one term down, three to go

(This blog was written 2 weeks ago ...)

Term 1 of the 2008 school year finished for me on Thursday April 10^th, not on the 11^th as originally scheduled, as the City of Newcastle decided a couple of weeks ago to give all public employees the day off April 11^th to go to the “show”. What is the “show” you ask? Truthfully I cannot tell you much about it as we did not choose to go – Nancy and I opted instead to spend the day together biking and beaching and preparing for our upcoming trip to Western Australia (which is where I sit right now, April 12^th, on a plane bound for Perth). Since Gabe and Jordan’s school is an independent school and not public, they still had a normal school day yesterday, so Nancy and I had a “play date”. When I asked my students what the “show” was, they said “You know Sir, the show!” I said like a play or a concert? And they said “No, like a show with rides and stuff.” And then I finally got it – it is Newcastle’s version of a fair – complete with carnival rides, games, concerts and crappy food. Just another thing here that we kind of get but don’t really…..

The past six weeks of school have flown by with a number of holidays, school related excursions, and school wide activities, including another sport carnival and a 2-hour teacher “stop-work” or strike, last week. It seems that the new Labour Government wants to change the teacher staffing agreement and the teachers Federation is up in arms. I may get to experience my first actual full-day strike in May if things do not get resolved soon.

Overall am having much more fun than when the term began back in January/February – partially because I have had so many days off and have enjoyed our travels, (the ones Nancy has done such a great job describing to you) and more significantly as result of “surrendering to what is”. I have come to realize that I am not a one man evangelist who came here to “straighten out” the Australian education system but just a teacher having an educational experience and hoping to help a few kids find their way through Maths at the high school level. I also have a clearer view of how the system works here in New South Wales based on my observations, questions I continually ask of colleagues and conversations with other exchange teachers from around the state.

Here is how it works based on my understanding: All students in Year 7 are tested throughout the year to determine their levels of competency in Maths, English and Science. At the end of that 7^th grade year they are then streamed/tracked into classes for the following year based on competency: from 8-1 as the top class to 8-5 or 8-6 on the bottom, depending on the number of students at the school. That class is where they will spend the next three years of high school, with very little chance for movement between classes except in extreme situations and more likely down than up. At that point it is common knowledge that of the say 120 kids in Year 8, only the top 30 have about a 50% chance to go to university, based on statistics from Cardiff and a number of other local schools. The other common knowledge is that all the other 90 kids have to do is show up regularly and take all their exams, not necessarily pass them, just take them, in order to earn their School Certificate after Year 10 ( that is sophomore year for us yanks). At that point, the majority of students do not return to school for Years 11 or 12, but opt to either go right to manual labor type work or secure an apprenticeship.

Please understand that I do not know if this is a good system or not and I make no pretence to judge it on a global good or bad basis. It seems to work for them and it is apparent from our observations that the country is run and wealth is held by the elite 10% and the rest of the people seem pretty equal socio-economically and generally pretty comfortable – they sure travel enough and have plenty of money for food and recreation.

What I do know about this particular education system is that it is difficult to be a teacher in this system as you have most of the classes, really all but the top class, that have no need/desire/motivation to perform at school because there is no upside and very little, if any, consequence for poor performance and poor behavior. So for the most part, the lower classes become a social arena and activity for kids to pass the 190 days per year until they make it to the end of Year 10. Not the easiest teaching situation and my heart goes out to all the educators here that keep working to find ways to engage and motivate the unmotivated. Sometimes it works and I have heard about kids making the leap from 9-3 to 9-2 and then 9-1 over the course of the year. But, that is not the norm. Mostly the lower classes are so unruly and the learning environment is so difficult that it is not possible for a kid to rise to the next level even it they really want to. Surrender to what is.

Now that I understand this all better it is easier to plan my lessons each day and adjust my expectations accordingly. I focus my differentiation efforts on the Year 7s that I can tell have a shot at top class and try to keep the others moving forward at a reasonable pace. I continually seek new ideas and lessons to motivate my 9-3 class, who have come along pretty nicely and are more often working in class these days than kicking the soccer ball or building paper airplanes as they had been doing the first few weeks. I daily celebrate the survival of one more class with my 10-4’s who are the scariest bunch of kids I have ever been left alone in a classroom with but who, in all sincerity, have told me repeatedly that they are doing more Maths for me this year than any year in their past. And finally, I have the pleasure of teaching the 8-1 Maths class this year and they are the joy of my teaching. They are, to a student, polite, receptive, eager, responsible and fun to be around. My one concern is that I must be careful to not take them too far too fast. Last week I introduced them to challenging two-step equation solving in one day, i.e. 3n + 5 = -22 and by the end of that hour there was 90% mastery.

In terms of the faculty, I am thrilled to know these folks. They are kind, helpful, funny and overall good “mates”. They are committed to doing their jobs and are clearly limited and frustrated by the system. They do a great job making the best of the situation and focus on their mates as a way of being engaged in the school.

The administration seems very caring and eager to make improvements, though somewhat powerless against the children’s attitudes and the state's policies.

I do love the hours, 9 to 3:20, and the term breaks, 2 weeks of “holiday” after each 10 week term. I also enjoy wearing shorts to school each day and being close enough to school to use my bike as my main mode of transport. I have become very fond of many of the kids, particularly a group of year 10’s (mostly from the top class of course) that I do sport with each week. A couple of weeks ago two of the boys took me out boogie boarding into the big waves (1.5 meter though they looked 3) – it was a hoot and at school the next day they told some of the other kids that “Sir rocks!”.

Overall I am in a good place these days and look forward to the rest of the year – helping the kids who want it and understanding the rest with a gentler view. And of course enjoying this amazing adventure with my wonderful family and sharing it with all of you.

Blessings on you and yours,

Mark