25 November 2012

There's a time and a place

Photo credit: Coldplay Live 2012
I went to see Coldplay in Brisbane last Wednesday night - what an amazing show! There were lights, fireworks, enormous balloons bouncing over the audience, somewhere in the vicinity of 52 000 people, laser beams, and of course, an incredible band on stage. In the first 10 minutes the enigmatic Chris Martin had managed to say what kids tell me is the 'f-word' about six times.

Did I mind? Hell, no! It was entirely appropriate given the spectacle, the noise, the excitement, the sheer awesomeness (another word we love using these days) of it all.

Swearing appears to be such a part of our vernacular these days. We hear it everywhere - at the movies, on TV, in newspapers, at the shops, and dare I say it - in our own homes. It seems everyone swears these days. I even do my own fair share of swearing! So it makes it quite difficult when we want to stop children swearing at school. We tell them it's wrong and even discipline the continual offenders. Is school the only place where swearing is not allowed? No, of course not! There are many situations in which swearing is completely out of place, and may even be offensive.

Kids swear for many reasons - for effect, to impress their peers, to try out an 'adult' vernacular, as a habit, to assert themselves in the peer group - and while I don't mind listening to Chris Martin swear in between songs, I hate hearing kids swear. I hate hearing my own child swear (even though she insists that now she is 18 she can say what she likes!). Perhaps that's the key - they feel grown up when they can legitimately let fly with a few 'f-words'.

Our roles as parents and educators is to teach about time and place so that swearing becomes a mature choice between expressing yourself intelligently and respectfully or taking a shortcut with a few offensive words. Choosing to swear isn't about a rite of passage - it's about choosing behaviour that demonstrates how you want to seen. This is a useful skill for our children to learn - and maturity is demonstrated through its use.

18 November 2012

The Art of Persuasion ... Letters from 2B

For the past two years the writing task in the National Assessment Program in Literacy and Numeracy (otherwise known as NAPLAN) has assessed the ability of students in Years 3, 5 and 7 to write persuasively. And so it is, that at this time of the year our Year 2 students turn their sights towards learning and consolidating this important life skill.

During the week I received a package of beautifully presented (handwritten) letters from 2B. On top was a sticky note, 'Hi Gwen, 2B feel quite strongly about an issue and thought the best thing to do would be to persuade you to their point of view. It is our first go at persuasion and they had a bit of guidance. I know you're busy so thanks for reading them. The kids are looking forward to your response. Bec'

Hmmmmm... Well, firstly, I'm NEVER too busy to read a child's work, to listen to them read or see one (or more) that present to my office full of pride with a job well done. Secondly, I had a pretty good idea they were going to try and persuade me to say 'yes' to something I'd want to say 'no' to!

And so - what did they want? I read 24 letters imploring me to allow them to bring toy cars to school. They demonstrated true generic style by stating upfront what they wanted and then presenting all the reasons why I should say yes, and finishing off with a summary. It was priceless.

I was informed that playing with cars was better than fighting; that kids were allowed to bring a ball to school and didn't I know that a ball was a toy?; that playing with cars was cooler than running around in the hot sun; that they had lost their privileges to borrow equipment from the sports shed and had nothing to do (???); that they could play in the shade if they had cars; that small cars are a lot of fun; that being able to play with them would encourage them to play 'friendly' and share; that teachers 'needed to get over it' - this, I found somewhat less persuasive; that the adventure playground was too small for everyone; and so it went on.

The fact is, we prefer children don't bring toys to school, as a rule. Losses and breakages cause much angst, and parents and children are rarely happy with the outcome of an investigation which has usually taken up far too much of the teacher's time. But I've never been very good at saying 'no' to kids! Especially when they ask for what they want responsibly and through using a tool that is well recognised as purposeful in achieving social action. 'Yes, if..' can be a far more useful response for building responsibility and teaching important life skills without the interference of the resentfulness an outright 'no' often brings.

So, my reply to them was:
Thank you very much for your letters regarding being able to bring toy cars to school to play with at play time. They were very well written and I enjoyed reading them.

The fact is that we have a rule at school about not allowing toys because often toys get broken or taken and the time it takes to sort out the problem means students are missing out on learning – and most times people can't agree on how the toy was lost or taken.

I agree that we have let children bring the balls they won at the Lap-a-thon to school. This was on the understanding that if they went missing, then it's sad but the teachers are not going to chase around looking for it. Other sorts of toys must be left at home.

So, as your letters were very good at persuading me to think about this more I have decided that if you would like to bring your cars to school you must have a plan that describes things like who can bring cars, how many, where you will play, what happens if one is lost or broken. The plan must have agreement from Ms Brian and all the other staff who do duty in the area where you play. The other teachers need to agree because their children will want to bring cars too.

Let me know what you decide and thank you for being so respectful in asking for what you want. If you can learn to do this well then you will have learned a very useful skill for life.


I remembered belatedly I hadn't included that the plan must state how they will play with the cars without digging up the grass and gardens! I ventured into the playground shortly after pressing send (my reply was an email) and was besieged by students from 2B excitedly informing me they were writing me another letter. I'm assuming it will be the plan and I'm expecting it to be VERY persuasive!

Meanwhile, that evening I was watching Better Homes and Gardens and the handy presenter built a gorgeous sandpit seat - is there a Dad out there who would like to build us one of these? Seemed like the perfect solution to me!

11 November 2012

End of Year Reports...It's that time of the year again


Some time ago when I was Principal at Chancellor SS the Year 1 classes hosted a grandparents' picnic. Grandparents were encouraged to share their memories and stories of when they were at school. One of the student's Grandad proudly brought along his own father's Report Card written in the early 1920s. It was handwritten in ink on thick creamy paper and gave a snapshot on attendance and punctuality; grades for Arithmetic, English, French, Science and History; and listed some Desirable Traits, for example, completes work, is generally careful, practices good health habits, and works and plays well with others. The teacher had written a brief comment on the bottom of the page 'Would do well to listen more carefully and desist from talking in the classroom.'


So perhaps not much has changed over the last 90 years! Teachers today still provide a snapshot to parents of these things in what is known as the Report Card. These days it is produced by photocopier on light card and the only handwriting you will see will be the teacher's signature - and in our school, my signature too.

At this time of the year teachers from Prep to Year 7 at Peregian Springs State School are spending many hours carefully assessing the work children have produced searching for the evidence of their learning throughout the semester, and considering the best way to describe to parents the growth a child has demonstrated over the year. They write detailed commentary on each subject area and on each child's social and work habits. They spend a lot of time thinking about the best way to record the child's achievements, they proof read them, their partner's proof read them, they rewrite many of them ... and then I read them - all 604 of them this year!

I personally make the time to read and sign every child's Report Card as I love to see their growth over time. Each child's Report Card is a testament to the wonderful work children and teachers are doing in classrooms every day. By reading each report I can ensure the quality of the information parents receive and I also want to affirm each teacher's effort in creating the most informative reports they can.

I, also, want to ensure that when your child's Report Card is read by grandchildren in a few generations it will stand the test of time in terms of the value your child's teachers have added to their life at school and beyond.

Contrary to opinion in the media and fictional accounts of book characters at school, teachers would not write a comment like this one!



03 November 2012

The times, they are a changing...your times tables, that is!

When I was in Year 4 my teacher would line us all up on a Friday morning for the times tables competition - you were the winner if you were the last one standing. I knew my tables VERY well - I practised them over and over and on a Friday morning was fast and accurate and most weeks was one of the last left standing.

I also had multiple routes for getting right answers to 'problems' such as 73-49=...well, 3-9 you can't do so you add 10 here, and you add 10 there, and then it's 13-9 and 7-5 and the answer is 24 - simple!

My strategies for calculating and memorising stood me in good stead until senior secondary school.

Year 11 and 12 maths was a nightmare as I struggled to apply what I had memorised to problems presented by the teacher or the text book. I could no longer memorise everything I needed to know to be successful, and like many kids, I grew to hate maths passionately.

Modern mathematics teaching focuses on children developing conceptual understanding and flexible thinking, that is, fluency - they need to understand why, for example, double 5 is 10, and how knowing that is important to understanding larger more complex numbers.

I sat with a couple of Year 3s the other day and talked with them about numbers. I wrote down on paper a 6 and a 9, and asked them - 'what is the sum of 6 and 9?' One went straight to his fingers by counting out 6 fingers, folding them over and counting on another 9 fingers. This is certainly not a strategy a student who is fluent with addition facts would use. The other child studied the numbers for a bit and then said, 'It's 15...yes, 15.' I asked her how she came up with that without counting. She looked at me and said 'I just took 1 off the 6 and added it to the 9 to make 10; that made a sum 10+5 and that's easy - it's 15'.

The second child demonstrated the thinking our teachers are striving to develop - she was fluent, she understands place value, addition and the associative property between numbers in order to arrive at a correct response - she was efficient, accurate and flexible in her thinking, all in a matter of a few seconds. The first child may well have arrived at the right answer eventually but without the key ingredient of actually fully understanding the properties of the numbers he was working with.

Developing fluency in numeracy has been a major strategy for development at Peregian Springs State School this year. We have been lucky enough to work with an esteemed educator in the field, Rob Profitt-White. If you are interested in these ideas you may like to listen to one of our teachers, Chris Wise, interviewing him on the topic - Fluency in Numeracy.

So when you are next helping your child with their number facts homework, ask them to explain how they arrived at their answer, rather than simply focussing on whether they give you the 'right' answer in the shortest amount of time. Thinking deeply about numbers takes time to develop and if you can do this, being the last one left standing on a Friday morning is not all that important.