Mathematics – Page 3 – UWS BA ePDPs

First year placement

During my two week placement I got to explore all areas within a primary school from P1-P6, this giving me great knowledge and experience of working with children of all ages, and I was able to identify a range of different teacher qualities and styles. The main class that I spent most of my placement time at however was one of three primary five classes and with the teacher being newly qualified she was able to help me to the highest degree possible, this making my time at the school very enjoyable. Due to spending a lot of time with this particular class I gained a great bond with all the children and the teacher, this being something I very much had in mind before going out to placement as I think it is very important to be in a happy, friendly environment to get the best outcome from an experience like this.

The different classes that I went in for one hour per day mainly all focused on mathematics and literacy activities, because of this I found it very easy to fill in the work which was required to be done when out on placement. I also found it very rewarding to complete both peer observations and self-evaluations as it was great to see the improvements I made from the first week to the second as I was able to change things that I was doing that I wasn’t fully happy with. However, a main strength that I found I had on placement was that when speaking to the children I was able able to be heard and seen, this being a very important aspect of communication as this leads on to other positive aspects of both verbal and non-verbal skills.

The school’s enthusiasm and interest in the children was great to see and they work with many external agencies to try and make sure the children within the school get the best education and childhood that they possibly can. They work closely with a woman who tackles attendance and children coming into school late, this was very interesting to see as previously I had never known any other school to work with an agency to try and combat this issue. The children also had an area for the children to go to if they were feeling down or wanted someone to talk to, this really opened by eyes to the caring nature that is within primary schools to ensure children always have someone to talk to.

Overall, my first placement was a great experience which I thoroughly enjoyed, due to the warm and welcoming nature of both the children and all staff members, and how the general feel of the school was great to be within. I am also pleased with how well I got on as an individual and how much the children looked up to me as a professional. Due to this I am even more excited about becoming a primary school teacher and the future placements I have to come.

A Long Way From Long Division.

One thing became clear to me today during our maths sessions – I really need to work on long multiplication and long division. Even though long division does not appear in the CfE E’s & O’s, I – as a teacher- must have sound understanding of the concepts behind it. To work on this I … Continue reading A Long Way From Long Division. →

To work on this I will visit my old secondary school and meet with my maths teacher who has agreed to help me out. Also, I will learn the understanding behind the process rather than just the steps. I will continuously ask myself why am I doing this step?

By doing this I will have a grasp of the concepts and how to teach them; Meaning I can get the maximum potential of the more abled children by setting them this challenge.

But I have a long way to come with long division.

Reflection on Placement

I found that placement was very worthwhile and beneficial for myself. I found it very useful to see the different variations of methods that teachers use and how the theory of our lectures and workshops are put into practice and … Continue reading →

I found that primary schools have changed a lot over the years as there is far more interactive learning an pupil involvement rather than copying and listening. It was great to see the way that children of different ages and abilities engaged with learning.

Overall, I enjoyed my placement, however I felt that one week was not enough to gain a lot of benefit from what we have been learning at university. I felt that this may have impacted on the ability to complete the eight placement tasks to a high standard as we had such a short time to gain and condense specific information relevant to the tasks. It was challenging as classes may not have been doing any lessons on what the literacy and mathematics tasks were referring to. It was also challenging, personally for me as teachers were asking me to work with groups within classes so it was difficult to observe a wider range of pupils.

I had a very positive experience as the school I was placed in made me feel extremely welcome and relaxed. I felt that the teachers wanted me there and so this boosted my confidence which impacted on my interaction with the children and staff. I also felt extremely comfortable asking questions in the school which was beneficial and useful on placement.

Strength –

I found that my main communication strength within the classroom was the way in engaged and interacted with children and teachers and the way that I was able to vary my vocabulary and different ways of engagement when speaking to different ages and different abilities of children. An example of this is when I was working with a reading group in P1 that were not as advanced with their phonic sounds and so I still included the action after saying the word that goes with the phonic in order to show them it physically written down in a word but did not need to with another group who were more advanced. I feel comfortable in engagement as I did previous work experience in a primary school. I also found that I took a bit of a back seat in my work experience and I was more of a peer to children rather than a teacher or authority figure. Evidence of this is that I was able to speak to children easily and confidently. I also found that children knew that I was a student teacher or an authority figure as they spoke to me respectfully and appropriately whilst still being able to talk about things outside of classwork. I feel that I have established the appropriate teacher-friend balance with children in the classroom setting.

Weakness –

I found that an area of development needing to be worked on is my tone and pitch. I found that teachers pointed out that I should vary my tone a bit more and be more dramatic when working with children to keep them more engaged and enthusiastic about their work. I also found that I need to avoid using ‘yip’ and ‘a’ instead of yes and I. I was not even aware that I overuse these errors in my language.

Area of most improvement-

The area I feel that I improved most upon was not using slang words when in the classroom. This was a huge challenge for me as I have been bought up using slang words my whole life. I also found that I was able to give more clear instructions to classes by avoiding using slang, especially in the infant classes. I slowed my pace down for the infants and seen a huge improvement of their interaction with me as they had a clearer understanding of what I was asking them to do.

Strategies-

I will form an actions plan to put in place from now onwards which will also help with my next placemen. As part of my action plan I will practice giving clear, paced instructions further and not use slang words to certain audiences and not as often in general. I will also practice varying my tone and dramatizing my actions in certain situations when working with children. I will also practice saying yes and I instead of ‘yip’ and ‘a’ when working with children. I could also ask my peers and teachers for advice of how to improve my weaknesses. Another way to improve my weaknesses is trying to imitate teachers tone of voice, expressions and reactions in certain situations.

Reflections on Placement

Initial thoughts If I’m being perfectly honest, I was not particularly anxious embarking on the BA1 placement. I was aware that our role would primarily be centered around working with small groups of children and not any actual teaching as … Continue reading →

Placement Reflection

I found it extremely difficult during placement to find my place in the classroom. The last thing I wanted to do was to step on the teachers toes. I wasn’t keen on disciplining pupils in her class, as it felt like I would be undermining her authority. Eventually – with the teachers help – I quickly found … Continue reading Placement Reflection →

Eventually – with the teachers help – I quickly found my voice in the classroom and found myself at ease. One of the main things I have come to realise is that teaching is most definitely my comfort zone.

One of my communication strengths is the ability to connect with the pupils and to convey my instructions effectively. Whilst on placement I was often asked to take reading groups, and one day I was asked to run a learning activity about addresses on envelopes. It was my responsibility to engage the pupils and to assist them in learning how to write an address. In order to do this, I had to make sure that my instructions and my explanations were crystal clear. During this activity, my mentor assessed me against the mentor evaluation checklist. She was very impressed and highlighted that my instructions were good.

Also highlighted in the evaluation is my good use of questioning the children, but the teacher highlighted that this could be developed further by providing more in depth questions to the children and really making them think. I feel I can develop in this area by questioning myself all the time – really understanding why things happen. Also with some practice; I’m new to teaching so of course I’m not going to be ‘the best teacher ever’.

During my time on placement, I learned more than I can say I imagined to. I was given so many ideas about how to engage learners in mathematics, literacy and how to engage them in the world around them. One of the main ideas that I was intrigued in was the use of video to engage in number songs and literacy rhymes.

Overall I would have to say that placement was an amazing and overwhelming experience. I am now telling myself more than I ever did – “This is the job for me.”

Sean

Reflections on Placement

During the week beginning the 31st of October I worked with seven class teachers, a Principle Teacher, a Head Teacher, class room assistants, cleaning staff, and a janitor, as well as pupils from primary one to primary seven of a primary school. I completed eight placement tasks which were based on mathematics and literacy. These tasks allowed me to observe and analyse … Continue reading Reflections on Placement

Reflections on Placement

Strengths During my placement, I came to realise that I am very good at positioning myself so that everyone in the group can clearly hear me and can see me most of the time. As well as this, I ensure that when I am talking to the group, I talk loud enough and clear enough … Continue reading Reflections on Placement →

Strengths

During my placement, I came to realise that I am very good at positioning myself so that everyone in the group can clearly hear me and can see me most of the time. As well as this, I ensure that when I am talking to the group, I talk loud enough and clear enough for everyone to hear me and understand me.

When working with a small group of children, my body language was very positive and I stood with an open posture at all times to ensure that the children knew that they could talk to me if they had any problems or if they needed help with their work. When helping the children work out an answer during a maths lesson, I used hand gestures to represent the numbers on a number line moving from one number to another. This helped the children to further understand what I was talking about and picture the number line in their heads.

Area of Most Progress

At the start of my placement, I used the words “like” and “ah” very often however by the end I had managed to completely avoid using it when talking to the children. I feel that this was my area of most progress as I use the word “like” all the time so being able to avoid using it made me feel as though I was making some progress towards being a proper primary teacher.

Area Requiring Progress

When taking a small group of children, I need to encourage everyone to take part and not allow certain individuals in the group to dominate the discussion. I must ensure that every child has a chance to speak and that when the children do give me responses, I encourage them to extend them.

I must also build the confidence to give children into trouble when they are misbehaving and not paying attention to the class teacher. When I was on placement, I felt as though I could not do this as I felt that it was not my place. Even though I was a student teacher, I felt that it was the actual class teacher to give the children into trouble for disrupting them. However, this is not the case and when I am in a classroom it is just as much my responsibility as the class teacher’s.

Action Plan

I must start to think positively about my experience on placement and learn from the criticisms that I picked up both from my self evaluations and from my peer observation feedback. By doing so, I will begin to build confidence in myself both as a teacher and as a student. This will help for the next time I go on placement and I will know what to do differently this time.

As well as this, I plan to do research on way that I can build my confidence and put these into action. Through this, I hope to become more confident in front of small or large groups of adults or children.