Rules And Routines

OBSERVATION The first thing on a Friday morning was the weekly routine of a spelling test for classes in Seniors, 1st and 2nd While juniors were given separate work to keep them occupied. The spelling test took place in the normal classroom, none of the pupils were separated but they were told one rule which was not to copy each other. While spending the morning in the school I kept track of the routine of the day, I noticed it was a clear-cut timetable as the time was divided equally between the test, studying English, announcements and then doing Irish.

CRITICAL REFLECTION ON THE OBSERVATION While from these perspective things seemed all new to me I remembered back to when I was in primary school and how we took these routine tests so seriously and how competitive we were against each other. I think the importance of rules and routines is important here as this is a routine way of keeping track of how well students are doing. Rules are important, as results would not be accurate if they were cheating. The spelling test took place so to make sure all students had kept to the weekly routine of learning individual spellings. I was amazed at the difference between the classes considering they were in the same classroom. I felt taken back from this experience From the Reading (Jacobs, et al., 2002, p. 7) it states “Students need time to understand why these routines are important and to figure out how to do them as efficiently as possible.” from reading this I think it was great to have junior infants in the same classroom to observe the routine. This made me feel more appreciative towards the school for the effort they put in. the reason I think that this happens is down to a good daily routine. This experience has changed me by making me more aware of how I follow my own routine. I hope that when I am teaching that I can follow in similar footsteps and be as supportive to the students. For good daily routine to be established then according to (Jaques & Salmon, 2007, p. 176) mentions that initial ground rules need to be set in place otherwise groups can become unproductive.

​Bibliography

Jacobs, G. M., Power, M. A. & Inn, W. L., 2002. The Teachers Sourcebook For Cooperative Learning. 1st ed. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press, Inc..

Jaques, D. & Salmon, G., 2007. Learning in Groups. 4th ed. Abimgdon: Routledge.