Introduction
Second week into the final placement and things are starting to get a bit busier for me luckily! With the excitement of the first English literature exam on Wednesday (and great questions came up, equalling a very happy department!) I originally intended for this to be a bit longer than it is, but I have got half an hour to finish this before I start getting ready for one of my best friend’s wedding… sometimes other things have to take a priority in life!
Social Welfare and Inclusion Centre (SWIC)
Monday week A is a day where I have a whopping zero lessons and an at meeting timetabled, so I figured I could utilise this to have a look around different aspects of the school. I decided to spend the morning in the SWIC, to see what happens on the other side of the ‘on call’ part of RtL. It was a fairly quiet morning to begin with, but things got heated up a bit by the end of period one – and I even ended up helping someone with a GCSE Maths practice paper (it’s been a while, but I’ve still got it!).
I think the main thing I got from this experience was to have empathy. The people working in the SWIC have built up great relationships with students on high-level behaviour stages, because they see them regularly – and they need these relationships to be able to do their job effectively. A lot of people think that they are too soft on the students that come in to them, but actually, at the end of the day, these are just kids that are learning. They have their social time taken away from them and they have to complete reflection sheets and make amends with the teacher etc, but there is no reason as to why they cannot be treated humanely and with a bit of empathy simultaneously. The people running the SWIC told me that they often find underlying issues with the reoccurring attendees, and they have been crucial in putting in the support that these young people need.
12IA
I finally met my tutor group but, being year 12, attendance isn’t the best – especially as a lot of them have passed their driving tests! I have taught a handful of students in this tutor – it is lovely to already have the good relationship there! And one of the students brought in her sister’s guide dog, Rio (her sister had an exam, Rio couldn’t go in!) which completely made my week! I’m not sure as to how involved I will be able to get with the group, as I am missing extended tutor on a Friday, but I am really appreciating getting to see the difference between sixth form and lower school tutor periods!
9Y3 & 10X5
Due to my time nearly running out, I am going to leave these two groups to talk about in more detail in one group.
Dystopian Fiction Club
I was slightly worried that no one would come to my club – I appreciate that it might not be the coolest lunchtime club running! I had 4 students in detention with me finishing off work anyway, so it made it look busy to begin with. Then, to my absolute delight, one of my 9Y students brought 7 of her friends along!
We had a general discussion about dystopian fiction and I asked them what they wanted to do. After giving them book recommendations – and them giving me book recommendations! – we decided on making it into more of a book club, reading The Hunger Games. This makes me happy as it is one of my favourite stories! Looking forward to next week already!
Middle School
I have come to the realisation that I really miss years 7 & 8; it is refreshing to not be thinking about the GCSEs! The year 7s are doing a non-fiction unit, where they have made up an imaginary village, and are given scenarios to react to. For example, last week they had to write a police report about a burglary and this week they are writing either a broadsheet or tabloid article about a natural disaster. The year 8s are reading Stone Coldby Robert Swindells. One group was just reading, and the other group did a 20 minute creative piece of writing about spending the night on the streets, as a homeless person.
I was astounded at how good some of the creative writing was! I have written pages and pages of notes, which I will go into more detail about next week. The main thing I feel I have taken from yesterday, is that I may be giving too much support too early for some of my groups. The teacher I was working with earlier gave the students at least 5 minutes of working on their own, putting their hand up if they needed support, before she wrote any kind of plan or sentence starters on the board. She gauged what the class needed, as opposed to giving it to the class straight away – and this didn’t make engagement levels drop, in fact (at the beginning, for both classes) all of the students were writing away quite happily!
J
Currently Reading:
The Paper Menagerie – Ken Liu
Stone Cold– Robert Swindells
Much Ado About Teaching 