Tydzien Szesnaście / Week Sixteen - Professional

Treasure hunt!

This week I was given the opportunity to take part in a sleepover in school with my placement class. This was a great opportunity for me to be involved in an aspect of school life which I have never even heard of before.

Every year each class goes on an end of year trip for at least two nights. Many of the children have never slept away from home before and so this school sleepover tradition began as a way of helping the children get used to sleeping somewhere that isn’t home, but as it is in school it is in a familiar and safe environment and is also close enough for their parents to come and get them if necessary. At first I was quite shocked to hear that every class in the school goes on these overnight trips, particularly the Kindergarten class in which the children are only four years old. Through participating in the sleepover I was able to see how beneficial an experience it was. 

Several of the children were extremely upset when their parents had to leave, even having to be restrained by a teacher to stop them running out of the school. After an hour or so these children had calmed down, relaxed and were beginning to enjoy the sleepover. It is clear that experiences like this will help them when it comes to going on overnight school trips.

I found many aspects of the sleepover to be quite strange, mainly as it is something that would never happen at home. For example, while transforming the classroom into a bedroom for the night, many children were asking me where I would be sleeping and if I would sleep with them and share their mattress. This was something which I felt quite uncomfortable with but the teachers assured me that it was fine and that they would be doing the same. It definitely was a very odd experience to wake up in the morning to lots of little faces staring at me and asking if I had slept well!

Experiences such as this are extremely beneficial for strengthening the bond between the students and the teacher, as it allows teachers to show a different side of their personality. Partin (2009:14) suggests that, ‘Positive teacher-student relationships provide the foundations for effective instruction and constructive classroom management.’ Allowing the children to spend time with the teacher in a non-formal way such as a sleepover is a very effective way to build positive teacher-pupil relationships, hopefully having a positive knock-on effect on classroom behaviour. Being able to be part of the sleepover has enabled me to see how experiences such as this can help me to develop competencies as stated by the GTCNI. For example, I feel it has helped me to further develop two competences. Competence six (2006:13) states that, ‘Teachers will have developed a knowledge and understanding of the factors that promote and hinder effective learning, and be aware of the need to provide for the holistic development of the child.’ Planning activities like this for the children will help to contribute to their complete education as well as being a great opportunity for further developing social skills. Competence seven (2006:13) states that, ‘Teachers will have developed a knowledge and understanding of a range of strategies to promote and maintain positive behaviour.’ This really came into play in this instance as the children had to work towards earning the sleepover as a reward for good behaviour. As well as developing these competences I have also developed a bit of an English accent when teaching as I have found that the children often struggle to understand my accent, particularly words such as ‘eight’, ‘late’ and ‘there’. This has encouraged me to always be aware of my pronunciation and pace and will no doubt be beneficial for me when teaching in the future.

Time for sleep!

References:

-General Teaching Council for Northern Ireland (2006) Teaching: The Reflective Profession :Belfast.

-Partin, R. (2009) The Classroom Teacher’s Survival Guide, 3^rd edition, Jossey-Bass: San Francisco.