When I first walked into the school on my first day I was quickly introduced to the teacher that would be my mentor for the next six weeks of my placement and taken into the classroom. The teacher then explained what lessons she had planned for the day. From inside the class I could see that the children had noticed me in the classroom and were looking inside inquisitively. At five to nine they lined up outside the classroom and then proceeded to come in and get their things sorted for the day. A few of the children approached me and asked who I was, replying that my name was Miss Fullerton felt strange at first but I quickly got used to it.

The first lesson of the day was PE and once the children were all ready to go they were lined up and taken to the gym area. The gym space was a circular space in the center of the school surrounded by all the other classrooms.  The PE lesson they were focusing was dance, so the class showed me three dances they had been working on over the past few week. I was then asked to wander round and observe what the children were doing to see if they met the learning intentions of the lesson which they had previously talked about and recapped at the start of the lesson. This was a good way to get to know the children as there different personalities came through in the dancing.

Once we were back into the classroom and the children were changed back into their school uniform the teacher said I could wander round the class while the children were skim reading and picking out key facts from a book they had chosen about extreme sport and try and get to know some of the children. After doing this I found out about some of the children’s likes and dislikes and got a bit more of a flavor for the classroom. We then played a game to see how well the children had been skim reading which if the done well would earn points for their different school houses.

After break I was then asked if I would mind sitting and working through some work with a child who found it difficult to concentrate on their work fully. When getting to know them I found out about a rewards scheme they had in place to encourage them to concentrate well for a full day. This gave me a good insight to how the school encourages good behaviour with positive praise.

Just before lunch the class moved onto some worksheets involving time and I was asked to work with the P4’s in the the class as the teacher worked with the P5 children. It was interesting to see how the teacher kept the basic lesson the same for the composite class, but tailored the content for the two different levels.

After Lunch the children came in and were instructed to read over a piece of writing about Andy Murray and had to skim over and highlight the important parts, then they had to answer questions about Andy Murray. Again this lesson took in consideration the different levels of the children in the class. Once they were done they were encourage to finish off things from the previous days that they didn’t have a chance to get finished.

To end the day the children put away all the things they had been using and got their coats on ready to leave. They all began to say goodbye Miss Fullerton as they walked out of the class, some of them asked when I was next back or that they wanted me to come in the next day. I went into my first placement day a little apprehensive but by the end of the day the staff and the pupils in my class put me completely at ease and I can’t wait to get back and really immerse myself into teaching.