I’ve hit the road again today, spent all afternoon travelling from Hastings to Tauranga. I forget how beautiful NZ is and its not until you spend sometime on the road and actually look around as you go that you fully appreciate the scenery.
But that is not why I’m posting today. It is the middle of the school holidays and I have Breathe Technology Staff meeting in the morning. I’ve spent a lovely evening with my boss, her partner a colleague of mine and the Easiteach trainer. More of that tomorrow I guess. Sometimes it is really difficult to get out the conversation about Education but we did hit upon the topic of internet dating.
From what we talked about it seems to be;
a) a) a lot more common now and
b) b) a lot safer.
I was wondering if that were true or not or whether it is just our perception of it? If anyone has facts and figures on such things please comment.
My other question was surrounding cyber safety and the ‘internet dating’ thing. I fear that the Internet-dating will be the sex-ed of the cyber safety education programme. I remember the thoughts of:
‘Let’s not talk about sex in the classroom.’
‘If we start talking about it, more students will experiment with it and we’ll have a bigger social problem than we already have’
So my question being where in the ‘cyber-safety curriculum’ does internet dating appear?
David Hill is a wonderfully natural story-teller. He has just finished a series of visits to schools in the Hawkes Bay, finishing here at Hastings Intermediate .
I would love to tell you of the great tales he told, but I really couldn’t do them justice. He first tried writing when he was 16 or 17, trying to impress a girl. Then he leaves it alone for a decade until he finds some old notes he made…. Now 23 chapter books later and still writing, in fact we were honoured with the first public reading of his, yet to be published, next book.
If you ever get the opportunity to invite David Hill to your school, take it. He is well worth listening to.
Those of you who have the patience to follow my blog will know that for the past little while now I have been tripping around schools. Doing some relieving here and there.
One such school I happened across asked for me to come in and cover some member of staff for a little while. During the course of my time there I have got to know some of the students and one in particular made me wonder. There was something unusual there, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.
I decided, the only action I could take was to speak to the Special Needs Co-ordinator. Not knowing who I was to speak to I approached the DP and asked the question: “Who is your special needs co-ordinator?”
A fairly easy question, I thought. But perhaps I caught them off guard, their mind on other things, maybe the answer was more complicated- “there used to be one, but…” or “So and so was but now they are….” Or perhaps that’s the English term and Kiwi’s call them something different.
Whatever it was I got this blank, scratching “I don’t know” head and directed to my syndicate leader. Or perhaps my Syndicate leader WAS the SENCO- (but that was not revealed to me)
Hmmmm. It just bothered me. Member of staff needs to be aware of who’s responsible for what, who to go to for what.
Two stories came to my attention:
1. Five year olds in this European city are not due to start school until they are six, in fact ON their sixth birthday. This five old I heard about is very, very bored at kindy and mum and dad want her to start school early. As part and parcel of the procedure for that to happen the kid needs to be assessed by a some Educational Psychologist or similar, there are a raft of result coming through regarding the kid but what stands out is the IQ of 140. The kid begins school immediately and is put in the Y0 class, where she spends the first week learning the number ‘1’. Are her needs being met?
2. Intermediate kid, he has special needs that I am unable to disclose. The school has streamed maths and literacy programmes. His ability is somewhat below even the lowest of groups in the lowest of classes. His class contains 29 students. The teacher sees him for focused teaching time, with 4 others three times a week. Are his needs being met?
The recent push in education towards ‘personised learning’ is merely rhetoric. The reality of one teacher personalizing the learning of 33 students on a continual basic is beyond the time and energy of any regular teacher. It is why Primary (Elementary) teachers have been organizing ‘differentiated’ groups for a long time now; it is the realistic balance between ‘personalized learning’ and ‘whole class teaching’.
When my kid finally hits school I want to know what is really happening in the classrooms. I don’t want some Principal talking to me about their ‘personalised learning plan’ when really its ‘differentiated learning’ in a new coat of paint.
Let’s keep it real people, let’s call it what it is.
State education is a wonderful provision.
“Through my taxes ALL students are catered for, their learning needs met and they are upskilled to become economically productive citizens.”
Then I happened to awake from my utopian dream and discover that in the real world our students are not really leaving education skilled for the workforce.
Not only that but “free” obviously has a broader definition in government than I realized.
Once a student begins their educational journey in the state system a few “voluntary contributions’ are due:
‘Stationery’ $72
‘Shows and trip’ $40
‘Logoed uniform’ $150
Trip by trip donation $2 each
Music tuition $70 per term
Drama club $10
Rugby/Netball ‘subs’ $5 per away game
Technology for the year $20
And this is from a decile 1 school with maximum funding allowance.
“Fund raising in the higher deciles is expected. Our kids are expected to wonder the streets selling chocolates or doing car washes.
Don’t call it ‘Free’ education. It gives the impression that…well… you know…its free.
