Snarks and Ladders

Today, I learned a very valuable lesson.

Watch what you write on essay feedback!

See, when I am marking, I sit down, I read, I write, I read a little more, I write a lot more… and I do this for a good few hours.  Your brain kinda sinks into this weird rhythm, and you write your feedback without really thinking about it.

And then you end up writing the following on a boy’s essay:

You need more length.

Sure, I should have qualified that.  Something like ‘You need more length in your response’.  Or, hell, ‘you need to write more’.  But, no, my stupid brain comes up with ‘You need more length’.

I don’t think I need to go into the crap Year 12 have been giving me all day.

I’m in the middle of marking my kids’ HSC trials at the moment.  It’s a slow, painful process, where I get through an essay every half hour, write more in feedback than the kid wrote in their response, and beat my head against metaphorical and physical brick walls in utter frustration.

Unfortunately, the performance of this cohort has not been as good as I had hoped.  Many of them are entering that awful ‘blah I hate school fuck the HSC’ period that seems to happen every year, which means they couldn’t be arsed actually, y’know, trying.  Some times I wonder what the whole point of the exercise is, apart from trying to keep me in a job.  It feels more about pushing the kids towards an exam than it is about educating them, and when it comes to marking time, it just makes me tired and grouchy.

I guess part of the problem is that the HSC has become so broad.  Once upon a time, you only really considered doing the HSC if you planned to go to uni.  If you wanted to do something else, you left at the end of Year 10 and got a job or whatever else.  Now we have kids in Year 12, studying at a higher level than they will ever need in their life, and it all feels so futile.

Or maybe I’m just glum because I have a good 10 hours (at least) of HSC marking ahead of me.  It’s going to be a long, sleepless week…

I am the only person in the world who apparently thinks that this is a bad idea.

Julia Gillard has announced a tax rebate (means tested) on school uniforms.  Currently we have a tax rebate on textbooks and computers for students (although I am not sure how many people actually make use of that), and she has decided that ‘uniforms give people a sense of self, a sense of discipline’.  I can’t say my school uniform ever gave me a sense of self, apart from a few ‘against the rules’ modifications I made to it, but hey… whatever floats your boat.  We aren’t even going to go into my issues with this statement (personally, neither of those are reasons why I like school uniforms)

The thing that irks me is that this tax rebate is really a waste of the Australian tax payers dollar.

1.  Private schools

I’m incredibly against funding private education expenses.  You choose to send your child to a private school.  When you make that choice, you should be assessing whether you can afford it or not.  This includes any uniforms your child may be required to wear.

I do not want to be spending my tax dollar, earned educating children in the public system, funding a private school uniform. 

2.  Public schools.

I know that in New South Wales, for starters, school uniform is not compulsory for students.  All schools have a uniform, and they encourage students to wear it.  However, they can not make a student wear a uniform.

Most students hate school uniforms.  Many parents hate school uniforms.  I know that parents will often buy similar alternatives to school uniforms, because the existing uniform isn’t to their liking.  I had a pair of shorts made out of the skirt fabric when I was at school, because our style of skirt was ridiculously impractical.

The tax rebate encourages parents to buy the uniform, which is supposed to encourage the kids to wear it.  It’s also a stepping stone to eventual compulsory uniform.

I don’t see it working.  I see parents possibly buying uniforms which will languish in the bottom of a cupboard, never to be worn.  I see the kids who do wear them continuing as they did before.  Now their parents might get some money back, yay.

But that money could have been better spent.  The amount of money they are looking at could buy every child from 7-10 a full set of text books for all their courses.  That they could KEEP and OWN.  Wouldn’t that be a better investment?

That amount of money per child could make massive contributions to a school library.

That amount of money could buy schools decent musical instruments and sporting equipment (coming from someone whose school has a horrible music faculty – a broken drum kit and 6 cheap guitars we can’t afford to restring?  Awesome)

Instead, it’s being spent on private school uniforms and non compulsory public school uniforms.  Because you’ll get more votes by giving people tax rebates than spending in public education.

That is why I am mad.

I guess I should clarify this post by stating what the role of an STLA is.

Support Teacher Learning Assistance (STLA)

Support Teachers Learning Assistance (STLAs) have a role within whole school initiatives to improve outcomes for students with learning difficulties.

The STLA’s role as a member of the school learning support team is to:

• identify and assess students experiencing difficulties in learning
• plan, implement, monitor and evaluate programs for students with learning difficulties
• build the capacity of teachers to support students with a diverse range of learning needs

In working collaboratively with school executive, classroom teachers and parents, the STLA may provide support through:

• team teaching
• consultancy and training and development with other teachers
• withdrawal for assessment
• withdrawal of students for short term intensive instruction and monitoring of progress
• support for peer tutoring and other programs

Source: NSW DET (i.e. – the people I work for)

STLA’s are supposed to support students. To encourage them and to make them feel like they can succeed.

Today, my STLA had a word to me about a couple of boys I have in my Year 7 class.  These boys are the archetype for disengaged, disenfranchised learners.  School has no relevance to them or their lives, so they just don’t care.  They have been put in situations for the last 7 years where they will not be able to do anything but fail, so they have just given up trying.  Their usual tactic in class is to sit there mutely and refuse to attempt anything.

She was somewhat frustrated with these boys today when they pulled their usual mute act, and she pulled me aside to talk to me about it.

“None of these strategies will work with these boys”

“I know, I am at a loss with what to do with them as well.  I don’t think there is going to be any quick fix unfortunately”

“You should put them on detention every day until they attempt work”

… Wait, wha’?  Where the hell does it say in the Good Teacher Handbook that it’s a great idea to take students who already have a negative view of school, and chuck them in a detention room every lunch until they break and just attempt some work?  Because that’s bound to improve their view of school and learning, right?

I guess my approach of ‘slowly slowly’, giving them tasks they can achieve and building their confidence is just not fast enough nowadays.

This is what happens when you are the boss’ wife’s best friend and get gifted a job to ‘keep the missus happy’.

AARGH.

Dear Angela,
Congratulations on receiving your offer to study at Charles Sturt University.  I hope you will be able to join us and that your time with CSU will be both enjoyable and academically rewarding.
Please read carefully each page of the Offer of Admission and visit the CSU Admissions Office – Offer and Acceptance web page for instructions on how to accept your offer:  [Insert Link Here!]

….. [Stuff cut out for lack of boringness]

Good luck with your study plans.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!

Now I have to actually put my money (all 10k of it) where my mouth is!

I applied the other day to do my Masters of Education by correspondence over the next two years.  Madness?  Most likely.  I hardly have time to be attempting any form of study on top of everything else that I manage in life, but I figured I’m never going to have any MORE time than what I have now, and I’d find a way to make it work.

I told my mother when she was out here that I had applied to do my Masters.  She wasn’t especially enthusiastic about the whole idea, especially after I told her how much it would cost. I guess my family really don’t believe in education for education’s sake.  I tried to convince her that it would be useful, and by the time the conversation ended I was second guessing myself.

What if I don’t get a teacher librarian position?

What if I never travel to a country where you need your Masters to teach?

What if it does cause me to stress out while I am trying to work?

What if I just don’t have what it takes to finish it?

I think my biggest concern is having the motivation to complete the work.  I’m a chronic procrastinator, and I don’t know how I will manage doing the whole thing by correspondence.  I just KNOW that I’ll be up late at night when I have an assignment due, frantically working and not sleeping.  I’m scared I’m going to fail miserably – sure, I got good marks when I was at uni before, but that was just a bachelor’s degree, and I have a sneaking suspicion they are a lot harsher on post-grad students.

Still, I could be worrying over nothing.  I may not even get in yet!  I haven’t heard anything – I know that they received the last of my paperwork on Friday, and it’s pending review.  I guess I’ll hear by the end of the week. 

I’m not even sure if I want to get in or not.

I’ll admit I have enormous problems when I write report comments.  I am such a perfectionist that I can easily sit there rewording one students comment for over an hour.  Most teachers I know average a report comment every ten minutes – I usually average half an hour per comment.\

The biggest issue that I have is that I want my report to be useful to the parents.  I want them to be able to read it and have an immediate understanding of where their child is at, what they are able to do, and what they need to work on.  However, I also have to balance this with the style that the school and the Department expect, and these things do not always meet up.  For instance, many parents have expressed an interest in their child’s behaviour at school, and this is something that we have a limited ability to comment on in a report card.  The standard now is to comment on academic achievement, not behaviour.

However, there is a vast difference in commenting styles even within the school.  My report comments read very differently to other teachers.  My comments tend to be structured somewhat like the following:

[Your child] has demonstrated a sound understanding of the concepts studied in English this semester. She composed and presented an effective oral presentation which reflected her sound understanding of poetry and her ability to deconstruct texts and identify textual features. [Your Child] has shown enthusiasm in all aspects of English, and contributes willingly to class discussion and assists her peers. [Your Child] could consolidate her skills in this course by reading at home and revising before examinations.

I have seen other teachers’ report comments, which tend to be more like this:

[Your Child] has achieved pleasing results this semester. He attempts all set tasks in class, and made a good effort on [Assessment A]. However, he did not make a substantial effort at [Assessment B], which was disappointing. [Your Child] could benefit from attending the after school study program.

There’s quite a bit of difference between the two comments.  Mine are unfortunately rather heavy with teacher speak, but I find it difficult to explain exactly what children are able to do without using it.  We also aren’t meant to make value judgements like ‘pleasing’, but I know many teachers do so anyway, and I think many parents expect it.

What would you expect to see on your child’s report card?  What sorts of things would you want to see and know about, and how would you like to see it written?

Teachers in Australia (especially those in the public system) are largely perceived as a left wing, union oriented group of people, who like nothing better than to indoctrinate our children with an extreme left, government hating perspective.

In my case, the former is certainly true.  I’m a card carrying member of the union.  I tend to vote for a more ‘left’ candidate in most elections (not that a true left actually exists in Australia).  However, I resent the fact that I am accused of telling children who they should vote for and of trying to brainwash them.  How ridiculous!

At the same time, it is impossible for me to teach without some of my personal perspective coming through.  It’s not a huge issue in most of my classes – you can avoid politics pretty handily when you teach English, but History is a totally different kettle of fish.

I tend to be a postmodernist when it comes to Historiography.  I don’t think that History can be separated from the perspective of the person writing or telling it.  Not only is that true of the people recording History, but also the people telling it and teaching it.  I can’t help but teach the Whitlam Dismissal with sympathy for the man who introduced meaningful public healthcare and education.  Similarly, I am going to find it difficult to teach about Howard, the man who introduced WorkChoices and was a key part of the Children Overboard scandal.  Try as I might to be unbiased, my thoughts and opinions are still apparent to anyone with half a brain.

I spent a lot of time pulling my hair out over this.  I’d get ridiculously upset – the last thing I wanted to do was to ‘force’ children to see the world from my point of view.  And then I realised – I can’t teach in a vacuum.  I can’t separate myself and my life experience from my teaching, no matter how hard I try.  No matter how much the media and the politicians might say otherwise, me stating my opinion is totally different to me forcing my opinion on people.  I don’t tell the kids that believing something different to me is wrong.  In fact, the only time I tell them their opinion is ‘wrong’ is when they are basing it on things which simply aren’t true (such as ‘Australia is getting taken over by Asian people!  OMG panic!’  Thanks Pauline for breeding THAT little misconception).  Even then, it’s a matter of ‘’Believe what you like, but for HEAVEN’S sake please base it on actual fact!”

If your child is getting ‘too much’ of their opinion from their teacher, I wouldn’t be too concerned.  A teacher’s role in a child’s life is by nature transient – children are often influenced on a short term basis by their teachers, but ultimately it is the influence of friends and family that truly sticks.  Teachers try to be a good influence – really, we do – but we can’t be perfect, and we can’t please everyone.  And we certainly aren’t interested in swaying your child’s opinion – rather, we want our students to develop the skills to become independent thinkers.

So, I’m sitting here, eating Nutella by the heaped spoonful, wondering what the heck I am going to write about.  It has been one of those strange fortnights where, while a whole lot has happened, it all sounds incredibly boring or stupid when I talk about it.

At the moment, I know that I should really be either writing reports or marking exams.  After all, the Year 12 reports are due tomorrow (eeeek!), and I am feeling a little pressed for time.  Part of the problem, I guess, is that the moronic executive at work only gave us a week to mark exams and get the reports done.  The other part would be that moron me went away for the weekend instead of sitting at home and marking like I should have done.

I guess, in some ways, the weekend away was kinda worth it.  Even if it means I have spent at least $200 drinking in the last week or so alone (bender and a fricking half, looking forward to easing back off the sauce with an alcohol free weekend this weekend).  I had a moderately good time, got to catch up with a few people I hadn’t seen in a while, and spent two days with the only friend I have here who doesn’t piss me off within a few hours. 

Anyway, while I was away, I got to thinking.  And then I got to talking to my friend about it, and we weirdly enough thought basically the same things.

I wouldn’t mind living in this town for most of the rest of my life.  Sure, I miss the ocean, mountains, trees… all that stuff we don’t have.  But, there are a bunch of  nice people out here, the career prospects are good, and it’s inexpensive.  I’d buy a block of land, build my dream house on it, settle in quite nicely and be happy for the most part.

Unfortunately, making a decision that big also means that I am essentially forced to resign myself to being single for the rest of my life.  There just isn’t that many locals to choose from, and I only have a few years left before all the men who come in to town (as police, or teachers, or whatever else) will all be too young for me.  I don’t mind being single as a short term thing – although it’s not something I would prefer, I can live with it – but essentially condemning myself to it forever kinda sucks. 

Why?  Because I have yet to meet a man who would be willing to make the big move and come out here.  To be fair, if you don’t work for the government, and don’t want to do farm work, there isn’t a lot out here.  However, it would be nice to meet someone who would be willing to give it a go.  Looking at a lot of the men I have been involved with, most of them could have found a job that is basically the same as what they are doing now (especially the couple of them who work from home).  They were just unwilling to try and see what it would be like out here, even in the short term.

It would be easy to get on my soap box and say that men are unwilling to move out here because it goes against the whole idea of the male ‘breadwinner’ when you put the woman’s career before the man’s.  I suspect that part of it IS exactly that.  However, it is a big ask of anyone to pack their bags and move to the middle of nowhere.  Unfortunately, most people assume that you can not be happy if you aren’t near a city and masses of people.

Maybe my friend and I should just build a house together and become crazy old cat ladies.

Hi, I am a teacher, and I do not like my employer.

Unfortunately, I also can not actually say that without risking getting fired.  Likewise, it is also written into my Code of Conduct that I can not make any criticism of the government, and if I do that, I will also risk getting my ass booted out the door.  It doesn’t matter what the criticism is based on (I could be saying that their healthcare policies suck.  I could be saying that they tax me too heavily.  It doesn’t matter), I just can’t say anything nasty about them.

There’s a reason why my full name isn’t on this here blog.

I also can’t have any inappropriate content on the internet.  This blog is a prime example of inappropriate content.  If some journalist fishing for a story ever finds this blog, my ass is probably screwed 150 ways.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t take all that much to find out who I am, and even though I have been quite vague about personal details, anyone could plausibly discover ‘the real me’.

A lot of people believe that I am paranoid because I find these things concerning. “Surely they wouldn’t really do anything, right?”  “They seriously wouldn’t punish you for saying your opinion, would they?”  I’m not really easily comforted, and recent events are just confirming my rather dismal world view.

Yesterday (funnily enough, right after I was mildly reprimanded for posting an ‘inappropriate image’) I read an article about a couple of female teachers in Queensland who are being disciplined by the Queensland Department of Education over an album on their Facebook pages.  If you don’t read the articles, the pertinent facts are the following (from what I gathered over the last two days of reportage – the articles are getting more poorly researched and written by the day)

• Both teachers work at the same school, in the same faculty.  One of those teachers is the Head Teacher of her faculty.
• One of the teachers had an album containing ‘provocative’ shots of the women (as far as I can see, they must have been going to a costume party or something) dressed in ‘school girl’ outfits.   She had tagged the other teacher in the photos.
• The album could be seen by people who were accepted as friends of the women.  It could NOT be seen by just anyone (although the more recent ‘summary-style’ articles that have been appearing on the matter do not make this clear at all, and some of the articles are deliberately misleading)
• One of the women made an image her profile picture
• The women had ex-students added as friends on Facebook.

I have so many issues with this it’s not funny.  The first and most bloody obvious is that the image is NOT AT ALL OFFENSIVE.  The woman in question is essentially covered up, there’s nothing hanging out of the costume, and the pose is mildly provocative at best.  Yes, making it her Facebook profile picture may not have been the smartest move, but, in all honesty – who hasn’t had at least one saucy profile image?

The second is that the media is implying that all students would have been able to see the album.  Now, I’m going to go out on a limb here, and assume (I know, naughty!) that they had no current students on their profiles.  Why?  Because if they did, the media would have jumped right on that.  Nothing juicier than teachers allowing kids on their Facebook, right?

The album was viewable by friends only.  All of my albums are set to that permission status, and I trust that this means none of my current students can see my albums.  This, according to the policy of every bloody education authority in the country, is adequate.  We are required to hide our personal information and inappropriate content from students by setting privacy settings to a suitable level.  If a student hacks their way around it, this is not the teacher’s fault (no more than it would be the teacher’s fault if a student took photos of them through their bathroom window).

The media is also aghast that the women had a student who graduated last year as a friend.  Now, some people find it inappropriate, but many teachers have ex-students as friends on Facebook.  Once a student has graduated, there is nothing that says we can not add them.  I find the sneering implications that these teachers added students BEFORE they graduated to be insulting and offensive.  They have no current students, and there is nothing to substantiate ANY statement that the ex-students on there were added before graduating.

I honestly believe that the media have jumped on what was seen as a juicy story, and blown it completely out of proportion.  By naming and shaming these women (who, as far as I can tell, have not actually violated any policies) in national media, and making comments suggesting that they will lose their jobs, or should lose their jobs, they have intentionally harmed these women.  Not to mention the articles that have gone so far as to interview these women’s students about the matter – because that’s totally appropriate and fair – to get feedback like

“They are too old for Facebook anyway”

“It’s really wrong, especially when one of them has a husband and kids” (what, being married and having children precludes you from dressing a little provocatively or something?)

or, my favourite quote:

“The student said one of the teachers was known to interact playfully with some of the older male students, but said it was done in good humour.”  Right.  That’s totally not hinting at anything there, is it?

I guess teachers lost the right to be people in their own time and space when the Lynne Tziolas scandal started.  Things have only gone downhill from that point on.

For the record, I did have four ex-students as friends on Facebook.  Since this ridiculous mess, I have cut down to one – she also happens to work bar at the pub I frequent and also attends many social occasions I attend, being a friend of some of my friends.  I also deleted a couple of albums that no one could see unless they were my friend, but that failed to protect these women, so I couldn’t trust that it would protect me as well.  Heaven forbid anyone see a photo of a teacher dressed a little scandalously, or drinking alcohol!  Especially a female teacher!