Sweet Baby

TO all my readers out there, I wrote a song for the season.  I have made a rough demo and video along with the song.
I do hope you enjoy the message and not the voice!

Season's greetings!

COPY AND PAST THE LINK AND WATCH!
http://youtu.be/KZKxAUa87DE

An Effective Teaching Practice

There are some best practices that are considered most effective.  One such practice, that I have used in the teaching of social studies and religious education is called Cooperative Learning.

Cooperative learning, (Johnson and Johnson, 1994) uses five critical attributes or characteristics.  They are;

1) Positive interdependence

2) Individual accountability

3) Group processing

4) Social skills and

5) Face-to-face interaction.

I would put these students into groups of four and give each one distinct role example:

1st person - recorder

2nd person - reporter

3rd person - materials person

4th person - social skills monitor, but if there is a 

5th person – timekeeper.

These positions are often rotated each week or alternate weeks so everyone gets an experience of each role.  That way, everyone is equal and contributes evenly to the growth, development and achievement of his/her group. 

I have found that the grades or test scores, for the students at the end of the time, are higher both as a group and individually. Additionally students get a chance to discuss their ideas with each other using think-pair-share, group jig-saw and expert jig-saw promoting an atmosphere of thinking and mental development.  Most of all listening to other students' ideas helps them to recognize that collective constructive discussion helps to promote reasoning and accumulation of ideas.  This will help students put thoughts on paper instead of just swatting content from textbooks and teachers notes.

My students, after leaving my classes in the semester or year, would come back and tell me how much they appreciate this type of teaching style and that they wish that other teachers would employ that method of approach because it brings more fun to learning in the classroom.

Christmas Past: The Jamaican Episode (My Childhood Memories)

In this lovely season, my mind drew me back to 40 years ago to Christmas in the 70’s.  My parents were never rich, but hardworking and my mother was a woman who believed in making her place a home.  Every Christmas holiday, hours before the 25^th, my mother got up early, get dressed, and got to the kitchen.  With the smell of breakfast, it was the signal for me and my sister to get up and do some serious house hold chores.

My sister and I did the windows, polished the furniture, swept and shone the red tiled floors till you could see your own reflection on them.  If anyone chose to visit, they would not go inside due to the sheen they saw through the house from the polished floors.  My father, he usually would go outside and shaped the various Christmas plants around the yard such as the poinsettias, snow whites, the willows and the blood-red hibiscus plants.  The yard would be cut and raked, grass heaped and at the end, my father would bring his crop of sorrel that he had planted and reaped.

We all took part annually in our family ritual but what stood out for me, now that I am much older, was the food preparation! Man, my sister and I were the human cake mixers!  The best part of this activity was to lick the mixing spoon and the basin after the mixture was poured in baking tins and placed in  an oven! Boy, did my sister and I worked our tongues!  I washed the plates and helped cleaned up the kitchen, while my sister eagerly eyed the oven with every clicking minute. 

My father usually brought in a nice cut of the willow branch that would become our Christmas tree.  Mom demonstrated how to use art paper and make decorations, both the chain links, snowmen and placed them on the tree, walls and ceiling.  There were some commercial decorations, and these were always preserved in a secret place.  They mysteriously would come out annually and find themselves on the token tree in the living-room. 

When the food was ready, we were told to get cleaned and dressed and we put on formal maxis only to arrive in the dining room to see new table cloth, plates, drinking glasses, and cutlery.  My father was well dressed in a dinner jacket. Each of us was asked to take out specific items from out of the kitchen and place unto the dining table.  After saying the grace, my father had his red and white Phillips record player playing one of Jim Reeves Christmas albums.  The music was very sweet and mellow, but what was even better was the smell of fruit cake, turkey, rice and peas, sorrel and roast beef in the air!  It was one splendid affair, all dressed up to partake in the Christmas feasting at home.  The deserts were ice cream, fruit cake and jellow placed in crystal dishes. We all used the brand new silverware to eat.

There can never be a time for me to have a bad Christmas.  No matter how broke or sad I might have been prior to the season, I am always in good cheer due to the delicious, warm, family memories my mother created for me when I was a child.  Seeing that so many persons get depressed or sad at this time of year, I often repeat this story to all who want to listen, and while telling it each time, I can actually smell my mother’s cooking in the air.  Always a smile is etched on my face when Christmas is here.  Make great memories for your families, my mother did a great job with mine.

The Importance of Giving Students Study Guides

Many of our nation’s adults believe that our education system is designed to make students fail.   This conclusion came about from having experienced shocking instances of being told to prepare for specific content only to open the test pages to questions from a different set of content.  Many persons may say that students must always be prepared because it was “clearly stated in the syllabus.”  The reality however is that just as the Caribbean Examination Council prepares students with study guides, the students should be given the same for their internal ones.

Internal examinations and tests should not be intimidating and feared, but should be seen as a good challenge and confirm students’ levels of understanding of content and concepts.  Our students should never be felt punished but encouraged to demonstrate depth of knowledge.  Here are some steps schools can make to ensure equity and fairness for students:

1.      Assess the students’ competency levels in the subjects of their choice.

2.      Place the students according to their levels of ability so that they can feel a sense of equity among themselves.

3.      Within the departments, plan and strategize how to share information and skills according to levels of abilities.  Make the teachers revise/improve in their use of structures, strategies and techniques to promote the proper of information transfer.

4.      Organize the appropriate assessment tools that will be used to accurately measure the students.

5.      Provide study guides for the various subjects that students will be assessed on.

6.      Administer a mini-mock test/exam to create a sense of awareness of the structure of the paper/assessment and make changes where necessary.

7.      After marking, give a good informal feedback session with the students.  Let them know their areas of weakness.   This can also help teachers determine if they had not transferred the information properly thus helping teachers to review and improve on their teaching strategies.

It should never be that our students see school as a hostile place to learn.  Adults have told their stories have been told of bitter school experiences and emotionally shared them with their children.  According to Marzano, et-al (1997),  our students come to school with attitudes and perceptions of how school should be and when negative ideas are conceptualised, these will be rejected or confirmed depending on their experiences at the school.  “Every child can learn, every child must learn” is the constant phrase used when published reports of students failing hit the air-waves.  For the quoted phrase to become a reality then it is suggested that our educators use the steps laid out to use as a guide to remedy their school’s issues.

Even though we are a country with limited educational resources, let us provide a healthy productive learning environment for our students (Green, Henrequez-Green, 2005).  Let us guide our students towards a more user-friendly education system for all to live work and be properly educated.

The New School Year and the Economic Pinch in Jamaica

This academic year, 2013-2014 has opened with much nervousness and excitement.  Nervousness due to the economic situation where things are financially challenged, and excitement in that students are hopeful in doing the best to make it in the very competitive classrooms.  Teachers have been challenged about their study and vacation leave and was advised not to apply at this time for various reasons.  So, the teachers also returned to school under a cloud of uncertainty not knowing if they still have a job and also, if they will be paid at the end of each month!  School administrators have done their best to repair, renovate and  refurbish their schools to make it look appealing to the eyes of the parents, who have invested much into their child's education.  The economic boat is certainly on turbulent seas!

Earlier in the year, the teachers were given a scare that would have caused a major disruption in the academic year.  The education ministry had announced that they would not hire new teachers, nor they would be granting leaves to most.  It was thought that teachers could take up and go whenever they had a mind to.  However, it was realized that granted leaves were were based on conditions that the teachers must fulfill over a period of continuous active years in the classroom.  This conditions were based on negotiated and singed agreements over the years and the ministry slowly found out that they would have been dragged into the courtrooms.  The ministry did the wise thing in the end and granted the much needed leaves.

The economic situation being felt in Jamaica has caused most to be wise in the spending, savings (if they can) & "partners" and overseas travels.  This can be seen in the amount of persons taking on work that they were not used to doing, car pooling, and bus pooling.  Even many of the children are getting into the act of investing in sales of garden products and snacks on a week ends in order to ensure that they attend school for the coming week.  Our country has often felt economic pinches but this one at this point in time has truly hit education way below the belt!  But, it was nice that parents have come all out this year to ensure that their children have their tools needed to learn and looking brand new in their newly made uniforms and stuff.

The advice that is now ushered to parents and children is to do incremental savings and time it for its usage at a point when a child is about to enter high school and college. Also, the students with their parents should look around for scholarships, see the requirements, prepare, qualify and apply.  Another advice ushered is to see what kind of skills needed and either acquire the skills on your own or pay to learn the much needed skills to help one to survive in these hard times. The final advice, if there are specific needs for  particular goods or services in a community or town, and you have the skills to provide it consistently, then offer it.  That way people in need are supplied and honest money can be earned.



This academic year is a tough one.  Stressing though it may be, there is still hope and if we look at history there have been episodes of economic/financial madness with the agencies that can make or break a nation, but Jamaicans have always learnt to survive under the worst of conditions.  However, I do believe that the right kind of education and will give us the edge to survive these times.  Parents and teachers, research, invest and help bring our education system to a point where we can reap the benefits of surviving the next economic storm and guide the country to a place where we can experience financial calm and enjoy the fruits of our labour.

Teachers forced to run a marathon

In these tempestuous times in the teaching profession, the race is now on to protect the teachers from losing their multiple privileges. In decades gone by the traditional teacher had to deal with going to college to get the certification and upgrade his/her status in order to stand a chance of remaining current with educational trends and issues.

During this time, the teachers were often given the shotgun treatment whenever the literacy and numeracy grades were below standard and GSAT results in some regions were less than desirable. In addition, under-resourced teachers had to compete in the race by strategising various approaches to improve the results, though many of the students have serious learning disabilities. Annually, in August, chastisement would always come from various consultants of the education ministry questioning the qualifications of the teachers of CXC and CAPE subjects when the results were undesirable, charging that teachers were not qualifying and adapting themselves to the technological and content changes. So, again, some of the teachers went racing to universities; whether it be full-time or part-time to compete in the race of approval from the ministry.

Since the last decade, teachers who ran the retirement race had to do the necessaries to get their full pension, for many of their colleagues before them had died in wait of receiving their just deserved lump-sum. Since then, many of them learned how to manage their stress and planned how they would survive without collapsing before a packed class of less-than-compliant children.

Right behind that was another race that is now delayed, ie for the teachers to be licensed based on their certification and qualification. That gave the now very exhausted teachers little time to catch a breather, since they were now shot into the martial area once again because they had to find alternative means of studying. In some corners people are saying that if a teacher cannot recover quickly from illnesses, then the "work horse" ought to be sent to the 'knackers' yard. Also, there is talk that the annual increment that was awarded to teachers to offset the increasing cost of living will be removed. This is a race without a track judge and officials, but only the starter who cannot be at the finish line at the same time.

Is there a real finish line in sight? Are there forces that want to have teachers collapse like the horse called Royal Dad in the late 1970s? If proper dialogue is not engaged, then Jamaica will once again be facing a situation like that of the 1980s where many of our qualified teachers may travel to a less hostile environment and pre-trained teachers will once again inundate the classrooms. Jamaica does not need an exodus; it will not run well with our students. However, if there are no positive and civil changes, then teachers will have to find profitable alternatives to win the race of survival.

Let's be true innovators improving students' performance

I wish to congratulate the Caribbean Examinations Council for moving in the right direction utilising technology and encouraging students to use the internet to access their CXC/CSEC results.

I know that there are households that may not have computers, but this is a cost-reduction method that I thought was brilliant. Also, years ago, many students were not given their results due to outstanding school fees, and students' chances to enter college immediately were denied.

After the release of the results, my music students started calling me after midnight, so from the early hours of Saturday, August 11, until about 9 am I was happily denied regular sleep. The results were very good. All had passed and not only for my subject, but also for the other subjects they had taken.

On investigation, the success rate for the school where I work was extremely high, as usual. So, the question is: why the prime-time broadcast recently by one of our ministers that might have implied that all high schools have received poor exam results? It is never good to generalise where results are concerned. Yes, the percentage trends in the performance of the CXC/CSEC results have wavered, but I think those schools that have maintained consistent results should be publicly commended. Let the successful schools be contracted by the education ministry to write papers showing the best practices used to guarantee excellent performance.

Why have those politicians who have not done well at public service escaped assessment? Are they really held accountable for underachievement? Does the government put a performance checklist in the over 60 constituencies for us to use to measure MPs' performance?

But we find that all teachers are placed under a huge public microscope and the public checklist is never clearly seen, but all teachers seem to be checked off for underperformance when unfavourable results are found. Pre-set labels have been clearly made, posted, and broadcast against teachers.

Yes, there are teachers that should be plucked from the classrooms and the Jamaica Teachers' Association needs to revamp its stance on "bad teachers" and get rid of them, but seriously, no one can deny that teachers are the ones who truly hold up a nation in providing a literate and numerate population. There are factors that prevent 100 per cent literacy and numeracy of our people such as bad parenting, poor health, and domestic abuse, but let us recognise the schools that have tried and worked hard, made strategic and pedagogical improvements. They have done well in ensuring that students are armed with the tools and skills needed to move to the next stage of their lives after high school. Let us not be myopic in our grandstanding but be true innovators with our journey to improve students' performance in general.