Monday 15 September 2014

Round up of week one

Firstly, I would like to start with quickly going through what happened on Friday.

Friday afternoon is the scheduled PPA time for my phase (Year's 5/6) and although on Friday's I'm normally at Reading University for Centralised Training, I was able to the an active role in the following weeks planning.

In the morning, all was similar to the previous 4 days. The class teachergave the class a 15-letter Countdown style game. In which they had to make up as any words as possible from the letters and also put them into a sentence. 

             ICMPLESSRAIDT
Impossible
Leaders
Tied
Diet
Scrap
Paris
Said
Palm

The World's Leaders were tied up in Paris after it was said they had a scrap after disagreeing over an impossible diet. 

MATHS
The lesson started with a mental maths test in which I read out 5,10 and 15 second questions - with them getting more difficult with the longer time. 
This is to help replicate part of the SAT's papers and allow the children a chance to learn new techniques in jotting down notes and also adapting to how they work out the answers. 

Building on from yesterday, the teacher decided to focus on Decimal Ordering and Comparing. The questions were differentiated 3 ways depending on ability. 

LITERACY
The class teacher introduced the class into the way she marks work.
G-check the sense of the grammar
P- check punctuation
S- check spelling
U- uplevelling is possible

They then looked at an Assessment Focus target sheet and each student had to highlight their literacy skills:
GREEN- anything the individual can do comfortably and all the time
PINK- anything they are not showing enough of, or feel comfortable doing 

These looked at Levels 4-6 although two of the students (who are currently at a level 3) were given a slightly different sheet.  

Focus points included:
Sentence Structure and Punctuation
Text Structure and Organisation
Composition and Effect

Behaviour Management 
I played some music for the first time and says that should I hear too much chatter, it would be switched off. Needless to say the class actually worked a lot quieter than they have done all week. 

Afterwards, the teacher read through some of the Grand Writing work and selected a line from someone's report of their table partners summer holiday.

X voyaged to the funfair and went on an ecstatic ride.

She explained to the class that whilst using a thesaurus is great, the use of the word in context, is more important. 
Asking the class what 'voyaged' would normally link to, one answered - 'a ship at sea'. Voyaged was changed to travelled.

Ecstatic was also investigated and decided by the class to sound good but not the best word to chose. A student said that  'Ecstatic is something you would say when you are really pleased about something happening/about to take place'.

Thrilling was the amended word because it described how exciting the ride was and even the phrase 'white-knuckle' was added to it.

PPA 
After lunch a lot was discussed about Guided Reading groups, Literacy planning and a few other items. However all I can say now is wait and see. 

To recapitulate (meaning to summarise and state the main points) I would like to say that the week has been a success. 

My class seem to respond well to question and answering. All of them are willing to talk (some more than others) and no-one is afraid to ask for help.

The new team I am working with is huge and will take a lot of getting used to. Being a 2/3 form entry with a lot of classes having shared teaching, this equates to a lot of names and personalities. 

Training as a teacher is something totally new to me and it will require a lot of patience, time and energy. Old clichés, but I will honour them. Not only is my mentor an important cog in my learning process but the entire school network plus my fiancee, family and fellow Schools Direct trainees. 

Observing is going to be much easier after Centralised Training. I will notice more things in lessons and develop my own teaching style to include best practice.

Roll on next week and see how it all pans out at Reading University. 

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