What a crazy, busy, relentless and satisfying week I've had.
It started out so incredibly hectic, including an incident where one of our Grade 1 students fled the class after being teased, tried to run outside and then hid in a locker and wouldn't come out. My AT with his incredible rapport with the students and amazing patience finally persuaded the young gentleman to come out of the locker, this after me spending twenty minutes trying to coax him with every possible story, suggestion and activity.
Another incident this week involved a grade 7 class who simply would not stop talking. They have been doing this since I arrived two weeks ago and in fact faced a full class detention after school last week. I don't mind a little chit chat in the class but it always gets to the point of plain rudeness with this particular class. I've been trying the 'wait them out' silence and staring to no avail.
Now we have moved onto a new tactic. I hold a stop watch. When they start to talk again, I hold up the stop watch so they can see I'm pressing the button and then I let it run. The number of seconds on the clock means the number of minutes in detention after school. The first two times I didn't have the strength or the will power to try this method. It just wasn't me, at which point my AT came up with a few stern words and said to use it 100% the next class. I did. What a miracle! The class took one look at the stop watch and there was silence. I had to use it a few more times that lesson and ended up accumulating seconds, but at least it proved itself effective.
On a happier note, my lesson plans on Classical Music haven't totally been rejected by my 7/8 students. I've tried to combine interesting information with samplings of familiar music, cool videos of performers and dancers and modern music videos that have stolen bits and pieces of Classical music and inserted it into their songs. Overall, the students are receptive and kind. Most now say hello to me in the hallway. I played piano in the Remembrance Day ceremony today and actually had students congratulating me on the performance. I was practically teary-eyed!
In closing, as busy and hectic as life is, I am truly enjoying every second with the students and with my AT. As I come to know these children better I am finding I enjoy teaching in general even more and I am incredibly appreciative that my AT takes so much time to help me in my endeavours. His encouragement and suggestions have helped give me the confidence to stand up in front of all those children and convince them I have something important to say.
Bye for now!
Hey Catharine,
ReplyDeleteAnother great read! I was impressed with your stopwatch strategy because I know as well, grade 7s sure can be chatty! My AT taught me a similar strategy that I also had to employ for the grade 7s. I put up on the chalkboard how much time the class had to stay after class. Started at 4 minutes and if they continued chatting, the time would go up in 2 minute increments but if they started behaving better, the time would go down. Like yours, it worked with varying success! I ended up keeping them for 2 minutes at the end of the day and it seemed like the longest 2 minutes of my life with them all staring at me, but I think they got the message. That's so great about you playing the piano at the assembly too! I wish I saw it. Can't believe we're already halfway done! Aa good luck the rest of the way
Hi Catharine,
ReplyDeleteI want to see you play the piano too!!! our school did a lot of singing for the remembrance day assembly, almost all the students in the school got to perform one song, even the kindergartens, I can't imagine myself being in that music teacher's position right now.
I will take your stopwatch strategy as well, for now my students are getting better when I ask for their attention. As you know, I don't have a loud voice, waiting and getting students attention is more difficult. I do have one or two students who always chit chat. My AT also puts a check mark on the board for every minute they have to stay during recess and it really works.
All the best for the next two weeks!:)