Okay, so this week I am seriously tired!! I taught all day on Wednesday and am really paying for it now!! It was the first time and I did mostly practical activities all day! We made bread in Maths/Science using measuring and micro-organisms units, it was just for the record, absolutely fantastic bread, which I even ate having ensured the children scrubbed theri hands and the tables first!! The children did it all themselves and did a fantastic job! Anyway, in English we did hotseating as Captain Cook and Decision Alley, which was a useful drama skill, that I will use again in a more developed method in the future. The children in my class are really inexperienced at thinking for themselves and making their own decisions. This kind of activity really benefits their skills development. I then did more Science with another experiment and then writing it up and then RE which is currently the topic of weddings and the children made their own Order fo Service. In Science I used the digital microscope for the first time, it was okay, but not as good at detail as I would have liked it to be, the children got a bit frustrated that it wasn't in more detail.
One of the schools targets this term, actually their main target is thinking skills, so I've been doing a lot of work on this, including a good lesson today. I taught English after break and when the children came in I had all the curtains closed and the lights off and I was playing mysterious music through the computer and a PowerPoint continuous slideshow of Easter Island images. The children came in and sat silently as they ate their fruit snack looking at the images and then had to write at least 10 questions that they would like answered about the images. They came up with some fantastic ideas.
Tomorrow I am going to use Google Earth to show the children where Easter Island is and where some of the Moai are located and some of Australia too. This is a good tool to use to show the children what other environments look like.
Anyway, over and out!!
Thursday, 24 January 2008
W/e 20/01/08
Okay, so week 2 of the placement has gone well too! I have still been using IWB for most of my lessons, but pretty much the same as last week, Powerpoints, which is actually really good as I wasn't overly thrilled with them before. I have been teaching Maths all week, as well as Science for 2 hours and RE. In RE we watched a video of a wedding ceremony, which was a good use of ICT.
I have started to do my lesson plans on the computer too.
One of my favourite things that I did this week was create some questions for a Captain Cook comprehension, that was really fun and I felt like I had created a really valuable resource.
I find that I use the internet a lot in my research for resources and lesson topic ideas, but that I also waste a considerable about of time at the same time. It takes me ages to find things that I could use and then I end up most of the time still having to make them for myself anyway, so I've started to spend less time doing this as I am working until about 10-10.30 most nights as it is!!
On that note I'm tired and have to write another one of these and still look at the lesson I have planned for my observation!! Night!
I have started to do my lesson plans on the computer too.
One of my favourite things that I did this week was create some questions for a Captain Cook comprehension, that was really fun and I felt like I had created a really valuable resource.
I find that I use the internet a lot in my research for resources and lesson topic ideas, but that I also waste a considerable about of time at the same time. It takes me ages to find things that I could use and then I end up most of the time still having to make them for myself anyway, so I've started to spend less time doing this as I am working until about 10-10.30 most nights as it is!!
On that note I'm tired and have to write another one of these and still look at the lesson I have planned for my observation!! Night!
Monday, 14 January 2008
1st Week of SBT1 Block Placement
Well it is a day into the new week, but it slipped my mind at the weekend, so I'm a couple of days late, but I have lots to say!
It seems like ages since I last wrote. I've had a very relaxing Christmas and New Year in between, but by the time the 3rd January was here I was itching just to get on with it and by my first day on 7th January I was almost climbing walls!! So day 1 was an Inset day, which I must say was an experience!! I always used to think Inset days were great - a day off school - not anymore!!!
Day 2 was as my CTM put it a Baptism of Fire!!! The children were rather excitable and the hour and a half lesson after lunch on Science was a very sharp learning curve! Luckily I have a fantastic CTM, who was able to reasure me that it hadn't been a total disaster, that I could take positives from it and build on it the next day. Luckily the next day was a huge improvement and rebuilt my confidence nicely and I've kept on going up since then.
I've just had my observation today and my Link Tutor said she was impressed at my ICT useage in the classroom, which I thought you'd be happy with!! I've been creating my own PowerPoint's and Word documents to put on the IWB, as well as using it in almost every lesson I teach to demonstrate things to the children. I have also used a digital camera with them, which they found quite exciting and I am hoping to use the digital microscope in a Science lesson, but I need to still improve my behaviour management before I attempt that. I have also played some games and quizzes with them on the IWB, BBC Science Clips is very good.
We have also looked at photographs, of my wedding for an RE topic that I am teaching and my friends photos of Africa in a Geography lesson, the children were mesmerised by these and their behaviour was fantastic, which shows just how engaged ICT can make them with a topic.
My CMT took away his white board just before Christmas, so it has really helped me to use the IWB as a fantastic teaching tool. However the children only get 30 minutes a week in the ICT 'suite' which I think is too little in todays world, where they would be hugely benefited by having increased accessibility in the classroom. There have been some lessons that I would have loved to have a computer for each child so they could research something, or make a presentation to show the class. However the classroom does have 3 computers in it, which is more than most, so I shouldn't complain.... but I will, after all we want the best for these children, otherwise we wouldn't be here.
Over and out until next week!
It seems like ages since I last wrote. I've had a very relaxing Christmas and New Year in between, but by the time the 3rd January was here I was itching just to get on with it and by my first day on 7th January I was almost climbing walls!! So day 1 was an Inset day, which I must say was an experience!! I always used to think Inset days were great - a day off school - not anymore!!!
Day 2 was as my CTM put it a Baptism of Fire!!! The children were rather excitable and the hour and a half lesson after lunch on Science was a very sharp learning curve! Luckily I have a fantastic CTM, who was able to reasure me that it hadn't been a total disaster, that I could take positives from it and build on it the next day. Luckily the next day was a huge improvement and rebuilt my confidence nicely and I've kept on going up since then.
I've just had my observation today and my Link Tutor said she was impressed at my ICT useage in the classroom, which I thought you'd be happy with!! I've been creating my own PowerPoint's and Word documents to put on the IWB, as well as using it in almost every lesson I teach to demonstrate things to the children. I have also used a digital camera with them, which they found quite exciting and I am hoping to use the digital microscope in a Science lesson, but I need to still improve my behaviour management before I attempt that. I have also played some games and quizzes with them on the IWB, BBC Science Clips is very good.
We have also looked at photographs, of my wedding for an RE topic that I am teaching and my friends photos of Africa in a Geography lesson, the children were mesmerised by these and their behaviour was fantastic, which shows just how engaged ICT can make them with a topic.
My CMT took away his white board just before Christmas, so it has really helped me to use the IWB as a fantastic teaching tool. However the children only get 30 minutes a week in the ICT 'suite' which I think is too little in todays world, where they would be hugely benefited by having increased accessibility in the classroom. There have been some lessons that I would have loved to have a computer for each child so they could research something, or make a presentation to show the class. However the classroom does have 3 computers in it, which is more than most, so I shouldn't complain.... but I will, after all we want the best for these children, otherwise we wouldn't be here.
Over and out until next week!
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