On Tuesday, I had my pre-visit day for my first year placement. The began with me extremely nervous but also very excited, I arrived at the school at around 8:40am and was greeted by the head teacher who introduced herself and led me to my class. Having the head teacher greet me at the door relieved some of my nervous and allowed me to start to enjoy the experience more. We arrived at my class and were greeted by the class teacher, she introduced herself and made me feel extremely welcome in the class. She then explained to me how the children work and the different levels that they work at, this helped to give me an understanding of what to expect and also how I should develop my own lessons when we start placement.

The bell went and the children entered the room, they all looked at me in wonder, I could see that they were eager to ask questions and find out who I was. The teacher then introduced me to the children as “Mr Getty”. The children all seemed very excited to have a new teacher in the class.

Once the children had started to work I took the opportunity to go around and speak to the children individually and get to know them and asked them what their names were. They all responded very well and took part in the discussions that I was having with them. This opportunity was something that I feel will aid my placement overall as this gave me a chance to speak to the children and gauge what their interests were and basically just start to get to know them.

Throughout the day I helped the teacher by taking different groups during different activities, before play time I took a group and done sums on the interactive table with them, at first they actually had to show me how to work the table as they were all experts in using it. I helped to explain the different sums that they how to do and helped to understand it to them when they didn’t quite understand it. Once they had finished the sums they showed me all of the different features of the table.

After play time the children literacy, this took the form of looking at similes and metaphors, again I helped by taking a group and working through a work sheet with the and helping them with any tricky spelling words. I feel that this has helped my development as this allowed me to interact with the children regarding a task and explain it to them. This gave me a taste of what it will be like when actual placement starts.

The day ended with the children using laptops from after lunch time to the end of the day the children used laptops to research World War 2 and the different countries of Europe. During this activity I did not take a specific group, however I went around everyone and discussing with the what they had been looking at and how they were getting on.

During both play time and lunch time I went to the staff room with my mentor, the staff room was a very friendly place with very friendly and welcoming staff. Everyone talked to me and asked how my day was going and other things about my course and me in general. This really put me at ease as it is really good to have supportive and welcoming people around you.

All in all I feel that this was a very informative and worthwhile day. This gave me the opportunity to meet and work with my class who I will have whilst undertaking my placement and it also gave me a feel for what to expect when I go back.

One thing that sticks in my mind from this day was at the end of the day when I was leaving the school I heard one of the children say to their friends, “That’s Mr Getty”, they then shouted “Goodbye Mr Getty”. This gave me a sense of achievement as it was clear that the children had welcomed me into the class and were happy to have me there.

Now that Semester One is in the history books, I believe that it is now time to reflect on how I feel it went and in particular, a part that I felt was particularly successful. Semester One consisted of two shared modules, Working Together and Values. Both of these modules have widened my view on reflection as it was important to reflect on how we performed in these modules for assessment. One part of semester one that I feel was the most important to my development was the poster part of the working together module. This focused on what I had learned personally so this gave me a chance to reflect on what I had learned as part of this module. At first I found it quite challenging as I felt it was hard to look at my own learning and find positives and negatives. However after looking at different theories and discussing with others in my Working Together group this helped me in being able to reflect on my performance. The reason that this is my most important moment of Semester One is that reflection is something that is need and will be used, not only through my 4 years at University but throughout my teaching career. It is crucial that a teacher is able to reflect on their practice and find good points and also points that they can improve on. This does not only help the teacher improve but also makes sure that the children get the best possible learning.

For me, reflection is crucial, it is something that we need to be able to improve our practice. If we don’t reflect on what we are doing then there is no way we can fix something if it is not working. What we all want is what’s best for the children and the only way that we can successfully achieve this is by continuously reflecting on what we are doing and improving on this.

Why teaching? Teaching for me has been a dream job every since I was little. I have very fond memories of teachers from my time at school which inspired my decision to become a primary school teacher. I believe that the lasting impression a teacher makes on a child can shape them for life, positive experiences with your teacher at school is key and allows the child to enjoy their time at school and thrive. When leaving school I was the only male going into teaching whilst others were going into completely unrelated professions, I believe that teaching is not a job that you just chose to do, it is something that you are born to do, and I believe that I was born to be a primary school teacher.

Over the last few years since leaving school, I have taken very different paths to reach where I currently am. Upon leaving school I felt that my dream of becoming a teacher had been shattered when I was actually rejected from Dundee, following this I went on to do numerous courses at college, before finally earlier this year being accepted on to this course. The joy I felt when I was accepted was one of the greatest feelings that I have felt, realising that I had finally made the step to becoming a teacher.

Last year, when I was at college I done two placements in a primary school, one in P1 and the other in both P1 and P2. This was the first time I had the feel for what it is like to be a teacher and the first time I had been referred to as “Mr Getty”, this made me realise that my dream was actually coming true. When I was little I also wanted to be a superhero, however I eventually realised that I probably wouldn’t be able to be a superhero that flies or has x-ray vision however, I did realise that not all superheroes wear capes and that I was going to be the best superhero of them all….. a Primary Teacher.