Small Steps

Our school is making the transition towards a MLE and therefore we have been allowed to make changes. Changes that have allowed me to go back to the way I enjoy teaching. For a while I have been playing it 'safe'. Mainly because I am still needing to tick a lot of boxes to become a fully registered teacher again. To be honest I hated it. I have been battling with myself, a curriculum I am still trying to learn and system I don't know. Sometimes I want to scream and shout at the way things are done as it not what I am used to.


I guess my class feels the same sometimes having me as a teacher as I don't quite do what they have been used to with past teachers.


This week it was all about 'knowing your learner'
I am going to put it our there - I think I do know them quite well. Yes, I know their levels , targets, ethnicity, culture etc but to me that is not important. To me it is knowing who they are. How can a children learn if we as teachers do not know their background? Some of my children have 'colourful' backgrounds and it does affect the way they learn.


So for me it has been about small steps. I already had the class putting their main books into certain boxes rather than their desks. Mainly because that is what I was used to and found it so much easier when it came to marking. The next step was to get rid of their draws altogether. Now for most that was fine. For others it was hard! It has taken me two weeks to finally get 2 boys to part with their draw because of their background.


Small steps but we are getting there.