"Week one over and I am proud to say that I only had three absences," Vera boasts.
This Friday afternoon found the two year five teachers in the room between their two classrooms. It was time for a weekly check in. Most other year levels used this time to catch up in a positive light, like a normal teacher should do. Of course, these two were ready for their first competition, number of student absences for the first week of the year.
"Oh, three you say? Well Vera, I am proud to say that I only had one this week," Damien replies, casually taking a sip of his tea after the words had left his mouth.
Vera felt her eyebrow twitch, she thought she had this in the bag, three was a pretty decent number for five days. No matter, the real test of absenteeism will come at the end of the year with percentage. She could live with this outcome as they had more important matters to discuss.
"So NAPLAN practice, we haven't had a chance to discuss how we're going to go about it," she says, opening her laptop to check the dates for this year.
"Last year's plan seemed to work well enough," the man replies.
"It did, and we can use it, but we'll have to make adjustments, we have a welcoming assembly for the new teachers in week three that might go a little longer than usual, and week five is jam-packed with events as well."
"If we can make time for the lessons we have, then they should not interfere too much."
She frowns as her eyes take in the information on her screen, "I wonder what the writing stimulus will be this year."
"Your guess is as good as mine," he shrugs. "I think we'll have time for some narrative and persuasive recap like we did last year, and maybe get started on information reports depending on how they go."
"Looking at my students' writing from last year, it should go relatively smoothly, though I have a few that still struggle with persuasive language," she replies.
"This cohort are good with Maths for the most part, so we can cover the usual term one topics and maybe a few recapping lessons to benefit the ones who still have trouble with certain areas."
They spent the next hour talking NAPLAN, planning English and Maths lessons to prepare the students for the test.
-
Jasmine had only managed to converse with the two year five teachers a handful of times over the last week, but her mind would always go back to that first time she saw them. It was just her luck that she would leave school on Friday at the same time as the both of them. She was halfway into her car when she spotted the two of them leaving through the gate.
Damien was gentlemanly enough to hold the gate open for his teaching partner as the woman talked his ear off. His face was blank, but he did appear to be listening. As they drew closer, she could make out what they were saying.
"You know Damien, I think my class is going to blow yours away this year," Vera was saying. "I have a good feeling about getting some high bands in my class."
"We shall see," the man replies, a small smirk crossing his face. "If last year is any indication, you're doomed to fail."
"What are you implying?"
The two passed her car, only stopping their argument for a moment to wave Jasmine good as they did. She watched as Damien helped Vera unload her bags into the back seat of her car before waiting for her to get in. Vera gave the man a wave before driving off, and it was after she had pulled from her park that the man himself headed for his own car.
Jasmine realised she would never understand these two, and figured it had been best she had not bothered to participate in the staff bet.
Finally, part 2 is here. And in only two parts, I already have the poor victim of my two competing teachers, one of the year 3 teachers.
Today's part mentioned the NAPLAN test, this is for years 3, 5, 7 and 9. It's a literacy and numeracy test that has a few purposes. It helps teachers to see which students might benefit from extensions and which areas some students are weak in. It also helps parents to see where their children are fairing for their age group.
Vera mentioned bands at the end there, those are how student results are shown. The bands go from 1 to 10, but each of the four year levels have different expectations for band placement. For year 5, band 4 is the national standard, this is where year 5 students are expected to be. Anything lower is below national standard and is a concern. Bands 5 to 8 are the above bands for year 5. These are children that excel at literacy and numeracy as far as their year level goes.
Truthfully, teachers have mixed feelings about NAPLAN. It used to happen closer to the end of the year, so teachers for the four year levels involved spent a lot of time preparing the students for the tests. There are four tests, one each for reading, writing, language conventions and numeracy. It's a lot to prepare for. Now the test happens in term 1, it's nice to get it out of the way early, let me tell you. Though the pressure does get shared with the year levels below each, so the 2, 4, 6, and 8 teachers who start the preparations.
NAPLAN is important, though I think some schools take it too seriously at the detriment of the children. When I was kid and had to sit the tests, I hated them. Now as a teacher, my feelings haven't changed much.
No comments:
Post a Comment