As we all knew, today was going to be the day we shadowed a pupil at DACA. I was asked to go to a chemistry class of year nines, they were quite a low class of pupils as the teacher explained to me when I got there. There were a few people missing as they had an exam so she said that it would probably be a bit quieter than usual.
As the teacher started I realised they were learning about atoms and the periodic table, which I haven't looked at for 5 years since I was at school so it was initially all a bit over whelming. However, as the lesson started I started to settle and remember it all which helped.
The class seemed to be quite a loud but there were also a few quiet pupils who were sat at the back, so I sat at with them to make sure they were ok and didn't get lost amongst it all. There was four pupils who sat at the front who were the loudest and disrupted the class the most, they were very unsettled and definitely gave the teacher a hard time. She responded to their behaviour by telling them to repeatedly 'shut up' which I personally would have said be quiet because it seemed a bit informal for a response to pupils and they weren't quiet for very long after she said this.
The same four pupils continued to disrupt the class and slowed down every task they had, with one pupil getting up and kicking a ball. At this point she asked one of them to move and as any teenager would he refused and managed to talk her out of moving him. Amongst these pupils were others that were chatting and were not engaged throughout the lesson which resulted in one boy staying to complete the work during break, which I found really interesting and would definitely take this from that class. If they're disruptive and don't complete the work then they have to stay until they do.
Some really useful things I also took from this class was the fact that even though they were disruptive she did stop and start a lot to regain there focus by counting from five down to one and by one the were quiet. If I was a teacher I would definitely do this as it was very successful as they knew that by number one they had to be silent otherwise they would get in trouble.
Another key point for me was that she gave them enough time to complete the various tasks they were given and if they didn't complete it said they could have further time. If they were just talking and messing around however she told them they had a certain amount of time to complete it otherwise they would have to stay and do it at break. Giving pupils at a young age ultimatums like this sees them focus more because it is apparent that they do not want to stay during their break time when all their friends are outside having fun.
Every so often she would come to the quieter pupils to see how they were getting on and to make sure they were ok. I was shadowing a pupil who struggle academically so she asked me to help him and he started to ask me loads of questions and really relied on me for that short amount of time to aid him through these tasks, at the end he thanked me for helping him which is definitely one of my high point in this placement. That was really rewarding for me and made me realise that this is why I want to be a teacher even though it was in a subject I struggle with as well.
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