Ok so the challenge - July includes Te Wiki o te Reo Māori (Māori language week) at the start of the month (July 4-10), so this month's challenge has to include te reo Māori.
Aue!
Well - I am working on a TAI that is about Teacher Wellbeing. With my HOD we are exploring wellbeing in our Department and - along with realising that marking is slowly killing us, we are exploring the idea of Hauora. It's interesting how much work we create for ourselves as teachers. Often we work twice as hard as the students and it's not even us getting the credits! It's time to work smarter not harder! We need to look at all of the ways we are doing things ....Ata tirohia te ngaro nui te ngaro roa, te ngaro paewhenua. (Analyse critically the gigantic wave, the long wave, the shoreward wave. I think sometimes we are so busy looking at the gigantic wave that the long one sneaks in unexpectedly (and the shoreward one takes our feet from under us!)
Our big focus I think should be on how we are assessing. Which seems at times not to be linked to WHY we are assessing. Theoretically we are trying to enable our students to pass their NCEA standards with the best marks possible for them. FOR THEM. This does not mean we all get Excellence grades - but we all should know HOW Excellence grades are achieved and we should all be able to access the pathways to Excellence. Many will be further along the line than others.
What we are not necessarily doing well, is being flexible enough with our assessments. We stick to what we know. We dislike change. We fear the unkown. WHY? NZQA actively ENCOURAGE us to assess in diverse ways to meet the needs of our students. The spirit of NCEA is grounded in the idea that the task and the assessment are geared towards the needs of the student. Too often they are geared to the needs of the assessor/marker who does not want to step out of their comfort zone.
Why can't we assess our students across the curriculum? WHY are we so rigid within our curriculum - "the students cannot use slides in their Level 1 presentation" even though we encourage this at Level 2.
"ALL students MUST be assessed the same way" - why? IF we are truly marking to the criteria then WHY do they all have to do the same thing? Because it's easier for the teacher to manage. That's the bottom line. Never been a 'bottom line' person myself... So a couple of years ago I devised a Digital Essay format for 3.6 - we then constructed a whole course around it... because heaven forbid that students had a choice of assessments in one class.... so 3 years down the track we are flying through moderation and the students are enjoying it - well most are - still for SOME who CHOOSE this course - it's not a good fit. But 'we' tell them they chose the course so they have to do it this way.
Chicken and egg situation - but it's still pretty much one size fits all. Or 2 sizes fit pretty much everyone. We know it doesn't work for everyone but we power on regardless.
Sometimes I think our profession is inherently pig headed.
If we do not learn from what we do we will not make change.
Titiro whakamuri hei arahi i nga uaratanga kei te kimihia. Look to the past for guidance and seek out what is needed.
Aue!
Well - I am working on a TAI that is about Teacher Wellbeing. With my HOD we are exploring wellbeing in our Department and - along with realising that marking is slowly killing us, we are exploring the idea of Hauora. It's interesting how much work we create for ourselves as teachers. Often we work twice as hard as the students and it's not even us getting the credits! It's time to work smarter not harder! We need to look at all of the ways we are doing things ....Ata tirohia te ngaro nui te ngaro roa, te ngaro paewhenua. (Analyse critically the gigantic wave, the long wave, the shoreward wave. I think sometimes we are so busy looking at the gigantic wave that the long one sneaks in unexpectedly (and the shoreward one takes our feet from under us!)
Our big focus I think should be on how we are assessing. Which seems at times not to be linked to WHY we are assessing. Theoretically we are trying to enable our students to pass their NCEA standards with the best marks possible for them. FOR THEM. This does not mean we all get Excellence grades - but we all should know HOW Excellence grades are achieved and we should all be able to access the pathways to Excellence. Many will be further along the line than others.
What we are not necessarily doing well, is being flexible enough with our assessments. We stick to what we know. We dislike change. We fear the unkown. WHY? NZQA actively ENCOURAGE us to assess in diverse ways to meet the needs of our students. The spirit of NCEA is grounded in the idea that the task and the assessment are geared towards the needs of the student. Too often they are geared to the needs of the assessor/marker who does not want to step out of their comfort zone.
Why can't we assess our students across the curriculum? WHY are we so rigid within our curriculum - "the students cannot use slides in their Level 1 presentation" even though we encourage this at Level 2.
"ALL students MUST be assessed the same way" - why? IF we are truly marking to the criteria then WHY do they all have to do the same thing? Because it's easier for the teacher to manage. That's the bottom line. Never been a 'bottom line' person myself... So a couple of years ago I devised a Digital Essay format for 3.6 - we then constructed a whole course around it... because heaven forbid that students had a choice of assessments in one class.... so 3 years down the track we are flying through moderation and the students are enjoying it - well most are - still for SOME who CHOOSE this course - it's not a good fit. But 'we' tell them they chose the course so they have to do it this way.
Chicken and egg situation - but it's still pretty much one size fits all. Or 2 sizes fit pretty much everyone. We know it doesn't work for everyone but we power on regardless.
Sometimes I think our profession is inherently pig headed.
If we do not learn from what we do we will not make change.
Titiro whakamuri hei arahi i nga uaratanga kei te kimihia. Look to the past for guidance and seek out what is needed.