[nobe-l] Hello and question

[Penny Stevenson]

Hi all,
With my very limited experience (only did my practicums of 6 weeks  
each)... I had good results by starting with a lesson about myself, my  
blindness and my guide dog... I changed the way I did this for the  
various year groups but I made sure I had plenty of time for questions  
which I answered honestly. I had pretty good kids mostly, the naughty  
ones were naughty with me but it wasn't that they were taking  
advantage of my lack of vision... they were just that way with their  
regular teacher...
I really agree with student engagement is the key to minimising  
disruptive behaviours but you can't please everyone all the time and  
sometimes kids are going to be bored... distracted... tired... be  
flexible if things aren't going well and be prepared to ditch what you  
are doing and do something else... have a sweetner up your sleeve to  
help get through the bits that are just plain hard slog... 'this  
lesson is going to be pretty full-on chalk and talk but next lesson  
we'll have a lesson in the computer lab... or free time...'. Try and  
give the students responsibility for their own learning... allow them  
to have consequences for their actions... if they don't pay attention  
now they have to do more work at home to catch up...
Devise classroom rules *with* your students and use them to help  
maintain order...
Give options to cater for different learning styles... allow kids to  
submit assignments in different formats, try getting kids to do  
limited word assignments... 50 words or less on a topic... try  
creating cloze exercises instead of having to write copious notes...
One of the things that can be really hard is encouraging kids to be  
visual learners... draw pictures, make organisational charts and mind  
maps for their notes or as assignments... designing flash animations  
for projects... how do you assess these things...
design criterias and rubrics... have kids mark their own work against  
the criteria and then mark other people's work. You can swap work with  
another teacher, you mark their written work, they mark your visual  
stuff....
Just some ideas,
 From Penny