Being a Restorative Practitioner

  It has been a hectic term so far, the prelims, the workload and the incessant cries of “Miss, can we watch Elf yet?” have been exacerbated by the additional pressure that I have had to complete my final probationer report.  After 4 long years at university, a year and a half of probation (due to absence) and a lot of CPL, finally I can say I am an NQT. 

With that, I feel I want to take my blog in a new direction. I feel I want to focus more on the different elements of teaching using my own observations and that of others to try to share best practice, put forward a few of my own ideas and in particular focus on my new found love for restorative behaviour management. 

This week, I am going to focus on my newest strategy for dealing with an S1 class (12/13 year olds) whose low level disruptions and behaviours have caused a wider problem overall.  It all started with a bout of tears and a hysterical pupil.  At least that was when I decided I had to be brave and take the big step towards facilitating a restorative circle in class.  I asked the pupils to move tables and put chairs into a circle in the middle of the room.  At this, the uncertainty of change and trying something new was plastered across 25 faces which stared back at me.  Begrudgingly, they arranged themselves in a circle. 

Now came the tricky part – getting them to identify what the problem was with the class that had made it an unpleasant atmosphere.  Each of them thought hard for a second before I asked them to raise their hand if they felt responsible for something that was wrong with the class.  To my great surprise, a lot of the class put their hands up to volunteer to share their guilt.  They each made very valid points – none of which I could have disagreed with at all.  This demonstrated their ability to recognise when they were wrong and how they could go about fixing the issue.  This was the first step. 

Next, we discussed what we would like the classroom to feel like when we were there – me as much as them. We came up with some great adjectives such as safe, respected and happy.  Next we had to work out what needs to be changed in order to create this atmosphere we all wanted.  As a result, we renewed the classroom rules, people apologised to those who they had hurt, disrupted or annoyed and we agreed to work together as a class to make things better. 

Our final objective was to set ourselves personal targets to pin on our new target board.  These are to be reviewed each week and when a pupil meets their target they receive a reward for it such as extra library time or a merit.  These targets require a lot of self-reflection from pupils and are at first understandably lacking in detail or depth.  Gradually, by week two, these started to become more focused. 

There are still a lot of improvements to our class that need to be made, we still have circle time at least once a month and there are still people who haven’t met their targets.  Each week, we have our ups and downs but it is certainly a more positive classroom to be in.  Pupils have a visual reminder of their targets and can update, revisit and change them as often as they like. 

Memorial: An Elegy to the Punitive Classroom

Everywhere she dies. Everywhere I go she dies.
No sunrise, no city square, no lurking beautiful mountain
but has her death in it.
The silence of her dying sounds through
the carousel of language, it's a web
on which laughter stitches itself. How can my hand
clasp another's when between them
is that thick death, that intolerable distance?

(Extract from Memorial by Norman MacCaig)

For a while now, the term 'Restorative Practice' has been banded around.  It is mostly by people who have no clue what it is to be fully restorative.  I was/am one of those people who thought I was restorative but really was verging on the permissive side.  The rigmarole of sending a pupil out to the corridor to have the 'Why have I sent you out? Who have you affected? How can we change this?' conversation has become a mere speck of chalk dust on the board of restorative practice.

Recently, I started a course in the Restorative Approach within the classroom and realised that, while my intentions were pure, I am not a restorative practitioner.  This is a point of interest and is something that I am going to be updating on over the next few posts.  During the first two parts of the course, I have learned that it is important to make my classroom a restorative environment before I can make my practice restorative.  For example, greeting pupils by name as they come in the door, positive appraisal rather than picking up on negative behaviours and incorporating a class circle time to allow pupils to vent their feelings on what they want and expect from each other.

The effects of this on my practice so far are noticeable; much happier classes and a much happier me! 

This week, I gained partial responsibility for an S4 class which has meant that I now get the great pleasure of teaching Macbeth!  This is something that I am super happy about as it is one of my favourite Shakespeare texts.  Having said that, I have neither read, taught nor studied it in about 10 years.  So I am getting stuck in with re-reading it and making  copious notes on it too. 

 Overall, a very positive week this week.  Having said that, bring on the October break!

Miss.

Being Miss Short and Tired

This week, I have learned 2 key things about myself as a teacher:

1.                   Wall displays are tricky when you are this short.

2.                   I need to be in bed tucked up and asleep by 9pm to be able to function for the next day.

Following the end the fifth full week back, I feel myself crumbling under the weight of tiredness. I feel myself becoming more stressed about the little things.  This is not a good thing and it is something that I feel is important to try to combat at the early stages of my career to save myself a lot of stress in the future.  Currently, my strategies include: knitting and early nights.

So to expand on the first key point that I have learned this week, I have been attempting to put up some wall displays.  My room looked rather lacklustre and bare previously.  Now, I feel that it probably looks slightly worse with my attempts to hang freeze paper straight with only the aid of 3 small second year pupils and a chair to stand on.  The rough cut edges, squinty paper and close to a million staples at least have a little bit of character. 

So as I have gotten to know my classes a bit more, I feel that I am building up some nice relationships with them.  The trust and understanding is starting to build on both sides meaning that my classroom is a much more positive and productive place already. 

                I am remarkably getting used to the routine of leaving the house before 7a.m., being in bed before 10p.m. and battling a 40 minute commute on top of the exhaustion.  Being much more organised, settled in to a way of living is so much easier.  I feel like I am able to get more done in less time.

My S1 classes are all about to change and in some ways this is really sad.  On one hand, they are only just starting to settle down but on the same front, the classes are being set according to ability meaning that my tasks won’t have to be as differentiated as they are right now.  We are doing some lovely little book projects at the moment which will eventually make a lovely wall display (if I ever get the hang of wall displays). 

S2 have had a busy week, both of my classes were rehearsing productions of a scene from ‘White Poppies’ and have been putting together their group performances.  I had an observed lesson during one of the actual recitals.  The observation was to focus on how well I had implemented peer assessment and feedback however, it was a little chaotic.  It still went really well though so that was all good.

Finally, S3 who are still teaming their way through the media unit on ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’ and seem to be really enjoying it so far.  The class are quite chatty at times and can often be found heading off topic.  I have a constant task of reminding them of the expectations that are on their shoulders.  They are gradually getting there though.

So as another week starts…bring on the October break!

Miss. 

Back for Good

'...Got your lipstick marks still on your coffee cup...' (it's tea for me but you get the idea - I am back to drinking plenty of tea somewhere other than my house).
Due to personal circumstances, it has been a long time since I have posted.  Since my last post, I have started teaching at a new school and am halfway through my second week here. 

Tuesday 18^th August – a real milestone in my life: I was handed the keys to my very own classroom.  The empty corridors were yet to be filled with pupils as the staff had an In-Service day.  The quiet corridor made for the perfect place to run about squealing with delight at the prospect of filling the bare shelves with my favourite books, starting some crafty wall displays and beginning the hunt for some awesome stationery to cover my desk!  Day one and I was already winning! After a day of meetings and planning, admin and a big clear out, we felt as ready as we were ever going to be for the return of the pupils the next day. 

This term, I knew what to expect, I was much more organised, less nervous and more than prepared for 8pm bed times.  As a result, when my first class, a lovely group of second years arrived, I was refreshed, enthusiastic and ready to start.  They were lovely, a bit boisterous but a high ability class.  Straight away, I could tell that they will be no problem at all as long as I keep them busy and prepare lots of fun tasks for them.  With this class and my other lovely S2 class, for this term, I am going to be studying a short play by Sue Saunders called ‘White Poppies’ which is set during the First World War.  This leaves me a lot of scope for good, fun tasks and so far the pupils have been extremely enthusiastic about it.

After my second years, came my two S1 classes.  We immediately reached a kind of unspoken agreement: I was new, they were new: we’d help each other!  The thing that I love about first years is their complete innocent questions – ‘Miss, I have reached the end of my page but I haven’t finished writing…should I take a new page?’ or ‘Miss, I started writing in blue pen and it’s not working, is it OK if I switch to black pen?’ or (and this one has to be my favourite, asked EVERY day) ‘Miss, do we write the long date or the short date?’ – there are so many of these inane questions asked during an S1 lesson that I am sure I have forgotten most of them.  The thing is, in S1 these are all genuine fears and concerns, it takes about a month to convince them that I honestly don’t care whether they write with a pen OR a pencil, I couldn’t be less bothered whether they write the long or the short date and when I am marking their jotter, I am definitely not looking at the colour of pen that they are using.  But that is why I love teaching S1.

Finally, my S3 class and, to my surprise, a lot of familiar faces.  I taught at this school for 10 weeks during my time as a student teacher 2 years ago so my S3 class is mostly made up of my S1 class from then.  They are an enthusiastic class with a lot of big characters who can hold their own in class discussion and are not afraid to stomp their feet and share their opinions.  We are studying ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’ as a media text to start off.  The class have mixed views about this but are generally open to a couple of periods of sitting watching the film whilst taking notes at their own pace. 

I am aware that this post is getting very lengthy! So alas, I shall stop talking and get back to teaching…

Positives: amazing new classes, fantastically supportive department, lots of smiling.

Negatives: early starts, my car giving up at the beginning of the week.

Miss. 

New Year, New Classes, New Me!

So a lot has changed since my last post.  New Year, new term, new classes and new me. 

No longer do I dread Monday mornings, double periods of S5 and the chaotic corridors.  The reason for this being that I have found my feet.  I am gaining my confidence and control over my time and my classroom.  This came from a serious think that I had to have over my Christmas break.  When I left school on the last day of term, I was exhausted and close to breaking.  I had let a build up of stress, discipline issues and tiredness take over my life.  At this point, I was close to quitting.  I questioned whether this was really what I wanted to do anymore or whether a 9-5 job that I could walk away from when I left would be more suited to the way I wanted to live my life. 

Then I thought about the proud moments I have every day.  When a pupil learns something new, when they have a realisation, when they gain more confidence.  I asked myself would any other job be so rewarding as this?  The answer, for me, was no.  So I resolved to become more organised, get my sh** together and stop feeling like a walkover. With these resolutions, I walked back into school in January organised, confident and determined.

This reflected in my personality, my teaching and my classes.  There are much clearer lines with regards to discipline boundaries because I now have the confidence to be assertive when required.  Anyway, that's the new me part!

New classes is next.  So I had my S1 class removed from my timetable before Christmas so that I could take an extra S4 class.  This really upset me because, I adored my S1.  They were often the class that kept me most sane in a day.  However, as a result of a teacher leaving the department and not being replaced, I have gained a new S1 class this term.  They are ADORABLE! A challenging class when it comes to it as they are very low ability which means that I have to differentiate all of my lessons and tasks.  For the first couple of weeks, we put together a Robert Burns show to encourage them all to become confident in each others' company.  Now we have started reading 'The Twits' which gives plenty of opportunity for me to come up with really fun resources and tasks to do together.  So far we have read 4 or 5 chapters and created posters of Mr and Mrs Twit.  I am just loving having that escape in a day.  Yes, they need more nurturing and encouragement than most S1 classes, but the fact that I can see their trust building in me and that they get so much enjoyment from my lessons, is the best part of my day.

This week has been a busy week for me.  I run an S1 book club and an S2 book club and this week, we combined for a project to win the school library £10,000 of books.  We had to show how our school can't live without books so the members of the book clubs went around taking photos of staff and pupils with their favourite books and a reason why they felt that they could not live without books.  We then put them onto a display board and stuck books around the display and sent it away to enter the competition.  It was stressful, fun but most rewarding and I am so proud of the book clubs for putting in so much effort. 

This week, it's time to apply for jobs for next year...fingers crossed!! For today, marking Romeo and Juliet essays, creating prelim study guides and planning my lessons for the week :)

Miss.