Activities and Games
Getting to Know You Role Call
While on professional placement I used role call as a chance to get to know my students. Before calling names I would ask them a question, and when I called their name they had to answer. I would give them my answer at the end. Questions included:
- how many brothers and sisters do you have?
- what is your favourite TV show?
- what food could you eat for every meal?
- name three things you can't live without
This small activity helped me to get to know the students, which relates to the first AITSL standard, "Know your students and how they learn" (AITSL, 2014, para 1). It also allowed students to get to know me a bit bit better as well.
Name Tags for Desks
This is an activity that I used with two year 7 classes on my previously placement. I asked students to create a name tag for themselves to put on their desks so that I could learn their names. At the end of the lesson I took the name tags up, kept them safe, and then at the beginning of the next class I tried to hand them out without any help from the students.
This activity again relates to the first AITSL standard, "Know your students and how they learn" (AITSL, 2014, para 1). It also allows students to be creative.
While on professional placement I used role call as a chance to get to know my students. Before calling names I would ask them a question, and when I called their name they had to answer. I would give them my answer at the end. Questions included:
- how many brothers and sisters do you have?
- what is your favourite TV show?
- what food could you eat for every meal?
- name three things you can't live without
This small activity helped me to get to know the students, which relates to the first AITSL standard, "Know your students and how they learn" (AITSL, 2014, para 1). It also allowed students to get to know me a bit bit better as well.
Name Tags for Desks
This is an activity that I used with two year 7 classes on my previously placement. I asked students to create a name tag for themselves to put on their desks so that I could learn their names. At the end of the lesson I took the name tags up, kept them safe, and then at the beginning of the next class I tried to hand them out without any help from the students.
This activity again relates to the first AITSL standard, "Know your students and how they learn" (AITSL, 2014, para 1). It also allows students to be creative.
Reading Time
While on professional placement my mentor teacher began each of her English classes (two year 7s and one year 9 class) by getting her students to read a novel, graphic novel, magazine, newspaper or any other text of their choice for the first ten minutes. I implemented this into my own teaching and I found that it enabled me to settle the students down after their previous class, lunch or recess. This ten minutes of reading also allowed me to go around and talk to individual student, discuss the text they were reading, and get to know them as individuals. This relates to the theory of referent or relationship power discussed by Lewis (2008). This form of power is given to teacher who are respected and/or liked by their teacher (p. 18). The one on one interaction enables teachers to improve relationships with individual students. The activity also promotes the first AITSL standard "Know your students and how they learn" (AITSL, 2014,para 1) and point "3.5: Use effective classroom communication" as it required me to communicate effectively one on one and "4.4: Maintain student safety" (para 3-4) as it allowed the students to sit quietly and settle in before the class started. The 10 minute reading time helped to develop a classroom ritual and develop behavioural norms and expectations as all students new they were meant to sit quietly and read individually. Beginning the class with 10 minute reading time also links into my personal pedagogy. I believe that promoting and encouraging students to read for enjoyment is very important to improve literacy and engagement with school texts.
While on professional placement my mentor teacher began each of her English classes (two year 7s and one year 9 class) by getting her students to read a novel, graphic novel, magazine, newspaper or any other text of their choice for the first ten minutes. I implemented this into my own teaching and I found that it enabled me to settle the students down after their previous class, lunch or recess. This ten minutes of reading also allowed me to go around and talk to individual student, discuss the text they were reading, and get to know them as individuals. This relates to the theory of referent or relationship power discussed by Lewis (2008). This form of power is given to teacher who are respected and/or liked by their teacher (p. 18). The one on one interaction enables teachers to improve relationships with individual students. The activity also promotes the first AITSL standard "Know your students and how they learn" (AITSL, 2014,para 1) and point "3.5: Use effective classroom communication" as it required me to communicate effectively one on one and "4.4: Maintain student safety" (para 3-4) as it allowed the students to sit quietly and settle in before the class started. The 10 minute reading time helped to develop a classroom ritual and develop behavioural norms and expectations as all students new they were meant to sit quietly and read individually. Beginning the class with 10 minute reading time also links into my personal pedagogy. I believe that promoting and encouraging students to read for enjoyment is very important to improve literacy and engagement with school texts.