Term Three Self-Managing Timetable
Over the holidays I thought about how 'leaping' into the timetable had gone. Some things to think about:
Good Points:
- students liked working on their own thing in their own time.
- students did not need to pack up to move on to something else.
- After preparing everything in the weekend I was more free to work with individuals and groups.
- students felt like I was freer to help them
- No obvious 'groups' as such, to label the students
- Students felt they were more in control of their learning
Things to think about:
- How can I ensure that students are coming down to the workshops they need?
- It seemed that the students who really need the workshops can sometimes be the ones who don't come down to 'avoid' work?
- Maths independent work seemed the thing that dropped off when they were allowed to choose when and what they did. Students were getting literacy done as a 'priority' because they actually had an activity to 'do' whereas the maths is independent work or follow-up to a workshop.
- Some students found it hard to focus on one thing to get it completed. Too much choice.
- some students chose workshops that I thought were too hard for them?
CHANGES
I decided to make a few changes. Week One of Term Three would not be a self-managing timetable. I wanted a week to re-focus the students and look at some of the key competencies. We revisited Relating to Others and Managing Self and how important these are to the time-table. I introduced the 'Thinking' rubrik as a focus for this term, both for their actual learning and what thinking they would need for successful learning.
I also decided to bring some structure back into the timetable. Monday would be a day we would discuss the timetable and look at what the week's focus would be.
To ensure that all students were completing their maths the middle block would be when I took maths workshops and everyone would work on their maths goals and practices...no exceptions. This would also fit in with Jo's focus groups.
I split the class in half for the mult/div workshops to ensure that they would attend workshops focused around their level at least three times in the week. Also I did have specific reading tasks for different groups depending on their levels. Students were told they could come to extra workshops if they wanted to.
I felt that these changes have covered some of the things I felt unsure about. The students still feel like they have more ownership over their week but I feel more secure in the knowledge that there is some structure around their learning.
