8/12: 2017 Inquiry Overview

2017 Inquiry Overview

8th December 2017

As the year draws to an end it is time for me to share the findings of my 2017 inquiry. This year's inquiry was based around creating independent learners within my Level 2 class. I noticed early on that as a whole the group was quite dependent.  More information explaining the start to my inquiry process can be found here. A further post outlining the progress I had made can be found here.

What progress did I make?
I really struggled to find my way and start my inquiry. I was unsure where to start. Soon after I realised I was struggling to start was because I was unsure what an independent learner looks, sounds and feels like, therefore unsure what I needed to change in my practise. After starting to look into techniques I realised a lot of things I had been already doing in class were forms of strategy, for example the use of rewards and punishment for motivation. However, these weren't proving very successful.

From here I ensured to use student voice more. This was done through collating student voice via Google Forms on my teaching style and the learning activities I was using. This was to let them show preference of how they like to learn, what they like and what they want to change. From here when we were completing activities I was able to link these back to the feedback and why I was doing something in a certain way. This proved to be slightly effective but it also helped students to realise they didn't actually know how they like to learn. I started to reiterate why we were doing certain tasks. Students said they found more purpose in the activities when they understood why we were doing it. However, I soon learnt that this also meant that only if it related to the assessment that they would find it important.

Example of student results from Google Form

 I also introduced the use of Google Classroom. This allowed students to find all resources and notifications in the one place and receive email notifications about them as well. This meant students were able to spend more time completing their work rather than creating copies etc. Upon reflecting on this yes it made it easier for both myself and the students - yet it did not help create independent learners.

Another strategy I trailed was the Release of Learning. I completed this process when preparing students for their 2.7 assessment. This was completed as follows:
Part 1 - break down of assessment with teacher, what certain words mean, what are the questions asking us to do, what sentence starters could we use, example answers. Students can use this information to answer questions and complete PMIs
Part 2 - Students working with a partner to brainstorm answers to questions & PMIs
Part 3 - Students completing the questions and PMIs individually
Part 4 - Students are able to complete the assessment
I found this strategy one of the most effective. By starting with breaking down what questions are asking and what answers look like and slowly building independence students were able to see more clearly what was expected of them. I believe that this strategy and the authentic learning environment of snow camp helped to create the high grades achieved by the students.

The checklist strategy was starting to become effective but too late in the year. Only got the the point where I was creating checklists for them to ensure they had completed with assessments and learning tasks, not co-constructing or them creating their own.

Certain strategies I trialled I felt weren't successful as I brought them in too late in the year, such as  as ask 3 before me and checklists. I was trying to get students into these habits in Term Three. I feel like if I had brought them in earlier on in the year and set them up as a part of the classroom culture and expectations that they would have been more successful.


So what did I learn throughout my inquiry?

As my inquiry tracked along I found that I was already using a lot of strategies in the class that I was unaware of. In short some worked and others didn't. I learnt that by instilling these strategies as expectations and making sure they were very clear and consistent helped to create greater success. This is something I know I personally need to work on.
I believe overall it would have been more effective using these strategies from the start of the year and building them into the culture of the class as a expectations. I believe that it was harder trying to start half way through the year when students already had set ideas of these expectations.

Where to from here?

I really enjoyed this inquiry and felt a sense of achievement seeing it start to pay off in the classroom. Because of that I am going to ensure that I continue this inquiry next year with my IGCSE class. By learning from past mistakes and starting right from the first class I am hoping that the results will be more effective.

9/11: Reflection on 2017 - Level 2

Reflection on 2017 - Level 2

9th November 2017

Now that the seniors have gone it's time to reflect back on the year that has been, in particular what went well and what needs to be improved. Teachers of Level 2 have already sat down to analyse our results and data from 2017 by standard. This is more of a personal reflection of 2017 with my Level 2 students. I will start by doing my own personal review of each standard before adding any other comments.

2.4 - Perform a physical activity in an applied setting

What went well? Why?

• Nice way to start the year – great way to build class relationships

• Video from Sport Waitakere with explanation of rules was a nice, simple way to allow students to learn the rules – could have put the link to this on Schoolbox so students had access to this

• Broke down assessment criteria of what A, M & E looks like

• By completing this standard first students also got the idea that their year of Physical Education would be more practical

• Although I broke down criteria with the students I didn’t go in enough depth for Ki-O-Rahi specifically – could have done this and got students to self-assess themselves against this criteria before starting to help increase knowledge of game play. Students may then be able to create links to other invasion games they have played before and identify how they can transfer their skills

• Could have gone into more depth around the traditions of the game to help increase understanding

• Students were either on par with their self assessment marking or marking generously. I could have got students to assess themselves more often and had more detailed checkpoints in which I could have provided students with feedback and where I currently see them to help with the disparity and help to improve grades

• Anatomy displayed the greatest depth of knowledge across all students and this reflected through to the assessment – students think creating videos around each joint helped with this

• Identified priority learners, sought support from Housemasters, mentors & parents/guardians. However this quite close to the due date of the assessment as I was struggling to differentiate who was being lazy and leaving it to the last minute and who was struggling with content and needed extra support

• Plenty of teaching time available - planning and time management of lessons = great

• Used a variety of teaching methods e.g. group work, collaboration, expert groups, practicals, worksheets, note taking, practise paragraphs, breaking down of paragraph structure. This was to see what students responded to best and to try and suit the needs of my learners and their individual learning styles in which they identified at the start of the year

• Assessment needs to be changed – quite repetitive even though it just serves as a reminder

• Could have actually introduced a mini performance improvement practical section to help create an authentic learning environment and allow deeper understanding of skill acquisition

• Some students really struggled with this being the first written assessment. It also has the most content knowledge – especially if new to PE. This could be changed by possibly moving it later on in the year. Also hoping to see a difference in 2018's L2s as they will be the first to have completed the new Junior PE programme which prepares them for success at senior level

• Had already identified priority learners and those who need extra motivation in first written assessment so knew who I had to keep an eye on

• The use of checkpoints and due dates throughout the assessment worked well. It was easy to identify those struggling or behind and put strategies in place to ensure they met these e.g. missed deadline could result in no practical lesson when planned, spending time doing their work during lunch or after school, DTs etc.

• The use of checkpoints and having already identified priority learners meant that I was easily able to create a network of support around students earlier by involving parents & Housemasters

• Used results from student voice at the end of 2.2, especially in regards to learning activities and teaching styles and ensured to use the preferred learning styles across this assessment

• Although I had a set plan of how the unit may look I was able to be flexible and adapt so the programme could best suit the needs of my students e.g. more teacher led training sessions with group evaluations compared to student training sessions or moving practicals out of period 5 since there wasn't enough time to complete an adequate training session

• In regards to the training programme I ensured to complete a teacher led training programme as an example. We then broke this down and evaluated it as a class. Students could then also draw links and relevance to assessment task evaluation. I also used the teacher led training programmes to help create variety and complete different forms of training that I would not expect students to choose for themselves

• My planning in regards to session layout could have been completed better e.g. not having student training sessions in period 5 where it is a short period. However, realised this throughout the programme and was able to adapt this as I went

• Some students struggled with definitions of certain principles. I wonder if I could have created a more interesting & effective way of getting this information across. Also independent students made note of these as we went through these in class and others did not

• Students loved the authentic learning environment of snow camp. This reflected through to the specific examples students were able to provide throughout their assessment, resulting in our best results out of all the written standards

• A lot of the lessons allowed students to learn practically resulting in higher levels of understanding of content

• I could tell I had a great understanding of the content along with the students. I felt like my questioning had improved greatly and I was able to get students thinking about different aspects and guide them to certain points through the use of my questioning. This was also particular and relevant when one of the students was injured and unable to attend camp and instead wrote about a previous experience. She still gained an Excellence as she sought the extra help to ensure her level of understanding was correct

• In some ways the amount of time allocated for the learning based around 2.7 was too long. Some students were feeling bored especially in regards to content and terminology. When reflecting on my own lessons some started to get repetitive as I tried to use different contexts to get the same points across. I could have sought help in how I could have created more variation

• There was talk of doing a mini run through of the assessment by doing a practical activity off site such as rock climbing. This was unable to happen but sounds like a cool idea

• Students had the choice of 5 topics. If they wanted to do another topic out of these 5 they could have indicated their interest and had this approved

• Broke down assessment criteria especially what was needed for A, M & E when introducing them to the standard

• In lessons where students were working independently on there assessment I had a couple of lessons in which I was able to go around the class and talk individually to each and every single student as to how they were progressing in there assessment. This included giving students the chance to ask questions, for mer to read some of their work and give feedback, as well as also asking them questions to help lead them to further points they could include. I found that this was the most effective form of help for the students

• Students struggled with motivation being the end of term 3 - unsure if there is anything extra I could have done to help encourage students/make lessons more interesting

• Felt put off that there wasn’t a big teaching & learning process unlike past assessments so felt like they were thrown in the deep end & was there first socio-cultural assessment asking them to think critically (didn’t help I was out for a week on tournament week)

• First time for me teaching a critical thinking assessment so I think my questioning process could have been better

• I made the decision to start the year with a week of ABL activities. I noticed in the first class that I met them that they were very awkward and there was a large segregation between boys and girls as well as old vs new students.  I made this decision to get the class to work together before them completing their first assessment and feel like it was the right one

• Used student voice multiple times with this class especially in regards to learning activities and my teaching style. I always made sure to respond to this student feedback - whether this was summarising the results to the class, explaining the reason behind activities in relation to results etc. 

• I feel I could have potentially shared some more information about myself with my students to quick start some of the relationship building. I feel like the reason I may not have done this as well is because I had already taught half of the students

• I feel like a lot of my lesson's could have been differentiated more e.g. different forms of the same activity for different levels of understanding. Most of my lessons were aimed towards the mid to low end of the class which could have resulted in some boredom in the class

• I think I should have taught students some more in regards to giving feedback and constructive criticism. Their feedback wasn't always specific or useful when collecting student voice. E.g. they would infer something needed to change but not state what could have been done differently

• I'm not sure that the use of the different google folders for students is the most effective form of note taking, although it is nice easy access to be able to see student work. Could possibly look into this and try an alternative method next year?

• I think I need to be more effective and efficient to regards to standards. Sometimes I set my high standards and students make me feel like they are too high and too hard to be met so I can find myself lowering them

• I didn't always break down the standard with students at the being of the assessment. This sometimes resulted in students being unsure of the importance of certain aspects to then click when they see the standard. However, sometimes the risk in doing this is teaching to the assessment

What could have been improved? Why?

2.2 - Demonstrate understanding of how and why biophysical principles relate to the learning of physical skills

What went well? Why?

What could have been improved? Why?

2.3 - Demonstrate understanding of the application of biophysical principles to training for physical activity

What went well? Why?

What could have been improved? Why?

2.7 - Analyse the application of risk management strategies to a challenging outdoor activity

What went well? Why?

What could have been improved? Why?

2.5 - Examine the significance for self, others and society of a sporting event, a physical activity, or a festival

What went well? Why?

What could have been improved? Why?

Other comments

What went well? Why?

What could have been improved? Why?

19/7: Reflection - National PENZ Conference - Past, Present, Future

Reflection: National PENZ Conference - Past, Present, Future

19th July

From 10th - 12th July I was down at Papamoa College attending the National PENZ conference. The conference is made from a wide range of educators, from Primary to Tertiary, along with other external providers from the 3 key organisations of Physical Education New Zealand, Education Outdoors New Zealand & Health Education Association New Zealand. This year's theme was around celebrating the past, understanding the present and looking forward into the future. 

Across the 3 days I was able to attend a variety of sessions, present my own session with Georgia & continue creating many new connections. Like last year, I had many great takeways from conference and hope to share some of my highlights.

The conference started off with 3 key note speakers - Professor Ian Culpan to represent the past, Cameron Smith to represent the present & Helen Tuhoro to represent the future. These 3 speakers were a great way of captivating the theme right from the start of conference and are my first highlight. 

Ian is one of the creators of our current New Zealand Curriculum document. He emphasized he would be to trying to address the influences of what is happening in our learning area. This started with the idea of HPE being the hostage of politics, ideologies and cultural concepts through key themes of controlling and discipling the human body and normalisation of behaviour. However, he wanted to remind us that HPE is a learning area based around humanism and the development of people. Throughout his Keynote Ian got us thinking about how we ensure we challenge these 'norms' we are faced with everyday.

Cameron's key theme was putting the emphasis in the value of Physical Education not physical outcomes. He got me to reflect on what the role of a Physical Education teacher is, ensuring that we are putting the learning and sociocultural thought at the forefront of our subject and whether we are doing enough in our junior curriculum to cultivate critical thinking. He also gave fun practical examples of how our students could learn, in, through and about movement rather than through theories in a classroom. One example was how Deb Robertson is trying to get away from formal standardized assessments, so is instead getting her students to reflect throughout the units.

Helen finished off by inspiring us all through Tarawera's journey. Helen spoke about the importance of relationships and giving students hope. To do so at Tarawera three things needed to change; the people, the environment & the curriculum. This involved the creation of the MANA (Manakitanga, Ako, Ngāku-pono & Āwhina) acronym and asking the questions of what are we here for, what do we want from them and how are we going to do it? Key points that I am going to take away is ensuring that my students see the point in every learning activity and where it is taking them in the bigger picture. Key quotes I am also going to take into my practice include:

• "Great teachers engineer great learning that put the students in the driver's seat"
• "The first step to raising achievement is by raising engagement"
• "If it is not tough and doesn't challenge you it won't change you"

Tracey Clelland along with Rachael Dixon & Jenny Robertson's presentations also stood out to me. I decided to go to these as I am currently trying to rewrite the Year 9 Health programme. Tracey's presentation was around building resilience. She gave us some activities that we can take into our classes to get students to truly think about who they are through using 'the power of vulnerability' and how we can put the '5 Ways to Wellbeing' in action not only within our classes but our own communities. Rachael & Jenny's was around teaching and learning activity ideas around the topic of Alcohol & Drugs. This 90 minute session gave us ideas on what we may want in the unit and activities that can allow us to challenge our students thinking. These activities included; continuums, scenarios, identifying influences & PIPS. Look out for a future blog post to see how my unit planning is going and how I have used these ideas. 

Another highlight was Sara Hayward's 'Engaging the disengaged' presentation. This session stood out to me as it closely links through to my inquiry for the year of how to create independent learners.  Sara's improvements were made over 3 years with the same cohort. These findings were inspiring and being able to talk to others in the session helped me to brainstorm new ideas. Not only was I able to pick up on some new ideas, but it also allowed me to acknowledge that I have been on the right track in what I have currently been doing and that maybe all I need is extra time. Keep an eye out for a future blog post on specifics that I took from Sara's presentation and how it has helped my 2017 inquiry. 

Other highlights included Lesley Park & Alison Schofields presentation on troubles with marking and moderation surrounding Level 2, Mike King's closing Keynote and presenting my first ever PENZ presentation with Georgia on our BT Journey and the part Twitter has played (see her post on this here). Georgia and I also won a prize for our costume (pictured below) and of course we were both humbled when we were awarded with the PENZ award of Outstanding New Professionals!

Overall it was another successful conference in which I am walking away with new ideas and inspiration, new connections and having finally met other educators that I have been previously connecting with!

22/5: Reflection - 12 PED Lesson Observation & 2017 Inquiry

Reflection: 12 PED Lesson Observation & 2017 Inquiry

22nd May 2017

Today I met with Melissa to review the lesson that she observed on the 16th of May. She observed me teaching my Level 2 class with the purpose of giving me some sort of starting point for my 2017 Inquiry. The lesson observation can be found here.

So for my inquiry this year I have decided to focus on my Level 2 class and how to create independent learners. One problem, I have been stalling and have been unsure about where to start. I thought that Melissa's observation would be a great start to identify strategies I am already using in class and to make any suggestions of what to try or what I can change within my classroom and my own practice.

Melissa identified that I already have some great strategies in place such as making my students working for the answer and finding it out for themselves, rather than telling them. This was something I had not even considered before!

A couple of days after my observation I had my regular meeting with Alex. We spent this time focussing on my inquiry for the year. She helped me to realize the reason why I was stalling and struggling to start was because I was unsure myself what I was hoping to get out of my students. I knew I wanted them to be more independent but was unsure what an independent student might look like.

So where to from here?

Obviously before I can start applying strategies to my students to help create independent learners I need to figure out what an independent learner might look like, sound like & feel like. I will start with a spiral inquiry researching this. This could be through readings and also talking to other teachers about independent learning and observing their strategies in action.

After reading into what an independent learner is, I will research strategies to see what I may already be using and what other strategies I can try applying. I will aim to find 2-3 new strategies to apply within Term 3. 

8/3: Lesson Reflection on Class Feedback

Lesson Reflection on Class Feedback

8th March 2016

4/8: Reading Reflection - High Impact Leadership by John Hattie

High Impact Leadership by John Hattie

4th August 2016

Key points taken form the reading:

• Two types of school leaders - instructional & transformational leadership
• transformational leadership focus on teachers e.g. setting visions and creating goals
• instructional leadership focus on the students e.g. concerned with the impact that teachers and the school are having on the students learning

(Key points describing attributes of high-impact instructional learners)

• high impact leaders are able to create a space were everyone successfully learns and where learning is welcomed rather than tolerated
• both teachers and students being able to look at errors as an opportunity for learning 
• visible learning so students clearly understand what they are learning and the progression e.g. learning intentions and success criteria known and seen so students are able to understand the purpose of their learning and are able to monitor their progress
• as students move towards student-centered learning they are able to discuss about what they are learning in classes, not what they are doing

My copy of the reading with highlighted notes and points can be found: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8SyJqn0M1mhaG9zSmxxWVU0bUE

Even after reading this and recognising that instructional leadership aims to focus on student-centered learning I failed to reflect this in class today. In my girls PE class instead of allowing students the opportunity to sort themselves out into even teams, with a range of abilities before their netball assessment today, I took charge. I went through the assessment papers (which the girls had graded themselves) and read out their names to put them in teams. To make sure the girls didn't get mixed up I asked them to move out to certain areas. After all names had been read I then asked them to come back in to listen to instructions of getting bibs etc. In short I wasted a lot of time when simple instructions of get into even groups of mixed ability would have ended with a similar result. I could have also given the instruction that once the teams have been sorted to get bibs on and jump onto a court ready to play. 

By giving those simple instructions not only would I have saved time but also presented students with an opportunity to organize themselves and have a choice of who was in their team. 

30/6: Health Reflections Pt 2

Year 11 Boys Health Reflections Pt 2

30th June 2016

After a few more attempts at creating effective Health lessons for my Year 11 boys class I asked for help from Alex.

Alex's Advice:

• Ensure that I am at the class before all students arrive. This then allows the 5 minute bell for me to write an outline of the learning activities, instructions and discussion questions up on the board before the students arrive
• As the second bell goes in which class is meant to start address the students with an instruction before they enter the class
• Make sure to spend time developing relationships with the kids e.g. greet every individual student as they enter the class, double check on instructions for those who might need clarification, little reminders such as phones away etc
• Don't use Health as a time to work on PE booklets - crossing between subjects can be confusing
• OVER PLAN - plan 4-5 different activities that only are about 5-10 minutes each. Can be structured; individual activity (3-4 mins), peer activity, group activity, class activity. By spending a short amount of time on each activity it stops students from getting bored

After a few lessons of following this procedure, especially the over planning, I have found them to be effective. Below are a few notes reflecting on the points above:

• I have found that due to having PE classes beforehand that I am not always able to make it up to the Health class before the 5 minute bell. This means that my notes aren't always up before the class arrives and I make sure to write these up while students are completing the first activity
• I have still been starting Health lessons with students completing their PE logs. They know that this is their 'Do Now' activity as soon as they enter the classroom and have become familiar with this routine. Students know this is always their first task in which they are able to listen to music etc. I make sure to use this time to chat to students about their work and finish writing up the lesson outline
• As student don't always arrive to class at the same time I allow students to enter when they get to the class. I make sure to acknowledge them and greet them as they enter
• I have found that planning lots of smaller activities have helped them to keep focussed and on task for longer

7/6: Health Reflection

Health Reflection - Year 11 Boys
7th June

After several different health classes with some of my Year 11 boys I am still trying to trial strategies to see how they best learn. To date I have mainly trialed group work and class discussion.

I first trialed group work as this is generally my first strategy when teaching health. I trialed this over 2 lessons while trying to recap the boys knowledge of Hauora (Lesson #1 LI: to recap students prior knowledge of Hauora & Lesson #2 LI: students are to reflect on what they believe health education is and start to learn how to challenge assumptions) - aspects of the first lesson flowed through to the second. Key finding from group work; boys of task majority of the time - although they were talking they were off topic, when they would share their groups answers they would share ideas just to get laughs out of other students, work took twice as long to complete - hence work from first lesson flowing through to second (this was also due to the introduction of reflective logs from PE as a do now & students being late to class).

After what felt like a couple of failed lessons Alex Smith came in and ran a health lesson with the boys. The lesson was composed of a continuum regarding the age of consent, a article in regards to lowering the age of consent and then revisiting the continuum. They were all based around class discussion. Overall the lesson ran really well. The boys were engaged with the lesson. I took some tips from Alex regarding classroom management e.g. reading of an article and then screens down, bringing up the idea of respect and listening to each other when sharing ideas.

The next lesson was also based on class discussion about consent. This started with a scenario and then class discussion was lead through a series of discussion questions. Although the class was a bit immature at times they were engaged and majority of the class was participating within discussions.

After continuing with the topic of consent with key focuses on legalities and local stories (as asked by the boys in our previous lesson) in the form of class discussions (which have been the most effective and engaging form of delivery so far) today's class was disruptive and unsettled. After leaving the class, especially with the last few lessons going so well, I tried to reflect on where I had gone wrong.  

*After hearing Alex talk to her student teacher, about where his lesson went wrong he blamed the students for their behaviour. She explained if the lesson didn't go well and the kids are misbehaving you need to look at why this is the case. The idea really stuck with me that if the lesson went wrong it isn't the students fault - instead there is something that you could have done to change the class dynamics

Reflection on where I may have gone wrong in that lesson:

• even though boys had asked to learn about this content they were disengaged from the lesson and activities - maybe topic of consent had gone on for too long
• class discussions may be becoming boring/irrelevant for some students e.g. they aren't having much input
• boys who are adding to the discussion are just calling out their answers which makes the conversation/discussion harder to continue - students to put hands up
• some students are starting their own personal discussions when a class discussion is in progress - if class was quiet and hands were going up to add to the discussion this may minimize this, also if it continues split up groups that are talking

Strategies for the future:

• more visual queues/outlines for boys to see on the board
• reinforcing respect - only one person talking at a time, hands up to add input, split students who are talking
• "Are you aware you are being rude right now?"
• World Kaf (to possibly help with group work) - write up on the board person's number and what they need to talk about e.g. discussion topic or question (for number of people within the group). Time limit per person (visual timer on board?).  They are only allowed to talk within time limit. If they haven't finished getting across their point they stop talking. If they don't have enough to say to fill up their time limit they sit quietly as a group

Possible PTC Evidence

Mallory Bish Practicing Teacher Criteria: Possible Evidence

PTC	Evidence:
Criterion #1: establish and maintain effective professional relationships focused on the learning and well-being of ākonga	-Leading rec swimming group -Attending all assemblies and meetings, keeping accurate attendance records and following up concerns with relevant people -Professional relationships with staff from different areas within the school e.g. Taylor Housemaster & Mentor teachers, Jim & Marcel for swimming, PE department, inquiry group, new staff catch ups, provisional staff meetings, attending staff events
Criterion #2: demonstrate commitment to promote the well-being of all ākonga	-Leading mentor group -Providing safe classroom environments
Criterion #3: demonstrate commitment to bicultural partnership in Aotearoa New Zealand	-Cultural sensitivity within classrooms -Help students to create cultural groups? -Incorporate te reo in class
Criterion #4: demonstrate commitment to ongoing professional learning and development of professional practice	-Meetings with Alex, department -PD/ inquiry group -Reflections
Criterion #5: show leadership that contributes to effective teaching and learning
Criterion #6: conceptulise, plan and implement an appropriate learning programme	-Unit plans/lesson outlines -Lesson plans -Working on questioning (questioning blog) -Learning intentions at the start of each lesson – what did they learn blog
Criterion #7: promote a collaborative inclusive and supportive learning environment	-Management strategies to engage and motivate students
Criterion #8: demonstrate in practice their knowledge and understanding of how ākonga learn	-Students can create links between prior and current learning
Criterion #9: respond effectively to the diverse language and cultural experiences, and the needs of individuals and groups of ākonga
Criterion #10: work effectively within the bicultural context of Aotearoa New Zealand
Criterion #11: analyse and appropriately use information which has been gathered formally and informally	-Year 9 unit -Year 11 unit
Criterion #12: use critical inquiry and problem-solving effectively in their professional practice	-Inquiry readings and reflections -Observations from Alex