The spark of positive communication

The importance of communication is significant to our everyday lives. It helps us to engage with others, follow instructions, and pick up on some ones mood for example, whether the person is happy, unhappy, angry, and sad with you or others. Communication can help with finding problems and resolving them and people can feel a sense of relief when speaking to another in whatever situation has occurred.

Martin Luther King Jr once said, “ Our Lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” (http://quotations:about.com/cs/inspiratingquotes/a/communication6.htm.) Breakdown in communication or no communication at all can cause problems and a negative environment can manifest.

Having encouraging interaction and positive communication with pupils in education is important for them in learning, gaining skills and building self-esteem. Key features of positive interaction and communication are body language, eye contact, knowing pupils names, teamwork and being consistence. If we enter a room and it is silent and people just stare, we automatically feel exposed and aware of our own movement, which feels awkward, and the environment becomes negative. Classrooms can be colourful with pupils work on the wall and provides a warm and inviting space to learn in, but if the teacher or TAs body language is negative it then can dampen the pupils mood and make them feel on edge.

When I was seven I really enjoyed learning about the Egyptians and our classroom was decorated like a Pharaohs chamber it was just pure magic, my teacher at the time was very smiley and his body language was always welcoming. When he taught everyone in the class we all felt involved because his eye contact reached all of us. This was the one-year I felt very content in my learning and this was down to our teacher and his respect to us as individuals and as a whole. His positive interaction with the pupils allowed us, as seven year olds to feel respected in what we had to say and he allowed us to grow in our own ways with positive and balanced ways of teaching. Within this year our teacher became poorly and was off for about a month and we had a substitute teacher to cover. Obviously as a class we found it hard to adjust to another teachers way of learning and missed our current teacher, but the substitute teacher did not make this easier.

This particular teacher had a very cold manner about her and when we would enter the room (which we all loved because it was our own homemade Pharaohs chamber) she would not acknowledge us and if she did it would be ‘hello class’ which can be impersonal, especially two weeks into teaching us. It is important to know your pupils names as it makes the child feel known and acknowledged, it is a pleasant feeling that someone has bothered to learn your name in the correct manner.

As a child I was quite sensitive and aware of the ripples of change in the school environment. The dramatic change from happy bubbly children who could not wait to say hello to our expressive, jolly teacher turned into a class of nervous, quiet seven year olds who had become one dull, looming cloud in class. Our substitute teacher from day one had made an impact but unfortunately it was not a positive one. The lack of communication between her and us made the environment an uncomfortable place to learn, being referred to as ‘class’ and not by our names made the teacher and pupil relationship very disconnected and for myself I did not feel I could to talk to the teacher if I was worried with work or anything else. When we would work as team in class there was no interaction made from her to encourage our ideas and help us progress them, which is what we needed for us to know we were on the right tracks and doing the tasks correctly. The month this teacher was with us I felt like it was a chore for her, and because she had to cover only for a month, her communication had no importance to her, or body language, eye contact, knowing pupil’s names or consistency.

During that month I did struggle with work and I kept silent about it I worried so much that I was doing it wrong and to scared to say anything. Even though I knew I was in my bright classroom it did not feel the same when this teacher did not have positive interaction or communication with me. Pupils need to feel worthy in class and that they are respected by others. The importance of having a teacher giving me eye contact when I am speaking makes me feel that I am worthy of being listened to, a smile and my name being learnt makes me feel appreciative that a teacher or TA has made time to learn and make the lesson welcoming. When you feel comfortable in class with teachers or TAs a trust does start to grow and an understanding emerges along with boundaries.

E Phillips

The image represents our learners - sometimes they can feel switched on and electrified - other times empty. We must strive to light the charge.

Alice though the looking glass? Through the "big screen" more like!

The media influences us as adults in various ways throughout our lives, so it should not come as a surprise that children are influenced and behaviour altered by the messages that surround them; children are far more open to suggestion than adults and lack a healthy scepticism, and so the results of being immersed in popular culture have the potential to be harmful and damaging if left unsupervised and unguided.

Magazines available for ages below 7 are usually more carefully constructed and tend to concentrate on puzzles and popular TV characters; but most of them have a free gift (which boosts the price). These gifts stick rigidly to gender models, e.g. plastic jewellery for girl; and for boys it is almost always a prerequisite that the gift is a shooting toy, which some parents may try to avoid, but find themselves pressurised into buying when there is so little choice. A magazine without a toy may have better stories and activities, but it less likely to be chosen. Girls’ magazines tend to range from princesses and fairies, to cute animals; boys have action figures, nearly all involving fighting or battles (even if it is in a fantasy setting). These images imprint gender roles in a way that is carefully avoided at school. Already the language in these magazines is teaching children to dumb down. An example of this can be found in ‘All About Animals’ 2010
‘Hi girls! We’re all best friends, just like the cuties on page 4. They might be different, but they’re all super cute pals.’

Magazines for older children (up to 10 years) start to become more adult in content for girls; obviously there are no direct sexual stories, but ‘psychological’ quizzes become more male orientated, the language becomes ‘cooler’ and the free gifts on the front evolve into make-up. Boys have ‘Dr Who’, ‘Star Wars’ and ‘the Simpsons’; already magazines reflect adult trends of men buying magazines about music, hobbies and interests, women largely buy beauty and gossip magazines.

The most worrying magazines are those aimed at girls aged 10-14, which tend to sexualize young girls and promote an interest in the opposite sex. Girls in the photographs are scantily clad with lots of make-up; and personality or intelligence are not judged to be as important as physical appearance. The women in the magazines have often been air-brushed, giving an unattainable idea of beauty. The only good thing about these magazines is that they promote reading in reluctant readers in a simplistic way; but if the magazines did not exist girls would hopefully read something more elevating or intellectual.

The internet is a good resource for information and children as young as 6 are directed to use Google to help with homework; it is a great starting point, but it is slightly problematic in that information on the internet (e.g. Wikipedia) is not monitored and so not everything is accurate and should be checked. If children habitually use the internet to get information they will lose (or never develop) the ability to use books to conduct proper research. Another problem with computers that are unprotected are ‘pop ups’ which may be inappropriate or sexually explicit, and search engines like ‘Google’ which can bring up shocking images when prompted by an innocent word. ‘I was searching for images of Disney’s Jasmine on Google and there were a lot of pornographic images instantly on my screen, without any warning’! (Don't try that at home!)

Young children’s TV is usually a good device to innately promote literacy, especially CBeebies and CBBC. These channels are carefully monitored and regulated, so a parent can confidently leave a child unsupervised to watch programs which encourage learning and promote good social skills. (E.g. ‘Horrible Histories’ is a well constructed comedy which brings history to life in an amusing way; it promotes an interest in history which can be developed in future lessons. This program recently won ‘best sketch show’ at the 2011 British comedy awards, the first children’s TV show to ever win this category). The problems occur with other TV stations, which tend to divide into programmes aimed specifically at girls or boys. Most boys’ programmes revolve around a super hero and fighting, or manic cartoons with frenzied activity; boys particularly seem to mimic TV characters, copying speech (usually US ‘cool’ speech and catch phrases), which does not help to promote literacy. Programmes aimed at girls are uniformly about young, glamorous, made-up, irritating girls, winning popularity by their glossy looks and hidden pop-star status. Children will try to emulate these role models, using American ‘lingo’ and becoming sexualized too early. These programmes are style over content and do not promote literacy in any way.

When children watch programmes aimed at adults then the problems can be far more serious; some adults think that it is acceptable for children as young as 5 to watch ‘Glee’, because it seems to appeal to children; but it covers adult issues and will suggest sexual stereotypes which can easily imprint on young children. Peer pressure forces other parents to allow their children to watch it, as they do not want their children to miss out on the latest craze.

Listening to some radio stations (e.g. Radio 4) is a good way of encouraging literacy, but not many children are interested in such channels. They are more likely to listen to Radio One, with more focus on music than news bulletins (which are condensed and aimed at issues which will appeal to the young). This neither helps nor restricts literacy; however, the worrying increase of pop music with swearing is a concern, especially in songs which appear to be aimed at younger listeners. ‘I downloaded ‘Do it like a Dude’ by Jessie J, as Eloise (age 8) said she liked it and would like it on her MP3 player; luckily she did not have time to listen to it, as when I next heard the radio edit I realised the language was extreme, e.g. ‘motherf***er’. I quickly deleted the song which seemed to be aimed at young girls by an artist who had recently won BBC Sound of 2011 and the Critics’ Choice Awards.’

There is arguably a time and a place for swearing and it is not suggested that swearing in songs should be banned; however there should be warnings on downloads. Children’s literacy will not be improved by the addition of swear words.

If age appropriate then most games can encourage literacy to a small degree, e.g. Nintendo DS games have a lot of writing and some children (particularly boys) will want to improve their reading in order to complete the game. But games viewed by young children, which may belong to older siblings, can be damaging and imprint ideas of violence and negative gender roles. A lot of games on popular consoles (e.g. Xbox) are centred around the idea of war; and these ideas glorify and romanticise fighting in a way which is far removed from the grim truth and reality of war. If a child reads a book about war (e.g. ‘All quiet on the Western Front’ by E.M. Remarque) they will see how young soldiers’ ideals and high held belief about fighting for their country is counterbalanced by the reality of the terrible things they experience. In a computer game there is no evaluation, just pursuit of glory. The only positive point may be that it could enhance an interest in reading books about war and an interest in history!

V Yeates

Believe in them, believe in you!

The key features of positive interaction or communication with pupils are knowing pupils names or what they like to be called, this shows you care about the individual and that you respect and value them. It is important the teaching assistant has positive body language and you are approachable such as how you stand, facial expressions and eye contact.

Speaking firmly but calmly and being consistent in what you say shows pupils expected behaviour and makes everyone aware of boundaries, rules and consequences. Always follow through with what you say as pupils will pick up on this and may lose confidence in your teaching for example rewards or punishments. It is important to remember there may be a reason behind behaviours of pupils, by knowing your pupils and how they react or triggers to behaviours you can monitor, record or report if necessary.

By treating all pupils the same, including and giving everyone a chance shows respect and that you value their contributions and efforts. “B.F Skinner believed that children learn best through positive experiences. This is relevant for learning experiences as it is for behaviour. For example, a child who is praised for working well at a particular task will want to work at it again. Skinner called this positive reinforcement”. (Burnham)

By listening ensures pupils will feel comfortable talking to you and try to resolve any issues or problems, always remember when a situation is over it is over. It is important all pupils get the best from lessons, by praising good behaviour and sometimes ignoring bad will allow you to continue teaching and deal with the behaviour when everyone else is working.

Rewarding, encouraging and motivating pupils will promote positive behaviour. Making lessons more interactive and fun with humour can be a good tool.

“Pupils who have more opportunity to communicate with others are more able to develop their skills and confidence and extend their vocabulary” (Burnham). Providing lots of praise and encouragement will motivate pupils and acknowledge their work and positive behaviour.

“Demonstrate you support the care, learning and development”. (Burnham)
It is important to provide support and help and to encourage independence, this will help make the pupil feel secure and settled.

“Lev Vygotsky believed that children need adults to support them in their learning in order to extend their ‘Zone of Proximal Development’, which means where their learning might extend. He said that children cannot learn as much without adults and others helping them”. (Burnham)
By listening ensures pupils will feel comfortable talking to you about learning and personal issues such as bullying, problems, home life. If you don’t, a pupil may not come to you again.

“Children are more likely to want to be in school and to learn if they have a good relationship with those who are supporting them.” (Burnham). By being an approachable, consistent part of the pupils’ school life it allows them to feel they have someone they can trust. Treating all pupils the same and not labelling are having prejudices will help to build the pupils confidence as they will know they are equal to everyone else.

Having high but achievable expectations of all pupils will have a positive effect as the pupil will know they have people who support and believe in them.

G White

An Ode to Students from a Teacher:

Life is wide open and everything and anything is possible.

Your only limitations come from inside - not outside of yourselves.

I will not dampen your enthusiasm or laugh at you.

I will take your ambitions seriously and always support you.

We can embark on the adventure of a lifetime.

I will think of you, speak to you and work alongside you,

with absolute faith in you and your abilities.

I will have expectations for you and I will want the

very best for you.

I will believe in your phenomenal potential to do,

have and be whatever you want.

BUT YOU MUST

Believe in yourselves, totally and with conviction.

Then you will be able to do and achieve anything you want.

I shall be supporting you every step of the way.

AND WHEN YOU LEAVE BEHIND YOU THE WALLS OF THIS SCHOOL

Do something that you enjoy - it maintains happiness and you deserve to be living a life that excites and fulfils you.

Angela Jordan

The image represents the growth and development of learning, but also the challenges and changes where one may fall, but with reflection will blossom again.

"But he started it"

Taking responsibility for managing one’s own behaviour

After two terms of my placement in a Year 1 class, I am getting to know the children and they me. I am practising minor behaviour management, (re-focusing pupils’ attention, calming escalating noisiness, etc) and the pupils take notice. On reflection, this (the fact that I do it at all, and the fact that they don’t completely ignore me) must be due to my increased confidence in the classroom, and to observing the techniques the teacher and TA use to manage behaviour. The children generally behave well. Not suppressed, but rarely rowdy. The teacher and TA work as a team with regards to managing behaviour; the TA taking the lead to allow uninterrupted teaching. I rarely hear either raise their voice.

I don’t often need to manage behaviour unsupported, however, recently I heard arguing and as the other adults were not available, I had to intervene. Jill Morgan, in ‘The Teaching Assistant’s Guide to Managing Behaviour’ stresses that prompt intervention can prevent arguments from continuing on into lunch breaks and beyond.

Rory told me Thomas had scribbled on his work, and indeed, Rory’s page was now barely legible.

One of my failings is to get cross when I perceive unkindness, but I resisted speaking harshly; I have been hard on my children in the past, only to discover the situation was not what I thought. I asked them to tell me what had happened, partly because I believe in fairness, but also because punishing inappropriately damages the relationship between adult and pupil.

Thomas had scribbled on Rory’s work because Rory had already “scribbled” on his. They continued to argue, with Tom saying; ‘he started it’. I told them that if they chose to continue arguing I would have to fetch the teacher (with her implied authority to impose sanctions).

The “language of choice” is a powerful behaviour management tool recommended on the DFeS “teachernet” web site, and one that supports a child in taking responsibility for managing their own behaviour. For a pupil to connect behaviour to an inevitable consequence, and choose to avoid that outcome is a sign of maturity. Choosing to behave appropriately is big step towards taking responsibility for one’s own behaviour management.

Premack’s principle (Premack, 1959, 1963) states that a ‘high probability’ (something you want to do) activity can serve as a reinforcer for a ‘low probability’ (something you don’t want to do) activity. This behaviourist method is analogous to operant conditioning, but Premack is referring to anticipated activities as rewards. The ability to choose one’s behaviour in anticipation of a future reward or in avoidance of a future negative consequence is one that signifies increasing maturity. Small children have no concept of time, so rewards or sanctions must be connected immediately to the action in order to have significance (extrinsic motivation). Older children become more able to link an action with a future consequence, and are able to choose actions based on consequences. This is the beginning of intrinsic motivation, the taking of responsibility for one’s own actions.

Phrasing is important. For example, “if you don’t eat your meat, you can’t have any pudding’ is a threat. But “you can have pudding when you’ve eaten your meat” entices by offering a reward, and makes it clear that the reward is contingent on eating the meat, so there is no expectation of pudding if the meat isn’t eaten. By using ‘when’ not ‘if’ there is expectation that the meat will be eaten and pudding forthcoming. So perhaps I should have told Tom and Rory “I won’t need to ask the teacher to sort this problem out, because I know you’re going to stop arguing”.

By stating; ‘if you do this, I will have to do this’ the TA makes it clear that they impose sanctions out of concern, rather than because they are mean, which places the onus for preserving the good relationship with the TA on the pupil.

Tom and Rory’s argument stopped. I like to think this was because the boys chose to stop arguing rather than be reprimanded, but perhaps it was because the argument was unwinnable. Perhaps, by offering the option to be mature and take responsibility for their behaviour, I offered a face-saving way to end the conflict. Anyway, I praised them for making the right choice and asked them to sit at opposite ends of the table.

In cases of provocation, whilst I sympathise with the victim of the original transgression, I would not grant them impunity, because it’s important to understand that a retaliating action is just as wrong as the provoking action, and that one can choose not to react.

Piaget’s theory of the development of morality suggests that children between the ages of 5 to 9 (moral realists) evaluate wrongdoing in terms of its consequences, not the intentions of the doer. Thus, a child who deliberately does slight damage is not as naughty as one who does a huge damage accidentally. Aged 7, children begin to understand that intention is important (moral relativity) and that punishment should fit the crime. This understanding facilitates another significant leap in the ability to take responsibility for one’s own behaviour.

It’s important for the teaching assistant to support pupils in managing their own behaviour, because with greater independence and the right to choose one’s own path that is granted as one gets older, comes the responsibility to choose actions that, at least, do no harm to others. It is a stage in the development of adult autonomous intrinsic morality, where the individual’s personal morality coincides with the laws of their society and they obey the law because they agree with it, not for fear of punishment. Or not. Their choice.

References:

Morgan, J ‘The Teaching Assistant’s Guide to Managing Behaviour’ continuum, 2007.

DfeS Teachernet web site http://www.teachernet.gov.uk

Wikipedia article on the Premack Principle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premack%27s_principle

accessed 9/1/11

Article: Piaget’s Theory of moral Development.

http://everything2.com/title/Piaget%27s+theory+of+moral+development

accessed 9/1/11

An interest shared leads to a problem halved

I began working with a Year 4 class (7/8 yrs) and covering playtime 4 times a week, I met a young girl (G) I had heard about from other staff, but had never worked with before. She came to the reading room to read with me and was quite dismissive and off hand, although she read very well. I made a note against her name in the observation book I used to keep notes on their reading progress in for her form tutor. I was told that she was very prone to sudden rages. She did not become violent but would verbally abuse anyone who approached her and it was causing problems with her friends, who were beginning to dislike her.

She was above average intelligence in most of her subjects and in conversation, but had a very disjointed home life with her father living in the States with a new family, which involved lots of step-and half-siblings, her mother remarrying and her uncle dying suddenly. The death made front page news on some of the papers, which had angered her further.

Over time I built up a relationship with G, began when she discovered our shared love of the Tudor period in History. After a while (and a little gentle prodding) she began to talk about how being angry affected her and how she needed to be left alone but everyone wanted to know what was wrong and that made it worse.

In essence, she was angry at the world, frightened of the future, frustrated at her lack of control over everything and isolated from parts of her family. I asked her what she Elizabeth 1st would do, which made her smile a little and told her that I would need to talk to her form tutor. She seemed quite relieved and a behavioural plan was put in place for her, with staff aware that she would be allowed to sit outside the office if she needed some space, and her mother was kept informed. She responded well to the measures put in place and spoke to her friends about how she was feeling, which in turn made her a lot calmer in general and had much better control over her temper.

I was pleased to have been able to help and even though our connection was random, it illustrated that our mini gossips after reading ‘Beware, Princess Elizabeth!’ by Carolyn Meyer we had opened up communication between us that she trusted and that I, as a TA, should not dismiss any detail about the children in my care as being insignificant.

R Ryan

So what of the TA?

None of the child development theories by the below theorists even mention a T/A
Arnold Gesell 1880-1961
Sigmund Freud 1856 – 23 September 1939
B.F.Skinner 1904 – August 18, 1990
Alfred Bandura 1925-present
Lev Vygotsky 1896-1934
Jean Piaget 1896-1980 1980
Erik Erikson 1902 – 12 May 1994
Most of the theorists were born over a century ago when the role of a teaching assistant wasn’t in existence.

The digital age of mass media internet connected, game console playing, mp3 listening youth is here and now. Banduras BoBo Doll study has already highlighted that what the child sees they will try to imitate.

Hours per year the average American youth spends in school: 900 hours
Hours per year the average American youth watches television: 1500
The average child will watch 8,000 murders on TV before finishing elementary school. By age eighteen, the average American has seen 200,000 acts of violence on TV, including 40,000 murders.
(Cmpiled by TV-Free America)

Clearly media will have a great influence over children.
Risk behavior & peer pressure as studied by Allen, Porter, McFarland, Marsh, & McElhaney (2005). has shown that popular adolescents are strongly bonded with their peer group and that adolescents are likely to experiment at this time with things such as drugs and alcohol.

Peer pressure is when the child is persuaded to adopt values, beliefs and goals or to take part in similar activities as the rest of the peer group. The children most susceptible to peer pressure are those with low self esteem who adopt the group’s norms to enhance their own self esteem. The children that don’t give in to peer pressure are often unpopular. This conforming to social norms and experimenting will affect their self esteem.

Birth order is also said to effect a child’s development: first-born children obtain better grades and are more often high school valedictorians than later born children. Altus. 1966.
Parental influence on child development has been widely studied the way in which parents reward and punish children has an effect also not punishing children for bad behaviour has an effect later in life as the child not punished for aggressive behaviour has been found more likely to be aggressive towards their peers (Wiley,1998).

Display of interest in a young child's activities is correlated with greater levels of response from the child (Landry, et al 1998.) The amount of time spent talking to our children by our parents pointing out new objects and encouraging children to talk can develop language skills. This can have a knock on effect as the child progresses quicker at school and perceives themselves as more competent than their peers.

Parents and families can also have an unconscious effect on our children’s development “emotional identification” whereby the child unconsciously believes they share some of their parents attributes such as phobias. Even who a child’s parent is can have an effect as we somehow believe “Like father like son” Earlier in this report It is stated that household income has a profound effect on child development, that along with parental influence, mass media and peer pressure, would appear to have much greater influence on a child’s development than a T/A but research by Dr John Brown and Professor Alma Harris from the Institute of Education for the TDA 2005-2008 found that there was a statistically significant relationship between increases in expenditure on teaching assistants and improvements in attainment. It also found that having more T/A’s meant higher attainment whilst fewer T/A’s in a school had lower attainment. The research does state that effective deployment of T/A’s is key to this success.

M King