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 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 context.

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

Throughout my first placement I observed a range of literacy and mathematical class lessons so I could gather information to complete the eight observation tasks.  I interacted with pupils in the classroom, and with teachers in both the classroom and the staffroom. I supported learning within a variety of different classes throughout the school and demonstrated effective communication … Continue reading Reflections On Placement →

Throughout my first placement I observed a range of literacy and mathematical class lessons so I could gather information to complete the eight observation tasks.  I interacted with pupils in the classroom, and with teachers in both the classroom and the staffroom. I supported learning within a variety of different classes throughout the school and demonstrated effective communication … Continue reading Reflections On Placement →

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 →

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 →

Reflection on Placement

In a profession, such as teaching it is important that we continually self-assess ourselves. I began my first school placement with the intent of identifying my strengths and areas for development with regards to my overall communication skills. I was matched with a school in a relatively socially deprived area which I found quite challenging … Continue reading Reflection on Placement →

In a profession, such as teaching it is important that we continually self-assess ourselves. I began my first school placement with the intent of identifying my strengths and areas for development with regards to my overall communication skills. I was matched with a school in a relatively socially deprived area which I found quite challenging … Continue reading Reflection on Placement →

Reflection on Placement

The school I visited for my 1st year week long placement was a small rural primary school with an incorporated nursery that had approximately two dozen pupils split into two classes; P1-3 and P4-7.  I worked alongside both teachers and a fellow student throughout the week, interacting with all the pupils of the school and … Continue reading Reflection on Placement →

The school I visited for my 1st year week long placement was a small rural primary school with an incorporated nursery that had approximately two dozen pupils split into two classes; P1-3 and P4-7.  I worked alongside both teachers and a fellow student throughout the week, interacting with all the pupils of the school and of the nursery as well as interacting with the teachers in the classroom and staffroom.

Strengths

I would say that my main strength is that I am an effective communicator, I can effectively explain to children what their tasks are and what is expected of them throughout these tasks.  I can also successfully describe to a child the steps for getting to the correct answer of a question using creative and interactive methods.  For example, there was one child; let’s call her Jane.  Now jane was stuck on the following mental question 5 – ? = 0, she was struggling to mentally subtract to get to zero.  I came up with the idea to use concrete material (pencils) to physically show the calculation needed, the situation went as follows.

Jane – I’m stuck on this question (5 – ? = 0)

Myself – alright, well if I have 5 pencils (holding 5 pencils in my hand) but I don’t want any, how many do you have to take away from me so that I have no pencils.

Jane – I’m not sure

Myself – ok well you take them from me, physically take the pencils out my hand and count as you do so.

Jane – one (takes away 1 pencil), two (takes away another pencil), three (takes away another), four (takes away another), five (takes away the last pencil, looks up and smiles).  Five, the answers five.

Myself – well done that was good.

I used this process repeatedly when Jane became stuck on similar questions and also when other students in the class became confused as well.

 

Area of Most Progress

I would say that my confidence in working with the children, using behavioural management techniques and also interacting with the teachers on a professional level as I had never experienced anything like that before progressed as the week went on.  At first I struggled with interacting with the children as I didn’t know them, as in the school I previously did work experience in I knew 90% of the students which made connecting with them particularly easy, but in this case I had no prior knowledge of any of the children which made me less confident in interacting with them.  This lack of confidence did however decrease over the course of the placement as I spent more and more time with the children every day and built up trust.  I also became more confident in using behavioural management techniques as the week progressed as in the beginning I was reluctant and unsure whether to use them as I am only a student and I am not yet qualified so don’t have the authority to punish bad behaviour.  I was however reassured by the teacher that if I saw any bad behaviour I was to deal with it in a manner I saw fit, this usually consisted of me having a quiet word with the misbehaving pupil.  Interacting with the teachers on a professional level was quite difficult to get my head around at first because I had never experienced anything like it before, but after a few days I realised that I was viewed as an equal to the teachers and was trusted with personal and sensitive information about the students and was also asked for my opinion on situations and how to handle them.

 

Area Requiring Progress

I would say that the area that needs the most improvement is my ability to self-reflect on my experiences.  At the moment I can reflect and find all the negatives of what do but I really struggle with identifying the positive aspects, this is probably due to a lack of self-confidence and self-worth.  This lack of confidence also affects my ability to present in front of my peers.  Children that are younger than me and my elders don’t make me nervous at all but when it comes to presenting to a group of people my own age that I don’t know or aren’t comfortable around I get really nervous and sometimes I’m even ill from the stress.  So this is one area that I would really like to improve on as it will be relevant to my future career and experiences.

 

Action Plan

My plan of action is to film myself presenting to groups and watch it back and note down what I did well and what I didn’t do so well, I’ll also do this when I’m in everyday situations such as paying for shopping.  This practise in everyday and formal settings will give me the chance to review everything I do right and wrong and should hopefully help me get better at giving myself positive feedback.  For the confidence side of presenting I’m going to practise talking in front of a mirror and also build myself up to presenting to groups I am uncomfortable rather than jumping in at the deep in.

Reflections on Placement

Strength I feel like the language that I use is appropriate for the age and stage that I was working with and that in turn can make all the children feel involved as they can clearly understand the instruction or task I have issued. Anything that they ask or say, I feel that I can […]

Strength

I feel like the language that I use is appropriate for the age and stage that I was working with and that in turn can make all the children feel involved as they can clearly understand the instruction or task I have issued. Anything that they ask or say, I feel that I can efficiently get them to adapt and expand on what they know, as they very often know more than they let on, allowing them to teach each other rather than all the learning coming solely from the teacher.

Area of Most Progress

I feel like the area I have made the most progress on is my body language when working with children. Now I feel my body language is always open and positive, and I am now better at being down on their level when working with them so they don’t feel intimidated. They know that they can approach me if they have any difficulties with their work or questions they need to ask.

Area Requiring Progress

The area that I feel requires the most progress is when working with 2 groups make sure that I can see both groups. There was a point where I had my back to a few and I could not see that they had their hand up and needed help. I should have been able to see that some of the pupils were struggling and did not need to shout, which in turn made the rest of the class become a bit louder too and disrupted the learning, or sit and struggle. However, I was pleased to hear that they had all tried to help each other before coming to me.

Action Plan

A lot of the communication developments will purely take practice, getting out of your comfort zone and really focusing on different aspects of your communication when interacting with others. I need to recognise what makes good communication and bad communication and develop on my weaker areas.

Reflections on placement

During my week at placement I had a really good time and it opened me up to a wide range of new ideas which are being used in the classroom today. The teacher who I was with was a lovely woman who helped me at every moment she could. She made me feel very welcome … Continue reading Reflections on placement →

During my week at placement I had a really good time and it opened me up to a wide range of new ideas which are being used in the classroom today. The teacher who I was with was a lovely woman who helped me at every moment she could. She made me feel very welcome within her class and got me engaging in activities with the children at every possible opportunity. When in the classroom, the children were engaged in lots of different practical activities in all subject areas. The most practical lessons were in literacy as the children were learning new sounds and instead of sitting around a table and writing, the children were busy doing practical activities such as working with play-dough, using an iPad to engage in the Jolly Phonics apps (allows the children to work at their own pace while it still being seen as fun), and one of the groups of children got to work at the smart board and play games on Education City.

Overall, I feel my placement was very successful. I learned a lot of new things and got to experience lots of different kinds of lessons and work practically which children which I couldn’t do while sitting in a lecture or workshop at university. I now look forward to going into second year so that I can gain more experience in classrooms, get the opportunity of taking a class on my own and planning lessons arounds the needs of that class.

Strength

Throughout my time on placement, I feel my area of strength was getting involved with the children and really getting down onto their level. I got the chance to work in small groups of children in different curricular areas such as numeracy and literacy. During a maths lesson, I took a small group of children who were working on the number four. As this was the first time of them being introduced to it we worked on activities (such as, number formation on whiteboards and physically counting objects to familiarise them with how many four is). This is to get the children familiar with the number by doing practical activities. These practical activities, I found, were very useful for the children as they were learning in a fun context. This also proves not as challenging to children who are still unable to hold a pencil properly and it still gives them the experience of learning and exposing all the children to the new concept. Through observing these practical activities, I feel like I have gained useful and relevant experiences which I can take on and apply to my next teaching practices.

Area of most progress

At the beginning of placement I feel as if I wasn’t very confident when being asked to lead/take a large group of children. However, during this placement, I had the opportunity to go on a class trip to the local Tesco for a ‘Farm to Fork, visit. This trip was very informative to both myself and the children as it was encouraging he children to try new healthy foods which they may not have had the opportunity to try before (and I got to try a few snacks too). The visit also allowed the children to see where food is made and where it comes from. We went into the bakery and watched them making pancakes (and the children even got to take one home with them). We also walked around the back of the store to see where the food was stored and kept in the fridges and freezers. During this visit, the teacher had to split the class into two groups as the class was too large to take around the store in one go. The teacher asked if I would feel comfortable with taking a group around (with the help of a parent helper) as I had got to know the children earlier on in the week and she trusted me with making sure they would behave and set a good example for the school.

Area Requiring Progress

The area I feel still requiring progress after this placement is my ability to speak up more when talking to staff. In the staffroom I talked a little bit however I feel I could have spoken more and engaged in more conversation to make me look more interested in what was going on.  Sometimes when I sat in the staffroom I would keep to myself with my arms folded instead of opening up my body and look as if I wanted to talk. I was very nervous when I was in the staffroom as I had never sat in a staffroom as a student teacher before and it was full of people whom I had never met before and they had never met me.

Action Plan

I am going to build up my confidence in unfamiliar situations with adults by putting myself into situations which I do not feel comfortable in and make an effort with them. By doing this, I feel I will be more confident to speak up and engage in conversation with other staff members. This should make me look more open and confident when in an unfamiliar environment and seem more open to talking to other staff members.

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 →

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 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

I carried out a one week placement in a primary school which gave me great insight into the environment of a primary teacher. This definitely increased my confidence and has really inspired me and confirmed in my mind that this is what I want to do in life. I spent my week observing from primary … Continue reading “Reflections on Placement”

I carried out a one week placement in a primary school which gave me great insight into the environment of a primary teacher. This definitely increased my confidence and has really inspired me and confirmed in my mind that this is what I want to do in life. I spent my week observing from primary … Continue reading “Reflections on Placement”

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