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.

Playdough and Pre-Service Teachers

**transferred from old blog**

So I’ve been really lucky with the pre-service teachers I’ve been assigned – they are generally ready for the classroom, but more importantly, they don’t mind team-teaching some fun stuff.

The latest has been Year 9 WWI playdough concepts and events.  Teams were assigned topics from militarism to the Gallipoli landing.  They had a variety of materials available – the main one being homemade cooked playdough.

Here’s some of the progress shots:

In addition to the models, the students had to compose a paragraph to accompany their display for our ‘Classroom Museum’ exhibition on WWI.  They’ll be displayed alongside the models and posters from classwork earlier in the term.  By the end of the term we’ll have a series of podcasts and videos to add to our exhibition.

I love my 9s, and my praccy.