I was involved in organisation of the Newcastle Uni PGCE homecoming committee and at one of the meetings Jo McShane, the PGCE Director at Newcastle excitedly announced that we had secured the head Vic Goddard and deputy Stephen Drew to come and talk to us.  We were told that we were privileged to have them as they had turned down numerous requests to go elsewhere and what would we like them to talk about.  At this point I was completely intrigued, wondering why if the school was such a sham – even though it had been graded Outstanding by Ofsted, what did we have to gain?  Was it just the star status we were looking for?

I can’t believe that I let those misguided opinions of one blog, of which must have been some old rotting cynic inform an opinion of these two individuals and their school.  The two gentlemen were without a doubt the most charismatic speakers of the day for me, and I struggle to sit through lectures and this one ran over by thirty minutes.  The content of the lecture was such a vital source of CPD for trainee teachers and NQTs focussing on all aspects of the role of a teacher and potential progression into SLT.  The passion and enthusiasm of Messieurs Goddard and Drew was without a doubt infectious, and you could not doubt their ambitions for their students.  Vic Goddard, who openly refers to himself as a 6ft 4 jessie as he can get emotional when talking about problematic students or of the contrary successes of students certainly left me with a lump in my throat, but also proud that I shared a profession with someone equally as passionate as me about this profession – and someone who was not afraid to say it as it is, not feeling the need to dress up the whole occasion with formality but with raw emotion.   This certainly resonated a great deal with myself, and from what I could see others in the room.  When I left (after getting a cheeky couple of photos), I can honestly say that it was a privilege to have had that opportunity to be sat in that lecture theatre that afternoon.

After having had this experience, I just had to watch the programme, and in all truthfulness, they were exactly the same.  Passionate, caring, insistent etc… What on earth did I read?

Things I would like to say to reply to that initial blog post.  Make sure that you understand the full context of the educational setting and environment before passing judgement – just because something works one way in your school, doesn’t necessarily mean that it will work in every part of the country with every cohort of every school.  Okay, so sometimes the staff refer to the children as ‘mate’, if the school was on it’s knees and in special measures, then maybe it would possibly be one small tiny thing to consider, however the case is quite the contrary.

One thing I will take from the episodes I have seen so far (1-3) is that it is possible to have a fun and outgoing personality, but also have the students know where the behaviour boundaries are.  As an NQT, this is something that I am developing as it takes time to establish yourself in a new school.  When you can name most of the children who walk past you, you know you are on the right tracks.  If I can be half the educators that these guys are when I grow up – I will be happy!

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On a Wednesday I stay at school until around 5:20pm as I have a class at the local University and today, instead of sitting in front of the computer doing some kind of work none stop, then feeling too shattered for the class I decided to do something that I have never done in my school…

…I put up a display of the student’s work so far.  Okay, not exactly riveting enough for you to click the ‘read more’ button, however, I had to overcome a hurdle to get to a point where my students had got to a point where they had been able to have the freedom to produce a piece of display work.

If you have read any of my previous blogs, you will have heard me moan about the lack of contact time.  I will have seen each of my twenty classes approximately 20 x 100 minutes this year.  I have a rigid scheme of work, rigid because I wrote it, because I wanted the students to learn as much as possible in the limited time we had.  As a result, every 100min lesson has so far been a fast haste of 5-10 minute activities testing and practicing as much new vocabulary as possible completely controlled by myself not forgetting the starter, vocab test and plenary!

Anyway, with my lower ability classes, I wanted them to ‘celebrate’ what they had learned so far, so armed with their vocab books and a dictionary they had just learned how to use, I asked them to write me the longest piece of writing about themselves, and include opinions of what they liked and didn’t like, all in Spanish of course and after being given a demonstration and reminded of the C3B4ME principle.

They absolutely loved it and some produced epic pieces, some not wanting to put their pens down at all, some only managed three correct sentences, but they were sentences they had achieved independently, which is a big deal for some of our students.  Below is the sample of the WIP display (my first ever in secondary).

Behaviour was not such an issue in the lower sets (C and D bands out of A, B, C, D) as the students were extremely engaged, they managed without every movement they made being dictated by me.  More importantly, they benefitted from discovery learning – they chose the direction their writing went, they chose the vocabulary and even though some of the words may not have been written in my scheme (and some random ones I didn’t know myself) the students remembered their meanings as they were significant to them.

I tried a similar approach with my B bands, however they would have to take 5 sentences home and learn them by heart at the end of it all and were expected to cover more topics.  Behaviour was not brilliant, one of my classes took 4 attempts at me explaing what they had to do and they were barely on task.  One of the reasons I was always wary of ‘letting them go’ in the first place.  I am still wondering for those groups, which is the best approach, although I am believeing that the dictator approach gets more work done overall, but does it mean the work is retained more?

On my PGCE I was first observed delivering an activity where I was acting as a facilitator and letting the students get on with it.  It was okay to let those students go and explore and be independent because I didn’t actually have the responsibility of their overall outcomes…  I was praised for doing that in my observation then as “some teachers find it hard to do”.  Throughout my first term I became one of those teachers, changed what I was doing upoon reflection, and to some extent understood why some teachers did not exactly want to loosen their grip!

Does anyone else have to think about these issues in their subject? Pace, control of lesson correlating with poor behaviour?

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Click here for full flyer A free CPD event for teachers of MFL .

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This day being run by Rachel Hawkes offers practical examples in French, German and Spanish of tasks and strategies for teaching speaking and writing that help all students to achieve their potential in languages, at KS3 and in the new GCSE. All materials will be available on CD for teachers to take away and use immediately in the classroom and there will be the opportunity for all teachers to network and share their own strategies too. 

Click here for full details and contact Flyer_Draft1_Middlesborough_270112

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The 17th of November will see the official launch of ALL Middlesbrough, created for us south of the river Tyne, welcoming ALL languages teachers from the UK to discuss local and national issues.

Here is the programme for the 17th:

16:00 – 16:15
Refreshments and chance to mix with colleagues.

UPDATE: There will be some Spanish style tapas kindly conjured up by the food technology department.  Please let me know if you are attending for catering purchases.

16:15 – 16:20
Welcome by Issac Greaves Ormesby School, Middlesbrough.

UPDATE: Steven Fawkes will be making an appearance and discussing The Language World and the North East.

16:20 – 16:30
Questionnaire:  What would you like to see happen in your network?

16:30 – 17:15
Helena Butterfield of St Michaels in Billingham                         ‘Engagement and independence through e-twinning’.

17:15 – 17:35
Christine Robertson of Middlesbrough Council outlining possible project opportunities with Auvergne in France.

17:35 – 17:50
Christmas resource and idea sharing/show and tell.
Please bring along some copies of resources that you use at Christmas time with your students to share with others.

Event to be hosted at

Ormesby School,
Tothill Avenue,
Netherfields,
Middlesbrough,
TS3 ORH

Map for directions 

tel. 01642 452191
fax. 01642 446472

Contact Issac at allmiddlesbrough@gmail.com  or leave a message for more information.  Please feel free to comment below with any questions or to confirm that you will be attending.  Look forward to seeing/hearing from you!

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Along with other NQT’s who have blogged over the last week, I have not managed to find my rhythm of teaching yet either, this is probably due to the fact that I still have not met all of my classes, and the differences between the ones I have met (in terms of their bands of ability), I am still awaiting in anticipation the opportunity to complete my timetable.  On the other hand, I am more awake than I was this time last week, and feel alive therefore I can only presume that the ‘jetlag’ is starting to wear off.

I wanted to use this blog to share some of the things that have worked (so far – honeymoon period?) with my classes in terms of behaviour management, drawing upon the theory and putting it into practice.

Don’t smile before Christmas

I honestly don’t believe that you have to go this far, however I have made a point of not smiling, until I have established myself with the students.  With some classes this has been fifteen minutes although I have two classes that I have not smiled in yet, and have no intention of smiling until they play my way.

Routine

I was really pleased that after the head called the NQT’s (there are five of us) to his room for a meeting, he laid out his guidelines for effective classroom routines, and I was glad I had already being employing some of them, and that I could honestly say they had been working. This is my procedure for my classes:

1. Line the students outside, don’t let them in until they are silent, facing the forwards with their arms by their sides and not leaning on anything.
2. The first time I had my students in MY classroom, I explained to them it was MY room and they were welcome in there as long as they behaved and were in a mind-set to work.
3. Put the students in a seating plan, boy-girl.  I also arranged my tables in rows facing the front.  Students do this in silence or they line up outside again (this repeats until you have complete silence and compliance).
4. Students say hello sir in Spanish before they are allowed to sit, get their planners and pens out.
5. Don’t tolerate shouting out.
6. Always stick to your promises of punishments, chase the students up if they miss, or you suspect they will miss the detention.

Although I have seen all but four of my approximately twenty classes, I have only had to give detentions to students in two classes, seven students in each of those classes were punished, heads of year involved and one parent was called so I could keep her daughter for a further 40 minutes.  One of those two classes I spent 60 minutes with them lining them up in silence entering the classroom in silence over and over again.  They soon wanted to work for the remaining 40 minutes of the lesson.  My head refers to this as ‘breaking their spirit’ and draws parallels with breaking in wild horses – I can completely see why!  The rest worked out to plan and some students even stayed in to finish their work through choice!  Year nines may I add to that.

Some may say this is over the top, and I think back to my Primary placement before my PGCE.  I thought the class teacher was over the top with sanctions i.e. if a student fidgeted etc.  I was/am just not prepared to see what the alternative is.  I want to teach and make sure that no student is excluded from their curriculum by other students who just can’t control themselves.

I felt like I wanted to share this after a fellow NQT mentioned what a nightmare she was having with more classes than me, I asked if she was doing any of the above, she wasn’t.  She said that she had given her students the benefit of the doubt because they were Y10’s (my worse class is Y10).  I remember back in Maths when I was a student; the Maths teacher said he would treat us like adults… I had to retake Maths whilst completing my A levels, the whole class walked all over him.

One thing I need to remind myself of however in these really bad (two) classes, is that where there is sanction, there is praise.  This is not so hard to remember for minor misdemeanours, however when you can’t get a word out without someone talking you try to get the subject knowledge out before any praise.

One more target in terms of theory and practice is voice care… I need a silk scarf as my throat is suffering from all the talking and explaining (I don’t usually teach like that).  I picked up from the NASUWT training that wearing a silk scarf helps?  My woollen one will have to do for now!

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There are so many things I want to write about after having such an interesting week.  All of the preparation for behaviour management has paid off so far, and I do accept this is the honeymoon period.  However, I am living in hope that the ‘start as you mean to go on’ analogy works for both parties and not just the teacher.  We will see! So far so good! *TOUCH WOOD*

The restorative pedagogy approach that I wrote about in my last blog post  has been so far successful and has produced some enlightening responses from my students especially the lower attainers.  Words cannot express how proud I was of my year eights during one of these lessons.

As a linguist, we were constantly being hammered at university about the use of ‘target language’ in the classroom aka the use of the language when conversing with students such as classroom instructions and general activity instructions  and questioning for the more capable (usually KS4 upwards) students.  There are arguments for and against, however I am completely for.  Why waste such an opportunity for the students to speak in everyday classroom situations, asking and responding to questions posed in class.

So far all of my students have participated and I can’t tell you how keen the lower attainers are, and how proud they are when they are speaking Spanish.  It really is enough to make your heart melt, especially as these were students who had previously missed out on such an opportunity to participate in MFL lessons.  These students are a constant reminder to me to ensure that all of the students I any school I work in get the opportunity to be proud of their achievements in languages however big or small they appear to others.

Last but not least, I made a little discovery (that others may have come across sooner) that could be implemented across possibly almost any curriculum subject.  In languages we ‘drill’ vocabulary to literally ‘drill’ (ok not literally, but you know what I mean!) it into the heads of the students, this can be done through games of repetition and questioning in groups or pairs.  I have noticed how some students can be reluctant to this process, which is usually always how a new lesson begins with new vocabulary.

Yesterday, as my students did not all want to join in, I asked them to stand up behind their chairs and told them they could not sit down until they had all joined in and participated effectively.  They did, and this was repeated until the threat of making them stand up was enough of a deterrent to non-participation.

Today, I simply made it an expectation that all students stand, and it never felt like I had been extracting teeth at all! Maybe others with reluctant students in their lessons have tried this?  Let me know if you have, or if you have any other ideas that would help!

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My biggest fear is of course behaviour management. The fear is exacerbated by the fact I will only see each of my classes for 100 minutes every fortnight, and that is only if I don’t happen to have them on a Monday (bank holidays) or any day the school decides to fold down for PSHE or any other required activity. As Spanish is new to my school as of this year, there are no GCSE classes, and there was no uptake for GCSE French in general this last couple of years. Therefore I will only be taking KS3 this year in the hope to encourage at least one group to take Spanish next year at KS4.

The main reason for the fear is that I worry about the progress my students will make in general because language acquisition requires repetitive practise, and when there are classes that may have gaps of six weeks between them, I worry. I am keen to inspire my groups and am concerned about the missed opportunities I already have to face, and so want to make the small amount of time that I do have with them matter. I don’t want our lesson time wasted by low level disruption and behaviour issues. Therefore in my preparation for September, I am going to try a little experiment…

The little experiment was inspired by a four day ‘Restorative Justice’ course (see this blog by Creative Education) provided by my school at the end of the summer term. Restorative justice is a concept generally focussed on developing empathy between individuals, and trying to lead others to see that we all have the same feelings and needs.

The term ‘Restorative Justice’ can also be known as ‘Restorative Pedagogy’ which is more relevant to my experiment as quickly defined, pedagogy means the method and practise of teaching.  Nowadays, we have been taught that we need to lead the student to the answer rather than stand at the front and lecture them on what it is or take the inductive approach (which I am big fan of) where through the designed activity, the student discovers any learning for themselves which is therefore more likely to be retained.

Therefore, when it comes to our expectations of the students that we share in the very first lesson with each class, I believe it is equally un-useful to stand and lecture the students on what is expected of them, and to get them to copy down the rules of the classroom that I provide. The lack of ‘discovery learning’ makes me question how long it would stick, would I be faced with the disruptive, low-level misbehaviour eating into our precious teaching and learning time?

From speaking to other NQT colleagues, I know that many will arrive at the class rules with the students rather than dictate them, maybe even give the students an opportunity to share their expectations of the teacher. I would like to add an extra step. Before creating the rules, I will spend some time going through some of the feelings and needs that are prominent in the teacher/student relationship through a series of activities and discussions based on needs cards. You can download the needs cards here and another great thing is, they are downloadable in several other languages, including Spanish for further language development work.

A rough guide to how I will use the cards would be to:

1. Ask the students to sort the selected cards into two lists, the words they know the meaning of and words they don’t, to open up dialogue and ensure understanding.
2. With the same cards, make two lists, one for student needs and one for teacher’s needs. They can only use one card for one list; hopefully they will see the conflict that a teacher might share the same need i.e. for respect and therefore develop empathy for the teacher.
3. Give the students a scenario such as the class is being noisy; the teacher is waiting to be able to teach. Which cards would you choose as the teacher, which cards would you choose as the student. IN the hope of developing said empathy, and a good way to find out about your students for subsequent lessons based on the needs they choose.
4. Activity: Pair the students, partner A goes outside. You explain to partner B that when partner A comes back in, they just need to act like they are ignoring them. Explain to partner A outside that they have to explain all of the details of the fun hey have had over the summer holidays to their partner. Get the students who have been ignored to explain how they felt. As the students how they think the teacher might feel when they are being ignored.
5. Unrelated to empathy building, but nonetheless it is a Spanish lesson. Spanish needs cards, students select the Spanish words they recognise (cognates) to build their confidence in Spanish, spotting patterns in the English and Spanish equivalents.

I expect this, plus the usual writing names on books to take up the first fifty minutes of the lesson, then will be followed by an introductory Spanish lesson.

The time spent at the beginning of the year, I hope will make up for any time that would have been potentially wasted over the course of the school year.  I will definitely be blogging any noticeable outcomes and even results of the lessons themselves.

I would be really interested in hearing any feedback, or if you have tried this or something similar or would add a step or two, please let me know. I would definitely be interested in hearing your point of view.

Part of my preparation for September has been to upload my better KS3 Spanish resources online so that I have them wherever I am. They are also available for sharing so if you teach Spanish, have a look here.

Read here for an interesting behaviour seminar that I went to at the beginning of the PGCE year that I felt really opened my eyes and that has more significance in the face of starting teaching next week.

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The beginning of the holidays saw me preparing the classroom in which I will be predominantly teaching in and moving my department cupboard to another part of the school.  My school was kind enough to employ me through supply from the 6th June as I am introducing Spanish from scratch and that will become the school’s sole language in place of French.  However, the end of term was far too hectic for me to try and get it done in the fights for trollies etc.  My classroom is getting there so if you want a nosey you can have a looksy here.

The following week I ventured southwards to visit family and brought my fifteen-year-old brother back for a week, he will be starting year 11 in September and thanks to the ebacc proposals, he will be starting Spanish from scratch and completing his GCSE.  I therefore offered to teach him during the week he was with me and we managed a few days of intensive lessons, the fruits of his labour are displayed in the blog we created for him here. His blog was an opportunity for him to showcase the learning that took place and for him to really evaluate what he had learned.  I have to say, I was really proud of what he achieved.

Tutoring my brother allowed me to make some Spanish match-up puzzle resources using the mathematical Tarsia software which is free and easy to install on Windows machines, a little more Tricky if you have a Mac, however fellow NQT blogger Terri Dunne blog takes you all through that.  As for use in other subjects, you could have key words that are to be matched up with a definition in the style of a jigsaw (in various shapes) for example key vocabulary in Geography and Sciences.  I hope to upload all of the Tarsia documents I create onto my website if you are a Spanish teacher or just want a better insight into the resource.

On the 11th August, I went to a NASUWT  free seminar preparing NQT’s for their September post and included voice care and behaviour management sessions.  Ultimately, it was a fantastic opportunity to learn about NASUWT and network with other NQT’s of whom I am still in contact with.

Week three, I finally begin to relax and completely switch off, which is what I desperately wanted to do at some point, so now that has been achieved I have started preparations for the coming year.

As it has literally been one day since I started preparing, the first thing I did was buy and install some planning software on my mac and iPad called Planbook which is also available for Windows machines.  If you want a free trial, click the link, and once again Terri Dunne has blogged extensively about this app here. I intend on using it as a main planner so that I can manipulate and change it as often as I want, which is impossible with a paper one with the space restrictions of used paper.

With specific regards to the rest of my preparation I will be trying out lots of learning related software applications such as ANKI which is a flashcard software that allows you revise and learn and revise all subjects (even guitar chords)  but especially good in languages for learning key vocabulary and phrases.  I will be inputting all of the key vocabulary for students if they decide to use it themselves; I will be able to give them the vocabulary in the ANKI format so they will not have to type it in (and learn mistakes they may have made).

Generally my preparation will consist of getting the first month planned with resources, although knowing that the lessons may not stick to this plan having not met my students.  In the meantime I am training for the Middlesbrough 10k and the Great North Run (trust me, I am not a built runner) and still want to see as much of my family and friends as possible before term starts  The work/life balance starts here… Oh, did I mention that my love film free trial helps with the procrastination….?

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