Extra-curricular Activities

eager tortoise

Hi all,

I am about to start my 2nd year teaching in a school and I would very much like to get a bit more involved in extra-curricular activites. Sports are pretty much out, as the school is fortunate enough to have oodles of teachers involved in every sport under the sun. Also as someone who was not particularly sporty in school myself I would like to consider something different that might cater for other interests. Anyone here like to share their experience of running another type of club/activity in a school, perhaps something like debating? Any useful websites etc much appreciated!

Pegasusbridge

I'd recommend getting involved in debating. I've found that students greatly benefit from it. There are plenty of competitions organised by colleges and other groups so all you have to do is send in a few entry forms, see what students are interested and encourage students to put a bit of effort into their preparation.
www.idebate.org
Has a lot of debating motions and arguments that people can use to support or oppose the motions. Can help with ideas

gaeilgegrinds1

Choir, hip-hop classes (before I injured myself!), cookery club with H.E. teacher, writing competitions, debating as already mentioned and yoga. At different times, in different schools, each one works. But unless I'm mistaken I've far less time now than I used.

mrboswell

gaeilgegrinds1 wrote: »

Choir, hip-hop classes (before I injured myself!), cookery club with H.E. teacher, writing competitions, debating as already mentioned and yoga. At different times, in different schools, each one works. But unless I'm mistaken I've far less time now than I used.

Plenty of good ideas there but it would be more like comedy club if I were to try to teach kids hip-hop or yoga!!

You are right that its very school dependent.

I found myself in a similar position to OP'r and had to muscle in on one of the teams - just persisted on offering to help and took it from there.

TheDriver

i organise Maths and Science Quiz teams in my school and theres lot of competitions for 1st, 3rd and lc students plus the "nerdy" ones get to represent their school like the sporty counterparts.
Also the whole glee club, chess club, board games at lunch, the list is endless to be honest. TYs are also a nice lot fo get involved. What about school bank?
P.S. Make sure your Principal is ok with it and also that they know the hard work you are doing! In 5 years time, all this may become very relevant if you are going for a post (if they come back onstream)

niall3r

Iv been involved in social justice ones in the past, fund-raising for charities, green schools, that type of thing. Its especially good if your embarrisingly bad at sport type stuff.

Your subjects could give a clue, i.e. if your English then Debating or Drama would be right up your street. Music or Art then Musicals. . . .

eager tortoise

Thanks everybody!!!!
Lots of ideas here, and such prompt replies!!

My subject is English so that's why I initially mentioned debating. I have done a little bit of debating in class with certain years, but I never did it myself at school or college so would be feeling my way a little bit if I was to put together a club. However that doesn't put me off; I'm not adverse to a bit of research and also have no problem going to more senior teachers for advice :P
Also I was thinking of lunchtime chess actually as a possibility...I discovered at the end of last year that several of my 1st years are interested in it and I thought a club such as this might be a simple way of starting something off. I assume it would be a case of providing them with a place to play and then as time goes on perhaps organising small competitions within the school and down the road see what's on offer in terms of schools' matches etc...
It's so great to see how many different things go on in schools.Since I started in this particular school I've been really conscious of just how much extra stuff goes on and trying to figure out a way to make myself as useful as possible. Also will give careful consideration to Mr Boswell's "muscling in" technique I'd imagine there are some teachers who would be only delighted to have someone give a hand with some activities!

peanuthead

running club, some kind of musical instrument lesson, if you have a language that the school don't teach this could be a nice novelty for some. lunch time crafts, book club

Chuchoter

Debating is fantastic, but requires massive organization, but still its really good. Maybe a writers club or book club.

spurious

I ran a film club once for a year. It was in the evening after school. Our school had night classes, so this wasn't an issue. We only showed black and white films, which many of the kids today dismiss.
The most popular ones were 'Whistle down the wind' and 'Some like it hot'.
Some evenings I only had three or four there, but I never had no-one.

melikepirates

The L&H in ucd, the Law Society in Ucd, The Hist in TCD, Concern and Mental Health Public Speaking, are the main Debating/public speaking competitions. The L&H/Hist run a senior cycle comp known to them as the Denny's and they run workshops for teachers and students. The Junior Debating Competition run by the LawSoc in Ucd is the most fun for students and they are very helpful - the competition is competitive but also more "craic" than what's around.

eager tortoise

Wow, thanks so much for all the feedback!!
Some really great ideas here. I love the idea of the film club, it would be something totally different and I'd imagine would appeal to a lot of kids.
I know debating would be a good deal of work, especially as it would be the students' first real experience of it, but I would do it quite happily if I got some interested parties
Also one question for melikepirates - do you know how to get in touch with the people running such competitions? If they were running workshops I'd be very interested!

melikepirates

www.literaryandhistorical.com, www.leinsterschoolsdebating.com www.juniordebating.com all post details. You'll find that only last year's details are present so you'll have to wait till Sept to find up to date info. Feel free to use the emails on the sites for inqueries. They are all free to enter but usually are very Dublin centric. I'm involved myself and think my students benefit greatly from the experience.

melikepirates

With regard to workshops, they generally take place in October. Where abouts is your school based?

eager tortoise

I'm in Dublin so that would be alright! Gonna do some research on the websites you've posted! Thanks a mill for the info everyone

Miss Lockhart

spurious wrote: »

I ran a film club once for a year. It was in the evening after school. Our school had night classes, so this wasn't an issue. We only showed black and white films, which many of the kids today dismiss.
The most popular ones were 'Whistle down the wind' and 'Some like it hot'.
Some evenings I only had three or four there, but I never had no-one.

I've been looking at this as an idea for a while. In the UK there is a special government funded programme.

Just wondering Spurious, did your club run once a week or more often and how long did each session last? Did you watch a film in its entirety or in segments? Was there also an element of reviews, discussion etc, and if so how did it go?

Fair play for making it work! I'm worried it may not take off.

spurious

I ran it once every month. I had intended once a week, but with football and all the other things they were at, once a month worked better.

I tried to find films that were about the 90 minute long mark, as many older ones are. We would start off where I would mention a bit about what was happening in the world at the time the film was made and then if there was anything particularly good about camera work, lighting, whatever, I would mention it at the start and draw their attention to it in the film. Stopping and starting or watching in segments wouldn't have worked with the group I had, who were almost all 'lower' ability.

At the end we'd have a very short 'I liked it because...' or 'My favourite part was...'. Old gangster films were popular too. I tried to bring in the idea of film noir, but I think it might have been beyond them. Laurel and Hardy were a huge hit - to my surprise, many of the kids had never seen them.

Miss Lockhart

Thanks for that Spurious.

From what I gather from your previous posts, I think I am teaching in a similar kind of school to you - so I think I would face similar issues.

That sounds like a good set-up. I think they would be completely turned off/scared if we had any in-depth or detailed critique of the films. I like the idea of introducing them to older or black/white films too.

Thanks.

gaeilgegrinds1

Spurious can I just ask (think it is a fantastic idea by the way, just not sure how it'd work in our place) were ALL students allowed in? We've had cases where suspended students come in for events or students sent home that day come back in, would not work if they were there for devilment? Is it for good behaviour or everyone?

spurious

It was for everyone. Having it out of school hours is a fairly good selection procedure in itself.

Any messing and they would have been sent home. I ran it myself and the sort of kids they were, despite their reputations, they didn't want me to get in trouble if the room was left messy so they cleaned it up. They were allowed bring sweets and coke and popcorn, it seemed to be a big thrill to be eating these in the school.

I wasn't having 20 plus in the room at any stage, but I had at least 2 kids who saw every film.

From my point of view, very many of the kids I teach have missed out on what is essentially socialisation. Perhaps no one at home knows how to behave in what most of society sees as an acceptable fashion, perhaps no one cares to make sure the kids do.

Along with the film club we would also have had trips to a 'posh' (i.e. sit down and be served) restaurant, which was terrifying for them. In advance, we got the menu and I went though all possible questions the waiter or waitress could ask them and they asked me all the questions they wanted before we set foot in the restaurant. For such 'hard' kids, it was quite sad to see how intimidated they were by what so many people take in their stride. Still, they've been to one restaurant now and maybe the next one won't be so scary.

gaeilgegrinds1

Sounds like a great idea, I can relate to the restaurant idea there, we had ours in Dublin for a day out and they could not come into a cafe with me, had to be Burger King. You sound like a great teacher.