Because by this time of term ordinary work has to be limited. The children are in end of term mode, concentration is very poor and work that that that they can actually produce is limited. I'd love to teach "flat out" literacy and numeracy until end of term, but I acknowledge there is no point, so we play maths games or do phonics word searches. Also DVDs are fun, but they also count as "multi-media" texts. We watch a DVD, compare it to a written text, write about it, write a new ending, do drama and puppet shows about it, make crosswords about it, etc.
Yeah, I tried valiantly to actually teach today (three different groups), but ended up cancelling it each time. Thank god for the phone-hacking saga- there is always something useful to discuss with the students at the moment!
Their eyes are just completely glazed from the minute they walk in the door and, to be honest, ours struggle even to concentrate on DVDs. Knackered.
Tomorrow I'll be only doing debates or Drama. No point in attempting anything that involves reading or writing!
YABVU. The whole point of the end of term is to watch DVDs and muck about a bit! Children work pretty hard all year and it's really nice for them to relax with their friends and their teachers. We always hated the teachers who made us work until the very last day. Most of them found a fun game or film that was somehow related to what we'd been studying, some let us choose, some hid in the corner whilst we made paper missiles. Ahhh I miss it
Aw don't be a spoil sport! The last day of school before the summer holidays was super fun. Some of my favourite memories of school are the last day of term, when we were all allowed to watch the Princess Bride.
Isn't learning to tidy important too? And who would have done it if the children hadn't? Wouldn't you rather the teacher was planning her next year's lessons than tidying unnecessarily?
I let my class play today while I took one child at a time to finish various end of year assessments, including independent writing, reading hf words and phonics. Some children asked to do jobs and others set up a pretend school. So even though technically there was no new learning, they did manage to find ways to apply their skills and knowledge. I have a quiz planned for tomorrow and lots asked for worksheets for their 'school', so that's what we will do tomorrow, as well as finishing the assessments. There is no point teaching a new skill this week as they won't get a chance to apply it.
I had three sixth form lessons today and even though I always do a lesson with them, even their concentration span is waning, and they're 17! As a result we didn't work for the full hour as hard as we would normally do, and we had a bit of a laugh at the end of the lesson. If they're struggling, of course primary school children need a bit of fun at the end of term.
Y'see, I always try to keep 'em working until the last minute, and they do hate me for it. I always thought this is what parents would want. This is secondary btw. Am I wrong?
his routine in school has now be broken
