numeracy – UWS BA ePDPs

Reflections on Placement

During my time on placement from the 30th of October until the 10th of November i realised many strengths and areas of development which I perhaps would not have encountered without this experience. My first strength of my Placement experience was working one on one with a child who required a lot of additional support with his class work. Throughout my time in the class I built a relationship with the pupil which allowed me to engage fully and support his every need. I also tried my best not to tell him the answers, instead I consistently encouraged and with a little push he began working more as an individual with full confidence. With the pupil I could adapt my communication to suit his individual needs such as using basic words and speaking very slowly to make sure he understood what was going on all the time. An area of development for my time on Placement would be to speak with more confidence while working with a larger group whether its for learning or play. This area of weakness let me down twice during my time in school meaning none of the children got the best from the experience as they were always talking over one another being very rude and I showed a lack of authority. This was the case for a more challenging group of boys within the class who consistently challenged me as the ‘student teacher’ making me feel truly out of depth. I then began to lose motivation for this sort of activity. My action plan to improve this for next time would be to establish control before beginning the activity which would make sure the children listened from the very beginning and know what to do. Also mentioning briefly the result of what will happen if they don’t follow the rules will ensure they don’t carry on. A method of regaining attention after a distraction will also be useful for me such as “hands on top its time to stop”.

While on Placement I think I interacted with both the classroom and staffroom very well showing intrigue in everything that was going on and taking on many learning opportunities while out at school. My ability to do this was my previous experience in the Primary School situation as a volunteer in High School and the extra volunteering I have carried out in my local community such as Brownies and Youth Clubs. The only obstacle I felt was a challenge to my time in Placement was working with children with behavioural issues as it was something I had never previously come up against and I did not feel the support was there in this respect.

BA1 Reflections on Placement

So after two quick weeks in my first school placement I’ve found myself back at uni with an overwhelming sense of dread and fear for what the next hectic 4 weeks of my life is going to bring. Endless assignments, studying, research, academic reading, getting to grips with referencing and just in general managing to survive till […]

However, looking back on a successful and eye opening two weeks in my first school experience I can only feel excited for what my future career holds! (The good, the bad and the ugly of course!)

Strengths

In the lead up to starting my time in the school I felt excited yet slightly nervous just by being the ‘new student’ going into a busy school environment where relationships and friendships had already been formed. However, I found throughout the duration of my placement that I communicated and worked well with all members of staff that I dealt with and most importantly the pupils in classes that I worked in. I felt that having previous experience working in schools and being a youth group leader I already had the confidence and ability to assert myself when appropriate and become an authoritative figure to the pupils I worked with. By using my initiative and confidence this allowed me to successfully become part of an effective team for my short stay and build a rapport with both staff and pupils in the classrooms, staff room and playground.

Area of Most Progress

Being in the classroom with the children is where I felt most comfortable. Whether it was working with a child one to one or in group tasks with 6 or 8 pupils I felt I was in my comfort zone and in control of the environment I was in. Working in the classroom alongside the class teacher and being involved in the daily routines and pupil’s learning allowed me to develop skills and abilities I thought I already had confidence in. With assurance and praise from the class teacher that I was conducting myself in a professional yet nurturing manner allowed me to delve more into the children’s educational experiences and use my initiative to assist the class teacher in her planning and teaching. Using my creative abilities I was able to complete making props for the school nativity alongside using new ideas for the children to make at their annual Christmas fayre. Along with developing good rapport with the children and getting to know their names and learning styles this certainly made me feel like I was progressing successfully and developing my interpersonal skills throughout.

Area Requiring Progress

Looking through my self reflections and peer observations the one thing that appeared was my pace when delivering an input to children in a small group. Talking quickly is something I have felt I’ve always done and am aware of but find it difficult to overcome and fix. However, this is something I am aware I need to focus on and need to implement strategies to overcome this in order to make my pace slower and easier for children to understand and take in what I am saying.

Action Plan

Receiving my school assessment report form was a great confidence boost and assured me that my two weeks in the school were valuable to not only myself but those who I worked with. On advice from the class teacher I will continue to conduct myself in a friendly and professional manner whilst maintaining a nurturing and caring attitude towards the pupils. I will continue to use my initiative and offer my assistance to class teachers, pupils and other staff in the school for if and when they require it. Strategies to improve my pace of speech such as breathing techniques and looking back at recordings of myself presenting will allow me to improve and record areas in which I find I talk too quickly and implement strategies such as pausing or breathing to ensure I talk slower for those around me to understand me more concisely. Continuing to engage positively with all staff and children as well as maintaining calm and capable characteristics that will serve me well in my upcoming career.

1st year placement experience

I have just finished my first two week placement block during my time in the BA programme at UWS. Having spent most of last year in a Primary 1 class it was amazing to get back into the classroom and working with children again. This year I was in a small multi-composite school with 2 […]

Prior to placement I was unsure how I would feel about teaching in a multi-compsite class as I imagined this would be a lot more difficult than having a class all of the same ages however I absolutely loved it. There were varying abilities within the classroom however with there only being 9 children in Class 2 the different abilities in the classroom were able to be so well catered to. In an average class of 20-30 children, they would all be in the same year group, however the range of abilities would be just as vast with a higher pupil to teacher ratio.

Having experienced a small window of time within this village school, the range of activities the children can partake in is incredible and the sense of community and family in the school is amazing. Every member of staff worked so well together and really cared for each child, their wellbeing and their successes. The school had a community kitchen which the children cooked a new recipe in each week, this was so great to see the school introducing a love of cooking to the children and providing them with a life skill.

I have learned so much from my time in placement and it has given me so many great ideas that I hope one day I can carry out in my own classroom. As well as ideas for the future it has also given me an insight into particular areas of strength and areas for improvement in my own practice.

I believe a strength I have is quickly building up a rapport with each child. This is so vital as if children have a good relationship with you the will learn so much more from you and enjoy working and learning alongside you. I really enjoy getting to know each child, their strengths, areas for developments, likes and dislikes and using this to alter my own practice. Some people often forget that children at Primary are still so young an need to be nurtured and form positive relationships with staff within the school.

Although I really enjoyed working with the older children this did make me aware of an area of personal development. As some of the mathematics was at a much higher level I first had to understand this before I could explain it to the children. A few times I found myself getting stuck when trying to explain different maths aspects to the children as I didn’t have a good enough understanding in the first place in order to then simplify this and explain in necessary depth to the children to ensure they understood. I spoke with the class teacher about this and in mathematics at university we spend time each week going through various maths concepts and so I am confident that with putting extra work into my mathematics by the time I am next working with older children I will ensure I have the relevant knowledge to be confident helping every group of children with their mathematics.

Reflections on Placement

Placement was an inspiring experience and enhanced my understanding of how a classroom environment works daily. Before starting placement, I was really excited and looking forward to new experiences as I love being in the school setting. Having seen the school’s website before starting my placement, gave me an idea of what the school ethic …

Continue reading “Reflections on Placement”

I was based in a Primary 2 class with my peer for the two weeks of placement, this was beneficial as I got to know the teacher and the children really well. I have had previous experience in a Primary 1 class and found it very interesting seeing the next stage up.

I quickly got into the daily routine of the class. The class teacher was in school around 8.15am every morning to prepare for the day ahead. Every Monday morning the teachers had a meeting with the headteacher for 15 minutes before the school day started at 9am.

Throughout the placement I observed many numeracy lessons. The teacher used a variety of songs that children sung along to, this helped portray the lesson content. The teacher constructed the end of the numeracy lesson with activity based learning, there were directed tasks that children could carry out through play to consolidate learning. The directed tasks included; using fake money and adding it together to make up a certain sum of money; shoe laces that numbers could be threaded on to make a calculation or number pattern (odd/even); numeracy jigsaw; and laptops with ‘sumdog’ and ‘education city’. The children all participated in the directed tasks and were engrossed throughout the activities.

In Primary 2, I perceived numerous, assorted literacy lessons throughout the two weeks. At the start of every week children would get a new list of spelling words. The first week was ‘ff’ words and the second week was ‘ll’ words. As a class the children sound out the word phonetically and then say it 3 times fully – this assists the children’s understanding of how the word forms. The children copy 3 of the spelling words directed by the teacher in their homework jotter and writes them again at home – this is done Monday to Wednesday. The children have a spelling test every Friday and peer assess each other after the test is complete. Children were introduced to a dictionary for the first time, this was a very interesting lesson to observe and the children understood how the dictionary worked, they demonstrated this through tasks directed by the teacher.

The Primary 2 pupils had PE once a week. It was a fantastic opportunity to observe how another teacher dealt with the same class. The children loved being active and releasing energy.

The subject of French is covered orally in Primary 1 to Primary 3. Primary 2 have covered days of the week, and numbers 1 to 10. They have just started to learn the months of the year. The subject French was presented by using songs. The teacher regularly used ‘très bien’ and other French phrases throughout the French lesson and other lessons therefore carrying French across the curriculum.

Overall, the teacher of Primary 2 was very helpful and assisted myself and my partner in anything possible. I feel I supported the learning taking place in class to my best ability and demonstrated effective communication skills. My experience in the staffroom was lovely and interactive, the staff are all very welcoming and interested to hear about our course at UWS. I feel I adapted to the school and smooth running of it and became very comfortable with my surroundings after the first day. I have extremely enjoyed my placement at the school, and will take all my experiences and observations into my future practice. The primary school, staff and my partner have all been very reassuring and supportive. Having more experience in a Primary School has made me realise that I truly want to pursue a career as as Primary Teacher.

Reflections on Placement

Overview The night before on the Sunday I was feeling very apprehensive and anxious for going on the placement on Monday morning. I was worried about what the children and staff would think of me and if I would give off the professional but fun side that I wanted to show them. I was fretting […]

Reflections on Placement

Introduction Starting on the 31st of October I completed my one week placement at Newmilns Primary School. One hundred and seven pupils attend Newmilns Primary and all classes, apart from primary seven consist of composite classes. I was placed in several classes throughout the week which allowed me to experience different levels of learning within different […]

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 1^st 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

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.

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 context. I found that primary schools have changed a lot over the years as there … Continue reading “Reflection on Placement”

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.

I attended Stanley Primary School in Ardrossan for my week placement in BA1. The school has 444 pupils and I was lucky enough to be able to work with a range of ages and pupils from various backgrounds. The school has four main aims: respect, commitment, caring and courage. This was shown to me through the … Continue reading Reflections on placement. →