You know I've seen things like anti-bullying policies saying you will do this and you won't
do that.
I don't really think that works because I've worked with a guy before who used to talk
about white noise, so if you're talking to a kid and he doesn't...you know, you're laying
out a list of rules or you're talking too much, after about ten seconds they just hear
(white noise) like that going on.
And..
So the easiest way is to get them to talk to you and say what they think, and then you
can board what they think and then go on from there.
But if you're just laying it down then they'll listen, or they'll pretend to listen but it
doesn't necessarily mean that it's going in or that they're going to do it either.
Can we run?
Why can't we run?
Uh uh answer...why can't we run?
Yes?
(student) It's dangerous.
Why is it dangerous Richard?
(student) Because you can fall down Yeah we might fall down, yeah, okay.
And no pushing please, no fighting, no kissing, no killing!
And normally actually, I've forgotten that one but I normally will do things as well
like say, you know, don't take a pencil, because why not?
And then do the whole thing about, you know, you might stab someone in the eye, I get my
shirt covered in blood, and I've got to phone 999 and then, you know, my boss gets angry
because I've got to clean the carpet, maybe your mother will be angry because she's got
to clean, and these kind of things as well.
So when we...you know, they know the rules and they'll start...they start telling you
but they, they're common rules, you know?
They'll be things that they have in their own school, but because it's a little bit
different here you just need to remind them about them.
Okay Kieran...Richie, what does Kieran need to do now?
Yeah but can you write them down?
Okay.
At the start you have to be quite...well you have to be very consistent with how they're
applied.
(Students working together)
This one - real or not real?
Uh uh, hands up if you think he is real.
What do you think this robot can do?
Hands up please, hands up!
Daisy!
(Student)...and they can shoot rays...
Can they?
Okay, maybe some can.
Okay.
Yes?
Ah ah!
Sh!
Hands up please if you're going to speak.
What movie is this one from?
(Students) Star Wars!
Star Wars.
Hands up next time please.
Yeah, so this one's from Star Wars.
Hands up again if you know his name.
I try and be as consistent as I can but sometimes, in some situations you might get a bit...you
know, if the kids are for example communicating or if you're feeding back or something and
they're not, they're not putting up their hands for example, but it's working without
them, it's working with them not putting up their hands.
It's okay because everyone is getting...
they all feel very comfortable and it's got a lot less formal, then I think that's fine
as long as you're consistent with it.
So I couldn't just say, oh yeah this table, yeah that's fine.
No, you put up your hand.
If I say you've got to put up your hand then everyone has to put up their hand.
In the first class we set up rules.
What I tend to do is I give them scenarios, like there's a student who's not very confident
and he tries to talk in class but nobody listens to him, or nobody can hear him because other
people are always talking at the same time and then there was another one who was always
talking when the teacher was talking.
So one of the rules they come up with is 'always listen to the teacher'.
And I was like, well what does that mean?
And like 'ah well, don't talk when the teacher's talking.'
And then I was like but what about this other one?
You know, why shouldn't we listen when other people are talking as well?
So that's kind of established, that...they've written that down and they know that they
shouldn't do it.
So that one I always pick up because I always want them to speak and I don't want just one
child to speak, I want them all to be confident speaking.
So yeah, it's one of the things that we're quite big on is not just listen to me but
listen to each other 'cause quite often...
I mean you saw with those robots, like one of them, I wasn't sure what it did, so they
came, they had much better ideas about what it might do than me.
It has wheels and legs.
How tall is it?
(Students talking) Natalie.
Natalie.
There are different schools of thought.
I know there's one teacher here, a senior teacher I think, who says that you shouldn't
say please to kids but I think the first time, yeah I'd say please.
Kieran!
Kieran.
Away please.
But second time, if you hadn't, then put it away now.
I get more stern.
But there's a thing where you, I think, say if you shout or if you're very harsh in tone
all the time then it loses its impact.
If you spill Coke all over the table, well why does he have Coke?
I think 'cause if you don't manage the little things then it'll be a problem later.
You know, mechanical pencils have got to be one of the most annoying things ever and like,
because they'll spend, I mean adults will do this, they'll spend ages fiddling with
a mechanical pencil.
So if you don't tell them to put everything away, like you know, get a pencil, get out
a mechanical pencil, fair play.
But then if you don't tell them to put everything else away then they'll get out their little
bit of lead and they'll start stuffing it in and they'll start doing like this.
You know, even if you're talking, or you've set it up, you've put the instructions on
the board quite clearly what you want them to do, but they'll still start looking in
the book.
You know, well why are you looking in the book?
So you take the book away and then it's not a problem.
And it does look like maybe at times like you're obsessing about little things but then
I never have an issue with two kids getting in a fight because one of them took a pencil
from the other one or somebody, you know, pushed someone's pencil case off the table,
or somebody wrote something on somebody else's book, or someone was writing notes.
Well you can't write notes because there's no small bits of paper and there's no pencil
unless you need a pencil.
Books away and put that paper in your folder for the moment please.
Your tables clear and you'll need a pencil and a rubber, okay?
Tables clear in thirty seconds, I'll give you your cards.
29, 28, 27, 26
Get a pencil but I don't want any pencil cases on your table.
You can get a rubber and get your book as well please.
It's little breaks as well so it helps with transitions.
So you know, right so now we're going to be doing something involving the book so you
get your book out, you put it on the table, you're using the book, now we've finished
that, so you put the book away because we've moved on.
We're not using the book any more.
When I was doing the PGCE, a lot of the stuff I was reading, when I was being observed it
became quite apparent that a lot of management issues that I might have or that might come
up were a result of a lack of planning, How do I go from this stage into this stage, into
this stage?
And what will they be doing when I'm doing this?
So you know, if I want to go and talk to one table, what are the other tables doing?
Because that's a potential for them not to be doing what they should be doing.
If I'm writing on the board, how do I know that they're going to be engaged.
I'm not saying by any means that it should be like a slick performance because, if your
students bring up something else you have to be able to divert to go on to that.
But if you're making up a lesson as you go along then you're naturally going to have
to have thinking time and you're naturally going to have to pause and look at things.
Or for example setting up visual material or the audio, if you're messing around with
the CD, that's dead time to them and they're going to get bored.
Do you think this one's real?
Okay hands up if you think it's not real.
Okay so, these two tables...you're correct!
Very good, okay so one.
Well done, yes you are correct, okay?.
So yes...
If they're sitting properly or they put their things away, that kind of thing, they get
a card.
We then use the cards, we count up at the end and the winning team gets two stamps.
And then over the semester if you get 25 stamps you get a prize.
40, 51, 61, 70, 72, 76, 81, 87 for this table.
Because it's cards it's entirely random so you could have a team that's always answering
all the questions correctly and they just keep picking twos and threes and one kid just
answers one question correctly and if he picks a king, then his team get more points.
The tables that do very well academically are always the tables that, you know, will
win in these kind of games but you know there's other things at play as well.
There's like you know, trying hard, following rules, listening to instructions and these
things matter as well.
The kids that are struggling, you've got to give them loads of opportunities to catch
up or to be good.
You can have little words with them like you know, that's five minutes you've still been
really good, well done, reward them.
Little one to one conversations like that during classes, I think if you've got a child
who's trying to make amends, I think make a big, big difference to them.