We had or 07 school presentation night on Wednesday. A fitting celebration of accademic achivement in years 7-11. Places and certificates for 1/2/3 and effort. A packed house, and proud students and parents. The achivement of the students in their School Certificate was impressive, and as retiring Parramatta Marist Year 7 Co-Ordinator, Terry Nobin said “I believe this school is the best value added school in Sydney”. Given his 23 odd years of dedicated service, he has the credentials to back this up.
It made me think as I listened to him talk about ‘esteem’ in students. I was please to see a student in my class get a 1st in my subject, he had worked hard all year and well deserved. But I really felt that many students had done so well too. A collegue told me about a system of assessment where you judge your end point in relation to you start point, and though we don’t use that, it does seem particularly valid to the 25 students that this year ‘threw out’ the traditional Classroom and undertook Classroom 2.0 with such enthusiam.
So I went home and thought, perhaps, in all my enthusiasm for Classroom2.0, I have not actually let them know just how much they are changing the way students learn. I have a lot to thank them for. Its one thing for a teacher to get carried away in cyber-enthusiasm, but quite another when the students participate to the extent they have.
So I knocked out a presentation in which I attempted to show them just how far they had come. They don’t see any of this as special – I think they just like the fact that my class is different to many – but in terms of self esteem, value adding – these boys have a lot to be proud of. I also wanted to press upon them that I, as the teacher working is a system that is not designed for Classroom 2.0 (yet), cannot be an effective force of change.
I hope that at least a few will become advocates for their future learning. They have significant Digital Portfolios to show other educators that they are capable of doing more, in less time, better. I don’t dispute that teachers are pushed for time (all the time) and that the expodential growth of technology make it harder and harder to keep pace. There is a huge need to rethink PD – and the PD of support staff. What I hope this boys will feel confident to do, is to negotiate with other teachers, to allow them to demonstrate their learning in alternative (to Teacher 1.0) ways.
Here is the presentation … interestingly, when it asks them what activities they had done in other subjects this year, only PDHPE and Creative Arts was cited as using non MS Office technology as a platform for demonstrating learning.
Go on survey your year 7-9s, see what we ask them to do (over and over and over) … no wonder they are bored.
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