This placement has provided me with several learning opportunities and I am developing my own educational philosophy and teacher style. I was fortunate to have such a wide range of experiences during the six weeks with school trips, sports competitions and one to one observations. Gaining insight into these aspects has allowed me to grow in confidence of what is to face me as a teacher. I think by going on school trips as a student, I will be better prepared for when I need to plan one as a qualified teacher.

At the beginning of placement, I was not feeling confident in my ability to be a teacher. I think my tough placement last year made me really doubt myself and wonder if this career is the one for me. I now feel more confident in my ability to deliver a lesson. Last year, I was constantly feeling I needed to refer to my lesson plan and stick to it. Whereas, this year I was confident enough to teach the lesson without looking at my plan and was able to take the learning wherever the children led it (within reason!).

I have found lesson plans are coming more naturally to me and I am getting the learning intentions and success criteria are appropriate. Clarke (2001, pp. 19) believes that sharing the learning intentions is the first step to formative assessment. Research has found that children are more motivated and focused when they know what the objective of the task is. I have developed an ability and understanding of how to gauge a lesson right for each child and differentiate accordingly. I know that I still have a long way to go with my confidence and just trust my own judgement as if I act confident the children will trust me. Whilst I have taken some risks on this placement, I think it is important for me to challenge myself to continue taking them as I need to build up my confidence by seeing that risks sometimes do pay off. 

As a student who was educated in Northern Ireland until coming to Dundee for university where I have experienced 6 weeks of the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence, I have found it interesting to compare the two systems. I would say that the aims of each subject area are more specific in the Experiences and Outcomes. With NI, it is less specific on what topic the learning would be on and is instead about developing the skills. Additionally, whilst Scotland has standardised testing at the end of P1, P4 and P7 in primary school, Northern Irish children are assessed every year through teacher assessment and planned tasks and activities. Formal results, in the form of levels, are reported to parents at the end of primary 4 and 7. Certainly, from this experience I would say that Northern Ireland schools are more open to expressing and exploring Christian values. This, however, may just be the case for a few schools rather than the majority in NI.

Last year, my class were extremely difficult for all staff and myself to manage. This meant that my tutor’s feedback on my behaviour management was poor, decreasing my confidence in myself. This placement has really helped me to build this confidence up as the class have been well settled I adapted a firm but fair approach with the pupils which appeared to work as they respected me whilst we also had fun together. Pitt (2001, pp.155) believes that the best ways to support good class management are to vary the type of activity to cater for different learning styles, link learning to children’s interests and maximise the time spent on direct teaching. I tried to incorporate this into my lessons. During my time on placement, I tried to minimise interruptions, however, it is not always possible to avoid interruptions e.g. children from another class with a message. I felt my expectations were clear so the children were not distracted or likely to interrupt e.g. talking or playing with pencils. The class teacher was very impressed with my control over the class and didn’t see any cause for concern.

I really appreciated getting to see some work with children who have additional support needs as this wasn’t something that I experienced on placement last year yet is likely to be extremely common in my future classes. I feel better equipped to deal with these situations, however, each situation and how I approach it will be unique to each child.

I tried to work on cross curricular learning during this placement. My main literacy topic of the Lighthouse Keeper provided many opportunities to link learning to crafts, RE and even data handling. I planned to read Jack and the Beanstalk to lead into measuring and planting beans but unfortunately as I learned there can be interruptions during the school day. I developed a confidence and ability to deal with change and take over from the class teacher without notice.

Finally, the types of assessment I saw in action have helped to inform my practice and consider how I might assess future learning. Clarke (2001, pp.40) suggests training children to self evaluate e.g. what made you really think? What helped you (e.g. a friend, a teacher, wall display) when you found something tricky? What are you most pleased with about this lesson? This helps improve self esteem as pupils feel more confident with admitting they were wrong and what they did to try and help themselves. The school has adopted the following assessment for learning strategies:

• “No hands up, its thinking time” – this means that all children need to think as the teacher could ask anyone. Children cannot hide and not make an effort, everyone needs to try.
• Positive discipline- rewarded or praised for good work in the hope that others will change their behaviour to follow the example of the hard working pupil
• Traffic lights- red “I need help”, amber “It’s making me think but I can manage on my own.” And green “I understand this well”
• Response partners- In pairs the children read each others work and write some comments about it. For younger children, this could be an oral activity.
• 2 stars and a wish
• Self assessment at the end of a topic using traffic light colours

Overall, this placement has been a great success and I am feeling more content with teaching as my chosen profession.

References:

Clarke, S. (2001) Unlocking Formative Assessment. Bristol: Hodder Headline Group.

Pitt, E. (2001) Ready, Set, Go – Maths. Interboard Numeracy Group.