Mentoring New Teachers

This video gives much to think about

I have spent a number of years running workshops for & mentoring PRTs now PCTs. Behaviour Management was always the thing that they struggled with in their first year. The answer is always in developing learning-focused relationships. The PCTs have been attending PLD on Positive Behaviour for Learning run by the local RTLB Service. Following are some great diagrams on de-escalating behaviour in the classroom. The big question - how do your actions escalate or de-escalate the situation. Generally, if the teacher remains calm, the class will remain calm & vice versa.

At our PCT meeting yesterday the PCTs shared which students they were focussing on for their inquiry into lifting individual student achievement - a focus for the Professional Learning groups (PLuGS) and what they thought needed to be addressed for these students. The needs discussed were motivation x 3, non completion, disengaged, easily distracted. I decided to do some reading around motivation with Pasifika Learners. ERO in its 2012 report " Improving Education Outcomes for Pasifika Learner s "  saw the key elements as: Identity, Language & Culture - different needs for different learners Assessment information - understanding and using data to make a difference An effective connection between home and school A curriculum that has meaning for students and connects with their wider lives The last bullet point refers to using a culturally  responsive pedagogy.  (see video) What is a culturally responsive pedagogy? It is about knowing your Pasifika stu...

Our PB4L session yesterday with the RTLBs focussed on how we do Playground duty. Are new teachers trained in any way on what to do when on duty? What makes good active supervision? • Move around – avoid standing in one place. Don't use the same routine. • Look around by scanning all areas, near and distant. • Interact with students effectively and efficiently:  greet students be brief and positively reinforce students who are following expectations (be explicit)  positively correct students who are breaking expectations (state the expectation, give choices, then put it back on the student).  Look the part. Be highly visible and easily identifiable with a bright vest, hat or folder.  The key to student interaction   High rates of positive contact with individuals or groups of students can be expected to significantly reduce student problem behaviour for up to 90% of students.  Positive contacts should be: • friendly, helpful and open • proacti...

Mele Suipi Latu, a teacher on the staff at Tamaki College, ran a session for us on Tongan values, ways of being and how these are sometimes in conflict with what we expect of them in school. She reminded us that students come to school already shaped with a whole world view consisting of beliefs, customs, practices, and expectations. The 4 Tongan values: Respect Relationships - family, church, country, villages Humility - Lototo - drop what you want and go with expectations. Everyone knows their place. Commitment - you do it until it hurts. Commit to whatever course you are doing. Students develop a subculture when they leave home - a second culture. There can be a clash between the subculture of school & home. At home they learn to do what they are told and to respect their elders; at school they are taught to question. Mele suggests that the teacher puts up their expectations from the first lesson but should never disown the students from their culture. There can be...

A few weeks back one of the Teach First Mathematics trainees organised a field trip of her Year 9 & 10 classes to the film "Hidden Figures" which involves 3 African American women in the 1960s who were brilliant at Mathematics and worked for Nasa " The story of a team of African-American women mathematicians who served a vital role in NASA during the early years of the US space program"   http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4846340/ .  She felt that it would inspire the students in Maths. It was a steep learning curve for her as she had not realised how much organisation is needed but it was a huge success and good on her for being innovative. The students enjoyed the film, clapping when one of the women won a promotion. It was also a history lesson for the students in the effects of segregation in America at the time. We didn't lose any students walking to the train, getting off the train or left at the cinema. They behaved well. On the last day of term a gro...

The advantage of working with trainee teachers (Teach First teachers) when you have been teaching for a long time is that it takes you back to the beginnings of things like classroom management 1.01 and behaviour management basics. Building Relationships and Expectations are crucial in the first few weeks.  Tamaki College has a set of values called RISE (Respect, Integrity, Success, Responsibility) which are embedded into the vision and ways of working in the school. The students are familiar with these and they work well. The teacher will also set other expectations to do with behaviour, work, tools, listening and following instructions. These will all enable the development of positive relationships between teacher and students and so make the teaching and learning more productive. See building relationships with Pasifika students here  and with Māori students here . Setting up a routine and sticking to it is also crucial to developing a good and safe physical and e...