Tuesday I was out and about at Harry Potter Studios and OH MY GOODNESS IT WAS AMAZING. Take a look at my reflection here...
My Wednesday was a harsh start back to the reality of no broomsticks or wands or even magic, just the gorgeous grounds at Moulsford and the fun that awaits each day. I spent my day in and out of classes but my teaching time in phonics had to be cut short because of a test that the boys had to do. This is common in teaching, no matter how hard you try to be prepared and organised, there is nearly always something that you just don’t have the time to do and you have to take time into another lesson to get it done. Furthermore, I fully understand this, especially after reading (Pollard et al, 2008, p.1079) that organisation can lead to more freedom as an educator but often it can also lead to evaporated time. Additionally, on Wednesday I helped a boy in Year 4 to write up their reflection on their time at the Harry Potter Studios. I have written about the work I do with him in other posts and was lucky that he was in my group when going around the tour, so I personally feel I was especially helpful when encouraging him to think of his favorite parts of the trip. Moreover, I acted as a scribe alone and although I discussed the trip and his favorite bits with him, I was only a scribe because this boy is extremely creative and I wanted every idea on the paper to be his own work and reflections. A copy of the work will be in my folder ready for my Viva in only 2 weeks! Additionally, my Wednesday was also spent asking members of staff about the culture of Moulsford for a blog post, as part of the LfL structure to pass, is that we write in pieces about the culture of our placements. The schools staff are so helpful and friendly and were so happy to do whatever they could to help me pass at the end of this module so I was lucky to have loads of input for this blog post. You can read it here….
Image taken from Google – this is a scene in the play that we saw with the actors we saw as well
Thursday was a longer day that I expected when I was asked at break time if I would be available and willing to help out by going on a school trip that afternoon to the theater with the Year 7’s. Naturally, it didn’t take just much to convince me and by 1 o’clock that afternoon I was off on the bus with another 3 members of staff and 48 boys ready to see the Twelfth Night. I’m not ashamed to say I am no Shakespeare buff and to be honest know very little of his work except for Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth (I am terrible for this I know!). The only exposure I’d ever had to the Twelfth Night was in fact through the film She’s the Man with Amanda Bynes which came out in 2006 which was inspired by the play.
Image taken from Google
But, I can honestly say I am really proud of myself for understanding what happened (the majority of the time). The language was slightly daunting and I didn’t understand some of what they were saying but the acting and music that went with the language helped me to really understand what was happening and follow the plot. Furthermore, this trip made me appreciate how important exposing children to acting and our traditional culture of Shakespeare is. The boys all went away from the play discussing the content, the music, the acting and the staging which I think completely shows that the youth today can truly appreciate the beauty of old scripts and traditional story-lines. All the knew writers such as J.K.Rowling and David Walliams and Julia Donaldson are fantastic, don’t get me wrong, but I am just saying that exposing children to old texts like Peter Pan, Shakespeare’s plays and Alice in Wonderland for example can be just as fulfilling. Moreover, Medwell et al concur (2014, p. 31) adding that children may enjoy traditional stories more when studying them as they may be familiar with them through film adaptations and this is also something that could be discussed in the classroom. Overall though, Thursday was a very good day.
Friday brought more planning for next weeks lesson and meeting the groundsmen who work at Moulsford and also the schools matron to seeing the incredible work that they do. I was overwhelmed by their willingness to talk to me and delighted that they answered all my questions in as much detail as they could. Although I have no nursing experience and my fingers are far from green, I do have a new found respect for both these areas of school life which I am delighted about because it is one of my goals and the reason I came to Moulsford. My week next week will be my last here at Moulsford and I will be so upset. I can’t imagine having to drive away from the amazing school this time next week but it has to be done so I can move on to become a fully qualified teacher. Lets hope someday, I’ll be back here teaching and helping out other students like me.
References
, J., G. , 2014) Primary English: knowledge and understanding
Pollard, A., Anderson, J., Maddock, M., Swaffield, S., Warin, J. & Warwick, P (2008) Reflective Teaching. (3rd ed.) London: Continuum International Publishing Group.
