Have just finished my last assignment for university: a portfolio showcasing the culmination of a year’s work. Done-diddley-un! My prac finished last Friday, another A!
Uni is over.
Haven’t been writing much on here the past few weeks – most of my “reflecting” has been on the back of lesson plans trying to figure out how to engage and captivate my holy terror of a year seven class. Some lessons I spend at least 80% of the time trying to get the darling little cherubs to shut up and listen. have come to the conclusion that there are two basic ingredients in classroom management: relationships and consistency. On a four week prac it’s nigh impossible to build the former when said cherubs are trying every way possible to rile you and know their real teacher will be back soon, and in my attempts to try varying methods of behaviour control, consistency has gone out of the window. On a similar vein, the school seems to be lacking consistency across classes; some teachers are strict, others are lax, and supposed school policies of no phones in class, no hats on in class etc. are enforced with vastly different degrees of adherence. Half of the executive positions at the school are filled by acting head teachers and deputies and the chain of command is blurry to say the least.
Looking back at my Japan blog, I’m appalled by how much my desire to write has gone out the window this year. Enforced reflection doesn’t really work and these pages are as staid as my head has become.
I’ve found a really really cool juggling site and I plan to spend the coming summer learning to juggle, learning to draw and reading stuff for fun, not assignments.
Hopefully I will start writing again by choice by next year, but this is the last for a while.
Monday, 10 November 2008
Saturday, 25 October 2008
Year 7 - learning the hard way
At the end of week 2 I am exhausted, principally due to my battles with year 7. The school has a fortnightly timetable and in week one year 7 only have English twice, only once of which I had to teach them. However, last week I had them four times, and somehow, things didn't go as planned and went from not so good to really not so good!
I think it all started when they were really noisy and unsettled at the beginning of the week, and then the next lesson I decided to wait and start putting up times on the board, so we ended up having 60 minutes of built up detention. Then I started reacting to some of the students and my boundaries got all fuzzy in the wash until by Friday morning they had all the power and were playing me for everything I was worth. After class I was walking through the foyer and a number of students commented on how stressed I looked! I spent a lot of time that day thinking about all the things I had not done so well, how much I can choose to have learnt this week, and the ways I can use this experience to make me into a better teacher and person.
I think it all started when they were really noisy and unsettled at the beginning of the week, and then the next lesson I decided to wait and start putting up times on the board, so we ended up having 60 minutes of built up detention. Then I started reacting to some of the students and my boundaries got all fuzzy in the wash until by Friday morning they had all the power and were playing me for everything I was worth. After class I was walking through the foyer and a number of students commented on how stressed I looked! I spent a lot of time that day thinking about all the things I had not done so well, how much I can choose to have learnt this week, and the ways I can use this experience to make me into a better teacher and person.
Wednesday, 22 October 2008
The meeting
Dubbo has a collegiate system of schooling. There are two middle schools and one senior campus in Dubbo, the only government options for schooling. No 7-12 schools exist outside the independent sector. The teachers aren't especially impressed with this set-up, arguing that teachers at the 7-9 campuses burn out quickly and finding replacements is difficult as few teachers want to teach in a middle school. They believe that younger middle school students benefit from having role models within the school and that discipline problems have increased since the system was implemented. It also leaves teachers at the high school campus with two major assessments to prepare students for, increasing pressure substantially. There are arguments that splitting the stage 5 syllabus (years 9 and 10) between two campuses leaves students feeling unsafe about changing schools and the number of year 9 drop-outs is increasing.
Tonight the Regional Director came to address a full collegiate meeting, with teachers from all three campuses attending. It seems like every six months there is a review of this system, with a big push for it to be chhanged by the teachers. However the RD was holding the department line and despite an impassioned introduction where she spelt out the concerns of the teachers, she proceeded to talk about the closing of the gap for indig students and a whole host of carefully edited statistics to demonstrate why the system coudn't be changed. Every question that was asked by the teachers present was neatly evaded and several were openly chastised in front of their peers, including a three year out teacher who was admonished for daring to take on the regional director with his limited experience. The whole meeting was something of a farce and frustrations were not appeased.
Tonight the Regional Director came to address a full collegiate meeting, with teachers from all three campuses attending. It seems like every six months there is a review of this system, with a big push for it to be chhanged by the teachers. However the RD was holding the department line and despite an impassioned introduction where she spelt out the concerns of the teachers, she proceeded to talk about the closing of the gap for indig students and a whole host of carefully edited statistics to demonstrate why the system coudn't be changed. Every question that was asked by the teachers present was neatly evaded and several were openly chastised in front of their peers, including a three year out teacher who was admonished for daring to take on the regional director with his limited experience. The whole meeting was something of a farce and frustrations were not appeased.
Sunday, 19 October 2008
Thank God it's Friday
I am so so so tired. But in a good way.
Today I followed my year eight class all around school and watched them under different teachers. It was really educational. In geography they were really chatty, not at all engaged with the work and didn't really do very much. In maths they were a little bit better, even though they said the maths teacher was their favourite teacher, but there was still lots of talking going on whilst he was trying to explain pi to them. In science after recess they were much much better behaved. No talking for the beginning part of the lesson and everyone on task. Unfortunately the teacher gave them too long for the task and the silliness picked up in a big way, but then they got to watch a video on collisions whilst she explained all the students' idiosyncrasies. Next was P.E. theory and i was absolutely amazed. The subtle whiff of fear in the classroom kept everyone quiet as a mouse. This, on e of the chattiest groups in the school and you could have heard a pin drop. The downside was that all they got to do for the 45mins was copy notes of the smartboard and the room was filled with the scratching of pens busily at work. Even when they teacher left the room for a couple of minutes, apart from a couple of nervous giggles, silence was maintained.
I taught them in fifth period, and after a day of telling them I wasn’t in class to discipline or teach them, the whip came out. I think they made the mistake of thinking that because I had spent the day building relationships with them as a class and individually, I now wanted to be their best friend and they could get away with anything. Ha! It didn’t help that it was last period Friday (true last period is reserved for teachers’ meetings and detention) and we were all itching to get out of the room.
We were reading stories they had been writing for the past couple of lessons and my timing was out because I spent so much time trying to discipline them at the beginning of the lesson. After each student read out their story I tried to elicit some form of analysis from the class - Pebbles said it would have worked better if I had given them a matrix to base their judgements on, which his a good lesson for next time. Then I almost ran ot of time and was caught with a task that I didn’t really have time for, so it was a bit messy. I could have used the games on the smartboard but didn’t really want to reward them for mucking around so much. An interesting lesson and a lot learnt.
Today I followed my year eight class all around school and watched them under different teachers. It was really educational. In geography they were really chatty, not at all engaged with the work and didn't really do very much. In maths they were a little bit better, even though they said the maths teacher was their favourite teacher, but there was still lots of talking going on whilst he was trying to explain pi to them. In science after recess they were much much better behaved. No talking for the beginning part of the lesson and everyone on task. Unfortunately the teacher gave them too long for the task and the silliness picked up in a big way, but then they got to watch a video on collisions whilst she explained all the students' idiosyncrasies. Next was P.E. theory and i was absolutely amazed. The subtle whiff of fear in the classroom kept everyone quiet as a mouse. This, on e of the chattiest groups in the school and you could have heard a pin drop. The downside was that all they got to do for the 45mins was copy notes of the smartboard and the room was filled with the scratching of pens busily at work. Even when they teacher left the room for a couple of minutes, apart from a couple of nervous giggles, silence was maintained.
I taught them in fifth period, and after a day of telling them I wasn’t in class to discipline or teach them, the whip came out. I think they made the mistake of thinking that because I had spent the day building relationships with them as a class and individually, I now wanted to be their best friend and they could get away with anything. Ha! It didn’t help that it was last period Friday (true last period is reserved for teachers’ meetings and detention) and we were all itching to get out of the room.
We were reading stories they had been writing for the past couple of lessons and my timing was out because I spent so much time trying to discipline them at the beginning of the lesson. After each student read out their story I tried to elicit some form of analysis from the class - Pebbles said it would have worked better if I had given them a matrix to base their judgements on, which his a good lesson for next time. Then I almost ran ot of time and was caught with a task that I didn’t really have time for, so it was a bit messy. I could have used the games on the smartboard but didn’t really want to reward them for mucking around so much. An interesting lesson and a lot learnt.
Thursday, 16 October 2008
Thursday - Uniday!!!
Today I almost learnt to ride a unicycle. But I'm much better at almost riding it than I was. We had sport at school today and I went to circus. I discovered that I can't qualify for my level 1 juggling certificate because even though I can now juggle three balls indefinitely, I need to be able to juggle two in one hand twenty times. There's a trick of rolling them and juggling them sideways which is necessary to pick up advanced juggling skills in the future, and all of a sudden I feel like I can't juggle at all again - a bit like learning to drive a manual car after after driving for several years!
There is a regular unicycle workshop at lunchtime on Tuesdays and Thurdays, but I passed because I had my first lesson with year nine after lunch. On monday, two turned up, and yesterday was the excursion, so today was my first chance to meet them. After my brainwave about setting up all my own management systems, and a bit of help from a book I am reading, appropriately called Getting the Buggers to Behave, I set up some really solid plans for the lesson today. We talked about expectations and stuff and I got them to do a fair bit of work - though it was all a bit of a culture shock to be honest. However, though engagement was very very low, with a lot of help we got stuff done and there were no major behaviour issues.
Then I went to Circus West in the afternoon and almost learnt to ride a unicycle - going up and down the stage, coming off, getting back on , coming off badly and almost spraining my wrist and getting back on and getting all hot and smelly. It was fun and I don't think I'm going to be able to walk tomorrow!
There is a regular unicycle workshop at lunchtime on Tuesdays and Thurdays, but I passed because I had my first lesson with year nine after lunch. On monday, two turned up, and yesterday was the excursion, so today was my first chance to meet them. After my brainwave about setting up all my own management systems, and a bit of help from a book I am reading, appropriately called Getting the Buggers to Behave, I set up some really solid plans for the lesson today. We talked about expectations and stuff and I got them to do a fair bit of work - though it was all a bit of a culture shock to be honest. However, though engagement was very very low, with a lot of help we got stuff done and there were no major behaviour issues.
Then I went to Circus West in the afternoon and almost learnt to ride a unicycle - going up and down the stage, coming off, getting back on , coming off badly and almost spraining my wrist and getting back on and getting all hot and smelly. It was fun and I don't think I'm going to be able to walk tomorrow!
Wednesday, 15 October 2008
Wiped Wednesday
This evening I'm absobloodylutely exhausted - wiped is the precise term to be sure.
This morning I taught two lessons in a row: year eight again, this time in the computer room writing up stories and then year seven straight after - introducing speech, well carrying on really from where Pebbles, my prac supervisor, left off.
Then in the afternoon we had an excursion with year nine to go visit the senior campus. Didn't get a break all day and discovered that standing up in my boots all day makes for very sore feet.
The lessons went okay - the computer room was really noisy, didn't have enough computers for all the students and I felt I was shoving snow uphill trying to get some of the students to do any work. Bribery seems to work better than coercion for a lot of the other teachers and I can see a reward system becoming a big part of my teaching practice over the next few weeks.
As Ray, the classroom management guy earlier this year said, good students don't need rewards, but even though this is the top year eight class, motivation and initiative are in short supply. I think I'm going to set up a raffle ticket system for all my classes starting Monday - give out chocolate bars on Friday to three winners from each class.
My first year seven class went a lot smoother, and I managed to pretty much get all of their names down in the first lesson, which I was pretty happy with. Again, there were a few bumps and hiccups, but on the whole I was pretty happy with their ability to produce some fine work and I think this is going to be my favourite class over the next few weeks - not that I'm picking favourites of course.
I learnt a couple of really important lesson today, possibly the hard way, about not being able to run with Pebbles' classroom management strategies as my own. It's easy to walk into a classroom and expect the students to behave for me as they have done for a different teacher; but of course that teacher has spent a lot of time building up a relationship with that class and I am a different person - a fact the students are well aware of. So of course I have to start from scratch with everything and build up my own strategies from scratch. Need to remember that with year nine tomorrow, as their reputation as not the brightest bunch in the school, precedes them.
The excursion in the afternoon was interesting but tiring. It wasn't especially well organised from the senior campus perspective and there were mix up with who was supposed to be where. Lunch was the typical sausage sizzle, a sausage between two slices of white bread and a slurp of sauce for everyone else, and an apple and a squished banana from the bottom of my bag, for me. There was a session before lunch and a session after; we went to the Trade Fair bit first before being removed (bad organisation) to the boring bit. The trade fair consisted of each year niner being given $30 in token money and a choice of different stalls at which to spend it, each stall's option costing paper$5 (not AUS$5)! There was a lot of sugar and fat (donuts, spiders, lollies, chips etc) on sale, a movie, some games and a few competitions with real cash (gift voucher) prizes. The sugar supplemented my squashed fruit for lunch. The we got whisked away to a classroom where students were being tortured by having to think of responsible vs irresponsible behaviour etc. Pebbles had to go back to this in the afternoon, but let me, the praccy, go back to the trade fair. I was kind of over it the first time, but at least I got to eat more sugar, which is still buzzing around my brain!
This morning I taught two lessons in a row: year eight again, this time in the computer room writing up stories and then year seven straight after - introducing speech, well carrying on really from where Pebbles, my prac supervisor, left off.
Then in the afternoon we had an excursion with year nine to go visit the senior campus. Didn't get a break all day and discovered that standing up in my boots all day makes for very sore feet.
The lessons went okay - the computer room was really noisy, didn't have enough computers for all the students and I felt I was shoving snow uphill trying to get some of the students to do any work. Bribery seems to work better than coercion for a lot of the other teachers and I can see a reward system becoming a big part of my teaching practice over the next few weeks.
As Ray, the classroom management guy earlier this year said, good students don't need rewards, but even though this is the top year eight class, motivation and initiative are in short supply. I think I'm going to set up a raffle ticket system for all my classes starting Monday - give out chocolate bars on Friday to three winners from each class.
My first year seven class went a lot smoother, and I managed to pretty much get all of their names down in the first lesson, which I was pretty happy with. Again, there were a few bumps and hiccups, but on the whole I was pretty happy with their ability to produce some fine work and I think this is going to be my favourite class over the next few weeks - not that I'm picking favourites of course.
I learnt a couple of really important lesson today, possibly the hard way, about not being able to run with Pebbles' classroom management strategies as my own. It's easy to walk into a classroom and expect the students to behave for me as they have done for a different teacher; but of course that teacher has spent a lot of time building up a relationship with that class and I am a different person - a fact the students are well aware of. So of course I have to start from scratch with everything and build up my own strategies from scratch. Need to remember that with year nine tomorrow, as their reputation as not the brightest bunch in the school, precedes them.
The excursion in the afternoon was interesting but tiring. It wasn't especially well organised from the senior campus perspective and there were mix up with who was supposed to be where. Lunch was the typical sausage sizzle, a sausage between two slices of white bread and a slurp of sauce for everyone else, and an apple and a squished banana from the bottom of my bag, for me. There was a session before lunch and a session after; we went to the Trade Fair bit first before being removed (bad organisation) to the boring bit. The trade fair consisted of each year niner being given $30 in token money and a choice of different stalls at which to spend it, each stall's option costing paper$5 (not AUS$5)! There was a lot of sugar and fat (donuts, spiders, lollies, chips etc) on sale, a movie, some games and a few competitions with real cash (gift voucher) prizes. The sugar supplemented my squashed fruit for lunch. The we got whisked away to a classroom where students were being tortured by having to think of responsible vs irresponsible behaviour etc. Pebbles had to go back to this in the afternoon, but let me, the praccy, go back to the trade fair. I was kind of over it the first time, but at least I got to eat more sugar, which is still buzzing around my brain!
Tuesday, 14 October 2008
Tuesday - First lesson
I had year eight straight after lunch; lined them up outside the room and tried to make two lines with them, but its something they're not used to and as it was the first time I had taught in quite a while I probably tried to wing it more than I should of.
We were starting visual literacy, and as on Tuesdays they normally do creative writing I had them write about a picure I had found on Time's Pictures of the Week. We talked a little about composition and what the students thought was going on in the photos, but I probably could have gotten into it deeper.
First lessons are always hard though because you don't know what you're walking into and have to start from scratch picking up class dynamics and the personalities of different students.
The lesson could have been a lot cleaner, but it also could have been much much messier. I didn't do anything to shoot myself in the foot and I think I started to build up a good rapport with the class. There are some characters in there who seem resentful of doing work, but also a lot of smart kids who don't seem to be challenged enough. It's good to have my first lesson done and dusted and I'm feeling a lot more confident about the next few weeks.
We were starting visual literacy, and as on Tuesdays they normally do creative writing I had them write about a picure I had found on Time's Pictures of the Week. We talked a little about composition and what the students thought was going on in the photos, but I probably could have gotten into it deeper.
First lessons are always hard though because you don't know what you're walking into and have to start from scratch picking up class dynamics and the personalities of different students.
The lesson could have been a lot cleaner, but it also could have been much much messier. I didn't do anything to shoot myself in the foot and I think I started to build up a good rapport with the class. There are some characters in there who seem resentful of doing work, but also a lot of smart kids who don't seem to be challenged enough. It's good to have my first lesson done and dusted and I'm feeling a lot more confident about the next few weeks.
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