My two week placement allowed me to gain experience of how a primary school operates and fully understand the amount of planning and preparation it takes to be a teacher.

Before placement I contacted the school to see if there was any information I needed to know before I started on the Monday. I had printed and organised all my placement tasks in a folder in order to keep on top of them and show the teacher what tasks I had to complete.

I was in a primary 1 class for my whole placement. The previous experience I have had in primary schools was mainly in the upper school, so I was very excited to gain experience with the younger pupils. Through the course of my placement I got to know the pupils well and had the opportunity to observe different teaching methods.

A strength that I identified was my confidence in interacting with the pupils. At the start of the week I mainly observed the learning and different teaching techniques. I interacted with the pupils when they were doing activities giving them help but I mainly just chatted and got to know them. On my second week of placement my class teacher could see I had gained a lot of confidence in interacting with small groups, through carrying out reading tasks etc. I was then offered the opportunity to conduct and plan a lesson for the class. I decided to plan a lesson on animals struggling to survive the winter and carried out a follow up activity creating bird feeders. At first I was quite nervous about leading a lesson in case the pupils weren’t engaged in but it was very rewarding when the children were all very enthusiastic about the lesson.

The area I feel I made the most progress in was varying my pitch and tone when interacting with the pupils. I noticed that the more enthusiastic I was about a subject the more engaged the pupils were in the lesson.

An area I think could improve on is using body language when talking to the children, especially hand gestures. My class teacher often used hand gestures to aid the children with phonics as a way to remember the sound. I was hesitant to use these as I didn’t want to get them wrong. Reflecting on this I realise I should have taken the plunge and used the hand gestures and not worry about being wrong as its better to learn from your mistakes and gain as much experience as possible.

My class teacher attended many courses on the new primary one pedagogy. It is in my action plan to keep up-to-date on new changes in the teaching curriculum as I know how important it is for the education of children. I would also like to continue developing my confidence by talking to new people. I also think that will be achieved by carrying out my situated communication presentation.

My placement experience has motivated me to work harder on coursework as I know teaching is the career path for me.

Whilst working alongside my partner Nicola, we found out that our notes were pretty similar. We both agreed that the volume and pace the teacher was speaking at was appropriate for the age group of his class. However from the video we discussed that as the teacher was sitting down with poor body language, it resulted in a lack of attention from the class. However, it can be argued that the teacher was sitting down in order to be at eye level with the pupils, to appear less intimidating.

Both Nicola and I were shocked at the relaxed classroom environment. My partner put across the point that the relaxed environment may play a part in as to why the teacher was not receiving a lot of attention.

I found this task enjoyable as it let me understand the importance of feedback and how it can dramatically improve the way we teach. I am clear that feedback is constructive and will help the way we teach whereas judgement is more negative and not successful at improving our teaching abilities.

From this task I feel I understand how to use feedback properly and know hat when I receive it on placement that it is meant to help me. I am very excited to start placement and observe the pupils in a learning environment.

Reference List:

TED Talks Education (2013) BILL GATES: Teachers need real feedback[Online] Available at: https://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gates_teachers_need_real_feedback#t-70065

Behaviour2Learn (2011) Behaving With Cowley – Classroom Routines[Online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4v5UVdyu8Y4&feature=youtu.be

EDCHAT (2013) Relationships for Learning – Effective Feedback [Online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWBW_cbP86Q&feature=youtu.be