New classes highlight what you forget you know

For my interview at Ellesmere College I have been asked to teach a 15 minute lesson on the rock cycle. It has been interesting exercise in planning. I don't know their prior learning. I don't know their levels of literacy and numeracy. I don't know the balance of the class, are there a few brilliant kids amongst a bunch of strugglers, are there a few strugglers in a bunch of brilliant kids.
It's highlighted how I take for granted how much I know about the kids I teach. I know which kids I can throw challenges at and they will persevere till they succeed. I know which kids will need to be scaffolds. I know which kids will need handholding. I know which kids could be any one of those but will avoid doing anything if they can help it.

Passive Learners

10NR are very borderline learners. There are a number of them that are not engaged in learning, and I am struggling to find a path in for them. The ones that are capable are not interested in learning for learnings sake, but instead see Year 10 as an intermediate wasted year and will engage again when it is time for credits.
My usual strategies are not working. They are an odd bunch. They will passively watch something, and they will tutu with things, but not if it looks like learning activity. Although for Climate change they all opened the website and worked a bit at, for most of the class they work rate was so slow. It is highly frustrating when I can see that as long as they focussed that they would be moving mountains, but they are just so apathetic.

I am going to work on them having more video clips, and instant rewards. There does not seem to be any appetite for slog in this class. They don't appear to be any recognition that with hard work comes better rewards.

I'm going to have to ditch the daily quiz, as it is a waste of time until I can get some sort of engagement with the learning. I have persevered, and it is still a good tool to use with my other classes as a daily revision task, but this class might be better served with a mini video or similar, something they can passively sit through rather than actively read or write.

I don't like feeling like I am requiring less from my students, Ultimately if they can't read or write well their choices will be limited in life, and I don't want to do that.

Passive Learners

10NR are very borderline learners. There are a number of them that are not engaged in learning, and I am struggling to find a path in for them. The ones that are capable are not interested in learning for learnings sake, but instead see Year 10 as an intermediate wasted year and will engage again when it is time for credits.
My usual strategies are not working. They are an odd bunch. They will passively watch something, and they will tutu with things, but not if it looks like learning activity. Although for Climate change they all opened the website and worked a bit at, for most of the class they work rate was so slow. It is highly frustrating when I can see that as long as they focussed that they would be moving mountains, but they are just so apathetic.

I am going to work on them having more video clips, and instant rewards. There does not seem to be any appetite for slog in this class. They don't appear to be any recognition that with hard work comes better rewards.

I'm going to have to ditch the daily quiz, as it is a waste of time until I can get some sort of engagement with the learning. I have persevered, and it is still a good tool to use with my other classes as a daily revision task, but this class might be better served with a mini video or similar, something they can passively sit through rather than actively read or write.

I don't like feeling like I am requiring less from my students, Ultimately if they can't read or write well their choices will be limited in life, and I don't want to do that.

Ecology in a New Zealand context

I have been teaching the Ecology unit for Year 9's and the test is approaching. The test is focussed around introduced species and food webs, but the introduced species and food webs in question are based in British ecology.

For next year we should update it to include New Zealand examples. Possums as an introduced species would be relatively straight-forward to substitute I think and be able to keep the questions very similar to keep the task QUALMd

Possum's would also be animals that many of the students have experience with, especially those who are from farming and/or hunting backgrounds.

Priority Learners

The list for Priority learners has gone round again. It seems to be a blunt tool. Of the 8 or 9 students I teach on the list most of them are on there because they are doing so many externals that they haven't built up a lot of credits internally and so their counts are low.

Of the others I'm going to work two on one with the two who have not accrued any credits yet. It is difficult as they both have high absence rates compared to the rest of the class. I can work with that. What is really hard is neither of them will ask questions nor admit to not understanding when I ask them individually. If they cannot tell me what or where they are having trouble I struggle to effectively rectify their lack of understanding. Both students arrived into the class after the year started, so perhaps they have not integrated into the class culture as well as I would have hoped.

How to help students when they don't want it.

What to do about a student who doesn't want to be helped.
A student who is usually full of life came into class and kept herself apart. She took a computer and logged in. When I went to check in with her she avoided my gaze and started crying, but really wanted to not be noticed. I gave her a note to deliver to a teacher who was not teaching this period, but she just wants to be left alone. I have no idea what has upset her, but this class have a lot of stuff going on, with parents that cannot be contacted, or parents that are in jail, or long histories with CYFS. I really think she needs to talk to someone, but I feel at a loss of what to do when she doesn't want help.

Goggles!

L1SCE was doing a rates of reactivity experiment today. I must have used some variation on "Googles!" about 3-4 times a minute for the duration of the practical.
"put your goggles on"
"your goggles are less efficient when they are on your head"
"Do you value your goatee more than your eyes?"

E-tools in the classroom.

I have been using EdPuzzle in the classroom this year and sharing the use of it with others in the department, and the StileApp website is full of great resources for students especially those who are in need of extension.

The goformative.com site has been especially useful for senior assessments. it allows me to upload assessments and format them for students to complete the questions. I can track what they are doing and give them feedback in real time. I have used it with L1 SCE and L2Chem so far and although it would be best used with a touchscreen, especially for Organic chemistry where there is a lot of drawing of molecules, it has been great from my perspective. Due to the fiddly nature of some of the response mechanisms, students have not embraced it as enthusiastically as i have, but they do enjoy the real-time feedback.

When talking about this to others in the department they have shown interest, so it has been put on departmental meeting agendas. I have showed them what can be done with it, and we plan a proper session on how to use it later.

Year 9 Astronomy Assessment

The Astronomy unit has frequently not been completed for a number of years so there is no standard assessment for them.

I have decided to run an NCEA style assessment with my year 9's to introduce them to the style of research assignment they will have to contend with in the senior school, and I will use a comparitive mark schedule as well.
The students may choose the aspects of astronomy that appeal, and present in ways that suit them, within reason for both options.