The Lead Up to Christmas

This blog post is slightly different to the norm. Yes it does contain anecdotes from my last week at school but please read until the end to see my 'Lead Up To Christmas' poem, which formed part of my end of year assessment for the University of Reading.


This was the first week in a while I happened to spend each day at school and this was very much needed. There were a lot of things to bring and take home from school each day including; presents for some of my colleagues (Mentor and Year 6 teachers), cards for pretty much everyone else because without their advice, help during my time at school, showing me where various materials were, and inviting me into observe their lessons, I would not have been able to achieve as much in my first term. As well this I brought some sweets in for both Year 6 classes and was for two reasons:


1. In my class I introduced table points last week as a reward for tidiness, outstanding behaviour and most of all teamwork.
2. In the other Year 6 class I gave a lesson on making Christmas Decorations and said that I would choose 6 winners of the best design.


The decorations were on flat paper that the children had to colour in, add tissue paper to and then slot together to make into 3D. The snowmen and trees looked brilliant and I was proud of each of them giving their own spin on the artwork.


Twice I visited the local church to assist with the Nativity play in which the Year 2's silently acted out the scenes and the Year 6's read out passages from the Bible which linked into each scene. I was asked to lead 3 different processions (for the main characters) around the church in time to each relevant song - Little Donkey for example when Mary and Joseph were heading to Bethlehem. On Friday the entire school descended down to the church and it was literally packed to the rafters with parents, teaching staff and children. Coming from an acting background I know how important being on stage is and all of the children acted beautifully and looked amazing onstage in their final montage. The Year 6's read each passage carefully and at the end of the service also said Merry Christmas in a range of languages to show how diverse we are as a school and church community. My wreath was given to the presiding priest and in the middle I had added a piece of writing with the schools logo, motto, a thank you message, and end line from our school prayer.


Most of the week was full of making things whilst listening to festive songs or watching a film being played on the IWB, this I feel is a great time to be creative and allowed the children to express themselves without any big focus on grades or attainment.


For one of my University tasks, I was asked to send in a 200 word piece of writing to test my Grammar Subject Knowledge. I decided to put forward a poem because in this I am able to show some of my own creative skills whilst ensuring it is full of grammatical phrases and content.


Here it is:


It’s the lead up to Christmas and where to begin? 
I could start with a song but what could I sing?
The Coca Cola advert is out so it must be December:
no wait silly me I must be mistaken because it came out in November.

With so many Christmas parties to attend and lots of people to see,
I’m counting 5 portions of; turkey, parsnips, potatoes and brie.
Every year it’s the same and jumpers are to be worn,
mixed with a game of monopoly, relationships will be torn.


My home is full of candles and each one burns bright like the Nativity Star,
I’d rather be inside keeping warm than driving through the snow in my car.
With 24 spaces on my calendar I am counting down the days,
being an adult doesn’t stop me being a child in any which way.


Spare a thought for those who are far away from loved ones and on their own.
It doesn’t take long to visit those nearby, or even to pick up a phone.
In the lead up to Christmas remember those who are no longer with us –
and those who are around you spread the love and make a lot of fuss.


Now all that remains is to say a very Merry Christmas to you all and a Happy New Year.


PS: In my next post I will concentrate on my recent visit to a SEND school, in which I worked with 7 autistic children and gained some fantastic experience as well as advice from the teaching staff.

2nd Term passed and a lot to look forward to next year

This week is memorable for many reasons. Firstly the Choir sang at the local conference centre alongside many other schools who use the School Music Service, I finished a science project I had been working on for the past two weeks, my tutor has noticed an improvement in my teaching, and it was my last day at University until we all go back in January.

Last week’s reflection was focused on achieving Standard 8, and in particular 8.1, which for some people can be difficult especially as it often requires juggling work and study with something to attend at lunch and after school. Luckily for me I have always been a busy person both in childhood and as an adult by joining the local Scout Organisation, coaching a football team whilst studying my degree, and running with a local running club during the past two years (proudly won their club championship and am also men’s captain).

I had to swap my break duty with a colleague on Tuesday due to a final rehearsal at the centre and this shows interpersonal skills because I need to strike a chord with those I work with and not expect someone to simply cover me because I need it. During the event I assisted the Music Teacher in making sure our students were kept both safe and on task- we were the best behaved in my opinion. If you know me I am all for making friends and did just that by introducing myself to all the other teachers from the other schools. You never know who you could meet at a job interview or on a course and teaching is a small community. One of the schools had a problem with a song that I knew and the teacher was thankful for me briefly singing along.The evening was a huge success and many parents and school friends attended to watch the performance. I felt extremely proud of the students and can’t wait until I am able to organise a choir to go to such an event.

Finishing my circuit game for a Science Evening that took place during the week was one of my mini-projects althoughI kept experiencing problems with certain parts of the circuit. However, when I added a second battery, it allowed the bulb to become brighter and despite originally wanting to use a buzzer (it’s a game in which you slowly and carefully manoeuvre a looped piece of wire around a windy path from one end to the other). Some of my class helped to put it together and a few were chosen to be Science Ambassadors as well for the event.

2nd Half Term University Observation

Wednesday loomed and I was nervous about teaching in front of my tutor but prepared myself as well as I could. The last Math’s lesson I was observed in, gave me a few things to progress and improve on including; Subject Knowledge, use of assessment, praising appropriately and explaining why, and giving a plenary. I managed to do all of these however didn't give a good plenary and this is something I need to work on. I rushed it and forgot to include the LO although during the lesson I did point out to the class that they had managed to achieve each of the Success Criterion and explained why I moved them around the classroom (recent assessment and also to get year groups working together). With the starter I assessed quickly who grasped the concept of the lesson and didn't move onto the main task until I was confident everyone was ready to do so.

During my last two days at University I helped to deliver a SEND presentation on Down Syndrome and learnt a lot from other presentations who focused on Autism (4 groups), another Down Syndrome, and how Support staff are used in the classroom. Ours was 2^nd to last due to the majority of the group coming from Group C. In hindsight I wish the course would have given the list of topics and said all needed covering so first come first serve. The actual result was a few similar presentations and a lot of us felt it could have been more useful with a group looking at ADHD for example or even someone with Speech and Listening Difficulties.

Two ladies from the a local LEA came to discuss life after training and how to apply for our first teaching job. It is scary to think that in a few months we will be searching for jobs, whether it be our training school, second placement or other. I have been in many interviews although this is going to be one of the most important ones in my life ranking alongside both my University interview and the one I did to get on this course.

I am yet to start thinking about 2015-16 especially with January to come. 

How I have been making a Positive contribution to the wider life and ethos of the school

This blog post is going to cover the past two weeks but with a less classroom teaching spin and more about how I have been completing Standard 8: Fulfil wider professional responsibilities and more specifically 'make a positive contribution to the wider life and ethos of the school'.

Creating a wreath for Remembrance Day was something I had been waiting to make since last year, when I observed a class at another school that made lots of poppies for their own school wreath. Using a template I found and printing onto red card, both Year 6 classes used 4 words to represent what the soldiers might have felt or how they are represented. These were written around the black middle of the poppy

For the body of the wreath I rolled up pieces of newspaper around a piece of wire and shaped it into a circle. The last layer was made from green moleskin paper, wide enough to allow 3 poppies to cover it.

After attaching the poppies using double-sided tape, I stuck a piece of card to the bottom and the last thing (yet to be attached) is a message to the local church from the school.


In Science I have been teaching Circuits and although I am no longer a TA I wanted to use some skills learnt last year and create a display for my classroom. 

After looking on the internet at similar displays, I decided I wanted the names of each famous scientist for our table groups; circuit symbols with their names; and a large paper model of a circuit running around the display. I used the twinkle site for the title and circuit symbols. I will add copies of students work on to the display and also pictures of students applying their knowledge in lessons. 

Football and indoor athletics have played a key part to our sports stars and the girls football team have been practicing after school and had a game scheduled against a local school this week. As for the athletics, I went with a TA and 10 boys and 10 girls from KS2 to a local secondary school, who hosted 10 primary schools in a fantastic Sportshall competition that was well organised and most of all fun. I also made contacts with some of the other school's sports teachers. 

Finally, this week the year 6's went to one of the many 'Christmas Unwrapped' events that took place at a local Baptist church and learnt all about how the story of Jesus' Birth has changed throughout history. The tasks were well laid out and the organisers made all of us feel welcome. My favourite part was the Wrap because everyone was clapping and joining in with the chorus.

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. 

One weekend to go before I start my teacher training.

I am chomping at the bit to get started but know that this term up until Christmas is the longest and I should take  and use wisely) in all the non-teaching days I can gather. My fiancee starts her new job at a local Secondary School as English Teacher with responsibility of whole school Literacy. 

I have been swotting up on my English, Maths and History topic as well as reading up on what's going to be happening at Reading University from Sept 15th onward. I go there for the whole week and then at least once a week until February Half Term. 'Letts - Make It Easy' books have been of great use to me and contain a lot of bite-size topics, that have questions o each page with a set of tests at the end. Speaking of Bite-Size, the BBC website has been brilliant and provided me with some helpful hints plus a lot of information that I used in one of my blog pages. 

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. 

      

Half Term review for Autumn Term 1

This time last year I had only just started getting experience in a school environment and yet fast forward 12 months I am now planning lessons, attending meetings, being a student myself again, reading even more than I did in my youth (I was an avid reader so that says a lot) and really enjoying my new career.

To recapitulate the past 8 weeks in just a page or so will be tough going especially for me. I’ve had to learn the names of at least 100 children, 20+ adults and the layout of quite confusing school grounds. My head teacher has an open door policy and this has made it easier to say hi and ask her opinion on things, from what I am hoping to teach in a lesson to how I am getting on at University- this I feel helps to create a positive working environment

MY CLASS

The class are the Year 6’s. I have managed to: engage with each and every one of them, share stories of the summer holidays, explore the theory and practical side of Light, in a Science unit, oversee and sometimes join in with a game of basketball, bring up the Maths and English Reading levels of two students chosen for my School Based Training, offered support both inside and outside the classroom, and building solid teacher-pupil relationships.

MEMORABLE OBSERVATIONS

During this half term I managed to observe quite a number of lessons. This covered every age group from Year 3-6 and in a number of lessons. Personal favourites included: Science with Year 4 about keeping a hard-boiled egg in different liquids for a week and recording what had happened to them, Topic with Year 3 looking at the compass points and the teacher making it fun and interactive by having the children place the 8 points on the classroom walls, Phonics with Year 1 because I didn’t do this as a child and the Read Write Inc programme is a fun and quick paced way to learn without it being tiresome and predictable. In all of the observed lessons I focused on a variety of things. Behaviour Management was one of them and I saw some unusual ways of gaining class attention very quickly. Differentiation was also evident in the Year 3 and 4 classes because the Learning Objectives were clearly defined and each task was relevant to the group/s of children.

MY TEACHING

As for my own teaching, I hadn’t done as much as I’d hoped. Having only 3 days a week in school and fitting in observations, planning and meetings, I did fit in quite a few. Guided Reading was a success because not only did it bring out some excellent speaking and listening skills from my 5 students but I was able to develop a series of lessons based on the tough subject of immigration. All of them responded well and came out of the lessons with new vocab, they realised that past and present is not that dissimilar, and their inference is much better.

I took a Maths lesson a week after Central Training on the subject. The starter was well received and the pace of the lesson and differentiation meant that every child learnt something. I could have done better with my plenary as well as explaining one of the tasks better but this is something that will come with experience and practice.

UNIVERSITY CENTRAL TRAINING

My University life has been very different. I have made a ton of friends, shared teaching experiences, given and taken plenty of advice, learnt a lot in a short space of time and have come away each week with a feeling that I am going to make it to July in one piece.

As you know I am a social butterfly, I do not stick to one group and like to give my opinions in class. Some people are either too shy or are just passengers in this rollercoaster ride and whilst that’s ok for them – I would rather say something even if it turns out I am wrong. Music and Maths were two of my favourite lessons so far. I like practical teaching and being an outgoing, and active person I hope to create a fun learning environment whenever possible. There will be times when silence is golden and independent work is needed but on the whole I believe people need to express themselves, share ideas and not be afraid to get things wrong. The sooner children learn that the better.

PLAN FOR THE NEAR FUTURE

My aim for Autumn 2 is to plan an entire Science unit based on Electricity, teach at least one Phonics lesson a week, assist in the planning of an excellent class assembly based on Remembrance Day, co-manage the school football teams, carry on with the Upper School choir and take part in a joint-schools concert in December, crackdown on the classroom behaviour, deliver both SEND and Behaviour Management presentations with my groups and finally, head into the Christmas holidays a lot more prepared for the 60% teaching.