THE FIFIETH REPUBLIC!

[StaffRepFeistyClub]

You are most welcome to this school staff support thread to get us through stressful times. It is meant for school staff only – a sort of room of requirement. Baiters, haters, goaders, and bashers can jog on somewhere else.

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different information pinned up around the room for them to gather up.

I suspect you have a more spacious classroom than me!

When I was in my NQT year I was observed by the head and my lesson was on ruler and compass constructions. About ten minutes of the lesson was dedicated to colouring in what they’d constructed.

In the feedback she asked ‘what did they learn while they were colouring in?’ which tbh was a question that has stuck with me since. E.g. what did they learn when they spent more time cutting out the Tarsia activity than they did completing it?

[quote SoFranCisco]@BustopherPonsonbyJones true story - I think technically it was called ‘The Art of Being Brilliant’ but it talked a lot about positive pants and was run by a Doctor of Happiness (a real actual thing I think!?) - in fairness to him lots of the staff loved it - I am just too sarcastic to cope with that level of happy 😂😂[/quote]
We had that shite as a twilight. Apparently we’d be better teachers if we told ourselves how brilliant we are in the mirror every morning, congratulated ourselves on how brilliantly we’d put our pants on and took half an hour a day to look at the sky.

@noblegiraffe

different information pinned up around the room for them to gather up.

I suspect you have a more spacious classroom than me!

When I was in my NQT year I was observed by the head and my lesson was on ruler and compass constructions. About ten minutes of the lesson was dedicated to colouring in what they’d constructed.

In the feedback she asked ‘what did they learn while they were colouring in?’ which tbh was a question that has stuck with me since. E.g. what did they learn when they spent more time cutting out the Tarsia activity than they did completing it?

They learnt to crack on for 10 minutes without being a pain in the bum.

Post pandemic though they learned social interaction and routines and colour therapy all good for mental health.

I reckon that up about to 60% of children never have a serious conversation about anything outside school, however loved and well cared for they may be. Just talking to them about general stuff, life, ideas, politics, improves their lives significantly.

Prep pandemic: colouring is a waste of learning time.

Post pandemic: Colouring in for mindfulness.

@borntobequiet

I reckon that up about to 60% of children never have a serious conversation about anything outside school, however loved and well cared for they may be. Just talking to them about general stuff, life, ideas, politics, improves their lives significantly.

Does arguing with your Dad about Donald Trump count? I had to take my dd home from of her Dads as this got ridiculously heated.

Colouring in for mindfulness

I’m not averse to a bit of calculated colouring while listening to Michael Buble at Christmas, but I can’t now believe I did colouring in while being observed by the head.

I did something similar in my PGCE. Apparently, cutting and sticking a 3D model of the human mouth isn't a good use of observation lesson time

@noblegiraffe My classroom is quite spacious when the tables are set up for group work rather than rows.

The point about the colouring is a good one. We can still get away with some nice colouring in primary from time to time - map work, colour by numbers maths challenges etc etc

I think I benefited in terms of cultural and social capital from growing up in a family where one side was very middle class and the other very working class. My era of English had a lot about register and being able to switch register according to context and we studied RP and dialects etc.

I see that as part of cultural capital or at least a kind of analogy of it and a part of facilitating social mobility and ease.

I can't remember whether it was Holt or Gallo who got inner city kids to perform social class and did experiments where eg the kids went to a museum and one of them was supposed to be a teacher and passed just by using certain body language and accent and a clipboard. He was dealing with kids who were usually hoods up, head down and used to the suspicion they were treated with.

Badly explained but he was giving them social capital and understanding how to 'pass' in different situations

Colouring in is fine for Christmas. I don't even let kids colour in pie charts now.

You can tell which kids have conversations at home and which don't. It doesn't need to be NT weekends, museums and galleries in the holidays. Many parents can't have conversations with their children because they have nothing to talk about beyond the latest episode of love Island.

I've done a few things with stuff stuck on the wall. Like a treasure hunt, so they answer one question and then have to find the answer so they know which question to do next. I quite liked it when I did it as revision for a bright year 11 class. Then when I tried it with a lower ability younger class I decided I should just print to as dominoes so they could do the same thing sitting safely confined to their seats. There was all sorts of chaos, largely because they couldn't find the next answer because they'd made a mistake and it wasn't there and so wandered aimlessly chatting to their mates.

@borntobequiet

I reckon that up about to 60% of children never have a serious conversation about anything outside school, however loved and well cared for they may be. Just talking to them about general stuff, life, ideas, politics, improves their lives significantly.

Exactly this.

I actually think that's what my main role is, after safeguarding. Especially if you know stuff (not everyone does), pass it on - outside and inside of your actual lessons.

what did they learn when they spent more time cutting out the Tarsia activity than they did completing it? I've always done tarsia activities sparingly because I cut them up myself before the lesson. They aren't doing any learning when they're cutting up (except my nurture groups who do get to cut theirs up themselves, and they are learning about being accurate with scissors)

I wonder if the Doctor of Happiness is still doing CPD. I might suggest it as a potential session. My happiness would come from watching my colleagues’ reaction to seeing it on the CPD timetable.

noble. I did something similar as an NQT but we were using nets to make 3D shapes. The head was scathing.

I like snowballs. Good for easy peasy collaboration. Not good for naughty classes though! Or teachers in INSET. Much worse with the eyerolls!

I don't know what a learning bicycle is.

@HercwasanEnemyofEducation

Colouring in is fine for Christmas. I don't even let kids colour in pie charts now.

You can tell which kids have conversations at home and which don't. It doesn't need to be NT weekends, museums and galleries in the holidays. Many parents can't have conversations with their children because they have nothing to talk about beyond the latest episode of love Island.

Absolutely agree with this.

My son hates writing, will only read aloud if he’s made to, but he does have a reading age well above his natural age, and they praise his contributions to topic work. Reasoning being is that we talk. Yes he would play roblox for 10 hours a day if he could, but we always have time together every day where we talk as a family and when we’re out and about we just chat.

What’s this snowball thing?

Colouring in/tracing/dot to dots are excellent for teenies for pencil control and fine motor though!

I reckon that up about to 60% of children never have a serious conversation about anything outside school, however loved and well cared for they may be. Just talking to them about general stuff, life, ideas, politics, improves their lives significantly

Yep. We watch news round in tutor once a week and chat about it. Also mini TED talks about random stuff and then discussing.

Little things add up, having conversations, playing cards, teaching baby backgammon etc. Little things like counting the buttons as you get them dressed, asking them what colour their shoes are etc. Things that we just do without thinking but when they aren't done mean they're already at a disadvantage when they start reception.

@SmileEachDay

I reckon that up about to 60% of children never have a serious conversation about anything outside school, however loved and well cared for they may be. Just talking to them about general stuff, life, ideas, politics, improves their lives significantly

Yep. We watch news round in tutor once a week and chat about it. Also mini TED talks about random stuff and then discussing.

And also the types of books they read. My DD’s friends’ parents will say ‘oh my child reads a lot’. But it’s the whole set of ‘Dork Diaries’ where each book has same plot, same themes, same vocab. Last year DD read ‘Holes’ (8 at the time). We had a conversation about interracial relationships and why Sam was lynched.

We also love board games as a family. Can get quite competitive though 😆

noble You ask a question, one person per table writes an answer on a sheet of paper. You then screw up the paper and throw it to another table for them to add an answer. Repeat until done/the class is a 'snowball fight'.

Oh, that sounds like ‘behaviour management issue’ in waiting.