Sharing Stories

As part of this leadership course we are required to return to day three with a teaching story (two actually) that are "magical and memorable" that model our values or vision. I have been really stuck as to what to write about but I have an idea that I will develop here for now. As I was writing the post about Leadership philosophy I decided that I would attempt to use some of the techniques I had learnt in the leadership course in order to try to curb the misbehaviour of my Year 11 class. This years Year 11 class for me have been the worst behaved of the 5 classes I have ever taught. I have been at my wits end - and my main concern was not with my sanity but really with the quality of their learning. Due to the fact that they are rarely quiet whether it is me or one of their peers speaking, they learnt very little in class. Their social tendancies also meant that when given the opportunity to complete a task in class, they would rather talk. No amount of yelling, punishments or pointing out to them how insanely rude they were for talking over the top of each other seemed to make a difference and I could see them slipping behind fast. So here is what I did. Yesterday (the first day of term) we had a double. I went in there with little individual Y charts and asked them to imagine what their ideal English class would look like, feel like and sound like. We then compiled the responses onto a wall chart for display. I then asked them to come up with a list of things they could do as a class to achieve this ideal English class. From this we came to an agreement and wrote a list titled
"To create our ideal English class we must:" Once we had agreed on those, I asked them what the consequences would be if someone was acting inappropriately in class. They brainstormed a list of possible consequences and then we excluded those that were inappropriate (like public humiliation) and voted to come to an agreement on the procedure to follow if someone was behaving inappropriately. I also asked them to agree on a reward if they went a whole lesson without one person being given a warning for misbehaving. They voted for 5 minutes free time at the end of the lesson. I made a big deal of this and everyone wrote down the list, consequences and rewards on coloured paper with coloured pens and I gave them a plastic pocket to display it in the front of their folder.
The beauty of this is the EVERY student was involved and every student had their voices heard (despite the incessent chattering). They have come up with their own classroom rules and system of discipline and they are rewarded for following their own guidelines.
Now I'm certainly not suggesting that I just reinvented the wheel and that I am brilliant. However although I have used this method for Year 7s I have never used it in the senior school because I never imagined that the kids would respect the process and that it would work.
The amazing thing is that we went the whole lesson today without one person AT ALL getting a warning. For this class that is unheard of. And you know what - we actually had fun. And we had an intelligent, insightful conversation about an issue that involved the students actually learning from one another and engaging with the subject matter. Simply breaking the cycle, thinking laterally and allowing the students a say in their own management has transformed my english class. I never would have thought it was possible.