Someone asked me the other day how I am finding teaching remote, and I found myself saying that my class is awesome most of the time and hell on occasion. I was reflecting on why this might be and realised that it is pretty easy to distinguish the key factor to a good lesson or not.
I have a core group of about 10 students who are regular attendees. I have developed a strong working relationship with these students based on respect. We are aware of mutual expectations, the classroom rules and routines. These students are experiencing success.
I also have about 15 students who are drifters, truants or occasional attendees. Currently, these students hold the key to the success of a lesson or not and as far as I am concerned this is a major flaw in my current teaching practice. While I am working on developing a relationship with these students it is extremely difficult to develop a relationship while trying to deal with their confusion around class rules and routines, their eagerness to reconnect with their peers in positive and negative ways, their personal emotional and mental issues that have kept them away from school in the first place… as well as teach the rest of the class. These students have often been avoiding school for a long time, which means that they also have low ability levels and require a lot of attention and guidance. They often do not have the skills to problem solve when they get stuck on tasks. They do not have the emotional repertoire to deal with confusion and anger in the classroom. So when a drifter, truant or occasional student arrives in class it is most likely going to be an interesting day.
The problem is, of course, that every student has the right to learn. The regular attendees have the right for their education not to be continually impacted, as it has been all their schooling, by the disengaged students. And the disengaged mob have the right to an education that is level appropriate, engaging and relevant to their lives. At current I feel that I am not best serving either group let alone both.
Part of the issue for all students learning, and part of the reason these students are so low, is that these low attendees and disengaged students have been constantly impacting the learning of others the whole way through their education. Students are losing learning time to the negative behaviour and distractions of others that steal teacher time and concentration.
I fully recognise the need to plan differentiated tasks for all lessons, however in an extremely busy role it is sometimes hard to justify the time and effort spent differentiating for students that will most likely not attend.
I need to ensure that I provide students with interesting and engaging learning tasks to reduce risk of misbehaviour. However, these are often accumulative tasks where students have learnt the rules, responsibilities and routines of the tasks over a period of time and new students feel out of their depth with the cooperative strategies or task itself. Also, not every task can be engaging for every students; where regular students have developed perseverance, persistence and strategies to deal with frustration or boredom students who are irregular attendees may not have these strategies.
The regular students are aware of the tasks and activities they can move onto if there is a disturbance in the classroom or if I am busy with another student, but the low attendees do not always know these strategies so in a classroom with more than one low attendee it can become a difficult juggling act with each setting a new student off. I have however, begun planning an independent AFL unit that particularly male low attendees can work through when they attend- it won’t solve my problem but hopefully it might add some engagement to the mix.
New students or low attendees often engage in power struggles or teasing to try to establish a place in the class. It is a delicate balancing act, especially with Indigenous students with a strong sense of ‘fairness’ and issues of ‘shame’, to try to manage students’ power struggles without pushing them away from school. I have found part of the solution to be providing them with roles and responsibilities, and calling on their expertise in class. The issue being you can never really plan for which days they will come or which tasks they can shine in.
A lot of the bullying is subtle through body language, hand signals or looks and staring. Other bullying is in language so I miss the majority of the issue. I have students who don’t want to be in a place where they don’t fit in. This is a real concern for me as a teacher who prides themselves in restorative processes and strong relationships with students. I feel as though I am always on the backfoot trying to catch up with issues that I would have dealt with quickly, easily and effectively in mainstream. The AEIOs are essential in this process at school and in supporting low attendees back to school if bullying is the issue. I have been using Kagan strategies to create a positive team and classroom environment. I have been trying to use student role-models, rewards, AEIO assistance and individual work packages to support students.
Another aspect to this dilemma is leadership. Strong leadership from team leaders is needed to guide teachers to create Individual Behaviour or Education Plans (IEPs and IBPs), modify programs for all learning styles and levels, create and run intensive learning programs for groups of students, assist teachers to create engaging units of work, assist teachers to use data and assessment task information to shape individual student learning, assist with behaviour management so teachers can focus on teaching engaged students. When this type of team leadership is not available it seems impossible to juggle to range of needs and behaviours in the classroom.
Another area that could improve the outcomes of students is AEIOs involvement. My kind hearted and good intentioned AEIOs hold a different cultural perspective on work ethic and are therefore not always in class or assisting in the way that would best enhance student learning. Due to the timetabling of our AEIOs they did not feel like they belonged to a class or had a responsibility for specific students. The timetabling restricted two-way planning as they were spread across too many classes and teachers. The timetabling created confusion around their roles and our CTL suggestion we use them for creating resources and laminating etc. This start did not value their knowledge, connection to culture or potential to contribute to the classroom. Hopefully this term, with AEIOs given responsibility for individual classrooms and higher responsibility they will be able to target students in need. After all, we are working together to empower the next generation of remote leaders.
The failings of the system are also a factor in this dilemma. My low attendees may have mental and emotional issues keeping them from school- we only have a psych on a two week rotation. Often learning is the last thing on their minds. My mainstream school back home had one full time psych and two part time chaplains (think of that program what you will, a person to talk to is a person to talk to as long as they don’t push or preach in their role)- students had access anytime with teacher permission. Here students with trauma, bullying victims, students with drug and alcohol issues, abuse backgrounds, mental health issues… All have to go through a lengthy process and must wait for the new psych (nobody stays long remote so it’s hard to build trust). Recent news reports talked about how funding in remote aboriginal communities is not achieving results- fund mental health support and mental health programs.
My low attendees are usually naturally low ability- we need specialist EAL/D teachers with intensive language programs similar to what ESL migrants receive. Remote teachers need training or recruitment needs to target specific English as an Additional Language/Dialect teachers.
Many students need dedicated EAs one on one to even do the work- it would be wonderful if we had the staff to actually do intensive, targeted support for small groups but we don’t. These kids don’t feel supported, they get lost through the cracks, they give up on learning… And their opportunities to break the cycle of poverty are lost. Failures in remote community funding? How about targeted intensive programs? How about dedicated EAs (with appropriate pay and conditions to attract qualified quality workers) for each classroom? It is a joke to think that remote classrooms can function like mainstream with EAs for funded students. My class is full of special need ESL students with a variety of learning difficulties from foetal alcohol syndrome (not funded!!!!!), trauma (funded in extreme cases), undisguised ADHD (good luck getting diagnosed with our part time psych) and surely many others that as a teacher I would have no awareness of! Remote students need more support in classrooms. Ideally, I can picture at least two support staff in every remote school- low attendees would get the support they crave in class and would drastically improve their skills making them experience success and change their perception of school. It is crazy to think one teacher with a class of 15-33 ESL/D students of varying abilities (I’m talking year 1 skills to year 9 skills in my classroom) and a variety of learning issues (not to mention social or emotional) could effectively provide for each individual.
Another issue we are discovering, in our ‘large’ remote school is that obviously mainstream isn’t suitable for everyone. However, here mainstream is all you’ve got. Like it or lump it kids. So many students are simply not being catered for. Extreme social problems? Here mix with these kids in this class with one teacher and a million other priorities. Learning difficulty? Sorry kid that specific problem isn’t categorised as something that needs funding for support- you’ll be right. Simple not an academic? We’ll just squeeze you in with these kids who are trying to learn and see how you go! Re-engagement programs, hands on learning programs, programs that have a specific social skill or appropriate behaviour or life skills focus, programs for students with trauma, night classes…. Anything to help these students with potential reach it, rather than let their disadvantage define them.
I have so many ideas of ways to engage my low attendees (and other students). After school extension programs, lunchtime engagement programs, one on one reading with school avoiders at their homes to build relationships and skills, social and life skill workshops… Time constraints, budget constraints, community constraints, responsibility dilemmas, energy and personal sanity, support from admin…
Finally, it appears that remote teachers don’t have a place to share ideas. I have been searching for remote specific unit plans, target programs, engagement ideas but come up almost empty handed. Remote teachers need to be able to support each other and share ideas about how they are engaging low attendees… Amongst a world of other things! Maybe the new NARIS website will go a long way to address this…?
I would love your feedback, ideas and strategies to help deal with these issues in my classroom. Feel free to comment below!
* Side note, apologies to any readers who were awaiting updates! As you can see I’ve been a little busy!
Some images from the last couple of months:
A student’s pet.
