Random Acts of Kindness

I have a Pastoral Care group of Year 7, 8 and 9 students that I see twice a day, in what is known at our College as Home Group.  In the mornings we mark the roll and announce the notices, in the afternoons we check that no-one left school early, and that everyone has their hats for the trip home.  For each House, there are 2 middle school Home Groups, and students stay in their assigned HG until the end of Year 9.  They are then distributed through the 3 senior HGs for Years 10, 11 and 12.

The morning HG time is very unstructured, and that is something that my HG (BR.1) and I have been working hard to change (at least in our room) over the past 3 years.  We only have 10-20mins each morning, but we have been trying to make the most of it.  We have competitions, we hold discussions, we have 'Bad Joke Friday', we do stuff together.  I have noticed that my ex-BR.1s tend to hold that identity even into their senior years, even after spending as much time in BR.3/4/5.

We're starting some new things this year, and the first that we've managed to get off the ground is our 'Roll and Random Act of Kindness' challenge.  On Monday I asked the students to come up with a list of 11 things that they could do around College as a Random Act of Kindness (RAK).  I know RAKs aren't new, but in my experience they are rarely used in a consistent way - usually there'll be a one week focus or something similiar.  Here's what my guys came up with:

 We started at '2' as every Monday each member of BR.1 (including me) is going to roll 2 dice to determine which RAK is theirs for the week, and with 2 dice you can't roll a '1'.  We then have until Friday to complete our RAK.

The Acts that the HG decided on were converted to a poster and pinned up on our noticeboard just inside the classroom door, and the students wrote their name on a tally ticket.  Each week, they get to add to their tally if they have completed their assigned RAK, sometimes multiple times.  

We have also started HG blogs, one for each student, and one for me.  On Friday morning the students blogging topic was about our 'Roll a RAK' - how they felt about the initiative in general, and how they felt about the RAK they had that week.  I was blown away by the students responses, both in their simple blog posts, but also in the conversations we had as they filled in their tally tickets.  The boys, in particular, were very proud of their RAKs and delighted in telling me how good they felt doing something for someone else.

There is no competition here, no reward, except the feeling that we have put some positive energy into the world, and perhaps made someones day a little easier, or brighter.  The tally tickets are for when we are having a tough day, to remind us of the good things we've done, and to consolidate the BR.1 identity as people who make a difference, no matter how small.

Adding some music to History

A majority of my students have heard of Horrible Histories before they enter my classroom, however, not many have heard of historyteachers.  While the HH songs are catchy in their own way, Amy Burvall and Herb Mahelona set their parodies to songs that the students and teachers are familiar with from popular culture.

Check out the reason my students draw musical notes next to some of their Medieval Europe exam answers, and not a one has ever misspelled bubonic!

I'm looking forward to introducing my Year 7 class to historyteachers well-researched, produced and catchy work.

Head on over to arttrav by Alexandra Korey to read how Amy used the songs in her own teaching.

Stepping up to Year 7

As mentioned in my previous post, this year I've got a Year 7 class for English and History/Geography for the first time.  When the possibility was first floated I was not entirely pleased with the idea, as it would mean that the classroom which is for all intents and purposes 'mine' would no longer be 'mine', but a Year 7 room.  During discussions with both my History mentor and Head of Department I came to realise that me taking Year 7 would actually be a great opportunity to bring our Year 7 Social Science program into line with the rejigged Years 8-10 programs that have evolved over the past 3 years.

So, here's my PMI (Plus/Minus/Interesting-I don't know) for me having a Year 7 class - I intend to reflect through the year on how things have shifted and how I have (hopefully) grown.

Plus:
*I actually get to keep my room, even with the Year 7 class, and only have 6 of my 40 lessons a cycle out of it (either next door or one door down).
*The other core teacher (Science/Maths) that I am paired with for this class group is a teacher I get along with quite well, both personally and professionally.
*Year 7 camp in Week 2 of Term 1, yay!
*Being part of re-writing a program again, I get really pumped gathering resources and tools to put a unit together.
*Geography will have Weather and Disasters in it, and I love teaching that.
*History is archaeology and ancient history, and I miss teaching ancient for senior.

Minus (Opportunities in most cases):
*NAPLAN pressure (from outside)- not going to comment any further on that, except to say that as long as my students have a go and present their best efforts I will be happy with them.
*Other people in 'my room', and feeling like I am encroaching on others spaces when I have lessons in their rooms (mentor and HoD).
*Dealing with transition issues from Primary.
*Changing over to IB MYP for 2 subjects = apprehension as I don't really know what to expect, but I fear it is more paperwork!

Interesting/I don't know:
*IDK - how I will go with getting the routines sorted early, I know that I am improving year to year and term to term, but Year 7 is a whole 'nother ballgame!
*IDK - if I want to run the Year 7 government activities that have been run by some teachers in other years, I think I need to discuss this with colleagues before making a decision.
*I am teaching many siblings of students in my other classes, so I'm not a total stranger to them which will hopefully ease some of the early nerves in Term 1.

More Plus than Minus, which is good! I am looking forward to meeting the new kids on the block and joining them on the start of their secondary school journey.