If you don’t like Paul Dix...

[PastTheGin]

...what would be your top tips for dealing with “that” class on a rainy and windy Friday afternoon?

[seaweedandmarchingbands]

Cut him up and feed him to them?

😂

[BrunetteFrenchTwist]

What stage?

[noblegiraffe]

Alcohol.

[Teachermaths]

Keep them busy with stuff they can mostly already do.

[likeafishneedsabike]

It was a shit Friday afternoon, wasn’t it?
Luckily my new school has a ‘system’ so the worst got turfed out of the lesson and dealt with by pastoral. Once one has been banished, the rest think twice. Removal equals an hour’s detention after school the next day, which proves to be a deterrent to persistent dick-headery.

[Fuzzyspringroll]

Colouring?
Ours clean the classroom during the last session on a Friday. So many children, who love sweeping floors, cleaning the boards, watering flowers, getting the hoover out, wiping tables. Everyone else can go to our library to read quietly...

[IgnoranceIsStrength]

Try applying his special brand of twattiness to a suburban college on the fringes of a major city with a gang issue on a Friday afternoon while you are stood in the rain on bus duty....

[PastTheGin]

It’s secondary and I am looking for some words of wisdom for my NQT. I am alright with behaviour management but need to step up my advisory game as the NQT is struggling massively - and not helping themselves by being quite headstrong and antagonising.

[PastTheGin]

My sympathies, Ignorance! Everybody in my form is now twice my size and I have a couple of wannabe gangsters...

[seaweedandmarchingbands]

and not helping themselves by being quite headstrong and antagonising.

Depends what you mean by this. That’s very negative language and it could be quite damaging for your NQT to suffer teacher blaming for having high expectations of the children so early in their career.

[unicorncupcake]

Keep them busy with stuff they can mostly already do.

Absolutely. Independent work that doesn’t involve too much of the teacher battling for quiet every 5 minutes. I’ve bought home my class books for monitoring this weekend, and am very interested to see that the trickiest characters had done well in all the activities where they just had to get on and do it, and much less well in the more interactive ones.

[seaweedandmarchingbands]

Keep them busy with stuff they can mostly already do

Or just give up altogether. Why not?

[nailsathome]

I gave mine an open-ended research task. Some of them didn't write a single thing but did spend the whole lesson talking about it which was absolutely fine as they thought they hadn't done any work but in reality they were actively engaged the whole time.

[PastTheGin]

and not helping themselves by being quite headstrong and antagonising

They keep insisting that “this is the way it should be done” and roll their eyes at suggestions of getting kids on board with easier tasks first rather then shouting “Why don’t you know this? You are in Year 10, you must know this!”

[seaweedandmarchingbands]

They keep insisting that “this is the way it should be done” and roll their eyes at suggestions of getting kids on board with easier tasks first rather then shouting “Why don’t you know this? You are in Year 10, you must know this!”

Well, I think getting kids on board first with easier tasks can be effective, but I don’t think not believing so makes a person “headstrong” - it’s just a different opinion.

I agree that shouting “Why don’t you know this?” is probably counter-productive. Have you had that conversation?

Are you prepared to accept that this teacher might be picking up a class of students whose beliefs about their own abilities have been considerably lowered by years of teachers throwing easy tasks and busy-work at them?

[Teachermaths]

Or just give up altogether. Why not?

There is absolutely nothing wrong with giving students an hour to practise and revisit prior learning. In fact research shows new content should be only about 20% of a lesson (though this would take a lot of balls to implement with the focus on progress in lessons). A Friday afternoon practising skills embed the week/terms learning and mean you haven't got a battle on your hands. Kids behave better when doing. Being strategic about using a review lesson can work wonders in terms of learning and behaviour management. It also helps to keep the class ethos positive and working as opposed to a Friday afternoon battle which can destroy relationships.

[seaweedandmarchingbands]

There is absolutely nothing wrong with giving students an hour to practise and revisit prior learning.

There is when it is your only response to Friday P5. They should be doing this when they need to do it, not when you believe you won’t be able to control the class. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve done it myself, but it shouldn’t be the default position.

[PastTheGin]

I agree that shouting “Why don’t you know this?” is probably counter-productive. Have you had that conversation?

We’ve had that conversation more than once!
I am now looking for ideas beyond what I can offer in order to maybe find something different that the NQT will click with.
If you can offer any practical advice I would be very grateful!

[seaweedandmarchingbands]

Sure:

• clear, well-scaffolded tasks
  
• modelled/worked examples
  
• following the behaviour policy
  
• some silent working at the start of the lesson to calm them down
  
• a really engaging topic for discussion
  
• merits for genuinely good work
  
• phone call home for the top three learners
  

Teaching 101? If all you’ve offered is Paul Dix, no wonder your NQT is struggling.

[Teachermaths]

They are doing it when they need to, every 2 weeks Friday period 5. My planning allows specifically for this. Some weeks it's retrieval quiz style, other weeks are open book. Students are used to it and get quiz feedback the following lesson, or if open book, there and then in the lesson.

What is wrong with this? I'd say it has improved the recall and retention of my students skills and they benefit from the practise. They enjoy seeing how much they have retained since the start of the year/course.

[CallmeAngelina]

Am afraid I have nothing to offer for a secondary situation as I currently have the sweetest primary class, but bloody hell, yesterday was the longest afternoon of my entire life!

[PastTheGin]

Thanks, Seaweed, that’s basically all I am telling them to do. Teaching 101 is what I usually offer to NQTs and it does work, as we already know.
I don’t want to and haven’t offered Paul Dix, but I am looking for new ideas I might not have thought of yet.

[TheBitchOfTheVicar]

@Teachermaths research shows new content should be only about 20% of a lesson

Could you point me in the direction of this research, please? It will be very helpful for my whole-school PM target.

[seaweedandmarchingbands]

What is wrong with this?

Nothing at all, when you are doing it because it is optimal for the students. There is everything wrong with it when you are doing it because you have no other tools in the shed.

OP, I am struggling to understand exactly what is going wrong here. Could you describe the behaviour and make-up of the class? What subject is it?

[PastTheGin]

I have been mulling this over since 4.30am and finally remembered that I am looking for the magic bullet that I failed to find in my own NQT year! 🤦‍♀️
It’s the boring old Teaching 101 that will sort it in the end, and the NQT will just have to resign themselves to that idea, too. I think I’ll just have to go back to very basic lesson planning - I can’t remember the last time I had to do this with an NQT.