Getting my Teach on

Week 3.

This has been my first week of teaching at HPSS, and so far - I love it! Dad asked me how teenagers were supposed to focus for 80 minutes, or 160 minutes, and the reality is that they do. We're not asking them to do the same thing for the entire lesson - that would be mind-numbingly boring. We're exploring the content using a plethora of learning activities.

On Tuesday I only saw two classes - my foundation class (Year 9 and 10 Technology and English) and my Year 13 Literary Theory class. I saw each of them for 160 minutes - one 80 session before morning tea or lunch, and one 80 minute session afterwards. For my year 13s, it meant I was delivering a week's worth of teaching in an afternoon. They were able to produce a piece of writing for me that showed me their current skills and where we could focus on developing further. I was really impressed by these students' writing ability. That's something that I want to keep a close eye on, because the way they have developed their writing is really sophisticated.

01. What is Literary Theory - PEEL Essay (diagnostic)

02. Litheo

02a. Timeline of Literary Theories

03. Literary Lenses

04. Literary Readings of Little Red Riding Hood

05. Literary Retellings

What I love about the English and technology combo with my foundation students is that it's a co-taught module. So many cool things happening. I would be teaching with direct English instruction and turn to write the instructions on the whiteboard only to find them already there - my co-teacher had written them for me. As we go through things, we're looking at the same notion of dressing through similar lenses - what does it tell us about the person, about the history, about the culture? And as we research dress, we find out more about these things which brings amazing depth to our understanding of the texts and inspiration to our design concepts for clothing.

What's also really exciting is how my English and PE module brings great depth of understanding. We're looking at leadership, communication, and conflict. After starting with some ground work exploring the contexts of our module, we started analyzing leadership, conflict, and communication in the film 42. Careful planning and detailed communication between my co-teacher and I had us choosing a film that is critically viable and fits the focusses of the PE curriculum. After exploring these concepts in the opening of the film, we're going to explore them physically through games and activities on the field on Monday. More depth of understanding through physical engagement! So excited!

My level 2 class looks at the idea of coming of age. Initially I struggled to find a way through this that wasn't dry and boring. Teenager-struggle-makes adult decision. And repeat. All year long? Hmmm. When we started talking about it in class, we found ourselves a way forward - exploring the teenage brain and what it goes through, and how neurodevelopment influences characters in different ways in different texts. Then, looking at coming of age stories through the ages, examining how societal expectations change and influence the teenagers' experiences.

01. Course Outline

02. Mysterious Workings of the Teenage Brain

03. The Teenager is... PEEL Paragraph

04. On the Sidewalk Bleeding

05. Response to On the Sidewalk Bleeding

I'm really enjoying that I'm not teaching to an assessment. I'm teaching a topic, I'm including the skills, the students are compiling bodies of resources, and when we're ready, we'll craft the resources into assessments. That doesn't mean we're phlegmatic about the work though -already this week my level 2s have analysed a short story, exploring ideas and written a literary response, and my L3s have written an essay that can go into their portfolio for further crafting.

Dad also commented on the students calling me by my first name, and whether that allowed them to show respect. Modern teenagers don't give people respect because of their title. Modern teenagers aren't impressed or influenced by title. What matters most is mutual respect built up through relationships.

The use of devices is something that dad is often concerned about. But can I tell you a secret? They're not used 100% of the time. All students have laptops and they all come to school everyday. They are used - the parents' investment is not wasted. They access Google classroom, teaching notes, and they write responses there. But devices are only one tool. We've done mix and match, drawing, reading aloud, class discussion, group discussions... The device is only one tool in our arsenal as teachers. I've always seen devices as a window - what we can see through them is as important as what we write on them.