Week 3

Week 3 was over as soon as I had blinked. The first 3 days of which were spent in our actual placement schools (where we will be for 2 years). The few days mainly consisted of observations and information overload- particularly with regards to obtaining data for our upcoming inclusion assignment. However, during the hectic schedule, I did manage to do a starter with a year 7 group whom I suspect I will be teaching next year.

Doing the register for this sparky bunch of 11/12 year olds was one of the most petrifying things I have ever encountered. This was mostly because I was worried about mispronouncing names and appearing stupid (and ignorant). As there was no other member of staff there to guide me I took a shot at it alone. They waited outside the classroom until I let them in and told them to sit on the benches at the front. I was utterly surprised at how compliant they were- no 'Who are you and what are you doing here?' type of questions, complete compliance. As we went down the register, I asked each student to introduce themselves to me (giving me a chance to repeat their name back to them and check for pronunciation) and tell me what their favourite thing to do on a weekend would be. Although a little time consuming, it seemed to work a treat and most definitely gave me a little bit of practice with name pronunciation without sounding like a complete fool. Though not entirely conducive to learning, I opted for an ICT based Who Wants to be a Millionaire game. Their usual teacher then took over for the main part of the lesson. I followed the group to their next lesson which also happened to be ICT and found that they were shouting ‘Miss!’ when they needed help. I’m taking this as a sign that they (may) like me. Hopefully.

The three days in school felt nowhere near enough and once again, I found myself being shipped back off to Sheffield for the final few days of Yorkshire-based Professional Studies before we were all uprooted and moved to National Summer Institute at the University of Warwick.