Whilst the first couple of weeks at this school were chaotic, I grew to love this placement. I now definitely know what kind of school I want to work in. An inner-city multicultural school where I can make a difference. In other words in a school with hyperactive and disengaged pupils. Let’s hope I can bag one in the next month insha-allah.

We only have a few weeks back at Uni before we finish the PGCE. I’m going to put my feet up this half-term.

Class teacher was ill. So, I had to take the lesson with a supply teacher present. Like usual, I told them to just support as I would take responsibility of teaching. After the lesson, I conversed with the teacher about schools that they had covered lessons.

Continued coursework with year 10’s in the afternoon.

Tuesday

Had my final observation by my tutor from Uni. The lesson was good but could have been better in terms of assessment. I had a range of assessment strategies but totally forgot to execute them due to bad habits. Once again class teacher was away to deliver a presentation so I had a supply teacher present instead.

Wednesday

Year 7’s
Year 10’s…continued with coursework.

Thursday
Taught year 8’s and 7’s.
Really tired. I have no energy left. Need time to put my feet up. Hopefully, I can get some rest over the weekend.

Friday

Year 7s in the morning were so and so. One pupil continued to play up so I sent him out.
Really good lesson with my year 10s who just got on with the coursework. No problems.
Last period was crazy. Year 8’s were very loud and to be honest I wasn’t prepared for the lesson. Class teacher was out so I had a cover teacher in the class. One of the year 8s couldn’t shut her mouth so I has to send her out.

Monday
There was no CPD session in the morning thus I started the day with Year 10 continuing coursework.
ended the day with the Year 8’s where we…

Tuesday
Tuesday was PSHE, which stands for Physical Social and Health Education if you didn’t know. This means all lessons are cancelled for that day and pupils have all ay sessions with their tutor(s) as a form.

Wednesday
Started the day with Year 7’s. It was the first lesson back with them after the two-week spring break. Most pupils forgot how to calculate simple percentages this meant that I had to adjust the lesson and practice calculating percentages. The work I initially set was too difficult. So I resorted to a text book.

Moved on to teaching year 8’s and 10’s.

Thursday
NUT national strike. Pupils very happy to get another day off!

Friday
Taught year 7 in the morning. The pace of the lesson wasn’t as fast as I would’ve liked. Some of them also seemed to have forgotten the number of detentions they had with me in the previous term. Hence, I had to start dishing it out. Now it’s back to 1 hour long detentions after school. Suits me fine because I have got a lot of paper work to do next week.

Year 8
Chucked two pupils out. –> meeting the HoY 8.

Absolutely furious with myself today. Even though most pupils worked, I feel that this was the worst day I have had so far on the PGCE.

Targets for next week:

• Focus on pupil management.
• Demonstrate enough examples on board
• Don’t start until there is complete silence
• Give warnings, reiterate expectations, and explain what pupils are doing wrong.

• Taught lessons as usual.
• Year 8
• year 10

Tuesday

• Taught lessons as usual.
• Year 7

Wednesday

• Year 7
• Year 10 - Introduced coursework Mayfield school

Thursday

• Had an observation with Year 8
• Year 7 - assignment extension

Friday

• Coursework moderation day for teaching staff and teacher training for non-teaching staff.

Targets for the comings weeks:

• Lesson plans for first half of summer term
• Complete lesson evaluations

I’m really tired so I’ll leave it for now.

Tuesday - Yr 10, Yr 8

Wednesday - Yr 7 & table flipping incident.

Thursday - 7C & 8.4

Friday - Invigilated Year 8 mock SATs whole morning… Then went onto teaching Yr 8 in the afternoon.

5 teachers were out of the department today. You can imagine the result.
Had period 5 with my Year 10.

Tuesday

Taught Year 7 during period 1. Spent the rest of the day planning for my observation tomorrow.

Wednesday

My tutor came to observe me during period 2. My demonstration was the worst to date. However the pupils saved it by doing work.

Thursday

Went in the morning knowing that I have to have 3 observations at my placement by next Friday the 28th March 2008. So, I asked my mentor to observe me with the Year 7’s during period 4. He said okay. I had two periods free in the morning so I quickly planned my lesson. Will post an update of my feedback for the lesson. What I xcan say is that I got a lot more tough.

Friday

It’s Good Friday! And it’s good day off.

Targets for next week:

• Get 3 observations done
• Plan my lessons
• Begin to address required QTS targets

Targets for easter weekend:

• Read books
• Paperwork!!!
• Start asignment
• Focus on subject knowledge

Constructing a perpendicular bisector

To bisect angles

Euclidean Construction of a Segment Bisector

Euclidean Construction of an Angle Bisector

Tuesday… (to be continued)

Wednesday… During the professional studies session I received news of my tutor coming to observe me next week. (to be continued)

Thursday was Pupil Review Day. Being bilingual I could do much more than just listen in on tutors talking to parents. I made phone calls home, spoke directl to parents, and discussed and shared their concerns, if any, with their tutors. Although it got very repetitive as they day wore on it was still highly enjoyable. The fact that I didn’t have to teach any lessons on that day also helped!!!

My mentor told me that he met my (university) tutor at the conference, where he gave a presentation.

Started period 2 with my Year 7’s. The class teacher made a new seating plan. It was very effective. Pupils did a lot of work during the lesson despite the fact some of them did not like the seating arrangement. Finished the day with the Year 8’s in period 5. They were very lively! But what else can you expect on the last period of the week.

(This post will be updated over the weekend)

I took my first lesson with my Year 7’s on Tuesday.

Wednesday was world Maths day. So, we decided to have an ICT session with the class and go on to mathletics.com. Funnily, the network blocked the site. You could imagine how chaotic the session was as a result of pupils being unable to log onto the site. I supervised the class as the teacher ran up and down from the class to the ICT room trying to sort it out.

We ended the day with our second professional studies session of the week, where we discussed talking to parents and the advantages and disadvantages of parents only meeting the tutor as opposed to going round to different subject teachers on review day.

Rest of the week went quite fast with observations and teaching lessons.

Targets for next week:

• Year 10 lesson plans
• Year 7 lesson plans
• Pupil progress review day
• Weekly Training Plans
• Evaluations

What a difference!

From the moment I stepped into a class I could feel the difference compared to my first placement. Pupils throwing exercise books around, and running around like headless chicken.

Anyway, during my first professional studies session I learnt that not all “Outstanding” lessons need be “Wow” lessons in order to be classified as one by OFSTED. Any lesson where progress is made by all pupils can achieve that classification.

• Spent the first two days observing lessons.
• Met 5 other BTs from another University.
• Got to see all the classes that I’ll, eventually, take over on from Thursday.
• Spent an hour after school in the my first faculty meeting.
• Asking to be attached to the form group of the class that one is going to teach may not have been such a good idea.
• Also realised that I have to start building relationships with pupils again.

Overall, although I’ve had mixed vibes about the school. I somehow get the feeling that I’m going to have ‘fun’.