Since the beginning of March, I’ve been working four mornings a week at a local village school, preparing their year 6 pupils for SATS tests. The SATS are next week, so my regular work has ended. I sincerely hope there will be more Supply Teaching coming along soon.
Sometimes, colleagues have asked me the day before- but on other mornings, I have been ‘dropped in it’ at the last minute. When this happened last Friday I looked frantically round the staffroom for inspiration – and saw a few sad-looking bananas left in the box under the table [the children get fruit every day] I grabbed a couple, plus a needle and thread.
Have you ever done this trick? [Details here – I use Method 2]
I sat two children at the front – each holding a plate with a banana on it. We voted on which looked the best piece of fruit [result - about equal] then they peeled their fruit. One was fine and whole – but the other revealed itself to be already sliced. Magic!
I asked them ‘Could you tell what the banana was really like just by looking at the skin?’ It was what was inside that mattered.
Then I put this picture on the screen, and spoke about MLK.
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character.”
Listening to the comments from the children since, this one was definitely my most ‘awesome assembly’ yet.
[Feel free to borrow this idea for your assembly or children’s talk]
That sounds like a fantastic assembly - one that is right up my street as it's a subject I'm passionate about. I live in a very multi-cultural area - something I miss when I holiday in areas of the country that are predominantly white. I live next door to a British Muslim couple,who have been friendly and welcoming since we moved in and who arrived at our door on Christmas Eve bearing a card and chocolates for us despite the fact that they don't celebrate Christmas.How different they are to the supposed 'middle class white people' we spent the previous 15 months living next door to. My cardiac rehab trainer was a black man of Afro Caribbean descent- a former professional football player who has recently completed his PGCE.We got along really well as we discovered that we had quite a lot in common- I didn't see the colour of his skin but an intelligent, funny man who I could enjoy conversations with. There were others who didn't like him(or anyone else who wasn't white) purely because of his skin colour - I left the class because of them, while L just laughed it off. When I asked him about it he said it was nothing compared to the abuse he'd taken whilst playing football for a living- I found that incredibly sad. I know who I'd rather live nextdoor to or be in the company of.
ReplyDeleteI am so pleased I found your blog ,what a great entry ,The best ideas are often the most simple ,and this was great ...love Jan xx
ReplyDeleteI'm really impressed that you can produce assemblies like that with a few minutes notice! Years ago Mark played the diced banana trick on an apprentice. It's brilliant the way that you turned it into a meanful assembly. Jx
ReplyDeleteWonderful! I'm so impressed that you came up with this idea spur of the moment--it's something the students will always remember.
ReplyDeletexofrances
Thanks for the comments - although I was initially confused, until I sorted out which Jan was which!
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