After a Monday of insightful Professional Studies we were sent off into the world of ‘real’ education to see schools in context and practice a few lessons.
I was lucky this week for two reasons: 1, I was placed in schools within a ten minute drive of my home so I could escape the hustle and bustle of TF halls, and 2, my fellow TF ICTer, Kate, had also been placed in the same school as me allowing us to team teach (which seemed slightly less scary than facing a class of 30 preying teenagers alone).
In our first school we were well received by the head of ICT, the lovely Miss M. She was extremely keen for us to get stuck in during observations and thoroughly encouraged us to revel in the challenge of teaching our first class. Kate and I spent an hour or so towards the end of our first day planning our first lesson which was to be delivered to a small group of year 10s in the morning (about 20 of them were on a school trip) and a dauntingly larger group of 30 in the afternoon.
After some guidance from Miss M, we decided to deliver a very basic refresher lesson on websites and audience/purpose to the year 10s, the theory being that this was something they would be looking at as part of their OCR Nationals on return in September. By relating the lesson topic to their future studies there was a slightly improved chance that the students would see the benefit of our lesson- as opposed to it being a single stand alone lesson.
We ran through our lesson plan with Miss M. She seemed slightly apprehensive about the length of the tasks but we decided that if the lesson did run short, we would give out the student’s folders and ask them to carry on with their coursework. After going home and tidying up the PowerPoint and worksheet we had made, I tried to extend some of the tasks we had given in light of Miss M’s feedback. All in all, messing around with the PowerPoint (adding a few extra slides/images/text/colours), tidying up the worksheet and writing up a proper lesson plan took me approximately 4 hours! That was with distractions, I must add.... But still! 4 hours?! To plan one lesson! If that’s how long it takes me to plan one lesson, then God help my social life come September.
The morning came and I was moderately apprehensive about delivering my very first lesson. Though the lesson did finish early, most students were at least moderately engaged and most tried to participate. We asked for feedback from the group. One of the students who was very vocal during the session was quick off the mark to suggest that our Who Wants to be a Millionaire game was ‘boring and too easy’ but that was really by the by, and we had meant to pitch our lesson quite low. Contrary to that student’s opinion, Miss M told us that for him to actively participate in a lesson was amazing as he very rarely volunteered to answer questions at all!
After a few more changes to the PP, we were ready to go for the second time around with a class of 30. Obviously, being bigger in number, the class were slightly more difficult to handle. I got to use the ‘You’re not listening to my colleague and I’m slightly offended’ raised voice, as well as a few of, what I would like to deem, ‘the look’ which proved useful, especially in such a good practice ground! The session, again, was a success, most of the students appeared to be on task and we managed to stretch out the lesson. Afterwards, we informed the students of our status and that it was only the second time we’d ever taught. They were genuinely impressed and gave us great feedback on the interactivity of the session and our confidence!
Evaluating the two days spent at that school, Miss M so kindly informed us that we were better than most of the PGCE students she’d had at that school and how happy they would’ve been to receive us as trainees. What a confidence boost!
The next day we were spent to a different school in the same area. At that school we encountered one of the most inspiring teachers we’d ever met as the head of ICT. I’m sure he won’t mind me mentioning his name and a little promotion of his website.
James Greenwood (twitter: @jpgreenwood, website: http://www.james-greenwood.com/)filled us with enthusiasm and the greatest of tips to prepare us for steps into education. His persona (?) with the students was extremely entertaining and the way he was confronted with hugs and friendly back-slaps by students in the corridor (because he is leaving) was truly inspirational. High on my agenda for long-term career goals is to eventually maintain that kind of relationship with my students. James will be surely missed by his students as he jets off to pursue what will be a fantastic career at the other side of the world.
The days passed too quickly and I was soon being shipped back off to Sheffield to face the dread of more professional studies. Not that it is particularly dreadful... I just much prefer school!
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