An Observation with Year 8
They have just had Christmas
lunch. Tamsin is 10 minutes early, scurrying in to the classroom. She
breathes relief, slumps in a chair. The bulk of the class are a little
late. Chloe enters, throwing her bag to her chair acorss the room,
yelling 'Your mum's a slag!'. Darren and Sam enter wrestling. Kane is
singing in the corridor. Matthew is selling sweets and cans of coca
cola. There are now three children in the room who do not go to this
class. I ask them to sit down 12 times, and then they do, but leaving
me clear it is through their choice. 12 children need pens. 'Right,
let's get started - get the learning objective down!' 5 more children
arrive, including Sinead, who has only twice managed to sit down in my
classroom. Chloe starts saying something disgusting about someone's
mother and a dog. I try not to cry. Eden's pen breaks and red ink
splatters everywhere. An exercise book sails across the classroom. 7
children need pens. Nickesha has broken her finger, can she have a
laptop? Lewis finished the starter 5 minutes ago, when are we going to
do something else? Connor is scoring the table with his pen. Michael is
drawing on the wall. Somehow, 9 children need pens.
It does not improve.
An Observation With Year 7
They
have just had assembly. They are 10 minutes late. I ask them to come in
quickly, as we have so much to do! They pile in, noisily and
boisterously. They see the work on the board, and quiet falls as they
get started, because it's hard to talk and do sums simultaeously. This
must be what they mean by a 'settler', I think, and it works sometimes.
The
mini whiteboards are untouched on the tables. I give out pens and they
answer questions on them. They beam when I praise them, and eagerly
explain to each other. Someone calls across the room and I frown - they
apologise. We build shapes out of cubes and practice drawing them.
Chris asks what a word means, and we explain. Someone asks him for
help. Coloured pencils are lent. We do a short test, in silence of
course. Jack says 'Will there be board games tonight?'