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Differentiation Strategies for MS Math in an International School Class in China

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I currently teach in an International School in China that can accept Chinese Nationals. The student body is 80% Chinese, 15% South Korean, and 5% children of teachers in the school. The teachers in Middle and High School come from Australia, China, Colombia, Kenya, India, Macedonia, Pakistan, The Philippines, and the United States. Differentiation in this school is complicated by the fact that parents tend to be in one of two broad categories: ones who overcommit students to outside lessons despite our advice not to, and those who do not want to accept the possibility that their son/daughter has a disability. Few parents have realistic after school activities for their child or are willing to discuss how to help a learning disabled child. A significant number of students are first or second year transfers from Chinese public schools where the language of instruction for Mathematics was Mandarin. These two parental types mean that many classes have kids above grade level and many w...
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Teacher Evaluation in Small Private International School Part 2

In my previous post, I talked about teacher evaluation at my school and what I would assess to make it more practical. I mentioned that there were factors unique to SPiS that made implementing the types of evaluation systems described by the TNTP and NEA reports difficult, but that they were outside the scope of what my assignment required. This post discusses the factors. The first factor is the absence of support bodies that are present in the USA. No body represent teachers, and there is no school district (SPIS often operate separate from local educational districts due to diplomatic concerns) There are networks of schools for the purpose of organizing athletic tournaments and/or pooling PD resources, but nothing collectively representing teachers. The missing levels of support mean that administrators and teachers have additional work to do, which lessens the time available to conduct meaningful teacher evaluations. Many administrators also have to perform a Marketing role as ...
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Teacher Evaluation in Small Private International Schools Part 1

I’ve been teaching in Small Private International Schools (SPIS) for all of my teaching career and have had little useful evaluation of my effectiveness as a teacher. The driving force for evaluation has often been pending accreditation visits, getting evidence for dismissal, or appeasing influential parents who complain. Occasionally, there was concern for improving teacher practice to improve student retention, but the evaluators were spread too thin, making that the process erratic and infrequent. Teacher assessment in a SPIS can be described the same way as in the The New Teachers Project (TNTP) report: infrequent, unfocused, undifferentiated, unhelpful, and inconsequential  (The New Teachers Project, 2010) . In proposing a solution, the TNTP report has six Design Standards that schools should follow when creating teacher evaluation systems and the National Education Association (NEA) has six Key Principles.  I will analyze my school’s teacher evaluation protocol usin...
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Reinforcement for Students

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Handling Aggressive Students When looking at Marzano's discussion of how to handle different behaviors, I was reassured to see that many of the techniques I used in the past were effective. His work is a great reference and well written. I felt it was missing a bit in that it didn't really mention the importance of having the administrative support and backing when trying these techniques. Especially when dealing with repeated non-compliance. A teacher often needs support when dealing with repeat offenders, for the simple reason that other pairs of eyes might see things differently or get a different reaction from the student. In the schools I worked at in the Middle East, there was much more backing for decisive disciplinary action once you presented evidence that couldn't be ignored. My current school is different. The owner of the holding company wants a vision to be implemented and anything counter to that vision is rejected and will perish in oblivion through being ign...
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High Stakes Testing and International Schools Are Like Coke and Diet Coke.

I am going to talk a bit about what "High Stakes Testing" means for two International schools. One in Beijing, China and one in Cairo, Egypt. Both schools cater to the moneyed elites in their countries and both are considered to be second or third-tier schools. The schools exist as an alternative for the national system of public education which have extremely high pressure and high stakes exams in the form of the Chinese Gaokao and the Egyptian General Secondary Certificate. In China, the Gaokao is taken over the course of 2-3 days by around nine million students each year (Wong, 2015). The Egyptian General Secondary Certificate exams are spread out over a three week period in late June/early July (the exact time depends on the time of the holy month of Ramadan for a given year). About 450,000  students a year take the exams (AlTawy, 2014) .  The stakes for both exams are high. The Gaokao determines which tier university a student is eligible for (China Central Televisio...
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Formative and Summative Assessment of Objectives

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In looking at the California Common Core Standards for Algebra 1 I realized that the standards are written in a way that is not that compatible with performance-based assessments. The standards are broken down in a compartmentalized fashion inconsistent with how one might use the skills described in real-world situations. When designing or analyzing things, one checks the work by switching between the text representation (specification), the mathematical model, the computer simulation, and graphical output to ensure things are consistent. In the event a mistake/error is suspected, one must troubleshoot, which could involve checking the Algebra by hand. One works between disciplines and between representations of the Mathematics based on judgement and experience. Good Performance-based assessment should mirror that process or aspects of it. The standards at this level are more basic because you need the student to build a certain level of fluency and automaticity in their work. You have...
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