MAKING A DIFFERENCE: IN YOUR LESSONS

‘TEACHERS HAVE THE RIGHT TO TEACH AND EVERY STUDENT HAS A RIGHT TO LEARN’

PART ONE: THE FIRST 10 MINUTES

Since taking on the position of Staff Support I have observed a lot of lessons; last year I observed 438 complete lessons. And yet I have never, ever, observed a lesson that turned to custard because the teacher made a factual mistake. Content, incorrect or otherwise, doesn’t have that sort of impact; lets face it, many students don’t even notice that you have made a factual error. But lessons regularly, and predictably, turn to custard when the basics are missing or poorly administered. Some students only need the slightest of invitations to exploit a gap in your lesson; just turn your back for 15 seconds and they are in boots and all! So by all means put time and energy into planning your content for each lesson but remember that there is more to lesson planning than content! What really makes the critical difference to the effectiveness of most lessons is not content but rather the way you structure the lesson and how you manage the pupils’ behaviour and engagement.

Here are some key structures and strategies that seem to make positive contributions to lessons. They encourage pupil engagement, they promote pupil participation and they minimise the opportunities for ‘off task’ behaviours to occur so that teaching and learning can happen effectively.

1. Your classroom. Avoid the minimalist look with bare walls, or the retro look with copies of the daily notices as far back as 1993 or students’ work that is faded, dog-eared and predates the current curriculum. Students should, upon entering your room, know exactly which subject is taught there. Your room should be bright, colourful and fresh looking. The walls should showcase both your students’ work and commercially produced subject-related material. And a few live plants, mobiles, some motivational posters or similar interesting items will enhance the décor. A boring room is boring. Use your lighting creatively and remember, active brains need fresh oxygen; lots of it! If your windows are closed the students slowly go to sleep on recycled exhaled CO2.

2. Five, four, three, two, one… Make a point of being fully prepared for the next lesson; a lesson plan and all the various incidentals, resources, equipment, etc, etc need to be available for a prompt, hesitation-free start. A flawless, uninterrupted start to your lesson is what you should aim for. Things can still go wrong, but at least you are fully prepared. An ill prepared, hesitant or a confused start to the lesson will have negative consequences as the students will pick up on your lack of direction and start to exploit the ‘gaps’! Most beginning teachers usually only have a ‘Plan A’ lesson; experienced teachers know that when things go wrong then you need a ‘Plan B’ and sometimes even a ‘Plan C’! Being able to seamlessly switch between plans only comes with experience and having taught the syllabus several times and being familiar with the available resources. Meantime plan for ‘Plan A’ but be aware that a year or two down the track you will have several options at your disposal for each lesson to match the students’ mood, the time of day and other variables.

3. Before they come in… Whether students are coming from a previous class or morning interval/lunchtime, they will arrive at your door in ‘social mode’, chattering away about this and that which doesn’t of course include your subject. Juniors especially need to be halted just outside your door so that you can ‘review the troops’, check the state of their uniform, terminate any eating and gauge their general demeanour. Outside your room is also a good place to deal with their ‘excitement’, the bits of non-regulation uniform, lollies and gum and matters that you don’t want to impinge on your lesson once it has started.

Welcome and connect with the first few arrivals individually. Once the majority have arrived and settled inform them of your expectations (“Books and gear out and complete the ‘Do Now’ in silence by 9.45.”) and quickly usher them into your room. Lining up outside has the effect of bringing ‘social’ time to a close and allowing the students to start ‘tuning in’.

4. Do Now! Few lessons start smoothly these days; at MHS it is actually impossible to get from one end of the school to another easily within the 5-minute break between lessons; mind you, students don’t get to class on time after morning interval or lunch so it is not simply a matter of geography. To minimise the degree of disturbance at the beginning of your lesson a quick ‘Do Now’ activity is a smart strategy. There are many variations on the ‘Do Now’ theme from a quick 10-question revision quiz of yesterday’s key points to a series of ‘general knowledge’ questions related, or not, to the subject being taught. Keep it simple, keep it down to 5 – 6 minutes but make it a standard feature of every lesson so that it becomes habitual. The ‘Do Now’ should be written on the board, rather than a dictated exercise. The ‘Do Now’ focuses the students’ minds of the in class and frees you to deal with the latecomers. ‘Do Now’ activities should not be mission critical to the lesson and a bit of fun or competition may be in order. When exams loom use the ‘Do Now’ specifically to revise key points of your course.

5. “Sorry for being late, Miss!” There are some legitimate reasons for students arriving late to class; a note from the student’s previous teacher/dean/nurse etc should cover most situations. You should insist on a note as this sends a loud message to the student, to the class and sometimes to the previous teacher/dean! Always record who arrived late and roughly when.

However, whether legitimate or not, latecomers can be your first and most disruptive event just when your aim is to get the lesson off to a good smooth start. A consistent and firm policy right from day one is a must (use the procedures already in place). If the first latecomers arrive and you have already started your lesson simply signal to the latecomers (use a non- verbal cue so as not to disrupt others) to wait by the door or even outside until you are ready. Then when there is a suitable break, signal the latecomers to enter, greet them and direct them to a/their seats with a non-verbal directive to be quiet so as not to disrupt the others. If the instructions for the first part of the lesson were written up on the whiteboard (of course they were!) then the latecomers can just get on with the work; if not, you will need to go over the instructions again (not so good!). Alternatively, allow latecomers to quietly join the class as they arrive and do your follow up when it is convenient for you.

Do not ask latecomers as they arrive why they are late (your priority are the students who arrived on time, not the few latecomers) or worse still, ask them if they are late (they are obviously late!). Students who have a genuine reason for being late carry notes. Interrogations of the others can wait until you are ‘free’, or after the lesson. Do not carry out interrogations in front of the whole class as this may well provide entertainment and an opportunity for the class to become distracted. But do address lateness so that offenders know that they can’t get away with such slackness in your class. The rest of the class, most of whom actually want to learn, will appreciate that you mean business and care for their learning. Have a week-long blitz on lateness then hold a lunchtime detention for all the latecomers on a day of your choice (choose a period 4 so there is no escape for the latecomers!); students who fail to turn up or do a runner should be reported to the dean.

It is important to log latecomers on the electronic roll as ‘L’, and send letters home to the parents whose children regularly arrive late to your class. A paper trail detailing a pupil’s history of lateness is especially useful when you or the deans have to deal with a repeat offender. Remember, just five minutes lost in a subject every lesson equates to over three weeks of teaching/learning time lost over the year!!!

6. Welcome! Once you have wrapped up the ‘Do Now’ activity, settled the latecomers and possibly completed the roll (the roll doesn’t have to be done in the first five minutes nor does it have to be done orally) it is time to welcome the class, globally. “Good morning, 10 ASV!” is better than nothing but you should be able to extend your welcome a bit more than that. Don’t be afraid to get a chorused ‘response’ from the class if you welcomed them all; even wait expectantly for a response! A formal, global welcome signals that we are all here, that you have manners and have recognised the students, and that you are now ready to roll.

7. Today’s menu is… There is some value in putting up a brief bullet point type outline of where you are heading in today’s lesson. If nothing else, it shows that you have ‘a plan’ and there is real structure to your lesson. There is also merit in ticking off each menu item as you and the class finish it; having a fully ticked off menu at the end of the lesson is a good look and provides a opportunity to congratulate the class on their achievement. On the other hand, if you fail to reach the end of the menu and the students are the main reason why the lesson plan was not completed, then this can be pointed out to the class and discussed. Repeated failure to complete what you had planned for lessons is a powerful statement, which sends a message to the class. If you simply launch into your lessons without any stated aims or outline then the class never get to know if they are meeting expectations.

8. Review. Few lessons are ‘stand alone’ lessons; the majority of our lessons are like chapters in a book where you need to have read chapter 6 in order to understand chapter 7. Spend a bit of time before heading into today’s lesson by reviewing the essential points of yesterday’s lesson. Many teachers do this as a ‘Do Now’ activity. As fewer and fewer students study for exams these little revision sessions at least help students to learn key fact type information like formulae, vocabulary, terms and definitions and so on. Not only does a review cue in the class but also it may help students who were absent yesterday to make sense of today’s lesson. A good strategy is to ask students to recall the main points of yesterday’s lesson for the whole class (this may also indicate your level of success in teaching yesterday’s content… ).

Ten minutes have now elapsed. The class should now be settled, focussed and ready to learn. Your demeanour should be calm, collected and authoritative. You and the class now need to move into the main body of the lesson together.

HENRY KANIUK STAFF SUPPORT MASSEY HIGH SCHOOL 2008

MAKING A DIFFERENCE: IN YOUR LESSONS

PART TWO: THE OTHER SECTIONS OF THE LESSON PROPER All things being equal (and sometimes even despite your best efforts they aren’t) you should now have a class full of student most of whom are anticipating an educationally worthwhile lesson. It is a big ask to have teachers create lessons that compete against the other forms of multi-media entertainment against which we indirectly compete. But a well-planned lesson (by which I don’t mean just well planned content) has a better chance of having a lasting impact if it is delivered in a way that engages the students and actively holds their attention.

Some teachers get a better uptake of the lesson if they tell the students that today’s lesson is going to be challenging, dead easy, boring (some lessons are, lets be honest but we have to cover boring stuff sometimes), complicated, requiring co-operation, experimental, based on group work or whatever. You may also explain that you are under time pressure today or that you are feeling unwell (and would appreciate some quiet) or that the class will be working independently and that using time efficiently is the underlying skill being practiced today. A ‘heads up’ can be helpful.

1. Hooking them up. Perhaps the best way to engage students into today’s lesson is to fire out a question or a challenge of some sort. You may need to teach some content first so that the students can meet the challenge. Ideally what you want is to fire up the students’ brains so they get ‘hooked up’, to use a fishing analogy; then you can play them and reel them in. Challenges look like this: “What if Hitler had won WW2?” “What if petrol doubled in price tomorrow?” “What if we extend the gap in netball to 1m?” “What if we could eat one pill a day for all our food needs?” “How much tax is collected in NZ in a year?” “What if we could ‘beam me up Scotty’?” “What if we banned school?” “What changes would occur if we could transmit electricity wirelessly?” “Should vitamins be compulsory added to bread?” “What questions would you ask Nelson Mandela if he visited our class tomorrow?” “Is foreign aid the problem?” “If we humans disappeared off the planet would the rest of creation rejoice?” “How many beans make six?”

Would I be right in thinking that I have stimulated your brain into thinking about some of the answers to the above questions??? Got the point!

Showing a really good video clip, building a model, working through a simulation, doing some practical work or something experimental or setting up a challenge will usually engage most students. If you generally (not necessarily always) commence your lessons like this early in the year and encourage team work as well as supporting effort (as opposed to supporting only success) then students will generally buy into this sort of challenge. Use your imagination but the activity doesn’t have to be complicated. For example, you my give the class a jig saw with the parts of a maths equation and tell them if this is the question and this is the answer put the pieces of the equation together so as to get the stated answer. In science students can be presented with a lit candle and asked to simply write down 25 possible questions that could be asked about the lit candle without actually having to supply any of the answers. In English students who have just read a chapter of a book are then asked to predict the action in the following chapter.

2. Keeping them hooked. With teenagers’ attention spans being what they are, there is little mileage to be gained from doing a one trick lesson (although it can be done successfully, don’t push your luck) where all the students do in a lesson is to copy notes or repeatedly do basket ball lay-ups or do endless examples of Pythagoras’ theorem.

You need to ring in the changes in order to sustain interest.

Frequent changes also allow you to address different learning styles. Another benefit of changes (both in number and variety) is that as you bring the class back to attention they need to focus on the next task because each change requires students to start a new activity. Each start provides you with a new opportunity (possibly to regain momentum); students who have drifted off task or finished early are also brought back to focus on the new task. Sometimes just a simple ‘state change’ will energise the students. Lowering the light, opening up the windows to let in fresh air (stale air is a regular cause of mental atrophy), playing some appropriate music of your choice or having a screen saver on your data projector can do the trick.

Group work is another option, which many students enjoy. You need to put in some fore- though and have some skill in this area to do it successfully. Students placed in groups doing individual work is not group work!

Avoid setting 20 questions (or something similar) to be done in a row without a break. If a student gets the first two answers wrong because they don’t know what to do then the remaining 18 questions will be an on-going mystery and thus a complete waste of the pupils time. A smarter technique is to stop every ten minutes and go over the answers of the first block of five questions. This breaks up the lesson. Wait till most have completed the next block of 5 questions and go over the answers. This also keeps most of the class moving ahead in unison.

Avoid ‘teacher talk’ for longer than 5 or so minutes. Avoid ‘busy work’; it may be busy but it hardly taxes the pupils’ brains cells. Cutting out endless shapes, word finds, cross words, mix and match words, colouring in and so on are activities to be used sparingly.

While there is no set number of changes that you should build into your lesson the attention span of many students might suggest that 3 or 4 clearly different activities located between the first ten minutes of the lesson and the last 5 minutes is something to aim for.

Beginning teachers find designing lessons with so many changes of activity a daunting task. Remember that in a school of our size with over 160 staff you only have to ask and you will get endless creative lesson ideas. And don’t limit yourself to teachers in your department because they don’t have a monopoly on good ideas. Visiting other teachers, in action, is a great way to observe different teaching models. We also have a handout with some 30+ creative lesson ideas!

3. Noses to the grindstone. Keeping students meaningfully engaged for a whole hour is not easy. Keeping students meaningfully engaged lesson after lesson, topic after topic, term after term is even harder. Interactive subjects like PE, drama or science for example, cannot sustain ‘practicals’ every period; there has got to be a time for ‘content’ and teachers would blow a fuse if they were expected to deliver interactive lessons everyday.

Pace yourself; take note of the time of day that you will deliver your lesson when you plan it and build in variety. Sometimes you just have to copy down a whole page of notes so don’t apologise for it but trying to make it less boring or saying that the ‘fun stuff’ will follow as this denigrates what is still a core skill for all learners. Sure, the students will protest. So what? (When I was teaching Science in the 90s junior classes easily ‘filled’ a 1B5 exercise book each term, and handouts were far fewer than they are now. Today the same course somehow barely fills two exercise books and task-sheets dominate).

Be creative; you could allow the students to talk while they are copying an overhead where no thinking is required; you could add some music; you could increase the level of engagement even when copying notes by leaving out key words so the students have to think while they copy.

There is also nothing wrong with dictation, although that’s a dying art. Pupils will tell you they can’t keep up, but practice will improve their skill level. And the noise in your class will drop quickly if the pupils have to listen to what is being dictated. Start slowly and with just a short paragraph of dictated notes then build up the skill level over time.

Computers linked to data projectors bring new features to note taking. They are certainly the way of the future!

Whatever you do, it is critical that once you set a piece of work that you ‘time delimit it’ by writing a ‘finish time’ on the board (work expands to the time allocated to it; if you don’t allocate a time limit to the task then it will take all period, possibly even all day!). By setting an end time (ie ‘11.35 am’, not just stating ‘10 mins’) the pupils have a target finishing time. You have set the pace of the lesson rather than being held back by a class of tardy students. Do not be held to ransom by the slowest pupil.

But setting a time limit on its own is not enough; you now need to monitor the students and their work (or lack of it) by wandering around the whole room checking that the students have their gear out, checking that they have started the work you set and that they are generally on task. Having set the task and checked that the class understands what they have to do (you did write up the key points on the board?), avoid answering any “What are we supposed to be doing now, Sir???” type questions (because the instructions are on the board, right!) until you have done a complete circuit of the class and closely monitored every pupil. Closely check that students have the necessary gear, exercise or workbook, pens, calculator etc so that they can do the task. Because you are seen checking each student theoretically, the majority of the class will be on task now (because you checked that). Furthermore, they and you will know who isn’t or who is slow at starting. Target them again soon after you have attended to the remaining students with questions.

The order of actions here is critical: set the task, explain the task, time delimit the task, monitor the class immediately to ensure that everyone has started working on the task and then answer any remaining questions.

Many teachers intend to do a lap around the room to see that everyone has started on the task but get distracted by the two or three students who weren’t paying much attention in the first place. If you allow yourself to get distracted in this way what happens is that the rest of the class fail to get started and take advantage of your lack of monitoring to get off task. Getting a large proportion of the students back on task is hard work!

Despite all this proactive supervision some students never actually get to open their books up or pick up a pen. Initially have a quiet word with them, encourage some effort and praise a positive response. Failing that, annotate on the student’s exercise book in the margin the current time and explain to the student that you will be calling back in ten minutes to review the progress that s/he has made. I once mailed home photocopies of some of these annotated pages, which highlighted the almost non-existent work rate achieved by a pupil; his parents did the rest!

Actively monitoring students working at close quarters (not from the teachers desk) sends a message to all pupils that they can’t get away with doing nothing. Monitoring therefore

minimises the opportunities some pupils exploit to do disruptive things to your (the classes’) lesson. Experienced teachers will make even better use of their laps around the room by providing verbal feedback and feed forward, by connecting with students and enhancing relationships and so on. Avoid the ‘teacher-supervising-the-exams’ look as you wander around the room; it has its place only in an exam situation. In normal lessons you should be connecting with the pupils in a variety of ways.

Accentuating the positive. Sitting in those uncomfortable student seats in poorly designed classrooms is a challenge in itself. An indifferently designed lesson won’t help matters. One thing that might make a difference is how you acknowledge the students’ efforts in class. Sadly, for some students just getting out of bed and to your class is an effort worth celebrating (even if they haven’t managed to bring a pen or paper and their homework task ended up on the classroom floor).

For the majority of students a verbal pat on the back is enough to keep them going and content. Your job is to catch the students doing something for which they can be complimented or acknowledged. Any positive student contribution to the lesson such as answering one of your questions, adding to the class’ knowledge, distributing/collecting books or gear, being a group leader etc should gain favourable, enthusiastic and targeted acknowledgement from you. “Well done Martha!” is better than nothing, but only just! Where students actually teach the class such as in seminars or while helping out their mates should attract enthusiastic compliments. If the whole class works well then make a real point of telling them. Never underestimate the impact of a positive letter or phone call home!

An often-neglected strategy is to have pupils mark their own work (or if you want to be pedantic, mark a class mate’s work). All too often I see page after page after page of work unmarked. Why? I really don’t know! Surely if the pupils or you (or both) go over some answers then they need to know what they go right and what (and why) they got wrong. If the work is never ticked how will they know? Of equal importance, having students mark their own answers provides an opportunity to tick (celebrate?) their achievements in the lesson, whether they thick their own work or have it marked by another pupil or by you as the teacher.

And if a student gets an answer wrong surely they need to write down the correct answer or workings!!?? A suggestion: use a tick for correct answers and a dot for incorrect ones. Crosses for incorrect answers look ‘terminal’ and suggest that the student will never get that question right ever again. If you explain that a dot means that they go the answer wrong today but that they will get it right if they tried again tomorrow (is that how we all learn??) then students will be more positive about marking their work and acknowledging where they went wrong.

And why not carry a smiley face stamp or similar as you wander around the room… It is money well spent!

HENRY KANIUK STAFF SUPPORT MASSEY HIGH SCHOOL 2008

MAKING A DIFFERENCE: IN YOUR LESSONS

PART THREE: THE LAST 10 MINUTES

Some teachers believe that they have to continue teaching right to the very last minute of the lesson for fear of losing control. Right on the bell these teachers give out the homework and expect the students not only to copy it all down but to simultaneously do a tidy up (or not) in the 5 minutes allocated for the student to get to the next class. In other classrooms students can be seen jammed up against the exit door (or worse still, spilling out onto the grounds) 5 minutes before the bell (or even 10 minutes!).

Use the end of your lessons productively and more creatively, right from day one! Allow students adequate pack up and clean up time in practical subjects; they won’t do a good job if you allocate just 1 minute of class time and expect them to use 3 minutes of their interval/lunch or travelling time to the next class! Once the pack up or clean up is finished and there are still 3 minutes left (you actually planned to have 3 minutes spare) then with the students packed up and sitting at their desks do (either you do it or the class) a quick resume of the lesson by reviewing the key points. You could throw out a few random revision questions. Some teachers use an ‘exit pass’ which they use in conjunction with those known tricky lessons; the pass is an A4 sheet of paper which has been divided into quarters where each quarter has a set of simple questions on today’s lesson. The teacher hands out the pass 5 minutes before the end of the lesson for the students to complete and collects them in as the students exit. A quick check of the answers will reveal if the students have grasped the tricky lesson or not, and who has and who hasn’t!

Finally, don’t forget to say goodbye to the class on the bell. Wish them well; “Take care, look after yourselves and be nice to your teachers!” is one option I like. Last period on Friday may see you wishing the sports team “Play hard, play fair!” as they leave or if you know that some of your pupils are in the school production or talent quest or whatever, wish them good luck.

Immediately prior to the bell your class should not be jammed up against the door as your dismissal should be orderly and civilised (the bell is a signal to you, not a signal to the class to spontaneously abandon ship, oops, class). If students can’t wait silently at their desk as per your instructions then either let out those students who have followed your instructions correctly (the rest will take the hint, eventually!) or let out the first row of students who comply and competition and some good old peer group pressure will do the rest. Like all skills, this one has to be taught and practiced from day 1.

As a side note, the end of the lesson is one of your most powerful points of the day (especially just before morning interval and lunchtime!) when you will have a captive audience. Use it wisely. If you can train your students to follow simple instructions at the end of the period (and you can!) such as tidying up their litter in class, straightening up the desks and standing quietly waiting for the bell and your farewell, then the students are more likely to follow your instructions throughout your lessons.

HENRY KANIUK STAFF SUPPORT MASSEY HIGH SCHOOL 2008

MAKING A DIFFERENCE: IN YOUR LESSONS

PART FOUR: THE SKILLS THAT MAKE THE DIFFERENCE

Every subject we teach has content that rivets most students. When teaching those riveting lessons it may not matter that the lesson is poorly structured. Each year, out of some 400 lessons that I observe, perhaps half a dozen lessons contain content so interesting that I become so distracted that I forget to fill in the observation form for that lesson (yes, this does happen)! Many of the remaining lessons I observe are still memorable lessons but that is because they were well taught, despite the content being less than riveting. Reflecting back on your own school days, how many lessons can you vividly recall?

To ensure that your content has a better than even chance to get through to those students sitting there in front of you, you will have to bring to your lessons a whole grab-bag of skills and strategies and use them as and when necessary. There are innumerable skills that effective and experienced teachers employ each day to engage students. Teachers daily battle against disinterested students, students who haven’t eaten a decent meal or have eaten an inappropriate meal, students who are carrying ‘baggage’ from home which constitutes a barrier to learning, students on drugs and students who are genetically incapable of doing maths and other subjects because their parents couldn’t do it either. Surprisingly, skilled teachers often don’t know what it is that they are doing that makes their classes ‘hum’ along. It’s a lot easier to identify what makes lessons implode. Yet the skills that make lessons hum are the skills that underpin exemplary teaching.

There is a never-ending skill set that you will acquire over your teaching career. Take onboard some of these skills, a few at a time, (as a beginning teacher you cannot implement them all) and watch the benefits accrue. Listed blow are a selection of the mission-critical skills that you will need to learn and use regularly in all of your lessons. On going professional development will gradually add extra skills, which will offer you variety and options.

1. THE FOUR Rs Respect, relationships rules and routines need to happen from day one. You are teaching teenagers/young adults (and all that means… ) so respect them for what they are. It is hard to have a positive and lasting impact on another person unless you first have an appropriate relationship with them and which you develop over time. Rules set boundaries that make it safe for all parties to work together for a common and shared goal. Routines provide stability so teaching and learning can happen with the minimum of disruptions.

2. YOUR TEACHING AND LEARNING ENVIRONMENT You cannot judge a lesson by the volume of noise emanating from the classroom. A noisy class can be students full on arguing the pros and cons of lowering the drinking age while a silent class may indicate a class full of totally switched off students. What you want is students engaged in learning; there are many different environments that engagement can happen in. There is a time for silence. There is a time for a working hum. And there is a time when talking can happen without detracting from the lesson.

3. LISTEN AND SILENT ARE SPELLED WITH THE SAME LETTERS Train the class to actively listen, not just hear what you or other students are saying. For students to listen they must be able to hear what is being said and when the teaching style is oral, students must respect the speaker (teacher, students, video presenter) by remaining silent. The Chinese character for the word ‘listen’ has elements of ‘you’, ‘ears’, and ‘eyes’, giving ‘undivided attention’ and using your ‘heart’ to relate to what is being said! No wonder listening is hard work!!! Make it clear to students when they need to listen and when they can work and talk if they wish. Silence is golden, but only in small, specific doses. I never quite

saw the point of copying notes out of a book/from an OHP in silence.

4. PRECONDITIONING When asked a question by a teacher many classes exuberantly call out the answer, chorus fashion. If you don’t like this response to your question (it tends to degenerate into chaos), or you find that when you start to address the whole class with key information half of them aren’t listening then preface or precondition your directions to the students with a statement that warns them in advance what you want them to do. “Michael, this questions is for you; what is the capital of Peru?” or “Put your hand up – no calling out – what is the symbol for Potassium?” Something like, “Pens down - eyes this way, thanks.” should alert the class that you want to say something important. And don’t start delivering that important piece of information until you have everyone’s’ attention. Which is easy for me to write but harder to achieve in practice, but like lots of skills this one will improve with repetition and persistence. And the use of the word ‘respect’; if students don’t get ‘the rule’ (‘No talking when another class member is addressing the class’) then explain the value behind the rule (“We listen quietly to our fellow students as a sign of respect for them and what they have to say. When it is your turn you can expect the same level of respect, right?”)

5. TAKE UP TIME AND OTHER MICRO SKILLS Bill Rogers of ‘You know the fair rule’ fame (signed copy of this book is in our school library) advocates the following skills…

Tactical ignoring: You have finally got Sarah to sit on her own but as she settles she mutters, “Maths suxs!” Just tactically ignore this comments, as the key achievement here was to move Sarah away from those students that she was distracting. Tactically ignore secondary behaviour that isn’t worth picking up on in the bigger scheme of things.

Non-verbal cuing: An index finger to the mouth, a cupped hand over your ear, a pointed stare, a finger run across the throat (we are really serious now!) all send a desired silent message to the student that you have eyeballed. Facial gestures, smiling, rapport, encouragement via silent clapping are positive non-verbal cues that are very effective, and they don’t disrupt the class either!

Partial agreement and refocusing: Andy thinks it’s too hot to work so puts his pen down. Your response is to partially agree with him. “Yes, Andy, it must be at least 24 degrees! I’ll open the last two windows which is all I can do and now can you get on with your work.” You have agreed that there is an issue, but that the issue in this case is not an adequate excuse.

Take up time: You ask Simon to go around and collect in all the exercise books. He doesn’t move. Kiwi kids are renowned for their slowness to act, so give them some take up time. This also applies when giving directions. Avoid asking or pleading for quiet as in, “Please face the front!” or “Can you stop talking!” or “Would you all settle down, OK?” Instead, be directional by saying, “Settling down now…” or “Facing the front…” or “Listening… thanks!” Note that the ‘…’ indicate a pause or take up time so as to allow the instruction to ‘sink in’, and that ‘thanks’ is more expectational than ‘please’.

Behavioural language: tell students what you want them to do, rather than reminding them what you don’t want them to do. Saying, “Don’t fiddle with the curtains!” doesn’t actually convey what you really want them to do. Try, “Leave the curtains alone… and get back to copying those new vocab words… thanks Debbie.”

Deferred consequences: “Luke, if you continue to tap on the desk I will have no choice but to keep you in at interval.” A key point here is that deferred consequences are expressed as a directed choice (if you continue to tap) and that the consequence is a certainty. It is the certainty of the consequence, not the severity of the consequence that is paramount here.

Community focus: Angela’s continued talking which is disrupting your ability to address the class is not wasting your time. It is wasting the classes’ time; in fact, it is robbing the class of valuable educational opportunities. When you speak to Angela, couch you comments in this language. Let the class know, if necessary, that Angela is wasting class time, “Excuse me 10 PHT. Angela, your continued talking is stopping the class getting on with today’s lesson. Get on with your work quietly, thanks.”

Model good behaviour: it is no use expecting students to arrive to class on time if you don’t! Asking a student not to call others names get undermined if you then call him a moron. If a student gives you ‘lip’ remind them that you didn’t talk to him/her in that tone of voice and you don’t expect to be spoken to like this now. Manners do matter!

6. POSTERS Every classroom should have an up-to-date version of the Massey Way posters, the orange RTP poster and Emergency Evacuation poster.

I also have a wide range of posters that are challenging, inspirational and thought provoking. Part of this large collection of posters (which you can borrow and photocopy) includes a set of ‘behavioural’ posters. Posters are silent, passive reminders of information displayed around the room. You can also use them as active reminders when you point to them, tap repeatedly on them (a ‘stronger’ message) or have the whole class focus on them while you talk to them.

7. MINI RESTORATIVES Massey High is a restorative school. The level of skill needed to run a restorative varies from ‘a little’ when doing in-class/out on the grounds mini restorative to ‘full training needed’ when doing a full class restorative. The aim of the restorative process is to ‘repair the harm the event caused to the relationship and build understanding between the student and teacher…’ Of equal importance is that the whole restorative process ‘is designed to shift the perception of a teacher as a ‘punisher’ to a participant in a process of change’. You will be given training in this process so that you can use it effectively.

8. SCHOOL SYSTEMS Teenagers have a black and white sense of justice. They seldom see subtleties or shades of grey so you being ‘fair and consistent’ is better than you being seen as unfair because you are inconsistent. And it goes without saying that teenagers never use the words ‘rights’ (which they are well versed in!) and ‘responsibilities’ (whaatt???) in the same sentence.

One way of improving your odds when it comes to managing discipline in the classroom is following the established systems. Try not to reinvent the wheel because it may not be necessary and it just may well undermine established (tried and true?) systems that we have in place. If you feel you can improve on our systems then share your thoughts at department or staff meeting; we are always seeking improvements to our systems. One of the problems with beginning teacher-created systems is that they seldom leave a ‘paper trail’. The paper trail is what Deans need to see when they take over an ‘issue’ that you can’t handle having exhausted your range of strategies. A non-existent paper trail thwarts the deans in their efforts to help you.

The school systems, although not perfect, have been in place for some time and are known to the students. This gives the systems a degree of consistency and predictability. And most

systems have an escalation clause, which means that once you have tried and followed the steps allocated to you as a classroom teacher and that these were unsuccessful, that you can now escalate the student onto the appropriate dean or HOD. This of course shares the problem with another staff member and you get extra help with the problem.

9. CHILL Teaching is seldom easy work. It taxes us mentally, physically, psychologically, emotionally and morally… and I am not sure that I have exhausted this list! And if you care about the job and the pupils you open yourself right up to be hurt when things don’t go right. Be aware of this. For as sure as you will encounter down days, the highs will follow too. Try to keep things in balance and always remember to look after Number 1, namely you. Without you there are no great lessons!

THE BIGGEST MISTAKE OF ALL…

By definition, beginning teachers lack experience. Experience can’t be taught, as it is a function of time and personal growth. Good advice is sometimes not wanted or appreciated by the person to whom it is given. Moreover, good advice is only good if it is acted upon. We all develop as teachers in our own good time in directions and at a pace of our own choosing. We appreciate that you are on a long learning curve and that you will make mistakes but your effectiveness will increase, over time. Massey High School was recently described by one of our graduating beginning teachers as a ‘beginning teacher friendly school’. I am very proud of that statement. What is says to me is that a culture exists within the school where help, support and advice are readily at hand. All you need to do is ask for it. Not to do so is the biggest mistake that you can make in your time with us.

Kimihia nga maunga teitei! Seek the heights!

HENRY KANIUK STAFF SUPPORT MASSEY HIGH SCHOOL 2008