MA1 Placement: St Joseph’s RC Primary School, P6

1. Improve my Confidence in Behaviour Management
   I am really looking forward to my MA1 Placement, I believe it will be a great experience and really enhance my knowledge of how to work in a classroom. Although I am very excited to carry out my placement, I do have concerns about Behaviour Management. In all my other experiences of working and helping out in a classroom I have always just been responsible for a very small group of pupils and the teacher has always been present and in charge, meaning behaviour management has never really been my responsibility. I understand that in this placement I will have a significant amount of time where I am in charge of the class and the behaviour management will be down to me. During my pre-visit day I will pay very close attention to the teachers behaviour management strategies and try my best to reinforce these methods during my observation weeks so that the pupils know to treat me and respect me in the same way they do with their teacher. Hopefully observing these strategies and putting them into practice myself will help me to improve my confidence in my ability to control a class and make me feel more ready to prepared to immediately use these skills in my following placements.
2. Become more knowledgeable on Curriculum Areas of Concern
   A very important aspect of this placement for me is furthering my knowledge of the curriculum and what to teach my pupils. Being able to do this is crucial to becoming an experienced teacher. My knowledge of the curriculum is currently an area of concern for me, to target this worry I have began researching the different areas of the curriculum and highlighting areas of concern which I feel I need to research and improve on to allow my pupils the education they deserve. I believe that being given the responsibility of taking whole class lessons and even having days of full responsibility will give me even more motivation to improve my knowledge and being able to work with, observe and talk to the teacher will also allow me to improve and become more confident of my abilities in teaching the wide curriculum.
3. Improve my Communication with Pupils
   Communication is a key aspect of being a teacher. It is crucial that a classroom teacher has high levels of communication with their pupils to keep them engaged, learning and cooperating well. For me this will be one of the most important things to try and establish with my class. I personally believe that once I have created good communication links with the pupils I will feel alot more relaxed and confident within the classroom, especially when taking whole class lessons on my own. I feel that being able to do this should help my placement to run smoothly and well.