Age does not necessarily mean resilience

I've spent the last six weeks - I'm excluding the three 'earthquake weeks' - teaching my year 12 class the novel The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini. 

Normally, I like to teach To Kill a Mockingbird (TKAM)  to Year 12s, but my new school has TKAM set as a Year 11 text, and since I have the top-stream Year 12 class many of them studied TKAM last year. So, whilst I was wondering what to teach, one of my colleagues said she'd like to teach The Kite Runner and I thought, yeah, that'd be cool (I'd read in the NCEA Assessment Reports for A.S.2.3 that it's a text that is written about very well in the exam). So my school ordered a class set of The Kite Runner. This in itself blew me away, because I've never requested a text before and then actually had it show up a week later, all shiny and new and ready for my class to use. How luxurious. How awesome.

Anyway, we have just finished studying it. And despite it's brutality in parts, and also the fact that the pace slows considerably in the middle, my students loved it. I felt kinda weird about it after we got back from the 'earthquake-break' - it's a very traumatic novel. So I told my students my concerns - that I wished I had chosen something a little less depressing. They insisted that it was a good choice. The themes of prejudice, discrimination and betrayal did not put them off. O, to be 16 years old again...

Anyway, they just handed in their essays...and they have completely blown me away. This is a very very smart class indeed - I've known that since the first week I taught them. But most of the essays are excellent, and some are absolutely fantastic. Like, truly amazing. And better than anything I could write, or even think of writing (I am crap at spotting biblical allusions, for a start...). So, I have come to the conclusion that I made the right choice about teaching The Kite Runner, which is nice.

The downside to teaching this novel is that some of the girls in my class recommended I read A Thousand Splendid Suns by the same author. I love it when students recommend me books. So I read about two-thirds of it....and then I got to a horrifically violent scene, had a panic attack and keeled over on the bathroom floor, munting my leg in the process. Incidentally, none of the students in my class use colloquial and over-used words such as 'munting'. They are so much more eloquent than me. Anyway, I have learned from this experience that it's best not to read traumatic novels at a time when life is also a bit traumatic, even if it's OK to study them with a class of teenagers...

Sharing is Caring

First week back at school after the quake, and the new morning timetable has been implemented. It’s going well, even though it’s rather tiring for both us host-school teachers and students getting up so early. New routines are always a bit weird at first, I guess. I am a bit reluctant to say, however, that it’s going well because I don’t want this situation to set a precedent. That is, the combining schools solution is not something that we want to aspire to. I think I said this in my last post and now I’m going to explain in more detail why.

1)      We are combining schools because it is an emergency situation. There are a number of combined schools functioning across Christchurch right now. If we don’t combine, then a large number of students will not have a school to attend. So, we are doing it because it is the only solution.

2)      By combining schools we are ultimately limiting resources for each individual student. Here’s how:

a)      Firstly, because the number of students has doubled on the premises, there is less contact time for students in classes  - classes are now 45 minutes instead of an hour. This means significantly less individual time with teachers for each and every student (not that there was lots of time for one-on-one anyway). So, we need to issue more homework to students. But homework, despite what some people think, is not nearly as valuable as being actively supervised by a trained professional. John Hattie, amongst many others, has done a lot of work around what has the most impact on learning. Being in and engaged in the classroom with a good teacher is vital. Homework…not so much.

b)      So, possibly/probably not as much learning will take place for students this year. This will affect their assessment results. And I’m not super concerned about this because I think that the focus on NCEA assessment results is rather over-zealous and at times superficial (I’m more of a “use assessment to guide learning” believer than a “lets get as many credits/qualifications as possible” believer). But still, many teachers, students and parents are/will be concerned about this impact this new structure will have on assessment.

c)      Because the two schools are running in morning and afternoon shifts, this limits the resources that each school can use for extra-curricular activities. And whilst I don’t think that extra-curricular activities are as important as the learning that takes place within class time, they are still very important. For many students it is what motivates them to come to school and participate. For many teachers it is too. And it’s where you build positive relationships with students “outside of the classroom.” I’ve definitely found in the past that being involved in extra-curricular activities has improved my relationships with certain challenging students.

3)      Teenagers’ brains aren’t at their best at 8am. Or 5pm. I mean, really, whose are? There will be variation between individuals as to what their optimal work time is, no doubt, but by beginning classes at 8am I don’t think we are getting the best from our teenage students’ brains. I can’t actually imagine teaching kids at 4 or 5pm in the afternoon, but that’s what teachers from the other school are doing. I’m definitely better at 8am than 5pm. Lucky me. Anyway, my point is that middle-of-the-day school (a.k.a. ‘normal school’) is definitely the best option.

4)      If we can afford to find middle-of-the-day school then we should. And we can. We are a developed, Western country and our government collects a fair amount in taxes. If need be, the government could collect more (from, say, the rich! Or rich businesses! Good idea methinks, ‘cos that’s who can afford it…even if the rich don’t agree). My biggest fear is that the MOE will think that it’s actually quite effective and potentially cheap to run this combined-school thingy. The current NZ government does not need to be any meaner to teachers and students that it already has been.

So, (I can’t not write a conclusion, even if it is brief and obvious and probably unnecessary) while the combined school situation appears to be working OK, so far, I would hate for anyone to think that it’s actually a good thing. ‘Cos it’s not.

The Good and the Bad

I do appear to be using this blog rather well as a reflective journal at the moment, although it’s definitely deviated from the subject of teaching…. I have a fair amount of time on my hands right now, what with no classes and bugger-all to do in the city (this will change next week, thankfully), so I am writing rather regularly. Unfortunately, EB means my writing is not always super-coherent and it is often riddled with errors, but, oh well; it’s my blog and I’ll do what I like with it :D

Today I’m going to talk about things that are really good for me right now, and things that suck:

Things that are really good:

·        My school; it’s totally awesome. I am really looking forward to teaching again next Monday, despite the shared-school situation. I am actually feeling quite proud that we have taken on another school, from the east, and will be ‘housing’ them, so to speak. It’s a cool thing to do, given the horrendousness of the situation (although I am aware that it's also just bloody good luck that my school was so unaffected). We can’t have teachers teaching and students learning in tents, or even prefabs; students need to do Science in a lab, Drama in a drama room, and English in an English room. That’s not to say that I think that sharing school premises is something we should aspire to in New Zealand - I believe that education systems should be as well-resourced as they possibly can be (spend, spend, spend, you stingy government(s)!!!) Anyway, things seem really well organised and the teachers seem pretty onto-it (despite the ever-pervasive EB - at least everybody’s got it, so no-one in particular is at a disadvantage there, heh). I think things should go relatively smoothly once we all get back into it. Can’t wait! I also have some lovely friends on staff – not a lot, but some - and I’m constantly meeting and getting to know more people. Yay for cool teachers! Yay for my school!

·        All our neighbours are in a very similar situation to us. This is actually a bad thing I guess, but when you walk across the road to collect water from the artesian well, neighbours pop out of nowhere to grumble with you about the lack of water, the damage to their house or how crap the council are. I never knew anyone on our street before this quake; yay for neighbours and communities coming together!

Things that suck:

·        No water. Still. It came and then went again. Pretty much all the mains pipes up our street are munted somewhere. I can see now that it’s gonna take ages to repair all the leaks. I wrote a huge post about it but I won’t bother posting it. Instead, to summarise, I will say that it’s truly depressing (as well as annoyingly time-consuming) not having running water in your own home.

·        Every single café and restaurant that I used to go to regularly has gone. Last night we had fish ‘n’ chips for dinner, which was really yummy, but it just wasn’t the same as sitting in lovely Topkapi and having a glass of wine as you wait for your deliciously enormous kebab to arrive. Oak Tree has been red-stickered. C1 is down. Osaka-ya in the CBD is probably down. Under the Red Veranda - down…so many businesses are simply going to disappear, never to be seen again.

·        We’ve had no visitors from the other side(s) town since the quake. I guess this is because the streets are pretty munted in the east right now and people have been warned to stay off the roads. Not that anyone is actually obeying that request… also, it’s a dumb request when services are barely functional in 50% of the city; we do still have to live, Mr Mayor. I guess the lack of visitors is also because there is practically nothing left this side of town (goodbye lovely QEII pool- I miss you so much already), and well, we can hardly cook a meal for anyone without water. My concern wider concern is that east Christchurch has been quite isolated from the rest of the city since the quake; this is worrying me a lot. What is in store for the future of east Christchurch?

Teaching and Learning (or lack thereof) in Christchurch

It’s been almost two weeks since I saw my students, and it will be another one before I see them again. Some schools, which were largely unaffected by the quake, started back today but mine won’t start until next Monday. This is because my school is being used as a Civil Defence emergency centre and Civil Defence won’t be out of the premises until mid this week.

And that’s fine…except to make matters even more interesting, when we begin classes again next Monday we will be sharing our premises with a school that was hit really badly by the quake. So, I am now a ‘morning school’ teacher, teaching from 8am-1pm, and then the other school runs from 1pm until sometime in the late afternoon. This means that periods will be shortened, as will breaks, and consequently, more learning time will be lost. For both schools.

I’ve been having flashbacks to the year I spent in Cordoba, Argentina as an exchange student, where I attended high school in the morning, from 7:30am-12:30pm. This is common practice in South America and various developing countries around the world as there are simply not enough school buildings to go around. So, for my school (which went from Year 1 to Year 13) it was seniors in the morning and juniors in the afternoon. While I was in Argentina I spent about two weeks in a small town called Hernando, staying with a family and their daughter who was my age. She had evening school – the format at her school was seniors in the evening, intermediate in the afternoon, juniors in the morning. I thought that sounded super exciting! Imagine messing around all afternoon and then staying up late just because you had to go to school and then being able to sleep in! Awesome!! However, I am fairly unenthused now about my allocation of morning school. I like teaching at a well-resourced school and starting at 8:30 and finishing at 3.  And at least in Argentina my home had running water…

It is interesting how losing a significant chunk of the school year puts things in perspective. The most important time at school is not the meetings about how to utilise teacher aides, or the extra-curricular sports, or the NCEA moderation meetings…the most important part of school is the contact time; the teaching and learning time in the classroom – you know, that time when teachers facilitate and students learn and where students get practice at using and developing their literacy and critical thinking skills (amongst other useful skills – though these are my preferred two). That’s not to say they don’t get that outside of the classroom, but, well, school is there for a purpose, and the most structured learning will usually take place inside the classroom (unless the teacher is crap, of course).

Anyway, what has to be done has to be done. I am certainly not advocating not sending the students from the badly affected schools to school at all (bad sentence, sorry, EB). I don’t know what the alternatives would be – maybe shipping in a bunch of pre-fab classrooms? That would be undoubtedly more expensive than the current plan. And at least my school wasn't badly affected...how stressful would it be to have to teach or learn in a completely different environment right now?! So it’s cool. Well, cool-ish.

And now, to add my anxiety about the whole situation, the silly Prime Minister has decided to give us Cantabrians a National Memorial Day, where we all get the day off to mourn and remember. On a school day. Um…I think some of us have been mourning and remembering for the last two weeks, and I’d like to stop now and just get on with life, thanks. School students surely don’t need even more time off school, do they? I’d never ever had students email me and ask me for work…until about a week ago. Students are bored. They want to learn. Let’s get on with the learning, I say.

And, as Homer said, “Is there anything useful we can do?”

12 Days Later

I just got back from a community meeting for citizens of Avondale, Avonside, Dallington, Aranui, Linwood and Wainoni. The meeting consisted of about half an hour of listening to officials talk and five to ten minutes of audience questions. There was a lot of waffling by said officials (and use of personal pronouns such as “we” and “us”, surprise surprise). Most people at the meeting were, of course, much worse off than us, and the meeting was mostly useless in terms of getting answers about what is happening to services in this area.

Here were some of the concerns raised:

• EQC never showed up to assess damage from the 4^th September quake so many people are living in houses which have been badly damaged (twice) and they don’t know whether or not they should be there. Many are worried that their houses won’t be assessed by winter.
• Not enough port-a-loos – there are 80-90 year olds using self-dug holes in their gardens as toilets, as well as large families with children.
• Port-a-loos not being maintained – that is, they are full up and therefore unusable.
• Transport: some residents have been told to go to the Welfare Centre in Burnside, but they have no way of getting there.
• No information has been given about primary schools in the area – what the situation is, when they will begin again etc.

The questions from audience members were not publicly addressed because they “ran out of time”. So no specific answers were provided for the above questions. No specific information was given about the restoration of services other than by Orion (who got a big applause). We, like many residents in East Christchurch, have no idea when we will have running water again.

What can I say? Lots of people in East Christchurch are currently living in developing world/3^rd world conditions. And that’s bullshit for a developed/1^st world country.