NCEA Review: My Thoughts

Biiiig changes are coming to our National Certificate of Educational Achievement (that link is to the new and developing NCEA), over the next few years. There is currently a review of our Senior assessments, with 7 changes, as identified in the below picture my colleague drew. Yesterday for our national Teacher Only Day we got a taster of the changes to come over the next three years. There are 5 major shifts that need to be addressed in our high school system to support these 7 changes, which I decided to share my thoughts on.

WELLBEING

I am so pleased to see wellbeing is not only a key focus of the changes, but also the first to be discussed. By having less, bigger standards as well as less credits offered per course will definitely help to reduce teacher and student stress. The biggest stressor for the kids is when they are juggling multiple assessments, and sometimes even need to choose whether they are going to complete them all. The biggest stressor for me personally is the considerable amount of marking (especially when I'm very particular!). 

I also think with more scope to go off on tangents with learning, as less time needs to be set aside for assessment, will enhance overall enjoyment at school. With greater flexibility, students will have more say in what they are learning, and are likely to have greater interest. I do think the current structure and system of NCEA means kids are just credit counting. I'm sooooo tired of hearing 'I don't need to do this work Miss, I already have the credits I need'. To get to this point though of greater flexibility though, a lot needs to be done around greater understanding of different modes of assessment gathering, and exemplars to show this.

GREATER INCLUSION AND EQUITY

It's fantastic there has been recognition of the diversity in our country and the need to consider this diversity within our teaching, learning and assessment. There appears to be more thought not only around our Māori ancestry and customs, but also LGBTQI, several other ethnicities/cultures, and those who are less able. Greater inclusion of students and adapting the way we assess to have greater equity is a super positive step forward!

As part of Change 2, there were several mentions of the creation of resources to support staff, but I hope that there will be Professional Development to ensure these are delivered effectively and consistently. I am excited for greater access to and inclusion of Māori medium learning, but really hope this is implemented correctly and respectfully, which may not be the case if there isn't effective PD around the resources. My final wondering, is if there is the possibility of teacher judgement alongside teacher aides to determine whether students with disabilities have met a standard, rather than have the same expectations of able students?

COHERENCE

Although I agree there needs to be a reduction of the fragmented learning across graduates, I fear that this may reduce student choice. If we try too hard to fill the gaps in capabilities, knowledge and skills, so the students are on a level playing field when they leave school, then are they going to be clones of one another? Sure, we need to be confident we are preparing students for multiple pathways, as the next shift suggests, but we also need to be sure students still have some choice in pursuing the capabilities, knowledge and skills that they are passionate about. So, how are we going to individualise courses and learning opportunities, if we are wanting greater coherence..?

The design of a literacy and numeracy package which every student must pass, I do think is a fantastic idea. Having a set of 20 credits for numeracy and literacy will certainly help to ensure a base set of knowledge and skills which is consistent across school leavers. This will also help increase understanding and confidence for future education providers or employers. The ability to access and be assessed on these different assessments in the 20 credit pack when the students are ready is an incredible change - meaning students can demonstrate their learning at any point throughout their high school years (as opposed to only in Year 11 currently). Finally - OC are ahead of the game since we are already assessing against the Achievement Objectives and Levels of the NZC, which is the language these packs will use.

PATHWAYS

I do genuinely think the students at Orewa have so many options for future pathways between extra-curricular opportunities, subjects, GATEWAY programmes and they are given lots of guidance from our Careers department around the steps in their journey. The fact it has been identified that some Kiwi students have been "denied access to empowering pathways to succeed in life", is saddening, so it's great something is being done to address this inequity.

I love the creation of the new Vocational Entrance Award, as I think this will give motivation to the students who possibly don't enjoy the school system, but want and need it to support their pathways. This credited award that will hopefully become internationally recognised, will hopefully give some of that empowerment back. I also think this may give greater clarity for whānau and employers. A final positive, is that this system change may encourage discussion and changes within the HPE department, to more proactively advocate for the myriad of pathways students could follow by choosing our HPE courses.

CREDIBILITY

I don't have many thoughts on this system shift, aside from agreeing on the need to have clearer transparency and apprehension of what NCEA actually is and how it can support our young people. Especially for our families and the wider community. There certainly is a gap in understanding, which becomes especially evident during student conferences with home. When I was at Tamaki, they held NCEA info evenings for caregivers, which was great - but there is certainly a need for resources in multiple languages, as I feel that is a current barrier.

I also wonder if there is uncertainty around the general credibility of NCEA, as discussed, how can we actually demonstrate or increase the certainty of NCEA's credentials?

Lots of changes ahead, but lots of positive changes. I look forward to following the next steps...

Assessment... More Than a Test!

Over the last four months, I have been fortunate to be able to complete the Evidence Based Education course 'Assessment Essentials', funded by The Education Hub. I was interested in this opportunity because I love to learn, but also because there aren't many PD opportunities that are specifically about assessment. The course was split into 10 modules. Each of these had videos to watch, audio to listen to, texts and further articles to read, and also collaborative conversations. I had these conversations with my HOD, Asher, and the conversations were my favourite part of the course. 

There were soooo many things that challenged my thinking throughout the course, and I learnt a significant amount. Here are the key things I was left thinking more about;

• Learning can be considered as a change in long term memory, and assessment is bridging the gap between teaching and learning. The aim of assessment is to generate actionable meanings.
• How we question students - There was a large focus on the importance on 'hinge questions', questions to encourage students to think. I have more actively been considering when I am asking questions, how I am asking, how many, and at what point in the learning process. The course also encouraged me to more actively explain WHY I am asking students questions.
• The importance of multiple inadequate glances - Essentially, assessment is not a one hit wonder. We should be looking at learning from multiple angles, and multiple times, before we develop a conclusion and decide on the next steps.
• Awareness of student cues, to demonstrate an understanding, or a lack of. This means more actively looking for facial expressions and body language!
  
• Being comfortable being surprised - There were several times throughout the course I was reminded of the importance to have high expectations for all students, and to never be surprised by what the students may demonstrate. This can help reduce bias based off previous understandings and experiences with/of students. It's important that we allow ourselves to be continually surprised by student growth and development, rather than judging or gathering evidence from first impressions.
• The importance of Ako Orewa - There was a huge focus on student understanding of their own knowledge and skills, and where they are heading next. This is the culture our school is currently embedding within teaching and learning.
• The wording of assessments is crucial - So be sure to structure the wording and/or break down the language of questions so that they are comprehendible by the students. The wording/vocabulary can sometimes be a barrier for students to demonstrate their knowledge.
• Feedback needs to have a specific aim related to the performance of a task, and give strategies to put that feedback into action. It's important to remember that some feedback can actually have negative implementations on learning.
• Professor Rob Bjork's concept of Desirable Difficulties - When someone is at the right stage of learning, so that difficulties becomes desirable. If they haven't reached that stage of learning, then the difficulty will become less desirable.

After this course, there are a few things I would like to do (or do more of) in the future:

• Co-construct assessments with Seniors
• Greater use of student work as exemplars (at various levels)
• Have visible learning intentions that are measurable and able to give effective feedback to

A huge thanks to The Education Hub for the opportunity and for Asher's support along the way. I would highly recommend anyone to get amongst this course (just know it's mostly in a UK context!).

Wow, I Really Have Learnt A Lot!

I currently have a Pre Service Teacher under my wing, and she asked me some questions to ignite her thinking. They actually encouraged a lot of reflection of my own practice, and really demonstrated over the last (nearly) 5 years how much I have actually grown as a teacher, especially reading through my blog posts I have written. 

The questions asked were;

- When you teach your HPE lessons how do you get your students to demonstrate student agency (choice and ownership) of their own learning?

- How do you encourage students to problem solve and critically think?

- How do you acknowledge students' prior knowledge and experiences?

- What interesting learning activities/experiences do you provide when designing a unit plan?

- How do you embody/apply the principles of inclusion and/or biculturalism in your teaching practice?

- How do you include digital technology in your teaching practice?

I would encourage everyone to take the time to answer these questions irrespective how long you have been teaching. They really got me thinking, and shows me the knowledge I have developed over the last 5 years, and helps my student teacher!

Let's Play with LEGO - It's Educational!

LEGO was designed to inspire children to be creative, and develop many desirable skills as they grow up. Nowadays, people of all ages enjoy designing, building and constructing with LEGO, and there are many educational benefits. I have created the below visual with some of the key benefits gained by 'playing' with LEGO. One significant point in my research, was how LEGO can support social development of children with autism, and as a result there was the creation of LEGO therapy (which appears to be very successful!). See here and here for more info about LEGO therapy.

Readings that have supported my findings:

7 Benefits of LEGO play for kids (and adults)

How can playing with LEGO benefit your son's education

10 Incredible Benefits of Playing with LEGO

Why LEGO are great for your brain

10 Reasons why LEGO is for grown-ups

Adults may see mental health benefits from playing with LEGO

LEGO Education has created dozens of hands-on activities to match with their LEGO sets. There are several activities that directly link to the Health, PE and Outdoor Ed curriculums, and can easily be adapted even if you don't have the specific LEGO sets. Here are a few I liked the look of, that are targeted at younger students, but can be reshaped to suit learners of any age. Many of them have stories attached to the construction of the LEGO, developing listening skills. 

• Physical Activities - Encouraging students to think about different ways they can be active. Involves building the physical activities and then acting out to others to guess and discuss.
• Outdoor Activities - Students create various outdoor activities, then identify and discuss risks in the activities. Can easily be linked with risk management plans for trips, especially camps where there is a lot going on.
• Helping Each Other - Build a scene where someone or a group of people are helping others. Puts students in other people's shoes, and encourages them to think about how they can help others, as well as how others can help them. Could also build a model that shows kindness.
• Explore the Face Bricks - Develops understanding of facial expressions and body language. If you don't have access to any LEGO with faces, I'm sure any toys will do the trick! Great prompt for identifying and explaining non-verbal communication, which can be linked into numerous lessons, such as learning about consent.
• Jeesun and Jayden Need to Work it Out - This activity would link well with the above activity - as it is focused around resolving conflict and assertive communication skills.
• My Home - Constructing their understanding of home. Could easily be linked with Hāuora and wellbeing, as well as one's whakapapa. Students could share with others - this may also start dialogue around different cultures/values/traditions etc.
• Jayden Feels Anxious - The objectives of this lesson are for students to have greater understanding of what anxiousness and anxiety are, and understanding of strategies that may help reduce feeling of anxiousness. 

Here are some other possible learning activities that include LEGO:

• Build a musculoskeletal system (or any other systems in the body)
• Stop motion animation for scenario based learning (so much scope here including; drugs/alcohol, sex and sexuality, peer pressure, communication styles)
• Responses to scenarios for ABL / team building / problem solving
• Key word mix and match (rather than on paper or card)
• Create a croquet or a mini golf course!
• Build a catapult/slingshot and relate to biomechanical principles Projectile Motion and Levers
• LEGO bowling - build your own pins

  
• Listening and effective communication activity in groups of 3: Student 1 gives instructions to Student 2 of what LEGO to build, Student 2 relays to Student 3 and Student 3 builds. Can make links to problem solving, emotions and reducing conflict too.
• Build a balloon car to teach Newton's Laws of Motion
• A public service announcement using LEGO characters
• Design an ecologically sustainable village - can link well with the Determinants of Health
• Create a scene that you consider to be a peaceful place, like hanging in the pool or sunbathing! A simple activity to introduce mindfulness.
• Build characters in unusual positions and identify their centre of gravity, base of support and line of gravity (balance and stability)

Many people contributed to this list, including; Amanda, Heather, Kent, Mary, Celia, Michelle, Karen, Craig and Matthew. Thanks!

Clearly, there are so many ways LEGO can be used in classroom activities (whether you are at school or home learning). I have focused on learning activities for Health, PE and Outdoor Ed, but there are lots of links to other curriculum areas, especially Science and Maths. Why don't you, your whānau and your students give some of them a go?

Online Teaching & Learning: It's not all bad!

I cannot believe we've already been online teaching for 5 weeks (and home for nearly 7). But to be honest, despite missing the kids, I have really enjoyed the experience. I've got a newfound appreciation for face to face learning though, that's for sure! And I have absolutely hated staring at a screen answering myriad emails.

There have been so many positives of at home teaching though. I thought I would post some of the highlights for me during this period so far.

Creating rewindable video content for students

Setting at home challenges for my Ako class and watching the videos they've created 'together'

Students engaging/commenting in the chat box of Google Meet during video calls 
(I honestly think this learning environment has given the opportunity for more students to have a 'voice' than when we are in a standard classroom setting, it has been great to have people share, who usually don't speak!)

Seeing the creations from my Topic class (integrated)

 

Lino-it brainstorms with my Year 11s

A shared Google Slides resource my Year 12s all contributed to


Having 1:1 chats with my Year 13s about their internal 
(They were more organised than when we have these chats in class, as they feared awkward silences!)

As much as I'm looking forward to getting back to school, back into routine and back to connecting with colleagues and students, I've tried to take the positives out of online teaching. Hopefully only one more week to go, but I'm quite happy not having a commute and enjoy having an extra couple of hours sleep each morning!

The Shift Has Arrived - Chaos Ahead!

Throughout 2019, we were in groups of 6 to create an integrated unit for 2020. I briefly explained in this post what my PLG's initial ideas were. The last two CallBack Days have been dedicated to meeting who we will be co-teaching with, and getting comfortable with the units we will be teaching. It's crazy how far we have come - we are starting to teach the units next week!! 

Our school is having quite a shift this year, and it's super exciting. Not only are we integrating curriculum areas at Years 9 & 10, the timetable is also changing and we are introducing Mai Time and Ako teachers. Moving from 5 periods days and a 10 day cycle, to 4 blocks a day and a 5 day cycle means we actually see the students an extra half an hour per week (Juniors and Seniors), which is great! Mai Time and Ako blocks are included in the timetable for Juniors - given the same amount of time as curriculum units. Put simply, Mai is an opportunity for students to be physically active and also time to create their own passion projects/inquiries. Ako is a mentoring system designed to support students with self management, how they learn, and progress towards goals (kind of like School Mum!). Later in the term I'll blog more detail about Mai and Ako, as they grow a little more.

The unit my PLG developed comes under the umbrella value of respect, and is the sexuality unit for Health integrated with Digital Technology and English. There are 5 modules (Hāuora, Pubertal Changes, Communication, Relationships, Drugs & Alcohol) throughout the course. Students will have checklists for each of the modules full of resources and tasks to complete. Ultimately, by the end of Week 12, they will have created a 5 page website to demonstrate their understanding of the content/skills/tools within the checklists for all 3 curriculum areas. Throughout these 12 weeks, we (the 3 teachers) will be floating around 75 students to give them feedback and have learning conversations, and host mini tutorials - the onus is handed over to the kids entirely! 

Week 13 we have calendared a 'catch-up' week. As we are assessing against the achievement objectives (see 2019 trail here) frequently throughout the modules, by this point we should have a good understanding how the students are progressing. This week is to encourage students to increase their levels for their achievement objectives (for any or all of the curriculum areas), and to determine the final 5 weeks. 

If students are sitting at a Level 2 - Level 3 of the curriculum, they will be required to review their website pages to increase depth and demonstrate greater understanding. If they are a Level 4 across the board, the students will be given an extensive list of inquiry ideas they can choose to investigate (which will supplement learning in a curriculum area of their choice). Our most academic students who are already a Level 5, will design their own inquiry project. The project will need to be related in some way to one of the 5 module topics previously explored, and the students are required to explain which 2 achievement objectives their project will demonstrate.

I would be lying if I said I am feeling 100% confident. I'm honestly feeling a little apprehensive. What if the kids don't do anything with all of this freedom? What if I clash with my co-teachers? What if there are students who fall through the cracks? What if they aren't getting depth in their learning? Am am void now?? BUT I am also incredibly excited to be involved in this shift, I think it's an amazing opportunity for the students AND the teachers. We will be learning new skills and content from the other curriculum areas, and also further developing skills including collaboration, empathy and problem solving. Bring on the organised chaos!

Authentic Learning > Exam Results

Preparing students for exams is really difficult. I have a lot of empathy for teachers who need to prep their students for multiple exam papers, and have multiple exam filled classes - I only have one class and one paper!

When I taught the Level 2 Health course for the first time in 2018, I needed to teach and prepare students to be tested on two topics - we didn't know which one they were going to get. The exam requires students to identify and explain the possible influences of and consequences from an adolescent health issue, and to then suggest health-enhancing strategies to reduce the issue. 

In 2018 the topics were body image or managing conflict in relationships. Although there are some obvious overlaps in the topics, they are quite different. As a result, in the short period of time we had to learn the content, the structure and revise the exam, I felt I was teaching to the assessment. An assessment that I didn't even know what it was going to ask! This sad reality meant that I didn't feel there was much authentic learning for this cohort of students, as I was so focused on wanting them to feel the most prepared they could for their exam. Although of course success in exams is important, authentic learning is considerably more important in my opinion... so I hated accepting how assessment driven these couple of months pre exam were. 

I was delighted when the assessment specifications changed for 2019, to only have one topic (stress from social media). The students still needed to understand and practice the structure of the exam and how to annotate the scenario and resources - but now we had considerable more time to prepare, double! Having much more time meant there was ample opportunity for lessons and activities, but not specifically exam related. We watched plenty of clips, read articles, completed experiments, took quizzes, had debates; all things that highlighted how stress from social media is an issue but didn't always connect back to the exam itself. From the conversations I had with the students, and the observations I made, I feel there were genuine learning experiences for the students in this 2019 class. That they actually took away some tools, skills and information they could come back to in the future when interacting on social media.

Surprisingly though, the exam results are much the same between the two cohorts. I was hoping with greater depth of understanding about the topic, there would be a greater increase in Merits and Excellences, but they are similar. Thankfully I feel they took away a lot more learning!! This year I may need to have higher expectations of how many practice exams students write for instance, and be more actively involved in their study time. Last year the students requested a few periods to self manage their own study, but I feel most didn't utilise this time (even when given 2-4 options of things to do during this time!). So more regimented study time may be needed.

Something to note that is interesting, is the profiles of expected performance for this exam in 2019. Even though I feel a little disheartened the grades are much the same between my classes, my 2019 class actually sat higher than the predicted results, particularly for Achieved and Merits. Despite being a tiny fragment of a large body of students, this a little comforting to see - and may mean some of them were actually scaled down.  

Finally, these graphs do not take into consideration the students who did not show up for their exam. Empty papers and seeing 'absent' on their academic records, was a little heartbreaking after the time and effort poured into the students. I have no clue how to reduce this issue. I can't control if they show up or not and there is no consequence/penalty/followup if they don't. Thankfully though, the number of no shows from my class reduced from 4 in 2018 to 2 in 2019. Fingers crossed this number is 0 at the end of 2020 - We have an extra hour for each class per fortnight with our change in timetable this year, so hopefully even more time will help with this goal!

Student Achievement: More Than A Grade

As blogged previously throughout the year, I have been completing comparisons of student results between 2018 and 2019 for my 2 of my Senior classes. This will be my last one until the exam results are released next year for my Health students. There are clearly many differences between classes - the kids themselves, the number of students, my own experiences, and the class dynamic, so I've needed to take the results with a grain of salt when comparing. It has however, been interesting to see the differences and start to draw some conclusions about why they may be different, and to determine what the next steps may be.

Even though there is an evident drop in the amount of students in my class who 'passed' the 1.4 societal influences paper, as below, this unit was substantially more enjoyable to teach this year. The students were more actively involved in lessons, as they appeared to be actually interested in the topic on the whole, whereas the previous cohort weren't as interested. I don't feel this is a true reflection of my own enthusiasm, as it is a topic I enjoy teaching and learning about (what impacts on our own understandings, biases and involvement in a variety of physical activities). I think the enjoyment is more a reflection of how the students took on the opportunities to be involved in different activities, and were inclusive and positive towards one another. This was evident from observing the students during lessons, as well as the individual reflections and evaluations students wrote. Reading through some of their comments, many of the students became more aware of the stereotypes that exist within physical activities and began to shift/challenge their own opinions - this was the real learning, what actually mattered to me. So even though there may be more orange on the graph this year, I feel confident more students took away greater learning experiences than the previous class. The next natural step, is to ensure more one on one time with students to support them with the jargon in the assessment, to support their ideas to form assessment answers (a common issue this year).

Our final unit this year was the anatomy, biomechanics and exercise physiology unit - the one with the most content and the most difficult for majority of students. I felt rushed last year to complete the unit and assessment by the end of Term 3. This year I made the suggestion to utilise the three weeks of Term 4, because last year this time was given towards practicals for another assessment we no longer do. This allowed flexibility to go off on more tangents, complete more activities for fun, go more in depth for the content I was teaching and more time for students to revise and review their learning (at their own pace). The results clearly show how positive this change was for student success. Not only is there a significant increase in student grades, there was a reduction in rote learning (evident from informal conversations with students), which I also consider to be a massive success. Due to the nature of the content such as muscles and bones, historically students memorise the names, but once tested forget them. I feel more confident about the retention of information moving forward for this group of students compared to last year, which I think is largely contributed to the extension of time for the unit. Next year I am going to have about 10 additional students, so regular checkpoints with individuals are going to be vital.

Overall, irrespective of the differences between cohorts, comparing the data has been useful for my own reflection. As aforementioned, I will finish the 2019 comparisons once the exam results have been released, and then for 2020 I am going to focus on my Year 13 PE class (as it will be my second year teaching in a row).

Student Success in Sexuality Standard: Small Steps

From the 2018 Year 12 Health students, there was lots of feedback around workload for assessments. Many found there was a significant amount to do, and as a result some became demotivated. This was particularly evident in the Sexuality and Gender assessment, because many students did not hand in the assessment at all, or did not complete it (reducing their potential grade), and this was mentioned several times in the end of year feedback.

The assessment had 3 tasks in 2018. 3 tasks that required lots of evidence to support their explanations. SO. MUCH. MARKING. Using student feedback, and my desire to decrease teacher workload too, this year I reduced the assessment to 2 tasks, with less questions than previously. I cannot recall actually creating an assessment task before, aside from during uni, but by using examples from other schools, TKI, and NZQA exemplars/clarifications, I felt confident the students had the potential to meet any levels of achievement to demonstrate their learning, even with less than 2/3 of what they were previously asked to do. As a safety barrier, and a confidence booster, I asked Rachael Dixon from NZHEA to have a read through, to double check the task was suitable before the final step of the standard moderation process. 

Not surprisingly, there was an increase in the number of submission of assessments, as well as the motivation to complete the assessment tasks this year. With less to do, and the same amount of time (as well as emphasising they were lucky to have 2 tasks instead of 3), I feel overall the reduction of workload for the assessment made a positive difference. This is from my own interactions with students; the conversations I have with them, as well as as the below data (see another post with data/results comparison here). 

There has been a considerable increase in the amount of students who are passing with an Achieved, rather than Not Achieving when compared to last year. This is a win for me! The next step is to increase depth of understanding to encourage more students to achieve with Merit or an Excellence. To do so, I would like to spend time getting students to mark exemplars from previous years, and justifying why they gave that mark with the marking criteria. I didn't do this in class for gender and sexuality this year, but I did do peer marking with a practice scenario (the kids struggled grading their peers though, in case they hurt each other's feelings). Students marked and justified grades for the external, and were really engaged, as well as accurate with their grades and justifications, so I think this may help with understanding of what to do to meet each level of achievement for the gender and sexuality assessment next year.

Interestingly, when I compare the feedback from 2018 students to 2019 students, majority of students said their favourite topic and assessment was gender and sexuality last year, but this year the favourite topic was spread evenly across the 4 units/assessments. So even though many rated the unit lower for enjoyment than last year, there was still a greater pass rate. I'm looking forward to seeing next year how the cohort engage with the content, and seeing whether the results continue to grow!

The Future of NCEA PE: How Does This Look?

NCEA was initially designed to be flexible, to allow for multiple methods of assessment, to capture student learning. However unfortunately many of us now have the assessment at the forefront of our minds, some even say it is what they are 'teaching'. The reality is, kids are credit counting and it's sad to admit many are most actively involved when they know the task is being assessed. One of the hopes of the upcoming NCEA Review is that these sad realities can change. 

Today I was lucky to attend a thought provoking 'Big Ideas' day at Hobsonville Secondary School faciliated by Sally, Adam, Anne, Margot and Michelle about this review, and how we might be able to reshape the future of PE assessments. The overarching focus of the day was for us to consider the qualities, skills and knowledge we want our students to leave our classrooms with - what actually makes a Phys Edder?

One of the first activities we completed, was to list all the key knowledge we want our students to leave school with, by the end of Year 13. My group found this a little difficult because the list is so huge! The first picture below (SOLO hexagons) shows these initial ideas and the groupings we made from these ideas (also very challenging as some things fit into many boxes!).

The next step was to list all the subject specific skills, and generic skills we would like students to develop during our courses (post-it notes). We then needed to create one possible unit that encompasses some of these skills and some of the knowledge. From start to finish this whole brainstorm was about 45 minutes and really highlighted how much we do teach both explicitly and implicitly. This was a really great reminder of how rich our subject is - and we had not considered assessments at all! 

The last activity of the day, as below, was to envisage our dream Year 11 PE class. What would the students be doing? How would they be interacting with each other? Where will their learning be heading next? Naturally, we all had a similar vision: actively involved students who are self managed and can explain what their learning/purpose is in PE. The discussion then became, how do we get there and what recommendations can we make in this review to get there? Although, obviously, we did not create a life changing programme to change the world of NCEA PE, these discussions were insightful and incredibly exciting!

Adam frequently expresses we are only a product of our environment, and so are the kids. We need to be comfortable in the uncomfortable, so they are too. We need to challenge and change the sad realities for the future of PE, and the quality of Phys Edders we create! I look forward to seeing how this review shapes our curriculum.

Planning Trips - Not Yet My Cup of Tea

Last year I attended a play called Yes, Yes, Yes. This play followed the two stories of two couples, addressing issues around consent, or lack of. There was lots of student voice included within the performance around their relationships and things they wish they knew about. I thought that this would be a great learning opportunity for my Senior Health students, to start discussions. So immediately I started planning! 

This was the first trip I had planned before. Up until now I had helped supervise on trips, but never actually needed to complete the paperwork before. To be completely honest, I can see why many people are put off - there was soooo much admin! Between permission letters, trip approval, booking buses, budgeting, risk management forms, medical reports, play tickets, relief and chasing up kids it was certainly a learning curve. I learnt a lot along the way though, and thankfully I had months to get everything sorted.  

On June 18th I took 22 students to see the play, hosted by Auckland Live in Aotea Centre. I was very nervous I had forgotten something or that something was going to go wrong - but I was literally getting on a bus, going into a theatre and then bussing back, so of course there was little chance of anything happening (I am trying to be less paranoid!). The kids were actually incredible, so well behaved and really respectful towards me and members of the public, which made the day smooth sailing. 

We were stoked to get front row seats, which also meant we were super close to the stage! During the show, there were a few opportunities for students to stand up and speak one of the character's parts. I was really proud when two OC students volunteered first out of the 100 odd people there, and they represented us so well!

There were two 'pauses' during the show. These pauses were an opportunity for members of the audience to share how they were feeling, what they were thinking about and any questions or concerns that may be running through their minds. This was such a great way for the students to reflect on what they had seen so far, and a simple yet effective way to demonstrate that many of the audience members were feeling and thinking similar things.

Once we got back to school I debriefed with students and we had rich discussion about some of the messages that came from the play. The overall consensus was that the play was fantastic to accomodate the learning and discussions we are having in class around consent, pornography, pressure, sexuality and gender, highlighting some of the issues but being very careful and inclusive in the process. Please see alongside some of the comments the students made.

Despite the lengthy admin trail to get the students there, I am so glad that I did. It was certainly an experience some of the students have never had before and the learning they took away from the day was worth everything to get them there. Assuming the play is performed again next year, I have put into our course outline a course cost so that the play is included in the course, rather than an optional trip, so more students can have the opportunity and experience.

I look forward to finding more cool opportunities for the students, not only for their learning but also mine about trip planning!

We Like to Move It, Move It!

As we are adapting our Junior courses into an integrated curriculum next year, we also need to consider how we are going to adapt our methods of assessment. Rather than giving students grades that are inconsistent across departments and within departments based off of Achieved, Merit or Excellence (which can be subjective even with a marking criteria), another major shift next year will be assessing students based off of levels of the New Zealand Curriculum. This is going to be a challenge for us, and for the students, especially when we are going to need to design the rubrics for these levels for each of our integrated units!

As practice for this method of assessment, this term we utilised the NZC levels to assess our Year 9 Movement Education unit. The purpose of this unit is to encourage students to step out of their comfort zones and to learn some new skills for dance, gymnastics and parkour. This new method of assessment the students are unfamiliar with, hence we started by co-constructing what these levels actually looked like in action, see pictures below. 

Once we had discussed these levels and the purpose of the unit, I asked my students to select one emoji to represent them throughout the term. We regularly had mini discussions about what level the students thought they had been demonstrating throughout the lessons and why. In addition, students moved their emoji to the self assessed level. See alongside the progressions from the beginning of the unit to the end of the unit - it's interesting to see how many students fluctuated, but also great to see so many students sitting at or above the expected level of a Year 9 student! 

This method of assessment definitely required some more prep, and a more conscious effort to embed within the teaching and learning, but I think was a great way to have more consistency of grading and also students had more understanding of the why and how. I enjoyed discussing with students why they were moving (or not) their emoji, because most of them were able to give detailed responses related to their demonstrations, with examples. 

Some stand out comments from some of my students about the overall unit include the following;

"I think it is a very good thing to do it has definitely helped my confidence and it was heaps of fun once I got into it."

"I learnt a lot of new skills and things I couldn't do and I learnt that if you commit to something you can most likely do it."

"The dancing impacted me because it pushed me out of my own comfort zone to try something new and kind of scary. I don't enjoying doing dances in front of other people but it wasn't that bad once I was doing it with my friends."

"My main challenges were in the parkour where I was not getting too involved in the whole thing only one part of it but I thought I should give it a go so I could get up a level and try to enjoy it more and doing that helped a lot."

Moving forward into our next unit which will also use this method of assessment, I would like to have more discussions with students throughout the lessons, rather than just at the end when they are moving their emojis. I found this time I was only able to talk to each student once or twice throughout the unit, and obviously the more often, the greater students can demonstrate their understanding. I think that this is important, as next year we will have 75 students to assess against the NZC levels, rather than about 25. Additionally, I have previously learnt that gamification is a tool which many students positively react to - so I think I need to refer to moving up levels more often as a challenge for students to reach (as the last student voice has suggested).

2020: Some Sort of Structure

As blogged earlier in the year, in 2020 our school is moving into an integrated timetable for Years 9 and 10. Over the last couple of months we have been working in our groups to start to develop some ideas/concepts/unit designs. The 16 groups/units have different topics and an overarching value of the curriculum as the focus. Our value is respect and the overall topic of our unit will be sexuality education, integrating with English, Media and Digital Technology.

I am really excited by the changes because I believe it is great for the students but also great for us as staff. We are starting to learn a lot more about the achievement objectives from our curriculum, but also from other strands/subjects of the curriculum. I love to learn, so gaining new knowledge is a major benefit for me. 

I do feel though, it is a lot harder than expected. There is a lot of thought, research, discussion and work to put into creating these integrated units. Working alongside 5 other teachers, all with different agendas, different personalities and different experiences makes for rich, insightful and creative discussions, but also makes it difficult to come to a conclusion on where we are heading. Fortunately, we have a responsive group, and school is providing time for us to develop these units. 

Last term, our group were relieved for 3 periods to have a decent chunk of time to get our brains ticking about our unit. The below picture demonstrates where we finished after this 3 hour period. Essentially, there are 4 subtopics (Hāuora, Pubertal Changes, Communication and Safe Relationships) which will be modules for students to complete over the first 4-5 weeks, and once these are complete the students will create a project (TBC).

We decided to have modules because we believed there were some specific skills and content knowledge we wanted students to have the understanding of and ability to demonstrate before pursuing their own projects. Each module will have a series of rewindable learning resources and tasks for students to access and complete at their own pace, with a mixture of skills/knowledge from the 3 curriculum strands. Once they are comfortable with the skills/knowledge from one module, we envisage some sort of formative assessment such as a video creation, interview with the teacher or mini presentation to demonstrate their understanding. From there, the student can move onto the next module until they have completed all four. This structure will enable students to learn at their own pace and give choice in what resources/tasks they would like to complete within their set module (2 key parts of Ako Orewa).

A large change to accompany these integrated projects from what we currently do, is assessing students based off levels of the curriculum. So rather than give a child a grade of NA, A, M or E, their grades will directly reflect the level of the curriculum they are working at, related to specific achievement objectives next year (Levels 2-6). Currently in Year 9 PE we are trialling this way of assessing - I plan to blog about this in a few weeks. 

So, once the student has completed their 4 modules, the teachers (there will be 3 teachers with 75 students) will then discuss and determine whether the student is meeting the expected level of the curriculum, based off of what they have completed throughout the modules. If they are meeting/above the standard, they are then able to design their own projects. If the student is below the standard, the student will revisit modules where they are a lower level in their skill development or demonstrations for one week. After this week, they then may design their own project, or be supported in a more teacher directed project with options to choose from. We hope that this timeline will support students sitting at all levels of the curriculum to be successful, and especially not allow some students to fall through the cracks or some not to be challenged.

Kayleigh, one of our awesome group members, used the sticky note timeline, to then create the below digital version of this draft unit outline (which we will keep adding to/adapting).

Moving forward, we have a Teacher Only Day next Friday to continue to develop our ideas. Until this week we thought our unit was going to be for 9 weeks, however this has now changed to 18 weeks. Clearly this means a lot more brainstorming, planning and creating to be done, but also means a lot deeper learning within the unit than before for our students. Thus, the TOD will be a great opportunity to regroup and delve back into where we ended up after our 3 hours together! Watch this space...