It has been somewhat of a whirlwind of a week, to the point that when I looked at my weekly calendar, I had to remind myself that yes, those meetings were actually on Monday! Spending a lot of time in Reception with the Aardvarks has meant that I have not managed to visit the other classes as much as I would normally do, however the magic of welcoming a class to school for their first week was overwhelming (in a good way). I have been amazed and impressed at their maturity and independence in the classroom, not least how well they interact with each other. I know I have written many times before of my ‘proud teacher moments’, but I just don’t think I can stop. Walking around the school I have been just so impressed with all of our children. Earlier today, I followed a Y6 class over to secondary. They were stopped just outside the door waiting sensibly and I assumed were with an adult. No, they were alone and on their way to music, the ones at the front waiting for those at the back. They were just doing what they knew they were supposed to do and doing it with integrity.
My day today reminded me of the year I taught Y13 TOK here at BISS on the same day as teaching Y1 EAL. I went from exploring shapes with Reception, with children identifying different shapes of food in their snack boxes (round sausage slices, triangular melon chunks and square biscuits) to discussing ‘thunks’ and fables with Y6. The standard of discussion based around the difference between the fable of the scorpion and the frog and the robber and the boatman and the idea of what is innate, what is free will and what is choice took me right back to the discussions I had with my GCSE ethics classes many years ago. It definitely made me switch my brain on!
Andy, Paul and I spoke to a group of current and prospective parents at a panel discussion a week or so ago now and we discussed how best to support children in their learning. We discussed a whole range of ways, one of which being talking to them and asking specific yet open questions. We have all been at either end of the ‘What did you do at school today?’ or ‘How was school today?’ questions often eliciting the responses of ‘Nothing’ and ‘Rubbish/Alright’ depending. These are the equivalent of closed questioning in class. Modify this to ‘How was… today?’ or ‘Talk to me about…’ and you are likely to find out more. In class, giving students open questions elicits far more information and, in turn, provides so much more insight into their thinking. One of my favourite things about teaching both philosophy to secondary students and primary students (early years in particular) is the ability to think outside of normal conventions. It was through a discussion on theory of mind at an IB TOK course that I was first introduced to Charlie and Lola (they soon featured regularly in my Y1 EAL lessons) and my experience of teaching primary students added depth to my TOK teaching. I often look back and wonder whether I should have trained as a primary teacher from the beginning, however I do not regret a single thing about my career and I truly believe that my collection of experiences make me the teacher I am today.
When I look back at my very first Y6 class, there is no way that they could have managed their collective behaviours in order to do what ours did today at that time. However, if those same children had the same opportunities as our students here at BISS have, I cannot say that there would have been a difference. We have amazing children and we must never forget it, however we have amazing teachers and amazing LAs who enable them to be the best that they can be and we definitely must not forget that!
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