Cups!

Both the high point and low point of my working week last week stemmed from a new idea I have been trying out with my year six classes.  In my first school, there was a big focus on Cooperative Learning and one idea was the use of cups.  Classrooms were generally set up in group tables of four and the idea was that three cups were stacked in the middle of each table - red, yellow and green.  At the beginning of the lesson, the green cup is showing and the idea is that as the lesson progresses, pupils can change the order to show how they are understanding the learning of the lesson.  I chose to start this with year six because my best behaved and lovely English class is in year six and my year six Spanish class has only 15 pupils.  

So, first came the Spanish class ... and the low point.  The pupils thought the cups were wonderful - especially when they had a problem as they then placed the whole stack of cups on their heads and made siren noises - fantastic.  They may be my smallest class but it is incredible how much noise 15 pupils can make!  Needless to say that I won't be trying the cups out with them again.  I dread to think what they would have done had I not threatened a one Euro per cup fine for any damages!

Luckily, I still persisted in trying them out with my English group too.  This wasn't exactly problem free - Pupils insisted on putting the red cup foremost even if they weren't completely stuck (the rule was, green when it's all good, yellow if you have a question but can move on to the next exercise, and red if you don't understand at all) and then shouting when I didn't go straight to them and five or six red cups were showing!  However, I think with a bit more training, this will really work with this group...and my highlight?  The weakest pupil in the class coming up to the front after the lesson..."Well done Miss Shires, I think the cups were a really good idea"!

I love my job!