You're my favourite class, too

I love my Year 10 class. They are full of charisma, opinions, personality and energy. But they hated poetry. I love poetry. I love how writers cleverly manipulate language to create the most expressive phrases and show me the world from entirely new perspectives. We have great (southern) New Zealand poets, and I thought I was introducing them to the students in interesting ways. They didn't think so. Brian Turner's 'Pebbles' seems to me both a commentary on the changing environment, as well insight into a different sense of belonging and perspective: 'We belong in water / untroubled by envy for anything / born to live in the loneliness of air'. I got the students to think about their own knowledge of rivers, and to choose their own interpretation of rivers.We followed this up with a brief comparison with another Turner river poem, 'Audible'. They were able to complete sentences, but as for independent thinking, well... For 'Deep River Talk' by ...

With internal exams finished, marked and entered, I've been turning my attentions to getting my students through their BIG exams at the end of the year. While I'm pleased with the pass rates, I know there's heaps of room to lift more of my students' performances into the Merit and Excellence range. I believe that we can do it! First up (and something I'm really proud of), I've been working hard to create a revision booklet* which covers the key skills that the Year 11s will need to master. These are writing insightful literary essays and reading and interpreting unfamiliar texts. I've found some resources online (and acknowledged these!) but most of the activities I've developed myself. I'm really emphasising the importance of personal voice. I want my kids to write responses which show that they have thought about, learned from and engaged in the texts we have studied. I don't want my class to parrot things we have done in class, and alt...

After a long period of resistance, I'm Twittering. Well, not truly Twittering yet, mostly observing, searching, reading and being astounded at what a great professional development source Twitter is. Just this evening, I've: Found a classroom blog I want to emulate next year:  http://www.iseroma.com/   And read the same teacher's professional blog: http://iserotope.com/ Subscribed to an ICT in Education newsletter:  http://www.ictineducation.org/newsletter/ Found a fun game for ESOL:  http://www.englishraven.com/cardgame_mysterypeople.html Reflected on the importance of building relationships:  http://umakeadiff.blogspot.com/2011/09/its-all-about-relationships.html This is all through links people have put onto Twitter - awesome! And I'm sure I haven't figured out even a fraction of the what I can do through Twitter yet. I'm a convert - thanks for the guidance, Barry .

Co-operative, because I'm not fond of the double 'o's in cooperative. Any-hoo. Today I attended a meeting where one of the focuses was on co-operative learning strategies. As a group we were privileged to participate in three very different co-operative learning activities: the doughnut, bus-stop and continuum. As an adult learner I enjoyed each of these activities. As a teacher I believe in using co-operative strategies regularly in the classroom. But (you saw that coming), I'm not sure how I can feasibly introduce these particular methods into some of my classrooms. I get nervous. I get nervous about chaos, about students talking about everything but the task at hand, and even worse, about students sitting in silence. I'm nervous because of experience. Last week, Year 9 groups were asked to brainstorm everything they knew about two things in preparation for a new unit study. Some did it. Those who were with the T.A did it well. In other groups, I saw maybe...

I've been reflecting on my classroom practices recently (thanks ERO). One of the things I've noticed is that my reflections have become increasingly about the delivery of content as opposed to the management of students. I don't think this is because my management is necessarily any better, but when students aren't working, I guess I'm viewing this as a lack of engagement that I can perhaps do something about, rather than as a specifically management (and what the students are doing) issue. As a teacher, I'm continually trying to devise interesting and engaging lessons which will keep the students interested. The best lessons are usually those which offer a range of activities, and which cater to students with a variety of learning needs. Two techniques which I've found particularly useful are differentiated instruction, which can take many forms; and offering students the choice of activities to do, or a self directed booklet to guide th...

During one of my PRT One courses I was privileged to learn from  the estimable Margaret Ross. Among the great advice and experience she had to offer, the one point that stuck with me the most was the advice to treat every class as your favourite, including those most difficult. I went back to school. My year 10 class was without a doubt (and even excluding my first year overwhelmed perspective) the most challenging of the cohort. I was a first year teacher, and part time at that, and there were times when I just couldn't get them to shut up. I hated shouting. I refused to talk over students, but what that meant, practically, was that I could be waiting a very long time before I could say anything. Forget teaching from the front - there was little tolerance for that approach. The class drove me nuts. So, I after listening to Margaret, I went back to school, took a very deep breath before stepping in the classroom, and went in smiling. They were to be, in ...