Expectations

I read a really interesting post today from @theheadsoffice (I'd never thought of the kids when I went back to school! bit.ly/oRs3td).  It made me think about how much I have changed my approach to the first day back.  I was taught, and I believe others continue to teach, that the first lesson with any new class should be devoid of fun or good humour, rather that you should present a tough exterior so children understand that from day one they won't get away with poor behaviour.  I have been known to spend the first 50 minutes with children talking at them about my expectations and reading out sets of rules or worse making the children copy them down.  And I think it is a really good question to ask - what impact does this have on your students?  Does it intimidate them?  Scare them?  Bore them?  If the answer is yes to any of these questions then this is a problem.  I always thought this was what I had to do to make children be good.  I teach RE and as we all know, every child hates RE and will be poorly behaved if you let them.  Except that's a lie.  Children enjoy good learning and if RE lessons are challenging and fun and interesting and get them thinking then most children don't hate RE because they like good learning and good learning can happen in any lesson.  This led me to think that at the moment, in the current educational climate it isn't the children that we are fighting against, it is the leadership and the governance of education.  RE has not been excluded from the Ebacc because children don't like it, it has been excluded because ministers don't value  it.  And at my school, the RE department this year achieved some of the best results in the school, which doesn't happen if children hate what they are learning.  So assuming that good learning leads to happy students and great results, why then are we spending our first lesson with children scaring and boring them.  If you were meeting someone for the first time and their first impression of you was that you were dull and intimidating, I would hope you would be disappointed.  That first lesson is a chance to blow their minds, to excite them, to make them walk out thinking 'is that an hour already?'.  It is a chance to give students a fresh start, to be interested in them, to make them care about what they are doing.  I still give my expectations at the start of that first lesson but it takes about five minutes and it is me telling pupils that I expect them to ask me for help if they are stuck, that I expect them to always try their best, that I expect them to respect my subject and my classroom and each other.  I also tell them what they can expect from me.  If I am consistent and fair in my classroom discipline I will have well behaved students anyway, why assume that they need to hear a list of things that they will do wrong, I would rather assume that I won't have too many problems because my lessons will be good.  So by all means do the really strict first day thing if you think you need to but a year is a long time and it will be far more enjoyable if the students want to be in your classroom week on week.  When my students leave that first day, my only real expectation is that I want them to be looking forward to the next lesson.