D for disruption

I am really getting to see first hand what disruptions are like. Simply put, they are a destroyer of lesson continuity. I was forewarned by my teacher last week that they are a constant at the school I am observing at. In other words these disruptions are sanctioned by the school -- they are foreseen. And yesterday he told me that it would be a particularly disruptive day (there was a special music lesson for the musos, a test for the kids with special English needs etc).

Because the students are at various levels of ability, the students that start the day in the home room are not the same ones that remain throughout the day. For Maths and English the students are separated based on ability. That involves students moving between rooms so the teacher must wait for everyone to be present before teaching.

Then there are only four PCs in each room, so students from other rooms knock on the door of our room asking the teacher permission to enter to use the PCs to do some English or Maths test online, or simply to type out an assignment or prepare a PowerPoint presso. Then there is Special Ed. Yesterday, the Special Ed kids were doing some small assessment, which happened to be during the period assigned for RE. So during his RE class the teacher would get a knock on the door from a messenger asking for students in ‘Group 1’ to go and see Miss X upstairs. So 10 students get up and leave the room. They come back 15 minutes later and 10 more leave. So what the kids are working on is put on hold or if any of those kids happen to be working in groups at the time, which they were, the group dynamic – especially if the group was a pair, which it was, – is affected (and Whitton et al in Learning For Teaching: Teaching For Learning demonstrate why group work is so important).

Ultimately, what is being disruptive is also meant to assist the students. It is a tough situation. But you have to ask yourself, just who wins?