Miss Art of Teaching

The last day of school is usually a breeze. The classes tend to be a bit smaller as not all students make the effort to go to school on the last day of the term. I try to use a bit of class time to organise the room to make it easier for myself when I return to work.  The start to my morning was horrible. I was stuck in a traffic jam that lasted for 1 hr and 10 mins. Usually it takes me 20-30 mins to get to work but today there was a major car accident just before the highway exit. I was a bit worried about getting to work late. The recent rain has made half the car park an unpleasant place to park. I had to drive my car through a pit of wet dirt to get through to the other side. For a minute, my car refused to move and I had to hit my accelerate hard. My demountable is adjacent to the car park so I could see my students as I was struggling to park.  Classes today were quite pleasant. All classes continued on with their practical artworks. While students were working, I wou...

I remember primary school teachers using the letters that make up 'noise' to quiet chatty students down. I have modify this method a tiny bit... So every time the class is noisy, I flip 1 letter. Behind each letter there are minutes. They need to be quiet. Otherwise I flip the next letter and it doubles up. I may give initial warnings before starting straight on 'e'. If they are perfect during the lesson they get 5 virtual Vivo points. Every time they are noisy they loose 1 letter = 1 less Vivo point. It works really well with my new kitchen clock timer and my chime. Every time I hit the chime softly they will know that a letter is flipped. And I'll use Velcro to hold it up on my whiteboard. Velcro will be on both sides. I just need to laminate the letters to prolong their life against my whiteboard. I'm not a punisher but the noise at times gets loud and I need to address this sooner rather than later. I love my students and they know that. This y...