Back to formal reflections

The scene: a typical Tuesday

1. Things that went well:
- Dealing with a newcomer to my class that will prove a challenge - so much so that this student may not stay in my class long. BUT I think I dealt with this student reasonably well - I gave the student two verbal warnings before exiting them from the class, spoke to them in the corridor to re-establish expectations, and upon reentry the student appeared more settled.

2. Things that I would do differently next time:
- Clearer expectations of a research activity. I should have given students a minimum number of points to achieve in each category within a retrieval chart (eg. "You need to have at least three dot points on women in Ancient Greece").
- If I posted the sources on the walls around the room I could have made a "Gallery" activity rather than a less engaging seated one.
- I could also have done with a broader range of sources, or better extension options for my more capable students.

3. Forward focus:
- Next lesson I need to integrate my newcomers more effectively. They need catch up work to bring them up to speed with this level of work - I can't put this activity off, they need it, so I think I will need to give this to them in their next lesson and prioritise it over the next activity which they will need to miss out on, at this stage.