On Tuesday I accompanied my year 7 house on a trip, intended to welcome the new starters to The Academy and to perform in some team bonding exercises.
I only teach my year 7 group for one single period a week (50 mins) so felt I haven't bulit up that great a connection with them over the past 3 weeks. This certainly changed matters when we got out on the lake and in our raft's!
It was lovely getting to know the students in a bit more depth and to share a laugh with them outside of the classroom. It was also pleasant to see many of them working as a team and learning key skills which will be valubale to them in years to come, both in school and out.
Thursday, 29 September 2011
Those (lovely) Year 8's
After loving some of the ideas Sue Cowley discussed in our training day last week, I was feeling quite positive about dealing with a few of the Students. Firtsly, I think going in with a positive attitude as opposed to thinking 'Oh god here we go and again' has certainly improved my relationship with a few students in the class.
I also focused much more on the positive aspects the students were displaying as opposed to the negative ones. I asked the more challenging students to give books out, collect things in and be "in charge" of stationary etc. I only had to say once that this priviledge would be removed should they behave inapproriately. This in turn made them visibly more engaging in the lesson and there were no notable behaviour isssues.
Very pleased with this. I will certainly look to get those raffle tickets for next week as I think quite a few in that class would warm to the idea.
I also focused much more on the positive aspects the students were displaying as opposed to the negative ones. I asked the more challenging students to give books out, collect things in and be "in charge" of stationary etc. I only had to say once that this priviledge would be removed should they behave inapproriately. This in turn made them visibly more engaging in the lesson and there were no notable behaviour isssues.
Very pleased with this. I will certainly look to get those raffle tickets for next week as I think quite a few in that class would warm to the idea.
Tuesday, 20 September 2011
Sue Cowley's Positive Behaviour management course
Not long home from the course and I can certainly say that the course was really worthwhile, I was sat amongst a few of the other Slough Partnership GTPers and all seemed to take a great deal from what was said.
Sue was so helpful and insightful, I am already itching to try a variety of techniques and tips she shared. I feel a lot of technques described will be really benefitial amongst particularly my key stage 3 classes, gutted I don't have any of them again until next Monday, I guess this gives me time to go out and buy my raffle ticket books and big pink fluffy pens!
I am already going through names in my head of particular students in year 8 of whom I will give an individual assessment too, to attempt to bring out the best of them. I will start with the year 8 class as I taught them all last year so am very familiar with them. I have one particular young man in mind who is always on the wrong side of problematic. I referred to that particular class in one of my blogs last week. After putting them in a seating plan this week most where well behaved with the exception of him and he was sat beside me!?! Possibly I could try avoiding his outbursts like she mentioned but this would lead to him being highly unproductive (as he was on Monday.) Maybe giving him some responsibility will work...let's see next week!
One of the other main things I took from the day was how to alter your teaching styles after lunch. I can honestly say, as I'm sure Aaron can too, that after a big lunch I wasn't feeling highly productive nor overly motivated. Introducing some hands on approaches is probably what is needed to re-engage students after switching off at lunch time. Something I will definitely bear in mind, particularly that year 8 class straight after lunch on Monday.
Sue was so helpful and insightful, I am already itching to try a variety of techniques and tips she shared. I feel a lot of technques described will be really benefitial amongst particularly my key stage 3 classes, gutted I don't have any of them again until next Monday, I guess this gives me time to go out and buy my raffle ticket books and big pink fluffy pens!
I am already going through names in my head of particular students in year 8 of whom I will give an individual assessment too, to attempt to bring out the best of them. I will start with the year 8 class as I taught them all last year so am very familiar with them. I have one particular young man in mind who is always on the wrong side of problematic. I referred to that particular class in one of my blogs last week. After putting them in a seating plan this week most where well behaved with the exception of him and he was sat beside me!?! Possibly I could try avoiding his outbursts like she mentioned but this would lead to him being highly unproductive (as he was on Monday.) Maybe giving him some responsibility will work...let's see next week!
One of the other main things I took from the day was how to alter your teaching styles after lunch. I can honestly say, as I'm sure Aaron can too, that after a big lunch I wasn't feeling highly productive nor overly motivated. Introducing some hands on approaches is probably what is needed to re-engage students after switching off at lunch time. Something I will definitely bear in mind, particularly that year 8 class straight after lunch on Monday.
Thursday, 15 September 2011
Back to normal, my week so far.
As I am relatively free now I thought I would blog a few things.
Monday saw the return of the full school. After introducing my tutor group back first thing and dealing with all the issues, planners, uniform etc. I had time to think ahead to lessons I was going to teach after lunch and meet up with my mentor. It was re-assuring to get some support and guidance and be given a bit of time to feel at ease with some of the classes before being critiqued and possibly knocking my confidence a bit?!
I took a year 8 class after lunch. I taught them last year so know them all very well, they certainly hadn't made any improvements in terms of behaviour.
I took the following points from the lesson. Good: Got my expectations of them out they way and had a good discussion about this. Secondly the class were very interactive once they had settled.
Bad: I hadn't created a seating plan so it took a long time for them to settle and certain individuals clearly are just incapable of working together. (I knew this before but thought the Summer break may have seen a change.) The pace of the lesson was quite slow, this relates back to behavioural issues I guess.
I also had another issue which I personally felt I didn't deal with as well as I could. If anyone has or does have a similar problem and finds a good resolution, please do share!... Any way I had given out sheets amongst the class and asked students to pick for themselves whether they wanted the higher or lower ability ones. Most students were fine with this and the majority wanted to challenge themselves. However, what arose was that one girl asked someone to pass her the higher ability sheets, what subsequently happened was that people around her allegedly said she wasn't clever enough (or in her words she was too stupid.) This resulted in her insisting she was stupid, that her peers thought she was and that I probably did too. I attempted to reassure her several times that this wasn't the case and that she should ignore others and do what work she felt best suited to. Everything I tried didn't work so in the end I just had her sit beside me whilst she continued to sulk and be unproductive (teenagers aye.) I have since looked further into her baseline expected grades and she has the highest in the class. Weird.
I have since made a proper seating plan and placed students with those I know they should be able to work with and amongst varying abilities so they can support one another, fingers crossed this should change the dynamics of the group.
After that I taught a year 7 class who were lovely, polite, respectful and so on. A joy in comparsion.
I have spent the remainder of the week teaching mostly year 9's. Most of them were little terrors last year. But, they have come back with a really refreshing and can do attitude. (There must be something about year 8's!) I had made seating plans for both the classes, bearing in mind my dealings with them last year, however, they begged and begged to sit where they want. I caved in and told them they would be moved for the slightest breach in expectations.
In the classes I have had with them they have been raising their hands, not speaking over me, asking for extension work etc. I even set them homework in their first lesson to see who wouldn't do it. To my amazement one class (23 students) all brought it in, some even tried giving it to me in the corridor way beforehand! The other class, again roughly the same size, all brought it in bar two. So far they have really impressed me, long may it continue.
That's about 4 days of blogging in one, sorry about the essay guys!
Monday saw the return of the full school. After introducing my tutor group back first thing and dealing with all the issues, planners, uniform etc. I had time to think ahead to lessons I was going to teach after lunch and meet up with my mentor. It was re-assuring to get some support and guidance and be given a bit of time to feel at ease with some of the classes before being critiqued and possibly knocking my confidence a bit?!
I took a year 8 class after lunch. I taught them last year so know them all very well, they certainly hadn't made any improvements in terms of behaviour.
I took the following points from the lesson. Good: Got my expectations of them out they way and had a good discussion about this. Secondly the class were very interactive once they had settled.
Bad: I hadn't created a seating plan so it took a long time for them to settle and certain individuals clearly are just incapable of working together. (I knew this before but thought the Summer break may have seen a change.) The pace of the lesson was quite slow, this relates back to behavioural issues I guess.
I also had another issue which I personally felt I didn't deal with as well as I could. If anyone has or does have a similar problem and finds a good resolution, please do share!... Any way I had given out sheets amongst the class and asked students to pick for themselves whether they wanted the higher or lower ability ones. Most students were fine with this and the majority wanted to challenge themselves. However, what arose was that one girl asked someone to pass her the higher ability sheets, what subsequently happened was that people around her allegedly said she wasn't clever enough (or in her words she was too stupid.) This resulted in her insisting she was stupid, that her peers thought she was and that I probably did too. I attempted to reassure her several times that this wasn't the case and that she should ignore others and do what work she felt best suited to. Everything I tried didn't work so in the end I just had her sit beside me whilst she continued to sulk and be unproductive (teenagers aye.) I have since looked further into her baseline expected grades and she has the highest in the class. Weird.
I have since made a proper seating plan and placed students with those I know they should be able to work with and amongst varying abilities so they can support one another, fingers crossed this should change the dynamics of the group.
After that I taught a year 7 class who were lovely, polite, respectful and so on. A joy in comparsion.
I have spent the remainder of the week teaching mostly year 9's. Most of them were little terrors last year. But, they have come back with a really refreshing and can do attitude. (There must be something about year 8's!) I had made seating plans for both the classes, bearing in mind my dealings with them last year, however, they begged and begged to sit where they want. I caved in and told them they would be moved for the slightest breach in expectations.
In the classes I have had with them they have been raising their hands, not speaking over me, asking for extension work etc. I even set them homework in their first lesson to see who wouldn't do it. To my amazement one class (23 students) all brought it in, some even tried giving it to me in the corridor way beforehand! The other class, again roughly the same size, all brought it in bar two. So far they have really impressed me, long may it continue.
That's about 4 days of blogging in one, sorry about the essay guys!
Sunday, 11 September 2011
First week back at School...
Well the first three days consisted of INSET training. It was all the usual stuff like SEND, behaviour management, EAL etc. I have touched on all before during on site training but it is always nice to have someone come in externally and put a new perspective on things. During these three days we had plenty of time to meet with our faculties and get some planing done, luckily my classrooms had been set up so I had liitle to do in that respect!
On the pastoral side I am sharing the same House Tutor group with another member of staff, whom I had last year. The Langley Academy employ a vertical tutor system so I was introduced to five new year 7 members of our group. All were very polite and quiet...I wonder how long that will last for once they have met the older members!?
During Thursday and Friday only the new cohort of years 7 and 12 were present, so the building was a little quieter then normal. It was evident how crucial it was to get these new children to feel part of The Academy community. Various team challenges were set up amongst the different houses to instill an inter house rivalry and also to get them familiar to their new surroundings. All the year 7's looked shattered by the end of Friday but it seemed they had really enjoyed themselves.
As one half of a house tutor team I was quite busy with my new tutees on Thursday and Friday, I was wondering when I was going to get enough free time to do some planninge etc (I guess that's what weekends are for now!)
Any way tomorrow I have to welcome back the remainder of the students and spend the morning session doing various admin things with them. After break I intend to begin my various observations and that leaves the afternoon to teach a year 8 then 7 class.
I have made a Prezi presentation (like Zelda showed us) for all my Year 7 classes. This should take up at least half of the lesson to drill into them what my expectations of them are, like Aaron mentioned in another blog. I have also left a section blank for them to discuss what rules they believe they should have and what they expect from me. (I did read about doing that from one of the pocketbook handouts we were given.)
Right, It's probably time to do some seating plans, lesson planning etc.
I hope you all enjoy your week.
On the pastoral side I am sharing the same House Tutor group with another member of staff, whom I had last year. The Langley Academy employ a vertical tutor system so I was introduced to five new year 7 members of our group. All were very polite and quiet...I wonder how long that will last for once they have met the older members!?
During Thursday and Friday only the new cohort of years 7 and 12 were present, so the building was a little quieter then normal. It was evident how crucial it was to get these new children to feel part of The Academy community. Various team challenges were set up amongst the different houses to instill an inter house rivalry and also to get them familiar to their new surroundings. All the year 7's looked shattered by the end of Friday but it seemed they had really enjoyed themselves.
As one half of a house tutor team I was quite busy with my new tutees on Thursday and Friday, I was wondering when I was going to get enough free time to do some planninge etc (I guess that's what weekends are for now!)
Any way tomorrow I have to welcome back the remainder of the students and spend the morning session doing various admin things with them. After break I intend to begin my various observations and that leaves the afternoon to teach a year 8 then 7 class.
I have made a Prezi presentation (like Zelda showed us) for all my Year 7 classes. This should take up at least half of the lesson to drill into them what my expectations of them are, like Aaron mentioned in another blog. I have also left a section blank for them to discuss what rules they believe they should have and what they expect from me. (I did read about doing that from one of the pocketbook handouts we were given.)
Right, It's probably time to do some seating plans, lesson planning etc.
I hope you all enjoy your week.
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