The University is Alive With The Sound Of Music

Yes it's in the title, music was the lesson taught at Reading University this week, and I also joined the School Choir.

Most of you reading this don't know me but I grew up loving music; from singing Scouting songs around a campfire, playing the piano from the age of 11, to singing at every step along my educational path. I found a passion for drama on top of all this and decide to follow a dream of becoming an actor (see previous blog posts to give a more detailed breakdown on my previous career).

Extra-curricular activities
Anyway why did I join the School Choir? Well, the music teacher is teaching the KS2 children some Christmas songs for a concert and I didn't want to miss out on both performing and assisting. This combines fun with learning and it ticks off Standard 8 in the process. The children were surprised that Mr Harte was in the music room and made a bit of fuss but hopefully the novelty will wear off next week. I am using this experience to hopefully assist with the end of school production and also add the responsibility to my teaching repertoire because it will give weight to any interviews in the future. 

Guided Reading
I taught a good lesson using only a picture to get my group to think about how the illustrator gains sympathy from its reader without the use of text. One thing I should have done was to give pen and paper to the children and asked them to write their thoughts and feelings down rather than me asking them and doing it for them.

Marking my 1st set of English papers
The Year 6 were given an English Reading SAT's paper. This I welcomed because it will enable the teachers to see how the cohort has been developing since the start of term. I can also see how my Focus Reader (a University based task) is doing since I started working with him. I wanted to gain experience of marking papers so only did the unambiguous questions which didn't require much thinking.

Year 3 observations
I have literally been all over the school these past few weeks and that is precisely what I should be doing this Autumn Term. I spent Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning with a class in Year 3 AND I was able to see: a guitar lesson taught by two external music teachers, a topic lesson based on the compass points, Maths lesson looking at subtracting two digit numbers and both a guided reading and English lesson focusing on letters and sending mail. 

i saw some excellent transition tactics being employed. The pace of the lessons meant that for their age, the children didn't spend too much time on their own during the lesson. I can see that for Year 3 it needs to be a gradual process to becoming more independent learning especially so soon after being in Year 2. With 2 TA's in the class as well, both knew their class tasks and all of the adults moved about the different groups to ensure the teacher spent time with as many of the class as she could. This is important because each child feels as if the teacher isn't just concentrating on the lower or higher ability groups.

Maths Test for all of Year 5/6
On Thursday another SAT's paper was sat except this time covering Year 5 as well. This is because we stream in 5 classes and this will give a chance to see not only what needs teaching but also whether some children need moving around the classes. We have had a few new students and despite a few bits on informal assessment, I feel a test will show the real ability of a student. That is just my opinion but with something like Math's it is vital each teacher knows that what they are teaching matches their students' level of learning. 

Yet again I am pleased this has happened because my Focus Math's student is in my class and I can quickly see what she needs immediate help with.

Second Guided Reading Session
Picking up from what I noted on Monday, I ensured my group had pen and paper to convey any thoughts they had by simply looking at a second image I showed them. Some of the vocab learnt in the last lesson was remembered and my Focus reader came out with an amazing metaphor saying 'the people on the top deck of the ship were huddled around like penguins trying to keep warm'. 

Plans for next week
I spoke to my mentor about how my two lessons went and how I adapted my teaching strategy. We spoke about a pending Science lesson that I am planning based on Light and how it travels in a straight line. She wants me to think how to challenge the Gifted and Talented children in my questioning.
In my Personal Learning Profile, I added that I will be focusing on Year 1 Phonics over the next two weeks and she gave advice on which classes to observe and for what I should be looking out for. As well as this I will be getting a day's worth of Phonics Training at University so it will consist of a lot of new learning.
One thing she did like a lot was that I have been updating a personal calendar on the schools Public Data drive and ensuring everyone can see what classes I am observing in, when I am teaching and what meeting I have planned. This will be beneficial across the whole school. 

In just one day I learnt how to teach a terms worth of music
It does sound extreme but on my University Centralised Training day it was spent with the lovely Jay Deeble, who has been teaching Music for many years and even assisted with the first ever National Curriculum when it was introduced in the 1980's.
To start with we looked at the Universal words for reading music, Ta and Ti. This system allows the value of each note to be clearly represented no matter its placement within the beat/measure. The folk song lyric "This Old Man, he played one, he played knick-knack on my thumb, with a knick-knack paddy whack, give my dog a bone, this old man came rolling home" would be said, "titi ta titi ta titi titi titi ti-tiri titi tiriti tiritiri ta titi titi titi ta".

In our tutor group we worked on some exercises that included clapping a rhythm or the pulse. The teacher is expected to distinguish for the children to help less able.  
We built on this by working as two big groups then three groups to make a canon (same song being sung but at different start times). It progressed into even smaller groups and finally a big challenge where everyone went solo. 
LO: To maintain a tune.
SC: I can add/find rhythm. I can clap the pulse I can work in a group, pair or solo

The tradition SO, MI RAY, DOE and La were then introduced as a way of remembering the different pitch of a song. These are familiar to me from The Sound of Music.
We were given a few songs to practice on Xylophones, Metalaphones or Glockenspiels and asked to come up with different ways of playing the song. Changes could include; the pitch, tempo, playing in octaves, two songs at same time, or even different notes, 

Teaching music in KS2 will vary from school to school and indeed cohort. Some classes will pick it up quickly whereas elsewhere only a handful would have any musical experience. By gradually increasing the difficulty of the lesson, each child should feel as if they have made progress. 

To appraise a music unit, we were given the Mnemonic  CLASP.
C- Composing: Creating a piece of music
L - Literature studies: looking at the background of music
A - Audience: Listening and giving feedback
S - Skills: Oral/Aural, Technical and Notating
P - Play: Performing

The National Curriculum literally has two parts.
1 - Performing and Composing
2 - Listening and appreciation

When analysing, students should be thinking about a variety of questions:
Concepts - What was understood and what was needed to understand?
Attitudes - What did you demonstrate and what was the attitude to the performance?
Skill - What did you do and what did/could you do better?
Knowledge - What did you know and what did you need to know?

Music can be linked right across the curriculum but it rarely is. A story or poem could be used for composition plus it could even be linked to Geography or Science. 

Summary of the week
Yet again, this week I have a lot to think about. I look forward to teaching much music and will adapt the things learnt today.
Marking my first sets of tests was tough because it made me realise even more that the future of others in my hands and I have to be thorough and fair in everything I do.

What's needed in a Primary School classroom

This is also a page that I created for quick reference but I wanted to put out a new blog today.I spoke my new colleagues, who is an NQT and the only other male member of the teaching staff at school. We spoke about which after school clubs we will be interested in taking or assisting with. Both of us like to keep fit either at the gym or out running; hopefully with the large numbers of students, there should be a good selection for football, cricket, hockey etc.

Why did I do this page?
I asked my fiancee based on her own experience, what is needed in a classroom? Her reply was to look online. This I have done so but for future reference decided to create a list of my own.
This isn't a page with lists of books and what colour pens to have but it does just state the obvious. Remember some of this is provided by the school, however a lot of it is via your own back pocket, and please if there is anything missing and should be included- please comment or let me know.

To write with
Pencils - HB
Pens - Berol Handwriting (only to students with a pen licence). Name these because they will go AWOL.
          Bic/Staedtler and other brands do Black/Blue/Red and Green-  depending on what your school prefer
Felt tips
Crayons
Coloured Pencils
Whiteboard markers plus spray and cloths to wipe it clean
Craft Pens
Whiteboard pens for individual use - Staedtler are the ones I have used and are pretty good

For general use
Handheld whiteboard
Rulers - plastic
1m measuring sticks
Scissors - orange ones for adults and the red or yellow/green ones for students
Blu-Tac (plenty of it will get used and possibly taken by other classes so be careful)
Folders
Plastic Wallets
Card for backing work
Display borders
Labels for folders
Files for each student
Paper Stapler and plenty of staples
Wall stapler for displays and plenty of staples
Cellotape
Drawing pins
Butterfly clips
Pencil sharpeners (metal not plastic are better)
A4 paper
Scrap paper

English Kit
Dictionaries - varied for age and level
Thesaurus
English terms and skills (spelling rhymes, what a simile,metaphor or personification is)
Laminated help cards for Punctuation and Grammar
Laminated list of prefixes and suffixes
Suitable reading books for the year group both fiction and non-fiction

Maths Equipment
Essential
Protractors
Tracing paper
Mirrors
Compasses
Number lines
Number grids
Dice
Coins
Place value cards
Graph Paper
Calculators

Desirable for classroom but should be in school
2D and 3D shapes
Graph Paper
Calculators
Trundle Wheel
Tape measures
Playing cards
Fraction cards
Dominoes
Clocks

Welcome to my blog and the start of a lifelong challenge.

Welcome to my Teaching Blog. It is to help me evaluate my progress throughout the 2014-15 education year, whilst I train to be a Primary School teacher and I am using it to become a reflective practitioner.
At the ripe age of 30, I am embarking on a complete change of career. Not a lot of you will know this but I used to work in television and film - more of that to follow in the months to come - and now that I am settling down, getting married and thinking about the bigger picture, I needed to evaluate my career and take on a challenge that will not only affect my life but the lives of many others.

I enjoyed both primary and secondary school, but my own opinion is that primary school is where the children soak up the most experience and knowledge, and teachers can really make a difference as to how a child is to continue their path into higher education. They are more susceptible to change and more often than not are willing to learn as much as they can. There is also a lack of male presence in primary schools and from my own childhood I can only remember my year 5 teacher and headteacher at George Palmer Primary School now Palmer Academy.

My teaching career all began last July, when I took on a group of overseas students as Drama Director at Eton College. It was a 3 week summer school course and I taught 10 sessions in which the students learnt a variety of drama techniques. These were then applied to a final performance, that was displayed in front of other tutors and the Summer Schools Director. This was a role I relished as it involved: pastoral care, group outings, and organising sports activities - all of which can be applied to primary school teaching.

Soon afterwards and after much thought, I started applying to local primary schools in the Windsor and Maidenhead area, for some teaching experience. Via a contact at a nearby primary school, I was invited along to volunteer in year 3, and over the course of the autumn term I worked mostly in KS2.

As well as this, I was fortunate enough to also be invited to various other primaries and first schools. All of them were very different in their own unique ways (please see their separate pages).

After a few applications two interviews, I finally embarked on a new job role as Teaching Assistant at a primary school in Maidenhead. It is a CofE Collective Worship school and after spending the first few months from December to March in a year 5/6 class, I was asked to assist a 1-1 student in year 4 and this has certainly given me plenty of behaviour management experience to take forward into the profession.

I will be sad to leave the school especially as they were the ones to give me a shot at a paid position, however it is for the best that I train to be a teacher at a new environment. I am well known across the school and have had the pleasure with working with some outstanding teachers and great students. A lot of has been learnt with regards to how the timetable works and how quickly it can be adjusted to suit the needs of the school, the different teaching methods of at least 6 teachers, how to deliver PE lessons both with PPA cover and the classroom teacher, and finally the playground conundrum of keeping everyone happy despite the many friendship makeup/breakups.

Throughout this blog and on separate pages, you can also see links to recommended websites I am using for resources, and songs I have see being sung in assembly plus much much more.

Please add your own comments along the way to guide me and give encouragement.