Why I Stay Positive In The Classroom - Or Try To!
If there is one thing I have learned in my loooong career as a classroom teacher, it is that my voice
matters but to paraphrase the divine Bananarama:
"It ain't what I say, it's the way that I say it,
That's what gets results."
Earlier this week I got stressy with a Year 7 class. God love them, they would drive a saint crackers. They are like a hellish pick and mix bag of SEND, SLCN, EBD and ASD with a slice of CBA* thrown in for good measure.
I need a TA in the classroom - and for some types of activity two would be nice - but there is only me. I am an experienced teacher with a wide range of strategies but they are a really good workout for me three times a week and generally speaking I just get the heck on with it. We have made progress as a class and I have just one rule for myself - STAY POSITIVE!
In my defence, it was 30 degrees in the classroom, they came to me from MFL where a lot of them struggle and it had been a long day already for them as well as for me. I had spent a lot of time marking their work and giving them personalised direction as to what to do next. Every child had at least one praisy sticker of joy and a what-to-do-next postit. There was promise of lovely reading-and-video lesson the next day as a reward for making positive choices.
It was almost as if they were children who were more interested in having fun than in my lesson. They came in fussing and they continued to fuss. They took out postit notes without doing the tasks they indicated, and then asked me what to do. They professed not to understand what "complete this task please" meant. It was a tad aggravating.
I might have lost it a tiny little bit.
I did that thing you are never supposed to do - I issued an ultimatum. Give me 10 minutes of silence or I will never show you a video again EVER!! Unfortunately, I had promised a vry newly qualified colleague an easy Friday afternoon with these kids and I really couldn't let her down because I had fudged it up.
It took working them into their lunch hour, but I got my 10 minutes - I wasn't backing down - and thank the Lord we got to watch some video the next lesson. We sweated in that room and we made it.
Reflecting on that lesson a couple of things are clear to me. I went in with an expectation that the lesson would go badly. I know where they come from on a Thursday and what they are going to be like. There were things I could have done better - and top of my list is keeping my voice positive.
Today's lesson was better. They came in looking at me to see what mood I was in (never good - I should be consistent). They sat down and fussed a bit but settled and we read some of our reader. We then watched some of the film version and enjoyed it together which is so important. Most important, I kept my voice positive for the whole lesson.
The very NQT was in the room with me today and I asked her what she had seen. She said that I had dealt with the poor behaviours without creating a negative atmosphere in the room. I am pleased that's what she saw - it's not what happened yesterday!
*CBA = Can't Be Arsed.
"It ain't what I say, it's the way that I say it,
That's what gets results."
Earlier this week I got stressy with a Year 7 class. God love them, they would drive a saint crackers. They are like a hellish pick and mix bag of SEND, SLCN, EBD and ASD with a slice of CBA* thrown in for good measure.
I need a TA in the classroom - and for some types of activity two would be nice - but there is only me. I am an experienced teacher with a wide range of strategies but they are a really good workout for me three times a week and generally speaking I just get the heck on with it. We have made progress as a class and I have just one rule for myself - STAY POSITIVE!
In my defence, it was 30 degrees in the classroom, they came to me from MFL where a lot of them struggle and it had been a long day already for them as well as for me. I had spent a lot of time marking their work and giving them personalised direction as to what to do next. Every child had at least one praisy sticker of joy and a what-to-do-next postit. There was promise of lovely reading-and-video lesson the next day as a reward for making positive choices.
It was almost as if they were children who were more interested in having fun than in my lesson. They came in fussing and they continued to fuss. They took out postit notes without doing the tasks they indicated, and then asked me what to do. They professed not to understand what "complete this task please" meant. It was a tad aggravating.
I might have lost it a tiny little bit.
I did that thing you are never supposed to do - I issued an ultimatum. Give me 10 minutes of silence or I will never show you a video again EVER!! Unfortunately, I had promised a vry newly qualified colleague an easy Friday afternoon with these kids and I really couldn't let her down because I had fudged it up.
It took working them into their lunch hour, but I got my 10 minutes - I wasn't backing down - and thank the Lord we got to watch some video the next lesson. We sweated in that room and we made it.
Reflecting on that lesson a couple of things are clear to me. I went in with an expectation that the lesson would go badly. I know where they come from on a Thursday and what they are going to be like. There were things I could have done better - and top of my list is keeping my voice positive.
Today's lesson was better. They came in looking at me to see what mood I was in (never good - I should be consistent). They sat down and fussed a bit but settled and we read some of our reader. We then watched some of the film version and enjoyed it together which is so important. Most important, I kept my voice positive for the whole lesson.
The very NQT was in the room with me today and I asked her what she had seen. She said that I had dealt with the poor behaviours without creating a negative atmosphere in the room. I am pleased that's what she saw - it's not what happened yesterday!
*CBA = Can't Be Arsed.
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