I decided at some point that I wanted to be a teacher.  I’m not really sure why I decided to be a teacher BUT that is what I wanted to do.  My Dad sadly didn’t agree.  I came home from school in Year 9 after my first Business Studies class and told my parents that I really enjoyed this class.  Debits = Credits just made perfect sense and why didn’t someone tell me this earlier in life.  From that moment on my Dad told the world I was going to be an Accountant.  I knew that wasn’t what I wanted to do BUT DAD SAID…  During my middle school years I helped out in a friend of the family’s classroom each school holidays as the school I attended finished a week or two earlier than theirs.  I loved it even if all I was doing was cleaning out art cupboards and placing art work on the walls.  To appease my father during Year 10 I went and did a week’s work in an Accounting firm.  I absolutely hated it.  I so didn’t want to be the accountant behind the desk staring at (and this is going to show my age!) page after page of ledgers.  My final years of high school I followed the business course – Accounting, Economics, Legal Studies, Secretarial Studies, Maths B and English.  As school was finishing I fought long and hard with my dad over which university degree I would do.  We managed to compromise I could put into number 1 the duel degree of B.Ed and B.Bus as long as the rest were a B.Bus.  Thankfully I was accepted into my number 1 choice….

There has been a lot of posts lately about being a teacher and going into the profession or not going into the profession…  A few of these raised some questions for me.  Did I go into the profession blind?  Do I enjoy it?  Am I still passionate? If I was to do it all over again would I?  What would I have done if I didn’t become a teacher?

I had 3 very interesting and different Prac experiences while I was learning to be a teacher.  The first was in a primary school (Year 7) where I learnt the basics.  It was a Catholic school and while I am a Christian I am not a Catholic.  It showed me that I didn’t want to work for the Catholic Education system.  I enjoyed my first prac and knew that I wanted to be a high school teacher by the end of it.  The second was in a very rough state school.  This as private school girl this was an eye opener for me.  My first lesson in the classroom was a year 7, 8, 9 level 1 Typing class.  Right in the middle of the Triple the Deputy Headmaster came in and ordered half a dozen students to go and undertake a random drug test.  I struggled through this prac as I learnt the unwritten rules.  After this prac experience I put my degree on hold to have my family.  The last prac was at a Private Independent School and I had a very good mentor who was keen to make sure that I went into the teaching profession with my eyes wide open.  It was halfway through this prac that I had a bit of a meltdown.  As I drove the 1 1/2 hour trip home with my husband I turned to him and said “If this is what teaching is I’m not sure its what I want to do…”  The long hours were getting to me…  At the end of the meltdown I had decided that it would be different when I started teaching and had my own classroom and my own students…

And it was…  So did I go into the profession blind?  I don’t think I did.  It was different and I wasn’t prepared for all the paperwork and constant parent interactions but I knew what I was getting myself into.

As for the enjoyment of teaching.  I can’t think of anything else that I would enjoy more.  In fact I enjoy it so much sometimes that I forget my own family!!!  I have a day here and there that get to me because I’m stressed and frustrated.  And occasionally it gets me down.  But the good days always outweigh the bad.  The days where my students triumph and get excited about economic concepts are far greater.  I believe I am still passionate about teaching I still get that spark when I start talking about statistics, the economy or that new technological find.

At the end of the day I still would have become a teacher. I became a teacher so that I could continue to learn and to share the passion I have about my areas of interest.  I became a teacher so that I could inspire students to go into areas they were passionate about.

And if didn’t become a teacher I would have gone into a profession which required me to learn something new and investigate all the time.

What about you?

 Related articles

• Why I never recommend Teaching as a Profession (The Tempered Radical)
• Teaching as a Profession (Successful Teaching)
• My teaching job is a Nightmare! (educationclearinghouse.wordpress.com)

Last week I presented at the 2012 QSA Conference as part of a Panel Discussion.  The theme for the conference was Shaping teaching and learning: The assessment factor,  this topic allowed for many interesting discussions to occur about assessment and the purpose of teaching and learning.

In particular of intersted was the conversations surrounding High Stakes Testing (NAPLAN, QCST).  And the use of the data that comes from these exams.  I’m not sure what my thoughts of these types of assessment are.  I’m not even sure how I feel about Assessment in general but I do find it interesting that we still assess students by having them memorise a variety of things (facts, formats, ideas) and then regurgitate them in a 60 to 90 minute exam. Or even in a 2 or 3 hour exam.  Apart from education I can’t think of any other time in life where you have to memorise the answer.  I mean in most professions (and I’d love to hear from anyone where this is not the case) if you don’t know the answer you go and look it up.  Perhaps Assessment needs to be more like this.

The panel discussion which I was apart of was “Quality Assessment Pracitices using Information Technology (p-12)”.  This session had 4 educators (Ken Purnell, Peter Hay, Carole Hardy and myself) from both university and school settings.    The panel session look at the following three questions:

• How are you currently using IT for Assessment in your setting?
• What issues and/or unexpected outcomes have you encountered in introducing the use of IT in Assessment?
• For someone intending to use IT for assessment what considerations would you recommend they make?

Each of the 4 educators used IT in very different ways… Would love to hear how you use IT in assessment…

Here is how I use IT in assessment…

Related articles

• Has Assessment Evolved with Technology? (lynnmunoz.me)
• Key Terms: Assessment (bokcenter.harvard.edu)
• Assessment: Who’s in Control? (inquiryblog.wordpress.com)

I’m very proud of my Daughter.  She has survived the first term of High School.  And has done exceptionally well.  Now I know I have a smart kid who loves to learn new things however I was concerned at how she would go when it came to the difference between primary school and high school.  Surprisingly she jumped right in.  After receiving her report card I couldn’t be happier but now I’m starting to wonder if the education system is failing her.  Her best subject is Spanish in which she earned an A+.  In talking with her Spanish teacher I inquired as to how we could extend her further as obviously this is something she is good at.  The teacher’s response was to tell me I should ask for her to skip a grade as she felt that my daughter could be still achieving this result in Year 9.  My daughter isn’t achieving the same results in her other subjects (similar but not the same), nor does she want to leave her friends and nor do I believe she is socially and emotionally equipt to skip a grade.  This got me thinking about our education system.  At the point where a student is receiving the highest possible result in the grading system whether this is a 5 point scale, a 7 point scale or a 50 point scale we are telling our students that there is no more to learn at this stage in your life. Why can’t students if they can achieve an “A+” in Year 7 subject not move on to the Year 8 subject?  Why aren’t our high school classes based on levels rather than age?  Once we leave school whether in the work place or in further study age is no longer a factor, ability is.  While our classes have students in them that range from learning support to gifted we are failing our students.  Now I need to make it clear I’m not necessarily an advocate for streamed classes as I do believe that mixed abilities in classes helps all students as there is plenty students can learn from each other with the different perspecitives students bring to the classroom.

But what are we doing to help our students who happen to excel in one area or struggle in another. I do think we need to rethink how our high school classes work.  Whats stopping us from setting up a system of units where each subject has a selection of units at each level.  Once you receive a passing grade in a unit you could select from the same list or from the next level of units.  Take my hypothetical Economics Course below.  You must start in Level 1 once you complete a single unit with a passing grade you can then move to Level 2.  If for example the Globalisation and Trade unit needs the International Economics unit then it would be listed as a prerequisite.

I know this is potentially a complicated or messy system however its just a suggestion…

Please let me know some of your ideas of how to make our education system suit students of all ages and ability levels…

Related articles

• What Kind Of Grading System Should We Use? (Classroom Q&A With Larry Ferlazzo)

I am a Geek…  I don’t hide it…  I like my Sci-Fi, I like my computer games, I like my online community and I hate to say it but I have more virtual friends than I do real friends.  I like being switched on and connected.

As a mother I am raising 3 Geeks – my children also like Sci-Fi, computer games and being switched on and connected.  This morning as I switched on and read my email one of my online communities had a survey about Social Media which included a video about how to prepare your Tween for Technology.

Now I don’t agree with everything Mia Freedman says however for the first time in a long time I felt that someone was giving SOME good advice about online communities and Social Media.  Everywhere else you look the solution for Teens and Tweens is to block Twitter, Facebook and anything else that the kids are using.  Lets face it.  Our Schools all seem to block Social Media.  But maybe we need to rethink Social Media.  I know that I get most of my information from Twitter.  I couldn’t live without my Twitter feed helping me to sift through sites, articles and information.  And If I need something that is usually the first place I head to find what I want.  So why are we stopping students from accessing a legitimate source of information.  Crowd sourcing is becoming more a part of life – how else do we sift through the millions of google responses to our search query.  So why are we not teaching them how to use it correctly and safely?

Recently I read an article titled What Schools are Really Blocking When They Block Social Media where S. Craig Watkins discussed the issue of schools and social media.  I have to agree with him if someone told me that I have to switch off and stop communicating with my virtual networks I think I would be lost and lonely.  My learning wouldn’t stop as I have a natural curiosity about the world and would find other ways to find the information but for our students when all they have ever known is the Internet and being switched on and connected I think it would stop them from investigating.

Mr Watkins went on to outline …

By blocking social media schools are also blocking the opportunity:

1)    to teach students about the inventive and powerful ways communities around the world are using social media

2)    for students and teachers to experience the educational potential of social media together

3)    for students to distribute their work with the larger world

4)    for students to reimagine their creative and civic identities in the age of networked media

I think that we need to embrace Social Media in schools, we need to teach students how to use it to find information, to connect with experts and to encourage students to learn for themselves.  We also need to teach them how to stay safe and to verify the information that they find.

Related articles

• What Schools are Really Blocking When They Block Social Media (dmlcentral.net)
• Twitter – my virtual staffroom (maggiehosmcgrane.com)

I like organisation.  This is no big surprise for those who know me well.  In fact I like organisation so much I’m often asked for advice on organisational skills.  I personally use Microsoft Outlook in order to keep my life in order.  This is partly because I’ve always used Outlook and partly because this is what I use at work.  I like to organise every minute of the day.  I like to categorise every part of my day.  I feel like I am in control when my life is colour coded and organised.  Some people would suggest that this would mean I am OCD and perhaps I am.

Lately I have felt that my organisational skills have been failing me as I’ve been bogged down in email and my to-do list has been getting ever longer and not shorter.  So after doing some thinking and some reading I thought I would share some of my thoughts and findings…

Email

• Read emails 3 times a day (first thing in the morning, around lunch time and at the end of the day)
• Read the subject line and first few lines of the email and decide to…
• Delete it
• Deal with it
• Flag for Follow up
• Make it a Task
• Spend a set amount of time dealing with the emails you Flagged for Follow up – make it a task or appointment in your calendar
• Reduce your email to zero or as close to zero as you can (sometimes you are waiting on other people to give a response)

Tasks

• Make big tasks into lots of little tasks
• Categorise your tasks
• Order the tasks based on importance and urgency
• Realise that some days you won’t get through as many tasks as you would like

Calendar

• Colour Code it by importance
• Make Appointments out of tasks
• Over Guestimate the time it will take
• Take the time to plan out the day

Would love to hear your tips on how you keep your life organised and your inbox close to zero.

I’ve had a number of interesting conversations lately about the past and the future.  Usually stemming from something the people around me have read, seen or heard.  As it was I recently read Maggie Hos-McGrane’s Blog Tech Transformation and the article about being Hyperconnected and Always On.  Now I know that the post was more about the different generations and the different technology waves that have occurred however that is not what what I took from the post…

The post talked about the generations – silent, baby boomer, generation X, NetGeneration, iGeneration and Generation C and how they used to be 20 to 25 years each an now they are more like 10 years each.  It went on to discuss the various waves…

The agricultural wave – it took 3,000 years for technology to be integrated into agriculture

The industrial wave - this took 300 years

The computer wave – this took 30 years

The informational wave - this took 3-5 years

The communication wave – this took 3-5 years

The biotechnology wave – we are about to enter this one

Looking at this I started to wonder if we are now down to 3 years a wave does that mean the next lot of waves are going to be more like 3 months….

I know that I feel like life is passing really quickly (whether that is my children or age I’m not sure) however if we are starting to create new things so fast what is it going to be like for our children and the children we teach.

I really feel for Generation AO – I’m not sure we as teachers from the Baby Boomers, Generation X, the NetGeneration are really going to be able to keep up with the iGeneration, Generation C and Generation AO.  Perhaps its time to put educational policy in the hands of the students.

We have a lot to learn as educators…

Related articles

• Hyperconnected and Always On (maggiehosmcgrane.com)
• Letter to Baby Boomers (lifeaccordingtonat.wordpress.com)
• [STUDY] How Hyperconnectivity Affects Young People (readwriteweb.com)
• Hyperconnected Lives: Are They Good or Bad? (stealthmode.com)
• Millennials will benefit and suffer due to their hyperconnected lives (learningwithtechs.wordpress.com)

My sister and I enjoy a long run every second weekend and afterwards we enjoy a good catchup over coffee and a walk.  Today’s conversation was about how my children were going at school and we started talking about the assessment my daughter in Grade Seven is currently working on.  The conversation then moved to our schooling and the things which we did at the same age.  Now my sister and I are really NOT that old  (we are in our early 30s).  I know life after school has changed since the late 90s and the skills students need now and into the future have definetly changed.  I mean when we were at school the internet was *new*.  Both of us remember spending time in the State Library labouring over books to find the information we needed to complete the assignments that more often than not were hand written.  And *THESE* days my daughter finds nearly all of her information on the NET.  Now we both know that the skills involved in searching the internet compared with searching the library are completely different.  And we realise that in the age of the Internet everyone is an expert in everything.  Cause lets face it if you don’t know the answer you can look it up and become an expert yourself.  Or find someone who can help.

This led to our thoughts of what education is going to be like when our youngest children (who are currently 2) get there…  Maybe exams will be a thing of the past…  Or maybe more will be open book… Maybe students will make their own curriculum… Or maybe the government will still decide when and where student learn…

Skills change over time…  I’m not sure where education is heading…  All I hope is that students in the future learn the skills they need to be successful in life.

Education needs to make sure it keeps up…

I know that I’m a bit behind in my podcast listening HOWEVER  this week I was listening to my current favourite podcast “Teacher 2.0″  the episode which caught my attention as I was running along was titled “Chalk Markets Plunge!”  in it Rodd Lucier from The Clever Sheep Blog was explaining his view on the Ages of Education.  He believes that there are 3 ages of education:

1. The Slate and Chalk Age – mid 1800s to present
2. The Paper and Pen Era – 1900s to present
3. The Web and Keyboard Period – 2000s to present

And that if we really are to move forward in education then we need to ban chalk.

This had me thinking…  maybe we need to ban the classroom in its current form…  Why are we so concerned that learning happens in a box.  Learning now happens anywhere and everywhere.  If we are to move into the Web and Keyboard Period perhaps we need to recognised that learning happens in a classroom, at home, on the net, on paper and even with or without chalk.  Learning is now about the experiences not the tools nor the place…

Related articles

• Let’s Ban Chalk! (TheCleverSheep.blogspot.com.au)

You may know that I’m a runner.  I have been running since the day that I came 10th in my Year 8 school cross country carnival.  To be honest at the time I had just decided that if I made it to the finish line then it was going to be a good day.  Before then I never really thought about running I just did it when we were made to in PE class.  Anyway…  I always find it interesting every new year as I run my usual running tracks (especially on weekends) that the number of people who are out and about participating in their new found love of running.  Now that we are a month into 2012 the number of people out and about is starting to reduce.  As with any resolution to make it a habit you have to keep working on it…

I feel this way about how we work with any new idea…  I regularly read the Tech Transformation Blog and every so often I read something that makes me think about my habits.  Similar to many of the people on my running tracks I get excited and have that initial drive to do something about it and I’m working on it daily until a hurdle stops me in my tracks…

The hurdle this week was stuff…  Like every week things happen…  great ideas, good opportunities, problems which need solving and as like every week you go with the flow you extend the ideas, take up the opportunities and try to solve the problems.  I had a week where I know I did lots of things BUT I feel like I didn’t accomplish anything.  Nor do I feel I worked on my goals for the year.  So I guess you could say this year I’ve started out of the gate running full pelt to hit a brick wall I’m hoping that this is just the effect of week 1 of the school year and next week the great ideas, good opportunities and problems which need solving, lead me back to finding the passion I’m trying to find…

Related articles

• 2012 – Start The Year With Great Ideas (mookinoodles.wordpress.com)
• 2012 is to Be… (ja.theangellfamily.com)

I know that I reflected on 2011 last post and I know that we are now a week into 2012 however I really have been spending the week reflecting on my life.  Most people who know me well know that the last three years have been really hard.  I have struggled both personally, and professionally.  I’ve spilled many tears and struggled with who I am and what my place is in this wonderful world.  I need to know who I am as a daughter, as a mother, as a sister, as a teacher, as a learner, as an ELF.  So 2012 is about finding out who I am and what I’m about.  I am hoping to post to my blog, this blog at least once a fortnight this year.

My sister gave me a book of sticky notes for Christmas.  I know most of you are thinking why on earth would you be excited by a book of sticky notes?  This book (Quickie Stickies: 100 Pick-Me-Ups for When You’re Feeling Unglued by Karen Salmansohn) had a quote which I have decided will help me find my focus and my passion this year.

“Make sure your BURNING DESIRE is the light at the end of the tunnel.”

So this year 2012 is going to be my year of PASSION.  I’m finding my passion again.  I’m finding me.

I hope that you plan to come on the journey with me but understand if you decide it’s time to jump off the train.