Monday 23rd November half day

Today was my first day of half teaching, and overall it went relatively well. The students were
a bit slow to start, as it was a Monday morning, however I kept persisting and was eventually
able to get responses and discussion out of them. This demonstrates that it is important to
persist when the students are not responding the way you expect you can change your line
of questioning or change the way youre asking the questions.
I have been having some behaviour management issues with some of the boys, who are still
testing me coming into the second week. They are constantly talking, being disruptive and
distracting. After numerous attempts to start out firm last week, I needed to follow it up with
even more authority today. Subsequently, I moved them and split them up straight away
without giving them warnings. This seemed to work for a short period of time, which I believe
means that I need to be consistent with this and continue to manage their behaviour in this
way. I think the key to my behaviour management in this classroom is consistency students
need to know and acknowledge their misbehaviour and respond appropriately. When they are
moved, they know they have done the wrong thing, however this doesnt necessarily deter
them. Hopefully, if I remain consistent, they will rectify their wrong behaviour and not be so
disruptive when I am teaching.
I am having some problems getting the students attention my Associate Teacher uses a
whistle, however I am yet to develop an effect method. I need to immediately work on a way
to get all students to stop and listen rather than yelling to get their attention. This can be
ineffective as the students often ignore it or do not hear it.
I was worried about the Twister activity in regards to behaviour management. Consequently, I
put the students into groups according to who I believe works well together. This worked
really well all of groups except one were focused and engaged, and were having fun. I was
also concerned as I knew that students couldnt simply play the game they needed to
explore and investigate the probability involved. To combat this, I had students complete a
sheet whilst they were playing the game, however this wasnt enough to gain what they
needed to with their learning. Although we had some sharing at the end of the session, more
time was needed to write down their thoughts and to share. Thus, I will follow up this activity
tomorrow, addressing the misconceptions as noted from their sheets.

Tuesday 24th November

Today was a bit of a mixed day as one of my lessons went really well, whilst the other didnt
work so well. My maths lesson was a great success, and it is a huge relief to teach a lesson
that worked well in all areas. The students task was to rotate around the room, playing five
different probability games. Before they did this, I made sure I revisited yesterdays lesson as
I ended it too abruptly and they didnt gain what they should have from it. This was effective,
as the students who were confused yesterday seemed to understand the ideas and
processes today. I have learnt that in these mini-lessons, it is important to use the students to
provide explanations to their peers. This is because they use language and explain it in a way
that other students can comprehend. Using examples and non-examples to explain fair and
unfair games was hugely beneficial for students to recognise that not all games of chance
have to be fair. The students were all engaged with the games, which could be attributed to
the short amount of time spent playing each game. I made sure that I roamed the room,
checking each group and questioning them about how the activity relates to probability to
enable them to make those important connections. I also ensured that I allowed time at the
conclusion of the lesson for students to share and explain how probability was involved in
each of the games. I will be playing one of the games with the whole class in the next session
as some students had trouble understanding this game.
My inquiry session didnt go according to plan in that the students didnt gain all that they
should have and what I wanted them to. There was good discussion about their prior
knowledge, and activity on the SmartBoard really engaged the students and they enjoyed
doing it. The main activity involving research was good, however it could have been better for
students to gain more from it. Subsequently, Im changing the plan for tomorrow and am doing
a follow up lesson. This demonstrates the need to be flexible and the ability to adapt lessons
based on how well they work, or do not work, and student learning.
Today I implemented the simple technique of clapping to get students attention. I explained
that it meant to stop what they are doing and to look and listen. It wasnt immediately effective
as students still kept talking at times, however I am interested to see how it works in the
coming days and whether or not I need to adopt an alternative technique.
I had somewhat of a win in terms of behaviour management today. I removed two boys from a
game we were playing. This appeared to affect them differently than my previous strategy of
moving and separating them has. They seemed genuinely upset that they were missing out,
and it demonstrated to them my authority. This positively influenced their behaviour for the
next session, in which they were focused and not disruptive. However, my Associate Teacher
had to speak to four boys today about their behaviour when I am teaching. This was difficult
for me, as I didnt want it to get to the stage where this had to occur, but I think that it will be
helpful as hopefully they will behave more appropriately as they know what is expected of
them. It was also hard for me as they think that I am sometimes picking on them, as I dont
seem to be telling off the girls when they are talking. This proves to me that I need to be
consistent and make sure I am disciplining the girls as well, so the boys dont feel like they
are being hard done by. One useful tactic that I can use in behaviour management is varying
my tone between discussion with students and the whole class and disciplining a student or
group. This will hopefully assist in showing them how serious I am.

Friday 27th November

I was a bit disappointed with my teaching today as I felt that I moved backwards rather than
forward in terms of improvement. My responsibility today was the literacy block, in which
students had to finish listening to the audio book of Roald Dahls Boy, and then write a book
report. Students had to sit silently for about twenty-five to thirty minutes whilst they listened to
the story. I knew this was going to cause me some issues in regards to behaviour
management, as I had some problems with the same session last week. To rectify this
situation, I talked to the perpetrators of the disruptive behaviour from last week, warning them
of the expectations and the consequences if they were to misbehave again. This seemed to
be effective for the first half of the session, however I went wrong in that I only warned them
against making silly faces like last week. Instead, I should have warned them against ALL bad
behaviour, setting the standards for appropriate behaviour. In particular, the boys were set off
by the word fag, being silly, laughing and ultimately being inappropriate. I gave them too
many chances and allowed them to continue to be silly for too long. I should have moved
them as soon as they started to act inappropriately, or written their names on the board as I
had threatened. Instead, my AT had to intervene and move one of the boys completely sway
from the others as he was influencing them. I then had to move another boy as he also kept
distracting the others. Overall, I was frustrated in that I didnt manage their behaviour better
and that my AT had to interfere. Behaviour management is obviously a long-term goal for me
as it has always been one of my weaker areas that I would like to improve. This particular
placement has greatly challenged me in this area as there are a few testing students that I am
trying to manage effectively.
Furthermore, I confused my students when giving them instructions. I wasnt direct enough in
outlining the expectations and what they needed to do my delivery of instructions needs
some work. I need to be clear, concise and firm, eliminating the opportunity for students to get
confused. For example, I should have said its a one page book report on Boy by Roald
Dahl with an introduction, body paragraph and a conclusion. Key things to include are you
will have fifteen minutes today and fifteen minutes on Tuesday to complete it. I just need to
be more direct and less confusing.
I still need to work on my tone and communication with the students, having different tones for
different occasions. For example, I need to adopt a more conversational and gentle tone
when talking to the students and teaching them so that they open up and are willing to
contribute. I then need to implement a stern and firm one when disciplining students, so they
realise that they are in trouble and that I mean business.
During this session, I was able to observe the effectiveness of playing calming and relaxing
music in the background. The students know that this means they must work hard and
efficiently, and it worked they really put their heads down and worked steadily for the fifteen
minutes that they had to work on it. The session also further reiterated the need for flexibility
in the classroom I had originally planned for the report to be completely finished during this
time, however the reading of the book went for much longer than I anticipated. This meant
that we had to push the writing of the report into next week. As my AT says, you can always
make time.