Boys-only classes - New Zealand schools using this aproach in co-ed schools

This article from the Sunday Star Times highlights two New Zealand co-ed schools that are running single sex classes.

Boys get room to learn in single-sex classes

IMOGEN NEALE

BOYS-only classes are helping lift pupils' school marks. 

A co-educational state primary school started trialling the segregated classes to see if boys would achieve better without the distraction of girls during their lessons. 

Staff at Dawson Road School in Otara realised five years ago their senior boys were "switching out" of learning. 

Angela Funaki, principal at the south Auckland primary, says junior boys started on an even footing with the girls, but by the time they were in Year 5 they'd fallen behind. 

Without asking the Ministry of Education's permission – Funaki says they didn't have to – the school started an all-boys Year 6 class. 

The class's style is "active/passive" – the boys do a passive activity like writing for a while then move to something on the computer or a quick run around the confidence course, then come back to their writing.

The approach "most definitely" lifts their achievement, Funaki says. 

"The big difference we notice is an attitudinal change," she says. "They are interested in learning again, want to be involved in everything that's happening in the school [and] a lot start to take on more responsibility. We've also found it's improved behaviour in the playground." 

The school doesn't have a corresponding girls-only class but they do have classes with fewer boys. There is also a quiet, girls-only area in the playground where they can go to avoid rugby balls. 

Funaki brushes off a suggestion that segregation reinforces gender differences. 

"The boys mix with the girls a lot – in sport, at assemblies. It's just during class that they're not mixing with them." 

Down the road, Yendarra School is running a boys-only class for the fourth year. Principal Susan Dunlop says the school "saw a need to do something better for our senior boys". 

The decile-one school trialled a single-sex class and the results were so marked the class became a permanent fixture. Behaviour, achievement and attendance all improved. 

"We have a class competition each week and the boys' class is always in the top," Dunlop said.

This year, the boys-only class is for Year 3 and 4 students. 

"We thought we could catch them earlier," Dunlop said. 

Parents now ask if their boys can be put into the single-sex class. 

Palmerston North's Roslyn School this year launched a boys-only class for 8 to 10-year-olds. 

Deputy principal Matt Schmidt says the traditional classroom approach wasn't working for some boys and "if your foot doesn't fit the shoe, you don't change the foot, you change the shoe." 

The new "shoe" doesn't have desks and boys sit on the floor, around three big low tables. 

They also start their day off with a "pretty rigorous" fitness programme. Class teacher Ewen Mason says boys like to work in an informal way so there are cushions, bean bags and computers for them to use. 

Parental support has been "pretty overwhelming".

What's high school for?

Here are some thoughts from Seth Godin's blog on what high school is for.

What's high school for?

Perhaps we could endeavor to teach our future the following:

• How to focus intently on a problem until it's solved.
• The benefit of postponing short-term satisfaction in exchange for long-term success.
• How to read critically.
• The power of being able to lead groups of peers without receiving clear delegated authority.
• An understanding of the extraordinary power of the scientific method, in just about any situation or endeavor.
• How to persuasively present ideas in multiple forms, especially in writing and before a group.
• Project management. Self-management and the management of ideas, projects and people.
• Personal finance. Understanding the truth about money and debt and leverage.
• An insatiable desire (and the ability) to learn more. Forever.
• Most of all, the self-reliance that comes from understanding that relentless hard work can be applied to solve problems worth solving.

Combine this post with my previous one, in which Bill Gates identified strategies for creating great teachers, and we should have the recipe for educational success.

Bill Gates on how to make teachers great and some other stuff

This TED talk is worth a listen to find out what Bill Gates thinks we can do to improve education (his views on this topic make up the second half of the presentation, but the first half is definitely worth listening to as well).

How classroom lighting can help students learn

This is quite an interesting article from the New Zealand Herald (originally from The Observer) on how the way that lighting is used in a classroom can have an impact on the learning of students.  However, the price of installation may mean setting it up is beyond the means of most schools.

Mood lighting helps pupils learn

A revolutionary new method for improving academic performance is being used in Germany and the Netherlands and is now being tested at an English school.

The scheme uses changes in lighting to modify students' mood and behaviour.

Both light intensity and colour temperature can be altered and, crucially, pupils are allowed to ask for these changes in class.

The result, said head teacher Alex Russell, at Epsom and Ewell high school in Surrey, southern England, has been a marked improvement in pupil performance since the scheme was introduced in September.

"We have found that the children, without exception, love the experiment," said Russell. "They say they have a greater sense of focus, they are able to achieve more and feel it is part and parcel of a learning environment they can be successful in."

The lighting scheme, known as SchoolVision, is a creation of Philips, the Dutch electronics corporation. It is already used in 20 schools in Germany and more than 80 classrooms in the Netherlands and costs about £5500 ($11,340) to install.

Four different light settings are used. A normal setting is switched on when pupils are coming in or out of a class, and three others are known as focus, calm and energy.

"The energy setting is a very intense blue and is used in the morning when some of the older pupils have difficulties getting out of bed," said Russell. "Calm is redder and is used typically after break periods. Focus is a bright white light that is switched on during exams, tests or any other types of assessment."

So far, the experiment has been restricted to two science labs, part of Russell's bid to boost numbers of students taking scientific subjects beyond the age of 16.

"These lighting schemes are a scientific experiment," he said. "Science is now seen as exciting and relevant thanks to schemes like this." 

- OBSERVER

By Robin McKie

Schools embrace Facebook

Have a read of this article from the Sydney Morning Herald regarding Australian school teachers being given access to Facebook.

I'm surprised that this wasn't already the case, as Lakeview School has been using Facebook for some time.
We initially had a 'Latest News' blog, but replaced it with a Facebook page at the beginning of last year, and have since found it an excellent means for sharing the latest happenings at our school.

Aust teachers to embrace Facebook
10:10 AM Friday Apr 29, 2011

Teachers in Australia have been granted permission to use Facebook, Twitter and other social media in the classroom, the Sydney Morning Herald reported today.

Students are still blocked, however.

The former Labor government decided teachers should be able to access social media, because of the benefits it would bring.

A Department of Education spokeswoman said the change would help improve communication between schools and their communities.

It would also give staff a "greater understanding of technology being used by students".

A spokesman for the Minister for Education, Adrian Piccoli, told SMH the change would also help teachers combat cyber bullying.

Teachers have also been given ample warning about the dangers inherent in "friending" students.

Where good ideas come from

This RSA Animate by Steven Johnson is quite thought provoking, especially for those who are concerned about the impact of the Internet on our ability to think for ourselves (as I occasionally am!).  It's well worth four minutes of your time.

Strategies for solving problems

Research by Evan Polman of NYU and Kyle J. Emich of Cornell found that when people solved problems on behalf of others, they produced faster and more creative solutions than they did when they solved the same problems for themselves.

Polman and Emich had research participants do the following three things:

1. draw an alien for a story they were going to write themselves or for someone else’s story. The aliens people sketched for others were more creative than the ones they drew for themselves.
2. come up with gift ideas for themselves, for someone close to them, or for someone far away. The result: The more distant the recipient, the more creative the gift.
3. solve the following problem:

A prisoner was attempting to escape from a tower. He found a rope in his cell that was half as long enough to permit him to reach the ground safely. He divided the rope in half, tied the two parts together, and escaped. How could he have done this?

Polman and Emich say the principle at work is something called “construal-level theory,” which in simple terms means that we think in more abstract terms about distant problems (or problems belonging to distant people) — and thinking at a more abstract level produces more creative solutions.

Based on these findings, Daniel Pink suggests these three ideas to more effectively solve problems:

1. Trade problems with someone. When you get stuck, stop hammering away at the problem and find a colleague to swap with.
2. Solve problems on behalf of someone else. Create some psychological distance from your project by pretending that you’re doing it on behalf of someone else. Use your imagination here: the “other person” could be the woman across the hall, a relative, or a stranger halfway across the world. The farther away, the better.
3. Put some distance between yourself and your project. Writers know something magical happens when you put your manuscript away in a drawer. When you come back to it a week or a month or six months later, you have a fresher, more creative perspective on the work. When you can, build some slack into your deadlines and try putting your work out of sight for as long as you can manage.

I believe that if these strategies can work for adults, they can also successfully be applied by students.