YES MISS JOHNSON

Ofsted

I kinda feel obliged to write an Ofsted related post. It just feels like it should be a pre-requisit of this teacher-blogging thing and, in light of the recent comments on teacher stress made by Michael Wilshaw, I would make the assumption that such a post should be an impassioned outpour against the many many hoops teachers must jump through every day. It should really be an anti-Ofsted rant, shouldn’t it? Yes, that’s what I should write.

Now, it would be very easy to write about what a game-playing, box-ticking, staged farce the whole Ofsted process is… and it is… but you know what, it also stops teachers and schools from being rubbish. And I would say that’s a good thing.


As I write my school is expecting ‘the call’ which comes to inform you that you have two days before an inspection. Those two days are officially called ‘flapping time.’

I literally don’t know what people are doing when they flap. Flapping includes: covering every exercise book you can get your hands on in red pen, stapling crap to the walls, planning lessons which involve the teacher appearing in a puff of smoke wearing a sequinned gown,  yelling at students that they “better not behave like this when the inspectors are in!” etc.

I hope this is the only self-richeous thing I ever write on here but shouldn’t books be marked and up to date not because an inspector is about to look at them, but because students need (and deserve) regular feedback in order to progress?


I don’t actually hate Ofsted. I hate the people who flap because of Ofsted and make me feel like I’m not properly prepared because all I did was go home and make sure my official lesson plans were printed out.

The Chair Game 2

As promised in my previous “chair game” post, a little more insight into just how great this game is.

OK, so the first thing the kids do when they play this is go absolutely mental. They should and scream and run all over the place… and lose very quickly. Within the first 10-15 seconds usually. Because you cannot possibly keep that up. But this stage is necessary and they MUST go through it in order to work out tactics for success.

The trick to ensure success at this game is control. If you see a seat next to you and the teacher walking towards you about to sit in it the worst possible thing you can do is act on instinct and adrenalin and move to stop them. That will leave your seat free, the teacher will sit in it, you will look like a right wally and the whole class will hurl abuse at you. Either that or someone else near will jump into the seat, then someone will do the same for them and so on. More abuse hurled.

But if you hang tight and trust that someone from THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ROOM, far away from the teacher , will run and sit in the free chair, meaning that the new free chair is nice and far away from the teacher’s evil grasp, all is well.

I therefore use this game to achieve the following things:

1) Promote communication and teamwork in a class who are uncomfortable with each other.

2) Ensure inclusion. It’s SUPER difficult to withdraw yourself from this game.

3) Diagnose personality types. Yes, I am aware this isn’t exactly a watertight test… but when you’re a drama teacher you need to get to know your groups as quickly as possible. This game hi-lights those who throw themselves in without thinking, those who are tactical and logical, those who are leaders, those who say intelligent things but get ignored, those who come up with creative solutions to problems, those who will attempt to disengage. It’s fascinating to watch.

4) Draw comparisons. I recently played this as a plenary with a year 8 group doing a unit on crime and asked them to draw comparisons between the actions and processes in the game and the content we had covered. Amidst lots of comments on ‘well it was like the chair was being stolen’ etc. one girl commented that when individuals act on instinct and a need to have what they want at that very moment, it has a ripple affect and others have to cover for them, causing chaos and unhappiness. Genius.

Year 7 Music Lesson…

I taught them how to play ‘What Make You Beautiful’ by One Direction on the keyboard.

How did it come to this?

eye-rizz asked: Hi, this might be a little odd, and I'm not sure what I really want to say apart from that, as a 15 year old secondary school student, I find it interesting and weird and funny to read what its like from a teacher's perspective teaching people like me (I especially liked the lynx post) and that's all really!

Thanks for the follow! Glad my blog can be of interest to students as well as teachers :) x

The Chair Game

OK. What I am about to share should not be dismissed as mere entertainment or frivolity. Nor should its many many layers be ignored. This is “The Chair Game,” an activity I learned and perfected during my time at university studying Community Theatre with the wonderful Saul Hewish and as a general all round thesp.

So…

The Set Up
Every student in the class sits on a chair in a space. Ideally there should be an even scattering with chairs facing in different directions. The teacher is not sitting but there should be one (and only one) free chair somewhere in the space.

The Goal
This is class vs. teacher. If the teacher sits down in a free seat the teacher wins. If the class prevent the teacher sitting down for a certain time then they win.

The Rules
1) The teacher may only walk steadily and slowly towards one chair at a time and cannot change speed.

2) The only way that students may prevent the teacher from sitting down is by sitting in a free chair before the teacher can get to it, (but this will of course leave their original chair free!)

3) Safety first. Pushing, shoving, tripping etc. is strictly forbidden.

4) The chairs themselves MUST stay in their original positions and cannot be moved.

5) Once a student leaves a seat they cannot immediately return to it. As in, your bum lifts off the chair you MUST sit in a different seat. 

6) Any students in wheelchairs should take on the role of ‘the teacher’ and touch a free seat when they get to it.



And that’s it. Simple.
Except that it isn’t. There are so many complexities to this game I don’t know where to start. I’ll do a separate blog post for the way I use it is lessons. It’ll blow your mind.

Gameplay

Now I don’t know whether non-teachers realise this, but by far the worst group of people to attempt to teach is a room full of teachers. We’re horrible and judgemental and we play on our iPhones A LOT. We turn up late. We point out if it isn’t differentiated enough. We chew and stick it under the table.

So at the end of last term when, like an idiot, I offered to deliver something on our staff INSET day, I can only imagine I was on some sort of mind altering drugs. Nevertheless, this was the position I found myself in.

In Drama, inherent in our subject pedagogy, is the use of gameplay; to teach, to ensure engagement and inclusion, to create, to promote discussion, to cement learning. We bloody love it. (One day soon I will blog about ‘The Chair Game’ which is by far the greatest pedagogic tool in my arsenal.) This use of gameplay was what I wanted to share with my colleagues in a way which was really practical, as from my experience, the best courses for teachers are those where you leave thinking, “I’m going to use that tomorrow.”

So… thank god for Tumblr because I adapted Discussion Jenga posted by teachertoolbox using meta-learning questions as part of a plenary. I placed little Jenga towers on each table and asked staff to reflect upon and discuss their learning as part of the session.

And do you know what…that room full of teachers bloody loved it. And said they would use it. Because good pedagogy is good pedagogy, be it for nursery students or teenage layabouts or jaded teachers or passionate educators. And there’s just no excuse for ignoring this.

I’m not sure I want to make this “teaching teachers” thing a regular occurrence, but it’s good to know I can get through it without throwing up.