We Say Peri

HAH my French was pretty darn good - I even chatted up our Waitress where Avril had a two part date with some French Canard lol!!

Paris was a great little adventure with good friends.

I arrived late in the evening on Valentines Day and had a Romantic Date solo atop the highest peak in Paris – Sacre Coeur. A couple Gargoyles kept me company so life wasn’t too bad.

Day 1 – while I awaited Laura’s arrival I adventured around Notre Dame Cathedral, Sainte Chapelle and the Conciergerie (where they kept all the prisoners awaiting the guillotine!!!) There was even a silly little man dressed up in Quasimodo garb scaring unaware passer-bys.

I did some window shopping and toured the Picasso museum before catching up up with Lovely Laura and her sister Megan. We spent the evening chowing down French Sushi and wandering the Louvre – ps the Louvre takes many, many, many hours to tour – you can’t do the whole thing in a day and we only had 3 hours!!!

Day 2 – We met up with Avril & Chris and checked out the Musee d’Orsay, Eiffel Tower & Arc de Triomph :D Followed by some din-dins at the aforementioned restaurant au flirty waitress.

Day 3 – We met at the Pantheon and did some garden touring, Café frequenting and walked the French grave yards. It was an early morning as I had to leave for my flight around 12 o clock.

My big revelation was gazing into Van Gogh’s self portraits. I really appreciated the detail of self-reflection. I value that quality in people and had a great little afternoon looking into and interpreting his insights.

I would definitely do Paris again but a bit more on the piss next time – and maybe even see some can can girls at the burlesque shows :D As for now I truly look forward to Rome!! In 39 days :D ;D ;D

Check out my photos

3 Point Discipline Plan

I forgot to post my 3 Point Discipline Pan from my New Years resolution :D

The "plan" is pretty basic - have and maintain the expectation that students will not talk/interrupt when you are teaching: this is for two main reasons - it stops others from learning & its fuc*ing rude :P

I used to think if my lessons were high energy and engaging that students would be so "into it" they wouldn't have time to misbehave - unfortunately kids don't always come to class emotionally/psychologicall

y prepared to learn. Instead of hoping negative behaviour wouldn't happen - I now have a 3 point plan with the expectation it may occur... this sets a routine for students so they know exactly what will happen if they are messing about. When you're consistent this routine will become a deterant for negative behaviour (along with effective lesson planning that keeps them engaged).

1) Warning - correct the behaviour but let the student know its unacceptable and ANY additional problem will result in step two. Be firm.

2) Send out or Move - depending on where you're teaching - either way remove the students for 5 mins from the environment. Let them know this is their last chance and if you have to speak to them again you will move to step three. (Be consistent and don't let anything slide - this is seriously the hardest thing because you want to teach rather than play policeman - but until discipline is under control it is impossible to teach).

3) Remove from lesson - at my school we have a slip to send extremely disruptive students to see a senior member of staff who will keep them in a detention for the remainder of the lesson (along with anyone else in the school who has been removed). In Canada we generally don't have as high a level of disruption - so what you could do is have them sort music or do another simple menial task. I have a work sheet titled WHY MUSIC outlining philosophy and research into the effects of music education that students copy out by hand. Some have copied it out several times :D this way i'm not using music (such as theory) as a punishment but they are still learning something.

THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT - phone home for any student who reaches step three. Its freaking scary at first talking to parents but you HAVE to do it. Write down exactly what their kid was doing and explain how this is negatively affecting other students from learning. TRUST me when I say students talk - as soon as I phoned home the next day the whole class knew I was playing hard ball and not putting up with any BS. Being consistent greatly reduces any negative behaviour in the classroom.

England is a bit of a shit-show - so I have to take it one step further. I record any disruptions (step 1-3) in my Behaviour & Discipline log. At the end of each term I have evidence for parents just how much disruption their child creates in the classroom. Your daughter has interrupted my teaching 7 times in 12 lessons!!!! But I also have evidence of students who deserve praise for having perfect behaviour and attitude for learning and can also reward those individuals.

Another great trick is for any kid who's reached step three - have them come in at lunch to speak with you (or if you can do it immediately after the lesson). Pick up the phone and dial their parents number at home/work in front of them - then pass the student the phone as its ringing and say "You will explain why you were given 3 chances and removed from my lesson today. After that the parent might want to apologies to you or the kids silence says it all.