Week 11, rotations, cultural celebrations and peer assessments...

Monday, the year 8s had their rotation so I got a brand new class and I had been given the responsibility to take them from the start. I got their class list and there are quite a few SEN students and students with behavioural issues so I decided to make a seating plan. I started the lesson by going over health and safety in the workshop then spoke to them about mechanisms. I went through a powerpoint and put together a worksheet that we could all go through together as a class. I questioned the class throughout using formative assessment I tested their understanding. The students were then shown a how to make ‘the mouth’ paper mechanism and given a design brief to make a Christmas card using the mechanism. I left the lesson feeling really unsure as to how it went there were good points and pretty bad points, the thing I definitely took from the lesson however was that I really need to work on my behaviour management, I am struggling to keep their attention and really need to work on that.

 

Tuesday I had to take a day off school for a not so fun reason so I’ll skip straight onto Wednesday and the year 8 textiles, again because of the rotation there was a new class. Their teacher did the first part of the lesson by introducing their workbooks and telling them about their new project; making a cushion with surface designs inspired by cultural celebration. I took the second half and spoke to them about getting inspiration and about going from inspiration to design ideas. I told them about how obviously when thinking of countries people think of flags and we don’t want 22 cushions churned out with flags on. I explained to them how to draw inspiration from a flag by getting them to think about the colours, the shapes and the symbols and how they could make them into a new image. I found a great image off the internet that I think got the point across. It features stars and stripes and the colours red, white and blue however it is not the American flag but you can tell which country it is trying to portray. 

That afternoon we had professional studies ran by the music teacher who was running a session on voice coaching. We had a similar session at Goldsmiths a while ago from a drama teacher. It was all about finding different ways of getting the students attention so you don’t have to shout and if you do need to shout we were taught techniques of how to shout from your stomach and not your throat as to preserve your voice. My throat has been killing recently I’m not sure whether it is from shouting or from the cold that seems to be sneaking up on me but either way I will be taking her advice.

Thursday I spent the day at a Primary School, we have to do this to see how the year 6 students are prepared for their transition into Secondary School. I visited a school in Hackney, it was a new building, only two years old and was really beautiful. The corridors and classrooms where so spacious and with big windows they were so light. The students at this school do not have to wear uniform and can call the teachers by their first name which I found a bit strange. The year 6 class I was sitting in on was being covered by the head teacher of the school and the students were even calling him by his first name. I asked one of the teachers about this at lunchtime and she explained to me that they see uniforms and calling teacher’s sir and miss or Mr and Mrs whoever… is too strict and too military and doesn’t provide a good atmosphere in the school. I’m not sure I agree with this and I definitely feel that the year 6 students from a school like this will struggle when moving into a secondary school with these rules and restrictions.  I spent the afternoon with the year 3 students who were doing arts and crafts; this was really fun and good to see the difference in how creative studies are taught in Primary. I really liked one of the systems they had in place for behaviour management however. They had a big poster on the wall with little pockets on, on each of the pockets was the students names. All the students start with a green card in their pocket if they are rewarded throughout the day their cards go up from green to bronze to silver to gold and of course they can go down too. If students are behaving badly or are late their card goes down through the colours to red being the worst. I really enjoyed my day but left knowing that I am glad I went into Secondary teaching and not Primary, it’s definitely not for me.

 

Friday at Goldsmiths we were put in groups to talk about our PARPA projects. We were put into small groups who are to be our peer assessment groups now until January. We used this day to talk about what we have done so far and got advice on what we need to do and where we go from here. It was really helpful and I feel a bit more on track with it now, will be testing mine out on Monday so will see how that goes…

Week 10, inventions, countersinkig and the NEC...

Monday was my first experience of really taking a class in terms of I had complete control with what I wanted to teach them and what I would like them to do. It was the last lesson of the year 8s pop up book project before they move onto textiles so for the first part of the lesson they were self-assessing their finished books and handing in all their work. I then did a short presentation recapping what they had learned from their project and then showed them a really short youtube clip of Wallace and Gromit at their best playing around with inventions. I explained that I would like the students to in groups design their own invention thinking about all the mechanism and motions they had learned over the past few weeks. They seemed to really enjoy this mini project and some of the results were great! Some students made card models and had thoroughly thought about each part of their invention. However one big issue from the lesson was I realised I really need to work on my behaviour management, they are a good class and got on well with their work but when it came to me talking to them and students presenting their work to each other I found it hard to keep the class silent. I spoke to my mentor about this, she gave me some good advice and I will try a few different methods when I get my new year 8s next week. 

 

 

Tuesday I started with my year 7s and their wooden trinket boxes, I did a demo of how to paint their boxes to a quality finish then let them get on with it. I thought the lesson went really well and my time management is definitely getting better. That afternoon I had the year 9s and their children’s toy project. I did a demo of how to countersink screws which again like the year 7 class went well. I still think I talk to much when doing my demos which eats into the students practical time so will need to keep working on that. Other than that the lesson went well so I went home on Tuesday feeling quite pleased with myself.

Wednesday I was back with textiles. It was also their last lesson of their cushion project so they were finishing their products and self assessing. I am still not feeling too confident with the textiles classes so decided to just observe and help out again. Most of the student finished and actually looked really good. I was impressed with some of the effort students had gone to, above and beyond what was asked of them. I spoke to the textiles teacher about the lesson next week with the new class of year 8s. We decided I would take the second half of the 2 hours lesson and talk to them about inspiration and initial designs. That afternoon we had professional studies which was all about behaviour management, rather handy for me as that is what I have discovered I really need to work on this week. The two guys who came in to talk to us were great. They are teachers at a school down the road and gave us some great hints and tips and some brilliant stories from when they were training. It was great to get to talk to all the other trainee teachers about this and nice to know others were finding it hard also.

Thursday I took the other year 9 class also doing the children’s toy project. I did my countersinking demo again which was definiately my best demo so far. I felt really pleased with how it went. I was organised, prepared and managed to not talk and talk and talk to them taking up most of the lesson. It was precise and quick and they seemed to understand so that’s also a plus! Still a couple of things to work on but I feel like I am getting there. Later that day I gave a short presentation to a year 12 class about what the design world is like after school. I spoke about presenting to clients, dealing with harsh criticism, handling open briefs and various other things. This seemed to prove quite useful to some of the students, I spoke to a few of them one on one later that lesson and some of the things I had talked about they had started really thinking about and thought about how they could add various things to their coursework to step up the grades. I then had a meeting with my mentor after school. She looked at my lesson plans and gave me good advice on how to improve. I need to add in more specific terms about questioning and assessment, she also told me how to link my lesson plans to the curriculum, the schemes of work and my Qualified Teacher Status points.

Friday we were asked to get up bright and early and be at Goldsmiths for 7.15am. We all met up looking rather sleepy and not so enthusiastic and eventually boarded a coach heading to Birmingham. We were off to the NEC to visit the Design and Technology show. Due to a bit of a strange coach driver who had to ask for directions it took a long time to get there, so we arrived around 12. There were a lot of laser cutters and 3D printers and only really a few that were of any interest to me. I was particularly impressed with a company who had come up with a conductive paint along with educational packs you can use at schools. They had an example on their wall; paintings of instruments which when you touched them their sound was played. I was also really impressed with the Dyson stand and the educational pack they loan out to schools. I spoke to the Craft Council about knitting clubs, I have to teach textiles up to key stage 3 in schools but other than wool and knitting I don’t know much about textiles and don’t have much interest in teaching it. They don’t teach knitting in school but the Craft Council have come up with after school knitting club that are run by the WI and it sounds brilliant so will look into how to get that started if I can in my second school placement or if not then I will when I am in my first proper teaching job.

Week 9, highs, lows and laser cutters...

Monday morning yet again…Miss Milne was away this particular Monday morning so I had to take form on my own, well with a cover teacher in the room as with being a PGCE student I am not allowed to be in a classroom on my own yet. I have been in school for a month now so know quite well how form is run on Monday mornings. Silent reading, check they have had their planners signed and read out any announcements. It all went quite well although I am finding that when Miss Milne isn’t there they tend to act up a bit and don’t always respond when I ask them to be quiet. I think they are aware that I am not technically a teacher so seem less bothered when I tell them off. Silent reading therefore was not so silent but they didn’t behave too badly and would quiet down when I asked. I then went off to the year 8s again as always on a Monday morning where they were finishing off their pop-up books. I was asked to give them a quick demo of how to safely use a Stanley knife for cutting card. The class were then just getting on with their books and didn’t really need any help so Chrissy asked if I would like to try out some marking. She gave me coursework from two year 11s, one was of a high standard and one of a low standard and whilst referencing to a GCSE leveling sheet she asked me to mark the first two sections. She had already marked them so when I was finished we compared our results to see if I was doing it right. There were fairly close although I seemed to be too harsh in parts and too generous in others, it was good practise though.

 

Tuesday started with my form having assembly with the theme being Remembrance Day and the importance of the Poppy. I then had a year 7 lesson where Yazz asked me to do another demo. My previous demos for the year 7s had gone pretty well so I had gone into the lesson feeling confident…mistake. I should have listened to Yazz, no two lesson are the same and always be prepared. My demo went horribly wrong with my biggest mistake being not prepared. It should have been easy and taken 5 minutes however due to my mistakes I confused the students and talked for about 20 minutes eating away at their practical time. The silver lining from this epic fail is I now know first hand what not to do and can greatly learn from this. Tuesday afternoon, Yazz and Chrissy were off timetable so had organized cover teachers for their lessons however I asked if I could still go along and take the lessons anyway. I had Year 9 first working on their children’s toys in groups. They had been moved to a different classroom and knew they were having a cover teacher, a recipe for bad behaviour. I gave them their tasks to do and tried out my behaviour management skills as the class where playing up from the start. I sat one student on his own after he was persistently being distracting to other students and was impressed when he spent the rest of the lesson getting on with his work in silence. The lesson didn’t go too badly I left feeling I had much work to do with my behaviour management skills but feeling quite proud of how I handled the situation. I then had the Year 10 class also being covered. They were in their normal classroom, a small and really nice group. I had the lesson for them well prepared and it all went smoothly.

Wednesday I decided to get my form to do silent reading again as they had failed to be silent for me on Monday, this seemed to make them realise that although I am not technically a teacher I can still enforce rules and punishments. They were quieter than I had ever seen them. I then had my second textiles class where I was now more prepared to deal with the students with SEN as I had looked up their needs. I was still just observing so the lesson was spent helping out where needed and speaking to students about their work. I had professional studies that afternoon about school councils and how valuable they are to schools, I will take what I had learned from the session and make sure I work on the importance of ‘student voice’ in my form. I then decided to take the year 7 class again who I had the bad lesson with the day before. I don’t usually take this lesson but felt I needed to redeem myself. Yazz let me take the whole class from start to finish and told me to focus on my time management bearing in mind the class tend to be quite slow in packing away. The lesson went much better than the day before but there are still areas I need to work on, preparation still being my problem so I have organised time to work on this when Yazz is free. 

Thursday I spent some time with Yazz who showed me how to change the blades on the three different scroll saws she has in her workshop and spoke to some of the year 12s about their projects. In the afternoon Chrissy had asked if I would do a short presentation for the year 11s about social and environmental issues when designing products so I whipped up my first Powerpoint which took me about 6 hours to do 6 slides due to my slight OCD in regards to choosing a suitable font and making sure all the images where the same size and in line with each other. My presentation went pretty well and the students actually took notes which was great to see. I spent the rest of the lesson helping students out with their projects and coursework.

 

Friday, back at Goldsmiths we played about with 2D design, another programme schools use as it is free but is so outdated and actually really annoying to use. However 2D design links really well with laser cutters which is what the session was all about. We learned a lot about the laser cutter and I now really want one of my own in my flat shame they cost rather a lot of money! We made a small design on 2D then sent the file to be laser cut. I decided to make a little present for my boyfriend who I’m sure is getting a bit sick of all the stuff I keep bringing home from the workshops. It is really cool to watch the laser go and the results are brilliant. There is a laser cutter at my school that the students are currently doing a project where they will be using it, I feel a lot more confident in teaching the students about it now. We were then shown the 3D printers which I am quite familiar with already having used one at University where I printed off a model I had made on Maya but no matter how much I already know about the process it’s still pretty impressive what you can do.

Lonely London Bikes...

I had an idea a while ago about a photography project I would like to do. I find it quite sad seeing bikes locked up around London which are broken or have had parts stolen rendering them useless. I have a tendency to add personalities to inanimate objects and that is how I came up with the idea. I think the bikes look really sad and lonely now their owner has decided they no longer want them so leave them abandoned on the streets of London. This is my first shot and a bit of a tester, more to come...

Autumn...

Week 8, belt sanders and orthographics...

Back to school after half term and feeling (not so) refreshed I spent Monday shadowing a year 7 student for the day so I could get a feel for their typical school day and how they get on with adjusting from Primary to secondary school. I sat in on History, English, Music and Drama. The lessons were all similar in terms of structure; all teachers used starter, main, plenary and the same sort of behavioural methods. The countdown with a raised hand seems to be most commonly used and most effective. I really enjoyed sitting in on the Music lesson the teacher was brilliant. Starting off with a clapping game where students were eliminated if they were wrong got the students really excited especially when the teacher said the winner would get a reward. The students then gathered round the Piano as the teacher started to play, they suddenly broke into Adele – Rolling in the Deep. It was brilliant, a current song so the students were clearly enjoying it and wanting to sing along. She got the boys and girls to sing different parts to create a harmony then instructed whilst still in song ‘louder’, ‘now really quiet’, ‘now in cockney’. The students loved it, all the students who I had seen acting up and not paying attention in previous lesson were now joining in and behaving as good as gold. Overall I got a really good feel for a typical school day; the difference in behaviour and teaching in non practical and practical lessons was particularly useful to me as I need to know how to teach effectively in both situations.

Tuesday, I went into my year 7 class with Yazz who I did a starter with before half term thinking this lesson I would just be observing and helping out if needed. However Yazz insisted that I brought them in from outside and took the register again so they see me as their teacher as well. I then did a demonstration for them, they are still making their boxes out of Plywood and some of them have gotten to a point where they need to sand down their edges. So I showed them how to use the belt sander. They were all familiar with sandpaper and seemed to get the gist pretty quickly as to what the belt sander was and how it worked. I went over all the health and safety and did a quick demo for them, some of them seemed quite scared by the machine so I ensured them that this was fine and it they didn’t feel confident using it I could show them again one to one. They then got on with finishing their boxes and I spent the lesson checking everyone was getting on all right and helping out where needed. Later that afternoon I also did a starter for a year 9 class. I again brought them in from outside, took the register and explained that I would be doing a quick demonstration for them before they got on with things. They are working in groups designing and making children’s toys, they have just about finished making prototypes so it was a perfect opportunity for me to introduce them to orthographic drawings. I gathered them around a table and showed them by drawing on a set out piece of paper how it was done, they seemed a bit confused so I got a radio down from a shelf and showed them with that so they could see how the drawing made sense with the physical object. This seemed to make more sense to them and they all got on with it. I didn’t feel like it went very well despite the students getting on with their drawings with no real confusion and Yazz telling me she thought it went well. Yazz then decided that maybe I should try and improve on the demonstration and try again with her other year 9 class later in the week. After school there was a department meeting so I got to meet the textiles and food tech teachers as well as the art teachers. The meeting was a great opportunity to see how a department works and how they link together in their learning aims and objectives and their assessment.

Wednesday, I observed my first textiles lesson. I was quite nervous, as I know I am going to have to teach them in a few weeks and I am really not confident in the subject, as I don’t know too much about it. I voiced these concerns with the teacher who talked me through all the schemes of work and said she can run through a lot of the things that are taught with me.  It is a year 8 class, they are making cushions and this lesson were getting on with decorating the front of them. The students are all pretty good on the sewing machines and have starting using a lot of different techniques. The theme of the cushions is cultural celebrations so the students decide on a country they are interested and their research and designs go from there. There were some really nice ideas in the group and some really talented students. This was the first real lesson I have been in where a few of the students had obvious Special Educational Needs so there was a Teaching Assistant in the classroom too. The TA spent most of the lesson with a boy with cerebral palsy who was in a wheelchair. The other students were very supportive of him and I quite often saw students go over to him and praise him on his work. One of the sewing machines was fitted with special equipment which meant he didn’t need to use the foot pedal he could use the machine just with his hands. Other students had issues which meant they needed constant reassurance of behaving well and doing their work well, they also got really angry and frustrated when their work went wrong. It was really lovely to see other students give them support and help them out. It also showed me how to effectively manage a class where there are students with all kinds of different needs. We had a professional studies session in the afternoon about how to deal with students who have suffered a loss whether it be a death in the family, divorce or even family members in prison. We were told effective ways to pick up on if a child is dealing with something and not talking about it and how to help them. School then closed early as there was an open evening for potential 6^th formers. I went back over to my department to help set their classroom up then went home.

Thursday School started a bit later than normal but I got in early for my weekly mentor meeting. We had a lot to talk about so I ended up have to come back after morning form. We discussed the classes I will be taking over and what lessons I need to plan. We also discussed my PARPA assignment as I had come up with some ideas of how I could incorporate it into the year 8 project. Chrissy seemed to think it was a great idea so I have started planning that. We also discussed how I had been getting on at Davenant, she gave me a glowing report so I definitely feel more confident now and am excited to start teaching whole lessons. It was then time to try my orthographic drawing demonstration with the other year 9 class of Yazzs. I felt it went much better this time, the fact that I came well prepared helped. I brought in the boat we had made a few weeks ago in the workshop and did the orthographic drawing of it in front of them so they could clearly relate the physical object with the drawing. They seemed to understand much more quickly so I let them get on with it for about 15 minutes before stopping them again to explain about cutting list. I felt really comfortable when teaching this class so left feeling confident and eager to teach some more.

Friday as always was spent back at Goldsmiths where I didn’t have the best days. First off I turned up at 10 as we usually do only to find that we were actually in at 9, there had been a forum set up and this information was on there but for some reason my Goldsmiths account has disabled emails from this forum I never knew existed so did not get the message the majority of the class seemed to. Anyway I headed off to the library with a small group for a session in 3D modelling using Prodesktop which is terrible but predominately used in schools and Rhino which is much better and similar to Maya which I used a lot at University so got the hang of quite quickly.