My partners observations were very closely aligned with my own, we agreed on strengths such as the teacher making the classroom a fun place to enter in the morning by greeting each child and using “fun” language; e.g. “Ok ladies and jelly beans sit down now”, the teacher also used positive feedback and phrases to praise the children; e.g. “good girl”, “good boy”, “well done” and “smashing”.

I was surprised that the teacher spoke to Michael with a harsh, aggressive tone and raised voice. I felt that this could be upsetting for Michael and the other children in the classroom.

My partner’s notes were very similar to my own, many of the observed strengths and areas for improvement were clear to see in the video, this made the task quite an easy one.

Feedback is a constructive and positive way to practice, whereas judgement is a negative practice, is based on assumption and is often unkind.

If I could take only one idea from these tasks I would take the idea of “always develop and demonstrate a growth mindset with your pupils” because I believe that it is one of the most important ideas to develop resilience in children.

I am excited about going to my first placement but am also anxious as I am not sure what to expect and am worried that I may not keep up with the workload of tasks and the formative assignment.