Having just completed my 2-week school placement, there was lots of areas I was able to highlight as strengths and development needs. Due to being in the same class for the full 2 weeks I was able to identify my own strengths and weaknesses and become more confident with working with the same children and teacher. I was able to gain a good bank of knowledge about the curriculum and learn about the different learning and teaching methods used in today’s classroom.

Strengths
One strength that was highlighted for me by the class teacher was that I was always using my initiative. For example, if a pupil had their hand up or asked me for help, I would go over and help them and she felt I used my initiative quickly to assist the child as was most beneficial to their individual needs rather than always consulting the teacher. This was anything from going to get concrete materials to assist in maths, writing a word on a whiteboard for spelling or simply working one to one with the child and going back to the beginning and explaining the task from the start if they had not quite grasped it.

Area of Most Progress
The area I feel that I progressed the most in was my confidence when speaking to a group of people, adults or children. Although I never had the class to myself for anytime, I did have the opportunity to work with 8 or 9 pupils on reading tasks. In the beginning I was unsure of how the children might respond to having me in their class and if they would listen and take my seriously. However, as my time in the class progressed, I felt that I built up good relationships with the pupils and I was able to take a group outside and they would focus and listen to me. I felt more confident in being able to speak to them as a group without getting nervous as I was self-assured that I knew what I was doing. In doing so I had to make sure that I spoke with a loud, clear voice so that everyone in the group could hear and understand me. I was able to closely observe a wide range of abilities and make myself available to assist everyone.

Area Requiring Progress
An area that I identified as a development need was trying to avoid the use of sentence fillers such as “em”, “um” and “like”. This is just purely a nervous thing and I always find myself very aware that I am saying them. This is something I know I will have to work on in the future however I feel as though as I progress and get more confident in myself this will slowly fade away. Another thing I am going to work on is speaking out to a large group. I need to be more confident in myself that I know what I am doing, and I feel as though this will eventually come with practice.

Action Plan
In order to develop my weaknesses, I plan to get more practice at speaking to a group in a more formal way, whether this be presenting a presentation rather than just a causal chat. I know this is an essential skill for me to develop throughout my time on the course and in working towards becoming a teacher. While working on this I will also try to reduce using sentence fillers to fill silences and instead try to be more confident in what I am talking about.

Overall my time on placement was an amazing experience and I learned so much in a short space of time that I will be able to carry with me on my journey to becoming a teacher.

For this workshop we went outdoors. We were randomly placed into teams of about 7/8 and tasked to build a Den that could stand on it’s own, have at least 3 sides and that could fit all of the team inside while sitting down.

Group & Leadership

Although there was no designated group leader, there was a few stronger personalities within the group which did influence some decisions made throughout the task. In saying this, every member of the team contributed equally with ideas and thoughts on all aspects and decisions that were being made. The most challenging thing about the task for me was working with some people I had not yet had the chance to fully meet and work with, however this was not an issue for long.

Explaining

I thought the team that explained to us were very thorough in their description. They look the time to go through why they had chosen certain materials, for example, because it was waterproof/sturdy. They went through different ideas they had considered in the beginning and why they dismissed them. When it came to explaining how our den was built, we decided as a group that one person would speak and that would make it easier for the others to listen to one person rather than 7 people all chipping in. We made sure that we discussed all aspects of the material selection process and how we came up with the tipi shape for our den. Afterwards we answered any questions the other team had.

Environment

When my group were out in the afternoon the weather had become slightly more windy and there was a slight bit of rain on and off and so due to the nature of the task, it did make it slightly difficult to secure some materials in place. I can see how the environment could easily be a big distraction, especially in the explaining part of the task. We were out in an area near to the university, open to the public where there were people walking dogs, taking pictures and talking and therefore not everyone was giving their full attention at all times. Carrying out this task with primary school children, as much as they would find it fun and exciting, I would imagine the explanation part might not be as successful outside due to the natural distractions, and so it might be better to do this part indoors possibly in the form of a poster for example.

Negotiation

For this part of the task we had to approach another group and negotiate to obtain an essential piece of their den. As a team we came together to discuss how we might go about this as it was quite difficult. At this stage in the task everyone’s den was more or less complete and so no one was really willing to part with a now essential item. We decided we would send a few people from our team we thought could be the most persuasive. In the end our team cam back with a large wooden block, which we used as part of our entrance, however in order to acquire this we had to trade some our flooring. It was fun but by no means easy!

My first week at UWS has been very exciting although slightly nerve-racking. I came straight from 6th year at school and was unsure about what i was coming to. As soon as i entered the main doors on the first morning i immediately felt at ease as everyone was so welcoming and friendly. The first lecture was full of information ranging from things like school placements to assessments. I really enjoyed getting to know more about the course especially from some BA2 students about what to expect in the coming months. I continue to look forward to the year ahead in BA1 and working alongside other people.

Welcome to blogs.glowscotland.org.uk – Glow Blogs. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!