facilitator interview # 3- Jeff

Facilitator Interview #3- JEFF

Jeff and I got together and I have to admit, this was probably the most informative session I have encountered. Jeff has been with the center for 21 years, and he has seen a lot of stuff. Wow. I don't even know where to start. This entry might be slightly unorganized, but our topics bounced around. I'll do my best.

When Jeff and I sat down I explained a little about my goals for our meeting. I wanted to talk about student voice. The words student voice triggered some ideas for Jeff about having a school newspaper. He said that the Murphy Centre has a newspaper before. He likes the idea of a monthly publication made by students for students. It could include poetry, accomplishments, suggestions and comments, info on upcoming events. I think this is a wonderful idea for many reasons. It would encourage people to share their talents be it writing, drawing, or cartooning. It would act as an in-school part-time job for students and be rewarding and fun to participate in. Jeff suggested the name Student Voice for the paper. I think this is so cool, and very do-able! It would also assist in students sharing their voice, as you could have an Opinions column.

Jeff and I then moved on to briefly talk about student voice. I asked Jeff if he felt he allowed people to express their voice in his class, and he said, "Be awful dull if they didn't".

Then we got into the topic of a wish list. I asked him what he would like to see if anything was possible. He expressed that he would like more staff, and therefore more variety. Jeff feels very strongly about seeing more variety in any kinds of courses that are of interest. He said to be able to make time for these things there could be five shortened periods in a day, therefore allowing more classes per day. He told me that years ago there used to be five and six periods in a day!

He talked about the changes coming in the new high school programs. Art is going to be mandatory and therefore the Murphy Centre is going to have to include art as it will be a graduation requirement. I asked him if he meant high school art classes, or extracurricular art and he replied, "whatever we can fit in". He said scheduling is tight, but it is do-able. He also talked about incorporating healthy living into the schedule once a week, and being able to use to CONA gym would be a possibility. Again, Jeff feels strongly about more variety, and expressed that he would be willing to do the work to provide more courses to people. Later on in the conversation he said he would like to teach earth systems, and would be willing to take on the work required to do so.

I then asked Jeff the big question: Would you prefer to see a completely new, alternative curriculum come into the Murphy Centre alongside the current curriculum, or would you prefer a whole new facility be created specifically for an alternative curriculum? Jeff feels as if it would be very hard to bring a completely alternative curriculum here, however he had the idea of having some alternative courses alongside our regular curriculum. He was especially interested in things that are of interest to him, such as canoing, hiking, camping, and compass reading. He talked about how the Murphy Centre (way back when) had a shop and offered automotive, electrical and woodworking. He said, "Then there were too many people in those careers so the high schools said 'Stop offering it', so they stopped". He said it was good for those students who were academically or emotionally prepared to go back to school, but it helped them ease their way into that kind of environment again.

Then I moved on to talk about the challenge the Murphy Centre faces when it has to turn down people because they need a modified program, such as Pathway 3 & 4 people, or people with severe learning disabilities. He informed me that there is a rising number of people applying that are in that position, but we're not equipped to handle a big group of modified students. This then brought our conversation to the idea of a new alternative learning facility. He agreed that these people would greatly benefit from a place like this. Later in the conversation Jeff told me that the Murphy Centre started as a three year pilot project and was funded by the federal government. After the third year they pretty much just told them that they were going to have to find their own funding. Since then they've been relying on yearly grants and sponsors who provide an estimate of $700-$900 thousand dollars a year to keep the Murphy Centre open. With this knowledge, I suggested that perhaps with these new demands in place from a growing demographic of people who need a modified learning facility, perhaps we have a better case to put forth a proposal to the government for permanent funding. Jeff told me that majority of the other provinces have many places like the Murphy Centre within their regular district of schools. All these factors I think could contribute to something very big.

This conversation quickly Jeff talking about the need to decide what alternative is going to mean. I think it's something that needs a lot of input, and a lot of consideration before it is answered. One method that is considered alternative, Jeff explained, is something he heard about in Quebec called project based learning. He told me that a lot of professionals nowadays disagree with testing and feel it limits a persons capabilities, causes stress and anxiety, and overall proves less effective than project based learning. This method allows more creativity and a higher success rate. Apparently Quebec has enforced this type of learning all over the province. He believes this type of learning is a good idea for an alternative facility, and would benefit those people who need modified learning.

I then asked Jeff if we could change the direction of the conversation a talk a little about peer-teacher relationships in the Murphy Centre. He says that he doesn't look down on anyone, and he sees them on an eye-to-eye level. He said sometimes when he needs to get serious about attention of grades it can be hard because they get on such a personal level, but he feels the good outweighs the bad in the aspect.

Then I asked Jeff if there was anything else he'd wish for if anything was possible. He said the pay is a little low- lower than normal high schools- and that was when he told me about the funding issues that I mentioned above. He expressed that he feels that for some reason the NL government just doesn't want the Murphy Centre to fit because it's sometimes viewed as less in comparison to normal high school. Other provinces have places like the Murphy Centre and they are government funded, so why not here? I personally think this issue deserves to have a little hell raised for it.

I then moved on to ask Jeff what his biggest frustrations at the Murphy Centre are. He said attendance is a frustration. He said it's a frustration when you have to get through something and you can't because classes are inconsistent. Jeff teaches ABE sciences as well as geography and told me that his ABE students are funded to be in school, so they are usually there unless they have a doctors note. He said if there was an incentive like that for everyone than more people would likely stay. I asked what kinds of things the Murphy Centre had tried in the past to improve attendance and Jeff told me about such things as: giving up the attendance policy as a way of relieving pressure; contracts that students had to sign to say they would come and if they didn't they would be asked to leave; advisers; colour groups- regular meetings with staff and participants. He said that the colour groups may work again, and they may not. He said it's different for every group you get. Sometimes people are more attentive and committed, and sometimes they're not. Jeff said that this semester has been the worst semester he's seen in ages, in regards to the drop out rate. He is interested in getting together to discuss the ways of addressing attendance.

Jeff and I talked about the policies in the school dealing with attendance, he told me that the staff has difficulty letting people go and that they don't really follow their own policies. He said that this is supposed to be for the participants success and he doesn't feel that the lack of policy in that area is necessarily a negative thing. Jeff told me he'd love to see how the participants feel about attendance, and he feels as if someone got together and showed each participant how much time they've actually missed that they'd be surprised. I think this is a future project that I may take on. We could discuss the possibility of asking participants to meet individually and talk about their attendance.

The topic of student voice arose again, and Jeff told me that at one time students were invited to be present and participate in staff meetings. He said there were issues around that regarding confidentiality, and that students wouldn't be invited to some staff meetings that were held to talk about a particular individual. However, he said that it would be a good idea to have staff-participant meetings that aren't about specific individuals, but rather around things like smoking, drugs, etc. The consistency of this idea would vary depending on the dedication of the participants. "Some people are dedicated at first, but then it melts down to a few people doing all the work", Jeff said, "It depends on the crowd if you're going to be successful or not".

The idea of involving participants in the development of a new advisory process arose. Jeff and I agreed it would be beneficial to understand what we can do to help participants get where they need to go. He would like to see participants come up with some kind of system to hold themselves accountable instead of the facilitators. Jeff expressed interest in the idea of a buddy-system, where peers would help each other out, perhaps term to term, and provide a support system. He believes that peers would have an easier time talking to each other about their issues or ideas than they would to a facilitator, especially about attendance issues.

I wanted to talk a bit about how Jeff incorporates an alternative flare in his teaching, and he told me one really good specific example of what he does that is alternative and that's with his environmental science class. The book, he tells me, was made in Newfoundland and is very outdated. He's actually had to create a new curriculum that's up-to-date based on his knowledge. He also allows more time for tests, he's flexible on extending deadlines, lenient on test dates, and allows people to work at their levels. I asked Jeff what he thought the difference was between him and a "regular" high school teacher, and he said he's more easy going and he doesn't mind talking about things outside education, such as what participants did on the weekend and what kinds of things they like. He likes writing notes on the board because he can condense it down and make it in point form and he can be assured that people are getting exactly what they need. He feels his style his similar to that of a university professor. Jeff feels as if he does his best to accommodate peoples learning styles and he is open to suggestions to what may improve his teaching. He says he needs to stay in the realm of legitimacy (you get the requirements to go to post-secondary).

I am very excited about this interview. Jeff invited me to get together again to talk about the historical background of the Murphy Centre. I am going to take this on in the near future. I think we could discuss things that have already been done and assess the outcome of them. We can see if we could try some again or if we could revise some and try them with different methods. This is something I look forward to in the future and I'm sure it'll be a really informative thing to do. Experimenting with ideas is definitely the only way to figure out what works and what does not.