Dear parents/caregivers,

In term 2 we will be looking at the theme of climate change in our class. This topic will feature in our socitey and environment and mathematics lessons and will also have a little science, design and technology and English content. The students will be working on their literacy and numeracy skills and will use information and communication technologies in research and presentations. Some of our activities will be:

• an experiment to demonstrate the greenhouse effect
• watching an episode of “Enough Rope with Andrew Denton” which features an expert on climate change
• running a “company” that is environmentally aware but also turns a profit
• recording students carbon footprint
• a lot of whole class and group discussions
• developing individual action plans that reflect students opinions on climate change

Over the holidays I encourage you to take any opportunities to discuss the topic of climate change with your children so that they are already thinking about it when they come back to school. Be honest with them about how you feel about it because we need many diverse opinions for the students to be able to make up their own minds about the information they receive. Should you come across a pamphlet in the supermarket, an article in a newspaper or a magazine or anything else that discusses climate change; please keep it for your child. You could talk to them about it too and see whether their ideas change during our unit of study. Hopefully we will have a good collection of material brought in by students that we can discuss in class.

If any of the activities listed above interest you, please feel free to contact me. I would love to discuss them with you and get you involved if you wish. Likewise, if you have any concerns about your child participating in any of the class activities, we can always make alternative arrangements.

I look forward to communicatin with you again next term,

Jess

I am going to begin my reflection on critical numeracy by thinking back a few (a lot of!) years to when I was in year 11 modern history. This was when I first learned about critical literacy. I had an awesome teacher, Mr Inkster who taught us how to learn for ourselves. I remember studying the Russian revolution and Mr Inkster explaining how paritcular leaders of the time used propaganda and created historical documents including photos. Our essays were not merely regurgitation of rote learned dates and events, but inquiries into events that involved seeking out primary and secondary sources and critically analysing them. We also did other awesome things like deconstuct protest songs (Bob Dylan’s Blowin’ in the Wind) and the Australian national anthem. As a student I was shocked to discover the value laden nature of Advance Australia Fair. Mr Inkster also gave us the “toolbox”. This was a failsafe way of looking at an essay question from a number of different perspectives (e.g. political, historical, economical etc.) and responding accordingly. I still use this method today!

Now, moving on to critical numeracy. This concept was certainly not taught in my maths classes up to year 11 (after which I dropped maths like a hot potato). I guess being a language and arts student, my interest in the subject may have been held for longer if teachers had used this approach. Maths was a very “textbook” kind of subject that involved processes, rules and “facts”.

Learning about mathematics as a social construction (in the last year) has meant that I believe that somewhere deep down inside I could find a liking for maths. In fact, if I can work out what it is that can motivate me to be interested in it, I could become an even better teacher of maths because I could help students like me to find that thing too. I think that teaching both of the “criticals” (literacy and numeracy) prepares students with life long skills of inquiry. The point of my stories above is that one does not necessarily transfer across to the other. The literacy and numeracy components must be addressed separately  and correlations drawn after the information is processed to assist generalisation.  

1. Article discussion questions

Article 5: smoking, alcohol and solar protection

The article in itself was blah; boring, nondescript information dragged from literature and then unable to be proven (necessitates further studies, etc…). This article brings up the idea of the Health Promoting School. This seems to be another wishy washy concept all about “liaising with communities and parents, controlling the school environment and providing healthy choices for students”. Apparently there is clear evidence of a philosophical shift at international, national and state levels to push for the Health Promoting School however; it is not clear to what level it is being adopted at a school level. Are you surprised? There are no guidelines as to how to become a Health Promoting School.

Article 6: What is a Health Promoting School?

The Ottawa Charter seems to have come closest to answering this question so far. It states that the 5 key planks of the Health Promoting School are:

·         Building healthy public policy

·         Creating supportive environments

·         Strengthening community action

·         Developing personal skills

·         Reorienting health services

There is an example of how the Health promoting Schools framework is applied in a school to address the topic of eating and body image problems. It is good to see a concrete example of how this approach can be used. It is interesting that the approach is used in a reactionary way to a health problem within the school rather than as a preventative measure.

·         Is it possible to use the Health Promoting Schools approach as a preventative education measure, or is there too much content in the health area?

Article 7: Developing indicators to enhance school health

This is a longwinded document about health indicators which summarised the point that the Health Promoting Schools concept is unable to be defined in terms of success. If there are no guidelines for its application, its success cannot be measured.

2. How will you build a safe and supportive classroom that is inclusive of all?

“Wellbeing” means the same thing to all people: happiness. This can be achieved by ensuring that the classroom is a safe environment for teacher and students. It is imperative that there is a sense of community based on respect for self and others. All students and the teacher must feel valued in the classroom. The class community needs to continually work towards maintaining an environment that is free from bullying and put downs, and celebrates all forms of diversity. I think that if we can teach students to how to strike a balance between the important things in their lives, we will help them to become happier adults.

3. The school in which you work will shape your health and that of the students.

I don’t really know enough about my school yet to reflect on all of the areas specified. I do know that the children must wear hats to play outside, or else go to the library or media studies areas at play times. Students who are not provided with lunches from home are able to go to the special class (my class for prac) with a note and receive a sandwich made by the class SSO and students. This ensures that children have eaten at lunch and gives the students in my class an important responsibility.

4. Partnerships with the wider community.

• The school is quite open in terms of fences, but I believe it is currently going through the process of becoming a birth to 7 school, which will involve building all new buildings on the site that is currently the school oval. This means students will temporarily lose access to that area while the new school is being built.
• My school has a very high proportion of students from non English speaking backgrounds. Members of the community are frequently useful in communicating with parents. For example we have an SSO who speaks a rare dialect of Chinese, a student in my class has a mother who speaks that particular language. Also, parents of the students in the special class are heavily involved in classroom activities.
• My class attends swimming once a week at a nearby community swimming centre and also attends integration into a year level appropriate class on Fridays.
• Once again, I am not yet familiar enough with my school to judge whether their health policies could be improved.

How do groups work in classrooms?

• allow children to explore their ideas
• student’s guide the learning experience
• encourage effective communication and problem solving
• reinforce knowledge by explaining to others
• value all members of the classroom community

What SOSE, health and maths have you seen in schools?

•  A SOSE unit on China during the Olympics was taught by a young graduate of the Flinders special ed. degree. She had lived in China for some time and the unit was very “hands on”. The teacher brought in unusual foods and unusual cultural artifacts which stimulated the student’s interest. She knew a lot about ancient and modern China and responded to the student’s (many) questions confidently. She assisted students to choose interesting and unique topics for research assignments in groups and differentiated tasks to cater to the needs of all students.
• I taught a nutrition lesson on my first prac placement that was fun. I bought triples of ten different lunchbox items (such as an apple, LCM bar, packet of potato chips, etc.) and arranged my class into three groups. The students had to work together to place the items in the correct order from highest to lowest. Categories for the three groups were fat, sugar and kilojoule content. I chose which group had which category based on my knowledge of the students. When the students thought they had the right order they called me over and I told them which ones were in the right spot. At the end of the lesson we talked about any surprises and what we had learned.
• My prac placement was in a class of 56 year 6 and 7 students. The two teachers who team taught the class believed in using a constructivist approach virtually all of the time. Maths was the only time when the class was split into year levels and taught from a textbook on the whiteboards.Having spent quite a bit of time in that classroom and knowing the amount of time and planning that went into all of their rich learning experiences, I just don’t see how you can teach a class that big using the approaches we discuss at uni. I could see it being possible with a smaller group. So far, I have only witnessed maths being taught in a rather traditional manner in schools.

Discuss appropriate pedagogies for teaching health and SOSE

I think that health and SOSE are both topics that can be taught through a lot of discussion and communication. I think group work can be very valuable in these areas as students work things out together. I think it is most important for a teacher to get to know his/her students well to be able to tailor units to the needs of all students. I think it is necessary to create a community of learners who can speak up and ask questions confidently and who are not afraid to ask for help. All members of the class and their contributions must be valued. I understand all of the theories of teaching and learning (especially constructivism and multiple intelligences) that we have studied so far at uni and respect their place in education. I believe that sound theoretical knowledge is very important. However, I do believe that the relationships that teachers form with their students are absolutely fundamental to guiding the planning and implementation stages of teaching. What works with one class may not work with another and we won’t know about that until we get our own classes!

What types of assessment options can you use for health and SOSE?

During my health and PE unit on my prac I used a journal for assessment that I devised to reflect briefly on each day’s learning experience. I collected them at the end of every lesson and encouraged students to write notes to me about the lesson. This was not compulsory. I found the girls were more communicative than the boys, and most really thought about what they wanted to say. I got some very constructive ongoing feedback. On the negative side however, it was a lot of marking as I wanted to respond individually to all of the students who commented. In a class of 56, there was also a lot of record keeping and chasing up to make sure that I got all the journals each day. I would definitely use this method of assessment again because I learned heaps about what the students were thinking.

I know that doesn’t exactly respond to the question I was set, but if I did that it would just be stuff you’d already read anyway. I think my answer was more interesting, don’t you?

I missed out on our intensive week of lectures due to the fact that I was living on a tropical island. Because of this I am running a little behind! Danielle helped me to set up this blog (thank you) and now I’m trying to navigate my way around it. Entries forthcoming as soon as possible!