New projects

I have been working on my personal online resume or e-portfolio for about a year now. The site and I am spending some time these holidays adding more sections to it. These include an Online Resources page which allows me to put up useful links that I have used or will try to use in the classroom. I have also added some more material to the Sample Lesson and unit plans section, including my Intercultural Communication unit for Society and Culture which has been accepted to the Society & Culture Association's publication "Culturescope" (due for publication in the second half of 2009).
I have included these two sections for a few reasons.

Online Resources
I wanted to have better access to the useful resources that I find online. Relying on emailing links, bookmarks etc is just painful so I wanted to centralise these resources and really hone in on those which are the most useful, reliable, relevant, engaging and practical. It is a process now of combing through my considerable list of sites to find the gold.

Sample Lesson and Unit Plans
Part of the process of accreditation in NSW (Australia) for teaching is that you show some examples of your lessons. So as part of that process I have been adding lessons that reveal evidence of information technology integration, scaffolding techniques, reflective exercises and importantly for my accreditation, attention to the Quality Teaching Framework which is used to guide pedagogical practice in NSW.

Moving on

Well I have finally handed in my last two assignments and feel pretty happy about it. I just have to wait until I get the results and then I can really relax. In the meantime I am thinking of all the new projects I can work on. I have made a note of them so that I can refer back to them and chart my progress. I want to focus on enjoying the process as well as the end result.

Visual Diary - I began this as a reflection exercise collecting together various bits and pieces gathered from excursions, concerts etc. This would help me remember what I have done and express it in a creative way.

Travel Diaries - I wrote a diary of the trip that my partner and I went on in 2006 which covered Europe, Cuba and South America. I would like to transcribe the diary so that I have an electronic version in case something happens to the original. It won't have the little drawings in but at least the content will be there.

Article writing - I want to start doing some more writing and one form of this is for the Society and Culture Association - Culturescope. My mentor at work who is a Society and Culture teacher has urged me to write something as a lesson submission based on my unit of work for university. I am planning to work on that and submit it along with one of his pieces soon.

Self-education - apart from wanting to enrol in another CCE course (Centre for Continuing Education) I would like to be able to spend more time concentrating on gaining a better understanding of the NSW Syllabus and Curriculum resources so that next year I feel more confident in my teaching practice. This will mean focussing on Australian History in particular and Geography in general. Even though I am not sure what I will be doing past April next year (when the maternity leave period ends for my colleague) I will want to be prepared for Term 1 and beyond.

Now to get started....

Intercultural Communication (Japan and Australia) Society & Culture

Subject matter

I have been given an assignment to plan a unit (involving 20 lesson) for a particular subject. I have chosen Society & Culture because I really love the subject and I am also fortunate enough to have a wonderful mentor who is a Society & Culture teacher. This unit focuses on Intercultural communication. You are required to look the communication process in general and then focus on an inter-cultural comparision. I have chosen to look at Japan for this section of the study.


Prior experience and Practical application
My practicum experience involved 4 weeks of teaching one unit from Society & Culture and so I hope to use some of this hands on experience, his expert advice and the many resource I have found online and in other forms to assist in this process. The good news is that hopefully I can implement some of these lessons in the classroom - will just have to sweet talk my mentor.


Reflection
I am finding the process of planning lessons invigorating, if daunting. I have to be aware however that in my excitement about finding materials and putting lessons together I must not lose sight of the other important part of the equation. This is the teaching strategies I must employ when thinking about implementing these in reality. I have found that in my recent experience developing lessons for History (years 7 - 10) I have paid plenty of attention to the lesson planning but not the delivery. I really want to focus on the bigger picture of what I really want the students to get out of the lesson, not just the bells and whistles of the materials used in the lesson. Thinking about this before each lesson and making it explicit to the students will help guide them, and me, in the lesson as it unfolds...hopefully!

Resources

I have compiled a few interesting sites that have relevant materials to this unit for future reference (and for others who might read this site). Particularly interesting to me was the articles by Deborah Tannen who writes a great deal about communication, and in particular, the role of gender in the communication process. Whilst I cannot put the entire article online, the reference is provided below.

Tannen, D. (1995) The Power of Talk: Who Gets Heard and Why. Harvard Business Review, 73 (5). Accessed October 14th, 2008 from Business Source Premier

Extremely useful source when examining hierarchical structures with refer the gender roles. This example focuses on the corporate field but lesson learned can be transferred to other situations.

Australia - Culture, Customs and Etiquette

This site (and the accompanying Japan site) can be useful resources when comparing and contrasting the two societies for this unit. The students can use this site and critique the description given to the Australian society so that they might be more aware of the potential benefits and dangers of drawing generalities about such cultural descriptions.

Japan - Language, Culture, Customs and Etiquette

Although the site is directed toward the business aspect of inter-cultural communication it contains some relevant material about particular Japanese communication both verbal and non-verbal.
It covers the following areas of interest to the studies of Cross-cultural communication:
The Japanese and 'Face'
Harmony in Japanese Society
Japanese Non-Verbal Communication
Japanese Hierarchy
Meeting Etiquette
Gift Giving Etiquette
Dining Etiquette
Watch your Table Manners!

Japan Guide - Non-Verbal Communication


This site is useful for the lesson concerning non-verbal communication in Japan as it details some of the symbolic gestures used in Japan. It covers the following areas: silence, facial gestures, touching, showing respect to objects and general gestures.

Getting Through Customs

This site contains cultural quizzes complete with answers.


What’s in a gesture?
Judie Hayes.


This website contains a lesson about the nature of gestures and how they are used and interpreted in different culture. The lesson is created from an United States perspective which can be limiting but could be adapted and used as a model for similar comparisons between one culture and another, or modified to a particular country.

Differentiated Curriculum

It has been a while. I am in the midst of school holidays and of my final two assignments for my uni course. I am designing 20 lesson plans as part of a unit in Society & Culture Intercultural Communication for the preliminary HSC course and also working on a two-parter which involves investigating Task Analysis, Direct Instruction and Differentiation.

To this end, I wanted to include some resources for these topics. I will add them to my resources list but just one I have found today.

Differentiation - link to journal articles

Last semester at university

Well, a great deal has happened. Firstly I am teaching almost fulltime now in the HSIE Department at Emanuel School. I teach 2 year 7 classes, 1 year 8 class, 1 year 9 class and 2 year 10 classes. It was a hectic 6 weeks of term but not as hard as I suspect other first year teachers have - as I have worked at the school for 5 years and know my 'new' colleagues very well. I have noted that the amount of planning you have to do is done after the school day has finished, free periods being used to do paper work, organise lessons and so on. I have a paper diary planner which I carry everywhere and where I write my 2 line lesson plans! However, I also carry the textbooks, marker pens, normal pens, my compute and very importantly the black folder. This folder contains all of the current lessons I am teaching (and forthcoming lessons) - articles, worksheets, assessment tasks etc...and I keep this constantly up to date. That way if all else fails you have your backup. Peace of mind and handy when the technology fails.
Finished all of my marking the first saturday of the holidays. It is still troubling to mark I find - that is one useful thing they could teach you at university I think - maybe in curriculum method. You learn all about assessment, but not exactly how to mark. I set assessment tasks for all my classes so had a lot to mark but now have a little bit of an idea about the students I will be teaching until the end of the year. Now, it is the time for planning. I am setting out what I need to teach in History for all the years until the end of the year. Not the exact lessons - but just the topics I need to cover. The syllabus guides and the school programmes are obviously essential but it helps to plan it all out so that you are prepared mentally and have plenty of opportunities to develop interesting and innovative lessons.

As for university studies, I have Curriculum Method and Inclusive Learning this semester...and there is a lot of work to do for both of them. Even more incentive to keep on top of things. I have firstly to do a webquest and secondly design 20 45minute lessons....and that is just one unit. For the other it is more lots of little assignments. Once those two are done - so I am I. Fully qualified teacher then.

Onwards

E-Porfolios for student learning

"A portfolio is a purposeful collection of student work that exhibits the students efforts, progress, and achievements in one or more areas. The collection must include student participation in selecting contents, the criteria for selection; the criteria for judging merit, and evidence of student self-reflection. An electronic portfolio includes the use of electronic technologies that allow the portfolio developer to collect and organize artifacts in many formats (audio, video, graphics, and text)."Create your own Electronic Portfolio

I began looking on the internet for information about creating an electronic teaching portfolio and found so many articles and resources relating to electronic student portfolios that I thought I would write another post about it and collect some of the more useful sites on this blog. I particularly like this image I saw on DigitalArchive4Life
This image represent our 'Digital Archive for Life' - how we might collect artifacts over time in various formats as the story of our lives.

"Eportfolios offer many benefits for learners as they seek to create and reflect on life experiences.

• Personal knowledge management
• History of development and growth
• Planning/goal setting tool
• Assist learners in making connections between learning experiences (his may include formal and informal learning).
• Provide the metacognitive elements needed to assist learners in planning future learning needs based on previous successes and failures.
• Personal control of learning history (as compared to organizations controlling learner history)." (taken from elearnspace)
  

For students it is useful:

• increased learning effectiveness
• model professionalism
• enhance information technology skills
• gain academic credit for learning beyond the classroom
• reflections on artifacts as well as how they match goals and standards
• help students make connections among their formal and informal learning experiences
• prompt learners to articulate their learning goals from different perspectives
• allow individuals to display learning in ways overlooked or undervalued by other assessment means" (taken from (ePortfolios Portal)
  

Resources (Student and Teacher Portfolios)
Dr Helen Barrett - E-porfolios online
Professional Portfolios (HSC Online NSW)
E-Portfolio (EDNA online)
elearnspace
ePortfolios Portal
Designing E-Learning (Australian Flexible Learning Framework)

Electronic portfolios

I am on school holidays at the moment and am using the time to get to all those things that I have wanting to do but have been too busy to do so. I have to complete my Critical Professional Commentary (based on my practicum experience) but this will be a pleasurable experience because I have such fond memories of my school. Secondly I have to do some work on my next essay due for Literacies for Learning (the first one was posted last friday thank goodness). I am also looking at developing my Electronic Teaching portfolio and to this end have found some guides on the internet (see below). This is like a summary of what you have learned, your teaching philosophy, work experiences and such like. In terms of education, I also want to focus on going through the History and Geography textbooks so I can be prepared to teach my year 7, 8, 9 and now 10 hopefully classes next term from the 19th May (when my colleague goes on maternity leave). So, a busy holiday but it is great to have time to do these things and really just not have to worry about being somewhere or doing something...just taking my time and enjoying the projects. Plus, if I do a lot now, I know I will be less stressed when I actually have to start teaching and writing school reports!

Guides to Electronic Teaching Portfolios
Adelaide University Guide - Developing your teaching portfolio

My Teaching Portfolio ( A Work in Progress)

Management speak....

I must say I really don't like the way management speak has infiltrated Education so much. This article in the Age Newspaper regarding the Australia 2020 Summit interviews "Nicholas Gruen, chief executive of Lateral Economics and chairman of Peach Discount Mortgage Broking" who says, "We need to empower the consumers of those services to know something about their quality so that … the value-add that schools are making is monitored and made public," - 'consumers' means I supposed parents and their children, the school students or 'learners' as they might be called elsewhere....and 'value-add' is a nice way of saying extra stuff that they have at their school - computers, pools, overseas exchange programmes etc....I suspect, but am not sure. See the full article here:
Education Hot Topic of Summit

Other news is that I only have two more days of practicum left. I have really enjoyed my time at South Sydney High School and will miss all of them there when I go. They have a really great department and that helps a great deal when you are teaching - support of others. I think it will really affect the way that I deal with students from now on, taking a much more individualised approach - attending to students outside of class so that there is a personal relationship on which to build a student-teacher relationship as well. You get so much more out of teaching when you invest this time with the children - I have seen it work. I just hope I can follow in my prac supervisor's footsteps.
Final news is that I finished my 1st essay for Literacies for Learning. I have found it hard to concentrate on this whilst doing prac which is so much better because you plan and then actually teach...rather than just write about it....but I feel pleased with my efforts in this assignment which were focussed on re-evaluating a lesson with reference to literacy support. I used one of the old lessons from my first curriculum method subject 2 years ago and it was good to revisit it.

Right, onto my photos - went to Woronora General Cemetery in Sutherland today with my partner and took some great shots there. Am sort of obsessed with the little objects that people put on cemeteries and have taken lots of pictures of all sorts of oddments. You can see this and other information about cemeteries I have visited on my new blog site: Cemetery Curiosities

first one in while

Practicum is going very well. It is quite a challenging school but that is perfect because i want to work on my classroom management skills more. It is great to that I have a very supportive, enthusiastic and very student orientated prac supervisor who is teaching me lots, giving me great advice and encouraging me to take risks. The other great thing about it is watching other teachers and getting some tips. Finally, I like the fact that I have to come up with lesson plans - even though they take forever - it forces you to get out there and be creative - to find something that you and the students will be interested in.

Two more weeks to go and then back to my school for a few days. Then it is the school holidays. Hopefully I will be able to update this site with some of my useful sources from the practicum and generally catch up on my life - and prepare for the next challenge - teaching in Term 2.

update on practicum

Randwick Girls High School did not work out but thankfully South Sydney High School has and I start there today. I really have not much of an idea as to what I will be teaching, but Legal Studies and Geography (Year 11) were mentioned! This weekend, I just collapsed at home. I had been so stressed by organising the practicum and tying up things at work that it all caught up with me. Stayed in bed and slept. Feel much better today and am really looking forward to seeing this school. It reminds me a lot of my own state school - which was one of the biggest in WA (Willetton Senior High School). It has a lot of the same facilities and I think it quite big. It will be good to get out and try something new.

Found this rather scary story this morning whilst eating breakfast. White flight leaves system segregated by class SMH

Also - solidarity with the striking Victorian teachers - let's hope the government listens to them. End lip service and pay up Mr Premier.

A

Good news!

After a bit of a rollercoaster week I have been officially notified that I will be taking over from my colleague in the HSIE department, covering her maternity leave from Term 2 this year. This means I will get to teach 19 periods of Geography and History each week and spend the remainder of the time in the library doing work assigned to me by my boss there. It is very exciting and daunting at the same time. I just hope I can live up to the expectations of the Head of Department who worked so hard to get me into HSIE. This means that I have had to rearrange my practicum rather urgently and have applied (with the help of this colleague) to go to Randwick Girls High School hopefully teaching in the Social Sciences Deparment. Hopefully I will begin in the week starting on the 10th March.
Have begun reading articles for our first assignment for this unit which involves looking at a lesson one has prepared and taught and then re-evaluating it and re-planning it with the ideas of literacy in mind. I have added one online link to information about visual literacy. It is called Considering Visual Literacy when Designing Instruction by Michael D Sankey

Back to it.

Practicum problems

I am trying to organize my second and final practicum for Term 2 2008. I had wanted to go to Belmore Boys High School but it is proving difficult to contact people there after numerous phone calls and emails. I have therefore submitted another application this time for Mosman High School, Kingsgrove High School and Marrickville High School. I hope I hear from the practicum office soon about this problem.
On this issue I have been re-reading some of my assessments from the last practicum and taking on board some of the issue mentioned by practicum supervisors. One in particular was on classroom management practices. I intend to review the material about this from the course last year so I have some techniques under my belt. I am continually watching teachers for tips, trick and tactics in this matter!

On other matters, have done my first posting to the forums for Literacies for Learning using some of the information I have been exploring for the Harvard Online Education Course - Teaching for Learning. I will post my answers here so I can look back on them at the end of course to see if I still agree or not!

We were asked:
1. What do you see as being meant by being literate?
2. How do you think literacy is developed?
3. What is the role of literacy in learning?

What is Literacy?
Since beginning the Harvard Online Teaching and Learning Course (available at
I have been thinking a lot about the term 'understanding' and why it should be of central importance for teaching. Literacy is part of this concept of understanding as to be literate means being able to interpret, explore, analyze, communicate, represent, reciprocate, question, repeat and instruct. A literate person could be said to be one who may do all of these things with given information.

How is literacy developed?
Literacy can be developed by exposure to different forms of communication, e.g. speech, written words & images. Such exposure would involve direct instruction, modelling, practice through repetition, and personal exploration of meaning.

Role of Literacy
The role of literacy in learning is central because it is the basis of understanding. Understanding might refer to the way in which knowledge is received and understood and then applied to different situations. It can develop through application of concepts to real life situations, by learning from others via demonstrations or explanations, through experimentation and from repeated application of concepts or techniques in different situations at different times. In order to work through this series of steps, one must be able to decipher codes and communicate information. This is where literacy comes in.

More soon

Back for 2008

Well I have rather a lot on my plate this semester. I am completing another unit for my Graduate Diploma of Education (Charles Sturt University) called Literacies for Learning. I am also doing my second practicum, hopefully at Belmore Boys School, from the 28th April to the 19th May (Term 2). Lastly I am working on the Harvard Online Education Course - Teaching for Understanding

I began today sorting all the paperwork from the Harvard course, it is really well done. All the syllabus material including calendars, timetables, glossaries, unit guides etc are available online so I have saved all these for reference later. I am working with two colleagues at my school, both in the HSIE/Social Sciences area and I began our work together by posting our first message to the forum that we are to use to communicate with our coach and others doing the course. The textbooks is constructed in such a way that you can ready it in any order. The chapter headings are:

1. Understanding Understanding
2. The Teaching for Understanding Framework
3. Generative Topics
4. Understanding Goals
5. Performances of Understanding
6. Ongoing Assessment
7. Tips and Tools for Planning and Teaching
8. Teaching for Understanding and other teaching practices

I think it will be a worthwhile course. It is covered over 12 weeks with two week cycles and 6 units of study with 4 pieces of assessment in each one. You are required to read the question, discuss with your group, post your answers, discuss with the coach and other students and provide feedback to others.

Today I read Chapters 2 - 5 and am getting an understanding of some of the key terminology such as through lines - major themes - and overarching goals - unit goals. I thought it would be useful to post some of my ideas to the 1st chapter that, like all the chapters, has a list of Reflection questions at the end of it.

How do you know that you understand something?
I can successfully use the knowledge to apply to different situations at different times.
I can explain/relate my understanding to other people

What helps you develop that understanding?
Practice
Application to real life situations
Discussion with others
Experimentation
Learning from demonstration/explanation by others

All for now, have to read some more - then see about the first assignment that we have to complete by Tuesday.

Oh...and also get ready for the Iron Maiden BBQ we are having at our house today...in the rain!

Australia Teenagers Don't like reading.....

Heard this story on Radio National this morning. The OECD reports of 15 year olds every 3 years on literacy, mathematics and science results and found that Australian students were scoring less on literacy tests because there were fewer who were able to perform at advanced levels. Girls were not performing as well in Mathematics after gains in this area in the past few years. See these articles for more on this:

Australia slides down the global reading scale (The Australian)

Australian students in world ranking (ABC)

Have also included a press release from the ACER in the online section of the blog.

Finally finished...only 1 year to go

It is all over. After an intermidable time, it is finally done. I can perfectly handle essays, well, sort of, but exams are another matter entirely. I felt like I had just walked back into 1989 and was able to sit my TEE exams for Year 12...not a pleasant memory. Anyway, there was a lot of different people there from all sorts of different universities doing everything from Chemistry to International Marketing. The exam questions were fair and I had studied all of the areas covered so that was a relief. I only feel slightly sorry for the examiner who has to read the writing that went from very neat to very illegible over the course of the 20 odd pages I managed to get down. Celebrated with champagne and reading something other than course notes. Now have to wait for the results of that and my last essay.
Will continue to peruse material that is interesting, useful and provocative over the holidays. Food for the brain.
All for now....

Near the finish line

Today is Sunday and here I am again at the computer. I had to drag myself away from reading this great book by Bruce Beresford (Director) called Josh Harnett definitely wants to do this...true stories from a life in the screen trade, and put myself back into study mode. Good news is that my partner helped me by going through the last assignment for Constructions of Adolescence unit with a fine tooth comb and I did the final rewrites today and sent it off. Phew. Now I can fully concentrate on notemaking and revision. My strategy is to write notes from the readings - and have been publishing these - but also I found some great notes about sociology from this site - I wish we had been given something like this in the first place rather than just articles because it helps to have an overview of issues such as functionalism, marxism, hidden curriculum. ethnicity, class and gender from a sociological point of view before launching into specific studies. I found that it really helped to guide my understanding of the readings. I think that the book, Sociology of Education: Possibilities and Practices is good as it does have such an overview and then several very well written articles on those issues, gender, ethnicity which were helpful. I haven't read the whole book but intent to when I don't have to! It is tough revising for this exam, apart from the absence of practice, but also because it makes me feel that I am just preparing to know something to reproduce it for a 2 hour exam and to make sure I remember names, theories, concepts and issues, but that it might all fall out of my head later. I like preparing for essays because there is that lovely time of discovery and reading when everything is new...but now i just feel under pressure to remember remember remember - and there is so much that could be targeted for the exam...bit odd that we don't have access to past papers and only one is reproduced in the study guide (my study buddy feels that this is a sure sign that these might be the questions reproduced)
Anyway, happy that my partner is driving me to the exam - might just crash the car on the way because of anxiety. Don't feel exactly stressed right now, but it is only a week away - am sure I will work up to a frenzy by then. I can completely identify with all the students who just sat their HSC in NSW...my heart goes out to them.

Exam preparation

I have begun exam preparation in earnest. It is has been years since I have sat an exam and to tell the truth I find it hard to believe that the topic "Cultural Politics in Education" has an exam at all...surely the better way to explore such a subject and learn about it (which is the point I presume) is not to learn facts for and exam but to write essays exploring the topic in depth...but...that is not the case. So I am carefully reading over the notes I have made for the readings and creating tables of theories and concepts (and reading the readings I missed because I was concentrating too much on the issue of class for my major essay - which I did very poorly in). Anyway, luckily it is a rainy day so I don't feel so bad for having to stay inside and study. My partner is reading through my essay due on the 12th about creating a profile for a Year 7/8 and year 11/12 student based on Piagetian theories about cognitive development so as to develop a profile with reference to my KLA (Human Society and It's Environment). Sounds simple huh! Well....he is picking it apart with a fine tooth comb...after my last disastrous results I need a critical eye going over my work - have lost quite a bit of confidence after that performance. I could clearly see when I got my essay back that i had really sat on the fence, not argued a point, not mentioned theory enough and generally wrote a very poor essay....but I am determined to better in the exam and to do better in this last essay....then enjoy a nice long break ; )

Equality???

Some articles of note from online newspapers about the issue of access to education and the various factors that can ultimately affect where one goes to school and what type of education one receives.

Schools in Standover Claim - The Age

ALP to help put 21st-century tools in reach - The Australian

The school that John Built

Reading a lot about cognitive development at the moment and one of the theorists, Vykotsky speaks a great deal about the importance of society and culture as impactors on this development.

"The development of the mind is the interweaving of biological development of the human body and the appropriation of the cultural/ideal/material heritage which exists in the present to coordinate people with each other and the physical world" (Cole and Wertch, 1996)

Vykotsky's Three Principles

1. Social interaction plays a critical role in CD in relation to what is learned, when and how it occurs. (Lutz & Huitt, 2004)
   
2. Potential for CD is limited to a certain time span - limited to a certain range at any given age. (Kearsley, 2001)
3. Only way to understand how humans come to 'know' is to study learning in an environment where the process rather than the product is studied. ((Lutz & Huitt, 2004)

Reading all this made me think about the interview I saw on the 7.30 Report about John Marsden (australian author) and the school (Candlebark) he set up in 2006. Just looking at his website and listening/reading to his interviews is inspirational and relates well to this idea of the environment being extremely important to cognitive development. A productive, supportive, inspirational environment with high expectations seems the most ideal - with an emphasis on not just the end result but the learning journey as well.
See some articles about him and his school here:

The School that John Built (Australian Story)

The school that John Built (The Age, February 6, 2006)

In search of the Perfect School (The Age, February 21, 2005)

7.30 Report 7th March2005

Interview on Enough Rope 2004

Podcasting....do it yourself

Today I am attending a podcasting in the classroom lesson as part of my professional development. I am just writing a quick entry to add that the resources for Podcasting are on this blog page now.

On with the learning....