Symposium, the Voice of Youth

Inspired by the Summit 2020, we last year launched a ‘Youth Symposium’ for our Year 11 English class. This has been a fantastic, purpose driven task that really helped to develop the leadership of our Year 11s as they prepared for provisional leadership in their final years at the college.

Last year, students focused on CHANGING OUR SCHOOL with symposium proposals that included: school lockers, a student study centre at the college, development of the Duke of Edinburgh Award, a ‘School Band’ and ‘Music’ program and laptops in school.

The Principal, Deputy Principal, Business Manager and a range of other classes (and teachers) were invited to attend the final Symposium presentation after a full rehearsal. Students commented that they were committed to their project presentation because they knew ’that the people who were attending had the influence and money to make the projects happen’. Just what we had hoped! 

We have just launched a similar brief with our current (2010) Year 11′s and thought I would keep an online record of our progress. The task will be maintained as a PAGE on this website and will be updated weekly for the purpose of outlining some of the projects and the kind of support that has been offered to students in developing their symposium topic.

I would LOVE to hear if others have tried this and what success they have experienced. You can see our progress on my ‘other’ blog if it is something you are keen to follow-  HERE IS A LINK TO SYMPOSIUM PAGE.

The OTHER Balance of Power – Australian Youth!

I love hearing of ‘firsts’, especially from our young people. Lately we have heard a few! Jessica Watson and Wyatt Roy are the latest to hit our screens and it is exciting to truly celebrate their accomplishments.

Over the last decade, youth success has been hijacked by (what I call) ”celebritism”; making celebrity out of random opportunity rather than accomplishment. I hate to think that there had been a void of prior talent but I was constantly frustrated at the examples presented to our kids as ‘successful’ by popular culture. “Big Brother” contestants who extend their 15 minutes of fame to years of fruitless folly or the Paris Hilton set who inherited their fame and generated on-going publicity by seeing how low they could set the bar.

As teachers, we often hear from students who are seeking to achieve at the “lowest possible PASS point”. When teaching a class I recoil when I hear students ask “Have I written enough?”, “Do we have to read the book, can’t we just watch the movie?” or “What do we have to do this for?”

But, I take motivation seriously. I want my students to WANT to read, to WANT to do THEIR work, to aim BEYOND a mere PASS. Of course, my lessons have to be engaging and captivating and motivating – which of course THEY ALWAYS ARE! But I also want to tap into this newer, richer, current (perhaps temporary?) fame that young Australians are generating.

We need to talk up THIS kind of success as a PRODUCT of big thinking and big dreams BUT ALSO of Big cost, Big risk, Big discipline, Big routines, Big skills, Big help and Big perseverance! I want Wyatt and Jessica to ”speak” to my classes – so that my classes PRODUCE Wyatts and Jessicas.

E-Portfolios – OR Why I Wish I Was A Student Again!

I have a great interest in this area and have been examining a wide range of online facilities that students are able to utilise. Mahara.org certainly seems to have the best scope for our needs (from the ones I have looked at – Moodle ready). I like the idea of a student being able to carry their accomplishments, results and samples with them across their learning years / lives. It ‘feels’ more like going to school to ‘write your life book’.

We talk of the notion of ‘life-long learning’ and this is a true opportunity to capture it all’. I can see many benefits;

• Strong sense of ‘audience’/ ‘readership’ through online publication (secured distribution)
• Record of ‘progress’
• Organisational maintenance of portfolio
• Students look for opportunities to capture their achievement
• Ongoing access to assessment items that can influence new learning
• Functional – students should be able to use their e-portfolio as a project that ‘moves with them’ both from year to year, but also, school to school.
• Mum’s LOVE it!

A particularly useful resource for teachers who may want to investigate this further has been produced at  http://wiki.rscwmsystems.org.uk/index.php/Eportfolios if you have no intention of visiting the site – no worries – here’s a video!

The Art of Debate

Today was the school Debate Final. I like the way students are able to bring ‘surprising’ points into their argument. I had previewed all of the student’s talks but a few choice moments still managed to slip in as they artistically delivered their passionate tirades. We had fun with our topics.

The debate ’qualifying heat’ topic was “Tim Tams Rock“. The kids raised some impressive arguments. One student emailed Arnotts 4-5 times to find out what percentage of the product was sourced from West African, non-fair trade cocoa beans. IMPRESSIVE! We must have an investigative journalist on our hands because the company eventually conceded that they currently sourced 5% of their cocoa from West African, non-fair trade sources but were working to address this issue.

Our final debate revolved around the topic, “Laughter is the Best Medicine“, one team promoted vegetables, exercise and more intimate activities over ‘laughter’ as the more beneficial to one’s health. The other had sourced a recent ABC Radio National program that talked about men using ‘humour’ and the ability to make their female counter-parts ‘laugh’ as a great ‘source of appeal to the opposite sex’ but cautioned that it was a poor compensation for the original ‘primitive man hunter’ who was able to impress through their bravery and ability to deliver meat for dinner.

The lesson for me over the past couple of days (Mock Trial yesterday and Debate performances) has been to keep EXPECTING more from my students.

Many of our curriculum standards have been reduced to a new low but they can’t be the benchmark for OUR expectations. I recently read of a scientific experiment where two Science classes conducted an identical experiment with lab mice. One class of students were given a MOUSE MAZE and a MOUSE each. The teachers told the class that the mice were slightly mentally deficient or more crudely ‘Lab Stupid Rats’ – they were instructed to ’try to get the mice to move through the maze as quickly as they can even though they are stupid.’

Image via Wikipedia

The second class were given lab mice and were told that these mice were “super intelligent and could out perform any other mouse” in terms of their ability to work through the maze. Their job was to try to measure their fastest speed. The mice were fed the same food, given the same contact time with students, worked with the identical maze (size and pattern). The outcome: The “super intelligent mice” performed 350% faster than the “lab stupid” mice in subsequent testing. Of course there were no ‘stupid’ or ‘smart’ mice – they were all the same. The only factor that changed was the student’s EXPECTATION of their performance. How much MORE SO for our students?

World Teacher’s Day – 29th October, 2010

Thanks WACOT – Two whole months for students to prepare to CELEBRATE US!

CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS: http://wateacherslounge.wordpress.com/2010/08/24/world-teachers-day-29-oct-2010/

Mock Trial – To Kill A Mockingbird

Today my Year 11 English class presented a mock trial of Tom Robinson from “To Kill A Mockingbird” (Harper Lee). It was not designed to be a ‘dramatic’ production but rather an investigation of the text we had been studying. I had only allowed a double period for preparation, one rehearsal and then they worked toward a “LIVE” presentation to a couple of other classes. Their showcase demonstrated depth and a solid ownership of their characters, especially given the short amount of time they had to preppare. 

It took about 45 minutes to complete with court proceedings. bailiff, Judge Taylor, Prosecution (and assistant), Defence (our beloved Atticus and assistant) and testimony from Link Deas, Heck Tate, Robert Ewell, Mayella Ewell and Thomas Robinson (the accused). On reflection, students always rise to a sense of PERFORMANCE and AUDIENCE and having the visiting classes and additional staff attend was a great bonus. 

We decided to have two juries for this case; a 1930′s Jury (who of course found Robinson guilty) and a 2010 Jury of Year 8 students who found him not guilty. I think the real value of these activities is the discussion afterwards. Students tended to demonise the attitudes of 1930′s/1960′s Americans but a discussion of indigenous attitudes or ‘boat people’ certainly raises some interesting comparisons – just a little scratch below the surface so to speak.

 I haven’t experimented with a Mock Trial before but would definitely do so again. Would strongly consider something similar for a camp activity – the students were  committed to their roles and have displayed a strong sense of ownership of the text in their discussions.  If anyone wants the Mock Trial Pack I generated – please just ask, I am happy to know it may be a duplicated activity.

Open Letter

 

Image by Caro Wallis via Flickr

An Open Letter response to the West Australian article entitled: “Teachers banned from giving kids sweet treats”.

I confess. As a high school educator – I’m the “Candyman”. I believe that an ‘occasional’ treat holds value when it is … ‘occasional’ and unexpected. Increasingly, my teaching world is defined by what “I CAN’T DO” i.e I can’t pat a student on the back to congratulate their effort, I can’t keep them back after class to say “I liked your attitude today”, I can’t refer to them in any kind of “semi-affectionate” manner, I can’t drive them in my car to an excursion, I can’t screen PG movies, I can’t have class “end-of-term-parties” and now … I can’t reward them with a lolly!

Perhaps some teachers are using “Minties” and “Fantails” as a form of slow assassination; however, the evidence is pretty slim. It seems some sectors are hell-bent on radical change for change’s sake and they won’t let up until we ban desserts at the Year 12 Ball and biscuits from our School Camp shopping lists. With teachers facing a wave of pressure from an ever-shifting-curriculum and scrutiny from media over some educator’s inability to spell “recommend” – it would be nice to think that our profession might be thrown a “jaffa” from a grateful government!