Christmas 2008 & New Year

Sorry for absence – … as if anybody cares!

This was caused first by being very busy, trying to tie up all the loose ends and finish all the unfinished jobs before Christmas break: I accomplished a lot, but failed to do everything.

Then, by receiving bad news about the future of my job and my program – which has sent me into a tailspin panic of anxiety about my employment, my financial future and my emotional security in general.

I don’t want to write about that now, but i feel that ‘ReaLife10′ might be on the horizon -… for better or worse … - and I sure hope it’s for better (If you don’t understand that, please refer to the ABOUT page for this blog where I explain the blog title ReaLife9).

Moving on, to my attempts to take and upload photos, I think I am winning the battle, even though it’s slow… this is my dog handling the current heat wave, inside…

Experimenting with images

OK – this is my second attempt in 10 minutes. The first attempt escaped.

I am struggling, recently, with some new (to me) technological skills:-

1. Learning to use my new Fuji automatic digital camera – very slow & frustrating, at this point.

2. Learning to upload images from my camera – or from my mobile phone (using horrible-bluetooth) – to My Computer, and

3. Learning to put images into this blog.

So let me now try again, to insert 1 image from my mobile phone, via My Computer, into this blog… If it works, this is from my front verandah…

Well – as you can see: it DIDN’T work. The view from my verandah is pleasant – but decidely NOT this view!

I already deleted the image I was looking for, from My Computer and from my computer – if you get the difference…

So, instead, this is a jpeg I found online, of the place where I live.

Christmas Party Done

and Thank Heavens for that.

It went well. We had 8 students there, out of 17 – and I know that 4 had legitimate reasons to not attend – including 1 funeral, 1 Court appearance, 1 work function, & 1 student at work. So that only leaves 5 with ‘dubious excuses’…..

Which is a whole lot better than LAST year!

It was an enjoyable day. We played mini-golf, which was a first time for most people including myself. And it was just entertaining enough – and not too taxing. It was a beautiful day, weather-wise.

After that, we had a barbecue  by the water. I played no part at  all in organising the food, which was a great relief. To be just a recipient of something (at my job) was a rare, wierd and very good experience. Fortunately, I didn’t go hungry!

It was odd to just sit there, and allow others to do everything. I was so tired that it was easy, mind you. I hope that the students who did do things felt good (and adult) about doing them, i.e. the cooking, mostly.

I think it had a good effect for all of us, to be just having fun, at the mini-golf. I have always hated the idea of those workplace team-building-type functions. Fortunately, I have never had to go to one. You know: the kind where work colleagues are put into an unfamiliar context with each other, and have to do unfamiliar and challenging things like rock-climbing or abseiling or whatever.

But this one day, of doing something unfamiliar within our group, was pleasurable – not just to me – and it relaxed people a bit more than usual. As it should have. It made me think that doing something ‘out of the box’ would be good, on a more regular basis – but the nightmare of organising these things is not something I can find the energy to do more often.

It also occurred to me that the students need practice at organising things – and hypothetically (at least), I could create those oppoprtunities. But, in advance, I would have to make a choice: to be willing to (plan to) ‘take over’ at some point, so as to ensure that the event actually happened – and I am NOT willing to do that. I simply CANNOT spare the energy. It’s all I can do to manage the job.  - OR: to allow them to fail (radical thought!)

To allow them to fail, without judgement, and preferably without embarrassment… somehow. To put a positive spin on it that, “we’ll give this another try in x amount of time…” The organisation period and allocation of responsibilities would have to be clearly defined, with a definite and advertised cut-off date, so that – hopefully – if individual people failed to do their part, by the deadline, the event could be quietly ‘closed off’ as an active project, perhaps with a little private supported reflection on
- what didn’t work
- and why,
- and what needs to be done differently, next time.

You see, this is a real-life skill which would be very valuable. But the truth is that it is way down the list of priorities, because I have to ensure we reach reportable outcomes in reading, writing & numeracy. We DO have to reach reportable outcomes in LEARNING SKILLS, too – and such an activity would fit in, here… but it’s a long-winded way of achievng it, precisely because it’s a real-world activity.

This is a tension I am very much aware of, always: between what the students, ideally, individually need to learn – and what I must ensure they achieve, in order to meet the required reportable outcomes to be entitled to remain in the course.

I would understand the intense scrutiny and monitoring and control of our curriculum and outcomes IF we ran the program under volunteers, rather than with dedicated qualified professional teachers.

And, of course, all systems must have quality-control built in. But, IMO, the balance between leaving scope for professional judgement and real care of people – vs. following a prescribed track, curriculum-wise (with admittedly considerable leeway) is not an appropriate balance.

This time of year

There is a lot of tension in my classroom at this time of year – and I recall the same situation arising last year, at the same time.

I know that, for myself, I can identify several factors that contribute to this tension, which is certainly unpleasant.:-

1. I am just ‘hanging out’ to get to that Christmas break in 1 & a 1/2 wks time – knowing that I really need a break.

2. There are some tasks that accumulate, because they are hard to finish off – you know: the things that go in the ‘too hard’ basket, and you always think you’ll get to them ‘tomorrow’? Well – when it gets to the end of the year – and the prospect of a beautiful restful break and a fresh start in the new year – the last think I want to carry forward with me, are any of these difficult tasks which are already a couple of months overdue. SO: I put the pressure on myself to get them all finished off.

3. Meanwhile, I also feel that I must infuse the classroom with Christmas spirit and cheer – put up decorations (my own, lugged in from home), create Christmas Learning Activities (which of course the students MUST enjoy doing – haha!……………), organise the students Christmas party (which means, initially, prompting them to organise it themselves – because, after all, they are all adults – and then finding that no-one is doing a damn thing, nor are they willing to, unless prodded forcefully….in this case, by my wonderful volunteer ……….- because *I* got so stressed by their attitude that I couldn’t trust myself to talk to them about it any more),  remember to buy appropriate gifts for my volunteers, and meanwhile, I am usually forgetting to attend the odd Christmas party that I have been invited to, myself, because I am so focused each day on whatever work obligations are right in front of me, that I simply forget that I have any life outside of the classroom at all – beyond my treasured animals, anyway.

4. This one is important: the students, I presume, get tired too, and are also ‘hanging out’ for the holidays. This means they withdraw their participation, and sit there like bored or antagonistic children, expecting to be entertained all day, without actually being willing to engage much, at all. Of course this is a generalisation – and certainly DOESN’T apply to some. But it applies to enough of them, that it is a group problem, rather than an individual problem.

5. Of course, all the time, we are getting new students, and in the last 6 weeks or so, our rate of acquisition of new students has really taken off (due to increased referrals from the government unemployment service). We used to get about 1 new student every 6 to 8 weeks – but recently, we have been integrating, on average, 2 new students each week. This is WONDERFUL, in my view…….but I raise it here, because one of the effects of acquiring new students, is that the  group dynamics always change whenever anyone new enters the group. Therefore, now that I have a small group of ladies behaving in a relatively uncooperative manner (ladies who didn’t do this before) – and that group of ladies includes 1 new member, who is quite a loud and assertive person - it occurs to me that the problem with that group may be because of the influence of the new person… or it may be because of the factors mentioned above (higher up the page). Hard to tell, when things change all the time.

For myself, one way I would sum it up, is that I am trying extra hard, not just to finish off the difficult stuff (even though I am tired), but to ensure that the students have a good time because it is Christmas. It doesn’t work. In fact, it feels like they dig their heels in, and refuse to come to the party (literally! – see below) – which stresses me more, and the cycle of worsening classroom dynamics spins faster…

‘See below’ means HERE: where I note that the majority of students literally declined to attend the Christmas party, at the stage when the students were ‘organising’ it themselves. Almost every student came up with an excuse, even though the party will be held in class time, when they would usually be required to be present in the classroom. And this was after we had, as a group, selected the day that was the most convenient to the majority of them…If I were reading this, I would be suspecting that these students (being written about) don’t like each other and don’t want to socialise together, or were expressing resistance to the organising student, or to the teacher, by being so ‘difficult’. I don’t believe that it’s either of these reasons.

I think they’re just unwilling to do anything out of the ordinary – even if it is supposed to be for pleasure.

I know I have observed before, that organising these students is like herding cats…and that’s even IN the building…let alone outside. But it is disappointing to see that asking them to do anything for anyone else – including their classmates - really brings out the worst in them. Again, this is said with some notable exceptions. But the scarcity of exceptions really underlines the norm for the group.

Meeting social expectations is a relatively alien concept to these adults, and I hasten to add that I am not referring primarily to migrants or refugees or newcomers to ‘our’ Western  social expectations, but rather – mostly – to people who have lived in this society all their lives and have functioned within a very narrow local orbit.

Last year, only 2 students attended our Christmas waterside picnic, which was on the last class day…all of the others took the opportunity to take the day off without notification, despite knowing of the planning effort that had been put in, to arranging the event and food and drinks and so on… I assume that each one thought that they could be absent and ‘everyone else’ would still be there… alas, it wasn’t so!

Perhaps I should backtrack and have a look at what I wrote at this time of year, last year……maybe that would help me get a bit of perspective on this pre-Christmas malaise.

Extraneous Factors

This is just a  little observational post about some of the contextual influences on learners who enter the classroom in which I teach.

Most of the people who are referred to the service I offer, are referred by the national government body which ‘manages’ unemployed people. This body can and does REQUIRE people to have their literacy levels assessed.

Fortunately, it can’t make them actually ATTEND CLASSES – I say ‘fortunately’ because having truly unwilling participants in the class would be a nightmare.

Indeed, it cannot MAKE them actually turn up for the assessment interview, either, but it can MAKE an assessment appointment for them, and expect them to attend it.

As you might expect, the majority of booked assessments never show up.

I’d say that about 1 in 3 assessments are actually carried through, by the person showing up and being willing to participate in the assessment (by a very friendly person – not me).

Out of those who are assessed, about 1 in 2, or 1 in 3 will actually show up for classes.

For the most part, therefore, those who actually end up attending classes, are the ones who wanted to do something about their literacy, anyway………

but there is a big difference between entertaining the idea  that you think you want to do something about your literacy – and actually being mentally ready and willing to make an effort to learn – and that applies to all of us and to learning anything.

Learning is change, and change is potentially threatening.

Turning up with any vague regularity (i.e. meeting the attendance requirements, that the government sets in order for the government to be willing to keep funding each participant’s training) is one way for an unemployed person to avoid having to get a job; indeed, it is a way to avoid having to even look for a job.

I am lucky, in that most people who are ‘working the system’ have such an attitude that they rarely make it as far as my classroom – and if they do, they don’t usually stay.

Over the past year, in retrospect, I have had 2 people who shouldn’t have been in the class. Both of them were only 17 years old. Both had highly developed strategies for avoiding doing anything constructive. As a class group, we tolerated both for far longer than we should have.

It is my nature to:-

1) give people the benefit of the doubt and
2) always question myself, rather than allocate ‘blame’ (i.e. responsibility) elsewhere.

I can be a real slow learner in this regard. I would always rather err on the side of seeing the best in people. Unfortunately, by the time my view, in such situations, is crystal clear, a lot of damage can get done.

That’s it for my observations, for today.

I had really hoped to put up a Christmas tree for myself, today – but was unable to buy one, so now I will try to aim to do this on Saturday.

MYLO – Maximise Your Learning Opportunities

MYLO is a (relatively) new piece of computer software, designed to assist the learning of English literacy, for students from grade 3 to adult.

It can be used by the student alone at home, or in the classroom working alone – or, some activities can be done as a group (and made competitive, if you like).

The basic CD is really really cheap – I suppose I should say ‘affordable’, so that people don’t write it off as low-quality, just because it doesn’t cost much……..but I tend to “call a spade a spade”, and it IS cheap: Australian $20 per CD (that is, about US $9), which comes with the right to use it on more than 1 computer (don’t ask me HOW many, right now… – I can’t remember where to look that up).

Since we are just starting to use it in my classroom, and it is a HUGE program, I am going to keep a record here, of each segment that we trial, together with our responses and a critique. This is because:-

a) I am an arts critic (hobby/spare time) and I am critical by nature, and have very high standards. So any time I approach anything new, I appraise it automatically, and NOTICE what could be better (can’t help it!). That’s why systems theory is right up my alley!

b) My instinct is that this program, while absolutely marvellous, needs further refinement. So, at some stage, feedback MIGHT be sought (even though I am sure they have done lots of that, already, over the past 5 years of its development). If I am asked for feedback AFTER I have become used to using it, I won’t remember as much, and what I DO remember will be much less useful.

So, here is the first instalment:

We initially had a lot of problems with installation. We have decided this was due to our organisation’s network, since it runs fine on my standalone computer at home, and at another organisation (which  I met the teacher from). She might even like to contribute to these posts, since I think she has more experience using it, now, than I do. I will let her know this is here.

I decided we would start with the GAMES section, in the hope that that would be easiest to approach. The games ARE fun – but they also teach relevant skills.

The first game we tried was BINGO. It is Bingo with letters of the alphabet, instead of numbers.

You download the Microsoft character Merlin (free) and also Microsoft Audacity (also free), and Merlin reads out loud the letters, as he ‘calls’ them.

First frustration: Merlin pops up on the edge of the Bingo game board, so: when he starts calling the letters, his speech-bubble covers part of the board game. (Suggested solution: Left-align the game board.) It IS possible to easily move the game board and/or Merlin, by clicking in the title-bar – but our students don’t know that.

2nd frustration: EVERY time you commence a game, Merlin makes a little speech (the content of which actually seems to NOT be true). You have to listen to it – or ignore it and wait for it to finish - every time. He talks fast, and he has a slightly annoying accent (American, of course – but there are lots of different American accents…THIS one isn’t ideal.) (Suggestion: Is this speech actually necessary? If not, ditch it.)

I let the students play it individually – we need now to buy headphones for every computer, because we only have 1 set of headphones, and 11 computers. Then, we played it as a competition (with lolly prizes - handed out by me – the prgaram is marvelloys but it doesn’t do THAT).

I started them off with ‘3,2,1…GO’, – and THAT took about 10 minutes, because they are SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO pathetic at following instructions.. but THAT’s another story…

Th game is self-explanatory (we think), except that I had to remind them to press ‘Stop Call’ after they call ‘BINGO’, or Merlin keeps ‘rabbiting on’ around the room, even after they have stopped playing….

WHAT DOES IT TEACH:

letter recognition, letter pronunciation, mousing skills, instruction-following, and increases speed of these skills, especially when competitive.

The NEXT game we played was CATEGORIES – I’ll write about that, next time.

This is where MYLO comes from. This is a description of the CD specifically. There is also a AU $450 Teacher’s Package which includes all of the support material – but all you need to get started and do a whole heap of very relevant activities is the one CD.

DISCLAIMER: Even though I will use this space to whinge about it, I THOROUGHLY RECOMMEND that YOU get MYLO too - and join in the whingeing! Here is where you can order it online, for a pittance! Come join in the fun!

Prediction in Reading

There is a link at Durham Literacy Centre, to a YouTube-posted video, about the importance of prediction in reading. It is brief, and suggests 5 dotpoints to encourage students to predict, when reading. The points are listed in the final frame of the video.

The video was made for parents (or teachers) of children, but the ideas are equally applicable to adults. I think I’ll give them a try.

This is the K5 site (elementary education for parents), where the video originally came from. They have a YouTube page, where you can view this video and others. This one is titled Tips to Improve Reading Comprehension.

p.S.

Further to my post below about feeling unwell, I think I should add, that when I text messaged all of my current students, to say that classes were cancelled on Monday due to my being unwell, the student undertaking the year of Interferon therapy was the only one who texted back to ask if I needed anything.

And no – of course I did not expect ANYONE to do that. But it’s interesting that she was the ONE who DID.

Something that bothered me was that, having included in my message ‘Please text back to confirm you have received this message’………only 1 student did (out of 8. I proudly have 14 students at the moment. Some were contactable by landline, and a couple weren’t contactable at all.)

I really couldn’t face talking to them all when I was feeling sick, and if I left it till the morning for the receptionist to do, she couldn’t catch them before they would leave to attend, so they would all turn up and then be annoyed… So I figured text was a good compromise. I understand people not having credit on their mobiles, but not EVERYone………Is this a literacy issue or a social skill issue? Bit of both, I assume.

The gift of a tiny bit of illness

Hmmm…I have had a brief touch of (what I assume to be) food poisoning, over the last 48 hours.

This has powerfully reminded me of some valuable lessons:-

I LOVE being healthy.

I LOVE being able to EAT.

i really appreciate my body usually staying at the same temperature, more or less all-over, more or less most of the time, in any given minute.

My body deserves more respect with regard to what I put in it – yes – even more. I’m pretty darned fussy already! – but clearly not fussy enough.

Going slow has its benefits. I have made that bold, in order to remind myself. I must try to sustain a slower pace. (Wonder how long THAT will last!)

It IS possible to not go to work; the world does not end. Nor does the relief teacher permanently take your job, just because she was called in for 1 day  (Will I live to regret that assertion …….? = That’s how anxious I get.)

One thing I could NEVER be, is bulimic: I absolutely HATE throwing up. I’ve done a lot of thngs to stay slim ………..(not lately, mind you!)…..but I could NEVER use this approach.

We take so much for granted, just by getting up, getting dressed, breathing and walking around every day.

One of my students has Hepatitis C. She has to inject herself every Friday with Interferon, which is, like chemotherapy, a powerful drug with a purpose… it makes her sick for days, which is why it’s done on a Friday, in the vain hope that by Monday she will be well enough to face the world again. Not so, though. While I was having my paltry symptoms, I thought of her, and her resolve to manage to keep giving herself those injections, every week without fail, despite the sure knowledge of what ensues. It’s so courageous.

I think this was my body’s way of making me take a step back from my busy-ness. Lately I am always trying to do multiple things at once. I just don’t stop much, any more. And when I do, it is eating or drinking for comfort, for reward, for compensation. Re-assessment is (once again) necessary, and a tiny touch of illness encourages that to happen.

In these aspects, it’s been a gift.

And I feel better, now. Which allows me to take interest in things, including writing here.

Scholastic website

Just browsing around: Found interactive reading and writing activities, and free printables (that’s apart from the “10,000 printables”which are apparently available if you pay to subscribe) at Scholastic website. Tried a few activities – they are good. Worth a look.

For my students, I need extremely basic level activities – but there are higher level ones there, also.