This post is all about what was confirmed, visualised and found out during the first week.
Post 1: This is about how and why I will get my students collaborating.
Post 1: This is about how and why I will get my students collaborating.
Post 2: My opinions on how it's going.
Post 3: Will be my students thoughts on collaborative learning.
Post 4: Will be about my preparations to deliver staff training.
Post 5: This will be staff feedback and next steps.
Monday: I blu-tacked small versions of the seating plan for each class (including my tutor group) onto the window of my classroom door which created an immediate buzz with each class and also got them talking about it before I had had to mention it. I'm always impressed by how much more compliant and believing people are when something is written down 'in black and white' rather than when just spoken (think Daily Mail, think instructions in class).
Predictably however, there have been about as many questions over the seating plans as there usually is. I have stuck solidly to my stock answer which goes something like "Yes, that's a really good idea, I'm sure you would work much harder sat next to so and so, and we'll be reviewing the plan at Easter!".
What has really happened then? The team starters, team building and competition element has been brilliant. I suppose you're always onto a winner there, everyone loves a bit of that. I was surprised though, how well the team building opened up the classroom; we started to ask each other questions about anything you like/dislike and how many people agreed. A style of teaching completely out of the ordinary for me but questions were coming up like 'do you have a big family?' which lead onto pastimes and hobbies and students taking a genuine interest in each other, stronger teams were built and the teams were a lot ore receptive to working on the science task with each other. I found that with year 7 I was saying "right, the next game is. . . ." and "one more game, and then we'll be ready for break" where games referred to book work, literacy tasks, and matching diagrams with descriptions.
My task of the week with classes has been to take a set of questions which would normally be completed individually but get the teams to stick their answers onto an A3 sheet in an interesting manner of their choice with each team member tasked to complete the questions commensurate with their ability. Then we check each others answers with the mark scheme and put them into our books. Going round to each table, I awarded teams animal stickers rather than levels. The animal stickers gave me chance to discuss their teamwork. So a spider meant that the team's work is a bit like the beginnings of a web but will come together beautifully and be very effective in the end. A penguin meant they were working brilliantly as a team; just like penguins huddle together for the greater good, no one left out. We also had lions, ladybirds, dogs and fish.
For the week ahead, I'm mostly excited about my deputies; I've noticed that having my strongest students in the same place on each team table in every class is allowing me to relay things to the rest of the class easier because I can easily remember where they are. This is something I'm going to make much more use of, I know that having them on 'my side' will be invaluable because of the knock on effect with the rest of the students who are infinitely more influenced by their peers that the teacher. Fact!
I also need to get each class to fill in a team work survey to evaluate the new approach.
Monday: I blu-tacked small versions of the seating plan for each class (including my tutor group) onto the window of my classroom door which created an immediate buzz with each class and also got them talking about it before I had had to mention it. I'm always impressed by how much more compliant and believing people are when something is written down 'in black and white' rather than when just spoken (think Daily Mail, think instructions in class).
Predictably however, there have been about as many questions over the seating plans as there usually is. I have stuck solidly to my stock answer which goes something like "Yes, that's a really good idea, I'm sure you would work much harder sat next to so and so, and we'll be reviewing the plan at Easter!".
What has really happened then? The team starters, team building and competition element has been brilliant. I suppose you're always onto a winner there, everyone loves a bit of that. I was surprised though, how well the team building opened up the classroom; we started to ask each other questions about anything you like/dislike and how many people agreed. A style of teaching completely out of the ordinary for me but questions were coming up like 'do you have a big family?' which lead onto pastimes and hobbies and students taking a genuine interest in each other, stronger teams were built and the teams were a lot ore receptive to working on the science task with each other. I found that with year 7 I was saying "right, the next game is. . . ." and "one more game, and then we'll be ready for break" where games referred to book work, literacy tasks, and matching diagrams with descriptions.
My task of the week with classes has been to take a set of questions which would normally be completed individually but get the teams to stick their answers onto an A3 sheet in an interesting manner of their choice with each team member tasked to complete the questions commensurate with their ability. Then we check each others answers with the mark scheme and put them into our books. Going round to each table, I awarded teams animal stickers rather than levels. The animal stickers gave me chance to discuss their teamwork. So a spider meant that the team's work is a bit like the beginnings of a web but will come together beautifully and be very effective in the end. A penguin meant they were working brilliantly as a team; just like penguins huddle together for the greater good, no one left out. We also had lions, ladybirds, dogs and fish.
For the week ahead, I'm mostly excited about my deputies; I've noticed that having my strongest students in the same place on each team table in every class is allowing me to relay things to the rest of the class easier because I can easily remember where they are. This is something I'm going to make much more use of, I know that having them on 'my side' will be invaluable because of the knock on effect with the rest of the students who are infinitely more influenced by their peers that the teacher. Fact!
I also need to get each class to fill in a team work survey to evaluate the new approach.
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