Things what I have learnt.

As this is the end of the Australian academic year, I feel that is an opportune moment to share my geographical experiences in a neat, condensed manner. Geography in Australian state schools is seemingly an invisible subject. Many schools I have been into are stressing the importance of independence in learning and pupils taking control of their learning but yet many seem to be neglecting the subject in which you can really engage with the world around. Upon several conversations with senior school pupils, they had no clear idea of what geography is and how it could aid their learning. When I went into a little more detail, the pupils were genuinely enthused by the possible topics they could encounter and really wanted to know more about their own country and the rest of the world. It seems a shame that in such a geographically wonderful country, there is so little emphasis on the natural and man made aspects of such a diverse country. This attitude permeated through senior schools down through middle ages towards primary schooling, where geography was ‘embedded’ within SOSE and had very little impact on the pupils’ learning.

The national curriculum is supposedly going to cure this issue, however, the implementation of the curriculum has been stalled due to disagreements over it’s content between states. Part of me wants to suggest that it is a case of too many cooks in each state wanting to have their say, but having seen the draft of various subjects’ curriculum, I do feel that they (the curriculum) were quite confused and stuck between appeasing several different groups of thinking and pedagogical styles whilst trying to condense as much subject specific knowledge into each area, effectively doubling the workload of some pupils. There will always be disagreements about curriculum content and delivery, but I definitely feel that from being out here, the country could benefit as the current system does not really benefit geography or more importantly, it hampers the learning of interstate movement pupils, who can be caught between two different states timings and education systems.

On the positive side of geography in schools, it seems that private education is still embracing geography. The only jobs I have seen for teaching geography have been in private schools, mostly in religious denomination schools, which could be interesting regarding some geographical issues. Although it is great to see that some schools are still happy to work with geography and expose pupils to the subject, does this mean that geography could become marginalised as an elitist subject? One state school teacher I spoke to thought that geography was “too difficult for the pupils here” and that was at a reasonable inner city state school, which I found incredibly disappointing.

In regards to elitism, it does seem that many of the traditional subjects are being forced towards the private sector as state schools look towards vocational subjects and many business based subjects, something that echoes the shifts in education in the Uk over the last 5-10 years. Pupils gave me the impression that many of them were choosing electives due to the job market, many Chinese pupils I spoke to had discussed subjects at length with their parents and had opted to go down the business route to then move back to China to start businesses, which I found a fascinating point from an economic and demographic perspective for the future of Queensland and particularly Brisbane. It means that in 5-7 years there may be a mass movement from 2^nd or 3^rd generation immigrants’ families to move back to the Far east (China, Japan, Singapore) to start new lives, leaving Brisbane with a depleted amount of economically active people in the 18-28 age bracket. This may shift the demographic of the area considerably, or may just become another base level statistic for a different group to start moving to the area.

Geography (something that I have yet to teach in Australia!),is on the decline and will be until the new national curriculum comes into place where each SOSE subject becomes individualised and schools will require specialists of the subject. Until the point at which the curriculum becomes disagreement free, Geography will sadly continue to decline in state schools. Here is hoping that the private sector get even more pupils talking about the subject and enthused about the skills and work that geography can achieve!

Hope everyone has a lovely few weeks off over Christmas, oddly, it is the summer holidays over here now, so I am off for nearly 6 weeks!

Where is the Geography?

I am a Geography teacher, I love teaching it and I love seeing students getting enthused about the topics we are looking at. Therefore I was naturally delighted when the teacher I was providing relief for said “Do whatever you want with them, I haven’t got anything planned” (admittedly, this lack of prep seems to be a focus of relief teaching in Australia from my experiences). Obviously my mind wandered to thoughts of Geography, something that they had nothing of in the previous 2 weeks I had been teaching the finer points of division and clauses.

I had one evening to plan an entire day of work and decided on a central focus, with it being earthquakes. An old favourite but a classic none the less. To put things in context, this class is in a very difficult school with numerous very difficult pupils and getting them to do anything was a real struggle but earthquakes seemed like something they may have a little knowledge about and could be enthused by.

Earthquakes went down a storm. The entire day felt like I was really teaching them and they were learning all the time. I created a range of activities and used things I had on memory sticks around the place. The pupils genuinely engaged with the entire day, there were no discipline issues, no falling out or similar, which was a massive thing for this class.What struck me most though was the clear thirst for Geographical knowledge, not just images but the finer details, like responses and applying independent thought to difficult open questions. The pupils had done no ‘Geography’ all year but some elements of plate tectonics are infused into science in aussie schools, which helped a little, but this lack meant that the pupils wanted to know everything about each aspect, biggest, whats it like, numbers, figures, shapes, sizes, which made me feel awesome and allowed the pupils to engage with some difficult ideas and learn plenty about the geography of earthquakes.

It was evident from my time at the primary school that Geography is a dying art in Australia, people outside of some private schools do not seem to appreciate it’s value in the curriculum. The school was starting to plan for next year and no geography was present in their planning apart from a year 2 week long project on a country of their choice, with very little structure to enhance the pupils’ geographical skills. I am now seeing a few more geography jobs coming up in senior/high schools which bodes well for me personally and the subject as a whole it seems.

Whilst teaching the primary age group, I wanted people to see how engaged the class were in the geography we were discussing. A class that were a riotous, quite nasty bunch were listening to me deliver a story about being in an earthquake intently and every single pupil had a question, all considered, all intelligent and all wanting to learn. It really buoyed me about the prospects of teaching Geography out here, that the lack of exposure to serious geography may mean that engagement with the topics is increased and pupils become as passionate about it as I am!

To put the impact of Geography in context, the day after, when the day was pre planned, consisting of English, Maths and Persuasive writing, the pupils were incredibly ill behaved, several ended up in tears, a fight broke out, a child was suspended for beating up a 6 year old and very little work was done. Even though it has been quite a testing teaching contract, I have learnt a shed load about my own practice and strategies that work for me even with the most difficult and have been delighted with the impact that good quality, engaging Geography lessons can have, even on the most disaffected and uninterested pupils. It is such a shame that the pupils, particularly those in state schools do not have much of an opportunity to really get into Geography or explore the numerous possibilities that the subject has to offer, and as a Geography teacher, that genuinely makes me a little sad.

The next test is the last week of the Australian academic year. Could be interesting.

A week that felt like a month.

When you start a supply contract, the least reassuring words you can hear must be “oh, you’re here for that lot are you, they are a riot”. Thankfully I am a sadist, love a challenge and really want to experience the best and worst of teaching.

To say that the year 6 and 7 class I have spent the last week teaching are a tough bunch is a massive understatement. They were without doubt, the hardest class I have ever taught. Very low socio economic area, learning difficulties with every child, huge lack of engagement on any task, interesting upbringing and lots of family problems. In short, a supply teacher’s best week!. From the off they were ready to try and break me in any way possible, not working, trying to throw things, trying to wind up and start fights with each other, running out of the classroom, lying, the usual. This also made them the most interesting class I have ever taught. I knew that taking a contract at a renowned school in a very dubious area would be a risk but financially and practice wise, it was one I could not turn down. Over the course of the week, I have employed every strategy I know in regards to classroom management and have found that the most successful was indeed the ones that I have chosen to implement throughout the majority of my teaching. A simple thing like counting down from 3 really worked to get the pupils quiet for instructions, constant monitoring succeeded in getting a level of work from every pupil.

That is not to say everything worked, pupils still had massive tantrums, There was still a fight between pupils and some pupils achieved very little but as sad as it is, I was pleased with most of the pupils’ work and was the only teacher not to be told to F*** off by any of the pupils, although I think a few were very close to it. The five o clock starts to the day and not getting home until 6 meant it was probably the most tired i’ll ever be but it has meant that my practice has once again been refined and although my strategies will not work with every class, I was delighted that any worked with this one!

I have always kind of relied on being a happy, reasonably likeable teacher who can in some degree relate to the pupils and supply teaching is helping me refine this ability to ensure that my some of my actual persona permeates through to my teaching persona. I have always been a strong believer that if you put the effort in, then you will reap the rewards and last week, my consistently jovial nature and willingness to participate in all activities with the kids really helped build a rapport with the pupils that meant after 3 days, I was getting less hassle than a large number of the teachers and when I asked pupils to work harder or focus, they tended to. I don’t know if this would work over the longer term, especially as my own health would probably be sacrificed for it!(and I think nailing a basketball jump shot from the half way line in shirt, tie, trousers and dress shoes in front of most of the pupils really helped!)

As year 6/7 pupils are still at primary school in Australia, I was able to see how they interacted with each other and to be honest, I prefer the English system as many of the pupils were on the one hand far too mature to be hanging out with 10 year olds, but this hanging out had meant that they on the other hand were immature relating to work effort and educational appreciation. It is a difficult area to be honest as the English system is far from perfect, but I did feel that the older pupils especially benefitted from the more structured approaches of primary life, erring towards more of the high school lesson style. For example, their behaviour was far better in maths ‘lessons’ than in say something like smart moves (half hour open exercise for all pupils every day). I cannot make my mind up about Australian primaries, is it a good idea for pupils of 13 to be with one teacher all day, or to hang around with younger children?Or am I trying to make young people grow up quicker than they need to be?Just to note, this area has a very high teenage pregnancy rate and most of the pupils’ mums gave birth at ages 13-18, which could account for some of the quite shocking attitudes towards youth relationships and sex I encountered over the week.

From a Geographical point of view, there is very little in Australian Primary schools, outside of music, there is very little appreciation of world culture or knowledge of the world as a working entity, many of pupils had no idea what continent they were in, or what saving the earth could entail or even what other areas of Australia were like. I feel that this is a lacking area as many of the pupils could really do with some work on other cultures to enhance their own thinking and attitudes (there were many racist incidents and generally slightly offensive behaviour, although much of it was due to a lack of information-some of the pupils really did just not know better).

The week made me realise what an incredible job the teachers down there were doing for the most part, but it was still demoralising to see such worn out faces, even on a Monday morning, especially as it becomes clear the lack of respect and financial reimbursement that the teachers have for doing such an awesome job with very difficult pupils. There was still the huge focus on data even in such a small school (206 pupils), and I feel that the teachers will inevitably be judged on this data, however, what they are providing to the pupils and the wider community of the area is far more than any data could show. The manner in which the more difficult schools are located is for the most part, opposite to the UK, many of the toughest schools are located further inland and slightly remote from many facilities and services, whereas the inner city schools tend to be grammar schools with a huge range of facilities and access to transport and a huge catchment. This means that the outlying areas are starved of the ‘best ‘ pupils and left with those who may struggle or have difficulties, who then stay in the area and in some ways, perpetuate this issue. I feel as though this is an area I could look at more, and hopefully this week in an inner city state high school, I will be able to as I am covering Art all week!

Again,all these thoughts are just mine but I really am finding it beneficial to explore these schools beyond the face value and reflect upon my own teaching to better my own practice and focus my abilities to enhance the pupils learning that I come into contact with.

To sum up:

Countdowns work.

5 o clock starts to get to work are brutal

I am not sure about the current age structure of Australian schools

Building a relationship with a class is a skill of mine

And most importantly, I wish I could get hold of some Geography teaching, I’d blow their minds!haha.

Off to work we (don't) go.

Hello everyone from now very sunny Brisbane.
Well, over the course of the last week or so I have managed to achieve a number of ridiculous things. I have got a tan, taught precisely nothing, won another pub quiz and been a head chef.
Things on the teaching front are looking ever more bleak, I have still only had the two days of supply work and there seems to be very little on the horizon. I have been told by my recruitment agency, who seem remarkably unhelpful,that Aussie schools seem to be shying away from employing English teachers as their knowledge of Australian subjects is not up to scratch- slightly insulting and from those people I have talked to, false. The tendency, particulary with term long cover or maternity leave is to employ one of the thousands of semi retired teachers who have moved to Queensland for the year round sun, leaving very little opportunities for younger teachers and migrant teachers in the area. This is very disappointing, although I have two applications in for jobs whihc I would deem good things, so here's hoping!

As teaching has been a sparse working field, we have had to move out of that zone into the wonderful world of catering. I have now officially catered for thousands of rev heads at the gold coast v8 supercars event. Upon application and signing up we were told we'd be manning the ice cream stalls-great times in the hot weather, steal a few maxibon, a delight I thought. Upon getting to the event (after been turned away on our 'first' day due to an almighty cock up), I was sent by myself to a burger van directly next to the main straight. I was then shouted out immediately for not realising that I should be cooking in excess of 400 burgers, chicken and bacon pieces. That was it, I was Gordon Ramsey, the 52 degree heat and 2 foot by 2 foot hot plate were mine, I was king of the kitchen.
It was horrendous.
Worst/Longest/Smelliest/Most hilariously ridiculous day ever!
To be fair, they did pay me, my friends did steal an inordinate amount of money from an ice cream van and I got to watch the races for at least half an hour and topped up the tan in the process but blimey, catering is not my calling. Made me appreciate how much better coping with 35 year 9s on a tuesday afternoon I am though!
This is just a short post as I wanted to recall our lovely day without time diminishing it glorious nature and hopefully, very hopefully, one of us may have a job by the end of the week, but then again, that does seem like a silly notion!
Hope everyone is well and for the love of God, if anyone knows anyone who could sort me out with a job, teaching or otherwise, in or around Brisbane would be my saviour!

Aussie vs British-it's a dead heat.

Good afternoon from Brisbane!A momentous week has just passed, I have achieved two firsts in my life, 1.working in an overseas school for the first time and 2.my first ever days of relief/supply teaching. My reflections on the two aspects are wide ranging and only represent what I have seen so far, in no way are these the views of any determined group or the schools I have worked in!haha.

• Firstly, there are numerous similarities between the Aussie schools and the British ones I have worked in. Namely, the eternal battle between teachers, leadership members and administrative staff. The school I supplied Art cover in for two days had had no Art rooms for 10 weeks and I taught the subject in a Science lab. I was informed that this was due to the business side of the school not letting anyone move into new buildings due to a falling out between admin and teachers over timeframes. This was slightly reassuring as this seems to happen alot!There was a huge number of snide comments or points made to staff, even when a relief teacher(me) was in the room. So the airing dirty laundry in public notion seems to curry favour out here as well!
• The resources that Australian schools have, in my experience, are not really up to the job to be honest, very little technology, no projectors, chalk boards, budgets being cut left right and centre (I have to thank the departments I was working with for being so forthcoming with information, even after I had said I was writing a blog about my experiences!) and yet money being paid out for what were dubbed meaningless meetings and cover!
• Literacy is a huge factor here, as it is at home, yet the students still have the incredibly dim view or any literacy work."we just get a sheet and half hour","pointless,just a way of the school to fill our days up" were two opinions on the literacy topic as a whole! I asked a year 11 class what they thought of the literacy lesson I had just completed and they were pretty happy-"better than usual", but this was a lesson I composed 2 minutes before the lesson when I was given the content. If literacy lessons are to fully engage the pupils, they need to be as well planned as any other lesson, to engage, help and inform the pupils' learning.
• Working in Australia brings a range of challenges, the fascination with my accent, the fact I wore a shirt and tie blew the kids away "teachers wear fishing pants and awful shirts here sir, why are you so smart?", the banter that being a 'pom' entails, and the ever glorious question of do you know......in one school's case it was "do you know Matt Smith sir?".I politely said no, but then proferred a story about how a friend met him and he was a nice chap.
• Curriculum content is similar but I have yet to see what my training would have called a truly engaging lesson, it seems to be very much, sheet, desk get it done.Which seems to work here.
• The disparity between what standardising agents want and what leadership members think they want still exist. Schools, well the leadership aspects, still seem very keen on stats and figures and how to show progress through numbers whereas I was told a story by a very senior teacher that last year a governmental group came in to check progress and refused to look at any statistics, preferring to glean qualitative data from chats with staff, pupils and looking to see how well the actual teachers knew the progress of their pupils.
• The clothes issue is an interesting one. I wore the same clothes I would have done in the UK (smart shirt, tie, business trousers, smart shoes) but this was treated with wonder and no matter of intrigue from the pupils, aussie male teachers tend to wear jeans, and an open shirt, something that I would find difficult, as I am from the mindset of 'feel the part, be the part'. Women however, seem to dress very similarly to their Uk counterparts, which brings up some interesting social points I may reflect upon in another post.
• Relief work here is a bit of an old boy's club, schools seem to have had their favourites for a while and ask for the same teacher time and time again. This means that recurring supply is difficult to come by for someone like myself. As it is, I am having to apply for full time contracts as of january (the new academic year) and go back to the wonderful world of retail for a regular wage, picking up relief work as and when I can do. A little soul destroying but should be good for getting a social group going!
• One last piece of advice for any teachers thinking of coming out here to work, think about becoming more religious, I have been unable to apply for three jobs now as I cannot provide a 'church referee' for the position.Just something to think about!

Hope everyone is well and hope to hear from you soon!

P.s

Mr Howell, I have thought of an excellent CLUEDO GIS project for key stage 3 to get into GIS which I would love your collaboration on!And any jobs going for next September?haha.

Getting settled

Hello from Brisbane!

The last week has possibly been one of the longest on record, the immediate nature of doing things once you arrive in a new country is incredibly testing and has meant that the actual enjoying of things has been slightly put on the backburner in place of admin tasks!

My impressions of the city and people varies tremendously, as with anywhere in the world, some people can't go far enough to help you, others really try to put block in your way, but it is most definitely all good!

From a geographical point of view, Brisbane is a fascinating place. It has a wonderful multi cultural aspect to its demographic, with a large proportion of native Australians, a huge number of immigrants (1st,2nd and 3rd generation) from both the Pacific Islands and the Asia states and a surprisingly large amount of Irish!.

There seems to be a mild form of almost ghettoization to where these groups live. Socio economic factors dictate that many people from far northern Queensland seem to live in the far suburbs of the city and use the very effective public transport to get into the developing and industrial areas for work. The CBD is obviously for the higher earning professional residents, although a large amount of high rise buildings are in fact family owned immigrant houses or apartments. Having only been here a week however, these are some generalisations, although with our extensive housing searches taking us all over the city, I can offer some backing to my claims!haha.

As with any modern city, the universities of the cities dominate the inner city housing directly outside the CBD, with thousands of shared housing and what seems slightly sub standard housing.

The levels of redevelopment and gentrification within these inner city housing areas are huge and almost seems to include redevelopment of redevelopment in some areas.

I would love to create some GIS work on the demographics of the city and map the findings on a mapping program-something that I may look into for possible lessons.

In terms of job hunting and changing the face of teaching of Geography, this may have to wait a little longer.I have registered with a supply teaching agency for the last academic term of 2010 and hope that this will provide an insight into the schools and provide much needed funds for rental housing!Supply is far better paid relatively speaking here than in the UK.Comparatively speaking, it works out as about £220 quid a day after tax, which would be very good to get some of.

In summary, the other side of the world is far from easy and for those who plan on moving to the sunshine, be prepared for the fact that it is not cheap in the slightest and will take a significant amount of savings to set yourself up in the country!

I will update you soon!

Going!

Right, I am going to presume that this will be my last blog for a couple of weeks as our visas have arrived, flights have been booked and we are packing up our lives for the trip of a lifetime! I am hoping that during the course of the next year or so I will discover the other side of the world's views on education and hopefully do my own part to stem to what Alan Parkinson has called the slow death of Geography in Australia!

Now, whether I can personally stem this death is undecided but I would love to give it a go!

Speak to you all soon and if anyone wants to get hold of me, I will be available via email and hopefully my first post from Oz in a couple of weeks will be about starting life, getting a job and making lots of new mates!haha.