A busy start to 80% teaching

I know this blog is not a top priority throughout my training but I feel as if it should be used as a reflective tool at least every few weeks. Unfortunately my hopes of updating it on a weekly basis have been dashed somewhat due to the planning, preparation, marking, admin and another big thing - planning my pending wedding.

Yes I know I must be mad to be planning a wedding at the same time as training to be a teacher but I am not the only one in my School Direct course and am probably the only bloke, so kudos to those ladies out there who are really doing most of the planning.

It has been a strange year with me being in two different schools, 3 different year groups and working alongside a wide range of adults. Learning names of colleagues and children alike has been a must do especially as I like to get involved in playground activities so knowing who to pass the ball to is very important!

My fiancée is a teacher too and although in a secondary school she started at a new location and job role at exactly the same time. This had been good in some ways because we can sympathise with each other on many things. Even though she is 4 years my junior, she has been teaching since 21 and is part of the SLT and holds a Literacy role in the school that requires a lot of physical and emotional strength. Someone to look up to I think and not because she is also a few inches taller than me (more so in high heels) plus teaching is something she has always wanted to do, whereas I came into the profession after a period of being in the wilderness until I decided on this being my true vocation.

Now since my last post I have been a busy man as my title suggests. Getting to know 30 students names in my tutor group, an extra 10 who come in for Maths, 3 new teachers to work alongside and a couple of TA's was the easy part. Planning lessons to make the children acquire new knowledge, think more about why things are the way they are, ensure lots of open questions are being put forward and answered, teaching 16 out of 20 hours, marking books and constantly making formative assessments, is now the crux of my week.

Turn the clock back just a few months ago and I was merely observing, taking small groups, teaching the odd lesson here and there, rarely marking and having to make quick assessments of pupils. It is amazing how much there is to take on board in this profession and I often think should I have gone down the PGCE route where it is less classroom based but then I think 'well no because the whole purpose of learning how to teach is actually being in the classroom and getting the most out of the experience before reality kicks in next year when I have a class of my own and it will be a huge responsibility'.

So what exactly have I been doing these past 3 weeks?

English was an interesting lesson because some of the students created a newsletter based on the changes to their school lunchtime table. It was intriguing to see them work as a team to think of questions to ask a variety of people affected, right from the Head to a Year 1 student. 

Getting the WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHY and WHEN questions was top on the teaching and learning agenda, and presenting it on a Publisher Document was a new thing I had to teach so I learnt something new too. A few were chosen by the Head to be put into the school's weekly newsletter and it was a great way to showcase the excellent talent we have in Year 5.

Topic is about the Greek Legacy and the lessons are based around how they influenced modern society so everything from democracy, the Olympic Games, Famous Greeks, and the theatre.

I planned a lesson detailing where the word democracy came from and how it is different to other ways of ruling a country.

It is a great chance to put something like the General Election into context because the children can learn so much and this will only serve to enhance their thinking skills later on in life and for when they can vote in 10 years’ time.

My Maths group is a mix of children I used to teach before my second placement and some new children. Measures and scales was on the agenda for the first two weeks and when this changed to Data and Statistics I used a lesson idea based on the book

 ‘If The World Were A Village’ that I saw being used to teach a mixed year 5/6 class last year. I know it will be challenging but will adapt the lesson accordingly.

In Guided Reading my planning for this is based on what the children are currently learning and what they will be learning next. Some of the children require a heads up in advance so this will be an ideal time to input tricky vocab and help them to answer questions next week. Themes included the General Election, Life Cycles of Animals, some Data and Statistics, and a lot about the Greeks.

As this is my 80% teaching block, for 4 days a week right through till just after half term, I will be teaching pretty much every subject. Having to work alongside 3 different teachers, TAs and a Spanish support assistant has meant my people skills are required to be in tip top shape and I need to listen to all, take in their advice and then use what I feel is important.

My two observations were English and Topic. Persuasion is the unit of the term and I chose to include a set of techniques called DAFOREST that I used last term in my second placement. Being in Year 5 my main aim was that the children were able to recognise the techniques and to use them in their writing.

As it was the first lesson of the unit, I wanted to see if the children could ‘persuade’ their table partner into giving them something they really wanted. This was to get them thinking about what they were doing and the language being used. My lesson then moved on to include a piece of writing in which the children had to find words or phrases that persuaded them to do what was being asked of them. Firstly was a letter describing how amazing Hong Kong is and that people should visit this wonderful place, secondly was a speech to encourage men to become soldiers for Queen Victoria’s army, and the third was a challenging piece by a Head Girl encouraging her fellow students to eat more fruit throughout the week. I was pleased to see so many examples being given and the children has thoroughly gone through each text carefully and used a key to highlight where each part of the persuasive language was.

In PE I am teaching cricket and luckily the weather has been on my side. There is so much to go through not only in terms of bowling and batting but fielding, the rules, throwing, stopping the ball in different ways. I adapted a plan found on TES and the progress everyone has made in a few weeks is amazing and I can't wait to test our class against another in the year group.

So for another week or so this is it. I hope you enjoy my posts and please feel free to comment, share, RT or favourite. In 10 weeks I will be Qualified (touch the proverbial wood) and then 2 weeks later married. So much is happening at the moment and I am looking forward to sharing my honeymoon on a cruise somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean and reflect on the past year. One thing I do know is that it will never be the same again...

A warm welcome back

This week marked the first time back at St Mary’s and for the next few months I will be working in Year 5 alongside a shared classroom. My aim is to improve on the targets set by my Second Placement mentor and build up to a Good if not Outstanding teacher by the end of July.

The first 4 days I spent getting to know the class and was fortunate enough to have taught many of the students during Maths from September to January, and coached both boys and girls in the school football teams. I've been given the progress ladders and mid-term planning overviews to look into and I made it a top priority.

In English, biographies is the unit choice and the students have been asked to research various well-known people, in order to create their own biography of them. It was very interesting to see obvious choices such as football players and TV or Music celebrities but what did strike me was the quality of note taking and after hearing 'ooo I didn't know that about this person' was great because it showed the students there is more to a person than meets the eye.

I am also excited for English because from the April 27th it will use the General Election as the stimulus and I am planning to teach the class how to write a persuasive speech based on the 7 political parties manifestos. By using the BBC Newsround site, it will enable the children to access politics on a low level but give them a chance to have a 'theoretical' say in how they want the country ran. This unit will include videos featuring children interviewing the party candidates, asking why a TV debate matters, what a General Election actually is, and the power of using persuasive language. 

In Science the teacher asked the students what they knew about the life-cycle of animals and reproduction cycle. This will inform us when planning future lessons to ensure the national curriculum is adhered to but taught according to the what the children already know. I already have some ideas about how to facilitate this and am thinking to split the class into research groups and feedback to their peers with written presentations.  It will be used as a Speaking and Listening assessment.

The Music unit is exciting because it's based around Holst's 'The Planets'. Due to Earth not being used as one of the planets (because at the time of composing, everyone thought the planets revolved around the Earth), their task will be to compose their own idea of what Earth sounds like. I am envisaging solo pieces at first then leading to a group ensemble for their peers to evaluate. This will help with marking and using Success Criteria to show progress.

 Next week will be spent team teaching and getting prepared for the big step up to 80% teaching. I am nervous especially as it's getting closer to the final assessment plus I now have a position at the school as a full-time teacher next year so don't want to make too many mistakes. A good piece of advice I was given is - use this time to make mistakes, as there won't be a lot of room for them once in charge of class by myself.

Second School placement ends in time for Easter

It’s all Greek to me:WC 9^th March

This week consisted of teaching decimals and rounding in Maths; planning an eggs-periment in Science (yes it was all about eggs); how to be a persuasive Viking leader in Topic; and recounting the myth of Icarus: The boy who flew too close to the sun.

Life as a primary school teacher has meant that I have to be versatile in many different lessons, knowledgeable to some extent, and convey across to 32 children that learning is fun, engaging and worthwhile. Hopefully I manage it on a daily basis and have inspired the children to one day use the many skills learnt and to apply them in a whole manner of life situations.

Luckily for me, last term I observed a year 4 class, at my main placement, carrying out the observation lesson for the science experiment I was to teach. Little did I know back then, that that one hour would provide me with enough information to confidently take on the planning and turn it into my own words and differentiate it for my own classes needs. I did ask the class teacher last week, whilst visiting for the Oscars ceremony, where she has kept some of the resources, and was pleased to find it all filed away in the specific subject folder. This is one trait I wish to develop myself as it will enable other teachers to find resources and adapt them where required.

The eggs in question were placed in 6 different liquids and will be kept in tightly closed jars for one week until the observation lesson. This will help show the children how the shell of an egg reacts similarly to the enamel of teeth and that certain liquids will damage the shell more than others.

As for persuading a Viking leader – this was a good way for the children to use persuasive techniques. Later on this term I will be moving onto the DAFOREST method of remembering what is needed to be persuasive but this week’s lesson concentrated on Viking settlers, what they did as well as invade villages, and what makes a good Viking leader. All of this was put into a poster and the class were shown various examples including the ‘We Need You’ Lord Kitchener posters.

The English topic looked Greek myths and after looking at the story of Pandora’s Box, we concentrated on Icarus and his father Deadalus. This really excited the class because everyone dreams of flying and after showing them two different stories plus a video clip, they could see that a myth can change ever so slightly but have different parts changed to suit the storyteller and audience. At the end of the week a recount was created for their Extended Writing, and some of the pieces really showed how much had been taken on board including the spellings of challenging Greek names. 

A long wait to decide my fate: WC 16^th March

On Monday the observation part of the experiment was completed and it was amazing to see all of my class as scientists pondering the question as to which liquid did the most damage to the eggs. It was tricky because although the coca cola and coffee hadn’t seemed to do much damage, it had however stained the egg. This was hard to see at first for some children who though no damage had been made.

The vinegar and orange juice were the worst offenders and it was deemed that the sugar inside the juice and acid in the vinegar slowly eroded the egg shell within a week. The egg in orange juice was totally clear of shell and the smell was disgusting. Seeing the children’s faces when looking at the eggs via the visualiser created the ‘wow factor’ I had hoped for. Each group when given an egg to examine, did so carefully and wrote their thoughts on smell, touch and sight. 

I look forward to doing this again and possibly next time plan even further in advance with some eggs being inside the liquids for a couple of weeks if not a month.

For two days this week I had to be observed by not only my tutor (for his 4^th visit) and then my teaching interview at my main placement school in front of both the head and deputy. I was not sure of which one I would be more worried about. The person who keeps a check on me every few months and is slowly grading me toward Good/Excellent or the two at the top of the very school I wish to work at.

Firstly let’s settle the matter of the tutor observation. He hadn’t seen me at this school before and also not in this year group. I decided to go slightly outside of my observation comfort zone and teach a creative drama lesson in which the entire class was split into 12 groups to act out the 12 Labours of Hercules. It was only yesterday that they had started to look at this myth and I wanted to improve on their recount skills from the Icarus story of last week. 

In the lesson I had tried to ensure the children were evenly split by the acting skills I had seen during their play scripts lessons last term and also attempted to balance those less able students with more able whilst at the same time keeping overpowering children away from each other in case of a ‘too many cooks’ situation. It proved to be a success however whilst each group was showing their performances off, I didn’t fully explain to the rest of the class that they were to watch attentively and give a star or wish to their peers performances. This meant a few were sitting around doing nothing waiting for their turn. My tutor did commend my bravery for this lesson especially as it got everyone involved in the acting process and genuinely helped the entire class remember some if not most of the Labours.

On Friday was the ‘big one’, I was given the task of teaching a year 6 class from my main placement, on the subject of the Ten Commandments, during an RE lesson. This was something quite new to me because I am usually at University on a Friday, or was used for PPA time both schools. Being a Christian is something I value and this is one of the areas I had a little bit of knowledge in plus I had dinner with some good friends both of whom are regular church members and gave me some very good advice.

The lesson being taught was to consider ‘How the Commandments fit in with modern day society’ and so I posed this question to the class and had a nice debate running on which of the Commandments was most important and why plus should any of them be kept, removed or simply amended to suit the religions of today. It was more pupil led than teacher led and hopefully that came across in the lesson. 

Afterwards I had to wait a full 90 minutes until the phone call and am pleased to say that it was a success. Being a trainee teacher already based at the school; having a good relationship with both the children and teachers; knowing the schools layout; their non-negotiables; and finally showing some promise during my time at the school, on top of the interview and lesson – they feel I am the right man for the job. I am not sure which year group I will be placed in but it will be in either years 3, 4 or 5.

Second School Placement completed with lots of tears WC 23^rd March

This week was the last of 5 full teaching weeks and 7 at St Peter’s. It has been a busy process especially with planning, marking, parents evening, assessments, dealing with parents, and learning a whole new set of rules and timetables.

My University manual of guidance stated that I had to track 6 students ranging from High Ability through to Low Ability. For this I needed to copy work from English, Math and Science so I did exactly that as well as a written assessment they each completed. It was very good seeing them from one sub-level to another because there was a clear indication of progress throughout. This gives me confidence in placing the correct level/mark for when assessing formatively.

I was very pleased that the final week’s English was based around creating a collaborative Hogwarts School Prospectus. Being a body-double on the set of Harry Potter I have fond memories of the films and this was a chance to link my past career with my new one. Some of the children had read a lot of the books and this made creating groups a lot easier. Initially I went down the list based on Writing Ability and delegated the first 8 students as ‘leaders’ of their foursome. Using the persuasive techniques learnt in a previous lesson plus the DAFOREST mnemonic, I gave the class 8 different ways to persuade in their writing. The end result was pretty good and I can comfortably say that they will be using their new skills in future work.

The final day for me was Thursday despite school not ending until Friday. It was very emotional and whilst I was out during PPA the children had made some cards and I was presented with a lot of goodbyes plus a Q&A session was held with the children asking me what I had enjoyed doing during my time at the school. I had a great experience, learnt so much about a one-form entry school, planned more than I could have imagined, taught some truly inspirational children and wish them all the best of luck.

Away from school I was very lucky to meet and listen to Andrew Pollard talk about his Reflective Teaching Book. He is someone who has gone from being a primary school teacher in the 70's to helping to create policies for teaching and researching into what makes children tick. I can see a lot of what he said about his younger self in myself and I wonder what the future holds for me.

Planning, Planning, Planning

Wow what a relief that is over, are the first few words to spring to mind. Never before have I ever had to plan so much in my entire life and that is saying something.

Organising a staff rota, deciding who is going to play where on a football team, what directions to take when visiting a new place for the first time, even planning my own wedding – nothing can compare to 3 completely different Primary Subjects with two of them being the most important ones of the week.

My week started really well and I had the Year 4’s going rehearsing play scripts based on well-known fairy tales and adding their own adverbs and stage directions. The Pirate Points board was finally completed with all of their faces on Scuba Divers rising up to the top of the sea after finding treasure.  I team taught a guided reading session with the class TA in which we had 10 children using their Reading, Speaking and Listening skills to discuss a funny story about aliens who came to earth after accidentally receiving an invite to watch a film about aliens. This was useful because I can now gauge what comprehension lessons to plan and how to differentiate the learning.

The class behaviour for learning is dependent on incentives and although a lot of it is intrinsic, most of it is still extrinsic. They want to please and know that I am not an easy target- I have been using an App called ClassDojo that is a whole school approach and am not afraid to award negative feedback (which goes straight to parents), but at the same time reward with positive as well. I even brought some prizes for the class Treasure Chest and this has gone down well already.

It is now half way through the course with merely 3 half terms left and even I feel more composed than I did after last half term. My mentor has guided me through the start of my 60% teaching and we have been addressing the standards that I need to meet.

The lesson planning days at University were extremely useful and I took a lot away from each of them. The Maths and English in particular especially as I needed to improve my bibliography to include some extra columns for why and when I would use the books. The tutorial was very useful towards the end of the term and I had a lot to say given a recent CPD training I had only just attended on ‘Closing the Gap’.

I had planned a series of lessons on how to write an adventure story and originally wanted to use the Alex Rider series as a hook especially as the 23^rd February sees the start of a Literacy competition surrounding the character. I am not familiar with the stories and don’t think I could have done it justice- however it is always something to think about for the future. I did decided to use a booklet I found on TES which enables the class to follow a series of tasks that lead up to them writing a story. I adapted it for this year group and added in a twist in which TOP TRUMP’s cards can be made as well based on the hero and villain of the story.

Maths planning was based around the programme Abacus which the school follows and although I had a lot of the planning set for me, I still had to adapt it and find some extra resources to make it my own.

PE was the final subject I planned and I used knowledge from last year whilst I was based as a TA but took the learning of rounders with my class teacher observing. It was in the last Summer term so gave me confidence in teaching a whole class. I have picked out the main learning points of the sport and broken them down into weeks. An assessment will be made at the beginning and will form part of the ongoing progress each child makes. This will give them ownership of their own learning and something to improve on week by week.

Now with only 5 weeks to teach until the next holidays, I am relishing the fact that I am going to be the main class teacher most of the time and will really be able to see how much my time and effort goes into developing individual and class progress.  

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. 

SEND in a mainstream school - my experiences

How to face SEND situations in a mainstream school was and still is a daunting process for me. Knowing that in September, I will be responsible for the Teaching and Learning for an entire class is hard to fathom, although a challenge I am going to relish. Most children spend from 8.30 - 3.15 at school (give or take those who arrive early or stay late for extra-curricular activities) and if you include the added time for them to get to school and back, it equates to roughly 8 hours of the day. We at school see these same children for most of the day, 5 days a week, 40 weeks of the year, and sadly for a few, we are the ones to teach them about not only Maths, English, Science, and the other subjects, but also how to go through life as model citizens and into adulthood.

Now in pretty much every school, there are children who are born with or develop Special Education Needs and Disabilities. These can range from mild to severe types covering anything from (not an exhaustive list) Dyslexia, Down Syndrome, Autism, Emotional and Behaviour Disabilities, Visual and/or Hearing Impairments, Epilepsy, ADHD and Discalculia. In the past two years I have worked alongside children with some of these disabilities and it provided me with an insight into their way of thinking and also what to say, how to react in difficult situations, differentiate learning, involve them with group activities and ensure that they feel safe in their learning environment.

My cousin was born with severe epilepsy and this has affected the processing of his brain resulting in the slow development of learning. He has 3 siblings including a younger one and the older two have been young carers for him for a number of years. He absolutely loves playing with trains, watching DVDs and whenever I visit he insists I join in with what he is doing. 

Last year I worked at during a Summer School programme and one of the group had Asperger Syndrome and he demonstrated some of the traits that are associated with this: having an overwhelming need for organisation and structure, tending to be on his own a lot, obsessed with certain subjects and knew a greater understanding about them. He was extremely intelligent and could hold a conversation that for someone his age would usually find difficult or simply uninteresting. Recently I visited a secondary school to see the transition from primary and shadowed a student who was very similar. He knew a lot about dinosaurs and in his DT lesson not only designed a stereo speaker stand in the shape of a T-Rex but made sure the plastic casing was as smooth as possible before moving onto the next stage of the project (part of the obsessive nature). 

During my role as a TA I worked in Year 6 class which had a boy and a girl with ADHD although both showed different symptoms. The boy used a blue spiky cushion to sit on because he has what is known as Hyperactive or Impulsive ADHD, where he liked to fidget in his seat, always seemed to be on the go, and playing with blu-tac seemed to be one way to keep him occupied and on task (this can also be a soft ball or something easy to squeeze and release pressure). The girl was similar and often worked herself up by listening to comments made of her both in the class and out in the the playground, resulting in the loss of temper and acts of defiance (linked to Oppositional Defiant Disorder and Conduct Disorder). 

Later in the same role I went into another year group and worked 1-1 with a boy who was going through the statementing process which would eventually lead to going to a different school where his needs would be suitably matched for his teaching and  learning. Gaining his attention for even a small space of time was difficult, he had a mixture of ADHD, ODD and CD; refused to go into lessons, do any work, complete many tasks, would often lose his temper, hide when he was avoiding me or someone else and throw things across the room if not getting his own way. Despite all of this he was; kind to others and always quick to apologise once he realised he was in the wrong; creative in his learning and he loved to paint, complete jigsaws and made lots of those loom bands that were all the craze this year;  and when he did want to learn he tried his best and didn't want to let me down. This I felt was one of the reasons I was asked to work with him because the school saw the healthy teacher-pupil relationship and felt that my time was best spent ensuring this boys school day was spent as productive as it possibly could be and to make him realise that school isn't a bad place to go. 

Recently I visited a Special School in my local area and spent the entire day with a group of 7 autistic children between the ages of 4 and 6 but were all similar in their developmental stage. The classroom leader and her colleagues knew these children inside and out- this included the children's Behaviour for Learning (Levels of Attention, Communication Skills and Social Skills), Strategies to employ to aid their learning, Timetables for each individual child were on a board, using PECS, which is a valuable tool developed in 1985 as a unique augmentative/alternative communication intervention package for individuals with autism spectrum disorder and related developmental disabilities. 

It was a special day for the class because the entire Primary school were taking part in their Christmas production in front of family and friends and even the local mayor. I helped make some costumes, dress children, even helped a boy dance on stage in the middle of a song, joined in with playground duties, made Santa Claus and his Elves out of milk cartons and tissue paper. It was an eventful day and it gave me a lot of ideas an insight into how I can adapt my approach to working alongside children with Autism. In my current school there are two children in KS2 and are both quite different. One is high functioning and I would consider a social member of his class whereas the second child is also high functioning but tends to be on his own during outside play. I have found his likes playing basketball and when it his year group's day to play, I often referee and make sure the others allow him to join in and have fun. He loves Formula One and this is one of his special interests that children with ADHD often develop. If I were to be teaching him, I would use this as a way to introduce learning, by giving him an article to read, discuss, write about, create a story based around the topic. 

I have to read and work through a series of modules using http://www.idponline.org.uk/ 
which is part of the government's strategy to improve outcomes for children with special educational needs and was first outlined in Removing Barriers to Achievement. This is part of both my school and University training, and covers the main 4 SEND areas: Autism, Behavioural, Emotional & Social Difficulties,  Speech Language & Communicational Needs, and Dyslexia.  In this learning I will assess what I already know, then read up on the research and carry out any relevant tasks, and finally assess what I have learnt. 

Ultimately my learning has only just begun and will never end especially SEND but I am glad that I am receiving training from a range of people including the schools SENDCo, University, the online learning, individual children themselves, and colleagues who have experienced similar situations.