In my last setting (admittedly a specialist one with only 9 pupils) I allowed the children to choose the order of the lessons every day.
We had regulation breaks too which were 15minutes each - 3 of these in a day.
Sometimes the children had decided the night before (on their xbox chat) that they'd prefer to do all the lessons in 1 go, then stack up the breaks to play a long game or watch & research something on YouTube. Other times they kept it as I'd set it out.
I'm not a researcher but I'm convinced this level of flexibility had a positive impact on their academic work and social development. When I started teaching that class, we had the most behaviour logs in the entire school. Before I left, we had the least by a country mile.
This is amazing to read! Flexibility - this is the key word, as you have identified. Yes, with bigger classes and in a mainstream setting perhaps there may need to be more forward-planning. This doesn't mean that it is impossible though.
What an exceptional journey you guided your class through. The impact is crystal clear with your reduction of behaviour logs.
In my last setting (admittedly a specialist one with only 9 pupils) I allowed the children to choose the order of the lessons every day.
We had regulation breaks too which were 15minutes each - 3 of these in a day.
Sometimes the children had decided the night before (on their xbox chat) that they'd prefer to do all the lessons in 1 go, then stack up the breaks to play a long game or watch & research something on YouTube. Other times they kept it as I'd set it out.
I'm not a researcher but I'm convinced this level of flexibility had a positive impact on their academic work and social development. When I started teaching that class, we had the most behaviour logs in the entire school. Before I left, we had the least by a country mile.
This is amazing to read! Flexibility - this is the key word, as you have identified. Yes, with bigger classes and in a mainstream setting perhaps there may need to be more forward-planning. This doesn't mean that it is impossible though.
What an exceptional journey you guided your class through. The impact is crystal clear with your reduction of behaviour logs.
Thank you so much for sharing :)
Love the joyful idea!
Thank you, Mary. Those little glimmers of joy are such motivators (for us all) aren't they? Really glad the idea resonated.