2.1 Curriculum – Page 6

Placement Reflection

I very much enjoyed my two weeks on placement. It felt very natural to be within a school in a teaching role and I could very much see myself doing this job one day. My school was quite small- 150 pupils approx. and had quite a mixed catchment. Due to this I saw a range of behaviours, which I think is actually beneficial as I saw many different techniques to manage this behaviour throughout the school.

The whole experience really allowed me to see exactly what a large amount of work is done by teachers both before children arrive and also after they leave at the end of the day.

My feedback was all very positive which made me feel much more confident within the classroom setting. The experience also allowed me to see different styles of teaching, and I feel I will take away the ones I liked the best and use them myself.

The teachers and support staff were all very kind and welcoming and made me feel like I was a help by being there rather than an additional bit of work for them. It gave me a real opportunity to interact with a wide age range of children as the Deputy Head Teacher had made us up a timetable so that we had a whole school experience. Despite the fact that I was not in one class for the whole 2 weeks, I feel that I still managed to create some good bonds with the children, and managed to remember most names- an achievement for me! Being in different classes was an advantage because I feel I had a lot of opportunities to be able to fill out my placement tasks. The teachers in the school also seemed more than happy to answer any questions I might have, and shared their lesson plans and general experience with me. Due to this, I feel that this experience really has been invaluable.

Reflections on Placement

Introduction The week starting 31st October to Friday 4 November I was on a week-long placement at a local primary observing various teachers throughout the school. Through observing teachers from up and down the school I was able to get an insight into the different tasks and challenges that the teachers faced and how to think on your feet when you are … Continue reading Reflections on Placement →

Introduction

The week starting 31st October to Friday 4 November I was on a week-long placement at a local primary observing various teachers throughout the school.

Through observing teachers from up and down the school I was able to get an insight into the different tasks and challenges that the teachers faced and how to think on your feet when you are faced a situation you didn’t expect to be faced with.

I learned a great deal while I was on placement. I learned that no two school days are the same and that no matter how much you prepare for something you need to be able to adapt to the situation you are in.

Area of Strength

I believe that one of my areas of strength is that I am able to speak in front of a large group of people without any major issues. As a result of doing drama at school and outside of school I have grown more comfortable with communicating with a big audience. Throughout the week there were various situations where the teacher would leave the room or would be focusing on another task and I would speak to the class about the task they were doing. I spoke confidently to the class so they knew that even though I wasn’t their teacher they still had to listen to what I was saying.

I believe that being able to communicate with a large group of people is very important especially for a teacher because communicating with your class is at the centre of everything you do as a teacher.

Area for Improvement

After looking back on my week long placement I think an area that needs to improve for me is that I must try and not use any slang terms whilst I am in the classroom. For the majority of the placement I was able to not use any slang terms in the classroom however there would be times where I would lose my concentration and slip up. The pupils would be coming in from their playtime and would say hi to me and I’d accidently respond with ‘awright’ instead of hi. Or I would say ‘naw’ and other terms like that.

Action Plan for Improvement

In order to try and avoid using slang terms in the company of pupils I will involve myself in different situations where I come in contact with pupils. I will go to the after school care where I completed my work experience. This will allow me to not only get feedback from the pupils at the work experience but it will also allow me to try and replicate the situation of being in the classroom and interacting with the pupils.

Conclusion

This placement was very beneficial to me. It reinforced my belief that becoming a primary teacher is the path that I should choose. It also gave me an insight into what it is like being a primary teacher and what sort of challenges a teacher faces every day and how stressful the job can be at times. It allowed me to evaluate what my strengths are and what I needed to do to improve myself. The placement has me looking forward to continue the course and prepare me for the placement I will have next year.

2.1.3 Have knowledge and understanding of planning coherent and progressive teaching programmes / 3.1.1 Plan coherent, progressive and stimulating teaching programmes which match learners’ needs and abilities

2.1 Curriculum / 3.1 Teaching and Learning Target: 2.1.3 Have knowledge and understanding of planning coherent and progressive teaching programmes. Target: 3.1.1 Plan coherent, progressive and stimulating teaching programmes which match learners’ needs and abilities. Rationale: “Recognition of the powerful active nature of … Continue reading →

2.1 Curriculum /
3.1 Teaching and Learning

Target: 2.1.3 Have knowledge and understanding of planning coherent and progressive teaching programmes.
Target: 3.1.1 Plan coherent, progressive and stimulating teaching programmes which match learners’ needs and abilities.

Rationale:

“Recognition of the powerful active nature of our selective attention makes it very clear why it is vital that activities intended to help young children must first and foremost interest them, intrigue them and be personally relevant for them” (Whitebread, 2002, pp.123—124).

“How do I divide time, resources, and myself so that I am an effective catalyst for maximising talent in all my students?” (Tomlinson, 2014, p.2)

To be an effective teacher, lessons must be relevant and accessible to all learners. During this placement I would like to enhance my skills in providing this experience.

Professional Actions:

2.1.3:
- Know how to plan for effective teaching and learning across different contexts and experiences;
- Know and understand how to justify what is taught within the curricular areas in relation to the curriculum and the relevance to the needs of all learners.
3.1.1:
- Plan appropriately for effective teaching and in order to meet the needs of all learners, including learning in literacy, numeracy, health and wellbeing and skills for learning, life and work.

Action Plan

Week 1 – Planning

Revisit lesson planning inputs from class;
Seek class teacher’s feedback on my lesson planning.

Week 2 – Planning

Reflect on peer’s feedback on my lesson planning.

Week 3 – Relevant Planning

Engage in wider reading around contextualisation;
Seek to apply context to a lesson planned for this week.

Week 4 – Relevant Planning

Engage in wider reading around progression;
Reflect on my Week 1-2 Maths lessons and consider how progression could have been improved;

Week 5 – Relevant Planning for All Learners

Engage in wider reading around differentiation;
Differentiate a lesson this week, pitched correctly for all leaners’ abilities.

Week 6 — Relevant Planning for All Learners

Research life skills development appropriate to P4;
Embed at least one life skill development into a lesson this week.

Reflections

Week 1

I referred to all of the lesson planning inputs before writing my own plans. This was particularly helpful in establishing rationale.
The class teacher provided very positive verbal feedback on the plan I shared with her. She considered it to be comprehensive, clear and well thought out. The learning intentions, success criteria and assessment were considered to be appropriate.

Week 2

The feedback from my peer suggested including more detail in the Rationale/Context areas. I will work with the Class Teacher to develop this during Week 3 and gain a sound understanding of context and prior learning that I can demonstrate in this section.
My peer also suggested that my introduction was focussed on recap and could be more exciting. I will take this on board.
I will work towards making my Success Criteria as specific as possible in response to my peer’s feedback.

Enhancing Digital Technology

Would you accept children being failed to be educated on maths or language? Although they are being brought up/growing up surrounded by it and to have a successful, positive experience within and out with school they must have developing knowledge and skills of these subjects. I’m assuming your answers would be no, therefore, why do […]

Curriculum and Teaching and Learning

Benchmark Statement: 2.1.3 Have knowledge and understanding of planning coherent and progressive teaching programmes 3.1.1 Plan coherent, progressive and stimulating teaching programmes which match learners’ needs and abilities Rationale: As this is the first placement that will involve me planning … Continue reading →

Benchmark Statement:

2.1.3 Have knowledge and understanding of planning coherent and progressive teaching programmes

3.1.1 Plan coherent, progressive and stimulating teaching programmes which match learners’ needs and abilities

Rationale:

As this is the first placement that will involve me planning lessons I think that it is important to focus on planning as I have no experience of this. I hope to develop my lesson planning skills through this placement. Reflecting on my planning ability in this PDP will enable me to identify my strengths and weaknesses and track my progress. Planning is an important part of all teachers’ work and it is essential that I am able to plan engaging lessons that match the needs and abilities of the children that I am teaching.

Expected Features:

Know how to plan for effective teaching and learning across different contexts and experiences.

Know and understand how to justify what is taught within curricular areas in relation to the curriculum and the relevance to the needs of all learners.

Plan appropriately for effective teaching and in order to meet the needs of all learners, including learning in literacy, numeracy, health and wellbeing and skills for learning, life and work.

Action Plan:

Prior to placement I will read over the information provided by lecturers about planning and do further reading in the two books that were recommended (Effective Teaching in Schools – Kyriacou and Learning to Teach in the Primary School – Arthur and Cremin).

Week 1

In order to teach effectively and engage the class it is important that I plan my lessons in a way that will suit the learners. As I will be teaching groups this week I will focus on engaging the children in these small groups and adapting the learning to suit them.

I will read chapter 4 in ‘Effective Teaching in Schools’ (Kyriacou, 2009) Setting up the Learning Experience.

I will also get to know the children in my class and reflect on the way that they learn at the moment. By observing the class teacher I will be able to get an idea of the pace that individuals in the class learn at.

Week 2

As I hope to have the opportunity to teach cross curricular lessons, this will be my focus this week. Lessons that involve more than one area of the curriculum can be a way to engage learners as it often enables them to connect more with the learning. I will read chapter 4.2 of Learning to Teach in the Primary School (Arthur and Cremin, 2006). I will also observe the class teacher and reflect on ways that she uses cross curricular planning to engage the learners.

Week 3

I will be planning and teaching full class lessons this week and I must be able to differentiate to suit the abilities and needs of all learners in the class. I will discuss ways to do this with my class teacher and also read chapter 6.2 of Learning to Teach in the Primary School (Arthur and Cremin, 2006).

Week 4

As a teacher, it is important that I can provide learners with stimulating and engaging learning experiences. This week I will focus on different ways to engage the class in their learning, for example interactive activities and different styles of learning. As well as discussing this with my class teacher I will read chapter 6 in Effective Teaching in Schools (Kyriacou, 2009) as this is focused on Key Classroom Teaching Qualities and tasks.

Bloom’s Taxonomy

Tricia asked us as part of our questioning and discussion to come prepared to the second workshop with a context and questions to follow this context. When looking at this I felt extremely nervous as it looked a lot more difficult than she had explained. However as I got started it was such a straight […]

Excited…

In the technology workshop with Richard we discussed the crossing of curricular areas. This was something that I hadn’t put much thought into in terms of lesson planning however after this workshop I can’t wait to try this more often. We discussed food textiles and how one of the experiences and outcomes could be chosen […]

We Need More!

Health and Wellbeing. This is a subject which I strongly, strongly believe should be introduced more throughout every single year spent within school. I understand that a lot will be covered within this as it is a main focus within the curriculum however personally I find that many teachers are too shy or uncomfortable with […]

Technology Lesson

During technology input myself, Danielle, Erin, Katie, Ailsa and Lucy worked collaboratively to come up with a lesson plan that involved an area which we weren’t too confident about. By the end of this workshop I realised that planning a technology lesson wasn’t as daunting as I first thought and it’s something I would love to experiment with […]

Deepening our understanding: Science Literacy

Richard Holme organised; Lauren Summers, Amy Turner, Hannah Stillwell and myself into a group to work on a mini assignment exploring our knowledge of science literacy. During this TDT I researched more into science literacy which deepened my knowledge of it, as did reading what the others had researched about it. Working together gave us the […]