Category Archives: 3.4 Prof. Reflection & Commitment

Second Year

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First semester of second year went in a flash! My summer was awful, I had two bereavment’s in one week and spent most of my summer away from my own children 600 miles away. Because of my awful summer I was really looking forward to having the opportunity to go out on another school placement so soon after my first year placement. The reality was that although I loved my placement the timing of it could not have been worse. It was such a short placement of only 4 weeks. My crit was 2.5 weeks in to this placement and I just feel I did not really have time to get to know the school and the class well enough. It was also Christmas time and the closer it got to the Christmas holidays the louder and more excitable the class became. As time went on I found it increasingly difficult to keep the class on task.

My class, mentor and the other school staff were all lovely but when everybody is so busy with extra curricular activities and the children are getting louder by the day it is not so easy to be able to carry out your lesson plans when you would like. In-between pantomime visits, Christmas shows and rehearsals it is not easy to have two consecutive full days of teaching for example.

I came from an EY background and so I thought i would really enjoy something different in the middle and upper school placements. I was wrong. Although, i loved the children in my classes (i had two P7 classes) I never got to experience middle school and I feel that my heart does firmly lie within EY teaching. At least placement was an experience that taught me that. I enjoyed my placement but it just wasn’t me.

I never saw myself as somebody who had the patience and knowledge to work with a child who has ASN but throughout both of my upper school placements i found that those were the children that gravitated towards me and i towards them. I enjoyed spending time with them and helping them to achieve something. In a way it reminded me of why i wanted to teach. I love seeing the look on a childs face when they have FINALLY been able to spell something, solve a maths problem or draw a nose. That eureka moment where their eyes light up and that smile beams out from their face. It doesn’t matter how small a ‘thing’ it could be to somebody else but it means the world to that child. I enjoyed sharing those moments. It also gave me a chance to match the learning from the lecture theatre to the classroom.

My next school placement is EY and i am looking forward to being the observer in the classroom who can catch those little eureka moments. Just watching the joy a child gets from being able to play and them not realising that they are learning something new. Getting muddy from outdoor play and coming home with sand in my hair. This is what i have missed and i am very much looking forward to going in to the next school placement.

However, before then i have Learning from Life. As a mature student i wasn’t sure what i wanted to do. I just wanted to teach. So i decided i would do something interesting that still allows me school contact. I am going to work in a local historical archive compiling lesson plans that can be used in local schools. I am really looking forward to getting back out there!

 

First week back

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It’s the start of semester 2. There were a couple of timetable glitches which immediately sent me in to panic mode….”How will I work”, “when will I spend time with my own children?”. Luckily my employer has been accommodating and my husband has the flexibility in his working day that he can help with the children and the general household duties.

My New Years resolution is to spend more time with family. We’ve been spending much more time outdoors, at the park. We’ve introduced board game night so that I have time to chat to my children about their week and when my timetable allows I can still attend that karate class or school assembly. I’m already a very organised person but I will have to be a lot more organised in my home life this semester.

My placement is in a smaller school in a village. This terrified me to start with as it is something completely different to what I am used to. However,  I have now done some research on the school and I think I will enjoy the small school aspect where the local community has lots of involvement and less children who’s names i have to remember.

So far I have had an animation class. This was fun and different. When I was at school our IT didn’t exist until secondary school. That’s me now showing my age! To have all of these resources at our finger tips is fantastic and I look forward to bringing these lessons in to my own classroom.

I’ve participated in a dance class. First thing on a Friday morning is not what I expected but it wasn’t too hard going and seeing where classes like these can slot in to the Curriculum for Excellence is good.

We’ve had some overviews of language and literacy and professional practice. Going through these lectures has made me think more about what I remember from Primary School and that parts of that I can bring in to my own lessons. It has also helped me to become more reflective.

When I first saw the timetable I wondered why I decided to do this as a mother of two and I am sure this wont be the first or last time I feel like this in the next four years. I just have to keep remembering that it is a very short period of time in the rest of my life and what I can bring to children in my future classes will far outweigh the work I have to put in to my degree.

I will be practicing my lesson plans on my daughter to see how well they go so hopefully that gives me a head start!