status is not colour coded and doesn’t discriminate. Poverty causes the discrimination in our education system and that is perceived as colour coded.

Why continually target Maori and Pacifica?

What is broken about the system that means we have to throw resources at it at the expense of all students learning?

Anonymous group of teachers

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Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2018 21

MOTAT Education Pr Julie Baker, MOTAT’s Education Manager, reflects on New Zealand’s changing education landscape and the challenge of keeping MOTAT’s education service relevant…

I did a bit of number-crunching recently because I was interested to find out how many students had participated in MOTAT’s education programmes over our long history of being a LEOTC provider.

Turns out, as accurately as our records will establish, we have held a LEOTC contract since the year 2000 (both the MoE and ourselves believe there were contracts prior to this, but there’s no documentation to prove it) and we’ve provided hands-on learning experiences for more than 480,000 students during that time.

In fact, MOTAT is expecting our 500,000th student to attend sometime this term.

600,000 500,000 400,000

As you can imagine, 18 years has seen many changes in our school programmes with new learning experiences, and new ways of engaging with students being developed as technologies have emerged and new artefacts been added to the Museum’s collection.

The development of MOTAT’s education programme has always been driven, in part, by the changes we witness in the education landscape.

The changing education environment; from the Fordist ‘one size fits all, education for employment’ model, prevalent in New Zealand schools in the 1950’s, to the concept of lifelong learners in a connected world, presented in the

th

500,000 student in 2018

MOTAT LEOTC Education Cumulative student's since 2000

300,000 200,000 100,000

0

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rogramme…

Ministry’s vision for NZ Education in 2025, continually presents MOTAT Education with the question ‘What should our education service look like in this new world?’

So, how can we maintain relevancy in an environment which features hyperabundant information, project-based learning, student agency, and open teaching? The expectation that schools will continue to bring in whole class groups for a traditional topic-based learning experience seems increasingly out of alignment with the emerging education dynamics.

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How can we re-invent ourselves so individual students can more casually drop in and out of our offering, engaging with MOTAT resources for a day or a longer period, without the requirement for a group booking, a bus trip and parent supervisors?

One option is to create a more robust online offering. A digital environment which surpasses merely providing an information source about collection items but also embraces digital opportunities such as personalisation, virtual learning and learning communities.

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However, while establishing a position in the digital education landscape presents some obvious benefits in terms of reach and ease of access, we should continue to value the unique experience offered by an onsite, hands-on learning experience and seek ways to make face-to-face engagement equally accessible for our students.

Alec Couros, professor of educational technology and media at the Faculty of Education, University of Regina talks about the process of ‘thinning the walls’ of a classroom, encouraging students to pursue learning opportunities outside of the traditional classroom to develop their own personal learning networks.

Where does MOTAT sit in an education landscape that features thinning classroom walls?

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Could we become a provider which invites casual student engagement, offering just-in-time learning experiences, even awarding microcredentials for completion or attainment?

Anyone looking at the Ministry of Education’s ‘Education Work Programme Overview’ will be left in no doubt that transformational change is a potential reality for many components of the education ecosystem over the next few years.

As MOTAT Education moves towards our goal of 1,000,000 student participants we will be challenged to continually re-invent our educational offering to remain at least relevant, if not a source of inspiration, to the hyperconnected, ultra-mobile, self-determining learners being fostered in schools today.

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The History Makers

How Team GB Stormed to a First Ever Gold in Women’s Hockey Authors: Sarah Juggins and Richard Stainthorpe Published: Pitch Publishing Expectation. As defined by the Oxford Dictionary: “a strong belief that something will happen or be the case”.

Expectation is an interesting concept - especially when it is placed by many on the shoulders of the few. It is the story of exceeding expectation that often captures the imagination of the observing public, who can buy-in to the idea that, perhaps with a bit of luck, or fate, that anything is possible, that victory can be grasped from the clutches of defeat - and that dreams can come true.

But in reality; it is rarely luck or fate that leads to the fulfilment of expectation. It takes vision, meticulous planning, hard-work, unity, and a collective unwavering belief from all stakeholders.

Even with all of this - to meet or even exceed expectation is made increasingly more difficult when you have the weight of a nation on your shoulders.

This story almost beggars belief, it is the stuff of movies - but it really happened, and the journey is expertly crafted over 207 pages of beautifully illustrated chapters.

It is about both sides of expectation - the lowest of lows - shock non-qualification for the Athens Olympic Games after being ranked #1 and failing to finish in the top 5 in the preceding Olympic Qualification Tournament. Great Britain powerhouse England Hockey on the brink of financial ruin requiring a serious governance overhaul. The hosting of an Olympic Games was suddenly on the horizon and vision, direction, leadership, and unity were desperately needed.

Then (eventually) - the highest of highs - Olympic Gold.

There is not always the opportunity to delve deep into the workings of a sports team, and it is rare to get such an honest and raw insight. This story is more than what you see on face value - it is more than just a book about winning a gold medal. The writers have worked tirelessly to ask the hard questions, to peel back the façade and expose the cracks, then to take readers through the journey of the reconstruction, brick by bloody brick, of

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what it took to reach the pinnacle of the game.

This is a book for all - perspectives from all sides are explored openly and honestly; from governance and the leadership of the sport, to Danny Kerry - the mastermind coach. In-depth views from expert assistant coaches Craig Keegan and Karen Brown who compliment the vision so well, and Ben Rosenblatt strength & conditioning coach who has gone on to work with the ‘expectation exceeding’ England football team, and of course the voices of the players (who have become household names) are heard throughout - each with their own struggles and successes in individual journeys that make up the collective.

The spoiler in the title doesn’t mark the end of the story, however…

With the blueprint laid out for the next Olympic cycle as Team GB build towards 2020 - as this is being written we are on the eve of the pinnacle event in hockey - the Women’s World Cup - held in London. Competing not as Great Britain, but as England (the only team to qualify from the Great British cumulative) what happens at this tournament will form part of the next chapter.

What are the new expectations?

A beautifully written, broad yet detailed insight into: sport, business, emotion, expectation, pragmatism, ambition, desire, teamwork and achievement - it’s all there. Incredible photographs throughout capture the essence of each moment.

A book for all, you won’t be disappointed.

Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2018 25

What does a principal do about cul This question was one posed to me by a recently retired principal. He’d been a principal for thirty years, long enough to make me think that he hadn’t asked it of himself a time or two.

Perhaps it was the very fact that he hasn’t been quite satisfied with the answers he had come with himself.

From his stories I have been able to see why he would be in demand as a fix-it person.

He seemed to intuitively hit upon the right mix of characteristics to employ in each situation that were needed for the job of principal and wasn’t afraid, either, to give something completely different a try.

The rule that he tried to comply with was “around here we do things the local way” but living up to that standard he sometimes forgot that there were others to be considered. For instance, early in his tenure as principal in a high school in a small, gang-ridden, town the local policeman came to him with a problem. There were far too many burglaries being committed in close proximity to the school and the policeman had a pretty fair idea who the culprit might be. My friend’s response was to summon the suspect forthwith and berate him when he noticed he was not wearing his school sox at the correct height. That had the effect of putting the suspect on the back foot, soften him up so to speak. Then my friend did the unthinkable.

He suggested to the policeman that now might be the right time to view to some of the student art work that hung on the walls outside of the principal’s office (remember this was in the days when principals were required by law to sit in on all police interviews). My friend then proceeded to threaten to cane the boy for the burglaries.

Whereupon the boy confessed so the burglaries ceased, and most of the stolen property was returned. (Note 1 appended) Using such tactics so soon after such an appointment didn’t seem such a bold move so he thought no more about it. He turned his attention to what he about could find about what his staff knew about learning. To his dismay they knew precious little. Oh, they knew about the common myths like left brain/ right brain; that the brain was supposed to grow in spurts; and that people thought only a small

26 Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2018

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lture?

Laurie Loper Psychologist

proportion of the brain was supposed to be in action at any given time. But they knew nothing about the things that would demonstrate the worth of that sort of “knowledge to classroom practice”.

He knew he had just had to work with what he had. He realised that the situation that existed was an entirely dissatisfactory state of affaires to him and he set out to rectify things. He had heard of a group that was operating on a new culturally responsive way of teaching and set out to explore it. But first he wanted to find out what he could do about the way teaching the way. He did not want to be seen as a new broom sweeping clean.

He set up meetings designed to explore how much appetite for change there was amongst his senior staff. Finding there was, he proceeded to read up as much as he could find on school improvement. He had come across the writings of Adrienne Alton-Lee, a former professor of education who was presently employed as advisor to the Ministry of Education a position that had interest in that her appointment was made by the Cabinet of the Labour Government.

Adrienne has for sometime now made been pursuing a concept known as Best Evidence Synthesis.This concept has ten aspects but it is an evidence based system. Seemingly very complex, it nonetheless was to prove itself capable of some simplification, hence improving it’s ability to be used. One version, nick named after the person who first trailed it, Roberta Hunter, has been in world demand. This version, popularly known as Bobbie Maths,

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impresses as having the potential for further development into a universal teaching system capable of teaching all ages. While it already has elements that are indicative of it being transformational, further development will be required. Though all students benefit, some previously failing young Maori and Pasifika students have in one school year made as much as 4 - 5 years progress. Such gains are unheard of so it’s no wonder it is in demand world wide. No wonder it made the National News.

My friend’s challenge was to sell this programme to his staff. Getting his colleagues to accept the practices, required by the new programme, was a different matter. It looked to them like what they were required to do by the new programme was something out of this world. Much of it went against everything they had ever been taught in their entire careers. He found that they were very bound by things that hadn’t altered a great deal since the 1920s.

To help him he had the assistance of Bobbie Hunter herself. She did one of her famous lesson demonstrations and that convinced most of the teachers who were still uncertain. When she does one of these, the students don’t know who she is or what she does. When staff realise there were three years training involved and a serious financial commitment involved as well, the seriousness of the undertaking is bound to be grasped.

As a result of these demonstration lessons, staff begin to realise the students know quite a bit more than they (the staff) thought they did but

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What does a principal do about culture? Cont... because the students aren’t talkers, the staff don’t get to hear them using mathematical language in a maths lesson, they assume there is a degree of capability lacking. Once staff realised this a whole new learning perspective is created.

N4L helping TAKA Trust br

When teaching up in the Pacific Islands there was one Island that he taught on where there was a certain custom to do with caves and burials. Due to the lack of land, burials had to be in caves. Your might have thought an adult would have known enough of about difference not to go into the caves to disturb the graves. One visitor happened not to and decided to souvenir some skulls to give to one of the head medical people working on contract. He went into the cave and it took with that purpose in mind and it took an awful lot of persuading to get the Islanders to believe all was made good again, they would have killed him otherwise. Sanctions as lethal as that certainly were not to be taken lightly!

The problem of retraining has only just begun.

Once a profession experiences a marked change of practice, out of habit, there comes a feeling of difference, as marked as is to be expected, as all sorts of pressures become apparent. If defections from the new training are going to occur, this is the time to expect them. One of the biggest things that has to change will be that it no longer will it be permissible to run ability groups. Neither will talking be discouraged. In fact, friendly arguing is encouraged. Students work in small mixed-ability groups. These are quite a few changes for each teacher to handle all at once. If you are a teacher who has habitually relied on these all your teaching life that is a lot of adjustments to make all in one go and to manage to still come out smiling on the other side.

Note 1: The principal was duly charged and spent a day in court. The case before his lasted almost the full day. When the judge understood what the nature of the case was, he dismissed it without conviction, perhaps siding with the thought that perhaps it is sometimes better to fight fire with fire.

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Rata Street School students are to get home internet access for learning via Managed Network Network for Learning (N4L) is excited to participate in another pilot aimed at bridging the digital equity divide for students, by extending the reach of its Managed Network to students living without home internet access in Lower Hutt.

Te Awakairangi Access Trust (TAKA Trust) have announced they are leading an initiative to trial equitable digital access for students, supported by Hutt City Council, the Ministry of Education, Rata Street School, N4L and Chorus.

This initiative, announced during a small ceremony attended by representatives from all participating partners in June 2018, will enable students to gain digital access to a safe and secure network at home.

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ridge the digital divide for Lower Hutt students Network for Learning

Marking the announcement that a pilot enabling Equitable Digital Access for Students of Rata Street School will begin later this year are, from left to right: Chorus CEO Kate McKenzie; Hutt City Council Mayor Ray Wallace; TAKA Trust Board Member Ken Laban; Minister of Education and Rimutaka MP Chris Hipkins, N4L Board Director Karen Poutasi; N4L CEO Larrie Moore; N4L COO Will Graham; TAKA Trust’s Joni Araiti, TAKA Trust Chair Matt Reid, Rata Street School Board of Trustee Chair Nic Drew-Crawshaw; and students from Rata Street School.

With the help of N4L and Chorus, the pilot will enable Year 5 and 6 students from Rata Street School to access the government-funded Managed Network from their home, so they can continue learning outside of school hours.

The Managed Network is used by more than 811,000 students and teachers across 2400-plus schools throughout New Zealand, providing fast, reliable, uncapped and safe internet for learning.

As part of the pilot, N4L will provide a number of Rata Street School students access to the same safe (filtered), uncapped internet experience they get at school using devices supplied by the school. The school’s internet use policies and N4L’s web filtering will apply to all students accessing the Managed Network from home.

N4L is working with Chorus to trial a wireless solution that will extend its fibre network into the homes of the Rata Street School students.

Principal Dave Appleyard estimates that half of his students do not have home internet access and says: “Today is a significant step forward for our school community. For the first time ever,

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our children will be able to continue their learning at home with digital devices and share this learning with their families. It’s about giving them this choice to learn at home if they want to because until this trial came about, they wouldn’t have the option.

“It’s also about allowing learning to happen naturally wherever and whenever our students want to do their schoolwork. We are super excited and grateful to TAKA Trust, Hutt City Council, N4L and Chorus for coming together to make this happen for our young people.”

This is the second pilot where N4L is partnering with Chorus, the Ministry of Education, the community and a school to deliver wireless access into student homes for learning.

A similar pilot began earlier this year in Christchurch, where the Greater Christchurch Schools Network Trust is managing a programme involving students from Haeata Community Campus, to give a select number of students wireless home internet access to N4L’s Managed Network via Chorus’ network infrastructure.

N4L CEO Larrie Moore says: “We are working closely with our government and technology partners to trial new ways students can access the Managed Network. It’s about supporting the government’s goals for education by providing smart and safe equitable digital student access to learning where and when it’s needed.”

The trial is expected to begin later this year. If successful, TAKA Trust says they’ll work with the project’s partners to extend the trial to more students.

About Network for Learning (N4L)

N4L is a Crown company helping government achieve its goals through its student-focussed Managed Network services. These governmentfunded services provide schools and kura access to safe, fast, high-value internet services, fully managed and supported for schools so they can get on with great teaching and learning.

Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2018 29

Banksy Releases New Miniature Banksy’s year-old project in Bethlehem, The Walled Off Hotel (previously), has just released a new set of souvenirs exclusively available in the hotel shop.

The series of works, which are each hand painted by local artists, depict the West Bank barrier in a crumbling state.

A hooded figure is featured beside the wall in several of the works—either contributing

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a fresh piece of graffiti or physically breaking through the wall with mallet in hand.

Banksy views these works as anticipatory objects, pieces that might accurately depict the wall’s end.

The hotel also released a new album during last week’s Palestine Music Expo, featuring international musicians such as Brian Eno,

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Walled Off Hotel Souvenir Series Christopher Jobson

The Black Madonna, Trio Joubran, Roisin Murphy, and Akram Abdulfattah.

The work was produced by Block9 during a “Creative Retreat” at the hotel in February this year and includes seven collaborative

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songs inspired by Palestine’s history.

The Walled Off Hotel Creative Retreat Album is now available for free on Soundcloud.

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Wanted – Students Smarte “While the gap between what our societies need and what education systems provide continues to grow wider, the world provides so many good examples of educational success. Human beings need not be passive or inert. We have agency, the ability to anticipate and the power to frame our actions with purpose.” — Andreas Schleicher

We teach to the test. We have to. Tests are powerful tools.

They tell us what people believe is important.

What happens when vast amounts of what we test can be answered in seconds on our smartphones?

Among other things, the book reveals why it is so hard to move education systems forward, i.e. the politics, beliefs and fears of stakeholders that are often built around self-interests versus the interests of their learners.

Wanted:

It is not uncommon, according to OECD principal Andreas Schleicher, to find “a few academics and government officials who determine what millions of students will learn” and these leaders “will often defend the scope and integrity of their discipline.”

Students that are smarter than their Smartphones.

Schleicher should know. He’s the man behind the powerful, international PISA test and the person who’s currently leading over 70 countries in their efforts to design and implement education policies and practices for a new world.

Tests that assess what learning really matters for the fourth industrial revolution.

Academics, teachers, government officials, parents, and business leaders brave enough to empower our children for their future versus our past.

Joining me in The Global Search for Education is Andreas Schleicher.

He is also the author of the new book, World Class: How to build a 21st-century school system.

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er Than Their Smartphones Andreas, how does one reform college entrance examination requirements?

If students are to be smarter than their smartphones, then tests need to look beyond whether students can reproduce information to determine, instead, whether they can extrapolate from what they know, and apply their knowledge creatively to novel situations.

But there is another missing piece. Examinations are where the system of instruction begins, not where it ends. The key is how standards and examinations translate into the curriculum, instructional material and ultimately instructional practice. I have often been surprised at how little attention and resources the US devotes to developing the curriculum and instructional material and aligning it with education goals, standards, teacher development and examinations.

C. M. Rubin

When studying national mathematics curricula for the development of the PISA 2003 assessment, I often asked myself why curricula devoted as much attention to teaching things like trigonometry and calculus. The answer cannot be found in the internal structure of the mathematics discipline, in the most meaningful learning progressions for students, or in the way mathematics is used in the world today. The answer lies in how mathematics was used generations ago by people measuring the size of their fields or performing advanced calculations that have long since been digitized.

Since student learning time is limited and we seem unable to give up teaching things that may no longer be relevant, young people are held prisoners of the past, and schools lose the opportunity to develop valuable knowledge, skills and character qualities that are important for students’ success in the world.

“Since student learning time is limited and we seem unable to give up teaching things that may no longer be relevant, young people are held prisoners of the past, and schools lose the opportunity to develop valuable knowledge, skills and character qualities that are important for students’ success in the world.”

— Andreas Schleicher

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Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2018 37

“The future will be about pairing the artificial intelligence of computers with the cognitive, social and emotional skills and values of humans. It will be our imagination, our awareness and our sense of responsibility that will enable us to harness the opportunities of the 21st century to shape the world for the better.”

— Andreas Schleicher

In the last US election, the presidential candidates occasionally raised education, debating how to make it more accessible versus WHAT kind of education mattered for a changing world. Why aren’t policymakers connecting the dots?

Clearly, tuition in the US has gone out of sync with the value colleges generate for students.

But the fact that we find rising numbers of college graduates all over the world who have difficulties finding a job, while at the same time employers say they cannot find the people with the skills they need, shows that questions of relevance and quality are equally pertinent.

The future will be about pairing the artificial intelligence of computers with the cognitive, social and emotional skills and values of humans.

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It will be our imagination, our awareness and our sense of responsibility that will enable us to harness the opportunities of the 21st century to shape the world for the better.

Tomorrow’s institutions will need to help students to think for themselves and join others, with empathy, in work and citizenship. They will need to help students develop a strong sense of right and wrong and sensitivity to the claims that others make. At work, at home and in the community, people will need a deep understanding of how others think, whether as scientists or artists, and how others live, in different cultures and traditions. Whatever tasks machines may be taking over from humans at work, the demands on our capabilities to contribute meaningfully to social and civic life will keep rising.

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Should academics be allowed to control standards given their lack of knowledge of real-world skills? Should it be an interdisciplinary approach?

There are many ways how schools can better integrate the worlds of learning and the worlds of work, and there are many good examples of career and technical education. It’s always a question of balance, employers are very good in telling you what knowledge and skills they need today, but they are often not very good in anticipating the qualities that will be the key to success tomorrow.

What is important is to think more systematically about what we want to achieve from the design of curricula, rather than continuing to add more “stuff” to what is being taught. Curricula need to remain true to the disciplines, while aiming at interdisciplinary learning and building students’ capacity to see problems through multiple lenses. Curricula need to balance knowledge of discipline content with knowledge about the underlying nature and principles of the disciplines. To help students address unknown future problems, curricula also need to focus on areas with the highest transfer value. And to bring teachers along with this idea, they need to be explicit about the theory of action for how this transfer value occurs. They need to balance cognitive, social and emotional aspects of learning, and help teachers make shared responsibility among students part of the learning process.

Bridging the skills gap is about vision and about taking risks often without sufficient proof and research. Thoughts?

Our knowledge about what works in education has really improved vastly. It is true that digitalization has contributed to the rise in populism and “post-truth” societies that can work against rational policy making. But the very same forces, whether in the form of more and

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better data or new statistical and analytical tools, have also massively expanded the scope and power of social research to create a more evidence-based environment which can help policy-makers lower the political cost of action, and increase the political cost of inaction.

To transform schooling at scale, we need not just a radical vision of what is possible, but also smart strategies that help make change in education happen. The road of educational reform is littered with good ideas that were poorly implemented. The laws, regulations, structures and institutions on which educational leaders tend to focus when changing schools are just like the small visible tip of an iceberg. The reason why it is so hard to move school systems is that there is a much larger invisible part under the waterline. This invisible part is about the interests, beliefs, motivations and fears of the people who are involved in education, parents and teachers included. This is where unexpected collisions occur. That is why educational leaders are rarely successful with reform unless they build a shared understanding and collective ownership for change, and unless they build capacity and create the right policy climate, with accountability measures designed to encourage innovation and development rather than compliance.

The education crisis, mirrored in flat-lining educational outcomes despite rising costs is, at least in part, an education leadership crisis.

Finding adequate and forward-looking responses to the interrelated changes in technology, globalization and the environment is ultimately a question of leadership. For schools to be entrepreneurial and able to adapt, systemleaders need to be able to mobilize the human, social and financial resources needed for innovation; to work as social entrepreneurs both within and beyond their own organizations; and to build stronger linkages across sectors and countries, to establish partnerships with

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government leaders, social entrepreneurs, business executives, researchers and civil society.

System leaders need to be strategic, that is aware of how organizational policies and practices can either facilitate or inhibit transformation and be ready to confront the system where it inhibits change. They need to be design thinkers, capable of recognizing emerging trends and patterns and see how these might benefit or obstruct the innovation they want to achieve. They need to be politically savvy, in terms of working with organizations as well as people. They need to use their knowledge about what motivates people to get them to support their plans for change, and they need to use their understanding of power and influence to build the alliances and coalitions needed to get things done.

Many teachers and schools are ready for that. To encourage their growth, policy needs to shift toward inspiring and enabling innovation, identifying and sharing best practice. That shift in policy will need to be built on trust: Trust in education, in educational institutions, in schools and teachers, in students and communities. In all public services, trust is an essential part of good governance. Trust is a key determinant of where great people want to work. But trust cannot be legislated and mandated and that is why it is so hard to build into traditional administrative structures. And trust is always intentional. Trust can only be nurtured and inspired through 40 Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2018

healthy relationships and constructive transparency. At a time when command and control systems are weakening, building trust is the most promising way to advance and fuel modern education systems.

What do you want people to take away from your book?

While the gap between what our societies need and what education systems provide continues to grow wider, the world provides so many good examples of educational success. Human beings need not be passive or inert. We have agency, the ability to anticipate and the power to frame our actions with purpose. I understood that when I saw the 10% most disadvantaged students in Shanghai outperforming the 10% wealthiest American students on the PISA 2012 mathematics assessment. I decided to write this book when I saw children from the poorest neighborhoods of Shanghai learning – with joy – from Shanghai’s best teachers. It was then that I realized that universal high-quality education is an attainable goal.

C. M. Rubin and Andreas Schleicher Back to index

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All Photos are courtesy of CMRubinWorld

“The reason why it is so hard to move school systems is that there is a much larger invisible part under the waterline. This invisible part is about the interests, beliefs, motivations and fears of the people who are involved in education, parents and teachers included.”

— Andreas Schleicher

Rural principals need help: study Australia’s rural school principals are ill prepared for the complexities of their roles, with an urgent need for more professional development.

Flinders University Doctor of Education candidate, Kathryn Hardwick-Franco, has written a critical assessment of the current limited preparation of rural school principals, published in the July-September edition of science policy journal Australian Quarterly.

Principals need help to address a wide range of issues, from the demands of student learning right through to incidents of domestic violence, juvenile justice, mental health and issues relating to Indigenous students.

The research found that 46% of Australian school principals reported having undertaken no training before taking on the job, with this statistic having a pronounced influence in rural areas where principals have limited access to further professional development.

“Someone needs to speak on behalf of rural principals to draw attention to this issue, and this story provides the data required to qualify what they are challenged with,” says Ms Hardwick-Franco, who will be publishing a book in 2019 based on data sets compiled through her doctoral research.

“It’s a big national question that needs a solution and action. It has been proved that a trained principal registers improved teaching outcomes, but rural principals can’t access adequate training.

“I feel this is inequitable and a presents a social

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justice problem, putting rural school principals at a severe disadvantage,” says Ms HardwickFranco, who says systemic change is needed.

“Education departments need to invest money and time in adequate principal training, allowing them to be released from duties so they can manage such essential study.

“Their jobs are already beyond stressful. We are seeing inflated divorce rates and death rates among rural principals, so their health outcomes are critical. Things must change for the better.”

Ms Hardwick-Franco believes that training school principals in an essential set of 3Rs – Relationships, Responsibilities and Resourcing – will provide a bedrock start to improving better outcomes for rural education.

“Australia must ask whether we are content that out of 96 countries, Uzbekistan is the only country where rural students achieve higher than the national average,” she says.

“We should do better, and international trends show that school principals will increasingly be required to engage in personal development and gain formal qualifications in preparation for the role. This is something we should be addressing now.”

The July-September edition of science policy journal AQ: Australian Quarterly is now available.

For more details, visit www.aips.net.au/ AQ-magazine Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2018 41

The Incredible Cabinet of Wonders 100 little doors to the Weird and Wonderful from the world’s Great Museums Lonely Planet Kids As a child, finding a book with the novelty of hidden opening bits, pictures which hid objects and random really interesting facts, all well presented, always resulted in an appealing, much loved book. As an adult this fantastic book by Lonely Planet Kids has the same effect.

Whether reading from cover to cover or just to dipping in and out randomly it is an immensely appealing book.

The recommendation that is it not suitable for children under 36 months is a wise one as the book is full of lift up or out ‘doors’ displaying the interesting facts within.

With twelve different themed cabinets from archealogy to toymakers with 10 others in between to explore, each information treasure trove presented on a double page, the book is a delight.

Available internationally it is most reasonably priced... while there is a variety of pricings whether online or instore I have yet to find one which is over $30 NZ... well worth the investment for any home or library.

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Stanford education researchers find improvements in student achievement after teachers change their own mindsets around math.

Study shows improvement in students’ attitudes and test scores after teachers change their own mindset — and instruction — around math.

Like a lot of students, many elementary school teachers dread math class.

But, according to a new study from researchers at Stanford Graduate School of Education, when teachers reexamine how they were taught math and their perceptions of their ability, student test scores and attitudes about math dramatically improve.

The research, published this month in the peerreviewed journal Education Sciences, found that fifth-grade teachers who took an online class designed to give them a different approach to mathematics teaching and learning achieved significantly higher test results for their students compared with a control group of teachers in the same schools who did not take the class.

Student achievement increased when teachers changed their mindset from believing only some students could learn math well to believing that all students could succeed, said study co-author Professor Jo Boaler. The increase was particularly significant for girls, English language learners and students from 44 Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2018

economically disadvantaged backgrounds.

“When teachers adopt a ‘growth mindset’ about maths, the gains are notable especially in light of the fact that the effects of successful educational programs are often quite modest,” said Boaler, who uses the plural form of math to reflect her British roots and belief in the subject’s depth and diversity. “As teachers reevaluate their own potential as learners, they are more likely to embrace new forms of teaching. This helps their students build confidence, develop positive attitudes and, ultimately, achieve better test scores.”

The new research is one of the few studies to look at the impact that a growth mindset, taught through an online class, can have on teachers’ perceptions of their own skills and those of their students.

It also provides evidence to the benefit of mindset interventions that incorporate changes to teaching and approach, not just changes in what is said in a classroom.

“Mindset interventions will never achieve their full impact if they remain only as words, and put the onus on students to change, while teachers continue to transmit fixed ideas through their teaching,” said Boaler, the executive director of Youcubed, a GSE center that provides math content, courses

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Photo credit: iStock/FatCamera

When teachers think differently ab students benefit

bout themselves as math learners, Krysten Crawford and materials for educators and students.

calling a “Mathematical Mindset Approach.”

In a related analysis published this spring, Boaler found significant improvements in test scores, engagement and attitudes among middle school math students who took a student online class with similar messages, and who switched from a “fixed” to a “growth” mindset.

To measure results, the scholars relied on a combination of interviews with the teachers, written observations of their classroom work, surveys of students and the teachers, and results from a statewide math test.

The power of a ‘mathematical mindset’ To hear Boaler tell it, elementary school math instruction in the United States and throughout the western world is “stuck in the Victorian age.” Procedures and rote memorization still dominate, despite ample evidence that the exploration of ideas, concepts and creativity works. Studies show that math teachers are more likely than other subject-specific instructors to think their students’ abilities are static.

“The idea that only some people can be successful in maths is at the root of widespread anxiety about the subject, in the United States and elsewhere,” said Boaler. According to the most recent comparisons available, the United States ranked 40th out of 72 countries in math achievement in 2016.

Boaler and her collaborators — Robin Anderson, a GSE doctoral student and research associate at Youcubed, and Jack Dieckmann, director of research at Youcubed — wanted to know what would happen if math educators looked inward and challenged their own ideas about who can learn math and how. As part of their study, which was funded through the Technology for Equity in Learning Opportunities (TELOS) initiative at GSE, teachers would also revisit the messaging they internalized as young math students.

The researchers recruited 40 fifth-grade teachers from eight school districts in Central California to take an online course, “How to Learn Math,” through Stanford’s OpenEdX platform. The participants also engaged in a series of inperson meetings to share their experiences in the course and strategies for putting its ideas into practice. In both contexts, teachers learned about new brain science and effective teaching methods as part of what the researchers are

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Statistically significant improvements In follow-up surveys and interviews, teachers described how the course and in-person meetings fundamentally changed their approach to math lessons. They shared the neuroscience findings about brain plasticity with their students. They encouraged them to share ideas and alternative ways of solving math problems. They countered notions that best in math means fast in math. They taught students to embrace their mistakes.

Students, for their part, reported feeling more engaged and positive about math — and their test scores reflected that newfound optimism. Among all students whose teachers participated in the study, math scores on a key California assessment test rose nearly 8 points — the equivalent of almost 3 1/2 months of additional lessons — compared with a control group. For girls, English learners and economically disadvantaged students, the payoff was especially large: Girls’ performance on the test translated to six months’ worth of additional instruction, English learners gained nine months and economically disadvantaged students advanced nearly five months.

Boaler attributes the three groups’ rapid progress to the fact that they typically underperform in math and harbor views that they cannot achieve, so changing those ideas had a larger impact.

Boaler says the teacher study — and the earlier one focused on students and their attitudes about math learning — offers hope for education reformers at home and abroad.

“Change in math performance can happen,” said Boaler. “But it’s critical that damaging mindsets shift, among students and their teachers.”

Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2018 45

Making a Difference as a Pro Project Managers - and all professionals, really - pursue credentials in their field for a variety of reasons: to advance their knowledge and skills, to build their reputation, to earn a promotion, to get a pay raise… All of these are perfectly valid reasons for seeking a credential.

Those Project Managers who really stand out from the crowd, however, are those who view credentials (like the Project Management Professional - PMP or Cheetah Certified Project Manager - CCPM) as a starting point for their careers and as a means to increasing their impact as a Project Manager.

Here at Cheetah Learning, we’ve noticed that our Certified Project Management students who make the most difference and experience the greatest success in their careers do four key things. These Project Managers are committed to: being a positive role model to new PMs, continual growth and improvement, finding and developing their own and others’ strengths, and leveraging all of their sources of capital in carrying out their projects.

1. Be a good role model People notice what you do and how you are much more than they notice what you say, or however many credentials you hold. There are three critical elements to being a good PM role model:

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A. Fix the problem rather than fix the blame.

Having a solutions-oriented approach makes you a go-to person. Complaining and tossing problems onto others makes you a run-from person.

B. Consistently follow a simple process for launching and doing your projects. Running projects is actually a process. Having a well-defined process you improve over time with how you lead your projects is the mark of a professional.

C. Focus and finish. It isn’t the projects you start that will get you the type of notice you want - it is the projects that you FINISH. Make sure you set up yourself so that you FINISH what you start. To do this requires diligence and leadership in the projects you agree to take on.

2. Keep improving as a Project Manager

Commitment to continual growth and improvement as a Project Manager requires you to reflect on what you know and what you are doing. Project Manager’s who make an impact in their careers adopt a reflective practice and make it a habit – daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, at the completion of project milestones, when they experience project risk events, and during project scope changes. To do this, ask yourself four questions about these experiences: A. What happened? B. How did I feel? C. What did I learn? D. What am I going to

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oject Manager

By Michelle LaBrosse,CCPM, PMP®, PMI-ACP, RYT,

do differently?

When you create this as your habit, you strengthen your neural networks for consistent performance improvements as a Project Manager. You do this by enhancing your brain’s executive functioning capabilities and reduce the chances of getting stuck in time and energy sucking stress and worry that activates the flight or fight part of your brain.

3. Find and develop yours and others’ strengths

The most successful Project Managers are not just aware of their own and others’ strengths; they also know how to leverage these to create the most impact through their projects. To start to develop this skill, ask yourself these questions: Do others know that you will help them best leverage what makes them fantastic?

How will you help your project team members become the best versions of themselves by working on your project? Even if you aren’t working with people day-in and day-out, how can you engage with others in ways that help them best shine?

4. Leverage all sources of capital to create more value with your projects

Strategic stakeholders are often measured according to the “Return on Investment” (ROI) of the projects they sponsor. As a Project Manager, it helps to understand how your project sponsors are being evaluated based on the end result of your efforts. Measuring ROI extends far beyond just the financial return on investment of what it costs to run your projects as compared to the financial improvement the results of the project creates. There are five significant sources of capital your project efforts can impact: A. Financial Capital; B. Social Capital; C. Knowledge Capital; D. Brand Capital; and E. Infrastructure Capital.

When you learn how to leverage all five sources of capital for doing your projects and can ensure that you will create a significant return on investment in each of these dimensions, you create a much bigger impact as a Project Manager.

Learn more about making an impact as a Project Manager in Cheetah Learning’s free webinar, Improving ROI as a Project Manager – from Talk to Action, where you will learn how you can improve the ROI of your projects.

Find out more about Cheetah’s at www. cheetahlearning.com.

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 50,000 people have become “Cheetahs” using Cheetah Learning’s innovative

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Project Management and accelerated learning techniques.

Honored by the Project Management Institute (PMI®), Cheetah Learning was named Professional Development Provider of the Year at the 2008 PMI® Global Congress. A dynamic keynote speaker and industry thought leader, Michelle is recognized by PMI as one of the 25 Most Influential Women in Project Management in the world.

Michelle also developed the Cheetah Certified Project Manager (CCPM) program based on MyersBriggs Type Indicator personality profiling to help students master how to use their unique strengths for learn is recognized by PMI as one of the 25 Most Influential Women in Project Management in the world.

Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2018 47

New Zealand School of Dance The New Zealand School of Dance (NZSD) are very pleased to be working with Ballet.id in Jakarta to facilitate their firstever Intensive Dance Course in Indonesia this July.

The School will be represented on this occasion by two extraordinary teachers and graduates, Turid Revfeim (ballet) and Sacha Copland (contemporary).

Turid Revfeim and Sacha Copland

FULL-TIME AUDITIONS Auditions for the year starting January 2019 will be held in September/October 2018.

Apply from 26 June at www.nzschoolofdance.ac.nz Audition applications close: 2nd September 2018.

The full-time programme prepares dancers for careers in dance performance. Students major in either classical ballet or contemporary dance, but maintain a strong base in both disciplines.

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Wellington – Saturday 29 September 2018 at New Zealand School of Dance. (check our website for Australian venues and dates)

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New Zealand School of Dance 2nd year students Cadence Barrack & Louis Ahlers, photographed by Stephen A’Court.

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Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2018 49

Parents who had severe stresses, trauma in childhood more likely to have kids with behavioral health problems Amy Albin

Dr. Adam Schickedanz says the study is the first to show that “the long-term behavioral health harms of childhood adversity extend across generations from parent to child.”

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levels of aggravation as parents and to experience mental health problems, the researchers found. However, these mental health and attitude factors only explained about a quarter of the association to their child’s elevated behavioral health risks. The remainder of how the parent’s adverse childhood experiences are transmitted to their child’s behavior deserves further study.

The findings add to the evidence supporting standardized assessment of parents for adverse childhood experiences during their child’s pediatric health visits.

“If we can identify these children who are at a higher risk, we can connect them to services that might reduce their risk or prevent behavioral health problems,” Schickedanz said.

The researchers used information from a national survey containing information from four generations of American families, including information from parents about whether they were abused, neglected or exposed to other family stressors or maltreatment while growing up, and information on their children’s behavior problems and medical diagnoses of attention deficit disorder.

With this data, they were able to find strong associations between the parents’ adversity histories and their children’s behavioral health problems, while controlling for factors such as family poverty and education level.

The next step for researchers is to look at how resilience factors, such as the support of mentors or teachers, could offset the harms of childhood traumas, Schickedanz said.

The study was published in the journal Pediatrics.

The research study was funded by the UCLA National Research Service Award Primary Care and Health Services Fellowship. The national survey data was collected by the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan with funding from grants from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.

The study co-authors are Dr. Neal Halfon and Dr. Paul Chung from UCLA; and Dr. Narayan Sastry from the University of Michigan

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UCLA Health Sciences

A new study finds that severe childhood trauma and stresses early in parents’ lives are linked to higher rates of behavioral health problems in their own children.

The types of childhood hardships included divorce or separation of parents, death of or estrangement from a parent, emotional, physical or sexual abuse, witnessing violence in the home, exposure to substance abuse in the household or parental mental illness.

“Previous research has looked at childhood trauma as a risk factor for later physical and mental health problems in adulthood, but this is the first research to show that the long-term behavioral health harms of childhood adversity extend across generations from parent to child,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Adam Schickedanz. He is a pediatrician and health services researcher and assistant professor in the department of pediatrics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. The study showed that the children of parents who themselves had four or more adverse childhood experiences were at double the risk of having attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and were four times more likely to have mental health problems.

A mother’s childhood experiences had a stronger adverse effect on a child’s behavioral health than the father’s experiences, the study found.

Parents who lived through adverse childhood experiences were more likely to report higher

Principal - cafeteria lady too A San Antonio elementary school principal has become an overnight celebrity after she was captured on camera serving breakfast to hundreds of her students.

Mead Elementary School Principal Annette Lopez was notified Wednesday that the cafeteria was going to be short-staffed causing breakfast time to go from three lines to only one.

Lopez said several of the school’s cafeteria employees were on sick leave.

With the campus having the highest number of students in Northside Independent School District that are served breakfast, Lopez grabbed a hair net, gloves and an apron and reported for cafeteria duty.

“When you serve that many students, there is no way that one line is just going to do it,” Lopez told KSAT.com. “I loved it and the kids had fun, (and) one of the kids said, ‘Hey, I know you,’ and I said, “Yes, I’m the principal.”

Lopez said the campus has about 750 students enrolled at Mead and serves meals to over 400 of them each day.

A photo capturing Lopez serving breakfast was shared Thursday on the school’s Twitter page, and since being shared, the tweet has gained nearly 300 likes in less than 24 hours.

What happens when the cafeteria is short staffed? The principal puts on a hair net, gloves & apron to help serve breakfast!

The heartwarming act was beloved by many on social media and many of Mead’s teachers and students.

“The kids loved it. They were like, ‘Ms. Lopez, I didn’t know you were a cafeteria lady, too.’ And so I kept telling them, ‘You know, principals do whatever it takes,’” Lopez said. “It got around to the teachers, and that’s when they started taking pictures.”

Lopez told KSAT.com she hopes her action will also serve as an example for her students.

Lopez told KSAT.com that Wednesday’s cafeteria shift was the first one she’s had in her 14 years as a principal.

She said even though the cafeteria was fully staffed by lunchtime, she was prepared and ready to step up once more.

While she’s happy to receive the spotlight, Lopez said it’s her staff at Mead Elementary School that deserve credit for supporting their students everyday.

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Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2018 51

ksat.com/news/local/san-antonio

“They (students) kept saying, ‘But, you’re the principal.’ And I kept saying, ‘It doesn’t matter what your job title is, if someone needs help, then you do it,’” Lopez told KSAT.com.

Stitched Sculptural Installations of Everyday O Toronto-based textile artist Amanda McCavour uses thread and a sewing machine to construct sculptural installations that dance between two and three dimensions.

McCavour stitches on a special fabric that dissolves in water to create the surfaces of thread. Through renderings of objects like sofas, kitchen tables, and backpacks, as well as arms and hands engaged in work, she explores connections to home and the fibers of the body.

In an artist statement McCavor states she is interested “in thread’s assumed vulnerability, its ability to unravel, and its strength when it is sewn together.”

McCavour holds an MFA from the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, and she exhibits widely. Currently, her Floating Garden installation is on display at the Cornell Art Museum in Florida as part of their Flora exhibition, and is on view through September 9, 2018. You can see more of McCavour’s work on her Facebook page and via Instagram.

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Objects and Gestures by Amanda McCavour Laura Staugaitis

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Students to broaden their horizons in China Six Wintec students will experience a trip of a lifetime when they fly to China in September as part of the prestigious Prime Minister’s Scholarship for Asia.

The students are among 180 New Zealanders who will travel to destinations including Korea, China, India and Singapore to study, carry out research or undertake an internship.

Wintec Centre for Business, Information Technology and Enterprise students Jordan Finlay, Aaron Froggatt, Keir Bullot and Phillippa Kahotea will head to Jinhua Polytechnic in Jinhua city in China’s Zhejiang province.

They will be based at Jinhua Polytechnic for 19 weeks where they will study three Information Technology papers and one Chinese Language and Cultural paper.

Phillippa Kahotea is in her second year studying Wintec’s Bachelor of Applied Information Technology and is both nervous and excited about the upcoming adventure.

“I’m looking forward to making new friends and hopefully paving the way for future business ventures or job opportunities,” says Phillippa.

“I have three children – aged 6, 10 and 15 – who will stay at home with whānau while I am away, allowing me to fully immerse myself into study. Deciding to go on this trip has been one of the hardest decisions of my life but I am proud to show my children and nieces and nephews that you can achieve anything – regardless of your age or race,” she adds.

Fellow scholarship recipients, Shannon MacMillan and Cody Steens from Wintec’s School of Media Arts, are also heading to China, but to Chengdu University.

Bachelor of Media Arts graduate Cody is going to be based at Chengdu for one year while he completes a 62 Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2018

postgraduate Graphic Design programme. He then plans to return to Wintec to study his Masters.

“For me there two main benefits of this scholarship: the first is learning one of the most spoken languages in the world; and secondly, getting an understanding of another culture’s design to help me better understand and improve my design skills as a whole,” he says.

Wintec’s International Director, Jason Matangi, says that the Prime Minister’s Scholarship has been instrumental in paving the way for Wintec students to study and live in Asia.

“Student exchanges like this have the potential to change students’ lives by broadening their experience and expanding their horizons.

Furthermore, this year Wintec and Chengdu University are celebrating the tenth anniversary of our relationship so it’s particularly pertinent to see our students benefit from this successful relationship,” he says.

The Prime Minister’s Scholarship for Asia is funded by the New Zealand Government and administered by Education New Zealand. The scholarship programme has been running for five years and has seen more than 1,500 students awarded scholarships to Asia.

Wintec students (from left) Keir Bullot, Aaron Froggatt, Phillippa Kahotea, Shannon Dwyer, Jordan Finlay and Cody Steens.

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Cathy Thomas, Cromwell Valley Elementary, named county Principal of the Year Libby Solomon to control everything,” Dunham Wright said. “So it’s been very eye-opening; we’re baby stepping.”

According to a nomination packet, the Principal of the Year award recognizes those who exhibit “visionary leadership,” focus on engaging and research-based student learning, and empower others, including staff, parents and students, among other attributes.

Four third-graders at Cromwell Valley — Anna, Ellie, Vikram and A’Ryan — wrote a short essay about Thomas as part of the nomination. The students’ last names were not included in the application.

“She is caring and kind, important and selfless.

She shows leadership out of her kind heart,” the children wrote, adding later, “She cares about EVERY single student.”

Lageman said the school system likes to recognize people who are “transforming teaching and learning to impact student achievement.”

Thomas said she is not a natural leader and misses teaching. Because of that, she spends a lot of time planning curricula with teachers or co-teaching in classrooms, a trait that Dunham Wright praised, saying teachers see the principal as “right in the trenches with you.”

Thomas went into administration and became a leader because former principal Debbie Klaus at one of Thomas’ previous schools, “pushed me into leadership,” Thomas said. Now Thomas says she works to encourage her staff to develop their own leadership skills.

“I don’t think I was born a leader,” Thomas said.

“I think I grew into this position, and I’d like to do that for other people.”

Thomas said she was touched when she arrived at school from a conference on Monday to find a banner in the lobby congratulating her, covered in hearts and messages from students, and even a makeshift red carpet through her office.

Principal Cathy Thomas poses with her students in front of a banner students made to congratulate her on being named a “It was just a really special feeling to know that county Principal of the Year. (Courtes photo / Jill Dunham Wright) I’m making a difference,” Thomas said.

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Towson Times

Cromwell Valley Elementary Regional Magnet’s principal, Cathy Thomas, inspires her staff to teach students not by stepping up, but by standing down. “We’re working to get the teacher off the stage and create a learning environment where students are driving that learning,” Thomas said. “Kids are so imaginative — we need to get out of their way.”

Thomas’ vision for the school has drawn praise from staff, students – and from the county naming her Principal of the Year. “I’m just very humbled and honored,” said Thomas, who has been principal at Cromwell Valley, a magnet school that focuses on science, technology, engineering, art and math — or STEAM — for two years She has focused on helping students learn through inquiry, asking questions and experimenting to solve problems themselves.

One area that she said lent itself to that approach was coding. Teachers had to learn to code at the same time as students did, and the children often picked it up more quickly, she said.

Dunham Wright praised Thomas for helping teachers engage students in what she called “productive struggle.”

“Teachers are typically Type A people, and want

Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2018 63

Kiwis Want More Family Time - Re The new Simple is Good campaign by Sanitarium Weet-Bix was designed to encourage Kiwis to celebrate a simpler approach to life.

The company’s research showed that along with feeling their children’s lives were becoming too complicated, many parents felt increased pressure to provide for their children and were disappointed about the impact digital devices were having on family life.

The study also showed that when it came to spending time as a family the most likely activity, apart from eating together (43%), was to watch television (24%).

More than eight in ten (81%) of Kiwis surveyed thought that their own kids’ childhood was more complicated than their own, with a quarter (24%) of parents saying their children were involved in some sort of after school activity three or more days per week.

Parents also said they felt under more pressure to provide for their children than their own parents with more than half (54%) saying this was the case. Digital devices also came under fire with 69% of respondents saying that they were negatively impacting the family. Parents said they were also confused about healthy food choices with more than four in ten (42%) saying they weren’t sure what constituted a healthy option.

Weet-Bix senior brand manager Jane Grayson says the company conducted the research in conjunction with its new Weet-Bix Simple is Good campaign - designed to celebrate and showcase simple, fun activities which have been enjoyed by generations.

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“Many of us here are also parents and we saw increasing discussion that modern parenting could feel overwhelming at times. The influx of conflicting new dietary trends has meant parents can feel an added layer of complexity to maintaining an appropriate balance for our children,” she says.

Psychologist Sara Chatwin says the research shows that we could all look at finding new ways to “connect” with our loved ones. Chatwin says it’s understandable that with the increases in living costs parents are feeling overwhelmed with the pressure to provide for their children.

“Life is more complicated now and we seem to want more for ourselves and our children. In a competitive world education is key but expensive, and parents often feel pressure to provide the very best for their children. But if we just spend time listening to our kids we can help consolidate familial relationships more than providing ‘things’ can.

“Work life balance is a constant struggle for some families and parents who work to support themselves and families can feel like they are burning the candle at both ends, balance takes time and planning.

“Patterns and routines help, whereby you commit to the same kinds of activities at the same time each week so parents and kids have something fun or relaxing to look forward to. A walk, picnic, mini-golf or whatever members of the family are interested in,” she says.

Chatwin says along with striving to give their children every educational and recreational advantage parents feel the same pressure to be ahead of the game when it comes to nutrition.

“They are also time poor and often (as the research shows) confused about what to feed their children. To combat this, it’s also helpful to make a plan and you can even get a food routine going with some “family favourites” that get repeated over the course of a month,” she says.

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esearch

Psychologist Sara Chatwin’s Quick tips for a Simple Life 1. Plan! A simple daily outline will give you direction and confidence to achieve whatever you want.

2. Take time to relax, exercise or simply do something that means you’ve having some fun, chill out with your family and make time for yourself too!

3. Plan breaks/holidays or outings that can be easily achieved. Things don’t have to be grand for them to be meaningful, especially for children. The simplest and littlest things can be the most fun; a nice lunch and a walk on a sunny day or a trek around the rocky shore even when it’s blustery can be energising and fun!

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4. Set rules around social media and device usage.

5. Rest! We all have busy lives with lots of things we really have to get done. Rest and put your feet up, turn off the TV and just chat with your kids.

6. Don’t overcomplicate meals and food.

Simple is good when it comes to everyday, family meals. Whole foods and raw fruit and vegetables can be quick and healthy!

The new Weet-Bix Simple is Good campaign depicts the simple joy that children derive from the outdoors and playing together.

Research funded by Sanitarium

Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2018 65

New nursing education promis

The aim is to prepare a sustainable nursing workforce to meet the growing demand for healthcare in Kiribati and, as relocation will be a reality for the people of Kiribati, enable nurses to pathway into careers in New Zealand, Australia and elsewhere in the Pacific.

Wintec nursing educators Glennis Birks, Sue Lichtwark and Wintec programme manager Nick Borthwick are working with associate professor David Lindsay from James Cook University (JCU) in Queensland and Tareti Ruaia Ioane, the deputy director of the School of Nursing and Health at the Kiribati Institute of Technology (KIT) on this initiative.

Together they make up the project team that researched and recommended ways to achieve a new nursing education curriculum. The team are funded by the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade under the New Zealand Aid Programme.

Glennis, David and Sue visited Kiribati late last year to research the project with nursing educators at the Kiribati Institute of Technology and other relevant high-level stakeholders from the Kiribati Nursing Council, KIT, Ministry of Health and Medical Services, Ministry of Employment and Human Resources. They have since presented their findings in a report to the Kiribati Government, which will decide on the design and implementation of improved nursing

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education in Kiribati.

“By benchmarking nursing education to international standards, we are strengthening their ability to help their own people,” says Glennis.

“Our work has been welcomed by the health workers and nursing teaching staff at the School of Nursing and Health in KIT, as Kiribati is facing extreme challenges with a growing population and health, economic and employment issues.”

Wintec programme manager Nick Borthwick has worked behind the scenes to support the Wintec project team’s review in Kiribati.

“This is the first health-related aid activity that Wintec have been involved in and it has been a success,” says Nick.

“A strength of this review is the synergies this team brings to the project, which works well in the Pacific as it is inspired by the treaty values of partnership and participation.”

Losing arable land to the sea has created a myriad of problems for the people of Kiribati and Nick says i-Kiribati (Kiribati people) are also paying the price of the western world’s overconsumption and associated health issues.

“Life is challenging as they can’t sustain quality growth of fresh fruit and vegetables due to the quality of the soil, rise of the sea and the very narrow strips of land available for living on this nation of atolls. More than 30% of i-Kiribati are unemployed and the situation is growing increasingly dire.”

Sue Lichtwark says the people of Kiribati are warm and welcoming, but life isn’t easy. The three major problems creating demand for better health care in Kiribati are sanitation, rubbish disposal and nutrition.

“Their health issues are predominantly noncommunicable diseases like diabetes, heart disease and stroke. Subsequently there is a low life expectancy of 54 for men and 57 for women

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Photo by darrenjamesphotgraphy.com

The Pacific nation of Kiribati is often described as the poster child of climate change, and as the tides continue rise on the people of Kiribati, a team from Wintec is working to upskill nurses to future-proof their careers.

ses a better future for Kiribati and this is placing demands on healthcare and a reviewed curriculum will help address this.”

Members of the project team have been invited to present on the project at the WHOCC (World Health Organisation Collaborating Centres for Nursing and Midwifery) 2018 global network conference next month at James Cook University in Cairns, Australia.

The theme for WHOCC 2018 is exploring sustainable development goals and what these initiatives mean to universal health care. Their paper, “A rising tide lifts all boats’ – preparation of a sustainable nursing workforce to meet the needs of the health sector in Kiribati and beyond”, will describe the collaborative process

used to prepare for the development of a new Diploma of Nursing in Kiribati. It will illustrate how this project is linked to a number of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a collection of 17 global goals set by the United Nations.

“The phrase ‘a rising tide lifts all boats’ commonly refers to how improvements in a country’s economy will benefit all participants in that economy,” says Glennis.

“In the small Central Pacific Island country of Kiribati this phrase has an added significance as it confronts many challenges to its sustainability, not only economically but all aspects of its future as a nation.”

A Kiribati family at their local medical clinic.

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Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2018 67

Stanford welcomes middle and hig – for summer academic programs During the summer, Stanford opens its classrooms, labs and libraries to middle and high school students from nearby communities, across the United States and around the world. Teachers also participate in summer professional development courses on the Farm.

During summer, the student population on the Farm undergoes a generational shift as thousands of middle and high school students arrive on campus for a wide range of academic programs.

Kurt Hickman Teachers participating in SPICE (Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education) study international topics and how to teach them during the university’s summer academic programs.

Throughout the summer, Stanford hosts programs that include courses, camps, institutes, internships for middle and high school students, with offerings in the arts and music, business, Earth sciences, engineering, humanities, law, medicine, social science and science.

Some of the young students commute to campus from nearby communities to take part in programs such as the Stanford Earth Young Investigators, whose participants work in laboratories within the School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences, under the watchful eyes of graduate students, post-doctoral scholars and lab managers.

Others move into student residence halls for short stays, getting a taste of college life along with college studies, including students participating in programs offered by Stanford Pre-Collegiate Studies, which attracts participants from across the United States and around the world. Pre-Collegiate Studies hosts nearly 2,500 students on the Farm each summer.

New summer courses During Stanford Pre-Collegiate Summer Institutes, a three-week residential program, students in grades 8 through 11 dive deep into a single subject – from business to bioscience and from creative writing to cosmology. This summer, the program is offering new courses in astrochemistry, chemical physics, electrical engineering, game design, linguistics, media studies, science, technology & society, and user experience design.

High school students also flock to campus for institutes focused on the humanities and on the arts, as well as the Stanford University Mathematics Camp and the Stanford AI4ALL, an outreach summer program aimed at increasing the number of women in computer science, particularly in the field of artificial intelligence research.

The Stanford Office of Science Outreach directs students to summer programs all over campus, such as the RISE Summer Internship Program, an intensive, seven-week program for local Bay Area students, who spend 30 hours a week on campus, working in an active science or engineering research lab under the guidance of a mentor – typically a graduate student – and attending weekly group sessions that include field trips, presentations, hands-on science activities and lab tours.

Stanford’s Department of Chemistry recently

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gh school students – and teachers Kathleen J. Sullivan

concluded its annual summer program: Inspiring Future Scientists through Shadowing, which gives rising juniors and seniors in high school the opportunity to shadow a graduate student mentor as they work in the lab.

Stanford Medicine offers a number of opportunities for high school students considering a future in medicine or science, including the Stanford Explore Lecture Series. In addition to attending college-style lectures, students also engage in hands-on demonstrations and simulation labs, and participate in lunch discussions with undergrad and graduate students.

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The Farm is also the summer gathering place for instrumentalists and vocalists taking part in summer immersion programs offered by the Stanford Jazz Workshop.

The jazz workshop’s Giant Steps Day Camp provides a five-day introduction to jazz styles and improvisation, as well as daily master classes in technique for middle school students. Students age 12 to 17 take part in Jazz Camp, which focuses on combo performance and improvisation, and provides training in jazz theory, ear training and techniques.

Middle and high school students also participate in summer programs offered by Stanford’s

Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2018 69

Department of Music.

In August, high school students will arrive on campus from around the world for the 16th Annual Youth Leadership Conference on Asian and Pacific Islander Health, a four-day event led by the Asian Liver Center of Stanford Medicine.

For two weeks in August, returning and incoming Stanford Online High School students gather on campus for its optional residential summer program, connecting in person while engaging in a challenging and enriching academic program. The Summer @ Stanford program also offers a 10-day Middle School Summer @ Stanford in August.

Teachers go to summer school, too On a higher end of the age spectrum, Stanford also welcomes middle and high school teachers with professional development programs.

The Center to Support Excellence in Teaching of the Graduate School of Education, for instance, is offering programs on a variety of topics this summer, including chemistry for social justice and Islam.

The center also partnered with nano@ stanford to offer the Nanoscience Summer Institute for Middle School Teachers. During the four-day workshop, teachers from around the Bay Area learn the underlying physical concepts in nanotechnology and nanoscience in simple terms. They receive a stipend during the workshop and an additional stipend by implementing nanoscience curricula in their classrooms.

In collaboration with a nonprofit partner, the Office of Science Research offers eight-week fellowships for middle and high school teachers, who work in a Stanford laboratory four days a week and meet once a week as a group for science and engineering lectures by Stanford faculty, lab tours and seminars on teaching.

In June and July, the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education offers East Asia Summer Institutes for middle school and high school teachers. The three-day institutes are designed to help teachers infuse Asian studies into their social studies and language arts curricula.

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Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2018 71

Farmyard Frenzy!

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The final disastrous discussion that lead to a large glass (or 2) of squashed grapes Friday night … life cycles! Great understanding from the children on what life cycles are, and the different stages of frogs; frogspawn – tadpole – froglet – frog – frogspawn…etc. That is, until the question came about life cycles of ‘people’. Avoiding the belly button question again I quickly brushed over our life stages … until one little ‘darling’ asked about the dreaded D…Death.

I introduced the week by naming ‘What happens when we die?’ different animals found on a farm ‘Where do we go?’ ‘Who do we live and identifying what their babies with?’ ‘My Mummy says we go to are called. Starting off nice and heaven?’ ‘But my Mummy says my easy we had ‘piglet’ … every animal daddy’s going to hell because he from then on had a ‘-let’ added to ruined her life. What’s hell?’ ‘My the name in our guesses! Cowlet, Mummy said Heaven isn’t even horselet, even sheeplet…!’ real?’ Oh my … someone’s going to get exceeding in Knowledge and Moving on to ‘where does our food Understanding of the World! come from’ was an even bigger disaster! ‘I’m not eating an egg if Needless to say I was ready for the it’s going to come out clucking’ …. weekend! How has your week been? ‘what! McDonalds Chicken nuggets Any disastrous discussions you’d are made from actual chickens!’ like to share??

(Well that last one is debatable ) … ‘I am NOT eating anything that Secret Teacher xx comes from a real animal!’ Uh oh … again, moving on quickly from that discussion!

This past couple of weeks in Foundation Stage we have been learning all about farmyard animals: where our food comes from, where baby animals come from (egg or mums tummy), name of baby animals and life cycles. Some very interesting discussions have taken place in our classroom! From frogspawn seeming ‘disgusting!’ to ‘how does the piglet get out of the belly button?’ – we moved on from this one very quickly!

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Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2018 73

recipes for Messy Play Iconic Playcentre past time brought back to life through the launch of Recipes for Messy Play book.

New Shoots Publishing in conjunction with New Zealand Tertiary College and Curiate have this week released their new edition of Recipes for Messy Play book, which brings much-loved activities of Playcentre back to life.

Recipes for Messy Play fosters child-initiated hands on learning and features recipes and activities that were born in Playcentre the 1970s.

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Playcentres were established in the late 1940s in New Zealand to offer child-led learning opportunities to explore, create, get messy and grow alongside other children, assisted by parents.

With the extension of new education and care options and with the reduction of numbers of children attending Playcentre where messy play is fundamental, we have been able to revitalise it through this book for the wider EC sector for children to experience the special learning that messy play offers.

“We share Playcentre’s commitment to

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advocating the value that messy play has in healthy brain development - the opportunities it offers lay the foundation for all areas of learning.

We know, and the research is clear, that in a child’s early years that play is learning, and that learning is individual and unlimited when children are engaged and enjoying themselves,” says Michelle Pratt, co-founder of Curiate and New Shoots Children’s Centres.

Sensory play encourages scientific processes because problems are solved using the five senses: sight, sound, smell, taste and touch.

Research shows that messy play helps to build nerve connections in the brain, encourages the development of motor skills, supports language development, encourages “scientific thinking” and problem solving.

Messy Play features original recipes from the 70s alongside the addition of new messy play ideas currently used at New Shoots Children’s Centres that are easy for parents, teachers and children to explore.

The book takes a modern and environmentallyfriendly approach to messy play and is full of interesting and innovative recipes and imagery.

The book is designed for use both in an Early Childhood Education setting and at home.

Recipes for Messy Play retails for $19.99 and can be purchased from www.curiate.co.nz or www. nztertiarycollege.ac.nz/nztc-books About New Shoots Publishing New Shoots Publishing, formerly Playcentre Publications and Ako Books is part of New Shoots Children’s Centres, which provides quality early childhood education across New Zealand. New Shoots publishing specialise in producing educational books for parents, whanau and educators of young children to share quality teaching practice locally and internationally. New Shoots Publishing carry on the work, started in 1974, of Playcentre Publications and Ako Books for the New Zealand Playcentre Federation.

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Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2018 75

New Stanford education study sh better in Math, English A review of test scores from 10,000 school districts finds that gender gaps in math and English vary with community wealth and racial diversity.

When Stanford Professor Sean Reardon and his research team set out to take an unprecedented look at how elementary school girls and boys compare in academic achievement, they expected to find similar stereotype-driven patterns across all 10,000 U.S. school districts: boys consistently outperforming girls in math and girls steadily surpassing boys in reading and writing by a wide margin.

Instead, Reardon and his team of researchers at Stanford Graduate School of Education discovered wide variations in how girls and boys in grades three through eight perform from one district to the next. In some cases, girls did better in both math and reading. In others, boys had the advantage in math and almost matched girls on English-related subjects.

The swings in math scores were especially striking. Looking closely, the researchers uncovered a pattern: in affluent, highly-educated and predominantly white districts, boys outperformed girls in math. In poorer, more racially diverse districts, girls often outdid boys in math.

In reading and writing, however, the researchers found no correlation with local socioeconomic status or racial makeup. In almost every publicschool system, girls came out ahead in reading scores, though to different degrees across communities.

The study, published online as a working paper, marks the first comprehensive analysis of gender 76 Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2018

achievement gaps at the district level.

“Our goal was to map the patterns of gender achievement gaps across the entire country in order to develop a better sense of what kinds of communities and school districts most commonly provide equal educational opportunities for girls and boys,” says Reardon, the Professor of Poverty and Inequality in Education. “We hope this information will help educators and policymakers eliminate educational gender disparities.”

Beyond stereotypes The findings were drawn from the Stanford Education Data Archive (SEDA), a massive online collection of roughly 300 million math and reading test scores from every public school in the United States from fall 2008 through spring 2015. Reardon, one of the creators of SEDA, has previously found that school systems with large numbers of low-income students have average academic performances significantly below the national average. He’s also shown that poverty alone does not determine the quality of a school district.

For the latest study, Reardon and his team built an analytical model that takes into account possible discrepancies in math and reading scores across states, including differences in test formats. Reardon and his collaborators have previously shown, for example, that multiple-choice questions favor boys while girls better solve open-ended problems.

The results were striking. In some of the country’s richest districts, boys on average outperform girls in math by two-fifths of a grade level but are half a grade level behind on reading and writing. In many of the poorest districts, however, the gap favors girls by one-fifth of a grade level in math and four-fifths of a grade level in English subjects.

The scholars also found that boys perform especially well in math in communities where adult males are more highly educated and earn

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hows where boys and girls do substantially more than females.

Girls surpass boys on reading and writing in almost every U.S. school district regardless of local wealth or racial makeup. In third grade, female students outperform boys by roughly half a grade level. By the end of 8th grade, girls are almost a full grade ahead.

Gender achievement gaps in grades three through eight have narrowed significantly over the last decade. Math gaps, in particular, were notably smaller on average in 2015 than in 2009.

The new research doesn’t provide evidence as to why socioeconomic and racial conditions impact learning in elementary school. The authors also can’t say whether one race does better than another across subjects.

“The study shows that local conditions seem to partly shape gender achievement gaps,” says Erin Fahle, a co-author of the study who earns her PhD in education policy from Stanford this month. “In particular, in some places female students appear to have an academic advantage; in others male students do.”

New research opportunities One hypothesis holds that, in wealthy families where the men earn much more than women, the stereotypical idea that boys are better at math and sciences and girls are better at reading and storytelling may be inadvertently bolstered when a son shows early interest in robots or girls stage a play. That’s because richer families have the resources to invest in, say, after-school science or theater programs.

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“It may be easier for parents to reinforce stereotypical patterns in affluent places because they have more money to do so,” says Reardon, who sits on the steering committee of Stanford’s Center for Education Policy Analysis (CEPA) and is also a senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. “In less affluent places parents can’t spend the same kind of money and, therefore, may not reinforce those patterns as much.”

Fahle adds that, while it’s important to know why girls do better than boys in math in some places and not others, it’s equally critical to figure out why boys consistently and almost universally lag in reading and writing.

“There’s a lot of evidence,” says Fahle, who will soon join the faculty at St. John’s University in New York City, “that boys’ educational opportunities in English language arts are being constrained.”

“We can’t say with this research why these patterns exist,” says Reardon. “But the data provides an opportunity to further investigate what’s behind them and to think about steps that schools and communities can take to address the more troubling ones.”

The paper’s additional co-authors were: Demetra Kalogrides, a researcher at CEPA; Rosalia Zarate, a GSE doctoral student; and Anne Podolsky, a researcher and policy analyst with the Learning Policy Institute.

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Photo: Getty/lisegagne

In other key findings from the study:

7 Strategies For Conquering Procrast When it comes to beating procrastination, willpower alone doesn’t always work.

We’ve all experienced the nagging dread and anxiety that accompanies procrastination. Procrastination (avoiding specific tasks) and avoidance (a more general pattern) can also cause problems in relationships, especially if you make a habit of avoiding things or you routinely ask others to do things for you.

For anyone who feels like they’re getting in their own way, there’s a very high chance that avoidance is a big part of the problem. Avoidance creates stress, increases anxiety about whatever you’re avoiding, and sucks away at your self-confidence. Like perfectionism, avoidance creates a Catch-22. Having an avoidant coping style is self-sabotaging and can prevent you from overcoming self-sabotage. For example, a family member recently told me she avoids making to-do lists because she knows they work extremely well for getting her started on avoided tasks, and it feels easier to stay stuck.

be done that day. For example, if tomorrow is trash pick-up day, then make sure that your list includes “take out the trash.”

2. Identify if a self-inflicted rule is causing your avoidance

3. Decide not to do an item that has been hanging around on your to-do list

The strategy of removing undone items from your to-do list gets back to the issue of prioritizing. For example, one of my hobbies is accumulating (and spending) miles and points for travel. There are a huge number of deals for earning extra miles that come along. It’s overwhelming to try and participate in all of them. It also has a big opportunity cost– because chasing small deals gets in the way of doing much more productive activities.

Yes, it can be difficult to decide not to do something that has some value–but isn’t a priority. However, it’s empowering and can give you the confidence boost you need to get unstuck with what is a priority. Decide to permanently not do something that’s on your to-do list. Identify a task that doesn’t have a great Return On Investment (ROI) and banish it from your to-do list forever.

We all have things we feel overwhelmed by.

Therefore, everyone needs a personal toolkit of strategies for breaking through procrastination and avoidance. Here are some things you might want to try if you have the tendency to put off doing things that you really need to tackle.

1. Write a to-do list for each current project,

rather than putting all your tasks on a daily to-do list

When you use a daily to-do list and circumstances hijack your day, it’s demoralizing to keep moving items over to your next day’s list. By writing all the actions you need to take for a particular project on a list just for that project, you can work through your tasks as you have time.

Project specific to-do lists also help you use scraps of time effectively. For example, if you have a spare five to 10 minutes, and there is a five-to-10-minute job on your list, you can quickly see that option. Save your daily to-do list for things that truly need to

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When you find yourself thinking, I have to do X to get this done, take a moment to check if that’s really true–or if it’s just a rule you’ve created for yourself. For example, say that you have the tendency to put off your Christmas baking until the very last minute. You have in your mind that you need to bake three types of cookies for Christmas. But who says Christmas requires three varieties and not one, two, or four? Can you simplify your expectations?

Perhaps one type of cookie is fine.

4. Get a boost by boosting someone else

When people express positive emotions, they feel more positive emotions. For example, when you express enthusiastic happiness for a colleague or family member who has

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tination And Avoidance Alice Boyes experienced a recent success, you get a boost, too. Why is this a strategy for overcoming avoidance? “Negative” emotions signal danger, whereas positive emotions signal safety. When we feel safer and the world seems like a kind and hospitable place, we’re more likely to explore. We’re wired this way through evolution. Exploring is the opposite of avoidance, and exactly what we’re aiming for.

you’re a programmer who’s avoiding doing a difficult or laborious coding task, you might write up a cheat sheet or make a video for how to do a related task you feel confident about in the most streamlined way possible.

5. Pretend you’re going to outsource the avoided task and write directions

If you’re avoiding a task, imagine that you’ve assigned it to another person. Write instructions that contain enough detail for someone else to successfully complete the task. How does this strategy overcome avoidance? There are a few different ways this works. Here are four:

Imagining someone else doing the steps of a task can make you realize you’re capable of those steps.

Thinking through outsourcing can help you get the psychological distance you need to break free of avoidance.

You may have more reasonable expectations of others than of yourself. When you design a task for someone else, you may naturally make it easier and, consequently, less likely to trigger your avoidance.

Planning out the steps involved in a task takes cognitive effort. Once you’ve done that work, the rest of the task may seem much more achievable and not worthy of avoidance.

6. Teach some aspect of whatever you’re stuck with

The idea of teaching to bypass avoidance mostly applies to work tasks. Create educational material for your colleagues, employees, boss, or students (whatever applies in your situation.) For example, if

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Another take on this strategy involves teaching your child a skill. For example, if you’re avoiding something to do with money management, teach your child some financial concepts you’re confident with. Because actions affect thoughts and feelings, acting confident and competent will typically make related tasks feel much more within your capacity.

7. Clear the decks

Clearing the decks is one of my personal favorite strategies. If you’ve been avoiding a task for a while and it’s really important, try completely clearing your day. Make a deal with yourself that once you’ve done the action you’ve been putting off, the rest of the day is yours to do whatever you feel like.

Note that I don’t necessarily mean you’d spend 10 hours watching Netflix.

You could do that, or you could do whatever productive work or personal tasks you felt like doing, and treat yourself to doing those tasks at a relaxed pace.

I recommend trying this strategy for when you have an extremely important job you keep putting off–like signing up for health insurance.

You’re never suddenly going to enjoy this task, so you might as well get it done and give yourself a reward afterwards.

This article was adapted from The Healthy Mind Toolkit: Simple Strategies to Get Out of Your Own Way and Enjoy Your Life. It was reprinted with permission from TarcherPerigee (TarcherPerigee is a book publisher and imprint of Penguin Group focused primarily on mind, body and spiritualism titles. Jeremy P. Tarcher Inc. was founded by Jeremy P. Tarcher in 1973 in Los Angeles, California) Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2018 79

Discarded Objects are Beautified with Colorf

Stephanie Kilgast takes discarded objects like tin cans, jam jars, and old cameras and embellishes them with vibrant amalgamations of coral-like growths. The artist honed her detail-oriented skills by making hyperrealistic miniature food, and she continues to use polymer clay and hand tools to craft her artworks. Mushrooms, crystals, beetles, and abstract forms sprout from the everyday objects that Kilgast sources from thrift stores and trash cans.

In an artist statement on her website, she describes her work as “an ode to life, where plants and fungi meet insects, animals and minerals. These encounters are growing in a colorful swirl of diversity, and the erratic growth develops on found objects, in a dialogue between humanity and nature.”

Kilgast, who is based in France, often documents her creative process in videos on Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook. In addition to sharing her work with her large online audience, the artist exhibits widely, and was most recently a part of the themed group show “Monochrome” at Art Number 23 in London.

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ful Coral-Like Growths by Stephanie Kilgast Laura Staugaitis

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What to Do When You Can’t Face Your Team Mark Ellis

Every leader has experienced this at some stage during their professional life.You wake up, take one look in the mirror, and realise that you simply can’t face going into the office. The thought of standing in front of the team and addressing them on a particular issue, challenge, or announcement made by your superiors is overwhelming.

What happens next is crucial. You either give up and move on, or face that fear head-on.

Clearly, the latter is the way to go if you want to grow as a leader and dig yourself out of this rut. Here’s how you can do just that.

Take time off to remind yourself why you’re in this Your reason for not being able to face your team might be a very simple one -- burnout.

Every piece of productivity advice you’ll find on the internet will at some stage mention the importance of taking a holiday, but as a leader, it’s all too easy to skip that vital time due to a bulging diary and seemingly endless to-do list.

Once you reach burnout, the idea of heading into the office will feel painful every time you leave your home; but if you can take time off to rest, recuperate, and remind yourself why you’re doing this, chances are you’ll return refreshed and ready for action.

Try meditation Meditation might not be something you’ve ever tried. Equally, it might be one of those practices whose merit you’ve never quite grasped.

Why not give it a try? Mindfulness is something that can benefit all of us, and sparing just 3 minutes at the start of every day to remove

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yourself from your concerns, worries, and anxieties could make the world of difference.

Thankfully, there are plenty of apps available for smartphones to make the process of meditation approachable for novices, and because it only requires your time and a quiet space, there’s really no excuse not to give it a try.

Forget about ‘the ideal’ The fear you have about facing your team might be centred on some form of ideal scenario or fantasy you have about how things should be.

Let go of the ideal; putting that much expectation on yourself as a leader will only leave you chasing something that doesn’t exist.

Every member of your team has flaws, and so do you. Embrace them -- don’t fear whatever it is that you think is the perfect scenario, because it simply doesn’t exist.

Speak to your team members individually If you fear putting yourself in front of the team as a whole, try a different approach by first speaking to each member individually.

This will enable you to discover everyone’s pain points and gather intelligence on whatever issue it is that is sitting at the route of your fear. Once you have the whole picture and have broken the ice on a one-to-one basis, you may feel more confident to address the entire team.

This is a great way to do your homework and provide context for whatever it is that’s making you fearful of facing the team.

Wrapping up Just one of the strategies above may work for you, or you might find that it takes a combination to remove your fear.

Whatever you do, just remember that you haven’t failed. Leadership is tough, and we all have to go through these difficult periods if we’re to grow and thrive.

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Food trucks, music and festivals: Sport Food trucks, music and festivals might not be typically associated with sport and physical activity. Yet these teen-friendly activities will form part of a major new VicHealth program shaking up traditional sport to get teenagers active and healthy.

The new $6 million Growing Participation in Sport program comes after a VicHealth report found teenagers were almost five times more likely to be on their smartphone than being active.

Additionally the report found 92 per cent of teenagers aren’t meeting the Australian Physical Activity Guidelines of an hour of physical activity every day. In contrast the average teenager spends more than three hours a day on screens like smartphones and iPads.

VicHealth will partner with 19 sports, including AFL, touch football, and skateboarding, to try to turn this around by making sport more fun and attractive to teenagers.

New activities to tempt teens away from their screens include a seven-week festival combining food trucks and touch football and a rollerskating program targeting teenage girls.

Victorian Minister for Health Jill Hennessy said the health benefits for teenagers from being regularly active couldn’t be underestimated.

“Regular physical activity and playing sport can provide many benefits for our physical and mental health. This program is about making sport attractive and interesting for teenagers so they can be happy, healthy and thrive.”

VicHealth CEO Jerril Rechter said the state-wide program was all about making sport accessible, fun and non-competitive to get less active teens into sport.

“Playing sport is a really fun and social way for our kids to keep active, but we know that sport participation halves when they hit their teenage years,” Ms Rechter said.

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“Many teenagers have told us that they stopped playing sport because it stopped being fun and started getting too competitive.

“We’re working with sports organisations to deliver programs for teens that focus more on having fun and building skills and less on winning and being the best. Additionally they combine sport with things we know teens love like food trucks, hanging out with friends and listening to music.”

VicHealth CEO Jerril Rechter said sports organisations had to try new things if they wanted to get less active teens to play sport.

“Many teenagers have told us they’re not interested in sport that’s too competitive or that takes them away from doing the things they love like hanging out with their friends,” she said.

“Some young people thrive on competition and playing to win. Yet a lot of teenagers just want sport to be fun, social and a bit of a stress relief.

“Regular physical activity is so great for teens’ physical and mental health and we need them to do more of it. If that means changing the way sport is played then we need to shake things up to benefit our kids’ health.”

The Growing Participation in Sport program aims to get close to 60,000 less active teenagers playing sport over the next three years. Activities will focus on engaging teenagers who face health inequities, those who don’t engage in regular physical activity and those that aren’t interested in participating in existing traditional sport offerings. More information is available at https://www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/funding/ growing-participation-in-sport-program The facts on teenagers and sport •

Nine out of ten teenagers are doing less than 60 minutes of exercise each day

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Teenagers are almost five times more likely to be using a screen device than being active – teenagers 15 to 17 years spend around 40 minutes a day being active and around 180 minutes doing screen-based activities, like watching tv or using their smartphones

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Sport participation halves at around age 15

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Almost half of children under 15 play no sport at all (outside of school hours) during a typical week.

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ts rethink how to get teens to play ball Why teens stop playing sport:

Why teens want to play sport:

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Too much focus on winning and being skilful

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Having fun

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Needing too much time, financial resources or family support to play

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Getting active and improving fitness

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Having to prove themselves and try out for limited places on a sports team

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Learning new skills

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Being social and making new friends

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Pressure to perform on the sports field

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Trying new things

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Competing priorities including academic performance, Wednesday 18activities July 2018 part-time work, social and screen-time.

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Stress relief

Sports funded as part of Growing Participation in Sport (2018 to 2021) include: AFL Victoria Australian Sailing Blind Sports Victoria Bowls Victoria Cycling Victoria Football Federation Victoria (FFV) Golf Victoria

AFL Unity Cup is a structured non-contact football program that brings people together from all cultures and religious faiths.

Get In2 Sailing and windsurfing program aims to increase physical activity levels of less active teens through the exciting, alternative sports of sailing and windsurfing.

Social blind tennis and soccer programs for teens. The program will be available to sighted participants (bringa-friend) who will wear blindfolds to level the playing field.

Roll Up is a 6 week introductory bowls competition aimed at secondary school students.

Let’s Ride: Community is a 10 week club based program that provides professional cycling education for teens with a focus on teaching cycling skills, knowledge of road rules, as well as general road and traffic awareness.

Football for Fun is a social, modified version of traditional football (soccer), with participants attending a local venue with friends and playing a friendly game of football.

Delivered in local parks, ovals or leisure facilities, Freestyle Golf is a modified introductory Golf program.

Gymnastics Victoria

GymPT is an all abilities program that uses gymnastics equipment, to get teens fit and having fun in new and creative ways

Hockey Victoria

J-Ball is a non-competitive, safe and fun game-based format of hockey that uses music and social media to keep teens interested. It can be played by anyone regardless of their skills or fitness levels.

Social Stix is a modified non-competitive lacrosse program incorporating fun activities, in a safe and friendly environment.

The Key to Aquatics Project for culturally communities is a community swimming and water safety education program.

Lacrosse Victoria Life Saving Victoria Netball Victoria

Rock Up Netball Youth is a non-traditional format of netball which is fun, flexible, social, non-competitive and run outside of school hours.

Touch Football Australia

In Touch with Youth is a localised seven-week youth festival offering music, entertainment, food trucks, and modified/non-competitive touch football games.

Skate Victoria

She Rolls is a skate based holistic fitness program that brings teenage girls together to exercise their bodies, hearts and minds. The program provides some opportunities for participants to learn about skating as well as nutrition and mental health.

Skateboarding Victoria Surfing Victoria

All Aboard Skateboarding Sessions is a gender inclusive skateboarding workshop for new skateboarders. The program is fun, safe and social.

Coasting - Stand Up Paddleboarding is a modified girls only program that introduces Stand Up Paddleboarding to teen girls in a fun and social environment Double Dot offers fun, sociable and quick squash and racquetball activities. With programs held on squash courts, participants will have fun and improve their skills in a relaxed environment, without the pressure to perform.

Tennis 4 Teens has been designed with teens for teens. It focuses on fun, fitness and skill development all in a stress-free and non-competitive environment.

TRI2gether is an introduction to triathlons focussing on finish lines, not finish times. The program supports young people, of all backgrounds and abilities, to look at their performance with an achievement mindset, not through the lens of competition.

Squash Victoria Tennis Victoria Triathlon Victoria

to index >BackMedia Contact

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Rachel Murphy Senior Media Advisor on 03 9667 1319 /0435 761 732 rmurphy@vichealth.vic.gov.au

The star rower whose research examine Daphne Martschenko, president of Cambridge University Women’s Boat Club, is determined to make the sport of rowing more accessible. Her mission to pave the way for greater diversity in rowing chimes with her study of the charged concepts of race, socioeconomic status, intelligence and genetics.

In 2015 I became the first person of colour to row in the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Races.

The Men’s Boat Race originated in 1829 and the Women’s Race in 1927. To realise that I was the first non-white face to take part was a shock.

Rowing has always been seen as an elite sport but I hope this is changing. I would like for people to see me and think there is a place for someone like them in the sport as well.

As a child growing up in the USA I absolutely hated sport. My parents thought it was important for me and my younger sisters to do outdoor activities and they tried very hard to interest me. I did swimming, ice-skating, baseball, soccer and basketball. I didn’t really click with any of them, and most certainly not with swimming and ice-skating. I thought of myself as more of a nerd than an athlete.

One day I spotted a rowing eight on the Potomac River. I did lots of drama and I was in the school mini-bus on the way to a Shakespeare theatre competition in Washington DC. I said to the friend sitting next to me “What’s that?”

Her sister rowed and she explained what rowing was. I liked the idea of being on the water and not in it.

Daphne Martschenko talks about her research and passion for rowing

coast which seemed a world away from Virginia.

I went to Stanford University where I majored in Russian language and literature and medical anthropology.

My father is Ukrainian and my mother Nigerian. At home we speak English. For several years when I was a child we lived in Eastern Europe and Central Asia — Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Ukraine. Because of this, I love learning languages. At school I took Latin and at Stanford I studied Arabic in addition to Russian. Languages are like a superpower, I would love to be able to speak every language in the world. In Cambridge I’ve continued with my Russian.

At Stanford I continued to row. I took part in the Under 23 World Championships in 2012 and 2014. In my four years there I learnt how to pack a lot into life. I love lists. In my room at Magdalene College in Cambridge I have a white board with a weekly schedule of tasks I need to do. Just at the moment writing up my doctoral thesis is top of the agenda.

I came to Cambridge to do an MPhil and stayed on to take a PhD. My MPhil was in Politics, Development and Democratic Education. My doctoral research looks at the social and ethical

My state school in Virginia offered rowing. I knew I needed to get fit before the season started so I joined the cross-country running club. I was a big kid and one of the slowest. But, when you’re learning the basics of rowing, it’s all about strength. I was strong, even if I wasn’t the most fit.

At last I’d found a sport I was good at.

Rowing opened so many doors for me. It gave me confidence and that helped me to do well academically.

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es teachers’ perceptions of intelligence The University of Cambridge

In the USA, where I carried out my fieldwork, people don’t want to talk about race. They avoid it. I think this happens in the UK as well.

This reluctance made it very difficult for me to carry out my research — I deal with sensitive topics. Fortunately, I managed to run focus groups in two schools and survey over 600 teachers. I think having these critical and open conversations is a key to avoiding misuse and misinterpretation of scientific research and to ensuring that marginalised and historically

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oppressed groups are not further harmed.

Research says teachers perceive non-white children as being less ‘bright’.This bias has a huge effect on teachers’ expectations and subsequently on student achievement. We urgently need far greater diversity in the teacher workforce. In my case, I was placed into a remedial reading programme when I started primary school for what seemed like no reason to my parents.

Daphne Martschenko shakes hands with Oxford University Women’s Boat Club President Katherine Erickson at the coin toss on Boat Race Day, 24 March 2018

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Ben Tufnell/Row 360

implications of behavioural genetics research. It examines teachers’ perceptions of intelligence, class, and race — and the possible effects of these views on student achievement.

Both my parents immigrated to the USA. My mother arrived in 1993 so she spoke with an accent. Because my mother and grandmother went to enrol me in school, without my dad, the school assumed I was growing up in a singleparent immigrant household with low level English. When my father, who’s white and grew up partly in New York, went into the school to ask why I was identified for special education, I found myself back in the ‘regular’ classroom.

Genetically-sensitive schooling is one of the latest ideas coming from behaviour genetics. Essentially, it’s the notion that you can tailor education to a child’s genetic profile. It’s problematic because it can be essentialist and deterministic. Categorising and labelling children influences teachers to think of children in certain ways, especially in the USA where there are achievement gaps along socioeconomic and racial lines.

There’s an ugly history behind the founding of behavioural genetics that was used to justify race- and class-based differences. These implicit 94 Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2018

associations between race and class and ability remain — and the re-emergence of behavioural genetics into the popular domain runs the risk of re-inscribing biodeterminism into education, an institution often seen as a way to achieve social mobility.

People told me that Cambridge might be a culture shock. But I quickly felt at home here. Rowing helped a lot because right away I met inspiring and amazing women. I joined the Cambridge University Women’s Boat Club and rowed in the Blue (first) Boat in the 2015 and 2016 Oxford and Cambridge Boat Races. This year I rowed in the reserve boat (Blondie).

Rowing has been a big part of my life at Cambridge. Training takes up so much time and energy. Three times a week in term time, I’ve been getting up at 5.18am — yes, it’s that precise — and catching the 5.55am train to Ely where we train on the River

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Ouse. In the afternoons there’s yet more training on land in the Goldie Boathouse back in Cambridge.

In May 2017 I was voted in as CUWBC president. This was a huge honour and I’ve loved it. To have the chance to represent Cambridge University in the biggest university rowing event in the world is a true privilege. I’ve seen it as an opportunity to talk about increasing diversity in the sport of rowing and put across the message that we need to be making it more accessible.

Our Blue Boat won against Oxford in 2017 and again this year in 2018. In fact, all our boats won, both men and women. The last time that happened was 1993.

What will I do next? At present I’m concentrating on getting my dissertation written.

I used to think I’d apply to the Foreign Office

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given my love for languages — but now I’m considering either staying in academia or going into education. I’m involved in a non-profit organisation called Camp Phoenix that seeks to empower low-income youth through academic learning in the summer months. That kind of hands-on work has direct impact in the fight for social justice.

I love reading — especially memoirs. Most recently I’ve read Educated by Tara Westover.

She was brought up in a Mormon fundamentalist family in Idaho and didn’t go to school until she was 17. She educated herself, got into university, and eventually took a PhD at Cambridge. Her story is inspirational. If you haven’t read it, you should.

Daphne Martschenko is a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Education.

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Students Failing to Follow to Doctors’ Advice – Research Patients are set to benefit with the launch of a new direct-to-patient prescription delivery service that aims to address the high levels of medicine non-adherence among tertiary students. New research into the level of adherence to prescription medication has found a fifth (19%) of students have had a doctor’s prescription which they have not filled.

The Zoom Health study of more than 1,300 patients found that for almost four in ten (38%) of student respondents the main reason they had not picked up a prescription was that they couldn’t spare the time, or it was too hard to get to the pharmacy. Another four in ten respondents (41%) said they felt their condition had changed and they decided not to pick up their prescription. Cost was the major barrier for almost a tenth (11%) of respondents with a four percent feeling apprehensive about potential side effects from the medication.

Auckland GP and Zoom Health medical director Dr Daniel Wu says while there can be a number of reasons why patients don’t collect their prescribed medicines, doctors have limited access to timely updates on whether patients are fulfilling their prescriptions.

“Every part of our general practice has over the last 15 years been transformed from a paper based system and brought into the digital era - but prescription delivery process is still stuck in the dark ages. Once the patient leaves our practice with their script, there is no sharing of data between the pharmacy and ourselves to ensure they have picked up their medication, says Dr Wu. “With the downgrade of the postal service, we are having a lot of issues with the mail going missing or not arriving in time. This has meant some patients with chronic conditions quite often don’t have enough medication for their diabetes or for their blood pressure,” he says.

Pharmacist Dale Griffiths says the new delivery service is designed to meet the needs of a patient group which is falling through a significant gap in the system. He says community pharmacy does a great job with the patients who 96 Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2018

present their prescriptions, but it is clear from the research that there is a patient group who are being lost once they leave their doctor and this may have long term health implications.

“Research has shown that improving adherence to medication will have a greater impact to the health of a patient population than any other improvement in specific medical treatments.”

He says the study also showed that the majority (55%) of students admitted to having forgotten to take a prescription medication at some stage.

Under the current healthcare system, there is no way for doctors to check if patients are filling their prescription let alone taking the medication on time. The Zoom Health service will use a world first technology to help HCPs ensure medication is reaching patients and provide a self-reporting tool which shows when they take it,” he says.

“A 2016 study in the Counties Manukau DHB found a high level of medicine non-adherence with around 20% of prescriptions given to the 100,000 patients that present to the DHB each year not filled. While the research showed patients were more likely to be adherent to antibiotics, they were least likely to be adherent to medicines such as those used to treat respiratory disease. Often if a patient can’t feel an immediate benefit from taking the medication, it can slip off their radar. The new delivery service will provide an extra layer of intervention, removing some of the barriers around adherence to medicine,” says Mr Griffiths.

He says HCPs can send the patient prescription and mobile number to Zoom health who will then contact the patient to download an app.

The Zoom patient app will allow the patient to pay for the medication and delivery as well as providing medicine information and reminders, plus help coordinate their repeats.

Mr Griffiths says the new service and technology platform is expected to reduce the administrative load on general practices around repeat prescriptions and improve the information flow between patient, HCPs and pharmacists.

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Around the World Fashion Sketchbook Lonely Planet Kids Another well thought out book for children (and others) with an interest in fashion. The reader (or should we say participant) is taken on a journey through different countries, looking at their varied and diverse iconic costumes and is offered wee tasks along the way.

While there are four double pages based in the USA the others ar all just double page spreads offering an interesting collection of dippable facts... doodle lace on a spanish fan, design a kimono pattern in Japan and in Paris... a ballgown of course!

Lots of interesting snippets of facts, and things which invite researching more about the specific countries... and activities on every page which can be traced and completed or completed in the book.

As with all the other Lonely Planet Kids books the pricing is competitive (the one I quickly found in New Zealand was $17.00) and if you have someone who has an interest in fashion, dance, and likes to undertake a range of design activities this book is a must.

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11-Year-Old Kid From Nigeria Creat Meet Kareen Waris Olamilekan (also known as Waspa), an 11-year-old artist from Lagos, Nigeria, who is quickly gaining international recognition for his life-like drawings. This talented young man is currently studying at Ayowole Academy of Arts, calls himself a “bitty artist”, and dreams about seeing his works in a museum someday.

Olamilekan has been drawing since the age of 6, and the main subject of his hyper realistic works is usually portraits, although he sometimes goes beyond them, too. “I draw my friends. I draw cartoons, comics. I draw illustrations from textbooks and newspapers,” Olamilekan told BBC. “I draw hyper realistic pencil works.”

Every drawing that Kareen creates stuns us with the details that are not something very common for an 11-year-old. Kareen says that his inspiration comes from everything that’s happening around him, especially his family, but also he reflects a lot on two of his artistic idols – Nigerian artist Arinze Stanley, who also specializes in hyperrealism, and Italian Renaissance master Michelangelo.

The most famous artwork that Olamilekan created is called “Daily Bread” – it depicts a person eating in sweat and tears. “My family, we work hard before we put food in our mouths, before we eat,” explains Kareen. “That’s what inspires me.”

Scroll down to see these incredible Olamilekan’s works for yourself.

More info: Instagram

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tes Hyper realistic Drawings Hidreley

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This is Kareen Waris Olamilekan, an 11-year-old artist from Lagos, Nigeria He’s quickly gaining international recognition for his life-like drawings This talented young man is currently studying at Ayowole Academy of Arts He calls himself a “bitty artist”, and dreams about seeing his works in a museum someday

Kareen says that his inspiration comes from everything that’s happening around him, especially his family He also reflects a lot on two of his artistic idols – Nigerian artist Arinze Stanley and Italian master Michelangelo The most famous artwork that Olamilekan created is called “Daily Bread”

Olamilekan has been drawing since the age of 6

It depicts a person eating in sweat and tears

The main subject of his hyperrealistic works is usually portraits, although he sometimes goes beyond them, too

“My family, we work hard before we put food in our mouths, before we eat,” explains Kareen “That’s what inspires me”

“I draw my friends. I draw cartoons, comics. I draw illustrations from textbooks and newspapers”

Although Kareen is using social media for not that long

Every drawing that Kareen creates stuns people with the details that are not very common for an 11-year-old 106 Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2018

He’s already counting almost 38k followers on Instagram who are stunned by his artworks What a talented young man!

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AUSTRALIA’S FINEST TEAM UP FOR NETBALL GAME CHANGER MY NETFIT, the revolutionary app the netball community has been awaiting launched and is available now on Google Play and the App Store.

The brainchild of former elite netballer Sarah Wall and former Australian Diamonds’ vice captain, Kim Green, MY NETFIT the “Netflix of Netball” provides users with on demand access to highly engaging and interactive netball resources for both players and coaches, including a full year fitness, nutrition, coaching and wellbeing plan.

“The creation of the MY NETFIT app was in response to the need for a modern resource that gives the grassroots netball community access to a variety of industry-leading content and expert knowhow in a way that is engaging, relevant and empowering,” explained Sarah Wall.

“Fostering a supportive, likeminded online community was also an important element when developing the app, where users are encouraged to share their own journey and provide genuine support for one another in a manner that takes away from the isolation and loneliness that both distance and social media can bring. ”At the heart of the app is a daily personal development plan. Teaming up with current Samsung Australian Diamonds’ head coach Lisa Alexander, who is 108 Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2018

NETFIT Netball’s Coach Ambassador, Wall and Green have devised a year-round training plan broken down into 6-week blocks covering the areas of fitness, nutrition, coaching and wellbeing.

“The personal development plan is designed to inspire players and coaches to be the best version of themselves both on and off the court,” continued Wall.

“Users of the app will have access to exclusive, on-demand real-time videos and written content from some of Australia’s leading health and fitness experts along with Samsung Diamonds’ head coach Lisa Alexander, head physiotherapist Alanna Antcliff and one of netball’s finest athletes, Kim Green.

The MY NETFIT plan includes: • Fitness – HIIT classes, running drills, body weight training, speed, footwork and agility • Nutrition – eating plan and recipes • Wellbeing – yoga and meditation • Coaching – session plans, team fitness activities and worksheets The MY NETFIT app is available to download from Google Play and the App Store.

A yearly subscription to the 12-month MY NETFIT plan equates to A$2.50 per week or A$119 annually.

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Pictures: NETFIT Netball

On launching the MY NETFIT app, Wall and co-owner Green have delivered a groundbreaking product that will appeal to all members of the global netball community wanting a one-stop shop when seeking knowledge to learn and develop.

Most Aussie Kids Still Eating Too Much Salt Health promotion foundation VicHealth has welcomed a new Deakin University report which found 80 per cent of Australian children are eating too much salt, with most of it coming from processed food.

Despite showing a small reduction in overall salt intake over the past nine years, the study released today found the majority of kids were still consuming more salt than was recommended for good health.

The study also looked at the impact of the voluntary salt targets set in 2009 on the salt content in processed foods. Although some food categories did have a reduction in salt (including sauces, breakfast cereals and bread) some had no change (soup and cheese) and others an increase in salt content (sausages, savoury biscuits). Since 2009 there have been no renewed salt targets set.

VicHealth CEO Jerril Rechter said too much salt was having an alarming impact on kids’ health.

“It’s concerning that 80 per cent of our kids are eating too much salt putting them at risk of high blood pressure, which can lead to stroke and heart disease in adulthood,” Ms Rechter said.

“Not only are we putting our kids at risk of a future of poor health, we’re setting them up to like the taste of salty food.”

VicHealth Dietician Jenny Reimers said the

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research showed the need for continued pressure on Government and manufacturers to reduce the amount of salt in processed foods.

“75 percent of the salt in our diets comes from processed foods like simmer sauces, ready meals and processed meats. These foods can be made less salty but at the moment there is no motivation for manufacturers to do so,” Ms Reimers said.

“There has been some good work but we need more commitment from food manufacturers to reduce the amount of salt in their products.

“Setting targets can be effective to drive down salt levels in foods, as was seen by the reduction in salt in sauces and bread.

“We need government commitment to set salt targets across key foods to drive reformulation in the food industry" “Australia has committed to meet the World Health Organization target of a 30 per cent reduction in salt by 2025. We urgently need to reduce the amount of salt in processed foods to even get close to this.”

VicHealth leads the Victorian Salt Reduction Partnership, which recently called for government to set targets to drive industry to reformulate their products with less salt.

More information is available at https:// unpackthesalt.com.au/ salt-reformulation-in-australia/

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Accentuate the positive!

Today’s managers shoulder the significant responsibility of delivering individual and organizational performance, and doing so in a fast-changing environment.

For many, accomplishing this mission involves sophisticated monitoring systems that provide real-time data about how results are tracking against goals, with a focus typically upon when the mark is being missed.

Many leaders have become masters at minding the gap, evaluating the delta and assessing the shortfall. They then develop improvement plans, take corrective action and offer constructive feedback to those involved.

Sound familiar?

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In most organizations, considerable energy and attention are invested in what’s off track as opposed to what’s working well. Perhaps it’s time to turn this upside down and heed the advice of the old 1940s song “Accentuate the Positive”: “You’ve got to accentuate the positive. Eliminate the negative. Latch on to the affirmative …” ~ Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer (1944)

According to research conducted by Gallup, only one out of three US-based workers strongly agrees that he or she received recognition or praise for doing good work over the past week. And it’s understandable. Given the timestarved world in which we live, today’s leaders must prioritize their efforts, knowing that they’ll likely never get everything done. Problems or “squeaky wheels” demand immediate attention; quiet, solid performance routinely goes unnoticed.

And all of this represents a significant and costly missed opportunity for managers and organizations alike. Affirming and appreciating employees cost literally nothing and research suggests that they offer a range of benefits, including: • Reduced stress and improved physical wellbeing • Heightened cognitive functioning • Enhanced decision-making, problem solving, and innovation

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Julie Winkle Giulioni • Greater trust, connections and bonds among people • Higher levels of engagement and retention Affirmation and appreciation don’t just benefit the employee. They also benefit the leader.

Research suggests that shifting one’s focus toward gratitude can improve the health and well-being of the giver. Simply giving what’s working equal air time changes the experience of supervision, infusing greater positivity, optimism and energy into the manager’s experience at work.

In his book “Extraordinary Influence: How Great Leaders Bring Out the Best in Others,” Tim Irwin explains, “The word affirmation originates from the Latin affirmationem, which means to make steady, to confirm, and to strengthen.”

Affirmation and appreciation let people know they’re on the right track and help to build focus, capacity and resilience for the future.

You likely already know the fundamentals: • What: It’s nothing more than a simple, authentic expression of appreciation for what a person has done and/or who he/she is.

• Where: In private offers a more intimate, personal setting but public expressions can amplify the message while also communicating to others what you value.

• When: As soon as possible after the contribution or episode, but don’t skip affirmation just because time has passed.

This is one of those “better late than never” things.

• How: Verbally -- in person or by phone -- is great; in writing provides a lasting record that people will look back on for motivation. In either case, personalizing it to the individual is key.

Highly effective leaders take these fundamentals to the next level with strategies that personalize the recognition, keeping it fresh and meaningful.

Try one (or all) of these appreciation amplifiers.

Talk ‘em up. Offering expressions of affirmation directly to the individual involved is powerful.

And you can build upon this by bragging about

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them to others. (This might be the only positive way to talk behind someone’s back!) Sharing your appreciation with others is sure to get back to the individual and reflect positively upon you as well.

Time tells. In the words of Tom Peters, “Your calendar never lies.” Investing time and attention communicates powerfully about what’s important to you.

How do you spend the bulk of your day? What might happen if you redeployed just a small portion of that time toward connecting with those who are performing well? This doesn’t just send a message to them and your whole group.

It also offers an opportunity for you to expand your understanding of what’s working and best practices that might benefit the rest of the team and, perhaps, the organization as a whole.

Lend your support. Words are powerful. But actions speak even louder than words. People feel deeply appreciated and affirmed when your words are backed up with support for what matters most to them. Resources. Tools.

Roadblock removal. These sorts of tangible demonstrations of support buoy spirits and performance.

Identify the intangibles. Movie tickets and money are nice, but the half-life of such delight can be quite short. Instead, draw upon what you know matters most to these people and identify something that might be less tangible but more meaningful: A day to work from home. Time off.

Visibility. Responsibility. Whatever it is, the intangible can be invaluable.

Want to optimize performance? Continue this timeless and musical advice: “Accentuate the positive. Eliminate the negative. Latch on to the affirmative.”

Julie Winkle Giulioni is the author of “Help Them Grow or Watch Them Go: Career Conversations Employees Want,” with Bev Kaye. Giulioni has spent the past 25 years improving performance through learning. She consults with organizations to develop and deploy innovative instructional designs and training worldwide. You can learn more about her consulting, speaking and blog at JulieWinkleGiulioni.com.

Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2018 111

Air Traffic Control Tests?

I hope it was fake news but I am not overly optimistic. I read an article and watched a video concerning the recruitment of air traffic controllers in the USA. During the term of the previous president, instead of a rigorous aptitude test involving mathematical ability, spatial acuity and problem solving, all aspiring ATCs had to fill in an initial biographical form where they had to respond to some questions regarding subject preferences at school and previous work experience.

All well and good, you may think, but the devil was in the detail; in this case the scoring system. Ability in science was given poor marks, as was previous flying experience.

High scorers were those who had no employment in the previous two years and preferred more socially-oriented subjects.

Apparently, this selection process was driven by those who had the diversity agenda sitting on their shoulders, 112 Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2018

among them the union of ATCs of a certain ethnic origin.

Many people in the know have shuddered at the prospect of such an important job being devalued to the extent that the most qualified or able were excluded due to an imperative to allow diversity to outweigh aptitude.

I do hope this is one of those times when fake news would be met with a sigh of relief.

If not, imagine the dialogue between pilot and ATC where political correctness ruled the skies-pilots as well as controllers: Air Snowflake heavy, cleared for runway 24 right.

Negative New York Tower, ‘heavy’ is discriminatory and prejudicial against aircraft of size. Negative for runway 24 right, Snowflake Airlines always land on the left.

Correction, Sir. Cleared for runway 24 left.

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Negative on the ‘sir’.

Patriarchal terminology unacceptable.

Snowflake aircraft of indeterminate size. Holding pattern, Orbit Manhattan.

Orbiting Personhattan.

Snowflake Aircraft of indeterminate size, recycle transponder.

Agree to diversity-acceptable term, ‘trans’. Recycling also socially responsible.

Snowflake Aircraft of indeterminate size, cleared to land. Exit at taxiway Mike.

Negative. The phonetic alphabet reeks of patriarchical hegemony. There is only one female-oriented name compared with six males.

Roger, Snowflake Aircraft of indeterminate size. Correction, negative on the Roger.

Understood. Exit Taxiway Yankee. Proceed to gate 48.

Negative New York.

Unacceptable. Gate 48 is adjacent to El AL aircraft.

In solidarity to the oppressed Palestinians, request alternative.

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Roger, ah, OK Snowflake Aircraft of indeterminate size, backtrack and proceed to safe place Echo Juliet.

Request alternative safe place, tower. Juliet was a downtrodden, stereotypical character in a play written by an old, white male.

Affirmative, Snowflake Aircraft of indeterminate size, taxi alternative safe place, Whiskey Zulu.

Providing alcohol to indigenous peoples was one of the worst scandals of colonisation.

Whiskey Zulu unacceptable.

Understood Snowflake Aircraft of indeterminate size, taxi safe, Alpha Yankee.

Unacceptable code for he who is not my president. Request alternative airport.

Understood Snowflake Aircraft of indeterminate size. Cleared for take off. Vector 195 for Havana.

Affirmative.

Roger

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAYF-WRps_A Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2018 113

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

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

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