creativechris

[creativechris]

Now here’s a wacky resource... Google Doodles! 🔍💻

It’s not something I even considered being useful but Google Doodles (that thing on the start screen of google where the logo is always different). And the best thing is, if you click on them, it opens opportunities for research! 

But why I’m really talking about this is the interactive ones.

For example, this one is all about coding and does a great job at breaking it down with this fun little game with a bunny. This would have been perfect for placement!!

You can find the interactive Google Doodles here: https://www.google.com/doodles?q=interactive

Or if you click the “I’m feeling lucky” button on the search page of Google, you can find them there too!

The only drawback is, “’I’m feeling lucky” may be blocked in the school you work at (this won’t always be the case but it’s good to be aware of this). 

- Christopher

[creativechris]

Theory: Growth Mindset ⚗️

Carol Dweck

What is it?

There are two main types of mindset. The first is a fixed mindset where the children believe if they are good at something it will always be that way and if they are bad at something, it will never change. The second is a growth mindset which is when a child believes the amount of effort and enthusiasm they put in to a task determines how successful you will become. It pretty much means, never giving up and finding a way to overcome a challenge (e.g. asking for help, taking a break and coming back to the task later or finding a new strategy). It also celebrates learning from mistakes.

Key points:

Making mistakes help us learn and they are nothing to be ashamed of.

It’s okay to ask for help from others - it is encouraged!

Just because you can’t do something, doesn’t mean it will never be possible if you put your mind to it.

Celebrate effort rather than grades/success.

Experience

Fixed Mindset - When I was younger, I felt I was very good at Maths because I found it easy. I believed I was good at it because some people are and some people struggle. I learned the hard way that the students who were hard workers started to overtake me in terms of success because they asked for help and they weren’t afraid of failure. I had a fixed mindset in terms of Maths but now I realise that questions are okay and it’s okay to not be perfect at Maths so long as you try your best.

Growth Mindset - I did not try to pretend I was a brilliant student during placement. I made it clear when I was nervous about a task or unsure of something. In other words, I wasn’t afraid to look stupid. I had an open mind and wanted to learn (no I really did). 

Learning from mistakes - At work, I make and have made quite a few silly mistakes such as forgetting my work ID or being asked to find something very easy to find and being unsuccessful. I now know where things are and how things run at work and because I’ve made the mistake, I have been able to properly explain how to do something to others because I can explain the things that could go wrong and how to overcome them. So perhaps, it makes me a better teacher.

More to look at... 

Carol Dweck: "The Growth Mindset" | Talks at Google - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-71zdXCMU6A (it’s 45 minutes but it’s quite easy to listen to in the background while you’re doing something else)

Growth Mindset for students - Episode 1/5 (ClassDojo) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zrtHt3bBmQ (we showed these episodes to the children during placement and I think it does the best job at explaining growth mindset)

How to develop a positive mindset | Growth Mindset | BBC Teach - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRQkxeBDEF0 (this one is similar to the ClassDojo videos but still an interesting watch as it shows the visual representation of fixed and growth mindset)

- Christopher

[creativechris]

Why I’m Switching to Google Drive 💾

😅 Time management has been an issue since the very beginning of university and this year, I am clamping down on everything that has caused this. This includes: starting to read on the bus (even textbooks) and taking my assignments to work with me. After placement, I discovered how useful a certain app could be for achieving this. It goes by the name “Google Drive” and I think this might just “change the game” for me. Here’s why:

1. Assignments

The website we have for university is modern but on both my computer and phone, the website is quite slow and it’s a tedious process trying to get to your assignment descriptors. However, Google Drive is super quick and it’s easy to find what you’re looking for (even without the internet)

So, from now on, I will be copying all the descriptors into the drive and making a checklist for them all. This way all the documents will be really easy to find and they will be organised in a way I understand. And what’s more, I can access these on-the-go on my phone so this should save me loads of time as I won’t have to wait until I get home to check the descriptor.

2. Assessments

I worked out a very useful strategy last semester. If I look ahead to the assessment success criteria and link back to it every week, I effectively have all the key information I need to pass the course. The problem last year was I only could access this on the handbook on my computer or on the website. 

But.... not anymore! If I copy the assessment success criteria for each course onto the drive, I can easily access them too! I could also take a note of references on the drive to use in the actual essay which would life a lot easier. Happy days  😄

3. Timetables

It happens so often at university. When I forget where I am going for my next class, it is such a struggle to look up MyTimetable on my phone but like I say, this app is so much quicker, so I can now just copy over my timetable onto the drive and access it from there! Also, I can edit the timetable easily if there are any changes further down the line. 

4. Checklists

Checklists always come into the way I manage my work. ALWAYS. The only issue with them is, I sometimes struggle to keep up with them as they’re in a ring binder at home or saved somewhere on my computer. 

Using the drive, I can keep track of my to-do-list quite easily. 

Also, you can make an interactive checklist on Google Drive. Take a look... https://www.controlaltachieve.com/2016/06/docs-checklists.html

5. Sharing is caring

This came in so useful during placement! Be able to share with others means I can work on different computers or accounts. Once again, life is a lot easier and I can do it by simply tapping a button on my phone. I can also share notes with friends without going into my files. It’s also perfect for working on group projects.

6. It’s saving the environment

Recently, I have got very passionate about reducing the amount of materials I use and because this is an app, it wouldn’t be wasting any paper.

---

Let’s hope this new strategy saves me a bit of stress for the next semester. Wish me luck  😅

- Christopher

[creativechris]

What Happened on Placement!? 👨‍🏫

After 5 weeks, my first primary school experience is over! But what did I learn?

Two Stars and a Wish

So what went well and what could be improved?

🌟 I’m up for anything (even if it’s out my comfort zone)

It was tricky to do at first but after a while, I began to get used to taking more responsibility and doing things such as taking the line in very early on so I could develop more. My supporting teacher was impressed with my enthusiasm and willingness to try new things.

🌟 AifL is my calling!

Assessment is for Learning allows a teacher to see how well the children are doing with a task or how much they understand. I used an abundance of strategies for AifL including lollipop sticks, turning to a shoulder partner to discuss an answer, showing thumbs to gauge how comfortable students are with the task and peer feedback. I really enjoy this method of teaching and truly believe that the children get more from the activity with these strategies.

✨ Managing the workload

Reflective diaries, assigned activities, learning conversations... they all started to dwindle as I did not have enough time to write them up and as a result, I have done everything in terms of the practical side of the tasks but have not written many up. For the next placement, I need to “timetable my life” as my supporting teacher would say.

Terrific Theories

🧪 Growth Mindset (Carol Dweck)

Showing the children that making mistakes is okay and it’s okay if you can’t do something, so long as you don’t give up. ClassDojo has some great videos for this theory.

🧪 Social-Constructivism (Lev Vygotsky)

Children learn better when they are interacting with others. There were multiple occasions when this came into play.

🧪 Experiential Learning (David Kolb)

Children learn better when they link their education to an experience of their own or a certain meaningful activity.

🧪 Bloom’s Taxonomy (Benjamin Bloom)

Very useful for creating questions for comprehension or asking children what they’re learning about.

Remarkable Resources 

💻 Math-Aids.com

Pre-made worksheets for Mathematics. My teacher recommended it for assigning maths homework especially.

💻 Twinkl

This neat little website can be organised by stage of learning, subject or type of resource you’re looking for! It proved really useful for Health and Wellbeing lessons especially. It generates presentations, worksheets, games as well as wall display. 

💻 Google Drive

It’s not something you would immediately consider but Google Drive is incredibly useful!!! It allows you to share easily with others and if you forget your laptop, you can get the app on your phone. A must-have! 

💻 ClassDojo

No! It’s not just a points system! It has a timer/stopwatch for activities and it gives parents the opportunity to contact the teacher in the form of a blog. It’s even got its own messenger so parents can contact the teacher for more private issues. Children are also expected to post on their Dojo dashboard so their parents can see what they’ve been doing. It makes groups randomly and it even has educational videos! I will definitely be using this as a teacher.

Next placement...

I will try to work on:

managing the workload of the course by “timetabling my life”

find a simpler solution for writing lessons

keep track of theories and resources as I go

read more textbooks (I purchased a bunch the other day and now I wish I could discuss them with my supporting teacher)

- Christopher

[creativechris]

Day 12: Taking Responsibility 👍

Before school

I started the day by typing part of my plan for my fractions lesson for numeracy which will be on Thursday. I wrote down the outcome and learning intentions as well as success criteria.

I then finally got round to typing up my observation on motivation and engagement that I recorded on the first week.

I heard from my tutor that one child may be low mood due to things that had happened the day before so I kept this in mind throughout the day.

I then went to collect the children.

Numeracy Outdoors!

The first lesson of the day was one I had prepared that involved the children going outside to the forest to divide with natural materials. I had prepared an instruction sheet and printed them the day before. 

I was really happy with how the children interacted with eachother as they all helped one another and by the end of the lesson, the whole class was confident with dividing. It was a wonderful example of social constructivism.

Literacy and PE

It was another lesson from me after break (eek!) and this one was a literacy lesson. It involved having the children create their own robot and annotate their design with adjectives and what it does. 

I added the instruction of using adverbs. It was a risk but it seemed to pay-off as the children really enjoyed and seem to understand how to use them. It was great to see as the first activity I did the day before saw the children really struggle to pick adverbs.

I then took the children to PE and while the children were away, I helped the supporting teacher move his desk closer to the window as we both came to the conclusion it was more practical over there. It was strange having the furniture move as there was so much more space at the front of the classroom but I think the change works really well.

Library and Circle Time

In the staff room, I spoke to a probationer teacher to see how she is finding her first year as a teacher. It was a lovely conversation that flowed really well. It almost felt like an unplanned learning conversation. We spoke about benchmarks and how it can be difficult to place benchmarks to certain children and also how moving on to the next level can come in many places in a child’s education and how it can often land in the middle of the year rather than at the end.

The children then got their library books from the school library and went back to class to read at their desks. I listened to a few children reading their book and it was lovely to see the children really focus on being expressive in their reading when voicing the characters. 

We then finished off the day by having a circle time session on listening. It involved a game of “Chinese Whispers” and the children enjoyed this very much

After school

It was my first school meeting and this one was based around “reading moderations” which is when schools swap work to see if the school is marking the work the same across the city.

The teachers were tasked with taking photos of work and annotating these photos on google slides. They had to relate these to benchmarks that had been passed or being worked on. This triggered an interesting conversation on benchmarks and outcomes between me and my supporting teacher.

At the end of the day, my supporting teacher congratulated me on running the class for basically a half-day and said I did really well which really gave me a boost. 

What have I learned?

How to run an outdoor lesson

How to manage time a little better by bringing in my computer

How to teach children about adverbs through a robot description activity

Taking the children to PE

Using the iPads in a lesson

What a “moderation” is in the school setting

How benchmarks are assessed in school

[creativechris]

Day 11: The Headache of Horrors 🤕

Before School

Before getting into the classroom, I went to the photocopier to copy enough sheets for the children for future lessons. 

I spent most of the morning, going through my folder and writing down everything I still had to do as I have noticed, I am beginning to fall behind and I can’t really let that happen due to the amount of work that is expected to be done. I felt a lot better to see a checklist of things to get through as I could see what I needed to do on one page of A5 and it didn’t seem as much anymore. 

Numeracy (and the headache)

It was dividing this morning. I circulated the room and helped the children with their sums. Then all of a sudden, my head hurt quite a bit. I felt like I needed to sit down but I powered through. My vision had started to blur just before the school day started but I thought it was nothing. I then realised that being brave about it was not the most sensible idea so I told the PSA that I thought I was coming down with a migraine. She told me to drink some water and then offered me some paracetamol. This helped and my supporting teacher said keeping healthy by having something when a headache is coming on is very important as it just gets worse if you leave it (in his experience). I never actually realised how much this would affect my mood. I was still patient with the children when helping them with their Maths but I am usually up and walking about. This lesson, I had to sit down quite frequently and I’m not used to doing this. 

By the time break had come, I felt sick and was honestly starting to believe I might be sent home but I had something to eat to see if that would help. 

When I was collecting the children from the playground, one of the PSAs kindly told me that they thought I would be a good teacher. This meant a lot to me and really lifted my spirits. 

Literacy

For Literacy, I had planned a lesson inspired by Pie Corbett. It involved asking the children to fill in a table of nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs. The children really enjoyed it!! They were so enthusiastic and I pumped all my energy (despite the migraine) into making the lesson the best I could achieve. 

And the best thing was, half-way through the activity, the migraine was not nearly as bad. I actually was starting to think that the compliment I had received half an hour ago had something to do with it. I was getting so stressed about the work I had to complete so that comment really did mean the world. 

ICT

It was then time to make some more Scratch projects and the children enjoyed animating a spooky ghost. They really liked it and I can see quite a lot of future coders in the class. 

Writing

The children then continued writing their letters they started last week with me. I circulated the room and offered some advice on how to make the letter longer by adding more depth to some sentences.

For one child, who had wrote “I like Danger Mouse”. I asked “Why do you like Danger Mouse? Is it because he’s the greatest? He’s fantastic? Wherever there is danger he’ll be there?” - This seemed to inspire a few ideas.

Health and Wellbeing

Health and Wellbeing this week was focused on fitness and excercise. The children had a presentation read to them and then they started doing press-ups, calf raises, planks, squats, lunges and even tricep dips. It was quite funny to see some of the boys flexing afterwards looking particularly proud of themselves. What Did I Learn? They really enjoyed it! 

What Did I Learn?

I keep forgetting to mention, I have been practicing taking the class in from the playground.

Always have some paracetamol within reach (in a safe place) if you ever need it to avoid major migraines. 

One of our PSAs are becoming an ELSA (no, not “Frozen” Elsa. An Emotional Literacy Support Assistant). - This might be a great topic to research for my folder.

Turns out the exercises I did as a teenager are suitable for P4s since it is all body-weight exercises. I think it’s a great idea to encourage mini workouts in the classroom. 

- Christopher

[creativechris]

Day 7: A Lesson on Letters ✉️

Preparation

I started the day by using the photocopier for the first time. I needed to print a lot of documents and unfortunately, the copier was out of order!!! Thankfully, there are two other photocopiers in my setting so I was able to print the work. 

Outdoor Learning (Numeracy)

To start the day, the P4s went out to the forest to collect natural materials to sort into groups. Some children grouped the object to work on dividing sums while some wrote division sums in chalk on the ground and figured each out in pairs. It was great to see the children so engaged while being outdoors. It turns out that the children didn’t need the materials in the end and started dividing without them. I alternated between groups and helped the children understand by using my fingers to go through the times tables or explaining dividing with remainders.

Literacy

It was over to me for this one. At break, I went back to the classroom to write the learning intentions (LI) and success criteria (SC) on the board before the children came back from the playground. I looked out all my sheets of paper which included a pre-cut letter (separated into date, address, greeting, main text and ending) and a comprehension sheet for the same letter. 

I got all the children sat round the board. To get their attention I put my hand on my head and waited until all the children copied what I was doing. Just to double check I changed the pose to see if they would copy. Once I had their attention, I explained the LI and SC. We went through what we could remember being in a letter and then explained why it would be useful. I explained that they were now to try and order the bits of paper before gluing it down on a scrap piece of paper. 

Soon enough, the activity begun and the children got stuck in straight away. The activity was moving a lot quicker than anticipated but I wasn’t too stressed about this as I had prepared a second part of the activity where they would complete comprehension. The children seemed to understand with a few getting stuck on the last few but I was anticipating that and thought they did really well considering they had never explored letter writing before. 

The only drawback to this activity was I very nearly ran out of resources but it turned out that some children had misplaced the bits of paper and we found them later. I took the initiative of writing on the back of scrap paper for people missing “Dear Mr Price” or “Yours sincerely” so I am happy with how I handled it.

During PE, I marked the jotters and then the children continued their activity. 

Library

After lunch, the children got out their library books and read at their desk. I went round and listened to some children reading their book much like I did last week. 

Circle Time

Circle Time was great this week! It started with the children playing a game of “Zoom!” (which is when we go round the circle and everyone says zoom but if someone says “EEK!” then we have to go back round the other way). After that, the children were tasked with sitting on a single chair (no feet on the ground) with a partner. Here’s the twist: they had to do it without saying “I”, “you”, “me” or names and it had to be done with only whispers. The children did really well and seemed to enjoy the activity. 

We then heard some stories about children who experience conflict in the playground and how they can solve this.

Finishing up and preparing

After the children had left, my supporting teacher went to a meeting while I prepared for my next literacy lesson tomorrow.

———————————————————————————————————–

What did I learn?

How to use the photocopier and where to find the others

What “Zoom!” is

Some fun team-building circle time strategies (e.g. the two people on one chair activity)

Tomorrow…

Prepare for second letter writing lesson of the week

Focus on communication skills in the classroom and make notes

Focus on questioning in the classroom and make notes

Plan my music lesson for Thursday

- Christopher

[creativechris]

Day 6: Week 2 Begins 👨‍🏫

And after a very quick weekend, I’m already past my first day of the second week. Where is the time going!? 

Preparation

I started the day off by learning how to photocopy a booklet so that it prints double sided and adds staples! What kind of witchcraft is this!!?? I had no idea this was even possible. There were a lot of steps to remember so I wouldn’t call myself an expert quite yet but a worthwhile experience regardless. 

I also talked through the behaviour management policy as well as the child protection procedure for the setting. 

I also went through a template I had prepared for a literacy lesson on writing letters and my supporting teacher gave me some advice on how I could improve my template as he believed it may be too easy for some of the children in the class. 

Me and my supporting teacher also looked out glitter for a lesson on handwashing that I would run later in the day. As a result, I found out where the school craft cupboard is. 

Maths

First up was Maths! The children were moving on to dividing by 8. The lesson began by the children revising multiples of 8 and also working what dividing sums can be supported with this knowledge. I have been trying to get the children to use their timestables knowledge rather than counting cubes during my lessons and from what I saw today, this is a great strategy for just that.

I was asked to focus on a table of children who had been identified as students finding difficulty with the work on some days. This didn’t show on this activity however. Having the reminder of their 8 times tables, seemed to help these students work out the work with little to no help from me and I was mainly there for reassurance. It was lovely to see them so engaged as they were really proud they could do the work. 

One thing I have learned is the last question on textbook pages are incredibly difficult and troublesome to explain. I chose not to explain it as this could confuse all the knowledge the children had gained this lesson. My supporting teacher said this was the right move as this last question can sometimes bring confidence down among pupils as it is so demanding. 

Reading

For reading, I had the same group as last week. I asked each child to read a page of the reading book and then discussed their reading target with them. Some targets included: “being more expressive”, “being more fluent”, “learning not to rush” and “being loud and clear”. The children all achieved their target as they all worked really hard and it was evident the children were considering what their target was while reading. 

We then got out the show-me boards and I read out some comprehension questions to them. Some questions only took about 1 minute for children to think up the answer while some lasted for 2. I separated the children into teams to do this. Since the book was about planes and flying we had team names such as “The Aviators”, “The Planes”, “The Gliders”, “The Aerodynamics” and “The Pioneers”. The children seemed to really enjoy it! :)

Coding

After that, it was time to move on to coding. The supporting teacher took the lead on this one. He explained to the children how to get two sprites to interact with one another. It was quite a complicated task but the booklet we had photocopied this morning was really good at breaking it down and explaining how it could be done. 

I helped the children power up their Chromebooks and log in to Scratch. I also helped them with trickier bits such as adding a “broadcast” block multiple times. Just as the children were starting to get the difficult part of the activity, the lesson came to an end and it was time for lunch. I’m excited to see how the children will get on with the next few parts of the activity next time. 

Health and Wellbeing

And this is where the glitter comes in. I first asked the children to settle down and face me to show they were listening. After that, I asked “does anyone know why we actually wash our hands?” Many children correctly answered, “because we need to wash the germs off our hands”. I explained they were correct and then moved on to showing how easy it is for germs to spread. I dipped my hand in a bowl of water and glitter and as you can expect, my hand was soon covered in the stuff. I then asked “okay who wants some of my germs?”. I chose someone to shake hands with and then they chose someone to shake hands with and then it happened again once more. I explained how easy it is for germs to travel from one place to the other. 

I then moved on to telling the children the procedure for washing hands effectively. I explained that you wet your hands first, add soap, rub your hands together ensuring all parts of the hand are washed before rinsing the soap off and drying your hands. I explained that singing the “Happy Birthday to you” song twice was  a great way of making sure you are washing your hands for the right amount of time.

I then asked the children to design a poster on what they had just learned. The children seemed really engaged throughout. 

My supporting teacher suggested showing some posters to the class as a plenary. So I did! I asked around 2-3 people to come and explain their poster to the class. I made sure I praised the children for their hard work and for doing their best. 

Writing Feedback

The last lesson involved the children discussing each other’s robot story they started writing last week. The children found it difficult to stay on task so I circulated round the room to try to keep the children focused and engaged. It was great to see such meaningful feedback from the children.

Finishing up and preparing

After the children had left, me and my supporting teacher took the writing jotters in and marked them. It was great to read the stories and see how individual the children are. I was surprised that I was able to guess who had wrote each one just by the way they wrote or the words they used. I got through about 7 in 20 minutes so it’s a clear that marking this type of work takes time but I valued the experience as now I know what sort of things you may add when marking such as spelling mistakes, capital letters and full stops. 

———————————————————————————————————–

What did I learn?

How to use some features of the photocopier

The school’s child protection procedure as well as the behaviour policy

Where the craft cupboard is in the school

The last question in a Maths textbook isn’t always the best option if you feel it is a troublesome concept to interpret at this stage

How to code a conversation on Scratch as well as how to teach it

Strategies for teaching handwashing

How to mark creative writing

Tomorrow…

Prepare to run a writing lesson for starting a letter

Focus on communication skills in the classroom and make notes

Focus on questioning in the classroom and make notes

Plan my second literacy lesson

Plan my music lesson for Thursday

- Christopher

[creativechris]

Week 1: Weekly Review ⭐️

And there we have it! Week 1 is officially done. I have learned so much this week and really enjoyed working in a classroom. Here is what I’ve experienced so far...

Attitude

I am really surprised by how much I’ve pushed myself this week because my previous placements have always started off shaky as I hold back due to not wanting to intrude someone else’s lesson. I have completed two planned numeracy lesson, a computing lesson using Scratch and a music lesson for children just beginning to use tuned percussion. I have even pushed myself by talking to other teachers in the staff room after many years of keeping my head down or looking at the wall displays instead of making conversation. As a result, I feel a lot more comfortable in the school environment. 

What could I work on?

Although I believe I have started off strong, it has been pointed out that I don’t have confidence in my ability and I am often too hard on myself. I definitely agree with this. I find it very difficult to take compliments and being such a perfectionist means I sometimes focus on things I can’t do rather than thing I can. I am going to try to be more positive in terms of my ability next week.

Organisation / Preparation

Something that I am usually on top of slowly declined over the first week. Although, I kept track of what I did each day, I only typed up my notes at the end of the week and even writing my lesson plans were sometimes a struggle. 

What could I work on?

It is now Saturday, so I am going to use this time each week to tie up any loose ends but the plan is there won’t be any next week. I plan to complete my reflective diary on the day, every day and complete all my lesson plans well in advance. 

Teaching

The children seem to like me which is extremely reassuring because I think that’s half the battle to be honest. From my observation, I have a clear voice which is a shock because I am a naturally quiet speaker and it has come up at work often. I was really worried that children wouldn’t hear me but it seems the classroom is somewhere I feel comfortable. My lessons have been received well by both the children and my supporting teacher so I’m happy with how that is going so far also.

What could I work on?

Something that stood out as a possible area of improvement is time management as I often cut it very fine when working up until the bell. This can be improved by focusing more on how I time my lesson in the lesson plan. Although I’ve thrown myself in at the deep end, I still need to get over the worry of taking responsibility so I will continue to push myself like I have this week. 

Overall, a successful first week 😄

[creativechris]

Day 5: My First Observation 😱

Preparation Time

I was terrified about running a numeracy lesson but I was prepared with what I felt was a good lesson. The day started by me preparing all the materials I needed and writing questions on the board. 

My supporting teacher went through some behaviour management strategies. This involved Class Dojo’s point system. He explained that the children in his class take really well to points being awarded for hard work (rather than finished work). He put emphasis on positive reinforcement of behaviour rather than ensuring negative behaviour is punished only. He also explained using the quiet area is a good way to manage behaviour.

PE

Specialists from Active Schools had come in to see the P4s and teach them about Boccia. This is a paralympic sport that involves using your arms and throwing mainly. For this reason, the children completed most of the stations sitting down. It was great to see and the children enjoyed it very much. 

Numeracy

I wasn’t nearly as scared as I thought I would be. When the children came back from PE, I sat on the teacher’s chair and called out, “Who’s sitting like the best?” and within minutes the children were sitting down quietly and listening to what I had to say. I shared the learning intention and the success criteria. I then went through the questions and asked the children to talk to their shoulder partner before putting their hand up. The children seemed really engaged and seemed to be understanding what I was teaching. This is definitely eased my nerves seeing the children so interested. I then sent off the first two groups to hand out jotters and textbooks before going to their desk to work on a page from the textbook. I worked with the other group who were further ahead in their dividing ability and then sent them off on their task. I circulated the room helping where I could and from what I could see, the children were understanding the work. Thank goodness! All of a sudden, it wasn’t so scary and it began to feel natural. I stopped the class midway through the activity so they could peer assess each other’s work. I gathered each group one last time and asked the children to spot the wrong answer on the board to strengthen their understanding. I then 5 minutes before the bell had two children collect jotters and two children to collect the textbooks. By the time the children were back at the board sitting down, the bell rang and I got the children to line up and then... it was done. My supporting teacher explained that he was happy with how the lesson went and now I could relax as I had completed my first observation. One child even said “Best Maths Lesson EVER!” which was lovely. I think he said that because the class hadn’t really been taught by me before and not because of the lesson itself. Either way, I am really happy with how it went and I feel I am likely to use this lesson again in future. 

Writing

It was my first time seeing a writing lesson in action. The children planned out a robot coming to school story in their jotters using a mindmap. Half way through the children started writing. I helped the children stay motivated by reading their story and being eager to find out what happens next which encouraged them to keep writing so I could see the rest of the story. 

Spelling

It was also my first time seeing a spelling lesson in action. The children were set a task that involved them writing out spelling pyramids. 

Throughout the lesson, the teacher gathered groups of the children around the board to go through spelling words with the show-me boards.

Coding with Scratch

The day ended with the children going back to their projects on Scratch and completing their animated name.

Finishing Up and Preparing

My supporting teacher went through my observation with me. The feedback was very positive and I couldn’t believe it had gone so well. His only feedback was use more AifL strategies and incorporate ICT in the next lesson. 

We also marked the Maths jotters using the textbook answer book. My supporting teacher took one group and I took the other. Before my supporting teacher could start marking, he was told to come and check something. I was able to finish all of my pile of jotters. I wasn’t sure how long the teacher was going to be so I took the risk of marking his pile also. I wasn’t sure if this was a good idea or not but when he came back he seemed pleased that I hadn’t wasted time and took the initiative to mark his pile also. 

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What did I learn?

Being observed isn’t as scary as I thought it was going to be

Behaviour management strategies (e.g. Dojo and quiet area)

How to structure a Maths lesson

What a primary 4 writing lesson could look like

What a spelling lesson involves

How to mark children’s work (and how long it takes)

- Christopher

[creativechris]

Day 4: It’s Time to Face The Music 🎵

Before school begins

I first spoke with my supporting teacher about my music lesson. He explained that it would be a team teaching activity. He would explain the science aspect of the lesson and I would run the music part. I explained that after much thought, I had printed off sheet music for the children. Since I wasn’t sure of where they were at in terms of music (since they hadn’t recieved a lot of tuned percussion teaching in their year), I explained that I felt it would be more worthwhile to run an improvisation lesson. I am aware that this isn’t introduced (in my case anyway) until secondary school however after seeing the class, I thought they would enjoy expressing themselves. 

Music / Science

After my supporting teacher explained that sound can make sound waves to the children, he passed the lesson over to me and I used a xylophone to show the children how to improvise. I had prepared a looped video of 4 beats (which is easy to improvise to). Unfortunately, technology failed me so I was desperately trying to find a video on YouTube (while explaining improvisation to the children) of the exact same excerpt. I had no luck so had to rely on playing over the top of one of my own songs. I tried to play over it but since my songs have flats or sharps in them, my improvised demonstration didn’t sound as pleasant as I had hoped. I then turned the lesson into explaining how I write songs and the best way is to just go for it and this seemed to inspire them. I then let them go to a xylophone (one between two) and start writing music. I passed around scrap paper so they could write notes. I circulated the room and offered any advice. It turns out there’s a few budding musicians in this class and it was lovely to watch them get excited when they played something they liked. We then listened to them at the end and I’ve got to say, I was impressed. 

Numeracy

For Numeracy, the children were starting to complete division sums that looked a bit like this: “? divided by 7 = 7″. This is hard to explain. I didn’t want to confuse the children by explaining that the equals sign turns into a multiply sign and you’ll get your answer because I feel without knowing why that’s the case, the learning won’t be effective. So I focused on one that featured the 2 times table and they were able to work that out. I then explained that if you turn the equals sign into a multiplying sum, you get the answer and we know this because it works with the sum we’ve just done. This seemed to work well and the children seemed to understand. But, oh boy, that was a tough one to explain. 

Profiling

I had no idea what profiling was until today! It’s really cool! Children use Dojo to draw pictures, record audio and write messages to explain what they have been doing this week. Every child had an individual way of showing what they had done. The parents are able to access this and I think it’s a great idea as well as a great example of partnership with parents. 

French

In this activity, the children gathered by the board and the teacher went through the French words for nose, ears, eyes, mouth and head. The P4s then got given a task of drawing their own head and labeling it accordingly. The children seemed to enjoy it and it was interesting to see strategies children use to remember foreign words. 

Art

Once again, another teacher had come in for the last lesson to teach Art. She chose to make a robot collage with the children and it was great to see the children be so creative once again. Some robots were white and had visors yet some were “blocky” and solid gold. Each piece looked brilliant and it’s clear a lot of effort went into this picture. I handed out glue to everyone and then washed them out for the teacher at the end. I also tried to inspire some ideas for the children during the art lesson if they were looking particularly stumped. 

Finishing up and preparing

Me and the supporting teacher then discussed what I might want to do for tomorrow’s activity as I was getting quite stressed about the idea of a whole class activity with different groups. He explained some strategies I might want to use and this helped a lot. He explained that this activity would be my first observation from him which was scary for sure but after talking it through, I feel I can deliver a successful lesson. Fingers crossed all goes well!! 

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What did I learn?

How to run a music lesson

Where the children are at in terms of music ability

How to explain the dividing missing numbers problem (e.g. 72 divided by ? = 9)

What profiling is in a classroom

Class Dojo is a great way to share work with parents

- Christopher

[creativechris]

Day 3: Cracking the Code 👨‍💻

Preparation Time

The first thing that I did when I entered the classroom today was discuss how I would run the coding lesson that I had prepared for yesterday. I had an idea of what I would be doing but I wanted to run it past my supporting teacher to make sure we were on the same page and by knowing this, I would feel more confident running the activity. I explained that I writing an observation during today’s Maths lesson. 

Numeracy

My observation went really well. I was expecting to be interrupted by a “what are you writing!?” as I was used to this when on placement in a nursery. But, that didn’t happen so I was able to keep writing for 20 minutes. I gathered a lot of information about a group of three children who differed in ability. It was interesting to see how they supported eachother. I still have to write up this observation and then I can make more sense of my notes. From what I remember writing, I picked up on one child who really was not getting the work and as a result was demotivated. After my observation, I helped the same Maths group as I ran an activity for yesterday. I was over the moon (and I think they were too) to see that the children in this group were doing really well with the work. I only needed to intervene by asking them to keep focused on the work instead of making a building with the counting cubes. 

Assembly

During Assembly, I went back to the classroom to prepare for my coding lesson as well as plan for future ones. 

Literacy (Outdoor Learning)

After assembly, the class took clipboards, show-me boards, whiteboard pens and a sheet of connectives outside. The activity involved the children coming up with two related sentences and us four adults (me, my supporting teacher and 2 PSAs) trying to figure out which connective they had used. It was a joy to watch children be so active during a literacy lesson and I think the learning was really effective as well as enjoyable for the children. I had a lot of fun deliberately getting the wrong answer as they used connectives such as “as well as” or “also”.

Coding with Scratch

After lunch, it was down to me to teach the children how to animate their name on Scratch. The night before, I had anxiously written down all the steps I needed to explain and now here I was trying to remember them all. The children gathered around me and a Chromebook and I showed them what steps needed to be taken to create a new project, add a sprite, add instructions to the sprite and run the game. The children seemed to understand but just to double checked I asked them if they were happy with what they were doing and asked things such as “now where do we find the sprites section again?” or “what’s the first block we add to our animation?”. I feel it went really well. I circulated round the room and helped the children to be as individual as possible. A lot of children managed to create things that I knew were possible on the program but had not introduced to them yet. I was very impressed with all their animations and I think they were too! 

Finishing Up and Preparing

I finished off the day by reading “The BFG” to the children up until the bell went. Another teacher had come to take the class towards the end and I explained to her I was nervous about my Music lesson which I was running tomorrow. She kindly introduced me to Charanga. This is a resource that can be used to teach beginner’s music. It has sheet music, excerpts and even tells you what concepts you’ve covered. A great resource for sure! It’s only drawback is some of the songs on it can be a bit babyish or not very exciting. I plan to have a little look at it tonight to see if I can come up with something.

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What did I learn?

How to complete an observation in a primary classroom

How to demonstrate coding to a primary 4 class

Outdoor learning is a really worthwhile activity when learning

Charanga is a really useful resource for teaching music

- Christopher

[creativechris]

Day 2: My First Lesson 👨‍🏫

Preparation Time

I started the day by explaining I had been successful in planning a numeracy lesson. I showed my supporting teacher my plan and we tweaked it ever so slightly to fit around the plan my supporting teacher had come up with. Originally a plan for the whole class, it was decided that the plan would be best suited for a group of children instead. It was great to see that the plan my supporting teacher had come up with was roughly similar to mine (which gave me a bit of a confidence boost) and the main difference was my success criteria was more broad but according to my teacher, it still worked. I was also told about the theory of co-operative learning which I added into my lesson plan. I believe I showed a lot of flexibility with the plan as I was happy to adapt it to fit around the day. 

I also took notes on the school aims in hopes to type it up when I got home and I managed to note everything down successfully. I also managed to squeeze in a quick sketch of the room to act as a room plan. 

I was also told about an online tool called MathsAids.com which is a free worksheet provider. So now I know of Twinkl and MathsAids.com  🙂

Numeracy

The lesson went really well. I started using counting cubes with the children and asked them to divide let’s say 12 cubes into equal groups such as 3 and 4. The children seemed to pick it up quite easily and in no time at all, we moved on to dividing by 4s and touched on dividing by 5s. Some children were able to work it out in their head, while some used the “one-for-me one-for-you” strategy where you count each group one at a time. I then set the children a small worksheet that had number wheels. 

I sat with my group and the children seemed to be understanding. I made it clear that the children could use the counting cubes to help them and if they were stuck, I encouraged this. 

I feel I managed my time effectively and when I asked the children if they enjoyed it, they all responded with an enthusiastic “Yeah!” so I’m really happy with how it went. 

Grammar

Next up was Grammar. Today we were looking at connectives (I saw a movie. I went to the park. >becomes> I saw a movie and went to the park.). The main issue with this lesson was focus. Some children were simply not concentrating and me and my supporting teacher had to remind children to focus quite often. The children however seemed to be understanding the work and I provided scaffolding where needed by using all the connectives until we found the right one. 

PE

I was wary of going to a PE lesson as my sporting ability is not the finest. So, I was certainly anxious that I would be asked demonstrate serving a tennis ball or something similar (which is something that would not come naturally to me). Thankfully, the topic this term is Gymnastics which is something I am comfortable with and also something I can offer some knowledge to. This session the children were focusing on making shapes and using them in their rolls. A forward roll was a circle, a teddy bear roll was a star and a pencil roll was a straight line. The children also created some rolls of their own. The lesson went really well and the children seemed to enjoy it. I helped tidy away the equipment and then the children went back to class.

Grammar / Reading

My supporting teacher asked me to read “The BFG” to the children. I had already started reading it yesterday so the anxiety of reading to a whole class was less intense. However, reading the BFG is no easy task. There are loads of made up words that incredibly hard to pronounce as the BFG doesn’t really speak proper English. However, the children were really patient as I tried to work out what the word actually sounded like. I put a lot of expression into the characters to make it as interesting as possible. I was at the scene where Sophie and the BFG plot to meet the Queen and warn her about the giants. The children seemed to enjoy it and I didn’t have anyone not paying attention or not listening so that was great to see.  

Library / Quiet Reading Time

We took the children to pick a book from the school library so they could read it in class. Most children were picking books out such as Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Tom Gates and a few new books I’d never head of. I asked some children to read a page of their book to me and they seemed happy to do so. The class I’m in are full of great readers and some are really good at acting out scenes and putting expression into the characters. It’s a joy, truly!

That reminds me: In the staff room, we were talking about books the children could read and one teacher told me about “The Boy at the Back of the Classroom” which is apparently very thought-provoking and went down a storm in her class. So, guess what book I’m away to read now... 

Circle Time

Circle time today focused on resolving conflict. We heard some great stories and it was lovely to see children giving their classmates thoughtful advice to help children who were experiencing conflict. The class, from what I can see so far, really look out for each other. 

Finishing Up and Preparing

I headed to a meeting but it turned out the meeting was for teacher’s development so my supporting teacher suggested going back down to the classroom and preparing for a coding lesson by familiarising myself with Scratch. I chose to go ahead and do this. Once I seen a few tutorials and made some projects of my own, I felt confident that I could explain it to the class.

I then jotted down some resources for my resource list and wrote down some notes for my day which I am now typing as we speak. 

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What did I learn?

MathsAids.com is a great resource for engaging worksheets

I should try to finish on the bell as closely as possible as the P4s need to leave sharp for lunch

How to take a Maths group for division

How to keep a class engaged while reading “The BFG”

The importance of co-operative learning

How to prepare for a coding lesson with Scratch

How to change a lesson plan to work around another plan

Tomorrow…

Ask about school policies

Plan for a coding lesson

Prepare for a numeracy observation

Take a community walk and note down some reflections

- Christopher

[creativechris]

Day 1: Into the Classroom! 👨‍🏫

Happy New Year!

This week, I started my 5 week placement and I’ve got to say, I’m really enjoying it so far  😄 Here’s what I learned today...

Before school begins

I arrived around 15 minutes early but thankfully, my supporting teacher was already at the school. We looked at what the day was going to entail and I offered to find a tooth brushing activity for the afternoon session as I wanted to be as helpful as possible so the day could run as smoothly as possible. I ended up using an activity from Twinkl (which is a great website that allows you to filter and find what you need very quickly). Through this, I was shown where the photocopier/printer was. 

Maths

The school day started by collecting the children from the playground and gathering round the smart board to sign in and take note of lunches with an app called “CHIPS”. I also got introduced to the class so they knew who I was. Before the children arrived, my supporting teacher had assigned me a Maths group to work with on a pre-made flashcard activity for multiplication. 

My group went to the quiet area and I introduced myself once again (but it turns out they already remembered my name) and they introduced themselves to me. I had a group of four children. With each child, I went through a set of times tables each before getting the show-me boards where the children would write their answer down depending on the multiplication sum I chose. 

I feel it went really well but I did run out of time towards the end. 

With the second group, I managed the time more effectively by speeding up the introduction. 

Literacy (Reading)

I was once again assigned a group for reading. We were aiming to finish-off a book about Amelia Earheart. After a slow start of getting all the reading books and jotters, I asked the children what their “reading targets” were from last time. I listened to each one and tried my best to remember what their target was. Each child read a page each until the book was complete. I asked each child if they thought they had got to their target and the children seemed to have the same thinking as I had. If a child met their target, they got a star in their book and if not, I simply said “will we work on it next time?” in a reassuring manner. 

We then moved on to a comprehension quiz with the show-me boards. I read out a question and then the children (in pairs) would write the answer on their whiteboard. It went really well. I didn’t realise how much time it would take for each question, however. For this reason, I had to ask some supporting questions (such as “did you enjoy the book?”, “so what do you think of Amelia Earheart?”) on top of the quiz question as some children were finished and some were not ready yet.  

I think this activity went really well.

Coding (our topic)

The lesson started with a demonstration of coding in action. The way this was handled was asking me to draw on a piece of paper only following the instructions my supporting teacher gave me. It was quite fun and it was not long before I realised I was being instructed to draw a house. This was then set as an activity for the children to complete. It was a great way of boosting the teamwork skills in the class and a nice lesson to introduce the idea of instructing a computer through coding. As the children completed the activity, my supporting teacher explained a bit more about the day ahead and the children I had been working with. 

The class then gathered round the board and was shown how to create an account for Scratch. This involved getting the chromebooks out and the children logging in to the platform. Not every child got on immediately but a fair few managed to create an account. 

Teeth brushing

This activity involved going through a presentation that told children what their individual teeth are called. We discussed incisors, canines, pre-molars, molars and wisdom teeth as well as milk teeth. The children seemed really engaged and interested. They then got a worksheet to complete which involved labeling a diagram of what each tooth was called. 

French

For French, we were focusing on colours. When the lesson began, we discovered very quickly that the children knew their colours really really well. So, for that reason, the activity turned into time to complete a colour-by-numbers worksheet based on the colour. I suggested an extension activity to the supporting teacher that involved finding something in the room that was that specific colour to link the activity to the real world. He then suggested I complete the Plenary for the activity by running that activity. I chose the children’s names and they told me what was “rouge” or “vert” or “violet” and so on.

And then, that was the end of the day. 

Finishing up and preparing

Me and the supporting teacher then discussed what the plan was for the following day. I felt I had a clear understanding of what was coming up and overall, I feel my first day has been a success! :D

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What did I learn?

Where the photocopier/printer is

How useful Twinkl is for preparing lessons

How to take a Maths group for multiplications

How to take a reading group and quiz the students on what they’ve read

How technology is used in the classroom

How to interact with other staff in the staff room

Tomorrow...

Work on remembering the children’s names (I know a fair few but will need to keep reminding myself to make sure I don’t forget)

Plan for a simple division lesson for Key Stage 2 (Level 2). 

Take a note of the class timetable

Draw a rough room plan

Ask about school policies

Take a note of the school aims (they are on the school website as well as the wall in the classroom)

- Christopher 

[creativechris]

📖 Week 10: Reading and Writing Non-Fiction

List of non-fiction “texts”  📰

Biography

News article

Books

Scientific reports

Documentary

Instructions

Academic reading

Letters / e-mails

CVs

Films / TV

Posters

Leaflets

Blogs

Text messages

Textbooks

Videos / vlogs

The 4 CfE Reading Skills  📚

Enjoyment and choice 

Help children enjoy reading and give them opportunities to read.

Tools for reading

1. Skim - scanning the page for key words and phrases

2. Read

3. Use context - use what you do know to work out words you don’t know

4. Re-read - revise what you have read to summarise

Finding and using information

Searching for sources

Scaffolding example (frames and grids):

Understanding, Analysis and Evaluating

Teach children how to note-take! - that’s a MUST

Scaffolding example:

Activity Ideas  🏄🏻‍♂️

Cloze Activity

Sequencing Activity

Making Predictions (what will it be about?)

Annotation and Questioning

Writing Non-Fiction   📝

e.g. pupils could read a newspaper article > discuss in groups > focus on layout of article > fact sheets could be given out > note-making frame or grid given out [as above] > article template

Relevant Theories  ⚗️

Bloom’s Taxonomy

Higher Order Thinking

Final Thoughts 💭

This lecture, as expected, was not as fun to listen as last week as it was based around non-fiction.... however I did really enjoy hearing possible lessons and activities related to the topic that I may likely use in future! 

- Christopher

[creativechris]

📖 Week 9: Fiction (Reading and Writing)

The lecture started with a discussion on childhood we distinctly remember (Roald Dahl, Harry Potter, Jacqueline Wilson) and why they mean so much to us.

Interestingly, I never realised that books (and their characters) can help children develop empathy!  😱  Which makes sense really because the writer tries to make us feel the emotions of the characters.

Components of Stories  📚

Characters

Plot

Mood / atmosphere (linked to Genre)

Setting 

Theme (also linked to Genre)

Techniques:

Imagery (metaphors, similes and personification)

Sounds (onomatopoeia, alliteration)

Symbolism

Narrative voice (formal, informal, who is the narrator? how do you know?)

And of course, word choice

How to Teach Fiction... to children

So how does one go about teaching children how to write as well as the likes of J.K. Rowling?

Characterisation  👤

What’s their name? - (Roald Dahl does this very well: Miss Honey - nice, Ms Trunchpull - not so nice)

What do they do?

What do they say?

How are they described? - (including other character’s opinions of them)

Activities:

Video clips / images as an example of good characters

Draw the characters

Use props as inspiration

Acting out scenes]

Cloze activity

Setting  🌄🌅🌆🌉🏩🎢🌋🚢

Involves the time and place

Activities:

Video clips / images as an example of inspiring settings

Draw the setting

Listing words to describe the setting

Cloze activity

Plot  🛸🏆🧗🏼‍♀️

Exposition - How does the story start? (Harry Potter is with the Dursleys) 

Rising action - What happens on the lead-up to the big climax! (He goes to Hogwarts) 

Climax - The big “OH NO!!” moment where something often needs to be overcome. (Harry comes face-to-face with a very important character who we shall not name) 

Falling action - What happens after the climax? How are things resolved? (Defeating the problem is often the case in stories)

Denouement - The “happily ever after” (or not. you never know) 

Freytag’s Pyramid (aka “Plot Mountain”)

Activities:

Comic strips of your story

Rewrite the ending

Make a newspaper article

Film a news report

But wait! Is anyone else wondering what a “Cloze activity” is?

It’s pretty much a missing word activity where you need to fill in the blanks

Final Thoughts 💭

Really REALLY enjoyed learning about this one. It might have been the content, it might have been the lecturer, but either way this has made me really want to start a lesson that involves story-writing or talking about children’s books.  😄

- Christopher

[creativechris]

🧮 Week 8: SENA and SEAL

Today was about SENA and SEAL and there is not much I can really say so this one I will just leave the links to websites summarising what we have been told about...

SENA (Schedule for Early Number Assessment)

It’s almost like a worksheet but it is important that you DON’T power through if the pupil is beginning to struggle. It’s also really important to stop if the pupil is getting nothing from it.

https://education.nt.gov.au/will-test/diagnostic-assessment-selector/schedule-for-early-number-assessment-sena-from-the-professional-learning-program-count-me-in-too-cmit

SEAL (Stages for Early Arithmetical Learning)

Level 0: Emergent Counter - a beginner when it comes to counting

Level 1: Perceptual Counter - can count things when they can perceived (seen)

Level 2: Figurative Counter - can count screened (hidden) items but counts from 1 onwards

Level 3: Initial Number Sequence - can count-on from numbers beyond 1 and may also count down

Level 4: Intermediate Number Sequence - can choose the best strategy (count-on, count-down)

Level 5: Facile Number Sequence - may use some of the adding and subtracting strategies such as jumping or jumping to the decouple (jumping to ten or numbers in the tens [10, 20, 40, 100 etc.). Can count to 20 and will then move onto 100

REMEMBER!! - teach the children about 0 and why it is so important!! - this help them with subtracting and adding when the number does not change (e.g. 5-0 is still 5)

Final Thoughts 💭

Both SENA and SEAL are going to be very useful for pupils I may wish to assess in terms of maths skills. It seems pretty straight-forward and that’s always a plus so really happy with the learning today.

- Christopher