Well I hardly know it all by now but I was at least starting to feel a little more comfortable....
And then today one of our classes was collapsed due to staffing issues, meaning that each of my three classes now have an extra four or five students. They weren't big classes to begin with, so this is not a case of me complaining about large class sizes - but I feel like all of my work establishing classroom expectations, getting a feel for the dynamic of each set of students, creating seating plans that cater for those dynamics, and so on, now has to be repeated.
*sigh*
Monday, April 4, 2011
Monday, March 21, 2011
Just Another Average Monday
Last week I was beginning to feel really run-down: tired and cranky, frustrated with my lack of progress and not knowing everything when I need it, and basically needing a break.
On Friday I went to an all-day workshop on teaching reading, then drove two and a bit hours to a tiny country town for a two-day conference. Friday and Saturday nights were spent at the "local" with lovely like-minded educationalists, while Saturday and Sunday were spent with said educationalists in various workshops, followed by driving home, thinking about the planning I needed to do, and not doing any of it.
And so I find myself back at school, having had no real downtime, but somehow feeling a little re-energised. School today was uneventful, but I was in a better frame of mind, so even though I dealt with some of the same behaviour challenges and the like, I feel better about it. Maybe that's just because we've moved onto a new unit of work, and I'm kind of hoping that a lack of interest in the material could have been one of the problems in the last unit - hopefully I can inject a little more interest into the next unit of work (part-Ancient Greek History, part Australian Government).
Highlights of the day:
"Miss, does the Government help pay for school?"
"We love you Miss!" (yes, really. :-))
"Miss, how did the Labor party sack Kevin Rudd?"
From the same student: "Miss, why did Gough Whitlam get fired?"
On a little tangent: "Miss, if the Queen goes to McDonalds, does she get it for free?"
On Friday I went to an all-day workshop on teaching reading, then drove two and a bit hours to a tiny country town for a two-day conference. Friday and Saturday nights were spent at the "local" with lovely like-minded educationalists, while Saturday and Sunday were spent with said educationalists in various workshops, followed by driving home, thinking about the planning I needed to do, and not doing any of it.
And so I find myself back at school, having had no real downtime, but somehow feeling a little re-energised. School today was uneventful, but I was in a better frame of mind, so even though I dealt with some of the same behaviour challenges and the like, I feel better about it. Maybe that's just because we've moved onto a new unit of work, and I'm kind of hoping that a lack of interest in the material could have been one of the problems in the last unit - hopefully I can inject a little more interest into the next unit of work (part-Ancient Greek History, part Australian Government).
Highlights of the day:
"Miss, does the Government help pay for school?"
"We love you Miss!" (yes, really. :-))
"Miss, how did the Labor party sack Kevin Rudd?"
From the same student: "Miss, why did Gough Whitlam get fired?"
On a little tangent: "Miss, if the Queen goes to McDonalds, does she get it for free?"
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Behaviour Management
I feel I have to remind myself right now that I've only been teaching for six weeks, and I'm still learning... But I hate not knowing how to do everything straight away, the moment I need it.
I had my most challenging class (in terms of behaviour management) this morning, with assistance from a lovely executive teacher who works with me in this class for two hours per week. They were angels. Well, in comparison to their normal behaviour. The disheartening thing about this is that I can't get them to be angels by myself. By myself, I am shouting over the din, writing names on the whiteboard, moving students to time-out desks, sending students to other classes for time-out, calling parents, experimenting with positive reinforcement and challenges, and just generally struggling to teach them.
Don't get me wrong, this probably sounds worse than it is. I LIKE this class - at least, I like all the individuals IN this class. But together they're tough work. I'll break them in eventually (because the only alternative is them breaking me, and that ain't happening).
It's just disheartening because my executive teacher makes controlling them look so easy. So easy, in fact, that it's hard to pinpoint what she's doing right and I'm doing wrong. Another teacher told me today that it's because she has "The Vibe", and that I don't have that.
Harking back to my teacher training last year, I'm guessing "The Vibe" is one of Thomas Nielsen's "Powers": Referent Power, Position Power, etc. I'm reading Bill Rogers' "Behaviour Management" at the moment too, and it's abundantly clear from the way Rogers writes that he has "The Vibe" too.
The question is, how do I get it?
I had my most challenging class (in terms of behaviour management) this morning, with assistance from a lovely executive teacher who works with me in this class for two hours per week. They were angels. Well, in comparison to their normal behaviour. The disheartening thing about this is that I can't get them to be angels by myself. By myself, I am shouting over the din, writing names on the whiteboard, moving students to time-out desks, sending students to other classes for time-out, calling parents, experimenting with positive reinforcement and challenges, and just generally struggling to teach them.
Don't get me wrong, this probably sounds worse than it is. I LIKE this class - at least, I like all the individuals IN this class. But together they're tough work. I'll break them in eventually (because the only alternative is them breaking me, and that ain't happening).
It's just disheartening because my executive teacher makes controlling them look so easy. So easy, in fact, that it's hard to pinpoint what she's doing right and I'm doing wrong. Another teacher told me today that it's because she has "The Vibe", and that I don't have that.
Harking back to my teacher training last year, I'm guessing "The Vibe" is one of Thomas Nielsen's "Powers": Referent Power, Position Power, etc. I'm reading Bill Rogers' "Behaviour Management" at the moment too, and it's abundantly clear from the way Rogers writes that he has "The Vibe" too.
The question is, how do I get it?
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Feeling the pull...
I felt the pull today. The pull between pedagogies.
As anyone reading this probably knows, "pedagogy" has become THE word to learn in teacher training at university. If you can throw this into as many essays as you can, you'll do fairly well. It's taken me until today to really FEEL what it means though.
Today I was teaching Year 7 about past tense. We talked about the difference between "began" and "begun", "drank" and "drunk". I introduced them to terms like "past imperfect", and tried to use a little metalanguage when talking about grammar.
It was when we went over their answers that I stumbled. Somewhere between asking the first person, "What is the past tense of run?" and everyone getting the right answers written down, I became aware that I was drilling them.
I pointed to each present-tense verb on the board and said it.
They responded with the past tense conjugation.
"Swim"
"SWAM"
"Bring"
"BROUGHT"
"Buy"
"BOUGHT"
"Say"
"SAID"
.... You get the drill.
I feel like a failure. If my principal had walked in at that moment, they would have felt like they'd stepped back in time. All I needed was a cane and a blackboard. I was ashamed. It all happened so fast I couldn't stop it! And they were all so well trained!
...Which makes me think they'd done that before. Somewhere along the line they'd learnt to call out like that, in unison, with the correct answer. That's my one saving grace - I'm clearly not the only one who's done that with them. But I'm not going to do it again.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Something Beautiful
... Watching twenty twelve year old faces really thinking.
... A distractible boy turning a trip to the toilet down until after he could finish an activity.
... A boy picking up rubbish in the playground by choice, collecting the bin and dragging it back to where his friends could use it.
... Being truly impressed by a collective class achievement - who knew twenty kids could find sixty-nine separate words in "Astronomer"?!
... A distractible boy turning a trip to the toilet down until after he could finish an activity.
... A boy picking up rubbish in the playground by choice, collecting the bin and dragging it back to where his friends could use it.
... Being truly impressed by a collective class achievement - who knew twenty kids could find sixty-nine separate words in "Astronomer"?!
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Week Three: Camp
Well it only took two weeks for me to fail my "Weekly Reflection" goal! Hopefully I'll get the hang of this regular blogging gig eventually...
Week Three started as normal, with two days of standard classes, increasing levels of disruption in all classes, a call home to parents about one particular student, and a promise to myself to call parents more often after a very successful phone discussion with said parent and a notable improvement in behaviour the following day from said student.
On Wednesday the week got interesting as we headed off to Year 7 camp. What followed were some of the most exhausting days I've had since backpacking Europe. It was such a great opportunity to build connections with students, enhance our team cohesion and extend ourselves. We all faced our fears of heights with a giant swing, flying fox, abseiling and rockclimbing, drove dirt buggies, rowed dragon boats, completed an assault course, had a water fight, hosted a disco and more. The kids were so well behaved. It blew my mind how boundless their energy is though! At the end of each day I wanted nothing more than to trundle off to bed, but there they were running around after dark with torches, getting down at the disco and generally living it up.
Ten Things I've Learnt This Week:
1. Always, always, ALWAYS lock your cabin door.
2. Never underestimate your students.
3. We all need to get dirty every now and then.
4. Nothing beats a well timed Death Stare through a dark bedroom window.
5. You can never bring too much sunscreen.
6. You can never bring too many spare water bottles.
7. You can never bring too many Band-Aids.
8. Personally supervise all redheaded students' sunscreen application.
9. Teachers can go days without going to the toilet.
10. I can already see how much I'm going to miss these little tackers when they go onto Year 8. :-(
Week Three started as normal, with two days of standard classes, increasing levels of disruption in all classes, a call home to parents about one particular student, and a promise to myself to call parents more often after a very successful phone discussion with said parent and a notable improvement in behaviour the following day from said student.
On Wednesday the week got interesting as we headed off to Year 7 camp. What followed were some of the most exhausting days I've had since backpacking Europe. It was such a great opportunity to build connections with students, enhance our team cohesion and extend ourselves. We all faced our fears of heights with a giant swing, flying fox, abseiling and rockclimbing, drove dirt buggies, rowed dragon boats, completed an assault course, had a water fight, hosted a disco and more. The kids were so well behaved. It blew my mind how boundless their energy is though! At the end of each day I wanted nothing more than to trundle off to bed, but there they were running around after dark with torches, getting down at the disco and generally living it up.
Ten Things I've Learnt This Week:
1. Always, always, ALWAYS lock your cabin door.
2. Never underestimate your students.
3. We all need to get dirty every now and then.
4. Nothing beats a well timed Death Stare through a dark bedroom window.
5. You can never bring too much sunscreen.
6. You can never bring too many spare water bottles.
7. You can never bring too many Band-Aids.
8. Personally supervise all redheaded students' sunscreen application.
9. Teachers can go days without going to the toilet.
10. I can already see how much I'm going to miss these little tackers when they go onto Year 8. :-(
Monday, February 14, 2011
Week One: Reflection
Well week two has started without me getting a chance to formally reflect on week one, so here goes...
1. Things that went well:
- My introductory letter idea worked really well. I got 60 letters to read on my first night, and it was such an excellent "shortcut" into getting to know the students. I really want to tap into their interests where possible, so knowing what they are was really important to me. Getting a very early glimpse at their writing level was very useful too.
- Relationship building is coming along nicely. I knew I could never adhere to the "don't smile before Easter" rule, and I haven't even tried. Rather, I've been trying to create a connection with as many students as I can, showing interest in them, making small talk where possible, to get to know them and create some rapport. That part is going well.
2. Things that I would do differently next time:
- Seating plan was very unpopular in all three classes. Although it IS a good idea and I need to stick with it, I wonder if I could have softened the blow, perhaps by allowing them to request a table buddy?
- I would have loved to have this first three weeks mapped out in a cohesive unit. The focus at the moment is on building a positive classroom environment, establishing a routine and introducing a couple of scaffolds that are popular at the school. I probably haven't focussed enough on the positive classroom environment side of things - I feel I don't have enough activities in my 'toolbox' for this.
3. Forward focus:
- I have several "big personalities" in one of my classes, who are a real concern for me. Not just that they are a disruption, but that I am SO afraid of not doing for them what I should be aiming to do for all my students: give them a quality education. I really want to work out the 'key' to all of them, but at the same time (and maybe first?) I have to combat their disruptive tendencies.
- As a 'good girl' myself, I have empathy for my 'good kids' - the quiet ones, who try to do their work, but are thwarted by the disrupters. The problem with the nice, quiet kids is that it's dangerously easy not to notice them. I have to consciously work on making sure that EVERY student gets my attention, not just the 'big personalities'.
1. Things that went well:
- My introductory letter idea worked really well. I got 60 letters to read on my first night, and it was such an excellent "shortcut" into getting to know the students. I really want to tap into their interests where possible, so knowing what they are was really important to me. Getting a very early glimpse at their writing level was very useful too.
- Relationship building is coming along nicely. I knew I could never adhere to the "don't smile before Easter" rule, and I haven't even tried. Rather, I've been trying to create a connection with as many students as I can, showing interest in them, making small talk where possible, to get to know them and create some rapport. That part is going well.
2. Things that I would do differently next time:
- Seating plan was very unpopular in all three classes. Although it IS a good idea and I need to stick with it, I wonder if I could have softened the blow, perhaps by allowing them to request a table buddy?
- I would have loved to have this first three weeks mapped out in a cohesive unit. The focus at the moment is on building a positive classroom environment, establishing a routine and introducing a couple of scaffolds that are popular at the school. I probably haven't focussed enough on the positive classroom environment side of things - I feel I don't have enough activities in my 'toolbox' for this.
3. Forward focus:
- I have several "big personalities" in one of my classes, who are a real concern for me. Not just that they are a disruption, but that I am SO afraid of not doing for them what I should be aiming to do for all my students: give them a quality education. I really want to work out the 'key' to all of them, but at the same time (and maybe first?) I have to combat their disruptive tendencies.
- As a 'good girl' myself, I have empathy for my 'good kids' - the quiet ones, who try to do their work, but are thwarted by the disrupters. The problem with the nice, quiet kids is that it's dangerously easy not to notice them. I have to consciously work on making sure that EVERY student gets my attention, not just the 'big personalities'.
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