New Approach

I tried a new approach with my 6/7 class on Tuesday and Wednesday that I think is going to go well (I know, I know, I said that with the last big idea). My vice principal/ LART (Learning Assistance Resource Teacher) gave me the idea. He said, rather than trying to focus the whole class as once, just try to come into class and start doing something fun and see who joins you. He said that he has found that this works well for art especially.

Well, I did make some modifications to this idea because I know that with my class, it doesn't matter how interesting the thing is I'm doing, some students will not think it's interesting. So I decided to give each student two choices for each of the two subjects I teach in the afternoon (at the moment health & career and art). I wrote up all the information for all four of the lesson plans and gave the plans to the students for them to make the decision on what they would like to work on. Then I just put all the art supplies out on the table and started encouraging students to pick lesson plans that I thought that they would enjoy. This worked for a little more than half of the students. Most kids did pick a lesson and get to work on it. Of course, this is far from a perfect outcome, but it is still a work in progress. Most students still wander out of the room occasionally (which the whole school is working on...but it's something that I am learning to get over and not take personally), and some students still refuse to work at all, but it's a start. It is definitely less dictatorial which wasn't really my style to begin with (but I was willing to try anything).

I will try to keep you updated on how my afternoons are going with this strategy.