More Classroom Management!!!

Though I really want a noisy class, my students here in Aleppo are going a little bit beyond my hopes and expectations. I fear that I will have to make an example of a few students this week and assign some lunchtime detentions. It will be my own brand of detention: lunch taken in silence followed by a debrief of why the students are staying in and making a plan to ensure they do not find themselves in at lunch again. (Lofty goals for a thirty minute lunch break!) I am somewhat hesitant to assign detentions though because I have observed that these consequences do not seem to stick with this particular group of students.

I think that these students need a tailor-made approach. I agree that they need to practice their listening skills and being respectful towards others, but they should be practicing these habits through opportunities that either play on their strengths or are so meaningful to these students that the kids cannot help but get tuned in and focused.

I have encountered a lot of middle-school aged kids as a camp counsellor, and there are always kids who are not listeners. When considering boys in particular – it is the behaviour of the boys in my classes that other teachers and myself are finding the most challenging – these guys can often be self-centered doers and jokers who feed off of one another. They like to talk, which unfortunately interferes with their listening. While I agree that these students can do some great work when they finally sit down and get to it, the fact that there is a regular struggle between teacher and student to get to that productive point suggests that these students are lacking buy-in. The typical presentation of the material does not jive for these students.

Some teachers manage this group by being strict disciplinarians and maintaining a rigid class structure. Personally, I find it hard to believe that a student constantly sent into the hallway or to the vice-principal is going to eventually start learning effectively, although the rest of the class might be kept in line through this one person’s punishment. I think that it is better to channel students’ energy rather than fight and contain it because the majority of these students are going to grow out of their self-centered behaviour anyways! Students receive countless reminders about listening to and being respectful towards other, but it is a lot nicer for everybody involved if students are praised for when they do listen instead of being reprimanded when they do not.

As I go through my last week of in-class teaching, it is my hope to put some of these vague notions into practice. Wish me luck as I try making up lessons for students who really like being at school but have trouble listening once they have an opportunity to start talking!

Happy Easter!

Managing Age, Language, and Education

What is causing so much nervous energy in my students? As I began teaching the Grade 6 and Grade 7 Humanities classes this week, I was fascinated, intrigued, and a little horrified at the constant motion these students demonstrate throughout a period. The students at this school are all very polite to teachers, and it is pretty wonderful when students go out of their way between periods to pop their head inside the staff room and say hello. On the other hand – wow! The effort it takes to get them to listen to me or each other once they are worked up is a little overwhelming!

As I have been putting together my lessons to teach these students about the Crusader castles we are visiting in just two weeks, I have repeatedly been considering where their motion, their energy, and their sociability flows from in the hopes of tapping into that energy rather than suppressing it! After working with kids of the same age at summer camp, part of me feels that these students are simply acting their age. Eleven- and twelve-year olds can be bad listeners and are very active. I also wonder if the fact that English – the language of instruction – is a second language to the majority of these kids plays into their behaviour. I can tell that a good deal of their discussion is the result of explaining something to a neighbour. Finally, I am also aware that I am working with kids who have been brought up in a very social culture. Students do not see each other outside of school and so class time seems to be regarded as another opportunity to catch up, play, and hang out!

We will see how the week goes, but one thing is certain – I do not need to get the students excited to learn at the beginning of each period. These kids are already firing on all cylinders. Maybe if I build up the excitement throughout the class, I will have a little more success harnessing that energy! On the other hand, the kids here are just as wonderful here as they anywhere else I have been, so I know that I am going to laugh with them in spite of whatever challenges they throw my way!

Lesson Planning 2.0

When I am pulling together resources for a lesson plan, I usually read through the text assigned to students, read the pertinent sections from whatever books are a part of my secret syllabus for that course, and then start searching the internet for images, primary sources, black line masters, and activity ideas that can enhance my students’ learning experience. I always rely on my own resources first because I am familiar with my own books and notes, but I usually look to internet sources to avoid having to re-invent too many wheels.

At the beginning of the year, I decided that carrying a binder of photocopies and lesson plans through my career was not for me. I wanted to get with the times and keep my resources digital; consequently, I am always hopeful that the internet will provide me with helpful teaching tools. Sadly, I am frequently disappointed with the quality or availability of teaching resources, and I am sure that many of my colleagues often feel the same way. I imagine that they do what I do – lift the general concept and transform it into something that is actually engaging for students and will last more than fifteen minutes. (Because let’s be serious some of the online lessons promising to last for a whole period would not play for even half that time in the real world!) Unless the resource or lesson idea is superb, we really do not want to directly copy the resource; however, it is incredibly helpful to have digital activity plans and worksheets that can be adapted, changed, chopped into little bits, and made our own. In short, we need Lesson Planning 2.0 where lessons, skill practice, and content are collected together but in discreet packages that can be universally accessed and infinitely hacked. Lesson Planning 2.0 would challenge some educators to move beyond simply printing a worksheet off the internet and instead plan for their specific group of students, and our learners would benefit by receiving lessons that had been thoughtfully tailored to their own interests and learning needs.

The internet can provide teachers with ready access to the tools necessary for enhancing students’ learning experiences. Until we start advocating for dynamic databases that encourage users to continually add value to these applications, educators will limit the professional collaborative opportunities presented by the internet and Web 2.0.

Lesson Plans: To Share Around or Stow Away?

Throughout my B.Ed year, I have had the opportunity to share some really wonderful resources with classmates and come away with a variety of teaching and classroom management strategies. Perhaps more significantly, my Associate Teachers were willing to share their library of resources with me; however, they asked me not to pass these resources on any further. While I will faithfully use these resources only for planning my own lessons, I must argue that many teachers are overly worried about giving away lesson plans and resources. Like the chisel in the hands of a master craftswoman or craftsman, teaching tools will have the greatest impact on students when implemented by confident, competent, and reflective educators. The presentation and execution of an activity guarantees its success and value; when the activity is written down on a page, it has only the potential for creating a successful teachable moment.

I must admit that I did recently withhold complete lesson plans in favour of providing brief outlines of the activities I had led, but in the future I hope to be much more free with the content that I put together. Many of my best ideas are adaptations I have pulled from other contexts, so the lessons I create are only in part my own to begin with. If I take the time to type out, label, and organize my lessons, I should consider this a favour to fellow educators.

I suppose that sharing our treasured binders of lessons and activities strikes at the very heart of humility in education.

The Smooth Lesson

When I led Music & Drama sessions and Leader-In-Training sessions at Camp Kintail, it was always important for me to have quick, smooth transitions between activities in order to hold campers’ interest and attention. I also remember being told as an undergraduate student to work on smooth transitions between paragraphs in the essays that I wrote.

While observing my associate teachers and reflecting on my own practice, it occurred to me that leading a seamless lesson is every bit as important as creating smooth camp activities or essays. Students are given opportunities to lose focus when there are unexpected breaks between a mini-lecture and an activity or when certain lab materials still need to be pulled out. If I am mentally prepared for my lesson and have all my handouts and materials organized before the class, I think that I will be more successful in sustaining student focus on both teacher-centered and student-centered activities. Some students might be more motivated to engage in class work and activities if they feel that I am organized and not wasting their time trying to get my own act together. Other students who have trouble staying on task throughout an entire period might simply benefit from having a constant and consistent focus for the full seventy minutes.

The ability to lead a smooth, seamless lesson is thus not only a classroom management technique but also a pathway to success for students who experience difficulties learning in a classroom setting.