You're my favourite class, too

This year our school implemented a programme to support students in reaching Merit or Excellence endorsements in NCEA. Teachers mentor small groups, providing them with support in the form of meetings, shared documents, study calendars and conversation.  This past week I surveyed students and parents. I wanted to find out from students how proactive they were being in reaching their goals, including their study habits, planning, contact with mentors and conversations with other teachers. A couple of things stood out - a number of students are not aware of how they are tracking towards an endorsement, meaning that they are not keeping track of their credits; and a number have yet to set up a study plan, just two weeks out from important school exams. This reinforces what I had suspected based on my experiences with my own group, where I have struggled to get students to meetings or even to respond to emails: our students are still struggling to manage themselves at critical...

Last week I was fortunate to have the opportunity to visit three Auckland schools as part of the Big River Learning and Change Network. This was my first chance to see what a modern teaching environment looks and feels like; my school was built in the 1920s and subsequent expansions strongly reflect the time periods they are built in, so the flowing open plans were quite a contrast. I like to challenge myself with my teaching. I take ideas from Twitter, Pinterest and (perhaps) more serious sources and try to use these in my classes as I can. However, the timetable and curriculum approach that Hobsonville Point Secondary School  utilises is far beyond what I envisaged for my classroom. This is undoubtedly because any changes I make to my classroom practice is realistically confined to this space, whereas HPSS has been built through new teaching theories and practices and there is a whole school philosophy. The challenge that I (and my school) face is taking the 21st ideas used by ...