Introduction
I wasn’t entirely honest in last week’s blog post, something that I swore I would be for this assignment – to not only help myself, but potentially anyone else that may happen to read my blogs. I have been struggling a lot recently. To the extent where I have been reluctant to leave my house on more than one occasion, the very fact I am a stickler for attendance is the only reason I have made it into uni at all. I’ve been trying to reflect on what that is, and I have some pretty amazing super close friends that I have been talking to about that – one of them being someone on the PGCE course with me.
I guess it’s probably down to the fact that I thrive under pressure and a heavy workload (I’ve definitely made a great career choice!) and that these past few weeks have dwindled down to next to no work to do in the evenings. Yes, it is a gratefully received break from the whirlwind of the PGCE year, but I’ve been left with a sense of… was that it? This is by no means a reflection of the course, I’ve really enjoyed some of the things we’ve been doing this week – the highlights being organising a school trip to a local National trust estate and having the room set up as a crime scene to encourage thinking about different ways we can teach the skills needed for English.
To anyone reading this, don’t be worried about me, I’m pretty sure it’s just a blip and I will get over it! I’ve said before that I am totally rubbish at goodbyes and endings, so I guess this is just my body’s way of reacting to the end of a turbulent year! I’ve got lots to look forward to this summer, including going back to work with the babies at the nursery I’ve been at for the last 8 years on and off for one last time, as well as spending almost the whole month of August travelling around Eastern Europe. Then in September I have the excitement of the new job at an amazing school and also the excitement of the family I au paired for coming over to England for a bit! So, for now, I am going to do my best to focus on the positives and hopefully get me out of this bad cycle.
It’s hard to be honest about how you feel, especially when it comes to mental health and all the stigma around it. I know a few fantastic people who are totally open about the way they feel in a way to normalise mental health. It’s not great that I feel this way, but so many other people have been in the place where I am now and have gotten past it – I mean I’ve been through it myself copious amounts of times in my life already! I deliberated hard about writing this, but I feel it is just as important to share the bad as well as the good. One of my friends said to me that she was surprised that I felt this way, because I seemed to be holding it all together and loving it – and I am all too aware that that is the impression I have been giving off and, for the most part, it was true. I guess what I am trying to say is that I am going to use this productively. Knowing that just because someone looks fine doesn’t necessarily mean they are fine is something I can utilise in my own teaching practice. I want to ensure that students have a safe space to let out their emotions and not feel, as I have, that they have to keep them in. Mental health is important and something that needs to be talked about, so that the younger generations know that they can be helped with feeling like this.
I did not intend to ramble on this long, and I am sure I’ve just waffled for a bit and, do you know what, I feel much better as a result of it! So even if it doesn’t make sense or if no one ever reads this I don’t care! It feels great to vent… even if it is to a computer screen! But now normal service will resume. This will be my penultimate blog post and my final PGCE post will be more of a yearly reflection and, as I’ve left finishing it later than originally anticipated (thanks to the PGCE ball hangover yesterday!), I will be pretty much publishing my reflective post straight away, as I have my exit tutorial in a few hours!
School Trip
As part of our final weeks of the PGCE, the English PGCE cohort had to organise school trip to a local National Trust property. The school we worked with had a high percentage of Pupil Premium students, suggesting that some of them may have never even left the city, let alone gone on any trips to bring in ‘cultural capital’. In order to be able to create a successful trip, we all visited the property before meeting the students, thinking about what we could do with them the following week. We had been given an anthology of 19thCentury extracts, with the intention to read different extracts in different places (e.g. extract from The Secret Gardenin the walled garden, extract from Hound of the Baskervillesin the stable yard etc.). Essentially, these were all to inspire the students to write their own piece of writing at the end of the day.
The following Friday, we went into the school we were working with in order to meet the students. We were working with year 8s and had been split up into groups, I was in EN2 – the second highest ability group. We were very lucky, having a pretty well-behaved group that really responded to all the activities we were doing. We team taught a 2-hour lesson, with the task of preparing them for Monday’s trip. We had no idea how much they already knew about 19thCentury literature, so we decided to approach this thematically and, as having four new teachers at the front could be seen as a little intimidating, we decided to split up and take a mini-group each, focusing on themes from different extracts.
I opted for the extract from Turn of the Screw, which I have yet to read and hope to read soon! As the extract was centred around ghosts, I decided to do some input on the Supernatural, as I had already taught a few lessons about it in the 19thCentury unit for my year 9s at my last placement school. I made a simple worksheet, that both helped me to understand their prior knowledge and what input I would need to give them. It was clear that different students had different experiences with the supernatural, some never having come across the term and others actively reading and watching novels and shows centred around it. By the end of the 20 minutes, all 4 of my groups had a clear understanding about what was meant by the supernatural and began to think about how they could include it in their writing. (Annoyingly, I totally forgot about the work I did with them and should’ve encouraged them to look back at it on the Monday… oops!)
Monday went fairly well! Me and a colleague had a group of 8 students that we were responsible for, taking them around to the various places. There was the odd moment where the students seemed disengaged but, on the whole, I actually think they quite enjoyed it – especially reading the extracts! Half of the students volunteered to read, and the others were able to summarise the extract afterwards. It was the writing part that took a little more encouragement and, if I were to do this again, I think I’d give the day a bit more structure. In giving them the freedom to write what they want, it meant a few felt like they could opt out at the different stations. We were to have 40 minutes in each section, including getting to the place, reading the extract and exploring the area. We found that we had a lot of time spare – our group where quick walkers! – and so we ended up getting them to begin writing in each part. However, I feel like it would’ve been more helpful for them if we got them to plan out their writing whilst we went around and then wrote up a best draft in the writing room.
Our day looked like this:
10:10 – 10:50 Walled Garden – Secret Garden
10:50 – 11:30 Stable Yard – Hound of the Baskervilles
11:30 – 11:50 Outside the house – No extract
11:50 – 12:30 Inside the house – Turn of the Screw
12:30 – 1:30 Lunch & writing time
So, going back to what I was saying earlier, I would’ve changed how we approached it to potentially start at the outside of the house, getting them to plan descriptive writing about their first time seeing the property and the grounds. Then moved to the walled garden to describe how it might feel exploring a place in detail, the stable yard where something bad happens (murder or not!) then finish in the house with the climax and resolution. Or something like that anyway! I feel like if they started to get a sense of a story in their heads, it would give them a little bit more purpose and inspiration about what to write about.
This really made me think about my teaching next year. My last placement school was a high achieving school, where I was lucky enough to give my students a lot of freedom and they would still produce high quality pieces of work. However, the school I am going to work at is looking at improving literacy skills and, from my personal experience with them, some classes were a lot harder to motivate and engage than others.
Final EPS session
I am not going to lie to you… I am not the saddest to be leaving the EPS sessions behind. Despite a lot of them being very interesting, they were long days and my attention span is short (giving me reasons to empathise with my students!). The last two sessions were on NQT year transitions and teaching the lazy way. These seemed perfect to end the year on, giving both an overview of what next year will look like and focusing on how the students should be working harder than the teacher in the classroom.
Minimus Latin
This was an optional day and I remember being excited about it since my interview! The only downside was that I was feeling a tad delicate after the PGCE ball celebrations from the previous evening (worth it). I never had the chance to study Latin at school, it simply wasn’t offered, and I have always been interested in the classics, Greek mythology in particular.
Long story short (very aware I’ve waffled a lot already – not that that’s anything new) I have left the day with a clear sense of how learning Latin can aid all subjects, but particularly increasing literacy skills for English. Not only that, but it is a lot of fun! I can already imagine doing it with a year 7 class! The downside to this is that it is aimed at primary students, but I feel like it is still something that could be brought into secondary – particularly in helping students with low literacy skills. Being a root language, there are so many discussion points and links to English. Take ‘māter’ for example, Latin for mother. Within that word, you can elicit words such as ‘maternity’, ‘maternal’, ‘matron’, ‘matriarchy’, ‘matrix’, ‘material’, ‘matriculate’ and others. In that one word, students are being exposed to a plethora of English terms they are likely to have not come across before. It is also a good tool to explicitly teach grammar, where conversations about the differences and similarities in English can further embed English grammar into the students. Anyway, I could go on – it should be quite clear that I have been inspired by the day! I only hope I will get the opportunity to further develop my own Latin skills (that are still next to none at the moment!) and hopefully bring it into my classroom in the future.
J
Currently Reading:
Pigeon English – Stephen Kelman
I really enjoyed this book – very thought-provoking and an easy to follow plot. I, sadly, predicted the ending but I feel like it brought the story full circle. I’m already kicking myself for not reading it earlier, as I can think of a few students in both of my placement schools that would’ve really enjoyed that novel!
The Hate U Give -Angie Thomas
Made the mistake of starting this book on the bus… I’m pretty much welling up at nearly every chapter! I completely fell in love with this novel, it poses a lot of questions about not only police brutality but also ignorant racist behaviour in schools, and the repercussions of this. It is such an important novel and I believe every young person should read it – adults too!
The Missing Girl – Jenny Quintana
Survivor– Chuck Palahniuk
I love all of Palahniuk’s novels that I have read, and this one is no exception. The unreliable, slightly strange narrator and the inversed page and chapter numbers really add to the craziness of the story. It’s not my favourite of his, but. Loved it nonetheless! (It will take a lot to beat Fight Club… the first time I read that I was in awe!)
Twelfth Night – William Shakespeare
This is my slow read at the moment, I’m taking notes alongside it to ensure I fully understand the meaning for when I come to teach it next year!
Brave New World– Aldous Huxley
Much Ado About Teaching 