It's been a while...

When I started this reflective blog back in September, I was certain that I would write a post every single week, writing about my teaching ventures on placement and at uni... I'll admit, I was naive, and had a lot more energy than I can even imagine having now! This job takes it out of you, and the course doesn't help. When you're not at school, you're at home, planning for the next week, and when the odd holiday does come up, there's assignments to complete for uni. But here I am, having made it through both assignments, and actually feeling refreshed after being able to enjoy the final half term holiday before the course ends. 

I completed my first placement in Year 3 back in February, which is slightly terrifying. I managed to leave with a solid Good grade, and was lucky enough to be invited back to the school for Enrichment Week, where myself and two other PGCEs held an Easter themed activity with years 1,3 and 4. Our activity was loosely Science based, with the children participating in an outdoors scavenger hunt, where they came across an egg. After a discussion about the significance of eggs around the Easter period, we had a bit of fun - they then got to imagine their own creature that could have hatched from the egg, and make them out of clay. All children across the year groups were engaged, and enjoyed the activities a lot - it was also great for me to go back into my Year 3 class and see their shocked, excited faces as they realised I was back! 

I've now been in a lovely Year 6 class since April, and although it was difficult to actually teach anything in the lead up to SATs, I'm loving the relaxed atmosphere there is now that they are over; it also helps that Year 6 are a LOT less scary than I expected! I've found myself becoming a lot more confident and comfortable in my teaching role, and love the different relationships I've built with the children; I've found that I can be a lot more sarcastic with them and joke around more, as I know that they will understand the humour. 

It's a very strange thought that I'll only be at this school for 3 and a half weeks before moving onto my employing school for the final week, and then those last two days at uni... It's one of those bittersweet feelings that I can't seem to shake right now. 

The Man on the Moon

I know it's cliche, but the time really has flown by. It feels like only last week I moved to Hertfordshire to embark on my PGCE journey, and now it's mid-December, with only one week left of school before our 2 week Christmas break! 

Thankfully, I still absolutely adore my placement school, and consider myself to be one of the lucky ones that doesn't have a bad thing to say about the school, my mentor, the class, or the staff. In fact, I'd quite like it if time slowed down so that I could spend more time there instead of having to leave in February!

Last week, I had my first lesson observation. I'd only taken the whole class one time before that - a very impromptu moment when my mentor got called out of the classroom with nobody else to cover her! 

The lesson I chose to be observed on was English, where we did a Big Write lesson. I based my idea on the John Lewis Christmas advert, and had the children write a letter to the Man on the Moon.  

I began by showing them the video, and pausing it on the man's face, asking them to tell me how they think he is feeling. "Upset, sad, lonely" were some of the frequent answers. They suggested that he would be happier if he had a friend on the moon, or even if he went back down to Earth. 

I created a model letter for the class to look at, and asked them to point out some of the key components of a letter, such as the address, "to" or "dear", "from", and a paragraph layout. Once they were comfortable with the idea of writing, I set them off to write their own letters, providing my LA's with a template that they could use.

I was so impressed with how well they got on - they all produced some really lovely, touching letters, inviting the man to come and celebrate Christmas with them. 

My mentor had really positive feedback for me, too, with only a few improvements, such as my transitions from the carpet to the tables, and my plenary. But overall, as a first lesson planned and delivered by myself, I couldn't be happier with how it went! 

This whole school experience has cemented the fact that I've chosen the right career path, and I just can't wait to have a class of my own! 

One Week Down

It's the Sunday after my first week of my block placement, and I'm so happy to say that I absolutely adore this school! 

My last post was a little down in the dumps, but I'm fine, really. I've got a focus for my assignment now, and I think all I really needed was to just get me into school to remind me of why I'm doing all of this! 

The last school I was at wasn't particularly welcoming, so I was a little wary that this might be the same, but my mentor, headteacher, staff, and the children are all so incredibly lovely, it already feels like I'm a part of the school! 

I've been involved in a lot of group work in this first week - I've never taught an entire class before, so this is a good way of easing myself in - particularly focusing on Maths and English. They started column addition this week, and it was interesting to see the different ways that I would have taught it compared to how my mentor did. We spoke about it afterwards and decided that both methods were completely fine, so if a child didn't understand her way of doing it, we could try my way. This proved to work quite well in the remaining lessons for the week! 

My class have swimming lessons every week, and also visit the local care home fortnightly, which was so lovely to see! The children read stories to the residents, and you could see just how much the residents enjoyed the company of a child, if only for half an hour. This gave me an idea for an English lesson involving the new John Lewis advert, The Man on the Moon. The children could acknowledge how the man would be feeling lonely, and then link it to the residents that they have read to. They could then write a letter in the form of a Christmas card to a resident, and give them to them in the last week of term. I've already discussed this with my tutor, and with a little work, she thinks it has the potential for a great lesson that the children - and residents! - would really enjoy!

It looks as if this week I'll be easing myself into teaching by doing some starter activities, which I'm nervously excited for, so watch this space! 

A Block In The Road

Starting this course, everyone said I would hit a block at some point. This week is the one. 

Over the last week or so, we've been bombarded with information about our assignments. We have a written assignment due in April, and a 15 minute presentation in February. The essay doesn't scare me so much, as I've spent the last 3 years writing essays for my undergrad course, but the presentation petrifies me. 

We need to come up with a topic surrounding either English, Maths or Science, and come up with 15 minutes worth of talk around it. I knew I wanted to do Maths, as it's the subject I was least looking forward to teaching, but the one I'm most enjoying now I've started the course. I've been searching a ton of different sources to find inspiration for my topic, but nothing has stuck out whatsoever. I know that February is a long way away, but is it really? This course is so full on, that while we're on placement (in just one and a half weeks time!), we'll be observing, planning, teaching, assessing and doing directed tasks. Throw research, reading and planning for a presentation into the mix, and you've got yourself a recipe for stress. 

If I could at least have a question in mind before I start my placement, that would put me in the best position I could be right now. 

I think the pressure of assignments has just put me in the wrong frame of mind this week. In our Maths session this week, I just couldn't get a grip on the concept. We were doing fractions, and for the first time on this course, I just couldn't wrap my head around it. One of the questions was "Is 3÷4 the same as 3/4?"

The rest of the class had worked it out, and were discussing how they worked it out, and even once they had moved onto the next question, I was still trying to figure it out for myself. No matter how much I looked at the question, I just couldn't do it. 

It took me 10 minutes before I realised that if you divided 1 by 4, you got 1/4, so multiplied by 3, the answer was 3/4. 

I've never felt so trumped by one question before, and it really put a downer on how great I'd felt about Maths since starting the course. 

I know this is just a block in the road, and that it'll pass pretty quickly, but right now I just want to get out onto placement - a change f scenery and a reminder of why I'm doing this is exactly what I need right now! May my rollercoaster be heading upslope soon!

Owl Pellets and Mouse Skeletons

This week's Science lesson was about classification and identification. We began by discussing how this concept could be used from Early Years to Year 6. We were given a tray with different items in it, and we discussed how the different age groups would classify the items into different groups.

For Early Years, it would be as simple as soft and hard items, whereas in Year 6, it could be transparent and opaque.

We then moved on to a late KS2 activity. We read part of White Owl, Barn Owl, and discussed what and how much an owl would eat. Much to my initial disgust, we were then provided with an owl pellet in pairs (an owl's regurgitated food - the sludge-like substance is the fur and feathers it could not digest!) to dissect and pick out the bones it had eaten. 

Once I got past the initial gross-ness of it, I found myself really getting into it, and was fascinated when we discovered skulls! The picture above is from 2 pellets, and we found 5 skulls!

Our task was then to identify what animals it had eaten. We were given a sheet to identify each bone to the correct animal, and even managed to put together the skeleton of a mouse!

This is something that a Year 5/6 class would find extremely exciting, and would benefit their learning by identifying each bone of the animal! I will definitely be keeping hold of this idea and embracing it when i have my own Year 5/6 class! 

Algebra Doesn't Have To Be Scary!

Algebra in secondary school, for me, was surprisingly something I quite liked! The letters didn't scare me, and it was something that I just got. I think I was one of the only people in my tutor group that didn't partake in the intake of breath when the word algebra was mentioned. 

In simple terms, algebra is pattern spotting. Now that doesn't sound so scary, does it?

We were shown a brilliant example of how algebra can be used simply in a Year 2 class, with the use of link cubes. We created a dog out of the cubes, and noted how many cubes made up each body part. We then made another dog, adding an extra cube to each leg and torso, and one more dog, again, adding an extra cube to the legs and torso.

We then created a table, noting the differences between each dog, then extended the sequence. The children would notice that there was a pattern between the dog number, and the amount of cubes that made up the torso and legs - the number of the dog was the same as the number of cubes. 

We would then be able to ask the children to estimate the amount of cubes that made up each body part for dog number 99, etc. 

I absolutely loved this concept of introducing algebra, and we could introduce the formal algebra (x, y, etc.) in Year 6, where we could ask them to work out how many cubes Dog n would have.

To introduce how different patterns can be interpreted, in pairs, we created and extended our own patterns. I placed down 4 different coloured cubes, expecting my partner to extend the pattern with the same coloured cubes in the same order. However, she extended it in her own way, by using the same colours of the pattern, but using everyday objects of the same colours. 

This threw me off a little as I wasn't expecting it, but I loved the concept of patterns being interpreted and worked out in different ways. 

This is such a great way to introduce children to the idea of algebra, without jumping straight into the unknown and throwing in letters from the offset. 

Phonics Week

For our second week-long placement, I was placed in a Reception class to focus on Phonics teaching. I was a little wary, as I'd never considered teaching in Early Years before, but I found the whole experience really positive, and really enjoyed the week!

Each morning, there were 7 activities laid out. The children were put into 7 groups, and each group would rotate every day to do a new activity. These activities were related to phonics and spelling, numeracy, fine motor skills etc. 

The children responded really well to these activities, and remained focused until the teacher rang the wind chimes, signalling carpet time. 

Independent Learning was a new experience for me. From an outside glance, it seemed like it was simply play, but the teacher and TA's were constantly assisting the children with their own learning. For example, if a child was drawing a picture, we would ask what shapes they were using, could they label their pictures etc. If they were looking at a book in the reading area, we would ask them to blend phonemes together.

After Independent Learning, it was Teacher-Led Learning, where the theme for the week was the teddy bear's picnic we would be having at the end of the week. Again, each group rotated activities every day. These activities included writing an invitation for their teddy bears, creating party hats, and writing lists of what they would need for the party. Giving the children a focus of excitement (the teddy bear's picnic), really engaged them in the activities and encouraged their learning.

I read a number of stories to the class during the week at Snack Time, which was a really fun experience for me. It was lovely to see all of the children so engaged in the story and really listening to the words. 

After Snack Time, it was Phonics. Every couple of days, a new phoneme would be introduced. Repetition played a huge part in the childrens' learning' they would repeat the phonemes five times each, before moving on to the next letter. Once they had learnt the new phoneme, it would be added to the outside of the board as a constant reminder. The teacher would encourage their curiosity by asking questions such as, "what do you notice about 'c', 'k' and 'ck'?"

After the Phonic overview, the children would recite their "secret words" - I shouldn't even be mentioning this! They were high frequency words in a box that the children would recite as "word detectives". They responded brilliantly to this, as they were put in role, rather than just reciting words on a board.

Throughout the week, I was able to teach the lower ability phonics group. I found it really difficult for my first session, as the children found it hard to concentrate with the other children reciting phonics on the carpet. However, in my second session, I used a game method to engage them, and got a brilliant response. I drew a race track on some paper, and separated the track into squares, with a phoneme on each square. The children were given a racing car each and a dice, and had to navigate themselves around the board, only being able to move on if they could sound out the phoneme. Making the learning relevant to the children is key in engaging their learning. 

I was also able to see the levels of differentiation in the class. For example, there was a boy who found it extremely difficult to focus on each activity. The teacher placed a velcro board in the corner of the room with a visual timetable for the day. He was then able to take off each lesson as they ended so that he could focus on them one at a time. There was also a girl with behavioural problems, who also struggled to concentrate for long periods of time. At carpet time, the teacher gave her a sand timer, so that the child could focus on concentrating. Once the timer ran out, she was allowed to pick up a book and read to me so that she wasn't creating distractions for the other children.

I really loved my time in the class, and had such a helpful, friendly teacher, who encouraged me to do as much or as little as I wanted to.