My first lesson from hell

It had to happen sooner or later.  A lesson where the behaviour is out of line in a big way.  I've been given a third year class who are a supported set.  There are only twelve but the class divides up into a) super quiet and pretty keen students who have large learning difficulties such as dyslexia and b) super noisy and disruptive pupils, some of whom additionally have learning difficulties (but not all). It was the first time that anyone has said "No" to a request in my class (actually I think the actual word was "Nu'!"). No to turning round, no to taking their bags off the table, no to doing task a instead of (more difficult) task b; no to moving seats, no to leaving the room.  I was called 'pervy' by one pupil for giving them a writing task describing a room in their house (' what do you want to know about my bedroom for?" - even though they had a choice over which room to write about and she chose her bedroom).  Four pupils out of the nine who were there (was it really only four I ask myself?) talked over me, fought with each other, shouted out and paid little attention to anything I said.
There were circumstances that contributed to this crazy lesson:  a last minute room change due to exams (so id didn't have their jotters, have access to the computer to start with, or know where the punishment exercise sheets etc were), a cover teacher in with me they weren't expecting and their usual teacher not there; it was last period on Thursday and it was a windy day.  Two pupils had never met me before (they'd been off the last two lessons) and two had only had me once.  I'd already gone over my rules and expectations twice, so I did it very quickly again for the two who were off, but didn't really talk about sanctions / rewards.  
It was HORRIBLE!! The cover teacher was great and only stepped in twice when I'd told someone to move seat, or leave the room and then he bellowed at them to do as they were told (which they did). But I was fire-fighting the whole lesson. 
It led to some really good conversations about how to manage this kind of class.  First of all, I wasn't too hard on myself.  The cover teacher told me that his heart sank when he saw the class list and that I have 6/10 of the most difficult 3rd years in the one class.  Even their current teacher, who rules with a rod of iron and a shout that brings tears to MY eyes, admitted to me that she's had to have a good cry after lessons with this lot at times. I was glad to hear this, since that's exactly what I did when I got home to my mum who poured me a large glass of port and made the tea for me and the kids that evening, bless her.  
Here's what I plan to do on Monday in preparation:  

1. Introduce rewards - behaviour chart for positives, hard work, participation, insight, creativity etc
2. Go over sanctions:  1. warning  2. move seat (if appropriate) 3. punny - 100 words, upping to 200 if there is any; detention slip; out of class
3. Have punnys and detention slips already filled out, which will be put on their desks if they have to move; have a clear plan where they will work (and what work they'll do) if I send them out of the class
4. Practice my stern voice
5. Remember to speak quietly in the ear of people for things like bags on desks, phones out, etc so its not confrontational
6. GIVE 2 POSITIVE COMMENTS before I use a sanction.  "You listened well, which helped the class hear.  Well done."  "You gave a really good example there.  You helped the class learn there. Well done."
7. Learn a phrase "You talked over me. You disrupted the class. You broke a rule. That's a warning. That's a mark on the sheet."
8. Stock up on the port, just in case! 

From one extreme to the other

Today I took the opportunity to visit a couple of learning environments.  First of all I went at lunchtime to the Eco Committee to see what they got up to.  I'd already met some of them last Saturday when they held a community gardening event to spruce up a bit of overgrown garden.  The morning had been great - bacon rolls and hot drinks to warm us in the pouring rain (or course it rained!!). We weeded, replanted, cleared and re-laid a path.  It was a great opportunity for parents to get involved (and younger brothers and sister).  At the meeting they divided up tasks to do (compost collection; re-designing a form to use less paper; designing a poster to alert people to recycling boxes; and deciding who'd speak to which teachers to ask about their use of the recycling boxes). Some went off to the greenhouses to pot some herbs they are growing to sell at parents evening. These were polite, engaged, studious pupils - mostly seniors, with a few younger ones. And the conversations were even about environmental issues - what the most environmentally friendly school uniform would look like.  
Later that day I spent a period at the support base, helping one of the pupils from my supported set third years.  Total opposite end of the spectrum!!  She'd been excluded from one of her classes so went to the base to do alternative work.  Covered in red pen (which burst in the last period, staining the desk and her hands - hopefully no-one else). The base is a friendly, safe, homely environment and pupils can help themselves to drinks of water.  At the end of the period (last period) they played a game together, a bit like Jenga.  Wow - this overexcited them so much that they were hysterically laughing and unable to calm down - they bounced out of the base when the bell went, only just managing to keep it together while their sheets were signed.  
Great to see the school able to support both types of pupil, and another experience which underlined the huge range of young people at this school. 

Start of placement 3

Here I am again, back in the saddle after 5 weeks of essay writing, folio prep and catching up on sleep, family life and small matters like that. I'm back with the same 1st and 2nd year classes, who seemed pleased to see me again, or at least not actively displeased.  I even got a few YEY's from some of the 1st years. 
I had a wee glimmer of light for my probationer year when I realised that I was no-where near as stressed by being there as I was first time round, and that something did feel decidedly different about going to work there. Familiar faces, catching up a bit with people all helped me to feel a better sense of belonging. The biggest compliment was from one of the teachers (who I'm a bit scared of truth be told, and who rarely gives praise, or any comment on my teaching) who said, 'they seemed fine with you today; they don't really like change, but then you're not change any more'. Nearest thing to a compliment I've had from that teacher!

Feelings in the classroom

I was reflecting today on how much emotions can impact our ability to learn. A past experience where I had been in conflict with my lecturer, and had a bit of a mild 'slap on the wrist' made it impossible for me to concentrate throughout a seminar later that day.  I spent the whole 2 hours replaying the conversation, wondering if she was still angry, wondering if she was avoiding eye contact on purpose and not coming to my group because of what happened.  Really exhausting and stress levels running high throughout.  My recollection of the content of the seminar was patchy to say the least when I reviewed the notes - I simply didn't have the head space to learn and do all that emotional analysis.  


It was good to remember this - gives an insight into what some of the pupils at school may be experiencing.  Some of the pupils in my class have experienced bullying, bereavement of a parent, being a looked after child, or a total recent change of culture and a new language - way more stressful than my mild incident. 

SHOUTING!

Sitting in the English base on a free period I hear for the third time today a teacher outside shouting at a student.  Really shouting angrily, nastily, in their face.  I’ve hear this from two other teachers too and I never want to become like this.  I do occasionally shout – always at home, always at my kids (although when I lived with my mum I did occasionally shout at her and my sister), always in extreme anger, and I always apologise afterwards because it’s never a good strategy to get what I want, more just an outpouring of rage.  Shouting is intimidating, threatening, and in my opinion on the spectrum of violent behaviour. I’ve never shouted at anyone in my previous professional life.  I would HATE someone to do that to me, and if they had I’d probably put in a formal complaint.  So why is it seen as totally acceptable to do this to young people?  Granted, they had usually really stepped out of line, and often been very rude.  But we teachers are supposed to be modelling how to behave. 

Exploring this with my mentor they said that the teachers are using shouting in an unemotional way – that it is all a show and they aren’t actually as angry as they sound.  I was recommended to try it out, to try this out as a kind of ‘personna’ from time to time, because, my mentor said, with some kids it’s the only way they will comply and it’s an effective behaviour management strategy. I am not going to.  It is not ‘me’. But what worries me is that being in a culture where this is seen as completely acceptable that I may start to think this is ok too, that I will lose my perspective and become a shouty teacher and abuse my power. 

I am very taken with Lee Cantor’s positive behaviour management, the use of rewards and clear, progressive sanctions.  I understand that tone of voice can be very effective – as a parent I have found this very effective.  What I like about this is it keeps the relationship with the pupil intact, and means that even after a warning for negative behaviour, there is room for positive rewards in the same lesson, and overall the balance should be more on the positive.  At Jordanhill we have been given a lot of information and support to use this approach to behaviour.  Speaking to another, fairly new teacher (who also studied at Jordanhill) I am encouraged that he has a different opinion, and doesn’t use shouting himself because he’s not found it effective, but finds the positive work much better for him.

I’ve no doubt that in my future career I’ll occasionally feel really angry with the kids I teach.  I will encounter really difficult behaviour and it’ll feel like nothing is working.  I really hope that in those situations I can still treat people how I’d like to be treated.

Technology in schools

Last week's English class was on ICT and we were shown how to use a basic word processor as a way of engaging a class interactively in language analysis. It showed that even with just word available on the projected screen (and no interactive whiteboard) we can still be interactive in teaching English.  We learnt some nifty shortcuts and ways of deconstructing language in a poem, analysing the structure etc through building a poetry wall.  A couple of nice starters in the bag with some very simple technology.  


At the other end of the spectrum are ipads. Islay Academy has given up on interactive whiteboards (which cost £1,000 each) in favour of ipads for every pupil. Its saving them loads on their photocopying budget every year, not to mention the savings on installing smartboards in every class (although I'd like to see their electricity bill with all these devices recharging their batteries off the mains). This opens up a world of possibility, as long as the teachers know how to use the technology.  Two examples: as a researching tool for persuasive essays, discursive essays- each person has what they need in front of them. Collaborative documents are a way of group discussion in a different way, much like instant messaging, meaning that more people can contribute to the discussion than a talk based discussion (where only one person can talk at a time).  The technology can really enable learning.


In my last school the teachers all had interactive whiteboards and only two teachers used them interactively - most were using them are data projectors and projecting word documents. They maintained that the problem was that teachers were not given any training on how to use the technology available.  The ones who were braver at trying out and more intuitively exploring the whiteboards worked out how to use them - but even these were mainly using them as glorified  flip chart with some extra rulers etc. Hope that I take the leap and try and utilise their potential a bit more.  I'll add it to the ever increasing to do list...

Happy Beginnings

This is a happy teacher-to-be. Last minute changes meant that instead of last weeks 50 mile, 2 hour commute, which improved to a 27 mile, 1 1/2 hour commute, changed on Thursday to a 1 mile, 20 minute walk. The school is a mixed large urban non-denominational school.  I did some observation and teaching assistance there in August 2010, so there were some familiar faces and a very warm welcome which I was delighted at. The visit was very short - they heard so late about my arrival that there was no timetable etc, so I'm doing my day visit next week instead. The only down side is that I know a lot of the children there (and am closely related to one first year), which ups the stakes a bit.  Luckily she is not too bothered by my being there. 


Learning this week: lots of learning about assessment, formative and summative. Boy, does it take me ages to mark work - I'm seriously going to have to get faster or I may have to give up sleeping altogether, or invent a time machine. 

Placement headache

Placement two is looming - our day visit is next Friday, which should be something to look forward to.  However, zero placements have been offered to students of English in the East Coast, which means I have been offered a placement school 50 miles away (a 2 hour journey involving a bus, two trains, and a walk). AAAArgh! How is THAT going to work?  As a parent of two school aged kids that's a BIG ask from my partner, who has already shouldered a lot of extra domestic duties during the course of my 'travels in teacher territory'.  
Not sure what I've learned from this. Is this a sign that schools feel overwhelmed, too busy to help a student teacher just before the prelims start? Perhaps the East Coast teacher training college has snaffled all the willing schools up, and have better timing (their students started placement 2 in January). It's a worry that institutions dedicated to learning are not willing to support the learning of their colleagues. 

Blogging dillemmas and questions...

At the first ICT option class last Friday our tutor was talking about the value of blogging as a good way of teasing out thoughts, clarifying opinions and testing ideas within a supportive group of fellow educators who will question and challenge these thoughts, opinions and ideas. As I was writing that first blog entry to share with the rest of the class I immediately felt a little bit vulnerable – my thoughts, opinions, ideas were going to be laid bare for people to comment on, for them to judge. What if I came out with something totally off the wall, or badly thought through?  It would be there in black and white (forever, according to the GTC). 

Later that evening I was with a friend who works in local government, who was saying how careful he has to be about what he writes online. He has had direct experience of vitriolic personal attacks for his actions as a councillor, or for his political views, which are posted after anything he publishes online. Just read the bile that is brought forth on the Scotsman online comments (who take the view that the comments are moderated by ‘the people’ ie if no-one complains then comments can stay) and you'll get a flavour.  We do not live in a culture where in politics it is even remotely acceptable not to have an instant opinion on anything, and it is always seen as a weakness if you change your mind.  And it’s not just politicians. Rory Lamont was all over the papers this week for using Twitter to express his political opinions (albeit in sweary language). 

How do we protect ourselves from horrible comments about what we write?

How do we gauge what is acceptable for public view?

How do we protect pupils from getting horrible comments if they make a blog?  Would they have to set up a moderator for their blogs, or only invite certain people to read it (in which case they’d lose the possibility of connecting with the world)?

We were given links to educational blogs that Primary schools have developed such as Sandaig Primary blog or Mrs Vass's class blogs. I’ve also been taken aback a bit with the level of information that a stranger could get from viewing these class blogs.  Although they do not use surnames, it would be fairly easy to use the information to trick a child into thinking you knew their parents for example.  One kid, in P6, wrote about her holiday, when she went to x, y and Z, who with etc. Pictures of her as a baby, of her with their dad, info about their family are viewable online through this ‘safe’ web. From a child protection point of view there is a huge amount here that someone could use to groom a child. 

How far should we go to keeping identities safe? 

Is it a risk that kids just have to learn how to manage? – ie if you’ve not seen them meet your dad, don’t believe that they actually ARE a pal, and tell someone.

Is there enough out there to educate children about keeping safe online?  (The only resource I know is ThinkUKnow, which is quite good).

So, at the end of the the first week back at college, and now 17 weeks completed (very nearly at the halfway point) what has been going round my head this week?

Firstly, following a lecture and tutorial on the philosophy of education, I've confirmed that I'm still a hippy at heart, totally in line with the philosophy of  Summerhill School, and longing for more schools to be like that, and opportunities for that kind of education to be available for those who could never afford it. Curious to see how any of its principles and approaches could be used in a mainstream school. I just love the simple message that schools should be places of happiness; that happier children = happier adults = happier world because most crime and bad stuff is done by unhappy people. Of course happiness would be born out of a world of justice too in my philosophy. 

Secondly, that there are lots and lots of great non-fiction books I have read that I had never considered studying with pupils at school, which I'm very excited about.  I love the potential to engage students in what they are interested, which may not be Victorian Gothic literature, but could be travel or true crime literature.

Third, that I'm getting a bit anxious at the prospect of even more marking coming the way of English teachers under the new arrangements for National 4 and National 5, and the new literacy assessments that are done in S3.

And had lots of thoughts about blogs and sharing thoughts on a public forum. This blog is happening as part of a homework task in an ICT option I've taken this term. More on that to follow...

New Year New Post

You might be forgiven for thinking that I had suffocated under a mountain of marking, malnourished by my diet of pot noodles and instant coffee from a lonely staffroom. But no, here I am, back having survived the first (delightful) placement, received my first essay back (passed, yey) and submitted my (humungous 5,000 word) second essay.  The bags under my eyes have receded. My family know me again. I have put in a pleasing number of hours in my pyjamas.  And I'm back to blogging.

Something I've learned is that teaching is a bit like learning to be a parent.  Before it happens you get anecdotes, advice and horror stories.  As soon as you hold that baby, or take your first class you get more anecdotes, advice and horror stories. Soon you start to realise that some of the advice in contradictory, and that people disagree on the best way forward. Sometimes the worst thing to do is to compare ourselves to others. And as you go along, you start to realise that sometimes the only right way to do things is your own way, one that means you can be yourself, and one that suits your class.  


I'm not saying I have it all sussed.  But I think that I'll find my own style as I get more confident...