Following my two week placement within a primary school in North Ayrshire.  I am reflecting on my time spent within these two weeks and how I can develop my communications skills further.  My reflection will be focusing on my strengths when working with the children and also my areas for development especially within communication.  I was mainly placed within the one class throughout my placement, but I feel this gave me the chance to develop relationships with the children and be able to understand their learning abilities and also their learning needs.  The placement has given me an insight into the challenges a teacher faces when trying to plan lessons that suit all children’s needs and how they deal with all different types of behaviours.

Strengths

Having reflected on my time on placement and reviewed my feedback from my peer and mentor, a strength I have is a good mannerism when dealing with the children. Both my peer and mentor commented that I would get down the children’s level and ensure I was engaging with the children I was working with and ensuring they were all included in the tasks they where carrying out at that time. They also stated that I had good communication skills with the children when I was working with them, for instance, I would always keep eye contact and have positive body language when working with the children.

Area of most progress

The first day in class was a real eye opener for me, in terms of behaviour management. The class I was mainly based in had a lot of behaviour issues that I have never came across before. Although the class teacher had a very good control over the behaviour within the class, I found it hard at first to adjust my language and tone when talking to the children who were misbehaving. Very quickly though I found strategies, through observing the teacher and seeing how the children reacted to their wrong doings in how to deal with their behaviour and what language worked when making them realise they could do certain things. So, much so that the teacher actually commented on my feedback that I was not afraid to take a lead role in behaviour management.

Area requiring progress

An area I feel that requires more progress is my verbal communication skills. I know I conduct myself in a professional manner, but I am always trying to ensure I speak with the same professionalism. I feel sometimes the pace of my speech can be very fast and hard to understand and I find myself repeating a lot of what I have just said. So, I have to ensure I am slowing down when I am talking especially to younger children to ensure I am fully understood.

Action plan

I feel my next steps should be to develop my knowledge of more behaviour management strategies. This will help me feel more comfortable when being in classrooms and facing challenging behaviour as I hopefully have more knowledge on how to deal with behaviour more appropriately and so it can help benefit the children.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After watching the video of the Year 3 teacher I joined up with a partner to discuss and share our observations.  Both our observations were very similar and closely aligned.  We both noted that he changes the volume and tone of his voice when sitting closely with the children and that he tried to make the classroom fun to enter by saying, “OK, ladies and jelly beans sit down now.”  This starts the class off with a happy, positive attitude.  We also agreed that his areas of improvement would be that he needs to be more specific in his feedback towards the children.  Although he says ‘fantastic’, ‘smashing’ and ‘well done,’ he does not elaborate on it.  The children would benefit more if he said ‘fantastic maths work, I can tell you really understood that question.’  He also raised his voice quite a lot when speaking to Michael, I think it would of been more beneficial if he took Michael to the side and explained his behaviour wasn’t acceptable and between the two of them maybe they could of worked out why Michael was mis-behaving and ways to help ensure he would get on with his work.

I found this task relatively easy, I enjoy observing others as you can take away ideas from their practice and adapt them for your own use.  I also enjoy giving positive feedback to people as I feel it can boost your confidence levels especially when you are having a hard day.

The difference between feedback and judgement is feedback is constructive and helps you build on your skills and personality to become a better learner and teacher.

One idea I would like to hang onto from the video is being able to successfully grasp the classes attention and being able to use different techniques to keep them engaged and focused on their learning.

I am feeling nervous but also excited about placement.  I can’t wait to be out and experiencing the different stages of learning and being able to relate what I have earned so far at university to how this is applied in a lesson.

 

 

 

Group and leadership

 

Within our group, there was a range of different personalities and this showed quite early on in the task.  I felt as though I took control quite quickly, which is something I do often in practical tasks.  I don’t feel as though I was chosen to lead, I just presented my idea to the group and everyone seemed to think it would work, so we carried out my idea.  Once my idea of constructing the roof was carried out everyone then started to get more ideas and gather resources that would help us build a sufficient den.  I personally don’t think anyone felt excluded within the group, everyone worked well together and suggested different ideas or ways to make it better.  Some ideas did not work but we still managed to successfully complete the task.  Most challenging for me is remembering that I cannot do everything on my own but to ensure I take a step back and let others take control.

 

Explaining

 

I thought the group explained their den very well.  They relayed all their ideas and what led them to creating their den the way they did. You could tell everyone was happy within their team and they enjoyed the task.  Everyone successfully presented all stages of the 5P’s very clearly and precisely.

 

Environment

 

We were lucky that the day we went out had been dry and it only started to rain as we were packing up which was a bonus, as I think trying to complete that task in the wind and rain would have dampened everyone’s mood slightly.  We also had to ensure we raised our voices a little when speaking to ensure everyone could hear us, just due to the wind blowing.  We had to make sure we used eye contact and body language to show where and what we were talking about.  I didn’t feel distracted when I was listening although I can understand how people could be.  To help overcome this I would ensure I was being engaging with everyone and raising my voice to ensure I was heard and keeping what I was talking about interesting for everyone.

 

Negotiation

 

Our negotiations were not successful, but I believe we had the hardest task of trying to get another person from another team to join us.  By the time we were asked to poach another member of a team everyone had built bonds and were pleased with their creation, so were staying loyal to their team. Something that should be encouraged.

 

I felt so nervous about starting University but my first week went so well and I felt very comfortable in my new surroundings.  Although I understand the huge challenges that are ahead of me, I believe there is so much support offered to me as a student from University staff to my fellow students.  Understanding that everyone is on the boat and we can all help each other whenever we can.

The ‘getting to know you’ workshop with Angela was very enjoyable and gave me the confidence to open up more and meet more people on my course.  Something that is hard in the larger class setting.  I also believe each workshop will help give me the appropriate skills to produce an effective lesson when I (hopefully) become a fully qualified teacher.

 

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