Stepping up into 60% Teaching

First week back and it was a full on action packed timetable. I have been asked to use my filming background to assist both Year 6 classes with planning, directing and editing their group suspense films. There are 10 films to be made and the teachers have to come up with a plan that enables everyone to film their scenes and have a slot available on the PC’s to use a software programme called ULead. I spent a few days researching YouTube clips on ways to edit their films. At the end of the week they are expected to have come up with a story, bullet points breaking down the scenes, and finally a storyboard in which the director of each group can use when overseeing the filming.

My first observed lesson of the term did not go to plan. Its objective was to focus on the countries in South America but in order to do so I had to introduce an atlas, the 7 continents and what countries were to be found in each. I spent too much time on the initial tasks which were to label a map of the world and a map of South America. The time spent on the carpet was too long and I think I am used to seeing this classroom on it during a lot of other lessons. My mentor who is next door, hardly uses a carpet because it’s uncomfortable and a lot of the children are starting to get taller and it’s unfair for them to be on the floor too long. I did however have eye contact with all and there was a lot of interaction when I asked them to discuss the continents and countries in question.

When they did eventually progress to their tables, the tasks took much longer than anticipated and I didn’t introduce the atlas early enough. Had I done so, I feel the class could have labelled the continents sooner and there would have been time for the final task which was to find 5 fascinating facts about South America. My mentor told me during the meeting we had afterwards, that after asking different children what they thought they were learning, a few said; to label a map or learning about countries and continents, but not that they were learning about countries in South America. I need to be more explicit when teaching a lesson.

On Thursday I encountered a teaching first. I took my mentor's class for the entire day and this helped to establish myself with the children, and also prove that I can work through the entire day. My favourite part was teaching what to include when drawing and detailing film storyboards. I gave them a little insight into my past and let them know I used to work in the filming industry but kept out my acting secrets. The 5 groups busily discussed their ideas and split into smaller groups to make A3 storyboards. Each had 8 scenes or parts to the film and I asked them to include locations, camera angles, characters needed in each scene, and length to be shown.

Next week I will be going out with each film group and assist them with the editing process.