Week 10 – Overwhelmed

Introduction

So, this week has been significantly more intense than last week. I have classically gone and done what I always do; agree to take too much on. At the beginning of the week, I agreed to go and talk to the Ofsted inspectors for university, which not only but a halt on my planning time, but also meant I had to rearrange my PT meeting this week. On top of this, I had my university tutor come to observe me on Tuesday afternoon and, despite her being so lovely, I found myself getting unnecessarily nervous for this. So, let’s just say the stress was ramped up a level and I ended up breaking down a bit on Wednesday. However, my lessons on Thursday and Friday proved to be a million times better and I have started the weekend with a new instilled confidence in myself.

Ofsted Round 2

Not long after getting an email, about Ofsted coming to carry out the second half of the university’s inspection, the course leaders sent another email around asking for volunteers to come and speak to the lead inspector. As I had a free in period 5, I offered to come into university, which meant that I sacrificed my planning time, to speak to Ofsted.

Obviously, I am not sure what the outcome is, but the inspector seemed very happy with what we were telling him about the course… fingers crossed to stay outstanding!

University Tutor Visit

As previously mentioned, I was a complete nervous wreck thinking about the university tutor’s visit; I didn’t know what to expect and had no idea how the class would react to my lesson – after the supply teacher incident, my confidence was knocked with this class.

My lesson was the third lesson on Shakespeare sonnets; we focused on the meaning of sonnet 18 and began to compare it to the beginning of sonnet 130. I managed to ensure that every child had contributed verbally, at least once, during the lesson, thanks to my handy ‘good names’ list on the board. I have to say; a lot of credit goes to my gorgeous year 7s… they worked so diligently and had some fantastic comments – I am continuously and regularly very proud to be teaching them!

It didn’t take long for the nerves to wear off to be fair, I got into the swing of the lesson pretty quickly and my confidence grows every time I teach something, and they prove to me in the plenary they have understood it.

I had a meeting with my UT and AT after this lesson and they both had super nice things to say. We worked through my targets for the rest of placement one and my UT noted that, if I gather enough evidence, it seems as if I am teaching at a ‘very good’ standard; for those of you not familiar with PGCE talk, this is the highest you can be. It’s safe to say that I was elated and extremely proud of myself – all the hard work looks like it is going to pay off!

I am going to leave this section with a part of the email that my UT sent me, as a follow up to the visit:

‘Joanne, you should be really proud of the lesson that you taught. You have a calm and confident teaching persona and it is clear to see that you have already established a lovely rapport with your learners: well done. You used a range of questioning techniques to ensure that all learners were involved in the lesson and made progress, and you demonstrated some live modelling with the visualiser.’

Debate Mate

One of the English teachers runs the ‘Debate Mate’ club after school on Wednesdays and, as I didn’t have a PT meeting this week, I came along to help out. Debate Mate is basically a club to help students with their debating skills and they also have an opportunity to compete in national competitions. (Click here to watch the 2018/19 launch video).

I only teach one of the students who attended, but it was super nice to be able to meet a variety of different students. It also amazes me at how much talent lies within the midst of the student body. The students that spoke, spoke eloquently and with such passion and confidence… at the ages of 11-14!

Midweek Breakdown

You would think that after all this great news at the beginning of the week I would be feeling elated and confident in my role as a teacher, that is what any normal human should feel after such fantastic news. Tuesday evening, I definitely felt that way! But for some reason come Wednesday evening I felt my panic and stress levels begin to rise and I just felt utterly overwhelmed and helpless. I negotiated with myself and only checked over my lesson plans for the next day before having an early night.

I’m not going to go into any details, I have no idea as to why this happens to me. It happened the previous week, but I presumed it was a one-off ordeal. It’s starting to become a pattern mid-week, so I am just going to monitor myself and adjust what I am doing accordingly.

Back on Track

Despite this set back Wednesday evening, Thursday proved to be a great day. The only lesson I had to teach was the lovely year 7s…. but, unfortunately, my AT was off again so I was in with a supply! I began to feel the beginnings of panic but held myself together – I knew what I was going to teach (thanks to a kind teacher who talked it through with me in the morning) and I was confident that I knew the lesson well enough, so I only really had to think about behavioural management techniques – that and pray they would be better behaved than last time!

My plan was to give them between 20-30 minutes to finish off their poetry comparisons (I’ve started marking these and some of them have blown me away – there aren’t many adults I know that can write this eloquently about Shakespeare, let alone an 11/12-year-old!), and then we were going to move onto their spacing task for this fortnight – viewpoint writing. The spacing task was to get them to agree or disagree with the statement: ‘‘Parents today are over-protective. Children should be allowed to take part in risky experiences to prepare them for later life.’

Yet again, I have to give credit to the year 7s. They now completely see me as their teacher – it is just the sweetest thing. I felt fully in control all lesson and, despite a few of them getting excited about the spacing task (one kid was adamant that if you went to the park without an adult you were extremely likely to get kidnapped, another asked what would happen to you if you got kidnapped) – I managed to keep them all on task appropriately so I’m calling that a win!

Progress with a Student

One of the biggest achievements for me this week is making progress with one of my more difficult students in year 9. I can’t remember if I have written about this before, so I’ll just do a quick background: one of my year 9 students has a lot of additional needs, which has related to him being off task and disruptive in lessons. I’m not going to give any details, but there are considerable reasons behind this that I am aware of and I have agreed with the normal teacher that she will help me with him. He very rarely does anything more than write the date in his lessons.

Due to him being in Ready to Learn or being excluded, he has only been in the class twice before, and I have only taught part of one of these lessons.

In fact, it is very rare to have the whole class in – more often than not there has been at least 6/31 off for various reasons.

The first full lesson I taught them… there were only 2 off and I had to adjust the seating plan accordingly. On the whole, my behaviour management was not great in that lesson, but I am going to focus on the positive in this section.

I managed to get him to verbally tell me which introduction was better and why; he responded accurately giving valid reasons behind his opinion. He took himself off to refocus during the lesson but, for me, the biggest win was getting him to stand behind a chair at the end of the lesson. It was period 5, so obviously they are all keen to leave, but I have been insisting on silence and order at the end of the lesson to maintain control of the class. He rushed to the door just as the bell went and I calmly asked him stand behind his chair. After reminding him to do this a few times, also informing him that I too would like to leave, we compromised with him standing behind the closest chair. At the end of the following lesson, I got him to stand behind his own seat.

This might not sound like very much, but I did not think I would even get to talk to me in a respective manner, let alone get him to follow my instructions and even begun to do some work. In just a week I have gotten so far with him, thanks to the teacher working with me acting as teaching assistant as well. I am hoping to see more progress, hopefully he will get to the stage where he participates in a lesson without causing too much disruption, even if he doesn’t do it whilst I am teaching them. It’s the smallest steps that feel like the biggest in learning to teach.

EPS SEND Assignment Feedback

On a final note, we got our feedback on the first part of our SEND investigations and I am thrilled to say that not only was my feedback good, but it was also extremely helpful. I have never had such specific feedback that I completely understand and agree with before. I’m not going to look at my assignment until next weekend, but I am glad that my mind is at ease with regards to this.

Teaching Targets

Last Week’s Targets:

Examples & subject knowledge: Subject knowledge is going to be one of those I will be constantly improving, so I am going to remove it from my weekly targets – I am aware I am going to have to adapt and learn as I go, especially as I move from school to school over the PGCE year. With regards to the examples, I am becoming more confident and finding that planning my examples into my lesson plans really helps me – even if I end up not using them and eliciting a model from the students.
Questioning: I have been attempting to use think time, something that is definitely a lot easier in theory than in practice, but I have come to the realisation that before I can even think about attempting some of the more advanced teaching skills, I need to work on my basic questioning skills.

This Week’s Targets:

Questioning: Building on what I have previously said, I have noted to adapt my questioning techniques depending on what I know about the learner I am questioning: ability levels, any SEND or any prior knowledge. To do this, I am going to attempt to use Bloom’s Taxonomy, something I am going to have to read into a bit more before I can make effective use of it. My university tutor suggested I laminated seating plans so I could write next to the student what kind of question I should be asking them: to monitor who is contributing to the lesson and to what level their answers will be. I am going to attempt to include this into my planning – hopefully it will be effective!
Assessment for learning: another target that has cropped up this week, is that I have been neglecting to use assessment for learning techniques to gauge if learners know what they are supposed to be doing; particularly when I give input or set an extended piece of writing. On Friday, I used a few techniques (thumbs up/middle/down; temperature check; common problems) to assess this, and already I am seeing a difference in how well the students are understanding my instructions. As noted in some of my earlier blogs, one of my biggest concerns is that I am not clear enough in how I speak to the pupils, thereby I am wasting my time and their time by having to consistently reword my instructions because I wasn’t clear enough the first time.

Currently Reading:

The Penguin Book of First World War Poetry

Reading first world war poetry on Remembrance Sunday – the centenary of the end of WWI no less – made the readings ever so more poignant. Poetry is one of those beautiful forms where the poet can express a multitude of emotions in written word – often, in my opinion, much more effectively than prose. I find that poetry is not the same read inside my head, so I often read poetry aloud to myself, in doing this last Sunday it made me realise how important this poetry is in remembering those who have gone.

The last surviving English veteran of WW1 died in 2009; in keeping the heightened, harrowing images of ‘the war to end all wars’ alive through various creative means, we are able to remember and be thankful to all of those who fought for us to live the lives we live today, also, hopefully, serving as a reminder to what we should never have to live through as a species again.

The Importance of Being Earnest – Oscar Wilde

So far so good! I’ve not read much but I am looking forward to reading some more this week!

Mrs Dalloway – Virginia Woolf

I have finally finished this novel and I reluctantly say that I did not particularly enjoy this novel. However, I can totally appreciate why people do love Woolf’s writing, the description is detailed and eloquent and her characterisation is phenomenal – I just did not overly enjoy the story.

Dark Woods – Steve Voake

The main gist of the story is that two children go off exploring in the woods near their campsite and a man finds them and drugs them, bringing them up to his cabin deep within the mountain forest. He then shows them that he can bring dreams alive; all he wants them to do is go into his dreams and bring his dog back to life. But there is a twist: he has brought Cal’s nightmare to a reality, and the kids set it free to torment them as they try to escape.

This is a novel that you really have to suspend your disbelief for and I find, when reading children’s and young adult novels, that I read them slightly differently to how I would read other novels; I imagine what my childhood self would’ve thought about them. Bringing myself back to opening up my imagination in any way possible, I am finding I am actually really enjoying this book. It is a simple horror for young people and holds the same gripping nature I would find in that of a Stephen King novel, only made accessible for the younger generation.

Exiting Nirvana: A Daughter’s Life with Autism – Clara Claiborne Park

The chapter I read this week was about her daughter’s experience with language – how long it took her to be able to communicate her unique way of seeing the world. The more I read into autism, the more I feel as if we are extremely fortunate to have these individuals in the world; different perspectives bring layers of meaning to an otherwise mundane world.

Week 9 – What a week!

Introduction

I’m not going to lie, this has been the longest most intense week. My placement school got the call from Ofsted Monday morning, which led to panic stations all around and, even though I wasn’t directly affected, I think I subconsciously picked up on everyone else’s stress. I also helped my AT with a poetry workshop ran by Black Artists on the move… which was also fairly stressful, some of the reasons I will note below. Then, to top it all off, I had my comfort blanket (my AT!) taken off me on Thursday, as she was off sick. I have so many different emotions and thoughts running through my head, I feel like this blog post may end up being fairly rambly… bear with me, I may say something of use or interest somewhere!

Ofsted

I have avoided Ofsted for the whole decade I have worked in childcare, unintentionally already having a day off in place when they have come in to the settings I worked at. One of my friends even informed me that I narrowly missed Ofsted at the primary school I was placed at – her daughter attends that school.

Monday morning.

The end of period 3.

The gossip started.

“Have you heard, they’ve had the call”

“What call?”

“Ofsted are in. For 2 days!”

Long story short, the main gist of it was, (I mean I think this was the main gist, I am getting my information from a wide variety of sources!) that they wanted to do an in-depth inspection due to the 2017 results. They focused on the disadvantaged kids and high ability kids. They have made a decision, and we do not know what it is yet – that will take up to 15 working days to come through. We did have a feedback session about it Wednesday morning, but I am unable to share anything as it was strictly confidential. However, I will definitely post the result in the blog after I find out!

Despite the stress it caused my colleagues, I actually feel as this couldn’t have come at a better time in my career. I got to witness first-hand the impact Ofsted has on the English department as well as the whole school. There were some teachers that have been qualified for longer than 4 years and still never encountered an Ofsted inspection, so I feel fortunate to have been able to witness this.

Despite this, after getting an email saying that Ofsted have spoken to the university to say they are getting the second half of their inspections, I really hope that they will not be coming to my placement school to look at the Bristol uni NQTs there!

Black Artists on the Move

On Wednesday we had a poetry workshop run by the CEO of Black Artists on the Move, Akulah Agbami and, as she kept what she was going to do a mystery from everyone, we had literally no idea what to expect! All that we knew was that there would be 2 workshops for 2 different sets of year 8s, handpicked by their teachers, and then there would be a showcase period 5 – a chance for them to show their work to their peers.

Speaking to one of my tutees, who is also in my year 8 English class, she expressed how concerned she was about speaking in front of everybody. I can totally empathise! I would have completely hated that at her age. I reassured her and said that if she honestly felt that strongly about it, she wouldn’t have to do it.

In the first session, she asked the students questions to warm them up, before taking key points and writing them up to create a class poem. To emphasise the fact that poems don’t have to rhyme, and that repetition is a key point in poetry, she randomly decided that they would say each line a certain amount of times. The end result was pretty cool and, eventually, the kids seemed to be actually engaging and enjoying themselves.

They were then given three different scaffolds to base their poems on. A lot of the students wrote some really beautiful poems and were inspired by what they were asked to write. However, I feel like the better poems digressed from the scaffold a bit, so I feel it would’ve been better if they were given as a suggestion rather than being told to work that way.

At the end of the first workshop, the kids were told they would be sharing their poems in the showcase and, naturally, they were reluctant to come forward and the initial few volunteers took a little coaxing to come forward. Akulah seemed adamant that everyone should be proud of themselves and show their poems to each other, so much so that when the bell rang, she let the volunteers go and asked the others to stay behind to see if they would change their minds.

The next session was much the same, they made another group poem and the same kind of process took place. Although this group seemed more confident, they were still pretty reluctant to do the showcase.

The showcase ended up being a shorter workshop, asking the kids to write a poem in response to a Fairtrade video, and one of the kids in my English class won the prize for the best poem! I was very proud. Then the students had a mini-assembly on the impact of poetry and then some of the workshop students bravely read out their poems to the rest of the year.

This was an interesting day, being able to see the students outside the classroom was great, as well as being able to see some of the work of students I do not teach. On the whole, I feel as if they enjoyed themselves – although one student said defensively ‘miss told me it was going to be fun!’ – so maybe it wasn’t for all the students!

Supply in the Room

Unfortunately, my AT, who has been suffering all week, was too unwell to come into school Thursday, which meant that a supply teacher would be covering her lessons. Initially, we discussed whether or not I would be happy to still take the lesson, as Jo had set cover work, and, me being me, I smugly said I would be happy to still take the class, as they are such a lovely group, as long as it was alright with everyone else.

The head of English agreed with me, saying that it would actually be more beneficial for me to save face in the class by continuing with them, as I have fully taken over this class. I was to teach sonnet 18 to them, focusing on the structure of sonnets, and I was fairly excited about this as I absolutely love Shakespeare’s sonnets.

I’m not totally naïve, I did expect the class to act differently without my AT there as well, I just thought that they would try it on and then go back to normal when they realise, I am running the class as normal. And, to give them credit where credit’s due, they weren’t that bad either… they just wouldn’t shut up! All they seemed to do was talk talk talk. It was driving me up the wall to be perfectly honest! I gave out a few RtL warnings and they settled a bit, but every time I had to sort something out (technology was not my friend today… never thought I would be that teacher!) they would just start whispering again… and those whispers got louder and louder.

Like it wasn’t the end of the world, and the supply said that I did a great job (even if she kept her face completely emotionless throughout the whole lesson). It was just disheartening to go from feeling like their teacher, to feeling like an outsider again.

Ready to Learn

Luckily my AT was back on Friday’s lesson, and it was a library lesson too – basically just doing crowd control! We agreed that I needed to make myself known as an adult in charge and, due to this, I would really crack down on behaviour in this lesson. The rules are simple in the library – work in silence and work hard!

One kid in particular, I’m going to call him Harry*, for no reason other than I love Harry Potter and I can’t use his real name in this post, is regularly and consistently off task and chatting away to anyone who is remotely close to him, distracting both them and himself. He gets a warning almost every English lesson – from either my AT or myself – and has been sent to RtL twice before.

I don’t want to tell the kids off. I get that it can be boring or it’s just generally hard to maintain concentration for large periods of time – I am horrific at procrastination myself and I’m over a decade older than them. I gave him an informal warning before giving him a RtL warning, willing him to just do the right thing (next library lesson I’m going to make sure he is sitting away from people who will engage with him!).

I then had another discussion with my AT, and again we agreed that I should be the one to send anyone to isolation if they are not following the rules (by this point there were a few more names on the RTL warning list). With a few minutes to go before the end of the lesson, AT had begun to tell them about homework expectations, as I was unsure about what they needed to do. I was keeping an eye on all of them, as they were spread out around the library, and Harry* started laughing and speaking to another kid, who was stifling a giggle but not responding to him. I quietly went over to him, said that he had had a few warnings and that he was still talking over AT, being rude and that he had to pack up his things and go to isolation.

Naturally, he did not take this well and stomped off to pack up his things. I repeated that he was not ready to learn etc. and also that I had given him extra chances and he was still talking when he wasn’t supposed to be.

I can’t help but feel slightly guilty – to me, it feels irrational to send a child to isolation just for talking. I know that is the point in RtL – cutting down on low-level disruptive behaviour – and I am also confident in my decision – I had given Harry* amples of warnings on top of the official warnings, in both this lesson and previous lessons. I also get that just giving a warning and not sending them to isolation defeats the object of RtL, but I still feel for Harry*.

Later on, AT informed me that she had received an email from Harry*’s mum, asking why a ‘cover’ teacher had sent him to isolation. AT replied saying that I was a trainee teacher and would be taking the class for the next month – hopefully nothing more comes of this!

A View from the Bridge – Beginning of Act Two

On a lighter note now, as I’m sure those of you who have read AVFTB are aware, the beginning of act two has Rodolpho and Catherine having sexual intercourse for the first time, and Eddie catching them just at the end.

Reading this with year 9s, 13-14 year olds, proved to be highly amusing. This play covers many mature themes, and I am very proud of them for being able to understand and apply them in their writing. Now, the reason I am writing about this week is to thank the teacher I was working with for letting me team teach this session, as I would not have bene able to compose myself as she did!

So, after blowing their minds by telling them that the fact that Rodolpho and Catherine were in the bedroom together, and that Catherine had to ‘adjust her dress’ after coming out of the bedroom, implied that they had engaged in sexual intercourse (a good three quarters of the class were unaware of this), the teacher asked them to compare how Catherine is feeling after being caught by her uncle as opposed to how she should feel after losing her virginity with someone she loves deeply. A few students said she should feel happy etc, but one student said that she would feel ‘sticky’.

LUCKILY, a handful of people heard (I didn’t!), and the teacher kept her composure beautifully, telling him that that was inappropriate and giving him an RtL warning (the poor boy looked a bit confused as to why it was inappropriate) and she moved the class swiftly on and eventually everyone forgot about it (or just ignored it!).

The main reason I am bringing this up is that I had literally just read the scene with them, and passed over to the teacher to set the writing task, as I wouldn’t be with them in the lesson they will write it in, and it got me thinking – how would I deal with a situation like that?

Anyone who knows me knows that I have a slightly immature sense of humour, and yes, I definitely find things like that hilarious. Therefore, I feel like I have to start practicing maintaining a straight face for circumstances like this – any tips would be gratefully received! (side note – I did manage to keep a straight face when the class were roused by Eddie kissing Catherine and then kissing Rodolpho! So hopefully all is not lost!)

Teaching Targets

Last Week’s Targets:

Examples: Still need to work on this to know exactly what I want to do!
I’m confident on the majority of the names of the year 9s now, there are still a few I’m unsure on but the seating plan I have made really helps!
Subject knowledge: This will be an ongoing target as there is a lot of stuff coming up that I’m not 100% sure on!

This Week’s Targets:

Examples & subject knowledge – to keep adding to my subject knowledge and to attempt to make my examples as relevant and useful as possible.
Questioning: One of the teachers, who observed me this week, suggested that I mix up my questioning techniques in order to stretch each pupil to their maximum potential. One interesting thing she was telling me about was think time – not giving praise straight away so that the students build on their responses independently.

Currently Reading:

Contemporary Poetry: Poets and Poetry since 1990 – Ian Brinton

I gave up reading the theory, as I feel like my time is better used elsewhere at the moment, as I am not actually teaching contemporary poetry as of yet. I’m not sure if it was because I wasn’t in the right mindset when I was reading it or what, but I wasn’t overly enamoured by the majority of the poetry. However, it did reignite my love for Carol Ann Duffy’s poetry – The World’s Wife was one of the first anthologies I fell in love with, and also I stumbled across the poem Prac Crit by Anthony Wilson. I have not come across this poem before, as I can remember, and it is a poem about analysing poetry – I love it!

The Importance of Being Earnest – Oscar Wilde

Although this is the next play I will read, I have not had time to start it as of yet.

Mrs Dalloway – Virginia Woolf

I am totally aware I am taking an embarrassingly long time to read this novel and, honestly, I do feel this is because I am not feeling overly engaged by the text. I want to love it – I really do! I’ve heard so many fantastic things about it from a range of people, but I just can’t get into it. I appreciate that it is written beautifully, but the story isn’t gripping me, so if anyone can recommend me a Woolf book to change my opinion it would be most appreciated!

Dark Woods – Steve Voake

I have been wanting to read some of Voake’s novels since he came into university to talk to us. This one was on the top of the pile in the YA fiction library we have at uni, so I thought I would give it a go! I’ve only read a couple of chapters… and the chapters are a couple of pages long (I’m not so good at reading before I go to sleep anymore!) but so far so good!

Exiting Nirvana: A Daughter’s Life with Autism – Clara Claiborne Park

I bought this as I came across it on blackboard when researching autism for my assignment. It is a memoir about Clara’s autistic daughter Jessy, and her life as an adult. I am enjoying it so far… but again, finding the time to just read is proving difficult!

Week Four: Poetry, Planning and Placement Preparation

Introduction

Another week has flown by, and my head has once again been bombarded by pedagogy – starting placement next week will be a refreshing change! Sitting here on Friday, as I begin to write this blog post, I am looking back over the week and Monday feels like months ago. Yet, at the same time, I cannot quite believe that the past month has passed by so quickly. I am definitely looking forward to relaxing this weekend with a few of my old uni friends!

First Tutorial

We had to sign up for one-to-one tutorials with our tutor last week, and I was eager to get this done as soon as possible, mainly so I could clear my head with someone who knew what was expected of me. We talked for quite a while, and I expressed some of my concerns about getting in front of a class for the first time. I am so used to observing, or acting as a teaching assistant, that I am starting to freak out a bit about making the transition into teacher! She made me feel heaps better about it, and we decided that the best approach for me is to jump in at the deep end and teach sooner rather than later. As much as I hate to admit it, that will probably be the best way for me to get over these ridiculous nerves as quickly as possible! Watch this space… I could be saying a completely different thing next week!

National Poetry Day

I wouldn’t be an English teacher if I didn’t acknowledge that it was National Poetry Day on Thursday! In spirit of this, our lecturers gave us a small anthology of four poems all written by female poets and taken from the current AQA GCSE Poetry Anthology. The poems were:

– The Emigre by Carol Rumens

– Poppies by Jane Weir

– Tissue by Imtiaz Dharker

– Kamikaze by Beatrice Garland

I focused on Kamikaze to begin with, after quickly reading through all four I found I was particularly drawn to the narrative. It follows a story about a Japanese girl’s father, who left to be a suicide bomber but came back, bringing shame to the family. I fell head over heels in love with the poem. The language is beautiful: ‘strung out like bunting on a green-blue translucent sea’; ‘dark shoals of fishes flashing silver as their bellies swivelled towards the sun’; ‘cairns of pearl-grey pebbles’, as well as presenting a powerful thought whether it would have been better for her father to die a ‘hero’ or live but bring shame on her family. I always find it interesting looking at different perspectives on the war, particularly after visiting Laos and seeing the devastation the ‘bombies’ from the Vietnam war, amongst other places.

We were then given the task to work in pairs to create a lesson plan for one of these poems. As much as I loved Kamikaze, the poem my partner and I chose to write the plan for was Tissue. It is such a beautiful poem, and I love the use of homonym ‘Tissue’ and the process of it starting as paper and becoming skin. The more I read it, the more I came to appreciate it. I will explain the lesson plan we made a bit further down.

On National Poetry Day we were asked to get into groups to perform different poems, and we were all given different ways in which we should perform. I won’t go into detail, but it just reminded me how powerful it is to see a poem performed, and how that could be used as a way to get my students to actively engage with the text, rather than just listening to it being read by me.

The Planning Process

We spent a lot of time in our sub sessions talking about lesson planning, focusing mainly on medium term and specific lesson plans. I am going to focus on the lesson plan I created with my partner, and the turmoils we faced whilst we attempted to perfect the timings and activities.

Our initial idea was to explore figurative language in Tissue. We drew upon ideas, decided to do various activities and then hit a brick wall. How where we going to cover everything in a one hour lesson? After getting a bit of help, we realised that it would be more beneficial to us and the students if we were more specific with what we wanted the learning outcomes to be – in other words keep it simple and specific. So we narrowed it down to imagery. Turns out this is just as vague so eventually we narrowed it down to the senses and then our plan took place!

I’m including a picture of our plan, it is hella messy because we changed it heaps, it is also not 100% finished as we discussed a lot but ran out of time to write it down! However, I am confident that we have refined our plan and it is now a teachable lesson. This was also due to, I believe, finally getting a mock up class list so we had an idea of how we could differentiate the lesson. This made it somewhat easier, but I think it will also be a million times easier (note easier not easy) when I know the children I will be teaching well enough to adapt the lesson for everyone. (I know that probably sounds optimistic but we’ve all got to aim somewhere!)

Class Readers

We also had a look at class readers, the text (generally a play or novel) that a class will read together and follow along at the same pace, usually over a few lessons. We discussed various ways to approach class readers and also talked about the advantages and disadvantages of using them.

We then got the first few chapters of Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman, and were asked to try out a few techniques to read them in a group. I think the resounding thing our group found was that, even as literature lovers, we found we got distracted easily for a range of reasons. The text itself was phenomenal and I have definitely decided to put it on my to read list… so why did we find it so hard?

Reading out loud can be a nerve racking thing, everyone slips up now and again and it is easy to get bored if someone is reading too fast or too slow. For me, the best way we did was the ‘popcorn method’, where the reader can nominate anyone to read and each person only reads as much as they want to. This kept us on our toes and, interestingly, we found ourselves picking on our colleagues that did not appear to be paying attention. Now who knows if this is something the children will do or if this is just the teacher within us all making an appearance!

Inclusion and SEN/D

For our first masters level assignment, we will be following ‘learner x’, a pupil with SEN/D (Special Educational Needs or Disability) and we had the introductory lectures to this task this week.

My favourite of the lectures has to be the one where we had people from a SEND department come in and talk to us, bringing along a few students with additional needs. Hearing the students side of their school life really hit home – I know inclusion is important of course, but knowing the little details that could change the child’s day for the worse only emphasised to me that it is of the upmost importance that I get to know my students as well as I can.

I am actually looking forward to this assignment, and eagerly anticipate next week when I hopefully get to meet my learner x.

Observation Versus Judgement

This will just be a brief note here, mainly to remind myself if I ever forget. Observations are what you actually see, judgement is what I think I see. For example, an observation would be that children have their heads down on their table, a judgement would be that these children are not engaged. Use the observations to back up judgments ad explicitly state what I have seen in my assignments – every judgement needs evidence!

First Impressions

Most excitingly this week we got to meet our personal tutors for our first placement, well I say personal tutor, in my case one of the deputy heads came to greet us due to unforeseen circumstances. It was honestly such a relief to be able to have a little chat before starting next Tuesday, and having a few trivial questions answered.

The school I will be working at has a ‘ready to learn’ behaviour management scheme in place, which is basically a zero tolerance method. I am grateful that all the behaviour management is in place for me to use already, as I feel like that is one less thing I need to worry about when I teach for the first time (scary how this is getting closer and closer!). It is also a Catholic school and I am excited to see how faith is integrated into the English curriculum.

Transferable Techniques

Working with a collapsed text: Using all the words of a poem (or any other text) put in alphabetical order and ask the students to create a piece of creative writing only using the words provided. Also, using a word wall – where all the words of a poem (or other text) are blanked out and words are revealed one by one (or however you want to do it).
The ‘popcorn method’ for class readers

Currently Reading:

The Penguin Book of First World War Poetry – Edited by George Walter

Back to the world war poetry again, I think I’m gonna alternate each week between this book and the contemporary poetry book. One poem that particularly stood out to me this week is August 1918 (In a French Village) by Maurice Baring. It is a short poem, only having 2 stanzas, but the contrast between the 2 stanzas was what really grabbed my interest. The first is a beautiful description of village life, and this is juxtaposed with distressing imagery of war and death.

The Tempest – William Shakespeare

I have just begun Act 2 of the Tempest, and I am further reminded of the interesting character of Caliban. I can remember having discussions at school whether he was evil or whether he was merely an innocent being that Prospero is abusing. I also can quite confidently say that I have no idea how the play is going to turn out! To be fair to myself, it has been over 10 years since I last studied the play. I am excited to remind myself about the play and to follow the characters into the unknown for the second time in my life. This just goes to show that rereading a text is never a bad idea!

Mrs Dalloway – Virginia Woolf

The more I read this novel the more I fall in love with it. Woolf is quite clearly an ingenious writer, to cover so much detail over a course of a day is astounding! The part I read this week focuses on Mrs Dalloway’s daughter Elizabeth and how she has her own independent mind. Her relationship with Mrs Kilman is a bit confusing, potentially because I have the bad habit of skim reading, or could be that way on purpose! I am still not sure if Mrs Kilman loves her or is jealous of her… or both! I am also waiting for the climax of the novel… I feel as if there is something building and Mrs Dalloway will be the cause of some great distress. Time will only tell if I am way off the mark or not!

Junk – Melvin Burgess

This book was harrowing. The book follows Gemma and Tar as they both run away from home and go live in squats and, not surprisingly due to the title of the book, become heroin addicts. I don’t want to give too much of the plot away, but the changes you see in the characters – particularly Tar – just emphasises how ‘junk’ can destroy someones life. There were moments where I was nearly brought to tears (probably would have been brought to tears if I wasn’t reading it on the bus!) and it really opened my eyes to how important safeguarding is within a school! (Definitely would have had a different reading if I read this as a teen!) If someone at their school noticed that Tar was being abused at home, would he have run away in the first place? How different would their lives have been?

This is definitely a book aimed at an older reader, with themes such as drug addiction, prostitution, abuse, rape, pregnancy and abortions, a heroin addicted baby, homelessness amongst other things found throughout the novel. I would definitely be reluctant to recommend it to students until I knew they were mature enough to handle these deep issues. Nevertheless, it is a fascinating read and I am intrigued to watch the BBC adaption in the near future!

Week Three: Facebook Isn’t Cool Anymore

Introduction

After meeting a few of my PGCE colleagues at the weekend, I was eager to start on Monday. Still buzzing from the excitement of primary placement and desperate to start work in schools, I was eagerly anticipating the week ahead and finding out in more detail about how the PGCE is going to work.

EPS, Sub & Placements

The course itself is split into three parts: EPS (Educational and Professional Studies – the ‘core’ teaching theory that is applicable to every PGCE student), Sub (the subject you will be teaching, obviously English in my case) and school placements. We have two weeks of initial university work before going to our first placement school on the fifth week.

I am equally nervous and excited for my first official placement in a secondary English classroom, especially when I found out I would be teaching a lesson or part of a lesson by the end of this placement. Will I be able to put into practice all I have learned and said I could do? What will my lesson be about? Will it be something I am confident in or will I have to learn something new myself in preparation? How much support will I be given? What will my class be like? What age group will I be teaching? Will I know any of the students through the volunteering I have done in this city before?

Teacher Standards

In order to be seen as a competent teacher, there are certain standards one has to meet. These standards are used throughout a whole teaching career, and the way you meet them develops as you gain more experience. The standards are:

Part one:

Set high expectations which inspire, motivate and challenge pupils.
Promote pupil progress and outcomes.
Demonstrate good subject and curriculum knowledge.
Plan and teach well-structured lessons.
Adapt teaching to respond to the strengths and needs of all pupils.
Make accurate and productive use of assessment.
Manage behaviour effectively.
Fulfil wider professional responsibilities.

Part two:

Appropriate behaviour in and out of school.
Treating pupils with dignity and observing proper boundaries.
Safeguarding pupils’ well-being.
Showing tolerance and respect for the rights of others
Not undermining fundamental British values.
Proper rear for ethos of school – including high standards of punctuality and attendance.
Awareness of, and act within, statutory frameworks that apply to teachers.

The fact that gaining QTS (qualified teacher status) relies so heavily on these standards made me panic a little at first – what if I can’t meet all of them? Or what if I know I can but can’t provide sufficient evidence? However, after rationalising my thoughts, I completely understand why these standards are in place – teachers are such respected members of society and there are many ways that we have to safeguard ourselves as well as the young people we teach. I am confident that I will be able to meet each one of these standards with amples of experience and, hopefully, this time next year I will have my own classes in my NQT (newly qualified teacher) year.

Taking on a Tutor Role

Our first guest speaker of the year was an experienced Deputy Head teacher, who came to talk to us about the pastoral side of teaching. It was interesting to have the role of a tutor put before us so early in our teacher training – nevertheless I agree with how important this role is.

It got me thinking about my own potential tutor classes, and how I would go about being in a pastoral role. He told us all that teachers should ‘generate the sort of adult we would be happy to live next to when we are old.’ That is it. That is what, as a teacher, my ultimate goal would be. Yes getting students to achieve their target grades or higher would be an amazing feeling but at the end of the day, school is such a minute part of a persons life and the different experiences a teenager may face during this time will ultimately shape them as a person, regardless of socioeconomic background.

Interestingly, he noted that ‘parental income is the biggest hurdle to overcome for pupil progress’. As well as this he suggested that children with illiterate parents or even potential refugees will struggle more in schools simply because they don’t have the extra support at home. This highlighted to me how important it is to get to know my students individually to ensure that nobody is struggling just because of their life outside of school.

Ultimately, I feel as if the guest speaker was trying to say that it’s not just in your lessons that you may find yourself caring for these students. It is important to acknowledge them as individuals and to give them appropriate support as and when they need it – whether that be in the classroom, tutor time or on your breaks. You never stop being their teacher and even the the little things you may say to a child could resonate with them for a lifetime.

Online Safety & Safeguarding

Facebook isn’t cool anymore… Instagram and Snapchat are the social media sites that today’s young people are using more regularly. Not only now are we the generation of ‘A*-U GCSE’s’ but we are now the generation of Facebook. Apparently the biggest group of people joining Facebook at the moment are women over 40, whereas young people are more concerned with keeping their ‘snap streak’ with their best friends as high as possible.

The online safety lecture we had with a retired police officer was honestly one of the most interesting lectures I have ever had. Filled with statistics, like the previous paragraph, he told us about the good and bad sides of the internet. It is not the technology itself that is bad but rather the behaviour of the humans using it.

The recent Fortnite craze also posed some questions regarding he safety of using it’s online mode – many parents have been setting up a closed group for their children so they can only talk to the people they actually know. We were also warned to have plenty of parents asking us about how to get them off video games!

We also looked at the slightly darker area of the web – and I warn you not to read this paragraph if you are sensitive to issues with children and sex. Sex education is in place in most schools, but according to this speaker not many schools tackle the issues of online sex education. Apparently the average age of a child accessing porn is 11 and there are many ways in that children are groomed and abused online. Sexting is also an issue that is not explained properly to the children – how are they to know that sending or receiving a pornographic picture of an underage person is a criminal offence even if they are underage themselves or if it’s their photo they are sending. One key thing to focus on is scalability, durability and audience. Any photo sent online – regardless of the platform it is shared on – has the potential to be seen globally by any type of person and will be on the internet forever.

I believe it is important that we as a society talk about these issues. Keeping a taboo on these subjects only discourages children to come forth with any issues they may have, and that could have a detrimental effect on some of these young people’s lives.

This leads nicely onto the safeguarding lecture we had following this. A DSL (designated safeguarding lead) from a local school came in to train us in safeguarding. I am not going to dwell too long on the safeguarding aspects – I have had regular training since I first started working with children a decade ago – but it is still important to talk about.

Talking to people outside of university, it surprises me how some schools will have people in their settings without telling them basic healthy and safety rules – including their DSL.

I can’t think of anything more important than the basic safeguarding rule of just pass it on. If you have any concerns, no matter how small: whether it’s something you see; something someone tells you or just a gut feeling… it should not be kept to yourself! If a child is disclosing you something use TED questions – Tell, Explain Describe and always tell them you have to pass it on if it concerns you, write it up and get you both to sign at the front and also next to the last sentence.

It is all very well and good saying it won’t happen where I work, not at this school. I cannot think like that, we all should never think like that. I already know too many people in my personal life that have experienced abuse, a few of them when they were minors. It needs to stop. Acting in loco parentis puts the responsibility of these young people into our hands as teachers and I strongly feel that by committing to a teaching career we have to do anything in our power to keep these young people as safe as possible.

What is the Role of an English Teacher?

This is the question we have been looking at all week in our ‘sub’ sessions. We have had many a heated debate, looked at different theories about the origins of English as a subject alongside the differences in the precious national curriculum and the 2014 model. One of the most interesting to me has been Cox’s five models of English teaching: Personal Growth; Cross Curricular; Adult Needs; Cultural Heritage and Cultural Analysis.

At the end of the week we had the opportunity to work in small groups to create a short video depicting the roles of an English teacher. We chose to make a mockumentary starring ‘Louise’ Theroux… it was a lot of fun to make and I offered to edit it over the weekend.

One of my favourite things about the course so far is that the English subject tutors have been showing us different ways of teaching by getting us to carry out the activities. This has been extremely useful and has helped me to think ‘outside of the box’ when it comes to lesson planning.

Some of the key ideas we came up with for the role of an English teacher are:

Teaching the SPAG (spelling, punctuation and grammar) basics
Teaching both canonical texts alongside other forms, i.e. media, non-fiction etc.
Carrying out formal assessments to check progress
Facilitating work
Build skills necessary for the outside world
Ensure wellbeing
Differentiate between learners
Encourage creativity and personal growth

Transferable Techniques

Drama starter – get the students to organise themselves without talking
‘Diamond 9’ tasks – where the most salient point is at the top and least salient at the bottom
iPad work – creating a short film about a certain topic
Counting down to regain the attention of the class
Checking that the task is understood by asking someone to repeat it back to you before starting

Currently Reading

Contemporary Poetry: Poets and Poetry since 1990 – Ian Brinton

Ok I have to admit, I didn’t read the amazon description fully and I presumed this was an anthology of contemporary poetry. This is actually a companion to contemporary literature which has actually proved to be rather useful. I am currently half way through the first chapter ‘approaching contemporary poetry’ which so far has offered an interesting insight into the beginnings of the contemporary movement, however, I am looking forward to reading the texts later on in the book!

The Tempest – William Shakespeare

Shakespeare is one of those authors who is inevitably going to come up during my teaching time, I would imagine that his works are taught regularly in every school by pretty much every English teacher in the UK. I first read The Tempest in year 9 and it is the first play that made me fall in love with Shakespeare. I am rereading the text to both refresh my memory of the play and to begin to explore how I may go about teaching Shakespeare.

Mrs Dalloway – Virginia Woolf

I actually started reading this novel earlier on in the year, but lost it! I happened upon it after moving to my university accommodation and decided to continue with it. I was just about half way through with the novel, so I was reluctant to start it again (I quickly reminded myself of the plot… thanks to spark notes!). This is the first Woolf novel I have read, and I can see why she is such a popular author. The character of Mrs Dalloway herself is interesting, I thoroughly dislike her but also I am hooked and am fully interested to find out more about her past and how the rest of the plot is going to unfold. Will she stay with her husband or will she reignite her relationship with Peter? What is going to happen at the party? What role does her daughter play in all of this?

Junk – Melvin Burgess

I have actually yet to start this novel, as I have only just acquired it through the young adult and teen fiction library at university. I have heard a lot about it, it was discussed a few times during my children’s literature module for my undergraduate degree. I am excited to start it this weekend!

Weeks One & Two: Primary School Placement

Introduction

I was lucky enough to have my first placement in a fantastic primary school, where I knew a few of the pupils already. I had been to the school the previous term to have a look around, and it was agreed that I would spend one week in year six, then the following week in year five along, as well as observing English lessons throughout the school. As I am going to teach Secondary English, the main intentions for this placement were to focus on where literacy fits in with the school day and primary-secondary transitions.

The whole school follows a relatively similar timetable. The day begins with ‘early morning maths’, a selection of age-appropriate, challenging maths questions, used to bring focus to the class as soon as they come in the classroom. Mornings are always dedicated to Maths and English, as these form the core of the curriculum, and afternoons are for topic-based work covered through a variety of subjects.

Literacy Experiences and Lessons

English is a crucial part of the Early Years, KS1 and KS2 curriculums, and is also the one thing that every subject has in common, therefore it is natural that primary school English teaching does not just fall into designated English lessons. Throughout the school day, standard English and grammar was emphasised, to an extent, and in some of the discussions that took place, I witnessed literacy development taking place. For example, in a year six RE lesson, extracts were read about creation vs. science and the children had a discussion about the differences between the two. Within this exercise, there was an encouragement of use of terminology, such as ‘genre’, reinforcing their literary knowledge alongside the main lesson.

ERIC (Everyone Reading In Class) is used as a starter throughout the majority of lessons, and each child has a reading log to ensure that they sustain their reading both in and out of school. I believe that one of the main battles for English teachers is getting students to enjoy reading regularly, and this helps to create a reading culture. Comprehension and spelling practice are also completed daily, as well as a focus on phonics in Early Years and KS1.

Before every child starts a new topic in English, they have to write a ‘cold task’ and finish with a ‘hot task’. This a visual way in which they can see how much they have learned and how it has improved their writing. The cold task is not assessed because usually it is not to the highest standard, and the teachers do not want to demoralise work. The students all knew that the hot task was to be their best work, and they all worked very hard to both meet their personal targets and also to impress their teacher.

Key Issues

Primary – Secondary transitions is inevitably going to be stressful for both the students and their parents. From what I have witnessed, and experienced for myself, this is the next biggest transition in a child’s life after starting school as a 4 year old. Primary schools are smaller, they have one teacher who oversees the majority of their lessons during the whole year, it is a less academic, more familial setting – the teachers’ roles as in loco parentis is significant in that the pupils are younger and have totally different needs – particularly in the lower years. I feel as if good communication between the schools, parents and the students themselves will help this transition to go as smoothly as can be.

Another issue that came up was that, as the primary curriculum has become exceedingly more challenging, the students are coming up to secondary already knowing a lot of things taught at KS3. Again, I feel as if communication between the two schools is vital here as how can a secondary teacher teach what is needed if they do not know what each child has already been taught? This school has begun to tackle this issue by inviting year 7 teachers at the feeder secondary school to observe lessons.

Conversely, after discussing Primary school placement with my new PGCE colleagues this week,

Transferable Techniques

Being at the start of the school year, the teachers are still working out the skill levels and the best techniques to use to ensure each child reaches their full potential. Year 5’s have realistic, personalised spelling targets that, if achieved, win them house points. This focus on personal achievement instead of getting full marks really struck me as a way to ensure that the lower ability children are properly motivated.

Another way they achieve personalised learning is through the labelling of their books; the labels are colour coded to represent SEND, underprivileged and forces children, and the position of the label corresponds with the pupil’s academic level in that subject. This allows any adult working with the child to be able to know exactly the needs they may have.

Instant feedback was also a big hit throughout the school, particularly in year 6. This seemed to work fantastically in maths – the students either marked their own work or the adults in the room marked as they went. It was a little harder to do this in English, but they had regular verbal feedback with either their teacher or peers. Obviously this would be harder to implement in secondary, but one thing the year 6 teacher said that really struck me was that the sooner they get feedback the more likely they are to actively engage with the feedback.

Another thing about the marking I liked was that the pupils have to respond to their marking. A few people did not like this idea as they said the pupils might just say what the teacher wants to hear. However, surely that is more useful than them not reading the marking at all? And also, when it comes to SPAG issues, they were asked to re-write out their mistakes correctly underneath rather than just passively read where they were going wrong.

A couple of techniques I particularly liked were:

Sentence Surgery – Where a sentence is put on the board with SPAG errors, differentiated to the abilities of the class, and the students are asked to rewrite the sentence grammatically correct. This is was useful in two ways. Firstly, it was a great, quick, engaging starter and just a different way to teach grammatical structures. As well as this, I noticed it was used later on in the English lesson, when the students were editing their work. The teacher would say to them to ‘make sure to do sentence surgery on your (or a peers) work’ and they would immediately know the sort of things to look for in their work.
‘Dot it don’t dodge it’ – The basis of this was to get the pupils to use more interesting words even if they were not sure of the spelling. They would write a word they weren’t sure how to spell down and dot underneath it. When they had finished their writing, they were encouraged to look up in a dictionary and ask a peer, the teacher or teaching assistant to find out the correct spelling. This I feel will be particularly useful with lower ability pupils in secondary.

Interestingly, coming in as an unfamiliar adult did not seem to affect the pupils in any way other than they were excited to have me in the class. By the end of the fortnight I had been put in a teacher’s role a few times; I assisted with marking, answered literary questions, had the children read to me and, by the end of the fortnight, assisted with the teaching input. The children I worked with engaged well with me and I felt as if I genuinely helped them create some outstanding pieces of work.

Currently Reading:

The Penguin Book of First World War Poetry – Edited by George Walter

Knowing that it is part of the curriculum, I have purchased this book in order to explore different First World War poems. A few that I have particularly enjoyed so far are In the Trenches – Richard Aldington, Bombed Last night – Soldier’s Song and Arms and the Boy – Wilfred Owen.

Blood Brothers – Willy Russell

I completely fell in love with this play. I am somewhat familiar with the story line, but have never read the play itself before. It is easy to follow, has an utterly gripping plot and the protagonists are interesting characters whom you easily empathise with. As it is a musical, I will definitely be on the look out for local performances to be able to fully comprehend what Russell was intending the play to be.

The Diary of a Young Girl – Anne Frank

The Diary of a Young Girl has always been a novel I wanted to read, particular after visiting the annex they hid in in Amsterdam. I feel as if this is an extremely important text for young people to read, as it is fascinating to see a child’s perspective of the war. Being largely set in the annex itself, the reader is immersed in the family life and how isolating it must have been. The heart-wrenching ending really puts it into perspective and reminds the reader that this is actually a non-fiction text – this really happened to her family.

Uglies – Scott Westerfield

Another novel I had heard a lot about but never got round to reading. Uglies is a dystopian novel; everyone is an ‘ugly’ before their sixteenth birthday where they become a ‘pretty’. Tally, the protagonist, ends up leaving her society and going to ‘the smoke’, where a group of uglies live, in order to preserve the history that the government are trying to wipe out. It is an exciting novel with an ingenious plot, would be perfect for students interested in dystopian fiction, or just looking for a gripping novel… I am looking forward to reading the sequel at some point!

Featured

Introduction

Hello!

Welcome or welcome back to my teaching blog!

For those of you who are new, I started this blog as part of my PGCE course this time last year. It was an emotional year, but I have come out of it knowing this is the perfect job for me. Blogging massively helped me with my wellbeing (a big issue in teaching at the moment!) so I have decided to continue this blog into my NQT year and hope it still helps me in the same way.

I have decided to keep the names of the school I work at and the people I work with anonymised, just to avoid any GDPR issues… not something I want to be worrying about!

It’s weird to think that this time last year I had no idea what I’d be getting myself into… now I know exactly what I’m getting myself into and I can’t wait to see what the next year brings for me. Enjoy reading!