The final stretch is in sight.
Two more days of struggling at the chalkface before we can relax.
Two more days of suppressing fights, confiscating cell phones, checking shoes and jackets, covering other teacher's classes and maybe, just maybe, a little real teaching and learning as well.
Ringo made a suggestion about allowing cell phones to be allowed back into the school so we can experiment with the use of some of the available technologies in innovative pedagogical methodologies.
Evil Cell Phone
Is he mad?
Doesn't he know what will happen?
We banned the use of cell phones in school 3 years ago, after a couple of nasty text-bullying incidents. The kids are always trying to smuggle them into class, and we keep catching them and confiscating them.
How can they concentrate on their learning when they're texting? They don't. It's usually one of the first indicators to a teacher that a kid in class is trying to text. The head goes down, and they become unresponsive to instructions or even the teacher's own jokes.
We had a major fight yesterday, between a group of between 15 - 25 students, boys and girls, and it was all sparked off by one girl at school spreading rumours via text messages about the morals (or lack of them) of 2 or 3 of her "friends".
I've never seen such naked aggression and sheer venom being directed to another human being as I saw during that incident. Apart from the last PPTA Union meeting, where Anne Tolley (our thick as a brick Minister of Education) was the target.
We're now up to 23 teachers away on Friday.
It'll be tough.
I almost feel a bout of 'flu coming on.
*cough, cough, sniffle*
See, I told you I wasn't feeling very well.
Please Note. This makes it two consecutive posts with no pictures of voluptuous and/or semi naked women.
Noted!
ReplyDeleteOn the cellphone front. Are they really out of your school just because they are banned - no (I bet every single one of them still has a cellphone on them, except the ones that were stupid enough to get caught that day)
Does it really stop bullying, text or otherwise. No, there are plenty of other hours in the day for them to send bullying texts or bully them to their face. Are you saying as a school by banning them that text bullying is not ok - sure, but are there other ways?
We allow phones at school, the girls are even allowed to get them out and film things from time to time in class. I am sure bulling via text happens at our school, both during and out school time. But we try and combat it in a variety of different ways - guest speakers, assemblies, drama pieces about bullying etc.
We are not going to get rid of the phones from teens no matter what we do, they are here to stay! What we need to do is find a way to work with them. I don't want to sound like a supporter of Ringo, but this is just some of my thoughts on the matter
Fflur, this could have been a post!
ReplyDelete