As week 2 has drawn to a close, it is hard to believe that the Easter holidays are already upon us. The past two weeks have flown by but I am ready for a little break before facing the four week block.
This past week has allowed me to experience teaching when there are various things happening within the school community. With Friday being a half day, there was little time for direct teaching. There was a morning assembly which I really enjoyed as it was all about the Easter story and we sang two songs. As I am a Christian, I found this a nice experience of reliving my childhood especially compared to my experience of a Roman Catholic mass last year on Ash Wednesday. As terms come to an end, it is important to tie up any unfinished work and tasks. This may include tidying the classroom, finishing crafts and ensuring that as the teacher you have everything you need over the holidays. School is not just about educating pupils academically but also for life, children need to learn to tidy up after themselves and take responsibility.
Often, with the end of term comes a lower attention span and some children may act up, we found it was harder to keep children focused on a task and more fun activities were introduced. I believe it is essential that school is a place of fun and Easter provides the perfect opportunity for craft and Easter egg hunts! I led a craft with the children in groups of 3 or 4 which allowed me to get to know the pupils better. We made Easter chicks over the course of the week which the children responded well to. I learned of the importance of ensuring all materials are ready before the children begin. At times, I think I wasn’t firm enough with the pupils and let them away with too much talking and not enough sticking! Next time, I need to ensure children listen to exactly what they need to do and know to use indoor voices and keep talking to a minimum. Additionally, the children had a time of play, something which is a key focus in the NI curriculum. During this time, it is important that the teacher does not just sit back at their desk, we need to get involved and show an interest in what children enjoy playing with. Even better, we get to play too!
I spent Wednesday and Thursday at the Primary 7 boys and girls’ inter-schools hockey tournaments. This gave me valuable experience in taking children outside of school and the logistics involved e.g. booking a bus, ensuring all pupils have what they need and are safe. It is important to have good relationships with other schools particularly at these tournaments. I believe that whilst we can be competitive, we need to be friendly towards our competition and support other schools if we do not make it. I enjoyed chatting with other staff to discuss their teaching experiences as no teacher has the same experience. Interestingly, all of the teachers I spoke to had studied in Northern Ireland, some with a Bachelor of Education, some with a PGCE and one with a PGDE. Hearing the experiences of others helps me feel that studying at Dundee was the right decision for me. Whilst studying at home would have been A LOT cheaper, I think studying the MA (Hons) Education course at Dundee will be worthwhile. It brings me a little comfort when I hear of teachers who questioned if they really wanted to teach during their uni days. I am constantly reminded that placement is not the same as having your own class. It was nice to work with older pupils for a couple of days and act more as a coach rather than a teacher. I was able to reminisce on my hockey days at primary school especially our dramatic final which ended in us losing by 1 goal in sudden death of penalty flicks. I think my anger at losing by just one point came out as my determination for the girls and boys to do well!
Thankfully, I managed to get some teaching fitted into this busy week! The usual Monday morning routine circle time proved rather successful on the theme of ‘Friends Letting Us Down’ to link to the Easter story when Judas betrays Jesus. I took a risk through introducing a new and quite complicated game which focused on lying. This risk proved worthwhile as the children seemed to really enjoy it and it got the message across. The children who were lied to during the game could express how they felt and compare that to how Jesus may have felt. This led well into a discussion on what we should and shouldn’t do to be a good friend. I felt that the class were quite chatty at times but managed to bring them back anytime they seemed to be losing focus. I had to speak to a couple of children on multiple occasions and stupidly didn’t think to make them sit out as they were not considering their actions and changing their behaviour.
On Tuesday, I taught the children about CVC words with ‘og’ and ‘od’. I was not happy with this lesson for various reasons. I thought I had from 9.20-10.20 to take the lesson, however, at 9.45 I was informed by Primary 7’s that there would be an early break at 10am due to the Easter lunch. At this point, I had only finished the introduction, explanation and discussion with the children, meaning they only had 10 minutes to get their workbooks and table trays and get their work done. This was not enough time at all! To add to this surprise, I thought the workbooks were on the teacher’s desk, however, only a couple were! Next time, I must ensure that everything I need for the lesson is sitting ready. Thankfully, the class teacher returned to the classroom a few minutes after my wild goose chase for the workbooks and the children could begin their work for all of 5 minutes! This was a reminder that we need to be prepared for the unexpected and to alter our plans.
Several of my class attend ‘Cabin Club’ after school each day. This is for children who finish school at 2pm and cannot be collected until 3pm, perhaps due to older siblings in the school who only finish at 3pm. This takes place in the mobile classroom which is a play based learning classroom with an outdoor area including a shed, kitchen area and various outdoor equipment. It is not a homework club but instead a space for children to explore through play. I helped out with Cabin Club on Wednesday afternoon. As the weather was nice, the children played outside. I think this is a great idea as it allows children to get some fresh air and exercise after a day at school whilst also providing them with learning opportunities, often, without them even realising they are learning showing that learning can indeed be fun!
Whilst this week has been busy, I have enjoyed it and it has allowed me to see that sometimes things do not run as smoothly as we like and timetables are interrupted. As a teacher, I need to be prepared to change the plan for the day when something else crops up. It is good as a student to get out of the classroom and get involved with sports outings without the pressure of organising it. This prepares me for the future if I ever end up as the coach for a sport. It has been a speedy but hectic week with nose bleeds, sick children and tired teachers but hey I guess that’s the life of a teacher!
My main learning point in first year was that implementing behaviour management strategies is crucial. I had a rather difficult class last year who tested the patience of myself along with many staff. I found it extremely difficult to gain their respect and ensure their behaviour did not affect their learning. It felt like no matter what I tried, some pupils just refused to listen to anyone. This year, behaviour isn’t a major issue. Whilst I still need to use behaviour management strategies, I don’t believe it will be as difficult to maintain pupils’ attention and already think they have more respect when they are asked to do something. As it is getting closer to Easter, they are beginning to get tired and less willing to do work but they have still got on with their work when prompted. Last year, several pupils questioned the class teacher and myself on what the point was in what they were doing and refused to complete the work.
The behaviour management strategies are quite familiar to me from placement last year and attending this school as a child. The methods used include the class teacher raising her hand and the child must raise their hands too. Once they have their hand in the air, they know they should zip the lips and listen and look at the teacher. This was used in my placement school last year. Sometimes the class teacher claps twice and the pupils know to look at her and be quiet. A new technique for me is the use of an egg shaker to quieten the children down.
A whole school reward system that has been used for years is House Points. There are four houses: Exorna, Dunboe, Benone and Mussenden. Pupils can earn house points through excellent work, sporting and academic achievements and good behaviour. Each month there is a focus on what children can do to earn house points e.g. March is all about good behaviour. I have tried to use as many of these strategies whilst teaching. Thankfully, I have not needed to use the Yellow and Red Card system as pupils have considered their behaviour and changed their actions when prompted.
The class have circle time every Monday morning which has been a new experience for me as P6 did not do circle time last year. 
This week has involved a lot of observation and supporting pupils as I am new and don’t know the pupils’ needs and routines well enough just yet to teach them as a whole class too often. I have led group work outside of the classroom such as spellings with Primary 3’s which has allowed me to see what level they are at and ensure they all get a chance to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding. One thing I realised during this was that I was forgetting just how young pupils are compared to my 11 year olds last year. I asked pupils to write the sentence “The cloud looked like candyfloss”. This was rather silly of me! They attempted the word ‘candyfloss’ but some struggled significantly. I need to remember to match the pupils’ level and needs. I have taken reading groups which has been interesting as some pupils are working at a Primary 1 level whilst some are exceeding expectations. It has been a great chance to relive my childhood as they still read The Magic Key books! One thing I have noticed through these reading groups and spellings is that it is important that pupils who are off sick are given the appropriate support to catch up when they return. We must ensure that they receive the same level of support as the pupils who were there during the initial teaching of a topic. Additionally, I was reminded of how much children can surprise us. I was reading with a girl who had been off on Monday and she was struggling with words such as ‘put’ at the start of the book and by the end she was able to say ‘water’ without any help. Children can really take us by surprise!
I have had opportunities to work with pupils in the Primary 5/6 class as 3 of them were sent to my classroom as their teacher was preparing for ITV news and the Mayor of Coleraine’s visit on Thursday for our Plastic Smart Campaign (You can read a bit about it here- 
Our class went to the computer suite to use a program similar to paint to draw an Easter bunny. Interestingly, it seemed that although many children are familiar with technology, many struggled with using a mouse. This may be due to the increased use of touch screens rather than a mouse. Nowadays, it is not uncommon for specialists to come into the school for subjects such as Physical Education. This was the case for my class when they played football in PE on Thursday. I quite like the idea of this because I believe that as primary teachers, it is important for us to be interested in all aspects of the curriculum, however, we cannot be experts in all aspects. By bringing in a specialist, it takes some pressure off the teacher and allows them to have some marking time or build a rapport with their pupils by joining in and having some fun with them.