So my first year in teaching has come to a close and this post is an opportunity to reflect on the lessons learnt and recall some of the key experiences that I have had.
Lesson 1 - There is a lot of work to cover
The amount of time I took over the first topic in maths was unnecessary and I quickly learnt to keep things moving. This is where effective mid term and long term planning come into play and I hope to plan more effectively over the long term next year.
Lesson 2 - Christmas is chaos
I didn't notice during my PGCE because I had a year 3/4 class who had to learn some songs to support year 5/6 but little else. Last Christmas I had to try and get every learner up on stage saying a line, dancing, singing and by the end of it I felt like Andrew Lloyd Webber! A fantastic experience and lots of good learning opportunities but my plan's were ripped to shreds with the Christmas related activities being completed.
Lesson 3 - The MEP is hard work (really hard!)
I think everyone who started the Masters in Educational Practice was under no illusion that it would be a lot of work however the amount of time that you need to devote to it is greater than expected. It is key to manage your time effectively and prioritise however the content has generally been interesting and the professional development is good.
Lesson 4 - Join a union
Although I joined all the unions during my PGCE I saw them as sort of an insurance policy in case things go wrong. This is not the case they are so much more giving members an opportunity to discuss and bring to the media and governments attention issues in education. They are also a great source of professional development and networking. The ATL conference I attended over the Easter holidays was a great learning experience and gave me the opportunity to talk about pay on stage in front of at least 200 other teachers and teaching staff!
Lesson 5 - The summer term is not a breeze!
My previous experience of summer has involved sports day's, trips out and playing rounder's in the sunshine. Although all of that happened again and was as always great fun this year I also had reports to write! These took at least 30 minutes each for 29 learners and seemed to hang around for ages as we added in attendance and results from the LNF tests. I enjoyed writing the reports it just took a long, long time to complete!
Last Friday we sat all the learners in KS2 down and asked them to think of all the problems that they faced in the school day. Lots of them mentioned that they felt unsafe on the yard and that they felt as though they were often being called names and hurt be each other. We then asked the learners to come up with a number of solutions to their problems. The solutions suggested included a new approach to problems on the yard, a ban on play fighting and a new thoughts box (where learners can post happy or negative thoughts knowing that the staff will read them). The important thing was that these solutions were suggested by the learners themselves and therefore they have ownership over them. It is their responsibility to put these into practice and monitor them.
After the first week of this intervention it is difficult to tell how well the new strategies are working. Certainly there have been no major incidences this week however the idea is not to tackle major incidences but to improve overall behaviour of all learners.
Your thoughts on this approach to behaviour management are much appreciated.
Can I teach an outstanding lesson every day?
A little while ago an experienced teacher mentioned to be what may be a trade secret..."try and teach one outstanding lesson every day and the rest will fall into place". Recently I have been trying to incorparate this idea into my planning making sure the learners make progress in every lesson but also doing my best to teach one lesson every day I am proud off.
This week's lessons have included at one end of the scale a successful maths lesson where learners showed high levels of engagement in a well differentiated outdoor lesson learning about angles. To a science lesson today where the starter didn't really take off and although the learners did make progress I wasn't proud of the overall learning that took place.
Twitter is a good way of posting ideas down and getting excited about one lesson a day (yes we should be excited about every lesson but is that possible...) and posting about what I am looking forward to in the school day.
I hope to teach more outstanding lessons next week!
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...
Should we reward learners behaviour with an end of term party?
I like many other teachers have recently become interested in the homework menu. Learners select the homework task they wish to tackle and in the case of the menu I used, select the difficulty based on a Nando's hotness indicator. When I gave learners the homework menu 8 weeks ago I stated that if they completed a homework every week and at least 2 extra hot homework's they would be rewarded with a Mexican style party.
The quality of the homework before using the menu was high but I believe the quality and quantity has improved due to its use. Nearly all the learners completed the 8 homework's including at least 2 extra hot ones. The only learners who did not complete the required amount were learners from backgrounds where it is difficult to complete work at home. This in itself brings issues as it would be morally wrong to not allow these learners to enjoy the party even though they have not completed the required task. I considered spending time at lunch helping them complete homework however decided against it for now.
Last Friday was the day of the party and after a morning of lessons I donned my poncho and sombrero and following their lunch break welcomed the learners into a Mexican classroom. There was a lot of excitement generated with learners answering the register with "Ole!" and "Arriba!" while I remained in character throughout. I set out three different areas including dancing, art and craft and party games and asked the learners to remind me why we were having a party.
Naturally due to the learners enthusiasm and my own the party was quite loud and I hope that it didn't prevent our headteacher from completing any work. I do however feel that on balance there were a number of skills developed through the party as well as showing learners that if they work hard it will be recognised.
What do you think? Are party's a good idea as a reward?
