Today, I was back on placement. Back with the Year 6 class, back in the chaos of schools, and back in charge.
The day began with Literacy - in which we are teaching the Jabberwocky - I took the lowest set, and we worked pretty damn hard to understand what a noun, verb, adjective and adverb are. We then dissected the first stanza of the poem deciding, based on the sentence structure, what nonsense words were (noun, verb, etc.) and finally deciding how we each individually interpret the nonsense words to mean.
Tip of the week: if you do the above, do not let the children look up certain words on the internet (mimsy being one) as there are all sorts of issues....
This afternoon, we took a science lesson, 'on the hoof' as it were. I cannot take a lot of credit for the lesson as my placement partner took most of it, with myself interjecting mainly for clarification and more technical information (such as the difference between melting and dissolving). But it was an out and out success. I shall be leading this same lesson on Wednesday, so I took note of the positives and the negatives (there were very few) and as out double act goes, hope that it is fine tuned by then!
As for now, I am off to read a book for my assignment (told you I would do it...)
S x
Monday 12 November 2012
Sunday 11 November 2012
11.11.12: Today we remember.
It has been a long time since I last blogged.... and today I fear I will not make up for that fact, but I will try to update all that has happened in the last month or so....
Placement, classes, assignment prep week and skills tests.
1) Placement 1a part 1.
One week in a year 6 class. 34 rather rowdy children, all individuals (very much so) rather tough to break through to, and a school trip - where no one fell into the river, so at least it was a success in that respect, although I'm not entirely convinced the class learnt anything.... I go back there for two weeks starting tomorrow, and we go armed with a weeks worth of English lessons (we only have to teach one lesson). Hopeing it will go a lot more smoothly that I anticipate, but if not, it's a good learning experience right?
2) Classes. A million of them.
So much information is being shot at us for so many different subjects that my head is not given enough time absorb it all. I find it amazing that we are given 3 classes - 4.5hrs - for each subject (aside from Maths, English, Science and PE, which thankfully we have slightly more of) but from this we are next year supposed to be able to take a years worth of lessons.... I'm sure we probably could take the lessons now without any classes, however, there is currently a call for a higher quality of Primary School teaching, and thus teachers, so logically I would assume the more classes we have for each individual subject the better we will be able to teach them?
3) Assignment Prep Week.
I failed miserably at the whole notion of 'assignment preparation'. I have had 4 books from the library for the past 4 weeks and failed to get beyond the first page of the first book... It would be a motivation and time management thing. But mainly the motivation thing. The assignment is on formative assessment (not the curriculum as the assignment title would have you believe.... it being called 'the curriculum assignment' and all) Despite what it is about, and the importance of it in the classroom - of which I completely understand - the books are so dry that I cannot force myself to read them right at this moment. By next week however, I promise I will be able to report that I have read at least two, hopefully 3.
4) Skills Tests.
This, is one thing at which I have actually, completely and utterly succeeded at during the last month. I recommend to everyone to attempt the practice tests, and to purchase the 'Achieving QTS: Passing the Literacy/Numeracy Skills Test' books, in order to give confidence (even if you are brilliant at one subject) and in order to better understand the format of the tests and working under the time constraints. As I said, I have, very proudly, passed both, first time. I found the actual tests to be easier than the practice tests, which was a very pleasant surprise, however the testing room is not the nicest of places - if you have completed your driving theory, then you know exactly what it is like as it is literally the same testing room. With the same flickery/old computers.
Right, wish me luck with Part 2 of my placement, hopefully the class will be calmer and less argumentative than during part 1....
S x
Placement, classes, assignment prep week and skills tests.
1) Placement 1a part 1.
One week in a year 6 class. 34 rather rowdy children, all individuals (very much so) rather tough to break through to, and a school trip - where no one fell into the river, so at least it was a success in that respect, although I'm not entirely convinced the class learnt anything.... I go back there for two weeks starting tomorrow, and we go armed with a weeks worth of English lessons (we only have to teach one lesson). Hopeing it will go a lot more smoothly that I anticipate, but if not, it's a good learning experience right?
2) Classes. A million of them.
So much information is being shot at us for so many different subjects that my head is not given enough time absorb it all. I find it amazing that we are given 3 classes - 4.5hrs - for each subject (aside from Maths, English, Science and PE, which thankfully we have slightly more of) but from this we are next year supposed to be able to take a years worth of lessons.... I'm sure we probably could take the lessons now without any classes, however, there is currently a call for a higher quality of Primary School teaching, and thus teachers, so logically I would assume the more classes we have for each individual subject the better we will be able to teach them?
3) Assignment Prep Week.
I failed miserably at the whole notion of 'assignment preparation'. I have had 4 books from the library for the past 4 weeks and failed to get beyond the first page of the first book... It would be a motivation and time management thing. But mainly the motivation thing. The assignment is on formative assessment (not the curriculum as the assignment title would have you believe.... it being called 'the curriculum assignment' and all) Despite what it is about, and the importance of it in the classroom - of which I completely understand - the books are so dry that I cannot force myself to read them right at this moment. By next week however, I promise I will be able to report that I have read at least two, hopefully 3.
4) Skills Tests.
This, is one thing at which I have actually, completely and utterly succeeded at during the last month. I recommend to everyone to attempt the practice tests, and to purchase the 'Achieving QTS: Passing the Literacy/Numeracy Skills Test' books, in order to give confidence (even if you are brilliant at one subject) and in order to better understand the format of the tests and working under the time constraints. As I said, I have, very proudly, passed both, first time. I found the actual tests to be easier than the practice tests, which was a very pleasant surprise, however the testing room is not the nicest of places - if you have completed your driving theory, then you know exactly what it is like as it is literally the same testing room. With the same flickery/old computers.
Right, wish me luck with Part 2 of my placement, hopefully the class will be calmer and less argumentative than during part 1....
S x
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