Life-Walks in Tutor Time

My school has changed the day around this year.  For reasons I can't remember - I think it had something to do with accomodating the IB- we now have 25 minutes tutor period in the afternoon and form tutors deliver PSHE and other tutor activities.  This has had a mixed reaction from staff but I have really enjoyed it so far.  I have a Yr11 tutor group that I have had since Yr7 and they are quite simply the best tutor group I have ever had.  I really enjoy spending time with them each day and it has allowed me to try out some different ideas with them.
On Thursday's the theme for the year group is Review and it is intended that we help students review progress and targets.  Last week I decided to try out a technique which I first came across on my NLP course a few years ago and have tried a couple of times but never quite like this.
Without explaining why I took my group outside.  There are 23 of them and I have to admit I didn't have a clue if it would work or be a total (and very public) disaster.  We went out to the basketball courts at the back of my classroom.  I lined all the students up against one of the new fences which surround the courts. I explained to them that they were now standing at the first day of their life.  The fence at the other side of the court represented the end of their life.  I asked them to walk slowly and in silence towards the other side of the court and stop when they felt that they had reached the present point in their life.  The key with most NLP techniques is to keep instructions vague and content-free allowing people to make their own sense of what is going on.
Each student began their walk and it was really interesting to see the different lengths of their journeys.  Some kids took only 5-6 steps whilst some went almost a third of the way across.  I had asked the students to bring their bags with them.  I now asked them to put their bags down on the point they had reached and turn around to look back at where they had come from.  I asked them to walk back and stop 3-5 times along the route.  Each stop would be a significant event in their lives and they were to pause at each point for 10 seconds and relive the moment.  Again - very little content given from me allowing them to make their own sense of it.  Having reached the day of their birth again they turned around and came back stopping again at the same points to consolidate the experience.
The kids did this brilliantly.  It was fantastic to see them all getting totally into the exercise and really reliving experiences.  I was particularly pleased that the few kids who didn't get into it respected the others and stayed quiet.
I then asked all the students to walk to a line 2/3rds of the way across the court.  They stopped on the line and looked back towards the beginning.  I told them that this line represented a point in their future - it was up to them to decide when it was.  The key point was that by this point they were successful (again I gave no context or definition for success).  They would walk back to their bags (representing today) stopping and noticing 5 particular events which helped them to be successful.
Once again all the kids did it - most of them with eyes closed and in total concentration.  It was a fantastic moment.  At the end I suggested to them that in order to make any successful journey you need to have a pretty good idea of the route you will take.  This exercise helped to give them that route.
As we left the basketball courts many of the students were buzzing - they wanted to talk to each about what they had just experienced.
The whole session made me very grateful to have such a brilliant tutor group and I am really looking forward to working with them throughout the rest of the year.

Reflections on the 1st week back

So, back at school for a week now and it is amazing how quickly the summer holiday becomes a memory. I do feel that it does take me a few days to really feel as if I am back at my best. In more fanciful moments I like to compare myself to a Premier League footballer who only really hits their best form by early October (this is probably the only thing I will ever have in common with a Premier League footballer however).

We started with 2 INSET days which, I have to admit, I found deeply frustrating.  There was far too much sitting and listening and information-giving.  It did however demonstrate how rubbish the lecture is as a teaching technique.  After 15 minutes I had lost concentration and felt swamped by the sheer amount of information I was being expected to process and I found myself daydreaming, looking out of the window and, I have to admit, playing on my phone.  I was also frustrated at the loss of 2 whole days of training opportunities.  There was no training done - instead it was planning and preparation.  This time is necessary but did we need so much?  Could we have had some input into something new and exciting to try during the term ahead?

Wednesday to Friday were by far the best days of the week because they were days when I was teaching.  Overall the groups seem pretty good so far.  They have reacted very well to the new technology ideas in particular.  Several students have signed up to follow the Humanities faculty on Twitter and my new Year 10  group are gradually finding their way onto edmodo.  Hopefully by the end of next week there will be a lot more kids using it.  Most pleasing of all was seeing more teachers and faculties using plannerlive - Science and English have posted homework on there this week.  I am really pleased about that - it may be that this will be a revolution from below.  If enough of us keep having a go with new technology by the time the School Leadership Team get round to discussing which new technologies they want to use it will be too late - they will already be embedded in the school because the best teachers are using it and large numbers of students are using it regularly.

So my New school year's resolutions are not doing too badly after just 1 week.  New technology is being used - I also recorded a 5-minute summary of the Treaty of Versailles on Audioboo and posted it on twitter and edmodo for Year 10.  You can hear it on http://audioboo.fm/boos/463103-the-treaty-of-versailles. I have tried really hard not to get wound up by the stuff I can't change - even on Monday and Tuesday.  This week I am going to try really hard to learn 5 kids names each lesson.  Even my room has stayed tidy - which my tutor group are finding very unnerving. --- and I have blogged again.

Hope this week is a good one.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Magic School

At the end of last term I ran a Magic School for a week as part of our school's Challenge Week - it was without doubt the best teaching experience of my career.  The set-up was simple: 25 kids from Yrs 7-9, boys and girls, 5 days to teach them as much magic as possible and perform a show for an audience of Yr5-6 kids on the last day.  

I know a small number of magic tricks but was able to call in the help of an old friend, Dr Alan Jones who is, amongst a long list of talents, a professional magician and teacher - the week could not have worked without him.  Al and I had met up a few times during the year to plan what to do and Al had put together a fantastic magic kit for each student involved containing cards, vanishing balls, rope etc and a brilliant book called Crafty Conjurors which he had written.

On the first 2 days Al and I threw as many tricks as we could at the kids and gave them opportunities to play and experiment.  Wednesday and Thursday were taken up with planning for the final show and practicing tricks and Friday was the final performance and a review.

Despite our planning the reality was that neither me or Al really knew what was going to happen during the week - and that's what made it so exciting.  We could not anticipate how the kids would react to the week or how quickly they would pick things up.  What happened exceeded all of our ideas and ambitions.  We got a superb model of how learning can happen and a glimpse of how schools could operate more effectively.

After the first 2 days Al and I stopped teaching.  We had demonstrated lots of tricks and illusions and now the kids just went away and worked with them.  From that point on we were helpers and advisors - far more powerful roles.  Kids showed us what they could do and we gave them advice on how to improve it.  The kids had time and space to go away and work at their own pace and on what they wanted.  We had 4 rooms that the kids go to and we circulated around them - but some groups would be left on their own supervised by a TA for up to 45 minutes - and they worked.  We couldn't stop them working!  Kids were coming in at 8 in the morning to practice, working through breaks and lunchtimes, doing stuff at home - even though we never mentioned homework.  The only time we came close to telling kids off was when we had to throw them out of school at the end of the day.

The final performance was spell-binding - the quality far exceeding what we expected them to achieve.  Every student performed - and we had always made it clear that performing was optional.  The kids showed amazing responsibility, resilience, creativity and team-work.  There were so many highlights: I tweeted about what we were doing and the kids were knocked out to get replies from such professional magicians as Piff the Magic Dragon, Josh Jay, David Copperfield and, best of all, Penn and Teller; some students really struggled with particular tricks but stuck with them and got them right; several teachers were amazed at the transformation in 1 particular Yr 8 boy who has caused problems during the year with his behaviour - he was amazing at Magic School - I think it was the first time some teachers had seen him smile; every kid personalised their trick - changing it from how we did it to something unique and personal; for me the best moment was when 1 extremely shy Yr7 boy stole the show with a hilarious performance as the mad magical scientist - he discovered that he was funny.

By the end of the week I was exhausted - but exhilirated.  We are already making plans for next year's event and I aim to run a fortnightly magic club at school.  The kids already arranged extra shows themselves in the school library on their own.  

The whole experience did make me think about what school should be like - this is what happens when kids are truly motivated and stimulated - but also given time and freedom to experiment and play.  The real challenge this year needs to be looking for ways to recreate this experience in all my lessons - let the magic continue