I have been accused of not seeing the forest for the trees. That I seem to have to know about each tree and how it fits into the forest before I know the forest. I will admit that I need to know 'why' before 'how'. I recently had an uncomfortable discussion with a colleague about teaching time to my early years class. It was uncomfortable because like many things I am passionate about, which is most things, I can get into what might be politely described as a rant. My poor colleague really didn't know what he had let himself in for.
I have found that many students become confused by decimals in relation to fractions and percentages. I personally can't see the point of expressing numbers as relationships. Fractions are numbers expressed as a division. Percentages are simply numbers expressed as a product of themselves and 100 (why?) I especially don't see the need to confuse small children with these relationships. Yet we do this early in their formal education.
For example when we teach time.
Time is expressed in hours, minutes and seconds. Today we frequently speak about time digitally. 'Seven, fifty five' is probably spoken as commonly as 'five to eight' for example, so why the necessity to teach year 2 students 'half past'?
I don't.
I teach my students the number of hours and the number of minutes. Once my students can understand counting by fives. That is the continuous addition of five plus five plus five etc. If they understand this concept we can hit the analogue clock. Yet there is an expectation that you teach 'o'clock' and then 'half past'. 'Half' what does that mean to a child of six or seven?
Does it mean 1divided by 2?
As they are only just experiencing the basic principles of sharing - I highly doubt it.
They think of 'half' as putting a line down the middle-ish of an object (generally a symmetrical representation of an object like a smiling clown face or a pizza) and you colour in one side - half. You write half like '1/2' but do they know why? Of course not.
So theses students experience of 'the forest' of learning the time with all these wonderful terms, with a vague idea of their meaning, making up 'the trees'.
So perhaps a tree then forest approach might be a valid method at times.
When I am helping older students who are completely 'bamboozled' by fractions I ask them " Do you know what that little line is between the numbers?" They never do.
"It isn't anything magical it just means 'divided by'."
Thursday, 23 April 2015
Monday, 13 April 2015
School Holidays and ASD Kids
Sometimes the school holidays don't seem long enough. Two more days and we are back at the chalk face. It has been an interesting time being with my kids and a few hundred Scouts.
Of my own eight children, three are somewhere on the Spectrum. Each is unique. Diagnosis for all of us came late. My second eldest son was really the test dummy as far as managing the issues that arise when you are on the Spectrum. He is now twenty and not officially diagnosed but he was the start of this journey.
There is a tyranny caused by being different but not so obviously different that you are judged to have control of your more eccentric behaviours. My son's behaviours were blamed on my parenting and the trauma of going through a divorce. I could not convince the therapists that we saw, that my son has always had these behaviours and they were not typical.
He was a man/child ie a man trapped in the body of a child. He didn't play and still prefers the company of older adults, particularly mechanically-minded, practical men. He is a very clever, respectful and the most hardworking person I know. His public persona is carefully managed. The stress this causes him makes his home persona more like Mr Hyde. Though after twenty years he has learned strategies to self regulate. Only after much provocation does he ever have a public melt-down. These are doozies and embarrass him to the point that he shuns public appearances for months.
My ten year old daughter is a different personality. When she gets overloaded from being in social situations the changes in the tone of her voice give her temperament away. A loud, witchy voice and she is reaching her tipping point. She also is the most sensitive to touch, and smells. Yet she scratches herself and used to rub her food on her lips before eating it. She has a fetish for Huggies Baby Wipes and she relates better to animals than people, as long as she can stand their smell.
My eight year old son is very academic. He taught himself to read very young. He is great at maths and is a spelling whizz. He has a vivid imagination and gets scared by books and movies. Even those rated G. He has the more Hollywood version of ASD, a miniature Sheldon. He was the first to get officially diagnosed when he was five, as requested by his school teacher.
So in the course of these school holidays we have been shopping in a strange town, been squashed in a queue at the cinema, been in a competitive community event and spent far too long in the car. Oh and had visitors. These have all been challenges and though we have come through mostly unscathed it does remind me that my ASD kids have to work that little bit harder.
Of my own eight children, three are somewhere on the Spectrum. Each is unique. Diagnosis for all of us came late. My second eldest son was really the test dummy as far as managing the issues that arise when you are on the Spectrum. He is now twenty and not officially diagnosed but he was the start of this journey.
There is a tyranny caused by being different but not so obviously different that you are judged to have control of your more eccentric behaviours. My son's behaviours were blamed on my parenting and the trauma of going through a divorce. I could not convince the therapists that we saw, that my son has always had these behaviours and they were not typical.
He was a man/child ie a man trapped in the body of a child. He didn't play and still prefers the company of older adults, particularly mechanically-minded, practical men. He is a very clever, respectful and the most hardworking person I know. His public persona is carefully managed. The stress this causes him makes his home persona more like Mr Hyde. Though after twenty years he has learned strategies to self regulate. Only after much provocation does he ever have a public melt-down. These are doozies and embarrass him to the point that he shuns public appearances for months.
My ten year old daughter is a different personality. When she gets overloaded from being in social situations the changes in the tone of her voice give her temperament away. A loud, witchy voice and she is reaching her tipping point. She also is the most sensitive to touch, and smells. Yet she scratches herself and used to rub her food on her lips before eating it. She has a fetish for Huggies Baby Wipes and she relates better to animals than people, as long as she can stand their smell.
My eight year old son is very academic. He taught himself to read very young. He is great at maths and is a spelling whizz. He has a vivid imagination and gets scared by books and movies. Even those rated G. He has the more Hollywood version of ASD, a miniature Sheldon. He was the first to get officially diagnosed when he was five, as requested by his school teacher.
So in the course of these school holidays we have been shopping in a strange town, been squashed in a queue at the cinema, been in a competitive community event and spent far too long in the car. Oh and had visitors. These have all been challenges and though we have come through mostly unscathed it does remind me that my ASD kids have to work that little bit harder.
Thursday, 26 March 2015
Why I Like Teaching Kids How to Read
The thing about my job that I love the best is the interaction with my students.
This year I have a whole seven students in my class. They range from five to eight years of age. So I am teaching three grades. But while I know the curriculum and the educational outcomes expected to be reached by all of my little scholars, I actually have the privilege to teach seven individuals and I have the luxury that I can focus my programme to their specific needs. This is both hard work, coming up with separate programmes, but very gratifying.
As a person with ASD with colleagues who don't really have a concept of what that means, I know what it is to be an, at times, isolated individual. I particularly feel a sense of camaraderie with those kids who just seem, for whatever reason, square pegs in round holes.
The student with the greatest academic challenges - I suspect with undiagnosed Dyslexia, is one of those. To get this little boy who is on the cusp of learned helplessness to feel like school is for him, that he is clever and he will read, is my goal for this year. But just observing him closely I can see how well he can remember what he hears and sees if it is in the context of what he gets to do. He learns through doing.
Instead of focusing on deciphering text we are making words together. His words, about what he is doing and what he is interested in. I have started teaching him all the sound patterns through stories. I have given the letters personalities and stories to help him and my other students remember.
For example Harry 'H' is a really calm and friendly letter. When he is around some of his friends he can calm them down and make them say different sounds. Harry can quieten Sally 'S' who is always singing so loudly. When they get together they say 'sh'.
Today my class has been doing a shared writing task. A story about Ignatius Ivan 'I' ,(vowels get double barrelled names), who is very itchy. The kids get 'e' and 'i' sounds mixed up. So if I start scratching they remember which it is. I draw cartoons of the letters and we talk about them as if they are people.
The kids decided that Ignatius was itchy because he was bitten by insects. I did have to explain that a spider is in fact an arachnid to one enthusiastic author. They decided it was fleas. To finish our tale the students thought the best solution was to flea wash his dog.
I really only started this programme this term so it will be interesting to see if the adventures of all the letters in the alphabet and the relationships they form on the way, can help teach a child who has difficulties, to read.
This year I have a whole seven students in my class. They range from five to eight years of age. So I am teaching three grades. But while I know the curriculum and the educational outcomes expected to be reached by all of my little scholars, I actually have the privilege to teach seven individuals and I have the luxury that I can focus my programme to their specific needs. This is both hard work, coming up with separate programmes, but very gratifying.
As a person with ASD with colleagues who don't really have a concept of what that means, I know what it is to be an, at times, isolated individual. I particularly feel a sense of camaraderie with those kids who just seem, for whatever reason, square pegs in round holes.
The student with the greatest academic challenges - I suspect with undiagnosed Dyslexia, is one of those. To get this little boy who is on the cusp of learned helplessness to feel like school is for him, that he is clever and he will read, is my goal for this year. But just observing him closely I can see how well he can remember what he hears and sees if it is in the context of what he gets to do. He learns through doing.
Instead of focusing on deciphering text we are making words together. His words, about what he is doing and what he is interested in. I have started teaching him all the sound patterns through stories. I have given the letters personalities and stories to help him and my other students remember.
For example Harry 'H' is a really calm and friendly letter. When he is around some of his friends he can calm them down and make them say different sounds. Harry can quieten Sally 'S' who is always singing so loudly. When they get together they say 'sh'.
Today my class has been doing a shared writing task. A story about Ignatius Ivan 'I' ,(vowels get double barrelled names), who is very itchy. The kids get 'e' and 'i' sounds mixed up. So if I start scratching they remember which it is. I draw cartoons of the letters and we talk about them as if they are people.
The kids decided that Ignatius was itchy because he was bitten by insects. I did have to explain that a spider is in fact an arachnid to one enthusiastic author. They decided it was fleas. To finish our tale the students thought the best solution was to flea wash his dog.
I really only started this programme this term so it will be interesting to see if the adventures of all the letters in the alphabet and the relationships they form on the way, can help teach a child who has difficulties, to read.
Monday, 23 March 2015
Rote Learning
I'm back from the great meeting of minds. The speaker, despite making us move seats almost as soon as we were settled, was pretty good. He talked about human relations and making your work place a happier one by communicating with people as individuals and recognising them for their unique characteristics as humans rather than as the position they hold. There was a lot of friendly banter in the audience and only a couple of those silly games that are supposed to introduce his next idea. One was drawing a cat with your eyes shut. Not sure how that related to communication but it filled in five minutes. The talk, all in all, did give me a bit to think about generally and best of all I could easily control any urges I had to answer his questions or comment. It was looking good.
Lunch was fantastic and I could easily avoid temptation. Lots of fresh salad and a range of plain meat dishes and vegetarian options, (hurray no sandwiches!) and there were prawns. A very good spread indeed.
In the afternoon we split into collegiate groups; mine Maths/Science. It was one teacher's comment on getting back into the rote learning of tables to primary students that started the rant. I'm not sure how it escalated in to the ridiculousness of teaching up to the twelve times table in a society based on base ten. And then I somehow got maneuvered into my pet hate that why we as a society still use fractions and percentages to represent numbers that are just confusing to primary students and adults alike. I'd better not start, but why do we need to express... no won't go there. So I probably wasted about five minutes of the groups precious collaborating time.
To make up for my outbursts and dominating the conversation I took on a task that will take me an inordinate amount of time. Useful but more time than I really have to spare. Luckily I have my husband, also a teacher to help me out here. He needs to make up some professional development hours so....
Well my internal turmoil driving home was not great because I really only stood out in a crowd of ten. There is only a few more days of school before we break for Easter and then I get to exercise another of my passions; I'm off on camp as a Scout Leader.
Lunch was fantastic and I could easily avoid temptation. Lots of fresh salad and a range of plain meat dishes and vegetarian options, (hurray no sandwiches!) and there were prawns. A very good spread indeed.
In the afternoon we split into collegiate groups; mine Maths/Science. It was one teacher's comment on getting back into the rote learning of tables to primary students that started the rant. I'm not sure how it escalated in to the ridiculousness of teaching up to the twelve times table in a society based on base ten. And then I somehow got maneuvered into my pet hate that why we as a society still use fractions and percentages to represent numbers that are just confusing to primary students and adults alike. I'd better not start, but why do we need to express... no won't go there. So I probably wasted about five minutes of the groups precious collaborating time.
To make up for my outbursts and dominating the conversation I took on a task that will take me an inordinate amount of time. Useful but more time than I really have to spare. Luckily I have my husband, also a teacher to help me out here. He needs to make up some professional development hours so....
Well my internal turmoil driving home was not great because I really only stood out in a crowd of ten. There is only a few more days of school before we break for Easter and then I get to exercise another of my passions; I'm off on camp as a Scout Leader.
Sunday, 22 March 2015
Cluster Meeting Tomorrow
Tomorrow I am going to a meeting involving all the teachers in our cluster. We will listen to a speaker and then we will break into groups to discuss how we can support each other as teachers in our particular subject areas. I'm hanging with the Maths/Science teachers. I did some collegiate work in Writing last year so time for a change. As a generalist it doesn't matter where I go but I do have a Science degree and I am peeved at how Maths and Science always seem to be the poor cousins to teaching Literacy. Thirty teachers in the writing group and only one primary teacher in the Maths Science group - me - with nine other secondary teachers.
The drive is about two and a half hours and I shall have to get up early. I will leave my husband with the bulk of the getting kids ready for school routine. I will just have to get myself organised and then I get all that solitude and think-time in the car.
The drive home may be a different matter. It will be tiring and I will inevitably go over in my head all that has happened during the day. On the positive side I may be excited at some new thing I have learned or someone interesting I have connected with. On a more depressing note there may be the recollection that I put my hand up one too many times during the question and answer session or appeared too opinionated at the small group session. I do have strategies but when my blood's up I find it hard to control myself.
One strategy I use is to calculate how many people are in the room and how many questions are likely to be asked and then work out how many times would be socially acceptable enough for me to raise my hand or give a comment. Sometimes the speakers are interesting and I am keen to get more information. Sometimes they are just relabeling old ideas in a fancy packaging. Then I can't help it and find myself and asking them things like "if they mean Vygotsky's zone of proximal development?" Then I look just like a 'smart-arse' and they come and find me at morning tea break and try to engage me in conversation. I don't like to stand out but have an uncanny knack for making it happen.
There will of course be food provided that I shouldn't eat because of my dietary restrictions (Like most Aspies I know, I have a noncompliant digestive system when it comes to wheat and dairy) but I will of course not be organised enough to have brought anything of my own that is near as yummy.
I will also get to catch up with colleagues I haven't seen for a long time and it does give me a little adrenalin rush doing something different for the day. But I know that I will be a wreck when I do get home. Worked up and hyper from the social activity. My long suffering husband will have to hear the debrief, my kids will not get the attention they require from their mother and I will have to face my own school workmates the next day. I live in hope that the day will go well.
The drive is about two and a half hours and I shall have to get up early. I will leave my husband with the bulk of the getting kids ready for school routine. I will just have to get myself organised and then I get all that solitude and think-time in the car.
The drive home may be a different matter. It will be tiring and I will inevitably go over in my head all that has happened during the day. On the positive side I may be excited at some new thing I have learned or someone interesting I have connected with. On a more depressing note there may be the recollection that I put my hand up one too many times during the question and answer session or appeared too opinionated at the small group session. I do have strategies but when my blood's up I find it hard to control myself.
One strategy I use is to calculate how many people are in the room and how many questions are likely to be asked and then work out how many times would be socially acceptable enough for me to raise my hand or give a comment. Sometimes the speakers are interesting and I am keen to get more information. Sometimes they are just relabeling old ideas in a fancy packaging. Then I can't help it and find myself and asking them things like "if they mean Vygotsky's zone of proximal development?" Then I look just like a 'smart-arse' and they come and find me at morning tea break and try to engage me in conversation. I don't like to stand out but have an uncanny knack for making it happen.
There will of course be food provided that I shouldn't eat because of my dietary restrictions (Like most Aspies I know, I have a noncompliant digestive system when it comes to wheat and dairy) but I will of course not be organised enough to have brought anything of my own that is near as yummy.
I will also get to catch up with colleagues I haven't seen for a long time and it does give me a little adrenalin rush doing something different for the day. But I know that I will be a wreck when I do get home. Worked up and hyper from the social activity. My long suffering husband will have to hear the debrief, my kids will not get the attention they require from their mother and I will have to face my own school workmates the next day. I live in hope that the day will go well.
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