oNe PhOtO a DaY:

 wEeK oNe JuNe 2015

THE PROMPTS FOR THE WEEK

MONDAY 1^ST MANY: Tomorrow I’m going to spend the unexpected public holiday travelling on a bus with students and some colleagues to visit Punakha and several sights along the way. It’s near my old stomping ground, from last year and I have been there several times before, but I am still looking forward to it and the adventure. I love seeing students out of their normal classroom and school environment and I am sure it will be fun, so I packed many of these biscuits I made in a special tin to share on our adventure and hopefully bring a few smiles

TUESDAY 2^ND LOOKING UP: With a field trip to some of the most famous and significant historic buildings in the country today, this prompt inspired so many shots and there were too many choices because I spent a lot of my time looking up today. However my choice is the finials and gargoyles on the roof of Chimi Lhakang - I have a self-confessed love of these roof decorations and have featured them many times before so I need no excuse to be looking up. 

WEDNESDAY 3^RD SILLY: This was taken yesterday on our field trip. Our much loved, respected and admired principal has a very silly expression on her face but more than that she was actively encouraging absolute silliness in the form of a water fight and both she and the kids absolutely loved it.

THURSDAY 4^TH STARTS WITH B: Buddha, specifically the huge Buddha that overlooks Thimphu city and is located at Buddha Point a steep climb upwards from my school

FRIDAY 5^TH LOOKING DOWN: Although I have travelled through Dochula and stopped to enjoy the views many times I had never been to the Lhakang above these stunning chortens, until this week. I love the perspective of looking down on the stunning memorial from up there and have long admired similar photos I've seen. My heart missed a beat when I saw this tranquil and beautiful scene

SATURDAY 7^TH WHO I AM: I used to give international students an exercise to define themselves with 10 nouns and 10 adjectives and it is a revealing and fun way to look at “who I am”. I just reduced it to 5 nouns and found a prop for each for this prompt. I’m sure you can guess but I hope this conveys cook, reader, traveller, photographer and teacher

SUNDAY 8^TH FORGOTTEN: I think the new neighbours, who arrived yesterday with a truckload of stuff, have unpacked but they might have forgotten that we both share the landing!!

PS They did remove it all before the end of the next day so they hadn’t really forgotten

  

wEeK tWo JuNe 2015

THE PROMPTS FOR THE WEEK

MONDAY 8^th SADNESS: I have searched all day for a suitable subject for this prompt but here in GNH orientated Bhutan even with the senior school beginning exams today its been a day of giggles and laughter. I had to resort to an archive shot from our time in Tanzania when this little tot was always on campus with her mum and usually smiling but sadness permeated her very being on this particular day. I got the camera out as it had always made her smile and she delighted in seeing herself in the screen but this time there was no consoling her…. Still makes me sad to see the photo…

TUESDAY 9^TH DISGUST: I guess the thing that most arouses disgust in me is lack of responsibility. Here in Bhutan, a country that promotes itself as the last Shangri-La and prides itself on its pristine environment, my pet peeve is the pervasive litter problem. At the risk of being considered a boring, old fart I even question young people in the street about why “Clean green Bhutan” doesn’t apply to them: such is the level of my disgust. This shot shows the state of the walkway we use to and from school everyday and I am going to organize a cleanup campaign there myself.

WEDNESDAY 10^TH ANGER: I have had such a wonderful day that this prompt really caused me grief, but I just had fun with it instead. Unexpectedly, I got the afternoon off and had to go to Ian’s school to get the key to be able to get into our apartment. When I arrived his kids were over-the-top excited and asking him “Is this your girlfriend sir?” so Ian asked them to show happy faces and sad faces and then asked them to make angry faces. The winner is Tandin Bidha Dorji fondly referred to as TBD by Ian. So this is angry from the perspective of a PP student! Samten Dema (in the green polo) is unimpressed!

THURSDAY 11^TH FEAR: I have never been all that great with dogs - I’ve been bitten several times and I think they sense how afraid I am but since coming to Bhutan this fear has only grown. I know so many volunteers and kids who have been bitten by the howling, marauding packs of strays that are a plague everywhere and the fact that many also have rabies just escalates my fear even more.

FRIDAY 12^TH JOY: is waking up to find the monsoon has arrived and I still have my plastic shoes in stock and can continue to walk to school even though its raining. I can even walk through all the puddles without fear and feel just like the big kid I am at heart.

SATURDAY 13^TH ON MY MIND: There’s a lot on my mind at the moment: the thought of returning to Australia, Mid-Term Exams, my beautiful but sick sister and what makes a good photo!

SUNDAY 14^TH MAKES ME FEEL GOOD: Nothing makes me feel better than seeing prayer flags flapping in the breeze.   

wEeK tHrEe JuNe 2015

THE PROMPTS FOR THE WEEK

MONDAY 15^th SUN: Locked inside invigilating with the sun tempting me to come out and play. Even the fence highlights that trapped feeling that both teachers and students feel at exam time

TUESDAY 16^TH ANYTHING: The stunning painted motifs, which adorn every building in Bhutan are anything but simple

WEDNESDAY 17^TH LUNCHTIME: Even at lunchtime trying to focus on the delicious dal and vegetables with rice prepared by Ian and chocolate cake the spectre of exam papers to correct looms in the background in my desk

THURSDAY 18^TH LOCAL: the view from the local temple (Changangkha Lhakang) over the city of Thimphu in the afternoon on the walk home from school

FRIDAY 19^TH 9 O’CLOCK: At 9 o’clock this morning the final exams were underway for senior students and all those of us without invigilation duties were correcting for all we were worth at our desks, so the corridors, stairs and even the table tennis table were completely free.

SATURDAY 20^TH WHAT I’M DOING NOW: I have done 49.5 hours of exam paper correction in the last 13 days and what I am doing now is celebrating that I finished it I still have comments to write and calculations to do but this is the back of it broken and the relief is palpable. Look out Australia we are coming home!

(Thanks to Ian for capturing the moment!)

SUNDAY 21^ST WET: With the monsoon upon us the weather alternates from sunny and clear to dark skies and very wet. The newly commissioned and unveiled today throngdrel (giant scroll) that was at the Zangdo Pelri Lakhang was covered in a sheet of plastic so that it wouldn’t get wet and the black skies above the finial opened up just minutes after I took this shot.

wEeK fOuR jUnE 2015

  

THE PROMPTS FOR THE WEEK

MONDAY 22^nd MONEY: In the next week we are going be in 3 different countries and will need and use all of these currencies. We like to always have some money with us for the first few days after we arrive and it was a real blessing to see just how much we had stashed away waiting for our return to Australia next week. Excitement is growing now!

TUESDAY 23^RD VIEW: This was my view as I walked into town after school today. I do love the monsoon skies

WEDNESDAY 24^TH IN THE GARDEN: of Druk School and in many other gardens all over the city the monsoon rain has encouraged the lilies to bloom to spectacular effect

THURSDAY 25^TH DEPTH OF FIELD: Simple pleasures: Lemon soda in the best vegetarian restaurant in Bangkok!

FRIDAY 26^TH GIFT: some of the “essential” supplies I think I need came with a gift with purchase deal today and that was a nice treat!

SATURDAY 27^TH MINI:  This mini basket took my fancy yesterday not the least of the reasons being its colour, but I am now up to about 15 in the number of things that might be stored in it and still counting!!

SUNDAY 28^TH ORANGE: This one must have been made for me! My love of the colour orange is legendary. I actually thought that I didn’t have much orange with me this trip home….

Portfolios time to rethink - a discussion paper for the English faculty

After completing the checking of my last portfolio only a few days ago and with only a few hours before my first exam appears on my desk for marking, I decided to put down in writing the thoughts that have been banging around in my head for the past few weeks. It's a bit of a ramble and if you're not in the teaching game it might be too much philosophising so stand warned!!!! However it is about time there was a little more thinking and a few fewer photos in this blog I suspect. 

There is little doubt that the portfolio system of student assessment falls short of truly judging either students' effort or ability. For teachers it is cumbersome and inadequate in terms of leaving all the final grading to the moment before exams commence and for students it relies on making a concerted effort over a prolonged period of time with little or no feedback about either their current ability or the areas in which they need to focus their attention to improve their grades. I am confident that most teachers only skim read the written work presented because of the pressure of receiving 50 -120 such portfolios within a very short time and immediately preceding the exams. I am also sure that most students only look at the grades awarded without reading in any depth the comments teachers may have made. This further discourages teachers from making more valuable comments and giving advice. Since students most often get their portfolios back after the exam results have been declared and the next submission date seems months away they are disinclined to pay very much attention to them.

I have struggled with how to make portfolios more viable and a more accurate form of assessment for all of the time I have spent in Bhutan and I can honestly say with limited success.

These are the measures I have taken both in the past and in Druk School this year. I have introduced a system of writing portfolios containing a balance of rewritten teacher corrected work, copied pieces from reading done throughout the term and original pieces of the student's choice. In addition I have stressed the need to present a variety of different styles of writing in each of these categories. The hope with teacher corrected inclusions was to firstly allow students to see their own writing presented as perfectly grammatically correct pieces whilst simultaneously requiring them to focus on the corrections and avoid making similar mistakes in the future writing. As for copying, they will do it anyway, so why not allow them to choose a variety of pieces, which they enjoy and see how their appreciation grows with what they choose. They should in fact learn about what constitutes good writing from this exercise. This option includes song lyrics, articles, other students' work, poems and many more but again the emphasis must be on only one piece of any one style. They also have the opportunity to learn how to state their sources and not simply plagiarise. Finally the original work gives them choice and options to write on topics and in styles that the curriculum doesn't usually cater to.

For reading portfolios I have also broken with convention and required different styles for each piece included. Students are encouraged to write character outlines and descriptions, summaries, graphic plot diagrams, recounts of single incidents in the book, lessons learnt, similar experiences of their own, judgements on the themes presented and quotes with explanations of meaning and why they chose it: the emphasis being on quality not quantity. These are skills that they are required to demonstrate in exam writing.

Well that was my thinking and modus operandi for the 3 and a half years anyway. Balance and variety being part of the criteria for grading as well as completion and development, helps to stress the importance of style and accuracy while also hoping to encourage the development of skills that will assist them in the future and not only in the subject of English. However the reality is that they stick to what they know, regurgitate the same pieces over different years to different teachers, having failed to put in any work until the very last minute and only the minimum effort is made for any number of reasons. Certainly some students have embraced these ideas and presented incredible portfolios but I feel they are the minority and those who already have an avid interest in reading and creative writing that I cannot claim to have inspired.

I have also committed to comprehensively, thoroughly and thoughtfully correcting their portfolios and returning them to the students before the exams commence so that they are aware of their mistakes and weaknesses as well as their strengths and are told their Continuous Assessment (CA) scores in their final lesson and prior to the exams. This is no mean feat and I will admit to being more than a little stir crazy and stressed in that final week of teaching in order to complete it to my satisfaction and by the deadline. Chasing students' work with the clock ticking and being down to the wire everyday when they most need personal assistance and reassurance is not a good way to go for any of us.

So what to do?

Abandon portfolios completely is my first advice. Select from the various topics covered throughout the term, compulsory pieces of writing which must be submitted within a reasonable time frame. Also provide the opportunity for a choice piece of writing where each student selects their own topic and style. Allow them to make informed choices for this work by suggesting after texts studied, "If you liked this text you could write ….."  for your choice piece. Give several options after each text and constantly remind students that this choice is 20% of their grade for writing. 

For both both compulsory and the choice piece:

1) Set deadlines.

2) Grade work as it is submitted.

3) Return writing to students as quickly as possible

4) Record their weaknesses and the advice given in comments.

5) Penalise repetition of these same errors in future pieces and expect improvement and development over the course of the term.

If I give an example to make this clearer, I would chose an essay, a poetry analysis, a letter and a short answer exercise based on a text as the compulsory writing pieces and grade each with criteria similar to those used in exams out of a possible 20 points. Add the choice piece and there are 100 points for writing over the term. When I have done this in the past, I also allowed students with very poor scores in one area to repeat that type of writing to improve. I usually assign a similar task on a different text and then average the scores so the initial weakness is reflected but improvement and extra effort is rewarded.

To add depth to this example I would associate the compulsory tasks with particular texts for which there is a logical connection. At class nine level the essay "My struggle for an education" is a good choice for essay writing as it can be a narrative based on their own experience of struggle or an expository essay outlining the Bhutanese Education System or even a persuasive essay about what changes in the system are needed. Poetry analysis is required in every paper 2 and certain questions reoccur so assigning typical questions about structure, form, poetic devices, imagery and meaning to any one of the poems studied will work and "Amalkanti" is a simple starting point as the poem itself is not too complex. For letter writing the text "The Big Story" is about unethical newspaper reporting and easily lends itself to letters to the editor. This leaves only the short answer practice to complete and the novel, which is a seen aspect of paper 2 is the obvious choice. For those who wish to repeat the process to improve their grades, it is easy as each chapter provides additional practise. Already I assign and correct pieces such as these as a part of homework and classwork so it is actually reducing the workload not adding to it. These tasks can easily be included in the year plan at the beginning of the year so that correcting can be spaced out and what pieces to include where in the curriculum coverage and the associated skills, can then be stipulated. Specifically teaching in an interconnected manner and integrating the teaching of grammar, writing skills and the study and analysis of texts together is a real benefit for students as it enables them to see the practical application of the skills while reinforcing the content.

This leaves us with only the reading portfolios to contend with and in fact the librarians are already doing a large part of this work by recording reading logs with students at various levels. If students themselves submit a reading log consisting of no more than the books they have honestly read this would be 20 % of the assessment. By having reasonable expectations we can expect honest logs. 2-3 books of any length are more than enough when we consider the amount of subject related reading that students at all levels are required to do. Books shared in the reading program with younger or older students can also be included. Students themselves can be required to submit a given number of pieces, which demonstrate reading outside the classroom, as and when they complete the books. I again would think 3 to be ample and grading each for 20 points to be a valuable exercise. Therefore another 60% of the grade is achieved. I would suggest the variety outlined above in the discussion of reading portfolios as they are currently assessed (by me at least) could be a starting point and students could be given the flexibility to produce any 3 of these pieces and for the final 20% they can be required to deliver a book talk, book promotion speech or talk on a person experience related to the plot of a book they have read, as a part of the speaking component of assessment thus 'killing 2 birds with one stone' as it were. This shouldn't create a huge additional work load and gives those students with an avid interest in reading the opportunity to do the work early in the term and continue to read with the assurance that most of their grade has already been achieved, while those who are less inspired can use library time and shared reading time to achieve one piece a month over the term.

I think that 5 pieces for a term in both the categories of writing and reading would not be too burdensome for students or teachers to grade and the advantages are that teachers are grading work in an ongoing process and when those CA scores are required it is simply a matter of doing the calculation, not a huge additional workload at the very time exams are about to start. For students they are receiving continual feedback about their writing with individual comments about their weaknesses and advice about how to improve so that they can, if motivated to do so, focus on their own improvement over the course of the term. There is also the possibility of being rewarded for putting in extra work. The reading work is similarly spread over the term time with more specific requirements being clearly stated.

I would continue the practice of rewriting corrected work to ensure that students actually notice the corrections and advice of teachers by maintaining a Model Answers display in the classroom. For weaker students there is a model to follow and they are able to clearly see what makes an answer that scores better than their own did score well and for better students there is a motivator to get their work displayed. This display which I currently maintain for senior students is also a source of material to copy in the current portfolio assessment method and an easy way to collect articles and student writing for publication in a school magazine or more public forum.

I look forward to discussing these ideas with colleagues and hope that they can be further clarified and fine tuned by those with more in depth working knowledge and an equal enthusiasm for refining the system to better serve our students and reduce the stress and pressure for committed teachers. The flexibility and choice given to students will hopefully be an additional motivator and being the eternal optimist that I am, I believe this will be a better and fairer assessment of students true abilities than portfolios can ever be made to be.