Cam’s Ramblings

I have learnt one big thing in the past week. Never take anything I know for granted!

I was always told when going into the classroom to assume my kids nothing, and once they demonstrate some skill or knowledge then adjust the plan. I was given this advice again this week, and I thought that I had written a series of lessons for my years 7’s which took this on board. How wrong I was!

I am currently doing a unit with these two classes where I am introducing them to algebra. We started with patterns, then writing in algebra and proumerals, then substitution and finally like terms. Initially I had planned to comlete this unit in about a week and a half, giving students one period per exercise in their textbooks. However by lesson two I saw how much these kids were struggling, because I aimed my ideas and examples above an introductory level.

In turn, I have adjusted the lessons so much. The unit is now running for two and a half weeks, which means that instead of doing the unit on equations I will only get the chance to to introduce it which isn’t too bad. I’m happy with what I have done on these rounds, and am feeling more than ready to step into the classroom next January.

And because my laptop battery is about to die, and I can’t be bothered going to get the power cable, I will end this post now.

When I was in year 7 (about 9 years ago) I decided to put myself up for nomination to our schools Student Council. I got elected, and started to go along to all of the meetings. After about a term, the Council had decided that it was time to nominate a charity or community group to raise funds for. The traditional ideas went around, Good Friday Appeal, CFA, Life Savers…. there were a few local groups too I hadn’t heard of, and also some church based groups (I went to a Christian school). I thought that a group I had been involved in, a scout group, could use some money. After all, the scout group had few resources, dwindling membership and a dilapidated hall.

Despite all of this, there was still a need for us in the community. Whenever we did anything community based, we always got a lot of support, however we were not able to do as much as we had once done, because of a lack of funds (which was a result of less people). So at the Council meeting, I put my hand up to suggest my scout group. A few other hands were up, and their ideas taken, however when I was te second to last hand still in the air I decided very quickly to put it down.

A boy in year 8, who later became one of my good friends in high school, turned around and drew attention to the fact I had put my hand up to say something, then quickly drew it back down. He said to me, quietly, ‘I know you’ve got something to say’. He then drew the entire group of students in the room into it, and I just baked down, shy little me, and claimed I had forgotten.

This catchphrase caught on however, and was often how this year 8 boy (let’s call him Garreth) would greet me. Truth is, I never ever revealed to him (or anyone at the school, for that matter) what I had originally intended. I still don’t know why I decided to not put my idea forward, it’s never something I gave a lot of thought to. And for some reason, I was thinking about that meeting today.

The other thing that got me thinking today was what my Year 9’s were doing. They were using a program called Audacity. It is a free program which allows uses to record, manipulate and save audio files. The class were creating their own radio shows today, importing songs and recording interviews. I haven’t had much experience with Audacity but I am about to go and download it now. It serves as a potentially useful tool for creating podcasts, as you can save into mp3 format for easy upload to a website.

I don’t know how these two topics are linked, but I’m sure they are somehow.

Today I started the very final part of my uni studies – my last lot of teaching rounds.

I am teaching three classes this time, two year 7 maths and one year 9 IT. The year 7s are so far behind in the curriculum we are going everything we can now to ensure they get the basics. The year 9s, well, I don’t know where they are at. I see them on Friday only, so will no doubt get some time to chat to their class teacher about where they are at.

I spent most of today planning what to do with the year 7s, who are to start their new topic of algebra on Wednesday. As usual, I’d like to think I have some good ideas to take into the classes with them, I am trying to seriously cut down on the amount of time I spend teaching from the textbook.

My initial planning saw me go back to teh book so many times, however I have tried to keep myself from relying on it. I have a bad feeling though that by early next week I may be just trying to push through again. As I said, the classes arre so far behind where they should be, it’s all we can do.

Next Monday marks the beginning of term four, meaning that the past two weeks our students have had time off. Uni has also enjoyed a week off, which I must has has been much needed by many of us.

Yesterday I got home and found piece of mail from Uni, from the faculty office. I knew what it was, as a few friends had received the same mail. It was one of our assignments, which we had submitted for one of our core units about a month ago.

This is the first year this unit has ran, and as such there is a bit of confusion surrounding the aims, assessment and expectations. Our tutor has been quite vocal at times in her confusion surrounding the assessments, and we have spent a lot of time trying to work out exactly what it is we are going to submit.

So anyway, we thought we had figured out what to do, wrote the paper and put it in the slot. We got them back, and I know I was quite surprised to see my mark. The feedback I got seemed to contradict a lot of what we had been told in class. And it doesn’t bode well for the second task which I am in the middle of writing.

We have been told various things about how to present this paper, using subheadings, not using subheadings, it’s an essay, it’s a report, it’s an analysis… each week we are told something different. As always, there is a lesson in this for me to take into the classroom next year.

Any piece of work I ask my students to complete must not only be purposeful, but also be clear. I need to explicitly define what I expect, and if I am unsure I need to clarify what is rerquired. And if I can’t confirm what is expected, I can’t penalise students for using a variety of formats.

Here’s hoping I do slightly better on the second paper!