It's going to take some time to get this right, to work out how these guys operate and how we fit together.The first of many speed bumps has come along as I've tried to build a team or community within these lads. As I spoke about helping each other make sensible choices and guide one another through the day, the boys took this as an opportunity to nark, tell tales and generally be mean about one another - fail one.
Week 4 and the new angle I'm taking is to simply manage ones own behaviour first and foremost, in an attempt to build role models that the less mature boys can model themselves on. After 5 days of this approach I've seen drastic changes in how the boys deal with conflict and niggles within the classroom. There's still a lot of pointing out of others behaviour and niggling at one another, but the big things are discussed as a class and don't lead to even bigger issues and the smaller ones are being ignored and therefore aren't being fuelled in to full on flames. So overall, the boys are more settled and our days are happier.
During our recent writing test (where the boys could only stay quiet and still for 10mins) I noticed that 6 out of the 12 gents were left handed. Basic Googling tells me that left handedness in males can be linked with developmental delay. Certainly an area of research I'm going to be interested in - to be continued.......
As we've just been through "testing week", I've made sure to make time for physical and creative endeavours to balance the sitting still. The most successful activity was creating stop motion animation using everyday toys. I set no rules around what they could animate or where they needed to be situated within the class. The boys took complete charge of themselves and their task and were able to quietly and thoughtfully make some cute animations - we even exported them to iMovie and added sound effects before using html to embed them on their blogs.
Even though these guys struggled to write complete sentences and sit still for even 10mins during a writing test - they were all successful in tackling new learning around animating. Where does this put them on National Standards?
What have I learnt in one month
Week 4 and the new angle I'm taking is to simply manage ones own behaviour first and foremost, in an attempt to build role models that the less mature boys can model themselves on. After 5 days of this approach I've seen drastic changes in how the boys deal with conflict and niggles within the classroom. There's still a lot of pointing out of others behaviour and niggling at one another, but the big things are discussed as a class and don't lead to even bigger issues and the smaller ones are being ignored and therefore aren't being fuelled in to full on flames. So overall, the boys are more settled and our days are happier.
During our recent writing test (where the boys could only stay quiet and still for 10mins) I noticed that 6 out of the 12 gents were left handed. Basic Googling tells me that left handedness in males can be linked with developmental delay. Certainly an area of research I'm going to be interested in - to be continued.......
As we've just been through "testing week", I've made sure to make time for physical and creative endeavours to balance the sitting still. The most successful activity was creating stop motion animation using everyday toys. I set no rules around what they could animate or where they needed to be situated within the class. The boys took complete charge of themselves and their task and were able to quietly and thoughtfully make some cute animations - we even exported them to iMovie and added sound effects before using html to embed them on their blogs.
Even though these guys struggled to write complete sentences and sit still for even 10mins during a writing test - they were all successful in tackling new learning around animating. Where does this put them on National Standards?
What have I learnt in one month
- Positive talk is Powerful
- My boys hate being made to sit still
- Strong routines work
- My boys are gorgeous and will do anything for a bowl of ice-cream!
Hi Helen,
ReplyDeleteThis is such an amazing thing that you are doing with these boys. What an amazing opportunity for these boys, they're so lucky to be in that class with you for the year. I can already see after 6 weeks how much these boys have changed. I can't wait to see them at the end of the year. It's going to be amazing to see how much these boys will get from this class.