Week One Complete: Brilliant!

Phew...week one complete! For the most part I must say it was brilliant! There were ups and downs, lessons that worked and some that didn't, technology issues, students testing their limits with the "American" teacher, and students who posed challenges beyond what I usually experience - especially from the little ones; but with consultation, questioning and observing by the end of the week I felt good about all the students, the curriculum, and my new colleagues.

Fairfield is made up of Year 7 (ages 11/12) through Year 11 (age 16) ; more equivalent to our Northbridge Middle School, than our high school, with the exception of the top two years. However, to have such an age span, and to be teaching them all, is somewhat a challenge. I am quite comfortable with the older students and even the Year 9 (8th graders at home) are somewhat in my comfort zone, but the real challenge for me comes with the Years 6, 7 and 8. I am not a very "nurturing" teacher and my reasons for entering education at the secondary level were strong - I need to teach independent thinkers, students who can read, write and communicate in a mature fashion (for the most part) and who do not need to have their hands held, their booboos cared for, etc. My patience will be tested with the little ones and I constantly remind myself that they are babies and are not really "high school" students as I define them in my mind.

Getting my head 'round the prescriptive curriculum - and the very rigid structure of having 21 lessons, 15 lessons, etc.. to complete certain units of instruction and then moving to the next "scheme of work" where the number of lessons are once again all defined, is probably the largest hurdle to overcome and to understand on this end. Knowing that every teacher in the department, teaching the same year level, is teaching the same lesson at the same time, is a bit different also. In Northbridge, while there is a prescribed curriculum and a set of Massachusetts educational frameworks around which we have created very detailed curriculum maps - which are much like "schemes of work" for each unit of study, there is a lot of individuality imposed in the classroom lessons, at least in the area of English, by each teacher in order to achieve the same ultimate goal of teaching the skills. Assessments, such as tests, quizzes, oral presentations, book reports and projects vary from one teacher to another at any given grade level.

In the case of students learning English, not every teacher of the same grade level uses the exact same pieces of literature, but we do cover the same skill sets as outlined in the state curriculum. When we do use the same literature at the same grade level, we may not have the resources available for all students to study it at the same time - so some may read a novel in first term, and some may read it in the second term. At Fairfield, and indeed throughout the UK, the same pieces of literature are being taught, read, and the same coursework essays are being written across the UK for all students in a given year group. These pieces of literature are chosen based on the pieces that will be tested on the exam the school affiliates itself with, in this case the AQA examining board. The same scenario is true, across the UK, for each academic area.

Every teacher in the department also having mirrored schedules is a bit unusual, as that is not the case at home. Here, at Fairfield, each Year group is instructed in English all at the same time. So, while I am teaching Year 10 students lessons on Great Expectations to the top set(which are equivalent to our homogeneous ability grouping), the middle set of Year 10 is next door studying Romeo & Juliet, and the lower set is further down the hall studying "Inspector Calls.". After 21 lessons they rotate through the teachers to study all three pieces of literature; hence the importance of keeping the pace and covering the scheme of work, and all students will produce the exact same assessment task for each piece of literature as their coursework. The same happens with the other Year groups, except they may be instructed in "house" groups, (read Harry Potter and you'll understand the House group idea) rather than set groups, but all are in English at the same time, and all are working towards the same end product.

For the most part, all English teachers have the same preparation periods also, although none are used for meeting time -department meetings are still conducted after school - and prep time is used for lesson planning. However, on Monday, there is no prep period provided and on some days, when there are two prep periods, a teacher can be called to "cover" classes - these times are "weighted" on a scale of 1 and 2, where during the prep period with a "1" you are more likely to be called to cover than on a day with a "2". Other planning periods are "protected" periods and are guaranteed to you; there are three protected planning periods per week in my Fairfield schedule. This is unlike home, where the teacher contract provides for a minimum of one daily prep period equivalent to the standard teacheing block,each day. At NHS, three days in the seven day cycle there are two prep periods, only one of those days will constitute a duty on the second prep and a teacher is never called to cover a class, unless it is the end of the year after seniors have departed, and you are a teacher with many senior classes. The teaching "contract" here provides for an amount "not less than 10% of the teacher's time-tabled teaching time", which is time actually instructing students.

Teachers here also are expected to work 195 days per year for 1265 hours per year. This too is different, where back home we teach 184 days per year and only two evenings per year, for 2 hours per evening, are required for parent meetings. Teachers here are also not paid for any extracurricular activities they may lead for the students - this too is different from home, where our teaching contract provides for guaranteed stipends to club and class advisors, as well as coaching staff. The "contract" here covers all teachers in both Wales & England and the pay scale is the same for all teachers, no matter where their school is located or its size. The exception to this rule is if you are a teacher in London or outer London. You are generally paid more because the cost of living is generally higher. Also, generally teachers here are paid less than those in our district and pay raises are based on merit and recommendation from the head teacher each year. If I were to work here full time, my pay, for my years of experience, would be about 39,363 pounds, or $65,585.00. If I were to teach in London my pay would be 45,651 pounds or $76,062.00, which is more aligned with my current salary at home.

Also in Northbridge, most teachers do not teach more than three different courses in any semester. For example, at home my current teaching schedule, now being taught by Sam, consists of two sections of Grade 10 college prep students, two sections of Grade 12 honors students, and one section of Advanced Placement English. While there are five different groups of students, there are only three different preparations. Here my schedule is quite different. I teach one class of each year group, Year 7,8,9,10 & 11 as well as one hour per week each of Expressive Arts (Year 8) and GCSE Drama (Year 10) - seven different preparations. It is a very good thing I am an extremely organized person and am able to keep track of what I am doing with each class on any given day.

The time table at Fairfield is fairly straightforward. School begins at 8:50 a.m. and ends at 3:25 p.m. Students report by house groups for registration, which is the equivalent to homeroom and attendance, at 8:50 - 9:15 a.m. This is a time for form tutors, of which I have found myself serving in this role to the Year 7 students ( the newbees), to give out flyers, make announcements, deal with any kinds of social issues that may arise for students - it is a form of providing children with a mentor in the school and serves as a function of "pastoral" care for the students. This is when I am supposed to the warm and nurturing "mothering" hen...I'm not very good at it. The second two classes of the day are one hour long, 9:15 and 10:15 respectively. There is no "passing" time in the schedule, so the movement of students is expected to be swift from one class to the other, but the campus is quite small and hardly takes more than a minute or two to get to another class. There is a 15 minute break from 11:15 to 11:30 and then the third class takes place from 11:30 to 12:30 p.m. Students and teachers then get a one hour lunch break, from 12:30 to 1:30. Students then return to their registration classroom for afternoon "attendance" at 1:20 and stay no later than 1:25 when they go to their final two classes, which begin at 1:25 and 2:25 with dismissal from the last class at 3:25 p.m.

The schedule at Fairfield does not rotate daily, it is a fixed weekly schedule. So while each day of the week is not the same, each week is the same. All Mondays are the same schedule, etc. it does not rotate, as it does in Northbridge. The main reason for the rotating schedule in Northbridge is so that the same class does not meet each day at the same time, if students function better in the morning or the afternoon, they have the opportunity to have their classes at different times. This time juggling is automatically built into the Fairfield schedule.

Also, the younger year groups at Fairfield, only have English 3 hours per week; the older students who are completing GCSE coursework and preparing for their exams take four hours of English each week. This is unlike home, where students receive approximately 5 1/2 hours of instruction on each core academic subject over a seven day rotation. However, all students at Fairfield are exposed to Physical Education, Music and Art as well as Food & Nutrition, IT, Design Technology regularly throughout the year. Additional hours of instructional time in areas such as drama and animal care classes are given during the day as well as after school. Students in GCSE drama classes are expected to extend their learning time after school is dismissed on some days of the week. Jobs outside of school, albeit most of these ages are too young to work, are not discussed, unless it involves working on the family farm. Practices for school athletic teams only occur once per week, so that too is different.

As discussed in an earlier post, I can understand the evolution of the earlier start times, due to the fact that this is largely an agricultural and livestock farming area, and children were needed to do family chores. I personally am not a fan of the later start time, mostly because the highly touted benefit of more sleep, proclaimed profusely by my exchange counterpart, Samantha, is not a reality for me. I find myself rising at the same time I would normally rise at home, which would be between 5:45 a.m and 6 a.m. - to be at school for 7:15 a.m. for a 7:25 a.m. start time at NHS- including travel time and a stop for a cup of a coffee. Here, I am rising at 6 a.m. to arrive for 8:30 a.m. with an 8:50 a.m. start time...the difference being the distance needed to travel and spent in the car, both to and from school each day. Arriving in Gilwern after 5 p.m., if not later, each day this week, having to deal with dinner, if not shopping for the dinner and cleaning up later, does not allow any time to settle down for the evening until close to 7 p.m. or later; add housecleaning, laundry and preparation for the next day to that and its quite late until I feel ready to relax. So this is definitely a very large adjustment to my working day. I would much rather be out in the sunshine at 2 p.m. and attending some athletic event. As Murphy's Law would have it...the weather this week has been bright, sunny, even warm on occasion...its the best weather I've seen since arriving and by the time I reach Gilwern the sun is about to be hidden by the hills and the warmth has disappeared.

Students travel to school from many parts of the Fairfield "cachement" and arrive on a mismatch of "city" busses as well as smaller white mini-van types of busses. Some walk, some have parent provided transportation and others take taxis. Families are responsible for providing transportation for their children by purchasing bus passes. There is no free school district transportation that I have been made aware of, unlike Northbridge, where the big yellow busses are a familiar site on the roads each morning. Also, children here are accustomed to walking long distances. In Northbridge, if you live within one mile you must walk to school, outside one mile you get free bus transportation. It may surprise you to know that many students travel over 13 miles to get to school in the morning. Indeed, in a class of Year 7 students, when the question was posed regarding how many of them lived in a town, not one hand was raised. Most of these students come from small rural farming villages in Herefordshire.

My biggest goal this week was to figure out the seemingly complicated schemes of work, and while Samantha attempted to explain these to me in advance of the exchange, it was not until I started "doing" that it all came together, as I have said in an earlier blog. Now that I know the ultimate end product for each year group, I have set out on my own course of lesson plans, loosely planned around what was already given me, but infused with my own creativity, coupled with research on line and perusing the unit binders in the classrooms. This week I have introduced United Streaming video clips into the lessons, which sent the school network into a frenzy, but the IT guys were able to help me out and get it up and working. The classroom set up is conducive to using this resource as it is equipped with a "smartboard" set up...not exactly a Smartboard, but it works similarly because the desktop has a "write-on" monitor. Although the whiteboard space is rather small, so keeping work for one group, from one day to another, written on the board does not work.

The area I now have to conquer is assessment. I am not sure how students are assessed here, outside of their coursework and exams for the GCSE. The variety of formal assessments (tests, quizzes, projects, homework, book reports) that we are accustomed to providing and doing in Northbridge, all of which translate into a numerical and/or letter grade every 12 weeks, is not the case here. Students create portfolios of authentic assessments, which are larger pieces of independent work, such as a Year 7 autobiography to be completed at the end of the the first term. However, all the classwork, homework and other assignments are not "graded" the way I am programmed to grade, so I am not sure how a student's progress is actually assessed and reported back to the parents.

Students do not "repeat" subjects here. They are moved ahead with their year group,no matter their performance. The House groups are instructed heterogeneously. So in the younger year groups there is a wide range of ability levels, from students who complete their work very quickly and correctly, to students who need the task repeated several times, work very slowly and need a lot of teacher guidance to complete the task.

Textbooks are not used. There are some "books" used for instruction in foreign language, and students are provided with copies of the novels they are required to read. Students do not buy notebooks for their classes, instead, each subject area provides students with a "rough book" ( a small composition book, similar to our "blue books", except more pages). These books are color coded by subject, (English has lavender) and when students fill them with their rough work, they may get another,or if they lose it, they must pay 50p for a new one. Students are allowed to carry their backpacks to class, which I find rather annoying, as I am constantly tripping over them. Students are allowed to have drinks in class, kept in their backpacks, and must ask to retrieve it should they feel thirsty.

The entire school, all 356+ students, take lunch at the same time, between 12:30 p.m and 1:30 p.m. Students are free to sit outside, eat in the dining hall, which only holds about 100 people at any given time, visit teachers in their classes for extra help, or return home for lunch. Usually at this time a group of very nice young ladies, prefects from Year 11, arrive looking for any photocopying or filing I may need done. I will say I find this quite different, as I am very accustomed to doing my own photocopying and filing. I have given them a few things to do for me, but mostly we have quite pleasant chats revolving around Micaela's well being and sights I must see while here.

I know you are thinking that my first week all seems very uneventful and boring... but now that I have given you the basic overall view of the educational structure... the real stories are yet to come.