Singing

I have just attended my grand daughter's end of year concert. It was most enjoyable and cleverly built around the theme of the Covid pandemic.

I am pleased to say the the standard of singing had vastly improved on the previous year's effort.  Shouting is not singing.

As one who places a lot of credence in the value of the Performing Arts to help build self esteem I am always keen to promote excellence in whatever performance medium is used.  It takes a lot of work to teach a child to sing with sweetness and clarity.  The school choir at the recent concert was getting there but more training is needed.  Being  a co-ed primary (elementary) school I was disappointed at the few boys in the choir.  There is nothing like a well trained boy soprano voice. I listened also for the descant applied during the performance, but sadly this was not forthcoming this year.

The school band was in tune and did a good job.  I was pleased that a solo guitar was utilised to back one song with the young teenage guitarist executing brilliantly on his electric guitar.

Overall I worry that the modern pop/rock dominance in our society too strongly influences what schools do in the Performing Arts areas of song and dance. The more classical singing and dancing might be being pushed into the background. There needs to be a balance between the classic and the contemporary.

All hail the value of the Performing Arts in the development of the whole student.

May the Force be with us!

GD

Congratulations to all school Principals

 Covid 19 has meant a tense and worrying 2020 for school Principals across the world. Being ready to react at any time to a school closure due to Covid was a big challenge I am sure, followed by establishing a home schooling regime if needed.

The coming year 2021 in some countries is unlikely to be much better until vaccination programs begin to stop the spread of the virus.

Maybe the festive season will allow the drawing of breath and the recharging of batteries ready for the anticipated challenges. I hope so for the sake of my Principal colleagues and their school staff members and students.

May the Force be with you!

GD

ENTHUSIASM

 Corny, but one to share with students:

ENTHUSIASM

A code to live by

 

E nergy – Work hard; do your best at all times; throw yourself wholeheartedly into what you are doing

N ous – using your common sense to arrive at effective outcomes

T houghtfulness – Thinking you way through events, processes, actions; being helpful to others

H umour – able to laugh with others; able to laugh at yourself; generating positive happiness

U nderstanding – understanding what you need to do; being understanding of others needs

S tamina – stick to the task with grit, perseverance and courage

I nterest – be alert and interested towards everything and everyone in your immediate environment

A cumen – show sensitivity, intelligence and good judgment in what you do, in how you behave and act

S incerity – in general in life mean what you say and do; be loyal where it is deserved

M emory – apply and use your memory to help you through life; apply past learning

 

ENTHUSIASM

GD  May the Force be with you!

Once Upon A Time

 Once upon a time, many eons ago, I used to teach at primary (elementary) school level. I loved involving my students in what was labelled in the then curriculum "Nature Study".  I always hoped that by studying nature, birds, ants, reptiles, bees, and so on to light up a wonder in children for the world in which they lived. I had to set this up within my generalist classroom having no laboratory in the school and this was very restrictive.  I did not use the outside environment as much as I could have as it was not very rich in natural flora and fauna. It was inductive learning of the most basic sort yet I believe it yielded some of the wonder I was aiming for.

In 2020 the schools are so much better resourced and in a Covid free world students experience camps and excursions that provide the opportunities to develop a wonder for the natural world.  There is so much access to observable natural species and events by prima facie observation or by secondary observation through the wonderful media streams now available.

I have to recall that as a student in secondary (high) school in the 1940s and 50s : yes that long ago : I only received flashes of the wonder of the natural world, especially being intrigued by the atomic and ionic structures of matter. I think that was my fault with a lack of maturity obstructing me from benefiting from the wisdom of my science teachers.

As a school Principal I regret not interacting more with the science teachers in my school to encourage them to excite every day. To have their students thirsting for the next science learning experiences.  I suspect it is easier to excite in the biological sciences than in physics and chemistry, although when I see some of the robotics studies in today's schools and the excited faces of the students I should reserve such judgements. 

In the contemporary educational context the emphasis on environmental responsibility for the Earth and the Universe has the potential to make scientific studies more relevant to a wider range of students. I also wonder whether teachers of literature could work in a symbiotic relationship with their science colleagues through poetry genres that light one up about the natural world.  There is the whole pantheist movement of Wordsworth, Keats, Byron and Shelley. Today also drifting into my consciousness was a poem by William Henry Davies entitled "Leisure".  You may recall it

"What is this life if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs.......and so on.  Go on Google it! 

I am fascinated by clouds and love to sit and watch the changing formations, especially imagining the forces in play as clouds build up for a thunderstorm. I have even written a sonnet about this, but having mentioned Wordsworth and Co would be ashamed to bore you with it.

As a university student studying metaphysics in philosophy I was fascinated by the argument by Design for the existence of God or if you will a Supreme Being. It would be exciting to open a biology lesson with the argument by Design, where we were to microscopically explore the delicate minutiae of some organism where intricate patterns are revealed. This would not be an attempt to convert students to a belief in God, but to show them how areas of learning connect in the creative minds of humans.  All good fuel to light up the wonderment in learning. We could then pose the question: How could evolution come up with such intricate designs within these organisms?  The teacher, if not framing all this carefully might expect emails from some parents about having raised the Creation theory/evolution theory debate that challenges many educators across the United States. Might be a bit radical to do this and I would only suggest it with Senior High School students.

Buy a microscope and or a telescope for your children or grand children. If you are a school Principal, a leader of learning in your school, take a major interest about what goes on with the science teaching. I wish I'd been more active in this regard when I was a school Principal.

You probably expected I was a bit eccentric from previous posts, and now all doubts can be cast aside.

May the Force be with you!

GD

Sport in schools

 I have always loved sport and played as best I could with my lack of leg speed but reasonable ball sense. As an Australian I live in a country where sport has an almost religious fervour and sporting stars are held up as role models for the young.  My country almost becomes paranoid when an olympic games is due fuelled by a national fervour to win gold.  Underlying this fervour is the economic benefit that governments see to any country hosting the games, or the Soccer world cup or the Cricket world cup one day series and so on.  The captains of our national teams are revered. The same accord is not given to scientists or social workers although I see signs of this changing.

As a school Principal I enthusiastically promoted school athletics carnivals and team sports. Now as a reflective retired school Principal, father and grandfather I think about the involvement of my children and grandchildren in this cauldron of sporting fever.  I have mellowed considerably and changed my views about the value of sport as part of the school education journey.

First I focus my attention on the cross country running events that many schools run annually.  I see the slower runners a long way behind straggle into the finish line when to all intents and purposes the whole thing is over. I worry that one of my grand daughters spends nights of sleep loss when this annual event looms. She is not a runner, but after coming last in 2019 bravely let her parents enrol her in the running club so she could improve.  It didn't help for the 2020 cross country event and several races in the general athletics carnival that has just occurred. Some of the feedback from the school was that competing develops resilience and helps the children I guess toughen up. I have seen anecdotal research that dismissed this notion of resilience building, especially when one comes last regularly.  The researchers point to what can be a very public humiliation as one trundles up the straight when all others have long completed the event.  The good news is that my grand daughter competed in 2020 without showing much concern that she ran last in her events.  Privately she told me she was glad it was over for another year and that she hated it. In her events she ran against others of similar skill and being only four in each event she was awarded two 4th ribbons.  I guess this helped her manage any feelings of once again being last.  This is a child who performs in the top groups academically and I have gently pointed out to her that in the end it will be mathletics not athletics that matter in her life. I also share with her that her grand father was a very slow runner and had to put up with all that she is experiencing.

Why am I going on about one of my own, acting as an over-protective grand parent. I was not surprised to find, following on from the different insights of the researchers mentioned above, that schools having a free choice whether they will run a competitive event where everyone must participate regardless of their inherent physical skills, are adopting a new approach.  Recognising that some people are not fast runners or swimmers they are creating sporting events that allow the speedy to have their races while the rest of the school is involved in other cheerleader and team events. It becomes more of a fun day when all can enjoy themselves regardless of their physical attributes. This is now occurring in a private secondary school not far from where I live. Interestingly talking with one of the students I learned that she was not one of the speedy ones during her primary school years, but now having grown a lot she has discovered a talent for the longer distances in running.

If I retuned to running a school I think I would now adopt this newer approach that removes the possibility of public humiliation potentially there in competitive compulsory racing. I would also make the physical education program a focus for personal fitness inclusive of the opportunity to hone the skills and the frame that the student has inherited. I am big on this and see it as a way to build confidence in self and to move the mindset of students into the preventive medicine mode, to make each person a good steward of the physical attributes they have inherited.

May the Force be with you!

GD

 

What A World We Are Living In

 Having now experienced online learning with my grand children I take my hat off to the innovative teachers who, at a moments notice, because that is all the notice Covid19 gives us, switched to a full online learning program.  Each morning the program for the day divided into typical school periods was ready for download.  The day commenced with a Zoom meeting setting up the planned learning experiences. Then we got on with it, stopping for morning recess and lunch.  It was like a school day at home. Apart from the wifi groaning under the strain of three students from our house being online all went well until eventually the children were able to return to school full time.

At present the students of the state of Victoria, Australia are back online as the authorities and the populace of Victoria battle to bring a devastating Covid outbreak under control. The good news is that they are winning the battle day by day.

In this unpredictable environment I imagine myself back in harness as a school Principal. I would need to be very agile, as commentators are won't to say these days. As well as disaster plans and building evacuation plans I would now have to be in daily readiness with a Covid19 plan. If and when an outbreak occurred the school would be closed for 'deep cleaning' and we would need to flick the switch to online learning. Underlying this would be the understandable nervousness of the student and staff bodies now faced with a probable 14 days home isolation and Covid testing.

In maintaining preparedness in this fluid environment I as the Principal would have to give much thought about the longer term effects on student learning and the related student wellbeing. I would not be over worried at gaps in the learning of the students at this point, but if there were to be more Covid disruption this could become disastrous for students who do not find learning easy. Solutions do not spring to mind as I write this post. Of a more focussed and immediate concern I would have to have action plans right now for the cohort of students facing final year 12 assessments. This is a stressful and vital time in their lives. 

In Australia there is a team response to this with state assessment bodies and on-the-ground educators seeking the best solution for the 2020 cohort.  Principals will thankfully know what to do, but only time will tell if the decisions were appropriate for these senior students.

My blog is themed as "Schoolprincipalship,yougottaloveit", but many of today's Principals might find this a bit of a stretch under the current pandemic.

May the Force be with all who wage the battle to bring the pandemic to a close.

GD

Preparing for the Unknown

Been off air for a time, but here I am again.

Still stuck on this theme of school Principals and their teachers needing to seriously contemplate preparing students for an unknown world and what this means for the contemporary curriculum. It would be a process of thinking into the future maybe guided by the views of top futurists and ethicists. In a crowded organisational environment like a school this requires valuable time, but I believe it to now be essential.

The Covid19 pandemic has made us all sit up and think how vulnerable we are as humans on this planet. How can we survive such things if we do not act in a globally constructive manner? Nationalism is rife as countries withdraw into themselves.  The pandemic has once again revealed that under such disastrous happenings the inequalities of peoples across the world, including within my own country Australia, are heightened. The poor, the unemployed, the displaced persons as refugees will suffer most. While the pandemic rages people are still being killed by modern weaponry in various conflicts fuelled by power struggles based on religion, territorial disputes and what I can only describe as power-grabbing narcism of some would be dictators.

Ways of waging war are advancing at an exponential rate and are becoming more insidious like the computer hacking attacks by one country upon another that are now commonly reported. Unmanned drones fly in and bomb with so-called precision however the collateral damage to the innocent bystanders still occurs.

This morning I read the following quotation from the science fiction writer Isaac Asimov:

"The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom."

I also am becoming aware of the concept of "cultural cancelling" fanned by the mind blowing communication power of social media.  If you don't like what someone says cancel them! Of course this has to be tempered by the stand we must make against hate type speech. We cannot allow blatant verbal and physical attacks on vulnerable people, for example, as manifest in racial discrimination. Also maybe it is acceptable to cancel the accolades that a statue of a slave trader might receive as a part of our history. Cultural cancelling has a positive and negative side and I see in my own country those who would cancel the pleas and protests from our indigenous Aboriginal people to be recognised in the Australian constitution and to have a special 'voice to parliament'. Surprise, surprise, they even want a treaty in a context of the 1788 colonial invasion of their lands as they perceive it to be. I pray that all this is achieved for them before I leave this mortal coil and at my age this is something that I contemplate a little more often than in the past.

All of the above sits in a context of how people will meet their basic needs in a future where the nature of work is unclear.

By now you will be exhausted or even offended by the picture I have painted.  My purpose is to declare that schools cannot solve these major issues, but they can produce graduates who believe in the power of the individual to make a difference, an individual who had the opportunity to study ethics at senior high school and first year university. I recommend that the study of ethics be compulsory at these levels, but not formally assessed as part of society's recognition of a need to prepare each student for the unknown.  Ethics will be a tool to enable better coping mechanisms in a context of the world described above. Ethics will provide a confidence in the young that they can cope with optimism and a true sense of humanity.

Now I've done it! Who knows how readers will react, but I must take the plunge. It is important in concluding that I note that contemporary curricula in Australia do provide opportunities to study ethics. I simply want to emphasise the importance of this field of learning.



May the Force be with you!


GD

Bullying

I'm sure there is a plethora of research studies on bullying in schools.

I've seen a bit of bullying lately from the subtle 'I was your buddy yesterday, but today am talking with other friends and am not inclined to include you in this interaction' to the outright nasty comment delivered in a variety of ways, not the least of which is via social media devices.

I've noted that girls can be particularly cruel to one another.  Even a little one of 8 years texting to another "I'm cool and you're not".

A mum said to me today that she agreed girls can be vicious to one another, but she does not observe this in boys. She has both amongst her family and cites a particularly bad year for bullying experienced by her daughter. She changed schools and all was well. I'm not saying the bullying caused the change to another school as I don't know the facts of that matter.

I ask the question : Are boys less prone to bullying than girls?  I just am not on top of the research in this area.

I hold to the view that a school community with a skilfully crafted student/staff wellbeing program will have less bullying.  Can anyone out there substantiate my hypothesis or on the other hand refute it with hard research evidence? In my time as a Principal I was concerned with the wellbeing of all staff and students, but did not have a purposefully crafted wellbeing program.  Such a thing was unheard of in my time. This is not an excuse it just wasn't talked about professionally to any great extent.



May the Force be with you!


GD

Still Learning

In my previous post I lauded teachers and principals for the way they have risen to the challenges of online learning for students as a result of the covid pandemic. I also mentioned that I'd been able to mentor my young grand children as they participated in the online learning from home.

It was a learning experience watching the skills of 8 and 9 year olds year olds in using the iPad, the vehicle for the learning.  Even more exciting was my re-education on how maths is taught today.

I had left the classroom environment before the use of mathematical things such as the number line appeared in the curriculum. I had been clinging to the view that a sound grounding in automatic response to knowing the multiplication tables and the number facts to 19 were a basic grounding to achieving numeracy. Also being effective in bridging tens for addition. I clung to this view even in the context of calculators being available. I was enlightened in seeing my grand children use the number line to carry out complex addition and subtraction. They were learning to tackle theses tasks in a problem solving sort of way rather than just utilising the automatic responses of which I speak.

I also marvelled at their knowledge of 2D and 3D shapes and how they understood faces, edges and vertices. They were even into a more geometric approach to angles within the 360 degree spectrum.

'Look it's nothing new', I hear you say, 'you have just been away form the coalface for too long'. Be that as it may I am beginning to see the STEM influence across the mathematic's curriculum.  I have been converted from a view that the mathematicians had hijacked the school maths syllabus to the detriment of the necessary attainment of functional numeracy.

Despite all of the above revelations I still think it would be easier all round for students if they achieved the automatic responses noted above.  These could be applied within the problem solving approach.  I could see where my grandies laboured at times because they did not know the appropriate tables and number facts.  They were resorting to counting on fingers and saying the appropriate time tables from the beginning until they reached the table needed.  Very laborious despite the new methods they had available.

A constructive blending of the old with the relatively new might be the answer.

Got to say that for my teenage grandchild I was blown away by the idea of using Excel in calculating
surface area variations in 3D shapes.  This for me is STEM truly in action in the contemporary mathematic's approach.

Oh to be young again and experiencing innovative teachers of maths going about the business of opening up such a wide range of career choices through the STEM approach.

Please don't be too hard on me you maths' experts out there.

May the Force be with you!


GD

An Educational Revolution

While universities have been running online learning for some time now Covid19 has meant that for weeks Australian schools have been teaching students online as they maintained isolation measures at home.

I was privileged to mentor my grand children in this online learning and I compliment the teachers on how they adjusted and brought effective learning into the many homes. This was a new thing for these teachers but they met the challenge as I always maintain teachers do.  I think it opened the eyes of many parents just how complex and demanding the teaching job can be. This week my grandies returned to full time attendance at school. I could hear the sighs of relief form many parents whispering across the land.

I take my hat off to the Principals who have been faced with complex decisions during the Covid pandemic.  Traditionally schools have a detailed emergency evacuation and disaster response plan. Now they also have a Covid plan to keep students and staff safe and to respond quickly to a student or staff member testing positive.

I've not written a post for some time owing to the passing of a loved one from my family, but here I am back on deck with maybe a few more tiresome thoughts from a retired Principal.  I say again being a school principal is one of the most rewarding jobs on the planet.

May the Force be with you!

GD

Educator bashing

Been off air for some time but becoming sick of the teacher and school Principal criticism by politicians in Australia.  They just don't get it, that is, how complex it is to run a school and to teach.

It is true that contemporary teachers and Principals are under more pressure than in my days as a teacher and Principal, however even in those days these vital jobs were no walk in the park.

The nub of the criticism is that Australian students are falling behind in the world rankings in literacy, numeracy and science learning. The stats for Australian students on the PISA (Program or International Student Assessment) were viewed negatively, most recently in New South Wales where the Premier of that State expressed concern at the decline in mathematics on the PISA tests (Sydney Morning Herald, 20 February, 2020, p18).

The stats from the Australian annual NAPLAN (National Assessment Program in Literacy and Numeracy) testing are always under eagle eye political scrutiny. The results in recent years have drawn a lot of criticism from politicians.  The irony in my view is that the administration of and coaching for these tests takes up too much teacher and student time that would be better spent on mastering the prescribed curriculum learning outcomes in literacy and numeracy. Australia has an excellent national curriculum K-12 and each state has its variations of this.

I have laboured long and hard in this blog to indicate the strategy to overcome the above deficiencies.  It is based at least in Primary (Elementary) school around mastery in the English language skills and mathematics skills, knowledge and understandings.  At this level of schooling there is no need for rigorous mastery of the prescribed syllabus learning outcomes in the other subject areas except perhaps for Digital Technology and Science.  I wouldn't even require mastery of in science at this level.  I would be contented to be able to say for these non mastery syllabus areas that my graduating students have covered all the required learning outcomes in these non mastery areas and are enthusiastic and ready for the more specialised requirements of Secondary (High) schooling. I would be able to have each graduating student carry detailed records for literacy and numeracy into the hands of the receiving Secondary school teachers.  Throughout the primary school years each student's report would show a special comment section on how they are progressing in attaining in functional literacy and numeracy. Parents want to know this.

Readers there is so much detail in previous posts about all this with the above being a brief recap.

As for School Principals any Principal worth their salt will be regularly assessing how their school community is going against a set of school effectiveness criteria.  Hopefully their training makes them competent  to do this.  Such effective Principals would be confident to open their schools to an external effectiveness audit at any time.  Previous posts cover all this in detail.

Without being a showoff it would be useful for politicians to read the posts in this blog.

Frustrated as ever!

May the Force be with you.