Like any teacher there always seems to be a multitude of things vying for my attention and time. In spite of this I determinedly made time these past two days to get out and do some learning walks. I’m so glad I did because it meant that I saw some wonderful things happening and as a result I feel recharged and full of enthusiasm.
First of all I went where I feel most comfortable in terms of teaching. Art rooms nearly always make me feel good. I love the fact that there are usually interesting and inspiring examples of students’ work on the walls. Certainly that’s always the case at Tiverton High School! As an Art & Design teacher myself it’s obviously a subject area where I feel most at home, but despite that I nevertheless felt challenged and inspired by what I saw. Year 8 students were at the end of a project where they had created a variety of 3D work using recycled materials. Some had made stand alone sculptures (I especially liked the palm tree) whilst others had been very creative in making wearable items such as hats, jackets, skirts and dresses! When I arrived at the lesson the students were going round doing some peer assessment on their work. They seemed really motivated by this and everyone was writing some good comments. It was obvious that the teacher had made success criteria for the project very clear. After this came the highlight of the lesson: a fashion show to display the wearable sculpture work! Every single student was engaged either as a model or as a member of the audience. Lots of students used their phones to take photos or video the show, and it was made clear to everyone that photos and video should only be shared with the permission of those being photographed and never made public. This was a really nice opportunity to reinforce learning about online responsibility in a subect area where you might not have expected it. It was really wonderful to see this group of mixed ability year 8 students take so much ownership of their learning, and I would really like to use the peer-assessment idea more often and more formally in my GCSE classes.
Next door to the Art lesson (and in another Art room) a year 7 English lesson was taking place. Here I saw some wonderfully relaxed yet purposeful relationships with students. The interaction between teacher and student was friendly yet focused. An ideal combination! What struck me most going into the English lesson from the Art one was just how tightly planned and structured the English lesson seemed in comparison. That’s not to say the Art lesson wasn’t carefully planned (it was!), just that the nature of the subject seems to lead to a different kind of implementation. English lessons in particular always seem to have lots of things like card-sorts and structured group exercises going on and I admit I always find that harder to relate to. I am so used to the idea of the individual artist pursuing their own creative furrow and this way of working always feels a little alien to me, even though I can see it works. This throws up a question I’m not sure I know the answer to: To what extent does one go against one’s personal impetus and perceived strengths just to deliver one’s teaching in a way that works for others? Is this just about challenging one’s comfort zones for the sake of it?
Speaking of English I popped into another two lessons this morning. One tempted me in by the open door policy in the department, allowing me see a lesson being conducted in candlelight! I don’t know what the health and safety implications of that would be, but it created a wonderful atmosphere for Year 8 learning about Gothic writing. Changing the atmosphere of the regular learning environment can obviously be a great way of re-invigorating engagement.
The next English class had some more Year 8 students, this time teaching each other. Although I only arrived at the end of the lesson it was obvious that they had worked in groups to identify key quotes from a text and were feeding back their findings to the whole class. Everyone was taking it very seriously and were quite obviously fully motivated to learn. I really enjoyed the short time I was there, not least because I recognised one of the texts as being from Daphne Du Maurier’s ‘Rebecca’! Again, this challenged me to consider how I might use such a strategy in my own teaching. When would it be appropriate? To what extent does the success of such a strategy depend on the regularity of its use? Would the introduction of such a strategy in my own teaching feel like an awkward stranger at a party? And if so, is that an acceptable reason for shying away from it?
