100MB Problem

Edumail status... Bliss.

I had benefitted from a piece of brilliant advice from a good colleague in school last week and I am going to share this with everyone here.

100MB is all that we have got on our Edumail, which is just a measly 0.1GB, and what can we do with 0.1GB of storage space these days? Archiving the emails you want using the built in archive function is not the easiest way to manage emails, and we become constantly agonised over which emails we should keep so that we do not breach the storage levee.

Come Gmail to our rescue!

Set up another Gmail account (even if you already have one) so that it deals with all the emails you want to archive from Edumail. So all that you have to do after that is to just forward the emails you want to archive to your new Gmail account, and of course delete them from your Edumail.

That's it. All emails you still want are stored safely on the cloud. Problem solved.

And searching archived emails on Gmail is a breeze. What are we talking about? It's Google.

Depth of concept lacking

When I did a comparison in how well the Sec 3NA and Sec 4NA Art pupils are coping with their Painting and Drawing paper, there is quite a wide gap in their achievement levels in conceptualising ideas even when discounting the difference in the length of exposure each has been exposed to the syllabus. The younger group had largely responded to the questions in very direct, superficial and frivolous ways even after they were shown lots of examples of good work. This worries me.

The make up of the 2 groups are very different, the 4NA group this year had always been in the same class as the Sec 4E group since last year and has benefitted from the exposure of the comparatively more robust thinking and interpretive abilities of the latter. There is always some form of excellence to measure up to and pupils learn quickly to adapt so as to keep up. This is largely done through a transparent review and assessment model which encourages questions, comparisons and critique.

To bridge the gap in the 3NA's ability to conceptualise more thoughful ideas, they will need to be exposed to a more challenging environment where there is someone who is significantly stronger to model after. Perhaps I will start getting some Sec 4s to carry out coursework presentation to the Sec 3s. The older group will get clearer as they deliberate their concept to their juniors while the younger group will get a chance to ask questions from their seniors about their approaches. Both will benefit from this exchange.

Top 10 Reasons for Blogging

There are so many reasons that I can think of in response to this topic. Here's my top 10 list for why we should blog our reflections.

No. 10: Easy Archival

Blogs are automatically archived on the cloud and there is no need for us to physically file such content anymore. When the content is tagged (I'd better start doing that), search is also incredibly fast and easy. Over a period of time, a properly archived blog becomes a rich source of learning material.

No. 9: Media Rich

Unlike traditional methods of using a pen and paper. The blogging environment allows for a far richer content of media types, such as photos, videos and podcasts (audio or video). These different content types allow for different approaches in establishing clearer undestanding.

No. 8: Builds Professional Portfolio

For teachers who are trying to build a portfolio of their teaching life, what better way is there than building a blog? The projects which you have taken charge of, your experiences and inventive approaches of solving problems, can all be easily recorded in a blog. This can be a rich portfolio which illustrates your strengths with contemporary culture to your future employer or postings.

No. 7: Openness

A blog is instantly accessible by many at the same time. Communication is open and multi channeled, unlike the closed nature of the traditional manner of submitting papers straight to the department head, both lateral and vertical transfers are present.

No. 6: Personal

Being like a working personal diary, there is a sense of ownership in how you maintain your blog. You can customised it in a manner which you fancy and have your own following of readers.

No. 5: Comments

One of the beautiful things of a blog (or in other Web 2.0 applications) is the ability to give comments. Another perspective of viewing things is really useful when friends and colleagues drop a line to encourage, learn, advise, and simply support each other.

No. 4: Ease

I am really encouraged when I see the older members of the team contributing regularly in their blogs. When it is on the world wide web, there is no need to sign in to cumbersome VPN or be localised to specific computers, people can basically do this everywhere. When you are commuting on your mobile phone, on your netbook while waiting for your friends, or just anywhere where you have internet access. Ease of use is really, really important here and the cloud based companies such as Google are doing such a fantastic job in this.

No. 3: Aware of Concerns

As we share, we become more aware of the concerns or problems going on at work/personal life which may not become apparent when not communicated. This awareness allow us to have a better understanding of situations and be more apt in responding to them.

No. 2: Sharing Good Ideas/Practices/Experiences

The whole thing is really about sharing things easily. Good ideas, practices get around a lot more quickly as compared to traditional means and we can all collectively benefit as a learning community. The more senior teachers, with their wealth of experience, can also share their wisdom and perspective to the young. Everyone benefits from such sharing.

No. 1: We Get Better

And the No.1 reason why we should blog, in my opinion, is that we all get better when we share. We become clearer in our approaches and is more aware of our thoughts. And in being more reflective, we can have a better understanding of who we are and why we are doing what we are doing. How can we not get better when we are doing this?

Wow! So glad I did this. And I am learning everyday.

Habit

While addressing the once again dwindling blog posts for reflections in the department yesterday, some teachers find it difficult to keep up with the weekly reflections, reasoning with the usual concerns that there is no time to do this, and that they are not good in writing, etc, etc.

Come on. How many times do we have to do this? Initially, reflections were done on paper over 10 min during staff time, then there were concerns over how such information can be shared laterally, so after numerous reviews and adjustments, we have finally evolved to tap on the strength of the blog to do this.

There is nothing wrong with using this as a tool for reflection and we are definitely not going back.

Man is a creature of habit and some things just need perseverance to set in. We will just keep doing this until the habit stays. For greater transparency, reflection submissions per teacher will be charted on a termly basis and the information will be shared within the department. This also encourages and gives clear credit to our colleagues who have been contributing consistently.

It needs to be clearer

I was quite upset with the performance of one of my 4N pupils when he took his Art Paper 2 Exam and I gave him my immediate feedback on what he had not done (e.g. he was only effectively using 1/3 of the exam time to do his work), or what he could have done a whole lot better right after the paper had ended. I told him straight that with his current level of performance, he is not going to come close to even passing this paper when he sits for his 'O's next year.

What upsets me more is that this is a decent pupil, someone who had never once given me any sort of behavioural problem. He may not be the fastest in getting the point, but he puts in effort to keep up with the expectations and is always respectful to his teachers and peers. I can see that he felt really bad after hearing my feedback and had not once lifted his head the whole time.

I did whatever I thought was logical. Showing him exactly where he had done wrong, with visual reference to some of the much better examples his peers had produced so that he can see and realise the gaps. And specifically what he can do about it to get better. All the same kind of feedback which I had dispensed the previous time he had done poorly in a similar assessment.

I do not believe that the pupil did not want to get better. It is very likely that the pupil just did not truly understand exactly what he should do. And this clarity of instruction got to come from me. Rubrics, feedback, follow-up, practice. How can I be clearer at each stage for this minority group of pupils who have a greater challenge in comprehension? This is a question I always have to ask myself. If pupils do not gain value from our feedback, we cannot blame them for non-performance.