The Verdict

Well I made it through my first full week (including a class trip) alive, I call that a success! I have had my first massive mystery bruise though, about 3 inches across and absolutely no recollection of doing anything to cause it. Probably walked into the annoying knee height tables that you get in KS1, seem to do that constantly! I've had enough time to settle into the school and class now and form opinions about it all, so here's the verdict.

My class are, on the whole, a really lovely class. They're a chatty bunch but other than that, they're actually really well behaved. Though I did have a mystery person put hand soap in two water bottles this week, the whole class had to have a bit of a telling off for that. The one thing that absolutely drives me mad about them is their lack of ability to be quiet. I'll do my clapping, they'll stop, repeat and be quiet for a few seconds but then they'll start to do things and talk before I'm finished talking. I'm having to come down quiet hard on them, I've been clapping again and telling them that it's disrespectful (one of the rules they wanted is to respect everyone) to talk over me and not listen (another one of their rules!) and just refusing to talk over them. If there have been any particularly bad offenders then they've had to miss some of their play time. I'm also making them redo things if they don't do them right the first time, like moving to line up, sit on the carpet/at tables etc. I think they're starting to get a bit better, we'll get there!

What have I learnt this past week and a bit?
* Whilst a zone board might be a great idea, it just doesn't work in practice. It's too much faffing and hassle so I've not been using it, just my sticker chart. I may take it down and put up a traffic light instead as I think it's still a good thing for my warning system - one warning before the school policy of time out. No names this time, just laminate it and use a board pen to write the name on.
* I've also learnt that it's bloody hard work! Especially at the start of the year but that if you keep on, it does get better.
* Another thing that I've learnt is that although I totally dismissed the idea of carpet or seating charts, I think they might well be needed!
* Always have a back up plan in case something can't happen for one reason or another
* Make sure you know when assemblies are so that the head doesn't have to come and get you!
* Don't let one child use an electric pencil sharpener, suddenly they all want a go!
* Stop stressing so much, in wise words of Sonny Kapoor (Dev Patel) in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel - Everything will be alright in the end, if it is not alright it is not the end.

The staff at the school are genuinely probably the nicest lot I've ever worked with. Everyone is so helpful, they constantly tell me that if I need help with anything just to ask, they ask how I am, how I'm getting on etc. The head teacher is great, there are times when I'll ask a question and she'll send me to my induction mentor as it's up to her to deal with those things, which is completely understandable and I'd expect it really (still getting used to who I go to for what!) but she always shows an interest in me and how I'm getting on. My induction mentor is well, amazing really. I've had so many questions this past week I'm amazed that she's not got sick of me! Yet she always finds the time to help and answer questions and always tells me to come and ask if ever I need anything. They've also booked me onto a number of training courses which is great. It all makes me really not want to leave at Christmas, let's hope they don't manage to recruit someone to be the KS1 leader!

I'm starting to get used to the school and the way things work now. Guided Reading still is a bit of a hazy area for me though, first session next week so hopefully it'll just take a few goes to get into it all. My mind is still bordering on that fence about whether I think I can do this or not. There's been so many times this week where I know I haven't been great, where the children haven't learned what I wanted, where I've pitched too high or too low. Though there's been other times when things have gone really well, it's certainly not all bad. Maybe I'm being too hard on myself, maybe that's all part of settling in and getting used to the children and that things will soon get better with those things. I'm hoping so anyway!

Catch Up

This will be a fairly short post tonight, it might only be 8pm but I'm SHATTERED! Waking up at 5.15am the last 2 days has broken me.

Had a great first week at school, really enjoyed it. Starting to get to know the kids quite well, they're starting to get the hang of my behaviour strategies, hopefully they'll fully get used to them soon. I've not really been using the zone board though, it seems to be a bit much effort. I have been using it if I've needed to give someone a warning though, which I've only had to do once. So I might change it just to a laminated traffic light maybe, amber is first warning, red is a time out.

Had my very first school trip where I was in charge today. I was so worried I'd lose or break at least one kid but they all came back and with all limbs in tact, no-one was sick either, win!

Starting to get my head around planning at last! The feeling of pure fear is starting to fade away and be replaced by a feeling of actual confidence in myself! Starting to think that maybe I can do it after all.

I've decided to start a little thing on here that I shall call 'Comment of the Week'. Each week I'm going to post the best comment that I've had from a child (or even staff) for all of your amusement. This week it has to be 'Miss I'm tired, I've worked so hard, can I have a little rest?' said at 9.20 in the morning after the boy had been in class for about 5 minutes after having assembly and had drawn me a circle, triangle, square and rectangle. It's tiring stuff don't you know!

First day and the dreaded O word!

I survived! My first day of having the kids back is over and actually went surprisingly well. My dreams weren't premonitions and were just dreams after all. The children didn't run riot, the TA didn't completely change my activities, I didn't royally cock it up! I actually had an amazing first day and though I'm utterly exhausted, I definitely feel like I've made the right choice in life. All those doubts about whether I could possibly do it have melted away and I know I'm doing what is right for me and what I love.

My class are absolutely lovely, I'm already their 'very best ever and loveliest teacher ever ever' already for some of them apparently! There are a few characters in the class that I've got to spot. Like the one girl who just won't be quiet, she always has something to say! Lovely girl but constantly calls out and interrupts. We had to vote on School Council members today and bless them they were so sweet. It was the first time they've had to do it so they had to nominate themselves, give a little speech and then we voted. Each of the children cam up and told me their vote and towards the end of the class was one little girl who was one of the 'candidates' and she asked whether she could vote for herself. I have to say it made me chuckle and as she was the first person to ask I thought that I'd say yes. She missed out by one vote in the end but I made her the Eco Warrior for our Eco Committee instead so she was happy enough.

I had to learn some tough lessons today though too. I'm the kind of person that likes to please people and keep the peace. I hate talking about things face to face with people, feel so uncomfortable about it! I'd planned out my whole timetable including what I wanted the teacher covering my PPA and NQT times to do - Guided Reading, PE and Science. I thought this would be ok but it turned out that she doesn't have a TA for any of those afternoons so wanted me to change it all. I have swapped Guided Reading round because that does need a TA really to get through it all and I thought I should do it anyway really, so I've given her Music and PSHE, still a big sacrifice for me to give up Music but it's the only way I could do it. So then I was trying to find some kind of solution for Science but I just can't. There were three possible options but one I wasn't prepared to do because it was a subject I specialised in at uni and enjoy (though it's her specialism too) and have also already planned until Christmas and the other two just weren't feasible, though she thought they might be. I spoke to my mentor about it all because I didn't know whether I was being harsh telling her she needed to do Science but she reassured me that it's my classroom so it's my decision and that it was a perfectly acceptable decision to make. So I've got to tell her tomorrow that she's just going to have to do Science by herself. I don't think she'll be happy but I haven't really got much choice! It's so difficult being the person 'in charge' so to speak, I don't like it! I just need to remember that it's my class though and so I shouldn't/can't be a push over!

So, the dreaded O word... Ofsted! The school got a 'good' in it's last Ofsted inspection in 2011 which means that it shouldn't get another inspection for 3 years but... there's always a but! Despite numerous interventions, extra booster groups and all the support in the world our Year 6 class didn't get the results hoped for last year and we've missed our targets by a fair chunk. Our head told us this afternoon in our staff meeting that this means that it could trigger another inspection by Ofsted. I thought I was safe this year, just the mention of the O word has put the fear of god in me! Seriously hope that it doesn't trigger one, not sure I'd cope!

Off to bed now, absolutely exhausted... I'm just not used to seeing 6.30 in the morning anymore!

Getting their attention

I've been thinking about the best way to get children's attention in class. I've tried lots of different things before, guess it's just a case of finding what works for this class but I don't want to do clapping anymore, I don't like it really. So I posed the question to Facebook and Twitter and here are some of the responses.

• I sing 'are you listening' or 'are we ready' and hopefully they reply 'yes we are'
• Whistle
• Count down from 5
• Rainmaker
• Bells - shake them and get children to put their hands in the air
• I clap 3 times, they copy and put their hands on their head so I know they're listening. Points to the first 3

Here's a picture from Pinterest too:

Quite like the idea but not sure I want to use my voice to stop them, especially during group work! Maybe clapping is the best way to stop them AND save my voice! Maybe if they class got used to the clapping from the start and I make sure they do something like put their hands on their head it'll work better.

Still looking for ideas, any more suggestions?

About to start your PGCE? Here's my two pennies

I know a few people about to start their PGCE and I thought that I'd put together my top tips for getting through the year, lots of these are things that looking back now I realise that I should have done. Here they are:

• Don't worry, the PGCE is hard, it takes commitment and dedication but you beat so many people to just get a place on your course, which means that your interviewers saw something in you, they believe that you can do it, you just need to believe that too.
• Bit late for this one now but make the most of your summer - don't worry about reading every possible paper, magazine, article, website etc. Make the most of your friends, your family and having a life. You'll still get to have one during the course but not quite so much all the time! Enjoy it while you can.
• Everything you talk about at uni has a purpose, take it all on board.
• Have a bad day/lesson/observation? You know what, it happens to the best of us, don't beat yourself up, take onboard everything that you've been told, improve on it next time. I promise that if you do that, you'll get better and you'll smash that next one.
• Be organised, don't put things off when they need doing, they're often easier to do sooner rather than later.
• Make the most of your time, that way you don't need to stay up until all hours of the night burning yourself into the ground.
• Don't give up your life, not only is it really important to keep you sane but you don't need to! I started a new relationship half way through my PGCE, spent most weekends with him not doing work and I did just fine - just remember the previous two points!
• Take copies of every piece of planning, every resource etc. that you can from your placement schools, you never know when it'll come in handy. I did this and it's already been great, my school knew, in fact they encouraged it.
• You don't have to waste time reinventing the wheel, if someone else has already done something, use it! Just make sure that you adapt it to fit your class.
• Make the most of your TA, they're there to help you, just don't take advantage of them and make sure you appreciate them.
• If you need help, ask for it. You're learning, you're allowed to not know all the answers!
• Don't spend hours making powerpoints/IWB slides, keep it simple, they don't matter that much and you have better uses for your time.
• No matter how you feel, walk into that classroom like everything is alright in the world and soon, those kids will have you feeling like it is - hopefully!
• When teaching, don't use 100 words when 10 will do, keep it simple!
• When it comes to behaviour, despite what they say you can smile before Christmas but be firm from the start, it's a hell of a lot harder to go back, believe me, I know that from practice.
• Don't assume that children know something you haven't taught them before, you know what they say about when you assume...
• Follow your gut, if something isn't working, scrap it.
• Go with the flow, if the children are taking the lesson in a different direction that still has them learning something, go with it.
• Most of all, be yourself. Don't try and be the mini me of the class teacher, what works for him/her won't necessarily work for you because you're not them. As Judy Garland said - Be a first rate version of your, not a second rate version of someone else.

So they're my top tips, if I think of anything more, I'll add them alter.

Getting the buggers to behave

If there was anything that I particularly struggled with during my PGCE, it was managing behaviour. When I taught in Thailand it was fine, I knew how to manage the children's behaviour but they were my kids, my class, it went how I said. I think I struggled during my PGCE because I was going into someone else's classroom and was trying to take on their way of doing behaviour and they just weren't me. Once I stopped trying to be the same as someone else and started being me, it went a lot better.

I used Class Dojo during my last placement and it worked really well - I'd definitely recommend it! The top two children who had the most points at the end of the week got something from my goodie box and then everyone who had over a certain number of points (I think I said 10) got to have 10 minutes on the activity trail with the school mentor who ran it. I thought about using it again with my new class but it just wouldn't work as well as I couldn't have a whole class reward like the activity trail but also, that rarely ended up happening and it was always the same few children who ended up at the top so I think it demotivated some of those in the middle who were generally good but wouldn't be at the top. So I've racked my brain to try and come up with a new idea, here's what I've come up with.

This is my 'zone board' which is like something I used on placement that the school already had in place. We forgot to use it most of the time because the teacher didn't really use it but when we did, it worked quite well. The children hated moving themselves down and you would see them improve after. On the other hand, children who moved up were really proud of that. Just because someone moves down, they don't have to stay down, they can work their way back up again. Each child has one of the little cards with their name on that they have to move up and down the board.

If they finish the day in gold, they get to take one of these business cards that I got from Vistaprint home that tells their parents that they had a good day, Vistaprint always offer these business cards for free, you just have to pay for postage. I haven't quite decided what will happen if they end in red, on placement they used to lose 5 minutes of golden time but we don't have golden time. I may say that it means a quick word with mum or dad after school, any other suggestions?

Then each child has one of these sticker charts to match our theme of Turrets and Tiaras - thanks Chris for making them for me! They'll get a sticker for anything behaviour or work wise that I feel warrants a sticker. One way to get stickers is that at the end of each day, the first table to be tidied up and sat down ready in their seats will get to have a sticker each. Once they fill all 10 windows of the castle, they get to choose something from this...

I've filled the treasure chest with lots of cheap goodies from pound shops and good old Wilkinsons. They had loads of things in their bargain corner a few weeks ago so I've filled the chest for no more than about £5, bargain! Will make it look a bit more pretty with beads and fabric at some point, possibly.

I thought about table points using marbles but I don't want those who are misbehaving to get things because there are others on their table who are good, in the same way that I don't want those who have been great to be held back by those who have misbehaved. I thought about doing Class Dojo and having a set a of things that children could 'spend' their points on but it was becoming too complicated. Hopefully what I've come up with will be a good compromise and work well, I think the children will like the rewards and this way each child gets to have a reward exactly when they deserve it.