Literature and Drama Day

Yesterday was purely a specialism day, we were lucky to have a year 2 class from a local school come in.  We started the day by going to collect them from the school and walking them over.  This was an experience I had never had before, it was good to see how it works.  The children were very excited and it was lovely to hear them chattering away to each other.

We read the children Anthony Browne's book The Tunnel it was  displayed on the projector.  They all sat on chairs and were intent whilst it was read to them.  We then did a day of drama games with them, exploring the ideas themes and emotions in the book. They responded so well and really surprised me with their imaginations and also acting skills.  One pair of girls even had lots of humour in one of the role plays they showed to the group, which was met with much laughter from both adults and children. The children got a lot of understanding from the book this way, and it is definitely something I would use in the future.

I learnt a lot, including I have a weakness when it comes to handling a cheeky child.  I had a little girl be rude to me and I did not know how to react.  I had basically met a child who did not like being told no, and I had to stay strong . Although it may seem idealistic to some, I would like to think I am not a person and will not be a teacher who will use shame and blame to discipline children, I feel by disciplining in this way you are effectively modeling what you do not want them to do.  Although with this in mind, as we have been told in lectures, I am not her parent is it my place to discipline her for it?

I decided to follow through with my instruction, but not address the rudeness this time.  On reflection I do feel this was the correct thing to do, as for the rest of the day the child responded really well to my instructions.  I have since looked up different ways of dealing with these situations, and I feel confident that if it happens in my class repeatedly I will have the confidence to say "I will not continue to listen to your rudeness" in a firm voice.  This I feel is in line with my values of no shame, and also setting boundaries of what I will allow.  I will also ask my lecturers and teachers on practice for some advice on this.

Overall the day went really well and I laughed and smiled a lot, I got a lot out of it and that can only be positive.