#BLOGSYNC - Testing 'Something Else'

Image courtesy of Wikimedia

JUNE TOPIC: What is the best place for testing in schools?

There is much written on testing and in a general sense I would feel unqualified to add much to the debate. However as an RE teacher, I thought I would take just one aspect: the "something else" of RE.

Testing knowledge can be essentially relatively straight forward. A series of questions can quite quickly establish what a student does or doesn't know. The application of knowledge and skills associated with it can also be tested through a series of tasks, although this can be less straight forward. However here, essentially, you have two reasonably narrow bands of testing. Using these methods will demonstrate progress, keep SLT and OFSTED happy. Job done? 

Both knowledge and skills are a fundamental part of RE. However the 'knowledge versus skills' debate is potentially taken further... you have knowledge versus skills versus 'something else'. Some would say this 'something else' is the spiritual dimension, or perhaps reflection element, maybe even the morality? It can certainly be hard to define and therefore even harder to test.

The RE Review (published in October 2013 and available <here>) suggested an approach to RE that involves 3 strands that move on from the traditional: AT1: Learning about Religion and AT 2: Learning from Religion:

   A. Know about and understand a range of religions and worldviews (Know About and Understand)
   B. Express ideas and insights about the nature, significance and impact of religions and 
worldviews (Express and Communicate)
   C. Gain and deploy the skills needed to engage seriously with religions and worldviews (Gain and Deploy Skills)

The review and debate about Levels will continue and at some point a set of criteria will be used to measure students progress either on the AT1 and AT2 ladder or on the new ABC strands. I'm in a Catholic School and we are sticking with AT1 and AT2 and Levels for the time being.

However regardless of what else we are doing with assessment and testing, there is always a sense of morality and a dimension of spirituality that remains present in the RE classroom. Indeed OFSTED must ensure that SMSC (Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural) education is taking place throughout the school, yet often it is simply left to the RE teacher to demonstrate it. If it's not taking place in RE, then it is unlikely to be taking place elsewhere!

Good RE needs to be objective, and while working in a Catholic school, I always strive to do this. Those that claim that all faith-schools are simply confessional should perhaps visit one or two. If I simply taught the Catholic view on topics such as abortion, euthanasia and contraception and refused debate on any other view, I'd have a hard life! I also know, I'd be well and truly selling my students short.

Therefore I need to help my students develop an informed, critical sense of morality and conscience. Where is the level criteria for that? Is that Learning From (AT2) or 'Deploying Skills' (Strand C)? How will I measure it? (Against Catholic teaching? Against my own view?) Can I test it? Should I be putting their morality to the test?!? (In short, I think we'd all agree, no!)

The Religious Education Curriculum Directory (3-19) for Catholic Schools and Colleges still has a 'Reflection and Contemplation' strand (download full document <here>):

It is clearly stated here that these are not for assessment but can help students growth in reflection and contemplation. It is a contribution to the pupils ability 'to reflect spiritually and think ethically and theologically'. I do like the extract from TS Elliot poem:

We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploration

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time.

I think it can sum up the 'something else' of RE. We can increase the knowledge about religions, practices, rituals, festivals and way of life. We can develop the skills to analysis critically and evaluate both their own and others' faith positions, yet this ability to reflect and contemplate remains vital. It is far harder to establish the right answer to the big questions in life. Also the Y10 GCSE answer to whether euthanasia is right or wrong can be very different to the 40-something's answer in the face of a gravely ill parent.

I will never know the effectiveness of my ability to help my students develop 'something else'. I hope I do it well so that I have at least started them on their way to deal with some of the challenges that life will bring. Life itself has enough testing moments... if I have done something to help them make the right decisions and choices, then I guess that is my success.

Find out more about Edutronic's #BLOGSYNC <here> - Lots more posts on testing this month! WHy not make your own contribution?

#UKEdMag - Jobs: "The Times They Are A-Changing'"

Back in early April, I posted on my blog to help my school find a new member of staff (see <here>). I also used Twitter to help me with an internal job application (see <here>). These two experiences helped me to write my most recent contribution to the excellent UKEdMag - subscribe <here> if you haven't done so already! 

Read the full article <here>

Martin is always looking for new article writers so get in touch with him <here>

Presentation & Video on Blogging and Tweeting

Image courtesy of Against The Wind

I was very kindly invited by a friend from my Cambridge undergrad days to speak at a conference in Wales for RE teachers from Independent Schools. My remit was simple... blogging and social networking. Luckily this is an area where I can claim some expertise and put together a 25min presentation. 

• Google Presentation Slides
• Video (if embedded version doesn't load)

There wasn't any questions on the day, but feel free to ask any and I will update this post.

Thanks for this opportunity Rhiannon 

Independent Learning: The Red Herring?

Image courtesy of Wikimedia

There has been off and on, an obsession with Independent Learning over the last few years. The idea is based on the fact that often we feel our students are too dependent on us, and need (for university and the world of work) to be able to work a bit better on their own. Even OFSTED got involved in this, and some suggested that if the teacher was seen to be teaching, the lesson couldn't be Outstanding (the infamous quote, "If you talk for more than 10% of the lesson, it can only be Good, at best").

Obviously, many ideas connected with this are total nonsense.

From my blog post a few weeks ago (<here>), written after a few discussions with colleagues and my head hurting somewhat, I think the focus of 'independent learning' is a bit of a red herring. That's not to say independent learners and learning are not desirable, but it is part of a more complex system of what goes on in our classrooms. To sacrifice everything to get students working free-reign is potentially damaging to their progress.

For me personally, I like the ideas of an ‘ethic of excellence’ and ‘growth mindset’. I am a massive fan of Ron Berger and have blogged about him in the past: Redrafting to Perfection and TeachTweet #6 (16/01/14): Critique and Perfection – and I saw <this> last week. Some schools are trying to embed it fully within their schools <here>. Sparky Teaching do some really nice resources, such as <this>. There are even networks of schools now committed to focusing on this, see <here>. Even Ian Gilbert's book on Independent Thinking is not really about what you think it is going to be... he certainly doesn't set out a list of ways to simply unleash your students!

However, even with this, it's important to not get caught up with simply a new 'fad' or name for what boils down to just good teaching (This blog explore it well: <here>).

I had an emailed reply to my blog which raised a few questions and thoughts for me. Here is a summary that I think is useful to share:

• The focus shouldn't be on 'making everyone independent'. Focus on the students who need it most and consider your response and tools you provide to the student who replies with: "just tell us sir" or "do we need to know this for the exam" or "what is going to come up on the exam paper" or "do I need to know this"
• Very few students will become lifelong independent learners; don't kid yourself! How many of your students will continue to read and research for pleasure once there is nothing financially to be gained? Those that do, make it all worthwhile, although you'll probably never know!
• Setting an example of loving learning for its own sake is incredibly valuable. Independently minded young people love to hear about teachers with their own passions and interests. Children respond to a thirst for knowledge. 
• The suggestions I was given included "reading a book in the playground, tell them about your skydiving hobby, or show them your train-spotting notebooks... watch QI at the end of term for the hell of it, give anybody who can give you a piece of information that nobody else in the room knew a sweet, reward initiative and lateral thinking, praise the kid who gets an interesting wrong answer." 
• The Brilliant Club was another suggestion. We have used this for the first time at school this year and I can't recommend it more highly. A very rewarding experience for our students
• "The truly independent child is often one reading "His Dark Materials" under the desk on the back row, or drawing amazing cartoons on his exercise book, or staring out of the window!" - I think it's true to suggest that actually what I think I was looking for was motivated, capable, self-directed learners rather than independent ones. They are easily identifiable as the A/A* students. These are naturally to be celebrated, but don't need as much help to improve.
• If results in a comprehensive school are very high, it is likely that these are achieved by removing independence and doing much of the work for the students. The evidence of this would be: "carefully developed worksheets, well-structured lessons, lots of resources on the intranet to support homework, great wall-displays and so on." Is it more likely that you would find more independent learners in a school with "blank walls and a few moth-eared textbooks"?
• The better focus may be on learning habits which reduces the micromanagement from the teacher. This is where you instil classroom virtues; these may include the habit of looking up unfamiliar words in the dictionary or trying to find out from a book before asking the teacher (see <here>) or more time for reflection and self-assessment. 
• Sharing these virtues or values of learning will enable them to become embedded across the school; potentially the middle ability students can grow towards the A/A* and the lower ability may improve from D to C grades. However, "The strugglers will struggle to develop the habits and the high-fliers may well be resistant, as they have already been doing as well, they think, as they need to - so why put the effort in to develop better habits, which could be construed as making life easier for you..."

I think I'm in a better place with all of this now and hopefully I can share and communicate this with colleagues. Maybe Andrew Old will like this piece a little more... (he was right last time!)

The Average Child

Picture courtesy of The Guardian

There are so many quotes, pictures and kittens posted on Twitter that rarely does one have much of an impact. However this one did the rounds a week or so ago and it has remained with me. It was a picture of this poem (uncredited):

The Average Child by Mike Buscemi

I don’t cause teachers trouble;

My grades have been okay.

I listen in my classes.

I’m in school every day.

My teachers think I’m average;

My parents think so too.

I wish I didn’t know that, though;

There’s lots I’d like to do.

I’d like to build a rocket;

I read a book on how.

Or start a stamp collection…

But no use trying now.

’Cause, since I found I’m average,

I’m smart enough you see

To know there’s nothing special

I should expect of me.

I’m part of that majority,

That hump part of the bell,

Who spends his life unnoticed

In an average kind of hell.

There is an incredible tragedy about this, as it is a stark reminder of too many children we teach. I teach 50 minute lessons, often with 32 children in each; that's 90 seconds each per lesson. Obviously, we don't work like this, but if we ask ourselves questions about the time taken up by the disruptive ones, the really bright (and outspoken) ones, the weak ones, the attention seeking ones... how many seconds do I give to 'the average child'? How many seconds do they get in a school day?

We had some literacy training about 18 months ago and it highlighted 'The Invisible Child'... doesn't particularly struggle, nor do they particularly excel at school, conform and don't receive hardly any sanctions... I think this is the very same student. 

Results wise, for me they are somewhere in between those we are pushing for A/A* grades and those C/D borderline focus groups; a good solid B. Maybe I need to spend more time focusing on these students, I'd hate to think of anyone I teach feeling "unnoticed in their average kind of hell".

How do you focus on the average or invisible child in your classroom?

Edmodo
I have found this very useful for communicating and entering into discussion with students about tasks, difficulties, problems outside the classroom. Quiet students have said, "Sir, I really don't get this", "Could we go through this?" which has been very helpful.

Every Child
Setting a task that allows you to speak to each and every child in a lesson. You can't do this too often and it invariably does get interrupted by someone!

Random Name Pickers
Whatever you use... lolly sticks, PPTs, websites - or me? 'My random pen'.

Thanks to Naimish who shared it for me to see <here>

My Plantar Fibromatosis & Work

I recently did an interview for my Ledderhose and Plantar Fibroma support group and it reminded me of a popular post of Ross' about The #GuiltyTeacher. His post was inspired by Mr Steer on Educating Yorkshire and discussed some of the ways in which teachers neglect themselves, particularly when it comes to their health.

I have to put my hands up that I have been guilty of this on many occasions. My plantar fibromatosis operation was one such time. After seeing the aggressive growths on the bottom of my foot, the doctor wanted to operate as soon as possible. However I delayed the operation, despite his protests, from February to June in 2009. This was as the recovery time was around 2 months and I felt that I couldn't leave until after my exam classes.

Additionally, my school required that I set cover work for each lesson for the 6 weeks. I sought union advice on this and it all became a little difficult as it was made clear that if I didn't set it, my department would have to. As I had 6 months notice, I got on the case and had a folder with a searing plan, class list and instructions for every lesson, for 6 weeks. 5 years down the line in my teaching career, I would now make a far greater fuss and refuse to complete such an outrageous request. 

While I was off, I was getting piles of marking delivered to me. This was a step too far even then, and most of that went in the recycling (sorry students of Y7 to Y9 2009). The idea behind delaying my operation was to avoid the crucial marking time!

Even before the diagnosis, I had been in great pain and was renowned for teaching in my socks, as shoes were too painful. Thankfully, I lived in one room so this was entirely possible; plus it had carpet! 

The operation came and went, the recovery took longer than I had hoped and I was on the sofa for a full 2 months. I felt miserable and could see how people actually never went back to work after even relatively small ops. I had worked it all out so I had no choice but to go back on 1st Sept for the new school year. Actually, I needed a further two weeks off but I forced myself as by this point, it was the doctor saying "Are you ready?". Looking at he Autumn term, most teachers would say NO!

The operation was a partial success, as it is less painful now, but the lumps are back. I am currently looking into new treatment options and hopefully they will not cause as much pain as they did in 2009. However I still take my shoes off a lot at work, despite not teaching in one room! Often it is meetings after school, and colleagues often ask, "No shoes?" to which I reply, "Not today". Maybe it they read this they'll know why!

The whole experience taught me some valuable lessons about long term absence and looking after yourself. Thankfully I did no greater damage to myself by delaying the operation, although the consultant did tell me afterwards there was a very small chance the lumps were cancerous and that was one reason for him wanting to get it done sooner rather than later.

I wish I could say I was not a 'guilty teacher' any more, but alas I sill wait until school holidays to go and see the doctor and at the minute I have a really bad back (manifesting itself in my buttock muscles, painfully!). I have raised it at school and straight away they have got me a better chair. However, it is hard to see how I can avoid hours sitting marking my KS3 exams and writing Y7 to Y10 reports...

I bet you have your guilty teacher moments too.

Read the full interview about my feet and hands: <here>

*APPEAL* Unused Musical Instruments?

Image courtesy of 3 Business Ideas

Do you have a musical instrument gathering dust in a drawer or cupboard, once used by you or your children, but no more? At St Teresa’s, Basildon, children are working with classical musician James Rhodes to form a school orchestra. Could you donate your instrument? Please contact Fr Dominic Howarth on 01268 281732, or email frdominic@basildoncatholics.org. We will pay postage or arrange a pick up, and your instrument will be put to very good use – it could truly transform the life of one of our children, as they discover new talents. Thank you.

See local news story <here>

Fr Dominic is an old friend of mine and someone who works tirelessly to improve the lives of those around him. Rarely do you meet such a hardworking and dedicated individual. If you can help, or know of anyone else who can, please forward this on!