Reflection 1a: A Safe Enviroment

Establishing a safe environment 

January 7 - January 26

Over the past few weeks I have taken responsibility for teaching on a Thursday and a Friday, in addition to teaching occasional lessons during my "TA" days. It hasn't been easy, and the class has been very challenging. I've had some very positive conversations/meetings with parents and some that weren't quite so! Certain children within the class have had some very challenging problems to deal with in their personal lives which has impacted the classroom environment accordingly. 

This week, I have met with the Head Teacher in order to tackle classroom behaviour. Whilst the majority of pupils behave well all the time, there are some children who do not, and so far none of the techniques in place had been working, resulting in several children "bouncing off" each other in terms of silly behaviour. As a result the Head Teacher talked to the whole class about their behaviour/impact on learning, and I discussed several more strategies/ideas with the Head Teacher to get things under control. This lead to many of the class displays being removed (the room had an "over-crowded feel), pencils and other throw-able items were removed from pupils desks/trays. A further strategy would be to put the desks into rows - but this would need discussion with my job share first. We also had a "desk amnesty" on the Friday with pupils removing all but their reading/spelling/topic books from their trays. Moshi Monsters, pokemon cards etc. will stay in pupils bags in the cloakroom or preferably at home. I discussed this with five children and their parents  as there have been issues with trading/loosing/stealing when bought in in large quantities (they were bringing tins with 10-20 Moshi's in!)!

As a result of these actions the day went a lot smoother than the previous day, with a great reduction in behaviour. Although two children were sent to separate members of SLT, this allowed the rest of the class to learn effectively and allowed me to enforce the new behaviour policy. I also tried really hard two use praise before punishment for both children which allowed me to remain calmer, and improved the children's behaviour steadily throughout the day (as they realised they weren't being shouted at as much!)

In terms of looking to the future to further improve the safe environment within the classroom, children are to be sent to one of the SLT if issues arrive, with very clear cause/effect for the children. During conversations with parents that are likely to be difficult I will invite the parent to discuss this in the presence of either the Head Teacher or the Deputy. We will also arrange a meeting with class staff to discuss which strategies we keep, and which ones we loose as we may now have too many, and to decide how to re-organise the room so it is calmer with less places to "hide". I will also be given the opportunity to observe other teachers for both behaviour management techniques and pace of lessons etc.