Friday 16/05/08
Prac Block Day Five

Had the best morning today because the day started with Japanese and was followed by Music. I took the advanced Japanese group and facilitated their solar system work. I was really happy with the work the kids did today. They seemed to enjoy having a set amount of work to do that they could choose from. Most of the students have now finished their first piece in the unit and are either started on their second or ready to start on it next lesson.

After this, I had music. The prac teacher took the lesson again, and I met the final two members of the class. It was a pretty fun lesson because after a rhythmic dictation we played Beds are Burning by Midnight Oil. Two of the girls had to learn how to play the chords, so I took the boys outside to practice. After running them through a few times and giving them tips and pointers, we re-joined the girls and we all played together. Homework is to write a chord progression for a 12 bar piece.

After morning tea I rejoined my teacher for Maths. Maths, maths, maths. D2 worked quite well with their maths – I ran the money games again. One group of boys wasted their time outside. Next lesson they will be taken off games and will have to do another activity. It’s disappointing when students are unable to follow instructions and abuse their privileges.

The final class of today was Maths with Boat F. Boat F was fine on Monday, but last session on a Friday they were not in the mood to do work. I continued to ask the students to do their work and followed through with behaviour management. At the end of the lesson however, I had to report to my teacher that some of the boys had not worked well at all and would have to be taken off games next lesson.

It really amazed me in Boat F, because there are only four or so boys who are continually being disobedient. The rest of the class is unimpressed by their behaviour. Being kept in after class at the end of the day continually requested for their fellow students to be quiet and listen to the teachers. It is interesting to see that even though they are not gaining popularity from their behaviour, they continue to display it.

I spoke with my teacher today about how much I should be teaching. She suggested that she give me ten minuet sections of lessons over the next week to do. It sounds good. I’m looking forward to doing more direct teaching in Japanese rather than maths.