Hey Nonnie!

ahhh, thank you – I am sorry about all the emotional stabbity 😀 I hope you enjoyed it nevertheless!

And yeah, holy heck yeah, do I ever. Lots of babbling and examples and links and general thoughts, under the cut:

FIRST OF ALL: you are going to be nervous, but you are also going to be fine. It’s going to be fine. It really is. Please keep in mind that IT IS OKAY NOT TO KNOW STUFF. IT’S OKAY TO NOT BE A TEACHING PRODIGY STRAIGHT AWAY. IT’S A-OKAY TO BE NERVOUS. IT’S OKAY. IT’S OKAY. IT’S OKAY.

It’s tough to be a beginning teacher, there’s a whole bunch of pressure to know everything and be everything, to have the answers 1000% of the time and to do everything perfectly. Not only that, but you’re expected to do so in front of teenagers AS WELL as experienced teachers, nnngh. But – personal anectdote time – I’ve found that if I tell a class, ‘you know what? I don’t know the answer to that question! Let’s find out – right now, together!’ that it gets better results than trying to bluff my way through it. That always makes me TEN TIMES more nervous. If I don’t know something? I say so. I’m not there to be wikipedia, after all 🙂 The students have a good time, I have a good time, we all learn something.

This is the best thing anybody ever told me, when I began teaching: Be ready to throw out or adapt your lesson plan, if necessary. Sometimes it simply doesn’t work… and that’s fine. Try a couple of approaches, but if it simply isn’t taking hold, MOVE ON and don’t keeping flogging a dead horse. Adapt it. There’ll be something there that the students are responding to: use that. As the old saying goes (ish), we teach people, not lesson plans.

So, differentiation. You’ve probably already learned about the different kinds of learners, and the different kinds of intelligences (Gardner). When I create a lesson, I try to involve every single kind of learner, and at least three kinds of intelligence. The idea here is to create as many pathways to the skill and/or information as possible.

e.g. a music lesson on rhythms: First, we see it written (in DIFFERENT ways, such as notation, or shapes, or symbols), then we arrange or write it out, we hear it tapped on several different instruments, then we try it for ourselves. Sequence: visual, aural, kinaesthetic learning. Intelligences used: Musical, visual-spatial, physical, mathematic.

Check out the 10 signifying practices of middle-years schooling (Pendergast and Bahr, 2005). This is great for students with learning difficulties. When it comes to students with diverse needs, you need their input constantly. You get great results when they share responsibility for their learning with the teacher, when they have a level of ownership and self-direction.

Make sure you have different levels of assessment, and assess understanding constantly! Assessment doesn’t have to be a test. It can be as simple as asking one student, ‘do you need a hand with [thing], or is [part of thing] giving you a bit of trouble?’ and them saying “nah, I got it” or “yeah, I don’t get [part of thing] at all”. Being specific helps. A lot of kids will say they have a concept down when they don’t, because they’re embarrassed to say so in front of the whole class. Asking them individually, as much as you can, and breaking down [thing] into [part of thing] can help you pinpoint the problem area.

Removing pedagogic and environmental barriers to learning is key to differentiation. Some students will pick up the learning quickly. Some won’t. This isn’t a failure on your part, or theirs. Scaffolding is your friend!! I like to use a LOT of student participation and student-led learning, but this isn’t always a good idea for a first lesson… or even the first week.

I know people are probably banging on in your ear about Literacy and Numeracy and embedding it everywhere: yeah, I’m gonna totally join in on that 😀 Hammer it home. It’s hard to find the kids whose literacy and numeracy problems have slipped notice before, and it is SO important to their future. 

Oh yeah – be wary of the ‘info-dump’ – many students with different needs and learning abilities (or disabilities) aren’t great at the whole “NEW INFORMATION IN BIG CHUNK” at the beginning of a lesson. (this is the sort of thing I mean by ‘pedagogic barrier’, jsyk). Try breaking up a concept over the course of a lesson, interspersed with exercises/fun things that demonstrate each part.

Group work in a first lesson is always dangerous! But if you decide to go this way, select them carefully. It’s great to allow them to choose a group name and draw a poster with their names on it and hang it up: Green Giants, Rocketbabes, and Warboys were some group names from a class I taught last year, and oh my god you should see the posters! They were fully invested in their groups as a result 🙂

If you have a very pushy, talkative, interrupting student, they may require a different sort of approach from you. I like to make that student in charge of something: opening the windows, getting the instruments out, handing out worksheets, whatever. Give that student a task that you can praise them for, and make sure it’s physical! You’ll be amazed at the rapport you can have with that student: they’re probably not used to being treated like a person, but like a problem.

Raising your voice is NEVER a good idea, even if they’re being nightmares that day. Some kids are sound-sensitive! Set a limit, and follow through every single time. Don’t give a ’just this once’ pass: follow through. You’re NOT a friend: you’re their teacher! You have to set that boundary and STICK BY IT. Tailor your boundaries to the classroom and to the students AS WELL as to you: some children are completely ‘meh’ about being sent away from class, for instance, and for others it is the actual end of the world. Some teachers HATE noise in their classrooms: others are fine with it. Some teachers are fine with kids coming to them for help in their break: others get really shirty. Whatever your limits are, make sure you’re consistent, and that the rules are set out somewhere so the kids are never in any doubt.

Setting boundaries in conjunction with students is even better: they feel like they have an investment in making sure everyone follows the rules if they had a hand in making them. Stillness, and following through, is a better long-term strategy than yelling (which is short-term relief but only demonstrates to students that tantrums are a good way of getting what you want, sadly…!). If you fail and have a good yell, don’t beat yourself up. Goodness knows you won’t be the last teacher to do so!

Giving choice, in a limited and safe capacity, is a brilliant way of allowing students ownership of their learning as well. Give em a selection of 3 things/options for a project. e.g. I had a class musical assessment, in which the whole class had to perform a song together. I gave three possible songs for us to perform, and we had an anonymous vote (votes were placed in my hat!).

Be aware of gendered language, of cisnormativity, or a ‘boys vs girls’ thing in classrooms. It’s pernicious, and it’s even more pernicious in high schools. Also, it’s well-documented that boys are more likely to hog your attention: be aware of this in yourself. Make sure you make the boys aware that they are being unfair towards the girls in the class. Saying ‘wait your turn’ doesn’t help much, but saying something like, “did you notice that you just interrupted [girl] here? Are you aware that you are speaking over the girls in your class and forcing them out of the conversation? Do you think this is fair or appropriate behaviour? How do you think [girl] feels about it?” might just plant a seed or two.

Likewise, if you hear gendered, racist, ableist or homophobic slurs, etc (DEPRESSINGLY common in high schools, unfortunately), stamp down hard and stamp down STRAIGHT AWAY. You don’t even need reasons. The slur itself is enough. Remove that student so that they cannot continue to cause harm to others. Ask that student to report to whatever behaviour unit/resource you have available. Talk to them afterwards and in private – and be armed with as much information as possible. (I once gave one student the potted history of the word ‘f*ggot’ after I heard her using it to mock another student. She was a bit poleaxed and quiet as she left, and the next week on playground duty I heard a friend of hers telling yet another group of kids not to use it. That seems pat and trite, but it goes around. It REALLY goes around.)

Talk about bias in your classroom texts. Ask for and use your students’ own experiences: I promise you, so many of them have amazing cultural backgrounds, and they don’t see them reflected in their own learning. Encourage them to bring their cultures into their work: music is a great one for this 🙂

Some schools have very rigid ideas on assessment practices. I have taught in a school where one of my Year 10 assessments had to be a spoken presentation. Giving alternatives is a really essential part of differentiation: it doesn’t have to be a big change, but to a student with anxiety, giving that presentation outside of class (in break time, or as a video, or as a recording) it can be a real life saver. You will have insights here that many teachers simply do not have: you can use all of that, all of your own experiences and knowledge will help, even your understanding of what it means to have anxiety.

Similarly, if a student seems incredibly uncomfortable when asked to answer a question? Don’t ask them again, but talk to them privately and find out why. They may simply not understand the work – easily fixed – or it may be something more. This can be difficult if your class has a Participation Grade, but together you may be able to find a way for them to participate without having to be called upon. Being the one to collect papers, or to be in charge of the ICTs or the like: this is a good way.

Talk to other teachers. Sit in on as many classes of experienced teachers as possible (ESPECIALLY integrated/inclusive/Spec. Needs classes). Talk to Teachers’ Aides – these people have seen it all.

Some resources and articles (v brief, but I’m a bit pressed and I don’t have free university access to educational journals any more!)

Combating Racism and Prejudice in Schools: Keynotes

Anti-Racism: What schools can do

Eliminating Racism in the Classroom

Rainbow Teaching

Best Practices: Creating an LGBT-inclusive School Climate

Resources for Teachers | GLHV

Student Mental Health and Wellbeing – Education Queensland

Mindmatters

Education World: Strategies that Work: Inclusive Classrooms

18 Inclusion Strategies for Student Success

Exceptional Children (William L Heward) – I own this book, and it is REALLY REALLY GOOD.

I really hope all this blabbing and rambling helps, Nonnie. You’re going to be great. You care about this stuff, and people – especially kids – respond to that.

You are MORE than welcome to come talk to me some more. Hit me up for my skype, if you’d like. I’m in your corner. You can totally do this! A good lesson is one in which everybody gets through to the end, something was worked on, and people learned a thing or two. (and it doesn’t even need to be the lesson objective, either! If they learned something? HIGH FIVE ON YOUR SUCCESSFUL LESSON)