First Day As A Volunteer!

 On Tuesday this week, I did my first day as a volunteer at a primary school, on the Ardoch Youth Foundation program. It’s aimed at disadvantaged schools like the one where I’ve worked for the past twenty years. This school is in the same area as I have been working, so I’m quite comfortable there. Likewise with the tasks I’ve been given, even though I’m a secondary teacher. After several years with a literacy program in which I worked with kids whose reading level was well below where it should be, it felt very familiar when I was asked to read with kids who were well below Grade 4. I just did what I have done with my older students. It was nice to start with something comfortable and familiar.

The Grade 4 teachers, who work together in an open classroom, seemed very competent and caring. They were a bit frustrated when they discovered that yet again they would have to teach the kids how to look words up in the dictionary, because they have forgotten during term break. I offered to help out with that, so they could have to deal with fewer kids in that area. 

It was quite nice to see that they were excited about having an extra pair of hands, even if it is only once a week. And as I’m a teacher myself, they won’t have to excplain as much. 

The second session was their fortnightly music lesson, with a very good drumming teacher. They loved it! 

I’ve also offered to help with Breakfast Club before school, though it’s more basic than the one we had at my school - that was as much social as eating, it was indoors and there was toast and hot milk. This involves handing kids a bowl of cereal, which they take away to eat, and washing the dishes. Still, worth doing and at least the lady won’t be alone on Tuesdays. 

So far, very glad to do this. 

New Ardoch Volunteer!

This morning I answered my phone to an unfamiliar number. It was a gentleman who introduced himself merely as Nick from Ardoch. After chatting a few minutes, and his asking me what my last school was, he suddenly realised, “Hey! I know you! You know me!” And I did. He came to my school last year during the Literacy Buddies program. We both laughed and chatted some more.

I’m in. I’ve been allocated a primary school in the same suburb where I used to work. He did offer to contact my old school in case they wanted a volunteer, but I had a think about it and decided it wouldn’t be a good idea. I only said to him that people might think I was breathing down their necks so soon after leaving, but there was more. I know the politics of that school. I have been in touch with a friend there and I know some of what has been going on this year, enough to know I’d open my mouth and give some opinions. Not a good idea when you are just there to help.

So, it’s a primary school for me. I will be learning something new. I’ve never worked with younger kids before, except for a single session at the primary school down the road from my own school, when the teacher running the school’s Writers Festival wanted us to do workshops. This is my chance!

And even better than this is a special reason why it will be good to learn about younger children. Nick knows I’m a children’s writer. He asked me if I’d be interested in another program they do, a writer in residence thing, where you go to a primary school and run workshops for the kids, ending in a book, for which Ardoch will pay the printing costs. Not paid, of course, just another volunteer thing, but fun - and again, I’d learn something I can use later.

Wish me luck, that this school gig will work out! For now, I’m delighted!  

Post Teaching Day

So, this morning I woke up, having slept through a month’s worth of rain - something I wasn’t allowed to do till this year. I’m now on my way into the city to buy a warm dressing gown, with a broken umbrella that I only got to use once!

I spent the morning fiddling around with my application for volunteer work for the Ardoch Youth Foundation. I thought I’d at least be spared a police check, as I already had one for my VIT registration, but no.

It’s a complex application process that involves:

- an online PD that is mostly about stuff that as a teacher, I already knew(but some things you also need to do as a volunteer that you don’t as a teacher)
-a police check
-a Working With Children check that involves filling in a long long form plus check of your ID(actually, not too bad, because all you have to do is give them permission to check your passport and your Medicare card.

However, you then have to take your passport or driver’s licence(I have the first, not the second) to the post office to get your card registered. The, presumably, they post it to you.

Then you have to do a telephone interview(done yesterday)and a full day PD, to which you STILL have to bring the paperwork you’ve already done in the other processes. Signed by a chemist or whoever, just like for access to your superannuation money. I actually have a signed photocopy of my passport from last time, because the lady wasn’t satisfied with the first one, but I also have to go and get them to sign a photocopy of my Medicare card, and bring both originals with me to the PD.

And still no guarantee I’m going to be accepted as a volunteer!

Fact: I miss the kids. I still feel weird not going to work. And I want to help.

Still... after I get my Working With Children card, I’ll finally have a photo ID so I won’t have to carry around my passport. I hate doing that, I’m terrified I will lose it.

Wish me luck in getting back to work once a week!

Some Catching Up On The Last Part Of My Teaching Career

I don’t have many followers here(most on my book blog The Great Raven), but those of you who are following here have been great about commenting when I post.  And I haven’t been posting much on this site and not at all this year. 

There’s a reason. Last year it was because I was flat out over school stuff and just stopped now and again to report a problem or a triumph with my kids. This year it’s because I finally decided I’d had enough and took my departure from the school system. When I have had something general to say, I’ve said it on Dreamwidth. But this started as a general blog, and no reason why I can’t post between here and Dreamwidth where, let’s face it, I am only read by fellow Dreamwidth members! 

So, let’s talk about the last part of my teacher librarian career and the first part of the rest of my life, which still involves kids to some extent. 

Towards the end of last year, I added a student to my list of Western Chances scholars. I had been kicking myself for not realising she was eligible till too late to apply, when I got an email from someone at WC asking me if I’d mind applying for a student they though deserved one, who was at my school. I had never heard of him and, as teacher librarian, I knew EVERYBODY on my campus, at least by name. I said so and suggested they contact someone on the campus where he probably was. But I thought, if they can sneak in another application this late, why can’t I? I asked and they gave me a few days, once I had emailed the young lady’s reports. Fortunately, this student is highly competent and organised and we got the application done in no time flat! I finished the on line form and invited her to press the “submit” button. She is very good at everything except maths and her maths teacher told me she was fine, just not top of the class. Nevertheless, she asked for money to help with maths tutoring. 

Western Chances, in case I hadn’t explained, is a special scholarship for kids in Melbourne’s Western suburbs(there is also an Eastern Chances, which does it slightly differently). The kids concerned have to be very good at something, whether it’s academic, arts or even leadership. And they have to be from a family without much money. The whole point is that these kids often have to drop subjects they love because they can’t afford textbooks, elective fees, etc. That’s unfair. So a few hundred dollars a year can make a huge difference. One of my students last year, for example, is a maths genius. He was about to be invited to do Year 11 maths in Year 8. But that involves a horribly expensive textbook and an even more expensive calculator which his parents just couldn’t afford. So I applied and he got all that PLUS a computer! We didn’t apply for one, but we were told it was a strong application. 

The young lady I mentioned before has a professional mother who can’t get work in her area. The girl is a lover of books who also writes. And one day I heard her humming Mozart! The Queen of the Night aria. Which she knew and explained what it was about to me. She deserved a scholarship all right. 

The third student is very good at multimedia, and his music teacher tells me he will be excellent at keyboard if he can get some individual lessons. His sister was another of my students and became dux of the school in 2016. She is at university now. I nominated her when she was in Year 9.

At the end of last year, knowing I wasn’t returning, I arranged for a friend at work to take over the renewals. We got together to work in this year’s, at the pub, over breakfast, as it was her first time.  And on March 21, we went to the Edge theatre in Federation Square in Melbourne’s CBD to cheer them in as they went up on stage to collect their awards. We were so very proud of them! 

But the way things are going at my school I’m kind of glad to have escaped. And the library... Well, more of this tomorrow. 

Doing a film tex(and more)t with EAL

This year I'm teaching Year 8 EAL. Most of them are kids I taught last year, so I'm comfortable with them and they with me. Two of them are actually in my literacy class a second time, having moved up with me, so I teach them six periods a week,

We have sent off the students' first letters to their "Literacy Buddies", a program which enables EAL students to write to adults in a business of some kind - this year, it is the local council and people who work there. We have to wait for the replies till early June and next week we're having a guest from the Hundred Story House, who will do writing activities with them - they're really enjoying that!

But this week we had a breather, so we started our film text, which is Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade. You might think that's a bit odd for a school film text, but really, there's a lot of meat in it for discussion. They did Raiders Of The Lost Ark with their other teacher last term, so apart from a new student, they are all familiar with the characters and background, which makes it easier.

Obviously, you're limited in how much you can do with a bunch of tweens(although we do have a fifteen year old international student in the group). But I did it last year with my Year 8 English class and they did very well. There are issues of family, of obsession with a personal "Holy Grail" as well as the real one, of faith - even that old duffer Marcus Brody says that at his age, one is willing to take some things on faith and is clearly a devout man. Every main character has a personal "Grail" or obsession. My English students last year got it very well - and they researched things mediaeval(they were doing mediaeval history anyway), the Crusades, religion, the legend of the Holy Grail, Nazi Germany, whatever, choosing one - and did a group presentation. I asked all of them to tell me what was their personal Holy Grail. And as we were doing the Hero's Journey to help with story writing, I did a session on how Last Crusade fitted in, which helped them understand and made their stories easier to write.

This class won't be asked for quite that much. Last term they did posters. This term we will also do a couple of character dolls to pin up and show they understand.

However, it was also interesting to see the students' reactions. One girl commented, just before Elsa Schneider betrays Indy and his father, "I don't think she's very nice, Miss." I paused the film and said, "This is interesting, so-and-so. What makes you say that?" She couldn't explain, only said, "The way she acts" but I think it was one of those times when you have reasons deep down but can't explain. That will come to her later. I continued the film and she was delighted to find she was right. However, when we got to the scene in Berlin, I paused it again and pointed out that, while she wasn't a nice person, Elsa didn't approve of the book burning. She didn't fight too hard when Indy took back the diary, either. There is at least one bit later in the film that shows she isn't quite as bad as she seems, but I left that for later. My student said, "Maybe she isn't that bad, Miss." I agreed - not very nice, but not quite as bad as you might think. So did the others.

And they picked up things last year's class didn't always, such as the meaning of "She talks in her sleep."

We will be continuing and finishing our viewing next week. Fingers crossed that it works out!

Week 4 - Still Learning!

Today is my quiet day, with only one class. This morning's literacy class was partly word lists and then a story-telling activity. The idea was to have them practise speaking aloud. I felt I ought to demonstrate, to give them the idea of what was required. The storyteller tells a short story, only about three sentences, and the other two group members have to ask questions. The idea was that they would all take a turn at storytelling, but there just wasn't going to be enough time in the session, so after doing my demonstration, I told them that only one in each group needed to tell a story, the others had to ask questions.

I think I did the right thing to give them a demo first - it told them what they had to do, far better than if I'd just issued instructions, even if it did mean there wasn't time for them all to take a turn.

I wrote the story topics on the board and told them I'd like them to choose one of those rather than waste time trying to decide on their own. Then I invited them to choose a topic for me to tell. The vote went to the subject of "food poisoning" and I told them, in four sentences, the(true) story of my father getting sick after a pub meal where he ordered butterfish. I then asked them to ask questions and the ones they asked were generally appropriate, so I knew they had understood the task.

My concern, as I told Chris, the teacher who had devised the activity, was that some would waste their small amount of time arguing over who was the storyteller, then what the story topic was to be - and those would be the ones who were actually making an attempt at the task! There were at least three students, a group of friends, who might just spend the time chatting.

In the end, it mostly worked. There was one group where one of the girls was sulking after an argument with the other two. She refused to participate and there wasn't any point in swapping her with someone in another group, because they were all busy doing the task. Not to mention that the other two girls were doing just fine between them, as a pair instead of a group.

This is the second time that girl has had some drama. One morning, she burst into tears over some childish quarrel at the lockers, but by the time we got to the next class, she was happily sitting next to the girl she had quarreled with only ten minutes before. I'll need to think what I can do, but really, in the end, all you can say is - "Year 7! Oy!"

But for the most part, I was able to tell Chris it had worked, better than I'd expected. In one group, when they had finished, they happily tried a second topic, only a boy in the group asked if he could make his own. That was fine - I'd only asked them to stick to the topics to avoid wasting time.

The other day, in my EAL class, the students were supposed to be writing a profile as the first in a program called Literacy Buddies. One of the girls, who is in my Group 3 Literacy class, wrote that her favourite book was The Hunger Games!

"Isn't that a bit hard for you?" I asked, but she explained that she had worked out hard words from the context, then the dictionary, which is how they should do it. She had seen the film, which helped too. This is a student I trust, so if she said she read it, she did. But does she belong in my Literacy class? Yesterday I took a copy of the book into class and asked her to read the first couple of pages to me, which she did reasonably well. I suggested that she might like to be re-tested - the On Demand tests don't always get it right - but she was dismayed at the thought of leaving my class, so I suggested that perhaps she could just wait for the On Demand tests in April. If she does well in those, she will really have to move - when work is too easy, it gets boring.

At Book Club yesterday I focused on the Premier's Reading Challenge. There was a little bit of interest, not as much as I would have liked, but enough for me to consider registering my school. Then anyone else who wants to try it can. I've never done it before, but I'm not sure it's of much use to my school, which has a lot of students who are reading below their official year level. The Reading Challenge is aimed at kids who are reading at the appropriate level. The rules say that a student may read a book a year below their level if the teacher says it's okay, but they still have to read the same number of books from the official list for their level. That's not a lot of use to kids who are in Year 7 or 8 and reading at Grade 4 level, is it?

I told the group that while the only gift they would get from the Challenge for reading fifteen books this year would be a certificate, we could make a ceremony of it and perhaps I might add a book voucher, seeing it's just then. But I might see if anyone else is interested, perhaps as an English activity, or some such, and we can still do the ceremony.

I don't think I'll get much interest, but I can only try!

Back At School - My New Classes

I'm in my third week back. My classes this year have been swapped around from last year. I was doing Year 7 EAL, Year8 English and Decoding in our literacy program.

Now I'm doing Year 7 English, Year 8 EAL (two new students and a couple who have left, but otherwise the same kids) and I've been moved up to Group 3 - Comprehension Transition - for literacy. Two of my students from last year have moved up with me. They must feel as if they haven't gone anywhere - we're even in the same room!

So, a lot of new stuff to learn. Yes, I know the subjects are the same, but still new to me. Year 7 has to prepare for the NAPLAN exam in May and until that's done, I can't do much other stuff. I adapted my Year 8 material that I used to use for "persuasive writing" and gave them a short grammar pre-test to see what they know. I've told them next week we'll do a grammar lesson on Thursday, when we have a single session. It's been years since I did actual grammar lessons as opposed to sitting down with them one at a time to discuss what they're doing, but it needs to be done. They were okay with the tenses, but I find that is the worst in general, always has been.

 Meanwhile, this morning, we had a brainstorm about whether dogs or cats made better pets. I think they enjoyed it - it's a very basic intro to "persuasion". A couple of them put up their hands to tell me about their own pets and I let them. They're barely out of Year 6, in their first three weeks at secondary school, and they were enjoying themselves. That's vital!

A very kind staff member who has retired sent me a file with a NAPLAN preparation sample. I will need to read that and see if I can fit it in soon.

So far so good, anyway - I think they're a pleasant class, fingers crossed they stay that way!

Three of them turned up in the library at lunchtime and joined Book Club - nice! I made them very welcome in hopes they will continue.

Because I'm teaching the same bunch of EAL kids as last year, I can't do everything the way we did - one session of grammar, one of Behind The News - so I've had a word with the EAL teacher and we've agreed, so far, to do a film text each.

We also have to do something called Literacy Buddies - I just got  my teacher pack today, need to get my head around it. It's a lot of work, which was why the EAL teacher had given up on it - she had too much else to do with them. But these classes are happening when other kids are doing Italian or Vietnamese, so no reason why we can't use the time for Literacy Buddies. The kids exchange letters with volunteers in a workplace, then meet them a couple of times. Two of us will be doing it this year, with Year 7 and Year 8.

Now I have a slightly higher reading level to teach, and activities that are not a lot like what I was doing before. I have had some help in adapting, both from my friend who used to teach this level and from the co-ordinator, who brought me a bag of goodies to use. I'm finding that with a bigger class - about three times the size of last year's -  I have to learn how to fit in more complex activities in the time. I used to be able to leave a reading list till the next day if the kids didn't get it, but we only do the reading lists twice a week. As a result, I'm only on to my second list in the two weeks we've been doing this. But the co-ordinator said that's fine - just take as long as it takes.

So I think I'm gradually getting there in that subject. But only gradually.

The library is gradually getting more kids coming at lunchtimes. The Year 7 kids have started to discover it. I think I have a few more kids interested in Book Club.

Now I have to find something to keep them entertained!

Year 8 And The Hero's Journey

This week I gave my students a break from Australian Identity, which really needs to be finished, but has been rather dragging on. The kids are pretty good, but I'd rather have them doing something because they're interested than because it's compulsory. And we haven't done much writing this term - some, but not a lot. And I had to sneak it into the Identity thing.

So I decided to try The Hero's Journey, which worked quite well with a previous class. Last Thursday I gathered them in the Interactive Whiteboard Room, where we show film texts and documentaries, do presentations and such, and began by an explanation of what The Hero's Journey is - a simplified explanation, basically that a guy called Joseph Campbell said that most adventures boil down to the same story outline. We watched trailers for a number of movies that fitted the bill. I asked them if they could think of any, but only one of them came up with something that fitted. I began to wonder if I should do the follow-up, but thought, no, I had told them that today they would be doing some writing and they were going to do it! Otherwise, we might as well just go back to the unit of work we were having to do.

Today, I printed out and enlarged the template I've prepared, with elements of the Journey, simplified because I want them to be able to use it. The whole point is to write a story, with the outline to help.

I also found an example online of how you can use the Hero's Journey even for as simple and silly a story as a boy going out at night to find his lost cat and getting it down from a tree.

We spent the whole of our first session working together on the board, using our film text, Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade, as the example. They got the idea and answered how various elements of the film fitted into the elements of the Journey.

This afternoon, at our second session, I handed out templates and asked them to work in groups to come up with a story outline using them. I assured them that I didn't mind how silly the stories were, as long as they used the elements of the template.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that they really had got the hang of it. It's a small class and four boys worked together to produce a very silly story outline about Hillary Clinton and a Mexican boy who helped her win the Presidency. But it fulfilled the requirements and I told the boys well done.

The girls came up with something a bit more serious, which convinced me that when they have to do a proper story on their own, they will be able to do it.

I did one myself, but hadn't had the chance to read it when the bell went for their next class. Hopefully, Thursday they will be able to create a basic story each. Fingers crossed!

I have also handed out their class magazine, which was put together from the work they did in Term 2 and some of last term. It was not too bad, considering all the fiddling around we had to do, and that I had to make the cover and table of contents. I asked them not to take a copy unless they actually wanted it - I really don't want to find crumpled pages lying around the schoolyard. But everybody took one, so that was nice.

I haven't found any crumpled pages yet!

8B's Aussie Identity

Last week, we went to the computer room and I asked all the students to write a blog post which would begin with "I remember..." It should have something in their memories about Australia and their place in it.

I figured that at the very least they could always write about "I remember..." - something I discovered in a book about writing by Kate Grenville. If you find yourself with writer's block there's one area where you can always get ideas and that's writing about yourself.

But just in case, I wrote a page about my own memories, to give them some idea of what I had in mind.

All but two of them wrote a decent-length piece; of the others, one was absent and the other kept changing his mind and ended up,with three lines. He was capable of doing better. I know; I've read his other work. I guess he just wasn't in the mood - and not planning on doing the "h" word either!

The rest of my class delighted me with their choice of memory. My favourite was the boy of Maltese background who was remembering his first taste of Australian breakfast foods at a school "pyjama day." And his first taste of sausages on the same day. And his reaction to mustard! With a little editing, that one is fully publishable.

Another one described the aroma of meat on the family barbecue, and the pleasure of going shopping for it with his father.

 It was a shortish piece, but said what the author wanted to say. I did edit it a little, but the rewrite he did yesterday was not quite as good as I'd hoped. Still, the boy is a good writer and I won't harass him for more.

The two boys who hadn't written their pieces were there when I took the class yesterday. One wrote his own piece about barbecues, which needs work, the other was not well and shouldn't have been at school. However, I asked him to read some of the other pieces to get some idea of what I had in mind and he said afterwards that he had an idea as a result. I will have to give him a little time on Monday to finish; he won't do it at home and really needs me to sit with him and encourage, being the weakest in the class. With help, he produced a nice recipe for hamburger in the class magazine.

Monday we need to work on "the stolen children" and "indigenous contributions to the language." But I'll try to find time!

Week 7- 8 - Year 8 Again!

Last week's two sessions worked well enough. We presented the complete iMovies in our interactive whiteboard room in the library. They were, to be honest, the best.

But other students completed their work and presented just to me. In the afternoon, we were in the classroom. My reluctant speaker went into an empty classroom to record her voice and the music. It was satisfactory, if not inspiring, and I told her she had passed the assignment and saved it into Public Share, then into my own files, because I've known nasty kids to delete others' work, not to mention mine. It was easier when we had to ask for students to be allowed to save to Public Share!

There were still two students to finish, who were absent on Monday, so on Thursday we went to the library's computer room, where those who had finished all their work went to the freerice.com web site, which gives ten grains of rice to charity for every vocabulary question you get right. One of them, bless him, tried to do some calculations as to just how much his 2000-odd grains would add up to in a bowl.

Of the last two students, the girl finished her work in one of the library offices. She declined to use music, probably wise of her as her voice would have been drowned out, like her classmate's.

The boy must be truly reluctant, because he made every excuse he could think of to procrastinate.

Today, he will have to finish it! I'll send him somewhere quiet, no further excuses!

Week 6 - Year 8 iMovies

Here we are in Week 6 and we still haven't completed - quite - the iMovie task. On Monday, I was down to four students! Some were absent, some were on bin duty - the ones who weren't there were the ones for whom I had allowed some extra time to complete the task. One girl had started the Thursday before, then been called out of class by the Year Level Co-ordinator - "Can I see so-and-so for a few minutes?" - and not returned until the end of the session, to pick up her books. Monday she wasn't there. I had hoped to have some of the students who had finished help those who hadn't, but it wasn't to be.

Another student has begun, but needs more slides and to record her voice. She had been reluctant to do the iMovie - I had offered her the option of doing PowerPoint, on the understanding she would have to present live, because the task is about "listening and speaking", which she accepted, but changed her mind. I think there are about 21 seconds so far, and she really hasn't done what I asked, which was to prepare a script.

Another student absent on Monday - and today! - has finished, except that he had added a silly comment to the end of the presentation and had no idea how to fix it, short of re-recording. Neither do I, at this stage. I don't think the girl he called beautiful will be offended, but it's not appropriate for this, and it might be a bit embarrassing for both of them.  Probably not a good idea to show it in his absence. I need to speak to both of them. It's a pity, because it's otherwise quite good. I have saved a copy to USB stick, though, because knowing him, he may otherwise just delete the whole thing and have nothing to hand in.

The girl who was the object of his admiration has finished, but her soft, gentle voice was pretty much drowned out by the music and I have no idea how to change it for a quieter tune, though I've experimented. It will have to do as is. I will be asking a staff member from another campus for his help; I'm told he knows it better than the technician, who doesn't use iMovie.

The others have done quite well and checked their rubric to make sure they included all the senses in their "Australia means to me..." iMovie.

This afternoon I hope to do their presentations, such as they are, and ask them to assess their own listening skills - perhaps if I hand them that sheet before we begin, they will pay attention. It's a sort of follow-up to the listening survey we did tight back at the beginning.

But I still have some unfinished work from three students and not sure what to do with the others while they complete it. I can't give it to them as homework, because it's being done on iPad.

On Monday afternoon, with so few students, we just sat down with a couple of short stories - Rocket And Sparky by Edwina Harvey, from World's Next Door, and Hot And Spicy by Oliver Phommavanh, from Growing Up Asian In Australia. I hadn't realised that his novel Thai-Riffic was based on the short story, with a boy whose family run a Thai restaurant in Sydney. In this story, he has to take some Thai food to school for a multicultural day, but as far as Albert Yip is concerned, it's all embarrassing and he'd rather be eating Aussie foods like pies and chips. Even worse, to school has ordered food from his parents for the celebration. So he decides to do a bit of sabotage on the food so that it won't happen again... In the other story, a pony-loving girl is stuck out in the desert with her father, little brother and a camel - then they find an egg too big to be an emu egg. It's a dragon egg.

I invited the students to look at these two views of Australia and discuss the differences. And because none of them was Anglo, we talked about the food they had at home - and I added the European food I grew up with.

They were polite and co-operative, but dud they enjoy the stories? I don't know. Nobody smiled, though my volunteer seemed to be having fun reading aloud from Rocket and Sparky.

Still a few weeks to go and I haven't finished the it. Kids do take longer than you might think to finish things. And with a curriculum day tomorrow and a meeting today there is very little time to put together the group magazine we finished earlier this term.

Sigh! Teaching is fun!

Week 5 - Year 8

Today I did two more periods of the required program on "Australian Identity."

The kids are working on their iMovies. They're at all different levels and today two students were absent - one not at school, one doing bin duty, so they will be behind everyone else anyway.

I was hoping to be ready for presentation, but it wasn't to be. The two students I thought were going to take about fifteen minutes out of two periods to finish took the entire double period and there is still a small amount of work to do, but they're pretty much there. I gave them all a rubric to follow and young Dylan must have taken a good look at it, judging by the variations of voice he did.

I asked him and Allan, the other lad, to make their scripts more personal, because the idea was "what does Australia mean to me?" . Dylan's was a travelogue, complete with shrimps on the barbie, and Allan's was a mini-documentary. They did rewrite a bit and I can't ask much more of them.Small as my class is - and it's tiny - I found myself having to look after the two students who were making the most noise instead of those who were not making a fuss.

In the end, I ignored them and went over to help the young lady who had done what I asked and needed help finding her way into the school's network; when I returned, one of the boys had actually gone as far as putting the photos on the iMovie and recording his voice. He still needs to write text on it, but his voice over the pictures sounded good. - I told him so, but pointed out that there would have been fewer "ums" and "ers" if he'd written it down. His friend, however, who had done as I asked and printed out the pictures and put them in order, hadn't gotten any further.

The rubrics had to be simplified, because the ones I had been given, for the three levels, were too elaborate. Kids need something they can follow.

Wait till they find out they have a rubric for listening. Also complicated and needing a rewrite.

Oh, dear.

Is it working? Well, we'll have to see. Someone else has written the lesson plans; in theory, all I have to do is teach them. But it's not quite working for me.

Week 4 - "Being Australian" iMovies - not yet!

Despite all my efforts to get the kids to understand why I want them to collect the photos they need in their Public Share folders for the time being, before attempting to make their iMovies, I had one who insisted on going straight to the iPad, another couple who said they had made a start and there were specific iPads with their pictures on them and others who decided to write their scripts without actually having collected any photos yet. Fortunately, we had one of the iPads that had someone's photos on it - they're not supposed to save them there, but he had done a test run for me when I wanted to see if my instruction sheet was able to be followed. And it was unlikely anyone else would play with the photos, but it would have been safer in the class folder on Public Share.

And the one who insisted that his "being Australian" video would have to be all about beaches. Yes, I told him, beaches are very much a part of Australian life, but - is that all? And how do you go about thinking of sound, smell, taste, feel?

He argued that there was the taste of the salty water, the smells of the sea, the feel of the water, the sound of the waves... I sighed and ended up agreeing, provided that his voice track used all that. It wasn't a dumb thing to say, but I am likely to have to sit down with him and talk him through making the film yet again.

I am glad it's such a small class, because I may have to sit down with all of them when it gets to the point where they have to save their iMovies to Public Share. Some of them got the hang of it when they did the test run, but not all.

Tomorrow I have had to book a computer room because the library is unavailable. If any of them are ready to record their voices, I'll need to send them to a corner where it's quiet.

When I did my annual review the other day and showed my own iMovies as "modelling" and "exemplar work" the Vice Principal said he'd love to see the students' work when it was done. Hopefully there will be something good to show him,at least with some of them!

Fun And Games With Scholarship Applications

My boys Simon and Loc have received their well-deserved scholarship renewals, so I decided to nominate another couple of students. They're wonderful girls, whom I'm nominating for their leadership abilities. Both of them have stacks of award certificates, no problem there.

When I first discussed the matter with them, one wanted to be an events organiser, the other hadn't made up her mind.

Now the girl who hadn't decided wants to become a social worker. Her choices are mostly straightforward, though she has now decided to do Maths and Psychology, both expensive subjects. History would have cost $63 for the textbook. Maths will cost $88 plus, possibly a $200 calculator - I'm checking whether she needs the special one for General Maths. I may be able to arrange for tutoring if WC has some reconditioned computers, which they didn't have last year, but might have this year - the lady told me they were speaking to some potential donors. But she doesn't need Internet support, as her guardian has it bundled with the phone bill. Psych will cost $108 for the textbook and student book.

But her application is manageable.

The young events organiser has decided to become a secondary teacher, possibly a Foods teacher. So she's chosen the Hospitality subject, which will cost a bundle. I've emailed the Hospitality teacher to confirm. And Psychology. And Maths. Thank heavens the English books shouldn't be too dear. I was going to ask for help with the home Internet connection, but may have to drop that.

I am going to have to do some serious juggling here! There's a limit to how much you can ask. The charity relies on donations. So far so good, but I have to be reasonable.

Fingers crossed!

Term 3 Year 8 - Week 3!

And another lovely session trying to get my head around the new Year 8 program...

Today wasn't the best. I had it planned out, the beginning of their iMovie presentation. I had the checklist of things they needed in it and the "how-to" sheet of making an iMovie on the school iPads and saving it into Public Share.

I had to wait for some to turn up. They had legitimate reasons, but it was not helpful. My best student didn't turn up at all; she was doing SRC work, involving going around to classes to take money for the SRC fundraising barbecue. She will catch up, if anyone does, but it interrupted my lesson. The students did tell me, though one thought she had gone to the wrong room(we were in the library). Another student had been in trouble and had to stay back to speak with the teacher. The two weakest students, who are not bad kids, spent the time giggling and chattering, interrupting me. By the time they were settled, I decided there was no point in trying to run the class as originally planned. Two students who had finished all their work so far were allowed to start collecting pictures for their presentations. The others were behind in the last piece of work, poems, so I sent them to the computers to complete. One, who had been absent that day, I sat down with and explained. She managed to complete an acrostic poem, on Koalas, by the end of the period.

I tried again after lunch. This worked somewhat better, though the SRC rep was still off collecting money. We went through the checklist sheet, discussing the tastes, smells, feel, sounds, sights of Australia. They did come up with some of each. Then I asked them to write down any words they might find helpful in looking for photos for the iMovie. I think that helped, but by then there were twenty minutes left, do I let them just start, telling them to save the jpegs into a folder with their name on it. Some seemed to have got the idea, but my two struggling students lost track

Not sure how I can deal with this. I need time to sit down with individual students, but those two keep me busy disciplining them, which takes time. And how much better are they? Well, one of them has actually written and finished something... But not today.

Term 3 Year 8 - Second Week

Okay, I had to do a session on "Listening". And "How good a listener are you?" I told my students it was because this term's theme is "Listening and speaking" (The others are "reading" and "Writing"). This may be the case, but I don't know for sure that was what was intended by those who wrote this unit. It didn't do them any harm, though, to be honest, it was more like the Pathways - homeroom - subject than English, while in this morning's Pathways, the kids were given journals in which they were supposed to write about the things that happen to them, something that has in the past been a part of English, to get them writing by doing something that was easy for them. The closest I've come was in the blog posts, though there really hasn't been time to do it regularly and I have mostly used it for getting their work in one place.

Still. We did it and the kids co-operated and might even have enjoyed it. They started off with a survey on "how good a listener are you?" which I asked them to be honest about. It was like one of those things they have in a magazine, where you give yourself a score. Some of them were more honest than others. The student I KNOW has the most trouble paying attention gave himself a higher score than he really should have.

We discussed it. I even admitted that I'm not a very good listener myself. I told them that when I phone my mother every night I have a tendency to be reading while I listen to her and then she will say irritably, "I asked you a question! Didn't you hear what I said?"

I wrote on the board some of the ways we could improve our listening skills, using student suggestions, and asked them to write them into their books.

We will have to follow up on it at some stage.

I'd still like to be sure of the reason for doing that particular lesson!

The unit required reading some Australian stories and poems. Some of those suggested were in a book called Growing Up Asian In Australia, which we don't have in the library. I did have it in ebook, but you can't print out from an ebook, so I bought a copy on the weekend.  I found one of the stories was just too long to photocopy for a class and would probably lose their interest before we'd finished reading it.

In the end, we just read some poems. I chose two by Oodgeroo Noonuccal aka Kath Walker, one by Sean Wright on the subject of a massacre of Indigenous Australians and a couple of classic traditional poems - "Clancy of the Overflow" and MacKellar's "My Country". The first two were "No More Boomerang" and "Battle Of The Totems", a wry tongue-in-cheek complaint about the changes in Indigenous life and a funny one about her father's totem carpet snake which her mother hated and eventually got revenge on.

I'd hoped to have them write something before the end of the period, but there was another class in the library watching a movie, so hard to focus, and a couple of my students had headaches. We couldn't go back to the classroom because I had the EAL class to look after, so we just finished the poems in an office off the main library, discussed them a little and I showed them a picture of  the painting "Collins St At Five PM" which made me think of the last part of "Clancy" and I played a YouTube video on my iPad in which the elderly Dorothea MacKellar read her poem, with appropriate accompanying pictures.

We will have to do some writing on Thursday afternoon instead.

Term 3 Year 8 - and Changes!

This year, our English co-ordinator retired and the new one decided that instead of gathering in groups according to year levels, each campus would be put in charge of working on the curriculum for a year level. Mine got Year 9. I contribute what I can, but I don't teach Year 9. The last time I did it was Year 9 ESL, about 2006-7. And that was different from now. Very different! However, not a lot of change was made here, just some work done on what is already being taught.

Another campus was put in charge of Year 8.

Now, we had planned out this year's program. In Term 3, we would spend part of the term doing Literature Circles. This is a program where students get into groups to read a book, depending on their reading levels, and the reading is followed by some writing, in our case a creative response to the text studied. It has worked very well - kids get to discuss and contribute and be marked on their contributions. We were also going to do plays - the last time I did that I ended up having to write a play, comparing it with the short story from which it was taken, followed by students doing podcasts of the play. The school hasn't got much in the way of class sets of plays and other campuses had borrowed the few we had. But it worked.

Then there is essay-writing or story-writing or both.

Not any more. The staff from the campus doing Year 8 completely rewrote the curriculum for this term. I mean, completely! And we first got to see it a few days before the end of last term. It involves "what it is to be Australian" and "how good are you at listening?" and preparing a presentation using something called Powtoon, to which the school has to subscribe(as far as I know, that hasn't happened yet). It involves the students preparing an animated presentation with their voices over, stating what being Australian means to them.

The problem is, apart from a two-week trial, there was no way to learn how to use it until the school subscribes, so I asked if I might, instead, use iMovie, which is easily available on the school's iPads, and which I know how to use and can teach the kids. It's not really much harder than PowerPoint and looks a lot more impressive. I was given permission, after making an iMovie and showing them.

But the people concerned have prepared an entire unit of work, complete with lesson plans and support material. You just have to teach it, it seems.

So I made a start on Monday. I fiddled a bit with the lesson plan, as I do with my Literacy classes, because not everything will work with every class and the unit's writers had forgotten that not everyone has access to an interactive whiteboard in every classroom, as they do at that campus. I had to book our interactive whiteboard room, which just doesn't have space, short of moving the tables and chairs around, to form a line from "Not at all Australian" to "Aussie, oy,oy,oy!" and then explain why you chose as you did. The thing is, I have a very small class and and, to be honest, while they would co-operate, most would cringe. I know the teacher who probably designed this bit and she could certainly get the kids going with her enthusiasm for it, but I don't think I could.

The kids did co-operate, did help me out with it, but I'm not sure how many of them enjoyed it.

I also found that not all the details fitted into one period. It involved showing them a Youtube video, doing some moving around, discussing, brainstorming and finishing with a written activity.

I managed to get most of it done, but not the written activity. There just wasn't time.

I was supposed to mark them on their speaking, but didn't have time for that either, and some of the rubric points were a bit puzzling. I mean - what do we mean when we are deciding if a student has spoken "sensitively"?

I really need to sit down with the whole unit and rewrite it so it will work for my students. That's going to take a lot of work!

AAARGH!

Louise Rennison Is No More!

I just heard the news. ANOTHER terrific writer bites the dust - in the course of about three days!

I have no idea of the details. There are plenty of articles that say she's gone and talk about her life, but none of those I've read so far says how. I mean, Umberto Eco and Harper Lee were both in their eighties. Sad, but not unusual. It happens.

But this lady was only in her early sixties. Not an age for "natural causes", surely? If anyone reading this knows the details, please do let me know in the comments.

Louise Rennison was a British YA novelist who wrote funny books for girls. The best known is Angus, Things And Full Frontal Snogging, which I believe was made into a film(haven't seen it), but she wrote plenty, and I have several on my library shelves - the kids love them! There was a whole series about heroine Georgia Nicolson.

I'm currently reading Withering Tights, about Georgia's cousin Tallulah Casey, who has travelled north to Yorkshire to do a summer school on the arts. I'm only about a hundred pages in and Tallulah is already surrounded by a bunch of over-the-top characters, from her kind but zany host family to the  loopy woman who runs the school.

We'll have to have a chat about this at my lunchtime book club on Thursday. 

Year 8 and Indiana Jones

It's amazing how quickly the term goes - and this one is short! Only three weeks to go and we have Labour Day Monday week and Easter the week after, followed by the school holidays.

I've taught the film UP! as a film text a number of times, so as I now have the option of doing one of the Indiana Jones films instead, I decided to go for that. I have chosen Last Crusade because it has a bit more meat for class discussion than the other two. And it's such fun! You find out Indy's real name. You see his hat come floating back up the cliff he has fallen down, while he waits for it. You find out how he got his hat, his whip and how he became scared of snakes. Unfortunately, some of the in jokes will go over the heads of kids who haven't seen these films before. But there's plenty to enjoy, and you get to meet his father, who is a delight!

One of my students this year is a sort of male Hermione Granger, whose hand always shoots up and who is usually correct. I have some other good students, but they are so quiet! I can't get them talking unless I ask them and then they will reply in a soft, timid voice. I can't work out, yet, how to encourage them to talk - and it's really such a small class that I have to get people to participate.

And then there are a couple of difficult students. One of them is a young man who suffers from ADHD. He was in my literacy class early last year, before being promoted to a higher group, and livened it up no end. But in English, it is hard to get him to focus for more than a few minutes. And when he does, he will write about three lines and delete them before I can read what he's written. Or he'll just refuse to let me read his work.

Other times, he surprises me pleasantly, such as today, when I was talking about one's personal Holy Grail and mentioned Heinrich Schliemann and his discovery of Troy. "Wasn't that Homer?" he asked. He was listening in last year's history classes(as I knew from having covered that class once when he was arguing with two other boys about the relationship between Zeus, Hades and Poseidon - and getting it right) I explained that yes, Homer did write about Troy, but nobody took him seriously until Schliemann followed his own Holy Grail and found it.

Then he said something silly about Homer Simpson, no doubt to show off to his two equally difficult friends. Heaven forbid they should find out he knew something!

I have to prepare special, focused tasks for him and not let him type them till he's hand written them, so that he can't delete them. He might still tear them up - must avoid that somehow!

We're going to start on character dolls on Thursday afternoon, after a discussion of the characters themselves. I find character dolls are a good way to keep the kids focused on the characters and what sort of people they are, then you can put them up on the classroom wall.

I still haven't had a chance to make my class do some writing, apart from the initial blog post designed to find out what they know - next week?

I haven't yet talked to the class about the Hero's Journey, something I'd like to do before they start the assignment. Will I ever get the chance?

So much to do and so little time!

The Year Winding Down... Year 7 EAL

This year I've had an EAL(formerly ESL) class, once a week while the other students are doing Italian and Vietnamese. It's a good opportunity for them to focus on their English while the others are doing something there's no point in their doing.

The EAL teacher asked me to do grammar and even supplied a folder earlier in the year. That, of course, ran out and I borrowed some of her grammar books and taught them about everything from nouns to conjunctions and finished classes with a speed spell or a board test to see how they were going, played as a game.

But the year is nearly over. And the kids have different reading levels, from the girl who is with me in the decoding literacy class to a student who is in the Grade 5 literacy group and has read and loved my YA novel! (Yes, it's a YA novel, but a readability test showed that kids with a Grade 5 reading level can still enjoy it). No point in trying to read something together unless there's a follow-up. The second half of the class we go to the library together and watch Behind The News, for which the teacher has provided worksheets at their different levels; I hand those out, but the students don't use them till her class on Friday. They just watch and discuss.

So, what to do this late in the piece? Only one more session together, next week.

I have learned a lot from Creative Writing. I also learned something from doing a workshop with eighty primary school students the other week. That is that there are some things that can be done, and enjoyed, in less than an hour.

We did acrostic poems. First, I gave a demonstration on the board. They liked the word "Summer", so I invited them to think of words connected with summer. After they had suggested quite a few, we did the poem on the board together. I even had one protest at the last line. "How can you ride boats? Make it bikes!"

Then I handed out paper on which to write their own, telling them they could do them in pairs or alone. There are three girls whom we have had to split because of their bad behaviour. They complained, but they did their own.

And you know what? When I put the poems up on the wall later, one of the badly behaved students asked if she might take hers home. I said yes, at the end of the day, as I wanted everyone to see she could do this. She doesn't know how she delighted me by that request!

The work was not exactly professional standard, but it was important to me that they enjoyed and learned something. Acrostics are good because most people can do them. I did have to go around the class and help those having a bit of trouble finding appropriate words. I think it I were to do it again, I might make it a bit more organised - there were some who had a bit of trouble with it. I would lay out coloured pencils to give them a chance to decorate before putting them up on the wall.

But in the end, everyone produced something, which was the main thing. Some produced two or three poems! On the whole, fairly successful.