It’s a great privilege at Acacia School that we’re able to split what are already, by UK state school standards, small groups, into 2 for mathematics, which we call ‘core’ and ‘extended’. And I’m really enjoying teaching Grade 7 (Year 8) core, a group of 8 students. They may not find the subject easy but my goodness they’re prepared to work hard! They show every sign of really enjoying the settler (please see this blog post) and get annoyed with each other if somebody blurts out an answer which they’ve already reserved.
They also really like coming to the white board, either in conversation with me or to talk to the whole group. What is noticeable is that, when they come to the board to explain things to the rest of the group, they become far stricter than any teacher would ever dare to be. So, a single eyeball out of place gives rise to a lunch time detention, whilst a sneeze gives rise to the response to, “You’re panelled”.
Just to explain – students serve lunch time detentions for minor offences, these are organised extremely quickly after the offence, even on the same day, which from a psychological point of view in keeping the offence clearly attached to the consequence seems to me to be excellent. If students are given 4 or more detentions within a set period of time, the view is taken that detention does not seem to be getting the message across so a panel is established including the student him/herself, parents, and senior members of staff, to discuss what is going on, what needs to change, and what support needs to be offered. This is ‘being panelled’. A clear and proportionate escalation from detentions, I would suggest – but probably a bit of an overaction to a sneeze.
I remember when I was working in initial teacher training and also volunteering as a Sunday School teacher for the 5-7 year old group in the church I attended at the time. It came out on one occasion that my job was teaching teachers which they found extremely funny. One of them, wagging his finger vigorously, said, “Do you teach them to do this?” Actually, I said, I teach them not to do that – but I’m not sure that the children fully believed me.
It is curious how stereotypes as to how teachers behave persist, maybe when I retire I’ll consider this point further. Meanwhile, any thoughts on this point gratefully received!
One other thing from school. As we return to normal after COVID a number of routines are being re-established, including the idea that, when students mark their own work, they do so with a green pen. Teachers were invited to go the school office to take as many pens as we needed, I decided that I needed 15, aware of the responsibility which goes with it. I was convinced that I was going to be losing them constantly so have over-compensated, counting them out loudly and glaring at students as they take one, making it clear that I expect at least 1 back at the end of the lesson. Grade 7 students are now refusing to borrow them from me on the grounds that the responsibility is too great. Meanwhile, having started with 15 I’m currently on 18, not entirely sure how this is happening but if people do leave them lying around….
I’ve also been thinking further about bodas recently but I’ll leave that now for next week. Thank you for reading, trust you have a good week in store!
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