2020: Pandemic Planning

Pandemic

Adjective:

 (of a disease) prevalent over a whole country or the world.

synonyms:

widespread, prevalent, pervasive, rife, rampant, epidemic;

Noun:

an outbreak of a pandemic disease.

"the results may have been skewed by an influenza pandemic"

I really didn't think we'd be getting right into Pandemic Planning at kura so early. I thought maybe we'd hit global Zombie Apocalypse first... but no. This is real.

I was in a state of panic yesterday.

I spent a lot of time in bed - worried, concerned. Sleepy.

Today, I got back into action mode. Lots of things were completed at school but there is still this overarching sense of impending doom to calculate and maneuver around.

My current thoughts are a resounding: We got this! But my internal conflict says... Do we? Like actually, do we?

It makes me think about how lucky we are here in New Zealand. We'd heard about it late last year, on into the beginning of this year.

One of my Y12 students even did her speech on this subject. Only slightly ironic that we'd then have a global pandemic on our hands...

Still, all the planning in the world couldn't prepare us for this. At present we have sixty-six confirmed cases of Coronavirus. This man in the video below is so clearly spoken, so relaxed and calm in this growing sense of panic that the rest of us are feeling. People are panic buying toilet paper. TOILET PAPER. Yes.... And not just here, either. All over. Sure, hand sanitiser and bleach sold out quickly too. They've only recently put a limit on how many loaves of bread you're allowed to buy. My friends are having trouble buying bags of flour. It makes me a tiny bit more appreciative of being gluten free.

Underneath all this bravado and my own sense of supposed calm. There is an overwhelming worry and concern for the people I love and care for. My immune-compromised colleagues are allowed to work from home this week according to Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health guidelines.

We're at Pandemic Alert Level 2 here in NZ. Our schools won't close until we are at Level 4. This is in itself quite a stressful time. We are on the frontline: teachers, nurses, doctors.

What are the symptoms again?

Coronavirus has spread fast. From Wuhan, China and then on throughout the rest of the world. We closed our borders relatively quickly. Thankful to have the cousin Jacinda as Prime Minister. She has truly helped keep the virus at bay. People traveling were meant to self-isolate. I'm guessing the 66 cases are people who did the travelling.

We are yet to move to community transfer. When that happens... I guess we'll be rising to the next Alert Level.

Italy has become the new epicentre of the virus. It is awful to think of the beautiful places I travelled to and visited in 2018 having their beautiful people getting sick and dying from this disease. Apparently the canal waters are clear. The sediment has not been disturbed. Fish and swans can be seen in and on the canal waters. Even dolphins have returned.

Some are saying that this is Mother Nature's way of putting us all into a time-out. Perhaps this is true. We were going to end up this way at some point, why not now?

It's hard to say what might happen next.

All I do know is that I have to keep a calm face and encourage my colleagues to do the same.

We're all in this together. Solidarity. Sick?

Whatever it means - we have to keep moving.

It is scary though to think of my students getting sick and coming to school, sick and then that virus transferring to others.

Usually when I start thinking of next possible situations, the worst possible situations, I feel a sense of dread, panic and fear.

At least with this pandemic of Coronavirus... I know the realities. Everyone I know and love could die. This might be a really morbid thing to say - sure. But I've actually never felt more calm. Because this is literally the worst thing that could happen.

And yet, I think the panic lies in what to sort out first. Which priority is more important?

Which task on my to-do list needs to be actioned first?

To Do...

• Ensure all classes in my department have Google Classroom set up
• Ensure that all students have access to wifi, data or other means to complete their work
• Check in with the immune-compromised teachers in my department. Are they okay? Will they be working at home this week? 
• Talk with immune-compromised students via email. Check that they are ready, and set up for learning at home
• Reassure students and teachers that it will be okay... 
• Find out more information of how dogs can get sick from the virus... 
• Buy more echinacea tablets ---- don't be overwhelmed if you can't find any...
• Try not to panic buy....
• Talk to Nan often and see how she's doing
• Create Zoom lessons and use Screencastify
• Prep resources that can be used online and offline
• Talk with students and check they're prepped at home with food and safe places
• Carry out duty at school -- enforce 2 metre separation where needed
• 
  

Y13 Taika Waititi Film Study

This year I've been teaching Year 13's (ages 17-18 aka 7th form) for the first time in my teaching career.

At the start of the year I had upwards of 50 students enrolled in my class. After some quick interviewing of my students to assess who actually:
a) wanted to do Y13 English Alternative
b) should be there (credits from last year) or in the generic English course
c) didn't want to do English/didn't need Level 3 English for the beginning of their careers next year

Once I had significantly dropped the numbers with the help of my amazing colleagues who found better places for them - I was down to about 45 students I think.

During this time I somehow managed to get them all reading and analysing the epic short story 'The Signalman' by Charles Dickens and later on - the two equally fantastic New Zealand short stories 'Her First Ball' by Katherine Mansfield and 'His First Ball' by Witi Ihimaera.

Eventually the class was split into two alternative level classes - and my amazing colleague TC is now working with me to continue this course.

Now that I had about 23 students - we could breathe a little easier and actually get some work done! :)

In walks the first assessment: US 3491 -  Write a report.  (3 credits)

At first glance, it looks like an easy assessment. It's a unit standard and all the students need to do is compare and contrast two texts and share their findings.

When we started teaching it and figuring it all out - it was a bit more indepth.

Films studied:

'Boy' and 'Tama Tu'

The analysis was easy and hard going at the same time. The report writing itself was and continues to be (some still have not handed it in....- cut off date is end of the term!!) Partly because of the structure I'd created for their report paragraphs - but mostly because it was a higher level of thinking and writing than they possibly had done before in their last years class. Y13 is a huge step up - even for the alternative course.

The assessment asked for the students to show their understanding of the director's purpose, how effective he was in portraying this through the key aspects and lastly evaluate his effectiveness in regards to how they related with it.

So this is how I asked my students to structure the paragraphs:

Topic Statement
Examples of key aspect
Explanations of key aspect and how they have impacted you/audience
Purpose (what the director was meaning and the purpose in creating the text)
Evaluation of effectiveness in portraying a key aspect in the film
Response - what you thought about what the director did - why it had an impact on you/audience

I've had four good reports handed in - about three that are in the near end stages and a few that still need more guidance and they are expected to go to the homework centre to get it done.


The next 'assessment' needs a bit of explanation... 

Mainly because it's a three part assessment.

AS 91480 - Close reading of visual texts (3 Credits)
US - Contribute as a team or group towards an objective
AS - Create a coherent oral text

The end product is an oral text where they present their findings and show their understanding of what the director did, why and how. Of course also how they related to it and the effectiveness etc. The best part about this is that there are loads of ways they can do this part - as a seminar, lesson, workshop, video, etc etc etc etc

Before this can happen though -  they have to collate information and techniques and analyses on two short excerpts - or in our case - two short films. And analyse their findings and think about how they relate to them and how they've been impacted in some way as the audience and why the director did it and what the director made them think etc.

Films studied: 

'Tama Tu' and '2 Cars, 1 Night'

Best part of this series of assessments is that they have basically done most of the groundwork about the background of Tama Tu in the last assessment and can solely focus on the technical aspects of diegetic sounds, shots, cinematography, mis en scene etc

The other best part so far - is while watching 'Two Cars, 1 Night' - my students were discussing aspects of the film with technical terms as they watched it, questioning it, and discussing the backgrounds of the characters and already started to think about why Taika Waititi used these characters, how he used them etc.

This is awesome because it showed me that they get it... and that they can do it. And most of all.. that when they get stressed out and say they can't - I can remind them back to the first time we watched it... and every other time since.

At the moment - they are collating the data and evidence of the film.

We've started to analyse our own information using the below questions:


Before we can attack the questions - which are rather wordy for that reason - I've decided they need to unpack each one to know what they've actually got to answer. We've already done a bit of this - with the first question:

On Monday we'll continue with this - perhaps unpack the rest of the questions - because the next two lessons I'll be in Wellington for PPTA meetings - and so they'll continue working on their answers and paragraphs... why? because it's an easy way for them to cut and paste info into a speech transcript for their speeches later. Smart aye :)

To do the collating of the information - they're working in teams or groups - and hopefully will stay in those groups for the presentation side of the close reading assessment. I love how interconnected these assessments are. Really the only way to do it too. :)


I'm hoping that my Y13's have their collated information ready by the end of the term (three weeks to go!!) and then come next term we can teach our Y13's the techniques of good presenting and give them some more ideas in how to do the presenting side. Hopefully make it less scary as each student has to speak for six minutes each.

Where I see us going next....

The next assessments are the Visual and Verbal assessment as well as the extended text teaching and learning - for their final exam in English at the end of the year.

Well be using one film for the next two assessments - though I'm pretty sure my colleague will agree that we'll let out students choose any of the films or texts we've studied this year for their visual verbal text creation.

I've bought the two copies of the film we will be doing - and in case my students find this post I will update the film later. But if you know Taika Waititi's works well - you'll know the one we're doing :)

Also - am stoked that 'What we do in the Shadows' comes out this week and that I'll be in Wellington during the hype and that there have been HEAPS of interviews done by Waititi and Jemaine Clement (Flight of the Conchords) - in character might I add.

Links for 'What we do in the Shadows' here:
Trailer for WWDITS - thanks to Youtube and DeliciousNecks
Film Website
WWDITS on IMBD - Thanks to IMDB
Werewolves not Swearwolves - Trailer
Viral Marketing at its best - Thanks to NZ Herald and David Farrier
The WWDITS Facebook Page 
#DeliciousNecks - Twitter


Links for 'Boy':
Boy on IMDB - Thanks to IMDB
Trailer for BOY - Thanks to Youtube and EastCoastCrazyHorses
The Film Website

Links for 'Tama Tu':
The Entire Film Here - Thanks to NZ On Screen
The Film Website
28th Maori Battalion Website

Links for 'Two Cars, One Night':
The Entire Film Here - Thanks to NZ On Screen
TCON on IMDB - Thanks to IMDB
The Film Website

Links for last Waititi film: 
To come later :)

Links on Taika Waititi:
TedXDoha - The Art of Creativity - AMAZING. - Thanks to TedXTalks and Youtube
Taika Waititi Fansite


Links on Visual Techniques:
Mis En Scene - Makes total sense - Good for students to take notes.