- You should choose 3 goals for your MA1 placement;
- Write a thoughtful justification for your choices and map against the appropriate criterion/a of the SPR explaining the focus for your goals.
- School: Craigowl Primary
1. Commiting Myself
In my opinion, I consider demonstrating your commitment to teaching and learning to be the best thing any education student can do especially when it’s your first real placement and you’re only just starting your development as a professional. This is why my first goal is to demonstrate a high level of commitment, not only to the pupils and the teacher but to the school and community as whole. By engaging myself fully with the environment the pupil’s live in and the activities available to them, I will be able to built up my own understanding of what life is like for these children which will hopefully enable the pupils to trust me by showing an interest. Through doing this, I hope to show the class teacher and my placement tutor the dedication I have to every pupil and the school which in turn demonstrates a certain level of professionalism and by make mistakes (which is inevitable at this stage) during the observation weeks I can learn from these by the 4 week block. Additionally, I will show commitment by staying in the school as long as it takes to get everything done and prepared rather than just rushing off when the bell rings as there is a lot of ‘behind the scenes’ preparation that goes on in the background that I will be looking to learn more about. Furthermore, I will interact with other staff and start to build connections which will eventually demonstrate respect to the children as giving everyone equal respect is important.
2. Behaviour Management
It’s very common for first years to consider behaviour management very daunting. What if they don’t listen to me because I’m a student? What if I can’t get them to do the work? It’s all very scary but is something I feel needs to be tackled head on from the beginning, there’s no point ignoring it! It’s important from day one when you step into the classroom to get their respect because if they see you as a friend and don’t take you seriously, behaviour management will only become more and more difficult. However, getting the respect is a whole other ball game and is definitely something I will have to research before going out. I will try and avoid being nervous around the children as they will pick up on this, that’s why it’s important to remain calm and confident. I’m there to be a teacher rather than an assistant. Therefore, in order to gain the respect they have for their teacher, I will have to act like their teacher in a way that doesn’t undermine the class teacher. This is very intimidating, however, now is the time to make mistakes as I’d much rather make them now than later on down the line. The teacher and school will have behaviour management strategies in place and I will find out a little more about these on the pre visit day so that I can take notes and begin to get a grasp on the whole thing. Through professional reading, I can begin to develop my understanding of behaviour management beforehand.
3. Lesson Planning
Currently, I find lesson planning quite enjoyable as I am a very creative person. However, it’s also very daunting at the same time as it’s something I would hate to get wrong and I feel as if it comes with a huge responsibility as ultimately it boils down to the pupils’ learning. Nowadays, teachers can do lesson plans off the top of their head as it’s just like second nature and starting out now it’s hard to imagine myself ever being that quick! Right now, I need to focus on using the templates to develop my ideas and always bring it back to the Curriculum for Excellence experiences and outcomes which I am getting to know very well. I’m hoping to spend a lot of time on my plans in order to do the best I can but ultimately I’m only going to learn from lessons that didn’t quite go to plan! With the class teacher’s feedback I should be able to create better plans over the course of the placement. It’s also important to find out what works for the pupils and what doesn’t to insure the lesson works for them as well as fitting in with the Curriculum for Excellence.
