Graduation Day and what happened in June

No I haven't been under a rock since May 24th (the date of my last blog post). So much has been happening since half term and getting through my final assessment was the top priority as most of you if not all will agree.

My 80% teaching had been progressing nicely up until the break and I used that momentum to keep going until the assessment. My living room was like a bomb had hit it, with folders, files and paper all strewn across the floor. My life was sleep, wake up, eat, go to school, teach, home, paperwork, eat (possibly watch Netflix) and sleep. This was pretty much for 8 days straight and only left the house to go to Frankie and Benny's and the cinema. This had led me to the conclusion of not leaving it all to the last minute. Not that I did exactly that but there was still a lot to organise, to ensure everything was covered in my standards and that the final claim was written to highlight my best teaching aspects.

Looking back on the past 5 weeks, a lot was achieved. The teaching was constant, I purchased a stamp to aid with marking, was observed by both the Head and Deputy and someone who interviewed me all those months ago. Things are looking positive heading into my NQT year and I am looking forward to being an NQT who already knows the school layout, ethos, most of the children, who to go to for specific advice and just about anything that comes with working at the same place for a 2nd year.

Week Commencing June 1st
I taught my Year 5 class how to hold a debate. The subject in question was 'Should children be able to choose their own lunch menu?'

I put the children into pairs and then grouped them either FOR or AGAINST this argument and in doing so this enabled me to place stronger children with those who are not so confident in their writing or putting an argument together. What I did notice was those who are confident at writing may not always be the most talkative so it gave their partner a chance to open up a conversation and collaborate together. 

On the second day I gave the class time to write some counter arguments, as this would give both sides of the argument a chance to strike up a really interesting debate. 

Consequently, when it did come down to the class being opposite each other with myself as chair in the middle, the children took to debating quite quickly and were able to use evidence from the UN Children's Right's Charter to show both why it should and shouldn’t be voted for. This to me showed that the children were engaged in the learning of how to debate, had taken on board how to counter argue, and that you can’t just make a point, you have to have proof to back it up.

I was also busy bringing the children up one at a time or in groups to discuss their work and the need for them to respond to marking as well as reflecting on the progress made. I believe it is essential children not only acknowledge mistakes made and where they need to improve but they need to act on it sooner rather than later.

Midweek, our Year 5 and 6 cricket team attended a tournament alongside 16 other teams from the area and finished a respectable 2^nd in their group. Losing only their 1^st match and winning the rest. Once was by 1 run and that was because the children had realised that the fielding and batting need to work well together to ensure runs are made but at the same time the opposition need to be bowled or caught out as many times as possible.

I am proud of the team's spirit and had the winners of our group lost any of their remaining matches it would have gone down to wickets taken and then runs scored. More practice is needed to help both the main coach and myself select players who will work well together and understand the rules better. The beauty of the tournament was that everyone played at least 4 matches and the team rallied round to ensure all felt great during and afterwards.

Week Commencing June 8th

On Monday the link from my lead school and main placement came into see how I was doing and I am glad she did because it meant I received feedback that wasn’t bias towards me becoming a teacher at St Mary’s next year. She said I had planned the lesson well, the starter was appropriate and ensured prior learning was assessed, getting the children to model the Roman numerals for the class to visualise was a good idea because it helped them to remember and my behaviour management was also good.

 

On Tuesday was Sports Day and it was a fun event. My class had a couple of children away so one of the teams had to do everything twice and still won more points.  In the teachers race I lost out again to someone with longer legs. I had been running a lot better recently and am planning for the Abingdon Marathon in October but Sam (a Year 5 teacher and only other male teacher) beat me by merely a second. 

Introducing a new Science topic was fun because I used a presentation created by another teacher but changed their pictures to show ones of me growing up. This gave the children a chance to work out how old I was at each stage and why they thought it. Using a carousel task in which the children had to write what they thought certain stages of human life meant (and other key vocab), was a good way to assess how much they know already.

Week Commencing June 15th

With it being assessment week it gave me a chance to bring my files to school, select and print children work to add to them plus include any other documents.

Maths took place on Monday and Tuesday and used the NFER test papers and it gave both the teacher I share the class with and I to choose which areas of learning need to be worked on and form the basis of our teaching until the end of the term. Ratio, prime/square/cube numbers, measurements, and the use of estimation, have all been highlighted and I will be using square and cube numbers as part of my final assessment next week.

In my mentor meeting I spoke to about my placing in Year 2 next year and we discussed the things I would like to do in preparation for it. I have not had much experience in this age group but am looking forward to a new challenge and one in which I will get to know a different key stage, be even more familiar with assessing children both formative and summative, work alongside a different set of teachers, and hopefully seem more lucrative and experienced for future employees. Not many men teach in Key Stage 1 and with moderation being a bit part of this crucial year group, I will become well adept at keeping records of everything to give evidence at the end of next year.

Week Commencing June 22nd

It finally arrived and was over in a flash. My files were carefully poured over, notes made, questions asked and discussions made. The final assessment was tiring and hopefully the last time anything like that takes place again. Thankfully I had organised my files in such a way with tabs referencing each standard and included a contents page at the front. This made it easier for the assessor to use and for me to talk about when required.

I was given some good advice about next steps and this helped to form the basis of my NQT needs for next year. Being in a different key stage means I do have to adapt quickly but the school are very supportive and had created a 3 week plan starting on the 29th for me to start with observing Year 2 and seeing the end result of that year group, then for last two weeks will be in Year 1 classes to see where the cohort I am to teach are currently at. My class includes some children I taught in Phonics back in autumn and I always get a nice smile or comment from them. 

Week Commencing June 29th

Year 2 are going to be 3 form entry for the first time and I will be one of 2 NQTs. The other teacher is a highly experienced and skilled practitioner and I magpied as much as I could in the 4 days I was in her class. 

To begin with I was observing her teach and then began to work with small groups and get to known the children and their abilities. In KS1 Topic covers quite a lot of subjects and whilst this will be interesting to see how it all fits in, I am a big believer in cross curricular teaching and this is something that many of my observers have noted I like to do in my lessons. Seaside is the Summer topic and this year they went to Littlehampton where my grandparents live, so hopefully it will be the same next year as I have fond memories there.

The displays are slightly different than that of KS2 and I know that next year the classroom I will be getting is currently the classroom of the children I will take on. This means in my opinion a big change will be needed to both show the children that I am their new teacher and also to show the children that they have grown one year older and therefore a change is also required. Resources will need to be split 3-ways instead of 2 and I am steadily making lists and notes about what I want and where I can source it from.

Finally, today I went to University to receive my QTS certificate, and this was a chance to say hi and bye to people I have seen on many occasions during my time as a trainee teacher. Some I will no doubt see more than others and some probably only during reunions but I have made some firm friendships and despite people saying that teaching is a lonely profession, I believe that friendship doesn't just extend to the staff room but across the whole teaching community.

And there we have it. The final blog post, or is it?....

Thank you for taking the time to read this and any others you may have glanced over. It has been a chance to for me to express myself and allow others to follow me on my new journey. 

                                                   

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...

Taking the metaphorical bull by the horns

I try to always use a metaphor as a title for my reflection and in this week’s English lessons I introduced the use of them with my class’s creative writing.

For the next few weeks my year 4 class are to plan an adventure story and write their own one. This is quite important because it will form one of their assessment pieces and gives me a chance to see how my 6 chosen pupils are progressing. I used Robert Louis Stephenson’s ‘Kidnapped’ as the introductory story and because it is a classic that no-one had read, this ensured everyone started on the same level and could hear me read the story without (I hoped) any of them being distracted.

One thing I could have done was to give support group a piece of information with an overall layout of what the 1^st chapter was about- I actually did this but afterwards. The reason for using this particular piece was because it introduced the hero of the story, has a reason for an adventure to begin, a cliff-hanger and a journey that the hero goes on from the very beginning.  These are all the things I wanted the class to think about when writing an exciting and tense adventure story.

My first day teaching without the class teacher in school came about on Tuesday when he was away at a course. This meant I had complete ownership of the class from registration through to the end of the day. Math’s merges straight into English without a break (unlike my main school) and this kept me on my toes to ensure the children were occupied for 2 hours. I used the reward charts to my advantage and spoke to any parents at the start and end of the day who had the usual queries. This will no doubt help me over the next few weeks with establishing firm parent/teacher relationships.

My main lesson objective in English for this week was to teach the proper use of similes and metaphors and although it took a while I am confident that most of the children can correctly use the both of them. I gave everyone a list of well-known similes and metaphors, and allowed them to describe their hero with them if needed. For the more able, I wanted them to think of their own or at least change them to make it more appropriate.

My two observed lessons were English and Maths and both had a lot of constructive criticism. The main thing I need to do is ensure silence is kept when asked for. This particular class hate to lose table or Dojo Points so are excellent tools to use when giving or taking them away. A sand-timer is also a good visual for the children to see when I set a quick task such as tidying away desks or finishing up a piece of work, I do need to get a few into the habit of not watching the sand run completely down or a clock on the IWB countdown from a minute, as this will defeat the object.

Differentiation is also a hard thing for me at the moment as there are some children working at almost year 5 level. I overcame this by looking at the Math’s work for the years above and gave them a lot more independency with less input. This was I can see who truly has a grasp of certain parts of the curriculum and those who actually coast through the easier work but then struggle when it gets harder.

Next week is assessment week and rather than the usual SAT’s past papers in Reading and Maths, the children will also complete a Written task (essentially the adventure story I have been teaching then to plan) plus a Reading Age and Spelling Age test. As this will take out the majority of the mornings next week and with World Book Day on the Thursday, I have got quite a different week to the other 4 whilst at my second placement school. This is a good opportunity to see how a whole school approach is to assessment and also to mark work alongside other teachers for moderation.

I have planned a World Book Day project similar to one I undertook last year when I was a TA except this will be more structured and I have included the chance for older children to mentor the younger students in KS2. 

Inspiring Primary Teaching - Book Review

I haven't done a book review in a few months and for good reason. Most of my time has been taken up researching many different books from Andrew Pollard's Reflective Teaching, to one of three Science topic books on Electricity.

The Inspiring Primary Teaching book by David Hayes has taken me every train journey to and from Reading University to complete. Funnily enough as I went through each chapter I managed to relate that part of it in some way to my own experiences.

At the end of Chapter 2 The Characteristics of Effective Teachers, it describes in a case study of how Mr Clerk was chirpy, wanted his class to do well, didn't spare himself in offering advice, explained things carefully and celebrated openly when his class succeeded. I often look back at those who taught me including Mr Brian 'BA' Anderson, who was my Geography teacher from Year 7 right through to the end of my GCSE's. He was the only teacher in Secondary to teach me all 5 years and despite not taking it up as an A-Level, I have found that his sense of humour, strictness on presentation of our work, reward schemes, school camping trips and being the backbone of what was Turnpike Secondary School (until it closed in 1999) was one of the very reasons I decided to become a teacher.

Sadly for both the case study and my own experience, both teachers have since passed away. Mr Anderson's funeral was earlier this year and I had the honour of being there and seeing other students and teachers whom he had taught or worked with during his many years of service. Once during a lesson about the London Docks and the East End, he mentioned Eastenders and I decided to start humming the theme tune. His response was to get me to stand up on a chair and hum the whole theme tune in front of the entire class. Although it did embarrass me, it served two purposes; one that I would never do it again and two that I liked being a performer and it possibly helped form a path to my previous acting career.

In Chapter 4's Effective Questioning, it explains a lot about the purpose of questions, what types of questions are most relevant, what do pupils learn from being questioned and when is questioning likely to be most effective. 

This is extremely important in assessment of pupils because it doesn't always have to be written work that will gauge pupil progress. I have seen some great examples of this where the teacher will question a child on what they have previously learnt (during starter this takes place), how does it link in with the LO and where do you think the lesson might lead to. Now this shows that the teacher doesn't have to do all the talking and telling but that the children can read, think, absorb and tell the teacher what they know. Just because a child can copy on paper what someone else has said does not necessarily mean they have learnt anything. Speaking and listening is one of the things I feel are important in education.

At University we looked at Blooms Taxonomy and strangely enough the following week I read the part which looks at Questioning and higher order thinking. This method of questioning begins with testing Knowledge - Straight forward answers, secondly moves on to testing Comprehension - Understanding of the answer and not just stating a fact, then it looks at Application - Links to practical activities that help to simulate creativity and foster imagination (How would you arrange the cubes to make an interesting shape? What can you do to work out the problem in a different way? What design would you use to build a magic castle out of chocolate?). As you can see this requires more than just basic knowledge and needs some form of thought, attention and imagination.

It then starts to progress to more complex questioning starting with Analysis- this has a variety of definitions, including; an investigation of the component parts of a whole and their relations; the process of splitting up an action, an event or an idea to understand how it works; a form of criticism in which the structure of something is scrutinsed. (What evidence can you find that one type of paper absorbs water more quickly than another? What are the points in favour of and against the suggestion?)
Synthesis quickly follows analysis and draws together separate points to create something new by using old ideas creatively or empolying new ones imaginatively. 
(Can you think of a different way to take the register? How would you teach a bully to be kinder? and How would you go about designing a new school uniform?)
Finally and with all good questioning and indeed letter writing and scientific experiments, there is Evaluation - making a judgement or decision about the significance of quality if something, based on a careful study of its features. (What is your opinion of school dinners without chips of French fries? How can we decide who is the best teacher? How would you choose the winner of a fancy dress competition). This all requires some thought and its not a quick decision process. Often stats and other questions or even experiments have to be made before evaluations can happen.

The final chapter I would like to mention is Effective Communication. Without it this can cause disharmony is lessons, frustrate even the brightest of students and can cement problems for those already disaffected with learning or feel uninspired. This ultimately leads to restlessness and misbehaviour.

Actually listening to pupils and giving a genuine interest in them will benefit the long run. It may seem like a 5 min chat is the last thing you want to do but to the student this is an ideal time to let off steam, retell a story, tell you all about the playground at lunchtime and anything else that springs to mind just before taking the register or commencing a lesson. 

Showing the qualities of listening to a student and responding with dialogue will enhance their own speaking and listening skills and possibly make them feel more at ease when answering to questions in class. 

To summarise, I would say this book is extremely insightful, it has sections which can be called Reflect and Respond, which can be worked into your own teaching, each chapter is laid out with easy to read diagrams and description, full of teaching hints and case studies, and offers Key Questions at the beginning of each chapter to enable to reader a quick insight into the content. 

Making Science fun and interesting

With the start of a new science topic based on electricity and circuits, I wanted this week’s lesson to be engaging and informative. During half term I planned lesson for the first few weeks and wanted to slowly introduce how circuits are drawn, famous scientists and their strange experiments, how to use electricity safely and if possible finish the unit by making a model that can be taken home.

This I feel will give the students a better overall experience and a chance for them to not only learn about the theory but put it into practice and go into secondary school well equipped to plan, observe and evaluate a science experiment.

I had planned to use the IWB however as with all things technical it decided not to have sound at the precise moment I played a BBC Bitesize video. Not to be undone I read out the intended task (based on the video) and asked the students to note down any important information. The sound did eventually come on and this gave everyone a chance to see Dick and Dom from children’s TV, talking about Michael Faraday and showing how electricity can be used.

My only downfall was that everyone ended up hearing the information more times than planned, so when it came to filling in a worksheet (with key information missing) all of them managed to complete it sooner than expected and I hadn’t printed enough sheets for a extended task. In future I will print enough for the entire 2 classes.

I chose to copy something I had learnt at University, which was a KWL sheet. ‘What I know’, ‘What I want to Know’ and ‘What I have Learned’. I had split the class into 5 mixed ability groups and gave clear instruction for each student to take on a set role in their groups. The scribe was to write down ideas whilst the manager had to ensure everyone was listened to and stuck to their roles. Some wanted to take on everything and this caused a lot of arguments. Next week I will give laminated cards with each group members specific role printed; that way all is clear on who is doing what.

On Friday’s ‘catch up’ science lesson I asked our HLTA to get each group to write their KWL in their books. This will cement the learning from the main lesson and more information can be added to the LEARNED section.

As well as science, I also ventured out for two days to the local cinema. Years 4-6 watched ‘Earth to Echo’ whilst the Years 1-3 watched ‘Turbo’. There was a big difference in the management of the two sets of children, most notably I was given a set of 6 children to look after and sit with. This is a good idea because despite their being a more amount of adults, the younger children needed someone to count them in, escort to the lobby for toilets, and reassure them when scared from the dark. My important role when walking to town was to stand in the middle of the road and stop traffic. With over 250 children, this was no mean feat but the teacher leading the entire group was very organised and deployed adults in necessary places.