See Me After Class

Chris has some exciting news - and once he's told Renee, the podcast shifts its focus to our newer team members: Anna and Kathy share their experiences of the New Zealand Education system and how this compares to their own educational experience in the United States and Scotland. It appears that their impression of the kiwi system is that it's 'driven by assessment'. Do you agree?

This week we have our first round of Parent-Teacher conferences. This was a brilliant opportunity to examine this 'elaborate dance' from both sides of the table. We discovered that we all see great value in these moments - but we did discover that there are definitely some misconceptions to dispel, and we explored a range of alternatives to the classic "40-interviews-at-7-minute-interviews" marathon. As always, we also canvassed the students and gathered some of their views. Do you love parent interviews?

Chris and Renee got the holiday we'd dreamed of, so we celebrate that. We're now a team of four, so we made a new intro. We make some resolutions for the year to come, and hear about some of our students' resolutions too. Actually, Renee has called her resolutions 'rules'. She means business. Kathy is (amongst many other things) a parent of students who go to our school, and Anna is back - permanently. House day provided an interesting topic of discussion - and Anna phoned in her resolutions for the year. We're thrilled to be back, and can't wait to hear all input from you too as the year progresses.

We're pretty proud to have kept this podcast going for a whole school year. This last episode is a retrospective of some of our favourite moments from throughout the last 12 months - We looked back at every episode and picked out the parts that we think might have been crucial to the creation of the narrative for 2019. Students talk about about Shakespeare and the school formal, Renee and Chris talk about all sorts of aspects of our work as teachers and there were even a few moments of madness that probably don't bear repeating - not that that will stop us. We wish all our listeners the very best for the summer or holiday season and we look forward to our return, bigger and brighter, in 2020 - as always, if you are so inspired, we love hearing from you: do get in touch via the usual means.

This being the penultimate podcast for the 2019 school year, Renee, Chris and Anna all decided to select something from the year that we wish we'd done better. Renee queried the timing of her Year 10 film making project. Anna resolved to cease apologising for herself and the role she plays in the classroom and Chris resolves (again) to try to improve the way he works with his colleagues so that he can enable them to engage more successfully in our micro-credential project (part of this will be a concerted effort in getting the senior managers at the school on board). We recorded this one, for the first time, during the school day - during a 'free period' - and sat outside in the courtyard by the staff room and there was a chorus of birds to accompany our thoughts.

Renee calls in from Canterbury and we discuss the emerging shortage of teachers of English. We discuss some of the possible antecedents for this (no-one who listens to our podcast will be unaware of our view of the workload and demands placed on English teachers) including some observations about the significant decline in university graduations in the subject. We talk of the impact of 'running out' of people who have the expertise to teach young people to read, write, speak and listen. But then, we would, wouldn't we?

Yes, you read correctly: we're looking for someone to join our team for 2020. Bagley the Head of English joins us to talk through what working in our department is all about - and to inspire some of you to consider applying. Anna and Chris sit in Chris' uncannily quiet classroom after it has been converted into an examination room and talk about almost everything, and Renee phones it in. It's a big, delicious episode of warm thoughts and opportunities. Welcome to Episode 32.

It's a short one this week. We've had quite a significant week and the effects of it may resonate for some time to come. We discuss what we're doing with our Junior students leading up to the end of the school year - there's some great freedom in having completed all the formal assessment! The weather has been stormy and full of strangeness of late, which can't be ignored as possible pathetic fallacy. Chris felt pensive in the supermarket and was rescued by a colleague.

Anna Brown sits in our classes amongst the students, and from that vantage point gains a unique insight into the reality of the students' experience. In the first of what we hope are many conversations, she offers her perspective on many of the topics that have become our favourites in the last 30 episodes of the SMAC podcast. Renee also received the ultimate card from some of her departing Year 13s...

We hear back from some of the students who participated in our massive 100 student exam revision classes to hear what the experience was like from their end. After next week the senior students go on study leave, so we both contemplate their departure and explore the importance of formal good-byes. The school in its infinite wisdom has scheduled our prize-giving for next week as well. We talk about who should get the prizes.

With our students' NCEA examinations fast approaching, and with one of the classes in our department now sans a teacher, we share some strategies we're going to put in place to support large groups of English students in their preparation for their end of year exams. Also, Renee just bought another caravan to renovate.

Renee fills us in on how her job interview went - and we share the outcome. Some students tell us what they value the most in a teacher (there’s some video on the episode page too) and we talk a bit more about professional boundaries and how much is too much to share with our students. We’ve made it through to the end of the term, so we fill you in on the events of the last week, Chris updates everyone on his efforts to keep his dishwasher working.

Chris and Renee display a classic case of the minor hysteria that follows a phase of intense work. We've finished our exam marking! Chris' triathlon club is ramping up for a big event, so he used Saturday to do a couple of training sessions with them - and Renee read for pleasure. Such joy. Renee also talked through the experience of applying for a role internally in the school - the role of House Dean to start next year. We have all our fingers crossed.

It's not without total irony that we wished each other "Happy Saturday" today as each of us has over 200 exam essays to mark in the next few days. Chris is legendary for his procrastination, so we hear about what form it has taken now the heat really is on. Renee won the prize for the most unique marking location, and we spoke to a couple of students after their exams to see how they went. Renee uncovered a couple of real gems in her essay marking which she brought along to share with us all. We're in the thick of it, but with a beautiful day like today in an idyllic place such as where we live, our spirits remained high.

This episode is brought to you by the letter P. P for Procrastination in Chris' case and P for Painting in Renee's. We discuss examinations, because that's what next week at school will be focussed on. We discuss school management, and express some hope that they might engage in a bit of critical reflection themselves. Renee also came and visited Chris' class, so you get to hear what she thought of that!

In a week where we were told our flagship 'student choice' programme was going to be put to an end by senior leaders who don't share our vision, Chris went to Auckland as he'd been invited to speak about exactly these initiatives to some very switched-on educators. Renee's classes are all speaking too - and we discuss some of the challenges they, and we, encounter when we reach this moment in the year's learning.

One of the inventions that we're immensely proud of in our department is our senior course selection programme. In this system, teachers devise their own programmes of learning and, at the beginning of each year, we present these to our students, who then choose their teacher and course for the year. Every year, we stand ourselves up to be counted. Speaking of which, Renee produced the entire podcast solo this week as Chris jetted off to Auckland to talk assessment at a Hui. Check out the links if you want to know more about this programme - which we've recently heard is in jeopardy due to 'timetabling constraints'. Do let us know if you think it's something worth fighting for!

This week contained the first phase of our parent interviews. We asked our students what value, if any, they derive from the experience and we propose a few ideas for alternative means of engaging with parents and families. The podcast then tilted in a new direction, went "meta-", and we spent the second half talking about our socially-constructed attitudes to speaking and being heard: we looked at how these affect us when speaking in society (and this podcast) and how we're trying to challenge our own normal behaviour to be better. We'd love to know what you think.

We're back from our break. We look back on how things went with our teams and set out our stall for the term to come. This one is really more just a chat, where Renee and Chris catch up, and catch their breath after an intense first week back.

Chris coaches a triathlon team and Renee coaches a netball team. They're both off to Christchurch - 5 hours' drive away - with these teams in the "Holidays" so they can compete in the South Island Road Cycle Champs and the South Island Netball Winter Tournament. We talk about our teams, how they run, and what we get from this aspect of the job. We also interview some of the students from our teams about what sport means to them and Renee shares a small excerpt from her final essay in the Term 2 marking pile. We're off for a 2 week holiday, but keep tuned to the podcast feed as we're going to publish some of our students' podcasts to keep you amused over the break. See you in three weeks!