What a day/week/month/term!

[Froglet]

Is it me or are this year's children particularly exhausting and destructive and loud or am I just getting old?! I have so many niggles that I just don't know how to handle. So, this is partly by way of a letting off steam but it's also a plea for help - if any of you read any of these and think 'why hasn't she tried...?' please say - I'll freely acknowledge that I don't think I can see the wood for the trees in terms of problem solving at the moment.

So, in no particular order...

1. This year's children are incredibly loud to the extent that when I am trying to do an input for my Y1s I can often not hear myself let alone hear any children's responses. We have quiet/indoor/little voices but to no avail.

2. They don't seem to have any respect or care for any of the resources we have - today a plastic mixing bowl got smashed along one side as did one of the pots I hook on to my enormous outdoor chalk boards. Books get abandoned and walked over oblivious, resources get thrown across the classroom, we have an outdoor 3-sided easel - 2 corners of the perspex boards have been snapped off because one of the 'games' is for one child to stand inside while others on the outside kick/hit and yell at it.

3. I have a child who literally laughs when he's being 'told off' for something, he also stamps his foot at me if being asked to do something he doesn't want to do (like tidy up!) Today I asked why he was laughing and he said 'because you're pulling funny faces' I don't know if he was trying it on or not but the conversation that followed suggested that he had no comprehension of different facial expressions. We had an impromptu PSHE lesson at the end of which he said "my mummy and daddy never do that face (the cross one)" Really or did he mean they didn't look exactly like me - he did say last week that they never told him off!

4. Child in 3. is mimicing the noises/repeated phrases of another child with language/communication/behaviour issues and adding a few of his own. The child being mimiced (I'm sure that's not spelt right!) at the moment just thinks it's hilariously funny and starts doing it even more but it's not good and Child 3 totally ignores all my attempts to stop it.

5. The TA who works with me most of the time isn't used to this age group and finds the 'lack of structure' difficult to cope with. She "knows she needs to play with them but she doesn't know how - she only had a little girl, she doesn't know about boys and was a very girly girl herself so doesn't know what to play with the boys." Cue me feeling yet again that just because I don't have any children of my own I'm somehow not properly qualified for the job. I don't know how to begin to go about teaching her to play.

6. I feel like the only way I'm going to manage what seems like utter chaos is to start directing groups of children to different activities but that feels wrong too.

7. I don't know how to manage giving my Y1s an input then giving 3 of them further support just to explain the task properly but with constant interruptions of "Can we go to the toilet?/X is hitting/breaking/took my toy/won't share/has bumped their head" from reception and by the time I've dealt with that the more able Y1s have finished and are demanding my attention and an extension for that and then it seems to be tidy up time so yet again I've spent no time actually interacting with reception.

8. I feel like I'm spending so much time fire fighting/mediating and supervising that I'm not highlighting and rewarding the positives which would be a good model.

9. My outdoor space is just rubbish (and seems to be getting worse).

10. I'm fed up!!!

Apologies for the long, ranty post I know that the first half-term is always tiring and tough but it hasn't felt this tough in a long time!

Edited October 20, 2014 by Froglet

[finleysmaid]

Oh blimey i feel for you...but after the day i've had can't come up with anything useful! (today has seen me dealing with a family being put on Children in need register and trying to sort out counselling for one family who are likely to face losing their Mum in the next few days ) i'll go and eat dinner and see if i can come up with something more useful and less depressing :mellow:

[Froglet]

Oh blimey i feel for you...but after the day i've had can't come up with anything useful! (today has seen me dealing with a family being put on Children in need register and trying to sort out counselling for one family who are likely to face losing their Mum in the next few days ) i'll go and eat dinner and see if i can come up with something more useful and less depressing :mellow:

Sending hugs your way and thank you; helps to put things in perspective - I'm not dealing with anything like you are.

[Guest]

can you split the class and half work inside, half out with you and TA alternating where you are based? keep year 1's together and split anyone needed in reception. might help dilute issues. is it worth coming off adult activities for the next few days and both you and TA model/reward appropriate behaviours? tomorrow you could both be looking for children playing carefully with equipment, weds - quiet voices, thurs good tidying etc etc. make sure children know what you're looking for each day!! the children are tired, and so are you ...... and i feel children are coming in with more and more problems - i'm nursery and have never had so many speech and language issues, and have an autistic boy who is worse than any i have had before, plus 2 with definite spectrum tendencies. sounds like some of yours may have issues. have you spoken to nursery/preschool about what they were like there and what worked? have you mentioned behaviour to parents? it's parents evening season so might be a good opportunity. have an early night and try to switch off - good luck x

[Panders]

Oh Froglet, I feel your pain! I've started this post so many times and then deleted it and started again.

 

I don't see why you can't direct groups of children to certain activities - perhaps they should earn the right to "freedom of play" their behaviour at the moment would suggest they are not in that place as yet.

 

I would say step up the consequences for those children who are just misbehaving - but who do not have SEN, Is your reward scheme for good behaviour working - or group good behaviour, but be stringent if they haven't achieved the criteria- bad luck- try harder next week.

 

Maybe your outdoor area is rubbish, but what can you do about it to make it more engaging? Get your TA to do some research on boys' play and to come up with a plan when she can be outside with them while you are focusing on your Y1's.

Perhaps you are being too kind Froglet and whilst that is lovely and you don't want to be too scary at this time of year, you do need to set out your "stall" of what is and what is not acceptable. This class may well be a difficult year, but they will help to make you ready for anything in the future.

 

Im sorry Froglet, don't think I'm being that useful here - what a start to the year!

[Guest]

My very best colleague ever didn't have children; it is not a prerequisite of being a caring, effective practitioner. She left for a promotion six years ago, and I still miss her common sense and the compassion she had for each child.

This year's little lot do seem rougher than last year's - not sure why (more boys and younger on average, more SEN by far, several with no English at all all contributing factors I guess) - and the windy day hasn't helped hugely.

I've been working on indoor voices by wandering around with smiley stickers for children using voices appropriately, just one or two every now and then, and that does seem to be working. I did establish that I never, ever give stickers to people who ask for them!

Could your TA do something similar with a different perspective - taking care of resources perhaps? We had a big chat about being responsible and I'm trying to catch just that at the moment.

It does all feel rather like swimming in treacle at the moment, with assessments and appraisal targets as well as 30 needy small people - sorry, no magic wand but lots of empathy and good wishes.

Hope tomorrow is a better day.

[Froglet]

That's a thought Sooty - I don't have a TA all the time but I wonder if those times I do I could get her to take all of reception outside just for 10 minutes so I can talk to the Y1s and hear myself think too - I will, of course, have to get her to leave her umbrella behind and put up with fuzzy hair! Or possible 2 separate inputs e.g. she could do some counting/number recognition/story reading/discussing while I introduce new stuff. I'm also going to have to do

We have parents evening Wednesday and Thursday and we will definitely be having some interesting chats - I need to plan carefully what I say about 'Child in 3' as what I'd quite like to say probably isn't the best way to approach things! My first impression was lively, bright, exuberant, confident then as term has gone on I have become more and more exasperated and given today's conversation I'm torn between wondering whether he is very clever and manipulative or there is something odd going on in terms of his relationships with others.

[Froglet]

Oh Froglet, I feel your pain! I've started this post so many times and then deleted it and started again.

 

I don't see why you can't direct groups of children to certain activities - perhaps they should earn the right to "freedom of play" their behaviour at the moment would suggest they are not in that place as yet.

 

I would say step up the consequences for those children who are just misbehaving - but who do not have SEN, Is your reward scheme for good behaviour working - or group good behaviour, but be stringent if they haven't achieved the criteria- bad luck- try harder next week.

 

Maybe your outdoor area is rubbish, but what can you do about it to make it more engaging? Get your TA to do some research on boys' play and to come up with a plan when she can be outside with them while you are focusing on your Y1's.

Perhaps you are being too kind Froglet and whilst that is lovely and you don't want to be too scary at this time of year, you do need to set out your "stall" of what is and what is not acceptable. This class may well be a difficult year, but they will help to make you ready for anything in the future.

 

Im sorry Froglet, don't think I'm being that useful here - what a start to the year!

You are - lots of good ideas. I'm fairly sure I'm not being too kind - I always hold firm to the set your stall out with being tough at first then you can relax later on but always know you can pull them back if needed. I do, apparently, have a reputation in places as the 'scary teacher'! :blink:

I like the fact that you think it wouldn't be totally unacceptable to direct them to a particular activity. I know they wouldn't all stay there but it might help keep things a little calmer to start.

My very best colleague ever didn't have children; it is not a prerequisite of being a caring, effective practitioner. She left for a promotion six years ago, and I still miss her common sense and the compassion she had for each child.

Thank you, really needed that.

I'm feeling like they are a really young class (in actuality they are older than normal - lots of autumn term birthdays) who just don't seem to 'get' lots of things - it took them far longer to pick up on classroom routines for stopping/lining up/register etc. They still haven't got tidying up so I need to rethink my strategies for that. There are also several who don't hold to some of the boundaries we have in place e.g. not ever taking anything off my 'desk'/turning on the tap etc. without asking I'm wondering about creating a visual 'ask an adult if... vs. you don't need to ask an adult to... (take your jumper off/have a drink out of your water bottle etc). What do you think?

Also, as a school we have 3 very simple rules (be safe, be kind, be polite). The other classes all spend a little time at the start of the year creating their own class specific rules. I never have - the school ones have it covered for me and I also felt that brand new reception children either don't know what a set of rules should be or that I end up with an epic list of 'don't hit, punch, kick, bite' etc etc. I'm wondering about creating a visual 'class rules' list e.g. walk inside, talk quietly etc. - what do you think?

Lastly (for now!) has anyone got any magic ways to stop children putting things in their mouths? A significant proportion of these wander round licking/sucking/chewing whatever comes to hand - sticklebricks to musical instruments to paper! I don't know whether to panic about the possible risk of choking or decide they're going a great way to building up their immune systems!

[Guest]

One year we allocated specific areas of the classroom to each group of children as their area to tidy up, whether they had been working there or not, so we'd stop, regroup children into their shape groups as they were at the time, then send them off to 'their' area for tidying, then rotated weekly. It took a while but once they got he hang of it there was lots of 'whoever has made this mess?' type comments until the golden day dawned when they began to realise that they had! Haven't done that for a while, but might think about reviving it for this year group.

 

Can't help with the mouth thing - really winds me up. I have a big bucket and anything that I see in a mouth has to go straight into that or the bin, then it all gets washed at the end of the day. I have one who sucks her cardigan sleeve if all else fails - lovely!! I tend to go down the 'building up immunities' route, but try to limit the sharing of the germ pool!

Sleep well!

[Froglet]

One year we allocated specific areas of the classroom to each group of children as their area to tidy up, whether they had been working there or not, so we'd stop, regroup children into their shape groups as they were at the time, then send them off to 'their' area for tidying, then rotated weekly. It took a while but once they got he hang of it there was lots of 'whoever has made this mess?' type comments until the golden day dawned when they began to realise that they had! Haven't done that for a while, but might think about reviving it for this year group.

 

Can't help with the mouth thing - really winds me up. I have a big bucket and anything that I see in a mouth has to go straight into that or the bin, then it all gets washed at the end of the day. I have one who sucks her cardigan sleeve if all else fails - lovely!! I tend to go down the 'building up immunities' route, but try to limit the sharing of the germ pool!

Sleep well!

MaryWilliam - for the past couple of years I've allocated groups to specific areas at tidy up time, set a timer and kept a record of who was the quickest/best tidying team on a chart on the board (brilliant opportunity for maths work and problem solving - how many more smilies do yellow group need to beat orange group?!) It worked really well, this year I have really struggled with getting them to understand how to tidy up at all. I'm used to having a few who are masters at avoiding it by wandering round looking busy but this year a large chunk of them simply carry on playing or actively undo the tidying that others have done. We are getting there (and getting quicker) so I think I'm going to re-start my chart after half term.

I'm very tempted by a bucket for things that have been in mouths...

[narnia]

I think I have mentioned this before...............the tidy up thing..........we had a spate of 'no, I'm not tidying up'...........I didn't get it out...........we don't have to tidy up at X group......mummy does it............daddy does it............

so, one day, my deputy, without a word, not even one to me, walked off into the kitchen and got a large black bin bag. She then started, very quietly, no fuss, no blame, to pick up items from the floor and put them into the bag. One or two children asked what she was doing, so quietly, she said 'oh, I'm just tidying up, I thought if this stuff was on the floor, it must be rubbish........the way you're treating it, it looks like rubbish, so I'm off to put it in the bin when the bag is full. I can get another bag if I need to'...........and she carried on. Well, it was dramatic...............the children yelled NO!, one burst into tears ( the worst offender, actually) and they scrabbled round to pick up and put away, all the toys. My deputy feigned astonishment, said 'I am sorry, I really thought this was rubbish; am i wrong?', children all came back with yes, they're our toys, so she simply said, ok, let's not see this mess again then. Result? near perfect room. It was bloomin' genius!

Now, if we say it's tidy up time and no-one responds, one of the children is almost bound to say' they'll get the black bag'............and if not, well...............out it comes. Rarely have to do that now

[Froglet]

Narnia - I've just arrived at school; going to get a black bag now!

[Cait]

Used to do that with my own children when they didn't tidy their room!

[sunnyday]

Used to do that with my own children when they didn't tidy their room!

Me too!

I remember when I was aged around 5 or 6 - my dad threw my treasured collection of marbles into the bin after I had left some on the stairs I got them all out - remember that mum had emptied the ash can from the fire on top of them - I certainly never, ever risked them being binned again!

[sunnyday]

My Froggie friend - if you are 'getting old' - I can't imagine where that leaves me :blink:

Sorry that you are having such a hard time - only a few days to go until we get a break for half-term :1b

I don't think I have anything to add - lots of great advice already...........would like to know what has been going on in their pre-school/nursery settings - I would be mortified if I thought for one minute that I was sending such poorly behaved children off to school

Do you use 'STOP' with your hand held up with palm facing outwards - I have always found that quite a 'powerful tool'......and - "look at my face I'm not laughing"......

A huge hug is winging it's way to you x

[Cait]

Me too!

I remember when I was aged around 5 or 6 - my dad threw my treasured collection of marbles into the bin after I had left some on the stairs I got them all out - remember that mum had emptied the ash can from the fire on top of them - I certainly never, ever risked them being binned again!

Ooh my mum threw all of my brother's marbles out of his bedroom window along with all the other stuff he left lying on his bedroom floor. It was a family joke after that that he had never quite found all his marbles!!!

[Froglet]

Thank you for all the hugs/good wishes and ideas everyone. Today I started off 'tough'. Our behaviour management system has a warning I made a point of telling them they were on my warning list and then was ruthless about imposing sanctions. I gave each child a paper wristband and we awarded coloured dot stickers for those using a quiet voice indoors. I have been relentlessly positive and all was a bit better than yesterday. Still need to do some re-thinking but... Ofsted are in tomorrow and I need to focus on that tonight. Can I ask why sod's law dictates that I who has the most to set up and tidy away should have a choir session after school so lose an hour of my already precious and tight time?! Signing off now - wish me luck for tomorrow, the last time EY had a separate judgement in a school inspection it didn't go well for me, am a wee bit anxious right now!

[Cait]

Will be thinking about you, little Froggy. Sending positive vibes your way.

[laura]

Oh froglet! Good luck for tomorrow xxx

[sunnyday]

Good luck my froggy friend :1b

[BevE]

Oh Froglet good luck tomorrow, will keep everything crossed for you.

 

Once the big O have gone and you have recovered enough to read this, I just wanted to say that I could have easily written your first post. Out of our cohort of 60, 40 are boys (and the majority of them are very immature). After the first couple of weeks my colleague and I were on our knees. So after a large glass of wine we came up with the idea of a daily treat. We start the day with everyone getting the treat, but any unacceptable behaviour means that the child's name is written under the cloud, any fantastic behaviour and their name is written under the sun. During the day children can redeem themselves and get their name rubbed out from under the cloud. Children who have their name under the sun get a say in what the treat will be that day. We needed something simple and manageable and in the last week it does seem to have had a positive impact. We try to keep the treats manageable too, going on the adventure playground, an impromptu disco in the hall, going in the music room. Once some of the children missed the treat their behaviour has improved. Good luck and focus on halfterm. Xx

Bev

[Sox]

Sending positive vibes your way Froglet, you sound absolutely fabulous!

 

Sleep well, good luck

X

[Devondaisy]

Good luck for tomorrow x

[louby loo]

Just briefly read this post.

Good luck for tomorrow.

Also want to add- make sure you take care of yourself, try and spend some time completely forgetting about the children and focus on your own wellbeing - children find it so easy to 'pick-up' on adult stress levels, and seem more than happy to play on them. :huh:

[Guest]

Thank you for all the hugs/good wishes and ideas everyone. Today I started off 'tough'. Our behaviour management system has a warning I made a point of telling them they were on my warning list and then was ruthless about imposing sanctions. I gave each child a paper wristband and we awarded coloured dot stickers for those using a quiet voice indoors. I have been relentlessly positive and all was a bit better than yesterday. Still need to do some re-thinking but... Ofsted are in tomorrow and I need to focus on that tonight. Can I ask why sod's law dictates that I who has the most to set up and tidy away should have a choir session after school so lose an hour of my already precious and tight time?! Signing off now - wish me luck for tomorrow, the last time EY had a separate judgement in a school inspection it didn't go well for me, am a wee bit anxious right now!

GOOD LUCK

X

[Froglet]

Thanks everyone - just finished eating tea and am now going to get my head down to reviewing my lessons planned for tomorrow. Please keep your fingers crossed that the performance management paperwork which mysteriously disappeared yesterday reappears tonight. Also keep your fingers crossed that my boiler (which was working and now isn't!) is an easy fix.

[Panders]

Flippers crossed froglet, hope all goes well x

[Froglet]

Thank you so much everyone, all went well. Apparently I know what I'm talking about which is a relief 'cos during the interview it didn't feel like it and I'm not so sure the parents I was talking to at half past 8 this evening would have agreed! Luckily they were nice ones!

[Guest]

Glad it went well - recuperation is in order!!!

Edited October 22, 2014 by marywilliam

[Panders]

Froglet you have had a very long day - try to rest now before al again tomorrow!