Introduction
So, this week appears to have been the climax of my time in placement 1, leading me to end up crying in a lesson, completely stressed out to the max. Despite Tuesday’s incident, I am still 100% committed to the course and, if anything, it has only reinforced to me that this is the perfect career choice for myself. The support I have had this week from the school – particularly members of the English faculty – has been overwhelmingly amazing. I can’t believe I have only got 2 weeks left here – I will miss everyone so much!
Year 11 Drama observation
As I do not have much drama experience, despite drama texts making up a third of English literature, I decided to observe a year 11 drama lesson on Monday. They were looking at physical theatre which was interesting, particularly because they were quite a weak group. Interestingly, one of my year 11s was in this group and he was like a completely different student. It always baffles me as to how different the students can be in different contexts.
Excellence in Tutor
During extended tutor time this week, I led the session on ‘excellence’ activities – these are set by the headteacher and every tutor group are expected to participate in them; this term year 8 are focusing on the idea of ‘self’. We looked at time management this week, thinking about what we do during the week and what we should prioritise. This led to a conversation about prioritising home learning and many students agreed that home learning is helpful – surprising for a year 8 group I thought!
Along with this, we also discussed how we behaved during school hours and if we could change anything in our lives to ensure we get the most of our time in school. They all created a weekly plan, giving suggestions such as going to bed earlier and eating better food to help them concentrate in school.
Serious Incident
I am writing this the evening after this event happened; I don’t normally do this, but I find writing very therapeutic, so this is more for me to feel better about the incident myself.
I had a supply teacher in with me and my year 9s in period 5 on Tuesday – supply + period 5 = chaos! The class were definitely rowdier than usual, and they aren’t the easiest class to begin with! But on the whole, I did the best I could with them and ended up going a bit off plan because I knew that there was no way some of the students would do the work I originally planned. I gave ready to learn warnings to a fair few kids, seemingly having no effect whatsoever.
So, the lesson to begin with wasn’t perfect but I knew it was the best I could do in this situation and I went into the lesson knowing full well the class would be harder to manage than usual.
The serious incident lies with the student I was talking about last week – the one I had made a lot of progress with… oh, how I am laughing at myself now! However, I am not surprised at all that this happened, which makes it completely easier to deal with. I can’t remember if I gave him a pseudonym last week, but I am going to refer to him as Jack in this blog.
Jack worked well during the lesson. I asked the supply teacher to work with him to help manage behavioural issues that inevitably come up every lesson with him. He did the work I asked him to do, apart from when he chose to go to refocus – which is all absolutely amazing. He even read out some of the lines for Louis in A View from the Bridge – yes it was only 2 short sentences, but the fact he did it so sensibly was a complete win in my books.
Then we got to the end of the lesson. He did his usual “I don’t want to be here, I’m going home” and I made my first mistake by standing in the way of the door. He got very close to me. Intimidatingly close to me. I took a step back allowing him to open the door, thinking to myself if he legs it that’s fine. In hindsight… if he had legged it that would have been preferable!!!
I asked him to come and stand behind his chair, also directing this to the whole class as the chatter was bubbling up again and students were moving away from their seats. The bell went. I repeated my instructions and waited for them to move.
Eventually, realising that I wasn’t going to give in to him, he moved to his seat where a few others had strayed to. He pushed a girl which led to another student standing his ground to him. I was so scared there was going to be a serious altercation.
Luckily, by this point, the usual teacher had come back (she is head of English and it was the faculty review today, so she had other work to be doing hence the supply) and she helped me to quieten down the class enough for me to let them go.
As soon as Jack left, I felt a weight lift off my chest – I had been so scared about what could have happened. There have been many serious incidents involving Jack and I know what he is capable of. I lost my composure and started to breakdown – annoyingly in front of some of the students!
I have never felt so supported by so many people in my life before. Every member of the English faculty came to offer me advice, listened to me and were just there – exactly what I needed. One member of staff in particular offered to talk to the class for me earlier on in the lesson and she was so understanding – well everyone was- that it made me cry even more! (I am such a wet blanket honestly)
I don’t see another way I could’ve handled this situation. Nobody was hurt – well nobody was physically hurt – and I remained calm for the majority of the lesson. I am so glad this happened to me now, as opposed to when I have a class on my own.
I am looking forward to my next lesson with the year 9s. The usual teacher will be back in with me and I am going to make my classroom expectations explicitly clear at the beginning of the lesson and I really hope this will make the difference with this class. I know they won’t be perfectly behaved – and I don’t want them to be. I love the challenge this class gives me, they are feisty and a lot of fun to teach.
The head of behavioural management was involved at the end of the lesson as well; thank god her office is in the English department! She has said to me that this will be logged as a serious incident and, at the very least, it will be a Ready to Learn – potentially even an exclusion. I will have a restorative conversation with Jack before I teach him again – something my AT said she would support me with. I am slightly nervous about this, as I do not know how he will react – and I also don’t know how I will react when I teach him again.
I still have a lot to learn. I will not let this one incident throw me off my end goal. I will be a qualified teacher this time next year.
Curriculum Enrichment Day 2
This time round the English faculty had year 8s for the day, where they were teaching them about different genres of comedy. This was actually super fun to teach, especially as it was super laid back – lots of different clips to watch and analyse.
The students also had a company called Unique Voices in to do a drama workshop about anti-bullying. It was definitely better than the poetry workshop, but I feel as if they focused too much on what the students thought as opposed to actually analysing their ideas. The drama activities were pretty fun though!
Scaffolding
I read an interesting blog this week about scaffolding and how the term has become to generalised, leading it to lose its meaning and potentially leading to teachers not actually helping their students with the supposed ‘scaffolds’. The whole idea of scaffolding is to scaffold their knowledge – not just give them a framework to put the knowledge into, as many students just simply do not know what to do in the first place. https://strangecaseofteachingandlearning.wordpress.com/2018/09/30/scaffolding-how-broadening-the-term-narrows-learning/?fbclid=IwAR0Pkpi8zmLwgUwqufWb_Ka5ZTaGXdZb6Sr9seVJnam1qWyC3mQj8VWSFsE
Teaching Targets
Last Week’s Targets:
- Questioning – I think I have made a good improvement in my questioning over the past week. I am now consciously choosing which kind of questions to use and I have successfully gotten every student to answer – even after they say the dreaded ‘I don’t know.’
- Assessment for Learning – Adding in a temperature check has been super helpful. Just being able to gauge how much the learners understand has been allowing me to let the higher attaining students start the tasks, thus allowing me to direct additionally support to anyone needing further assistance.
This Week’s Targets:
- Behaviour in 9V – After Tuesday’s lesson, I have decided to ensure that the year 9s are behaving as I expect them to in my lesson. The most effective way to do this, I believe, is to give out RTL warnings as and when the students are not behaving as I expect them to.
- Assessment – I am going to attempt to use coded feedback for my year 8s this week – to both save time for me and them. We will see how this goes after my lesson Tuesday morning!
J
Currently Reading:
Mother to Son – Langston Hughes
I have been reading this poem with my year 7s and I have been thoroughly enjoying teaching it! We have been focusing on how knowing the context helps us to decipher the intended meaning of the poem. Next lesson I will be asking them to read it in an American accent – should be a lot of fun!
The Importance of Being Earnest – Oscar Wilde
Nothing more to add to this as of yet! Thoroughly enjoying it though.
The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishguro
I have only read the prologue so far, but it seems to have the potential to grip me further. I thoroughly enjoyed Never Let Me Go and I am excited to read another one of Ishguro’s novels.
Dark Woods – Steve Voake
I really enjoyed reading this novel, not too keen on the ending; a cliff-hanger would’ve been more effective in my opinion – but other than that I was pleasantly surprised. A very interesting concept and I liked the way the abductor helps them out… albeit it unrealistic.
Much Ado About Teaching 