How many hours are there in a school week?
This question is one that seems to change from week to week and month to month. This last week has seemed like the longest week of my NQT year so far! From rehearsals for a musical to attending meetings and first aid staff training the week has been full and I'm not sure where the hours have come from...needless to say there is still not enough.
Currently I am completing reports for my class (quite an enjoyable task as it's my first time writing them), trying to make sure I fulfil all the qualified teacher standards and hoping to get started on the third module of my Masters. All of this work to do without even thinking about entering the classroom and educating the learners!
The funny thing is though I'm not really complaining about the workload, in fact I rather enjoy having a lot to do...it makes me feel useful. This post is more of an observation that in teaching there are times when the week is short and other times when the week never really seems to end! This is perhaps the reason why teachers look forward to the Summer holidays.
How do you write a high quality school report?
With only four weeks left till the end of my first academic year as a teacher my thoughts and spare time are currently filled with report writing.
This is the first year I will write reports and my only real experience of reports thus far is the one's I received! I can rememeber that I used to be excited about opening my report as they were generally quite good and it was important to me that the feedback given was an accurate representation of what I had achieved over the year.
In writing reports this year I am planning to do the following things,
1.) Update all learners score on INCERTS so that they have targets related to the national curriculum standards.
2.) Look at each learners report from last year as a clue to how to write reports this year (last year there was no complaints from parents).
3.) Write a personalised statement for each area of the report. I did this on parents evening and felt the information I gave was accurate and representative.
4.) Avoid copying and pasting.
5.) Get all reports proof read by the other more experienced KS2 teacher in order to avoid any unnecessary errors being sent out!
Any other tips greatly appreciated!
Is singing in school important?
One of the big events for my school this half term is the Ruthin Festival where learners will be performing Queen songs. They only have a couple of weeks to practice to be ready to perform to around 100 people. So I plan for the learners to sing everyday in preparation.
The learners seem to genuinely like the songs they are singing which is a bonus however they are far too quiet at the moment and need to raise their volume. I have previously identified a weakness in my ability to deliver music and singing lessons so it was good to observe a music specialist earlier in the week. I believe the key in getting children loud and confident is to sing loudly and confidently yourself and if you do that the competence should come.
A few months ago I observed a teacher at a different school and she said that children should sing every day. I would say that at the moment we only sing when we have a performance to prepare for. Certainly singing is a good way of remembering and a secondary school language teacher I know still sings with his Year 11's. Perhaps I could build singing into the timetable as a daily welsh practice before lunch or before the end of the day.
Your thoughts appreciated...
