Well, the Easter Holidays are officially over and week 3 is complete. Between seeing my pupils and staff members it almost feels as if I never left school. With week 3 over, that means I am already halfway through my placement- how time flies! After 2 weeks of sleeping in and socialising with some work on the side, I am reminded of how hard it is to get back into the routine of waking up early!
This week has allowed me to see the aspects of teaching we don’t always focus on. I have experience parts of being a true teacher including marking homework books and various worksheets from my lessons. Taking down wall displays is another job which teachers don’t tend to find enjoyable but it has to be done. I believe wall displays are a good way to increase self esteem as children take pride in their work and can show it to their families during parent/teacher interviews or school events. According to Education World (2015), “Visibility leads to value”.
I had the opportunity to observe two intensive reading lessons with two pupils. An initial assessment is required to determine the entry level for each child. First, I watched a P2 pupil for his 21st lesson. The lesson begins wth reading familiar books that the pupil has read many times before.
Next is reading the book they read for the first time the day before in school and then at home. The teacher fills out a form with page numbers on it. For each page, the teacher must tick as the child reads and put a tick if the child reads the word correctly and note any issues e.g. if the child said ‘said’ instead of ‘is’. It is important to go over any difficulties with the child to ensure they learn from their mistakes. This can be done by asking the child to try a word again or by practicing through the use of magnetic letters. We spent some time looking at the word ‘dad’ and what words rhyme with it. The child replaced letters in ‘dad’ to create new words e.g. sad, pad, had, mad then ham and sam.
Next, the child wrote a short story that happened in the book e.g. Dad put a hat on the snowman. They have a practice page in their workbook for any words they are struggling to spell or sound out. The sentence is written on lines on the page beside the practice sheet. The teacher helps the child if there are any tricky words e.g. snowman. Any words the child struggled to write are noted e.g. he wrote ‘no’ instead of ‘on’. The teacher writes the story on a piece of paper and cuts it up to separate the words. They are then jumbled and the child puts the sentence into order. It is stuck into the child’s book at home and then the high frequency word they struggled with is practiced at home by copying it out 3 times. Finally, a new story is introduced by looking at the pictures and discussing what is happening throughout the book. The child tries to read the book and any words they struggle with are noted.
The second child was a P2 for their 3rd lesson. Once again, the lesson started by reading familiar books. This child was looking at the letters ‘c’, ‘d’ and ‘u’. She began by grouping the letters and then the teacher said words beginning with the letter or the letter name or sound e.g. umbrella. The pupil had to place the correct letter in the teacher’s hand. I found this activity beneficial as the child becomes familiar with words beginning with that letter whilst practicing the sound. A letter book is used to write the letter and think of a word which starts with it e.g. j-jelly. The child can then draw the word and completes 2 letters per session. This pupil also completed a sentence- “I have a dog.” Once again, the features of a sentence are considered and the child starts a new book. The pictures were used by the child to help them figure out the words.
A huge focus during these lessons is encouraging independence in the child e.g. get them to turn the page themselves and not guiding them with your finger. It is important to not only focus on the sounds of words but also writing features e.g. capital letters at the start of a sentence and for names. If a child knows a tricky word, they are usually asked how do they know it says that word which encourages them to sound it out. This was a valuable experience for me as it is an extremely useful insight into how to teach reading to young children. I think it can be easy to think that teaching a child to read is just about making sure they can read the word and not the components that make a sentence make sense.
I experienced something quite random and different on Wednesday afternoon when the class teacher led the children outside and told them to follow her and do as she did. It turns out we were going for a wee run around the playground-what fun! This was a reminder of how sometimes as teachers we need to loosen up and have some fun with the kids. The fresh air can do not only the children good but also stressed teachers!
During my placement last year I experienced a class trip outside of the school to the Dundee Science Centre. This week we had a trip come to us- a theatre group who put on a showing of The Secret Garden. It is important to consider the logistics and money involved in a school trip. Whilst the visit was quite expensive, the school concluded that it would be cheaper than paying for transport for the whole school and felt it was worthwhile as sadly this may be the only opportunity these children get to see a show like this.
I was hit with nostalgia when we had hymn singing practice. Although there is no longer a piano to sing along to and as with many things technology has taken over through Youtube videos on an iPad. I think that having things such as hymn singing scheduled into the school day helps children to develop an enjoyment for music.
Over Easter I was considering how this placement was going for me and if I was growing in confidence in my ability to teach. I felt I was quite tense before Easter and for the first couple of days back but towards the end of this week I began to relax more. The children are starting to respond well to me and seem to engage well in my lessons. I have found it hard to gauge the level children are at when creating worksheets. This will improve the more I get to know the class and see what work they normally do with the class teacher.
Sometimes, a quick 10 minute lesson can be the most effective. I took a mental maths lesson which involved using cubes to demonstrate understanding of addition and subtraction. It was important to use a range of vocabulary to show that ‘plus’ and ‘and’ are the same and ‘minus’ and ‘take away’ mean the same. All children responded well to this and show a good level of understanding. The next step would be to work with bigger numbers. This will help develop children’s confidence in their mental mathematics ability.
I started the topic of length with the class this week. As they haven’t met this topic before, I need to introduce the topic using non standard units of measurement. Due to the business of school life and things cropping up, I only managed to teach one lesson on length. It was important to make the lesson as interactive as I could to ensure the children were engaged from the start of the topic and took an interest in it. During this lesson I had a cutting and sticking activity for the class, this involved 5 different coloured strips of paper per child meaning a lot of handing out. Instead, I should have grouped the paper with a strip of each colour in a pile for each child. Additionally, some pupils finished the activity much quicker than I expected. This meant I had to think on the spot for an extension activity but thankfully my brain was working that day and they were able to do more work! I will continue this topic next week by asking pupils to measure using cubes.
I was asked to plan a series of lessons on The Lighthouse Keeper series. I cannot quite believe I’d never came across these books before as they are brilliant and can be linked to many topics. I decided to start with The Lighthouse Keeper’s Picnic as my head began buzzing with ideas when I read the story. Unfortunately, the teacher decided my worksheet idea was too difficult for most pupils which is all a part of the learning curve in the life of a teacher. At least I can use the worksheet another year! A chat with her helped me to understand the level that children are working at better but I still struggle at times. As the class had been working on phonics ‘ee’ sound before Easter I decided it would be a good idea to refresh their memory and do a phonics worksheet based on ‘ee’ and ‘ea’. Some pupils found this worksheet quite tricky in places as they make the same sound but most pupils managed to complete the worksheet with little or no mistakes. This activity was a good way for the pupils to work on their recalling key events in a story and sounding words out skills.
As my one and a half years as a student teacher I’ve been made aware of the importance of collecting resources- it’s a shame I don’t have enough space to keep everything I think might one day be useful even if it is just a random piece of ‘junk’. Thankfully, my teacher head was on during Christmas when my Dad received a hamper in a lovely basket i.e. a lovely PICNIC basket. Yes, that’s right- the PERFECT resource for The Lighthouse Keeper’s Picnic. I was so excited for this lesson as I felt the kids would really engage with it and have some fun. Thankfully I was correct- they loved it, they were squeezing past to get a view of what was in my basket (probably not my best behaviour management during this lesson but hey they were excited and had just finished a lively session of PE)! The pupils loved guessing and then seeing what would be in my perfect picnic basket. They were keen to share their own ideas leading perfectly into the worksheet on where their perfect picnic would be, who they would invite and what they would do and have in their picnic basket.
I felt I was quite stressed during this lesson as it was to be about an hour but due to PE it got cut to 25 minutes. This meant I was worried about not achieving much during the lesson but the timing worked well in the end. We recapped the story and looked at my picnic basket before lunch (which ended up being a picnic outside-perfect timing or what!?) and then the children discussed their perfect picnic and completed a worksheet on it. This lesson was an example of having to change plans to suit unforeseen events. Overall, I think this lesson really taught me the impact that having two very engaging and lively lessons can have on the class. Next time, I would possibly consider doing a different lesson which isn’t quite as interactive but I felt I managed the situation quite well. There were a few children who acted up and I feel I wasn’t firm enough with them. I need to work on ensuring the whole class’ experience is not affected by a few children and instead move those who are misbehaving or consider making them go to their seat and miss the fun until they can behave. I felt my worksheet was well made to suit all children’s needs as there were words to help those who struggled and those who were confident enough to think of their own words tried very hard with their spelling.
I’ve had very little experience in observing PE lessons and only taught one last year on placement. As I am with P2/3 this year, PE lessons are very different compared to P6. The first lesson was taken by the class teacher and focused on looking around you for other people to ensure you do not crash into them. Something as simple as a bean bag works great for younger ones. The other lesson this week was taken by a football coach from outside of the school. Once again, a focus was watching for those around us. He was looking for children who were keeping control over their football. I like how the children receive PE lessons from both the class teacher and someone from outside of the school as I believe that having a different face can sometimes add a bit more excitement for the class. It can also minimise any anxiety the teacher may have if PE is not a strong point or major interest for them.
I decided it would be a nice idea to link the literacy topic of The Lighthouse Keeper to a craft by allowing the children to make their own lighthouses. This idea proved a little more difficult than expected- how on earth does one student teacher get 28 Pringles tubes to make lighthouses!? That’s where you just have to ask people and show your desperation on social media. I even had my parents ask their friends and I still only have 15 Pringles tubes. I was unsure if in this day and age I would be allowed to ask the children to bring in their own tubes considering Pringles probably aren’t the healthiest snack to be promoting to a class of 27 6/7 year olds. Thankfully a few staff members and a couple of children might be able to help me and bring a few tubes in next week. As I didn’t have enough tubes for the whole class and the task is quite hands on, I took the children out of the classroom in groups of 4. The children required quite a lot of help with sticking the strips of paper on the tubes so that they sat in the correct order and didn’t slip down. To stick the little tea light and cup onto the lid of the Pringles tube I needed to use the glue gun. This meant the children has less to do for the craft but next week they will paint a base and put rocks using tissue paper on it. I am glad I am doing this craft with them even if it takes quite a bit of preparation time as the children are really excited about it and responding well.
This week has been quite a mixture of things but I have enjoyed it overall. There have been ups and downs but I think once I am back into routine and teaching more, I will enjoy it more. Getting to see this huge selection of school events and teaching will help me in the future as I will hopefully be more prepared for the unexpected and elements which aren’t always focused on. Over the next few weeks, I really need to put my foot down when it comes to behaviour management and ensure there are consequences for pupils who consistently misbehave whilst ensuring there isn’t something deeper going on. My confidence is growing but I still have a long way to go- perhaps I won’t have that confidence in myself until I am left with my own class in probation year but I hope I will begin to believe in my ability and judgement soon. I find it hard to believe just how quickly this placement is going. 3 weeks down, 3 to go!
References:
Education World (2015) Children’s Work- Visibility Leads to Value. Available at: http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr274.shtml (Accessed: 14 April 2018).
