I like to be in control. Unfortunately, as a relief teacher, I am often not in control. Not only do I not know where I will be working from day to day but I don’t know what work the teacher will have left for me to complete or even if the teacher has left any work at all. Because I like to be in control, I admit that I would rather teach my own lessons than try to muddle my way through the lessons that are left for me. The other morning, I received a 6.50am phone call from a school. I answered the phone trying to disguise my sleepy-I-just-woke-up-voice. A Year 1 teacher was ill.
“Yes! Absolutely…I’d love to come in.”
You beauty! Today I get to teach my own lessons…or so I hoped.
I had a feeling the moment I walked in the door of the classroom that I was going to have a good day. It was immaculate. There was a place for everything and everything was in its place. The teacher next door popped her head in and introduced herself. She handed me something that I was not expecting…two pieces of paper with typed instructions for the day’s activities. The teacher I was relieving had emailed them to the school that morning. The detail of these instructions was amazing. She had everything written down with time slots allocated. She had descriptions of locations of everything that I needed, so I didn’t have to go searching around the classroom for books and other stationery.
Besides easy-to-follow details about teaching and learning activities, her instructions also told me:
- how to reward the children.
- where the stickers were.
- what time to pack up from each activity.
- what time to send children to get the lunches.
- where to put the lunch boxes after the children had finished eating.
- that particular students would need extra help with letter formation/spelling etc
- where I was to go for playground duty.
The instructions went on and on. Anything I needed to know was written down. Truly amazing. As a result, my day went perfectly. The children were settled and they kept me on track. If I wasn’t sure of anything, they were eager to help. It was an absolute pleasure teaching this class and it was all because of the organisational skills of the dedicated teacher I relieved. I think she may have suspected that she was going to call in sick the day before.
Children love clear rules and routines in the classroom. It makes them feel safe and secure.
Some students handle breaks in routine well, others can have meltdowns.
However, not all lessons should be teacher centred and structured. Student centred or project based lessons can be the most powerful learning experiences for children. In this situation you become the facilitator not the teacher. Students will thrive on these situations.
These lessons look and sound chaotic however students are engaging in higher order thinking skills in a quality learning environment. But to the untrained eye, the class next door completing text books or black line masters looks like they are learning far more than that noisy class next door.
Will students remember the black line masters in your classes or the project that they design, built and published to the world??
I have a saying- ‘death to all worksheets.’ I use them as little as possible. Which is just as well because waiting in line at the photocopier in the morning is not the place I want to be. I look forward to the day when I can spend more than a day or two with the same class so that I can plan and implement some authentic project based learning experiences.
I love those kind of instructions! The other day I was in a room where the teacher left me instructions that obviously had been recycled from another sub. Half of the work had already been done.
I hear you!!
That’s why you always have to be prepared