9^th January 2012

Now you know I’ve never liked Room 201. It’s cramped, hot and has windows that don’t open.  I am moving.  Room 304 is bright, airy and has a better table layout which will allow me to have a better teaching spot and let me feel better, so the students will get a better deal.  Here’s a question though:  Will it change the group dynamics and the routines we had begun to establish in Room 201?  If I’m honest, that’s part of the attraction.  I’m interested to see the effect the move might have.

                This half term the topic is ‘Puberty’.  Fun times. As I don’t know their history, I am assuming that their experience of being taught about puberty is nil.  A ubiquitous starter; ‘What do you know now?’ kind of thing, leading through to a dangerous group activity which will result in one of the smaller humans in each group having their outline drawn onto a 6-foot piece of lining paper.  It will be fun managing this activity without some kind of harassment charge being placed against somebody.  I remember doing this in 1989 when the ‘Where there’s blame there’s a claim’ culture was still firmly rooted in America. It was fun then and it’s an activity the students always remind you about when they see you in the local supermarket 15 years later, when they have their own little humans putting chocolate biscuits surreptitiously into their chatty parent’s trolley.

                The BIG thing about BIG group activities is that they focus your mind on the learning, so that behaviour management becomes a side-issue, which is as it should be.  I’ll be setting up the activity so that disruption is minimal and I think I might just have them all in the corridor to stop crowding in the classroom. Ooooh … Active Learning from 1988!

                It’s lunchtime and I feel hassled.  I am sorting out a problem that happened last Friday and it’s taken me 33 minutes to get to the bottom of the argument between Year 11 students.  So I’m behind.  I have to get the rolls of lining paper that I need to complete the dangerous activity today and I am in the Head of PSHCE’s office ferreting around for them.  I can’t find them and I don’t like to search through stuff that’s not mine.  I try in another room. I’m told exactly where they are.  It’s my fault; I should have searched properly. Back to the office.  Got them.  I return the keys.  More walking.  Now I am sweating a bit. The school heating system has gone from freezing cold on the first day back, to boiling hot now.  I must turn my radiator down in my own office.  I have 16 minutes.  I am cutting up 6-foot pieces of lining paper, making sure I do a couple extra in case of accidents.  Sweat drips onto the floor.  I hate myself sometimes for trying to be too perfect.  Nothing is perfect.  Done.  I have 6 minutes to get upstairs, find some marker pens, drop off the boxes and rolls of paper, log on to the PC, go back to Room 201, pick up the group, go back to Room 304, remind myself of the lesson content and get started.  I remind myself again that it’s not the end of the world if I don’t.

                The majority are in front of me in 304 and as they jostle for seats next to their friends, the move has created a little confusion.

“Why are we here Sir?”

“Are we in here for ever Sir?”

“This is an English room Sir.”

“Is Miss Staples taking us Sir?”

I ignore everything and do the register.  “A … go to 201 please and fetch any stragglers.”

Off he pops and minutes later the stragglers struggle in behind him.  All present and correct.

                Unusually, they are relatively quiet so I just begin talking without even thinking about getting attention. I take up my ‘teaching spot’ in front of the board and scan voraciously, making eye contact with everyone without smiling too much.  It’s the first lesson back and I need to re-establish myself.

                “OK.  This will be our room from now on, so planners out and make the change on your timetable.”  They are all listening.  I feel a difference. 

                I give out the start of term ‘self assessment’, explain in great detail how to fill it in and they fill it in …. In total silence.  There’s that feeling again.  Wonder if it’s my imagination?  As I collect it in they are still strangely quiet and any conversation is gentle and reassuringly normal. 

                “The next part of the lesson is going to be completed with a lot of maturity from you.”  Presupposition. I explain in detail how the outline drawing of the smallest human in their group has to be done. “The drawer and the person being drawn have to be the same sex!”  Hilarity ensues as I indicate they have to be careful when drawing near the private bits.  “We are going to complete the drawing in the corridor in our groups which you are going to organise yourselves now. Each group with 4 people.  Go.” 

As they jockey for position, I pull the quietest girl towards me as I know there’s an odd-one-out.  I will place her to save embarrassment.  There’s an acceptable amount of noise.  I feel the difference as I stand still at the front during transition time.  They are quick to group themselves and I have to do minimal rearranging.  I give out pens, the roll of paper and they troop out with my trusted friend Rachael at the front.  I follow up at the rear and they are soon onto the task.  They think they are back in Primary School.  Learning in action.  BLP collaboration and interdependence. No behaviour issues and all Rachael and I can do is watch as they figure out how to draw their person outline without the police being called.  They are loving it. 

I go to each group, individually crouch down to their levels on the floor and give out the next instructions, as I don’t want to disturb the other classrooms any further.  I feel like a busy bee, pollenating. There’s a difference.  Drawing on major body organs in the right proportion and in the right place is proving difficult.  The Biology teachers have work to do. They smile, chat and learn as I go around busy being a psychological, relationship building state-changer, utilising this activity as a reminder for them, anchoring me to their present happy feelings.  See me, feel happy.  Derren Brown, eat your heart out.

I decide to get them back in and inform them all group by group; no raised voice, no need.  I arrive back first to greet them again and Rachael mops up the tail-end.  I stand at the front.

“Sit in your groups for now please,” I say, and sit they do, with little fuss as they see me watch them intently.  I have the first outline drawing up to the board and the group hold it there and respond to my questions.  It’s a deliberate choice to talk about this group’s effort first as they are the only group out of 6 who decided to draw an ‘appendage’: an all-boy group of course.  Sniggers as the class see what they have drawn. 

“OK.  I’m not sure that you’ve placed all the organs correctly or whether they are the right size. Who thinks that the heart is in the right place?”  No hands go up as the heart is around the outline’s neck.  We carry on quizzing them and finish on the kidneys which are one inch round, sitting next to each other 3 inches below the belly button.  That’s KS2, level 5 science. 

“Last question then boys.  Do all of your organs keep on growing as you grow into an adult?”  An innocent question, but badly timed. 

“That one does!” one of the presenters screams out, pointing to the appendage.  Instant laugh-out-loud response from the whole class, literally.  Rachael looks either mortified or non-plussed, I’m not sure. 

“Really!?” I say immediately to try to quell the laughter a little, but secretly I love this situation.  Right your homework for this week is to go home and ask your folks ….”

“Nooooooo Sir!”  The collective response is deeply satisfying as I laugh too. 

I feel the difference again.  This isn’t about the room.  This isn’t about the activity.  This isn’t about them.  This is about me.  Out of all the lessons so far, this has been the best.  Why?  Because I created the change of room.  I created the corridor scene.  I created the discussion at the end. I followed my instinct every step of the way. Behaviour management wasn’t on my radar.  Classroom management was. That’s the step change.

Most of all though I realise, that as a group, we moved deeply into ‘normin’ behaviour and the sides of that box I am creating for them to work within, are nearly complete.