Quote Originally Posted by Dîn-Heru View Post
Hehe, fair enough I worded myself poorly.

The only link I seem to be able to find is the editorial http://www.bt.no/meninger/leder/Auto...n-1207665.html . I like you prefer my paper on paper, and that is where I read it. I am pretty sure that the rule they are thinking of is that the pupils have to stand by their desks and say good morning/day teacher or something like that. I think I prefer your method (at least when it comes to the beginning of the day, seems a bit time-consuming if you have to do that for every new set of pupils).

I'll do another search tomorrow, it's bedtime now, but I have a suspicion that the original article is only available on paper or pay-per-view pdf.
"We do seem to agree in that the teacher has to signal that he/she is the one in charge in the classroom and that it is a place of learning not playtime. "

This is more of a by-product. The primary reason I do it is to make sure every student is seen and acknowledged.

Anyway, as to the case at hand: I strongly disagree.

You need a calm and relax atmosphere in order to learn. Pupils have to focus on learning, not everything else. I agree with this. The way proposed in Bergen, however, is a classic example of how things shouldn't be done, in my (arrogant) opinion.

First of all, every class requires a set of rules for how we behave in class and towards each other. But this set of rules is so much more effective when the children gets to decide on these rules themselves. a 10-yer old is perfectly capable of understanding what he needs in order to enjoy his time at school and maximize his learning, why take away his sense of worth by shoving rules down his troath that he is fully capable of deciding on himself? At the beginning of the year, the head teacher(kontaktlærer) should use take an hour with his class to decide on the rules. They are fully capable of performing the democratic process needed to agree on a set of rules, and they are also fully capable of seeing what rules are needed. And when they make the rules themselves, they get an attachment to those rules, and are thus more likely to respect them. By taking that decision from them, you don't get that effect, and further, the course plan(læreplan) states that the pupils are to learn about democracy in practice, something they will if they are allowed to make these decisions themselves.

As to this specific measure: I am both for and against it. I am for it in the sense that it is one of a number of things a teacher can do to help his class in the transition from playtime to classtime, but I am against it because it's just one of dozens of things. I don't do it anymore myself, because I have found other things that work for me(and my colleagues). I shake hands every morning, and later in the day I have a specific spot I stand at(with a specific pose), my pupils know this is the signal that they should be quiet. If they still aren't qiuet, I count slowly "one....two....three...etc", works like a charm.

This is a clear case of clueless people meddling with their own personal opinions without having any backing for their position in literature. Otherwise known as the grade "F". There are an enourmous amount of things a teacher can do to instill respect and get a calm classroom, having some idiot politician force us to use a specific one has got to be one of the dumbest ideas I have ever heard.



And sorry for my rambling, you know what the clock is