Introduction

After 5 weeks of assignment work, time in university and some much needed time off, it was time to get back into teaching again. It’s crazy to think that, as I am writing this, there are only 4 weeks of teaching left and, on my reduced timetable, that leaves just 30 teaching hours! Having a reduced timetable has been both a blessing and a curse. I am loving being able to leave work at school, freeing up my evenings for me – I even went on a run for the first time in just under a year! But, in school hours, I grow to be rather bored – particularly as year 12 have had a study week this week, reducing my contact time even further and meaning I had no tutor this week! Nevertheless, it feels great to be back in a school environment, and even better to be at this school with the delightful English faculty and my lovely students! I’m definitely looking forward to the next few weeks!

Friendly Faces

All throughout P2 and P3, I would find myself getting to the department before a lot of others, so I figured I’ll leave a bit later on my first day, as I don’t have anything to do. I had neglected to check the roads, I came across double roadworks and it was super busy. Nice one. This is so highly unlike me, I take after my mother – always ridiculously early as opposed to later – so this stressed me out no end. I thought I was in the clear… until I realised that I had missed staff briefing. Woops. Commence a few jokes at my expense!

But, other than that, my transition back to school went very smoothly! I bumped into a few of my students as I made my way to the faculty (from a different car park, as I arrived too late for the main car park – the school buses and cars dropping off students were swarming the entrance!) and I ended up having a good chat with one of my 9X5 students, who I (sadly!) won’t be teaching this term. So, despite my late start, I felt uplifted knowing that a few of my students were genuinely happy to see me!

My first lessons observing in 9Y3 and 10X5 were fantastic. It was so lovely being able to be in the classroom with them again, student after student after student told me about how they were happy for me to be back – some even disappointed I wasn’t teaching straight away! It honestly felt amazing – just as good as going back to see all my babies at nursery after being away for a while!

9Y3

My first lesson teaching fell on Thursday, with my year 9s. I was slightly nervous going back – especially as (other than the 25 minutes in the interview) I hadn’t taught anything for 5 weeks. I knew I’d still be able to do teach, I just didn’t know to what standard my teaching would be and, more importantly, how much progress my students would make.

The lesson was the second part to the lesson I had observed on Tuesday – looking at AQA English Language paper 2: question 4. After refreshing their memories about the differences between methods and techniques (I think they finally get it now!) we read a new source about a trip on a slave ship, to compare to the source they read on Monday, about Ellen MacArthur’s world record journey.

The beginning of the lesson went well – my AT observed for the first 10 minutes, commenting on how I couldn’t stop smiling (I’m super lame – I was so excited to be back in the classroom!) and some great discussion was being had about the writer’s perspective and techniques used. Sadly, time got ahead of me and I gave them an example of a top end paragraph, asking them to tell me what makes it good. I totally underestimated how much time would be needed to make this an extremely beneficial task – it would’ve been better used in a lesson where the objectives and outcomes were to do with forming paragraphs, not just getting to grips with the question itself.

I had intended for the class to plan out three paragraphs, using a planning grid, and then write up one paragraph for homework – modelling the first paragraph plan on the board. As time was short, and it took me a while to elicit the sorts of responses I wanted (a couple of my top contributors were off sick!) we only managed to plan together one paragraph – with, essentially, the same ideas as the ‘perfect’ paragraph. I was kinda kicking myself here – it would have been much more useful for them to have a go at planning in this lesson, so I could pick up on anything they were unsure of, and then look at good examples in the following lesson. The last part of my lesson was rushed and it felt like I was back in P1 or 2 again – not adapting my lessons as I need to do. I thoroughly enjoyed being back in the classroom, but I was disappointed in myself for taking such a big step backwards. It’s very easy to say that I’ve had a while off, but I will be in this same situation with completely new classes of my own next September – I need to step up my game!

10X5

I taught my first lesson back with this class this morning, as their usual class teacher was on a training course. I had a cover supervisor in with me for a bit at the start and the end but, again, I was on my own for the majority of the lesson. I had in my head loads of funny comments from members of this class – annoyingly I have forgotten them all… I need to start remembering to write them down straight away!

Anyway, this lesson was all power and conflict poetry revision – a simple starter and plenary with the bulk of the lesson focusing on them creating revision cards. The vast majority of the class worked on this diligently (earning themselves 2 house points!) and some students enjoyed doing this so much, that they asked to take them home to finish! It’s refreshing to see them taking so much care in their work – and also makes me feel great as every student can tell me about most of the poems! (Remembering quotations and AO2 points will be the biggest challenge for this group I feel.)

However, there were the usual boys playing up. I knew this was partly my fault, because I said they could work in groups of their own choice and I should have moved them away from each other straight away. I always find it hard with this class to be rigorously strict, as the more I tell them what to do, the more they don’t do it – and I’m not looking for a confrontation. I said to them that they could talk, as long as the work was getting done.

Whilst I was setting the task, however, they wouldn’t shut up, so I moved them to the front on the warning that they would be split up if they talk over me again. They kicked up a fuss about moving, so I gave them there official ‘warning’. Honestly, I am still confused about how ready to learn works in this school, and I am unsure as to whether I am using the right language with them – they ask me things like ‘does this count as a c1’ and I am at the front unsure – I have seen different teachers do it in different ways and, unlike my first placement school, there doesn’t seem to be a completely clear system about what counts as being ‘not ready to learn’.

I continued to use praise, like I had been doing, and found myself consistently coming back to the group and pointing them in the right direction. I knew they wouldn’t do the work that was expected of the whole class, so I broke it down and told them to try and get at least one thing written down for each poem. Verbally, they were talking through the poems with me (when they weren’t pretending they couldn’t see me and carrying on their lovely conversations!), but I would regular tell them to write something down and come back to find just the one more word written on their page.

However, on the whole, I am proud of this class – their average target grade is a 3, and they remember way more than they thought they would. This class will always prove to be a challenge, but this is why I love doing it. Never a boring day!

I was going to end this section on the previous paragraph but, shortly after writing this in 5th period, one of my amazing students came to find me and give me the revision cards she had finished at lunch time! She was so proud of herself and knowing I had inspired her to work that hard made feel absolutely fantastic! Great start to the weekend! The only downside is that she is the sort of student that works tremendously hard, puts so much effort into her work, but doesn’t make the progress she deserves. Scanning over her work I have noticed she has left a few things out – but at least the majority of the information on their is accurate!

Curriculum Research Assignment

Due to my many, many, free periods, I decided to make a solid start on my final assignment. I have decided to look at the diversity of the KS3 and KS4 English curriculum, focusing on ethnicity and potentially gender (depending on the word count allowance!). There are two reasons behind me doing this: Firstly, I strongly believe that each student should be made to feel welcome in the classroom, no matter what they are leaving behind at home. Secondly, the school I have got a job at are looking at shifting the year 9 curriculum around a bit, focusing on diversity.

I have had a pretty productive week regarding this, completing the majority of research into ethnicity and the curriculum. I am hoping to get the majority of this done before May half term, so I can enjoy my time away! However, this will mean a lot of hard work next week and the week after… particularly as it’s my birthday this weekend and one of my best friends is getting married next weekend!

J

Currently Reading

The Paper Menagerie and other stories– Ken Liu

I have, effectively, abandoned everything else I have been reading to read this. My boyfriend recommended it to me and, as he is about as far from an avid reader as one could possibly get, I was slightly uncertain as to whether I would enjoy it that much. But, since beginning it, I have completely fallen in love. This week I read The Perfect Match and Good Hunting. The first based around the idea of technology taking over, with a virtual assistant, similar to that of Alexa or Siri, and how two peoples relationships change as a result. The second based in China, a completely beautiful story about how the old magic of China has disappeared, bringing along a new magic, again focusing on the relationship between two characters. I won’t say any more than that – don’t want to risk spoilers! But, honestly, each story I have read so far has been remarkably original and a delight to read! In light of my current assignment, I am tempted to work one of these stories into the curriculum!

Introduction

I’m still continuously pinching myself (cliché – I know). This week, the months of gruelling PGCE work have finally paid off – I’m pretty sure everyone that reads this already knows but… I got a job! And not just any job – a job at my first placement school. A job I have dreamed about since October! It’s been a whirlwind and I still can’t quite believe that I will be working in my dream NQT job with an amazing English faculty in a fantastic school. 

So, now that I am settled for September, I have made a promise to myself – a promise to enjoy myself for these last few weeks. It’s crazy to think that there’s only 2 months left – the end is close, and it’s been everything I thought it would be and more. The work load has been intense and I have questioned my ability to teach well on a regular basis. Learning to teach has been the biggest challenge I have faced so far, and I know I am nowhere near finished. So, I am very, very excited to see where my career will take me in the future. 

Interview

I have honestly never been so nervous for something in my life. Wanting this more than anything else had led to me to convince myself that I would not get it, but it would be lovely to go for the interview just to go back to the school. I obviously had a lot of knowledge about the school, having worked there for a few weeks during my first placement, but I knew there were other more experienced people going for the role, as well as one of my good friends at uni. 

In comparison to some of the interviews some of my friends have been through, this one was fairly straightforward and actually quite enjoyable! There were 4 of us being interviewed, and to begin with, we had to fill in a bit of paperwork before having a tour of the school, with the deputy head. Driving there and parking where I used to park made it feel like I had never left. A few people recognised me, asking me how I had been, and it gave me a little confidence boost to begin the day. 

To my delight, a couple of students from 8V, the class I had for English and tutor, were on office duty this morning, so I was able to have a quick chat with them. I also saw one of my former year 7s at reception (cradling a sick bucket!). Her eyes lit up and she waved frantically at me when she saw me. It warmed my heart and I knew right then that I had to nail this interview, because this is where I want to be. 

I floated around during the tour, memories of some of my more favourable moments in P1 coming flooding back to me as we went from place to place. It filled me with hope – and I was even able to ask a question concerning progress 8 – knowing that it is so important to schools at the moment! 

Nevertheless, I was petrified to teach a group of unknown year 9s. It’s been well over a month since I last taught, and my year 9s at this school were a very challenging group! I was up second, and I was grateful to be going before break, but waiting whilst someone else was teaching the students I was about to teach was very nerve racking. 

I know I spoke to quickly and I know I flapped my arms a fair bit – I know exactly what my feedback would’ve been from my current AT! I knew that I wanted the emphasis to be on the students, and I know my questioning was great – they all definitely made progress with the poem, Island Man, despite them not understanding it as quickly as I thought they may. I had borrowed a friend’s lollipop sticks, giving them out with the warning that I will use them if no one puts their hands up, but over half the class contributed regularly – which I’m calling a win for a 25-minute lesson! 

There was a lot I would change about the lesson – and I was terrified it had let me down! I had a few technology issues…. Swear whoever invented visualisers should have stipulated they all should work in the same way!! But I made it through, and it can’t have been that bad! I think the most important part of that lesson, was that I got the students talking – and some even excited about the poem! It’s really hard to engage students you know nothing about, and I was reluctant to pick on students I did not know. I know I could’ve done better – but I was so nervous, there was no way I would’ve been able to!

Then it was time to play the waiting game! It was so lovely to see everyone in the faculty at break time, catching up on the latest news. But that was short lived, as I had my interview just before lunch time – meaning I ended up home before 2!

The interview itself went better than I hoped it would – although I have a hideous tendency to waffle on and on and on… then forgetting the original question. But I guess my passion must’ve shone through! All my preparation went out of the window, I kicked myself afterwards for not saying more, but the example I picked, I feel, really helped to show how student centred my teaching is. The highlight for me was answering one of the governor’s questions about extra-curricular activities – I talked about what I had already done for St Bernadette and then talked about the dystopian fiction club I am starting in P4, inspired by my students – making sure I talked about how one of my year 9s lent me one of her books – truly showing how quickly I was able to create a great relationship with my students.

Waiting for the phone call was hell. As I was nursing a stinking cold, I just went straight home and straight to bed – nervously speaking to anyone that would hear my ramblings. One of my good friends was on the phone to me when I finally got the call at around 3:15 – thankfully it was the headteacher offering me the position and I cried with happiness! Right now, as I write this reliving the whirlwind that was Tuesday, ultimately I am proud of myself and giving myself this space to be a tad big headed – I’ve worked hard for this and I still can’t quite believe it’s really happening!

Literacy and Inclusion Conference

Moving on from the excitement of Tuesday, I hit the real world again come Wednesday with not just an EPS day, but possibly my favourite EPS day of the term. We had been asked to indicate our preferences on seminars beforehand, and I had chosen stretch and challenge, along with children in care. The stretch and challenge seminar was interesting, but, honestly, seemed like a repetition of a lot of ideas and theories we had heard before – luckily there were a few new ideas in there as well! However, the children in care session was amazing! 

63% of children in care are in care because they have experienced abuse or neglect – or, I guess, are known to have suffered abuse and neglect. Along with this, teenagers are the biggest group of people moving into care, generally because their parents feel like they can’t look after them. There is work in place to reduce the latter, but it is still a scary possibility, and I know young people in care, personally and professionally. I believe it is our duty to give them the best possible start.

We watched a Ted talk by Lemn Sissay(the one hyperlinked isn’t the exact video we watched, but carries the same ideals), and led to me thinking – why are ‘looked after children’ or ‘children in care’ not experiencing the very best we all have to offer – they are routinely let down by the system and people around them. I am very fortunate to have a job as an English teacher. I have no doubt that I will come across young people in care, and I am going to make it my mission to ensure my expectations of them are high, and they have the chance to flourish in a safe, stable environment. I could go on and on about children in care – it is a topic I feel very passionate about and I am eager to learn more. But, as I am fairly busy in learning to be a teacher, it will be something I hope to explore in the future.

The final part of the day was about exploring racial diversity in the classroom. Similar to the session on homophobia, there was an emphasis on tackling hate and raising awareness of how history holistically effects everyone, regardless of their race. There is a long way to go before the curriculum as a whole is decolonised, but it is an interesting point to make – we should be celebrating every individual, not just the majority.

The speaker left us with this final message, that I found extremely powerful:

Change is needed. Culture is important. Teachers need to be willing to meet the challenges.

Final Assignment

We were set our final assignment this week, and what we research is more or less up to us. I figured that the most useful thing I could do with this time, is to see what could be useful for my NQT year, so I dropped the head of English a message asking her what would be useful. They are currently looking at rejigging the year 9 curriculum, focusing on diversity, so I am hoping to do something around the diversity of the English curriculum – potentially covering KS4 and 5 as well as KS3.

J

Currently Reading:

Refugee Boy– Benjamin Zephaniah

I can remember reading this novel in year 8 – and really enjoying it! With all the talk about diversity and thinking about refugees last week in one of our subject sessions, I felt it would be a good place to start thinking about diversity, and its place in the English curriculum. Whilst there is a lot of stigma around this novel, saying it has been overused, I disagree – I think it poses an important talking point and could really help vulnerable students – potentially refugees themselves – feel a little less alone. It’s not perfect, and it’s a YA novel, so isn’t written to a particularly high standard. But, I feel this helps to add to the authenticity and rawness of Alem’s, the 14 year old protagonist, feelings. 

The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories– Ken Liu

I’ve just finished State Changeand I thought it was a truly beautiful story, about people who believe that their souls are inanimate objects. The protagonist believes her soul is an ice cube, spending the majority of her life ensuring it stays frozen but nearby to her. As the title suggests, the story revolves around change and I think the ending was truly beautiful – and particularly resonating. 

Introduction

After a very busy weekend, celebrating birthdays and a friend getting her first teaching job, alongside finishing off my assignment and prepping for my interview, I am finally getting around to writing this! I was going to put it off until tomorrow or Wednesday, but I figured I may as well do it now or I’ll end up doing one ginormous post!

After a lovely break, it was time to go back to uni and it was lush to see all my PGCE buddies again! I’m not going to go into too much detail of the week – just going to pick out a couple of highlights.

Challenging homophobia in schools

Bullying is a problem that, sadly, effects nearly everybody and, unfortunately, this is often based on discrimination. This week we had Inside Inclusion back to give us a talk about how we can tackle homophobia in schools. The main thing I have taken from this is to challenge anything that may seem discriminatory – if I don’t challenge it how can I be sure anyone else is? And then how will it ever stop?

The Island

On one of our subject days this week, we joined up with the RE PGCE students (all 6 of them!) and had a workshop with a retired RE teacher (can’t remember her name annoyingly!). She got us to do a few different activities, using music and storytelling to engage learners in a different way. However, the one thing she showed us that I feel like I will be definitely using in my future classroom practice is the activity about listening.

She got us all to sit in a semi-circle, with a partner facing so that they couldn’t see her. She then got the person facing away from her to start talking and every now and again she’d hold up a sign with a command such as ‘look bored’ or ‘play with your phone’ on it, to highlight the significance of looking like you’re listening alongside actually listening. It seemed to me that it could be ever so effective in school – we are continuously told to model to students, so why not model to them what listening looks like and help to create to a welcoming classroom for them. Along with this, she said that she always says that the phrase ‘it was only a joke’ or ‘I was just joking’ is banned, explaining how she elicits from the students why that is – and they nearly always figure out that someone else may have been hurt.

Job Interview!!!

I am beyond nervous for tomorrow’s interview. I’m really hoping that in my next blog post I’ll be able to announce that I have got a NQT placement but, realistically, I know I am up against some strong candidates so I am just going to give it my all and hope for the best! (And try not to be too disappointed if I don’t get it… especially as I loved working there on placement!)

J

Currently Reading:

Bleak House – Charles Dickens

The Paper Menagerie and other stories– Ken Liu

Today marks the last day of my Easter break, and I am very happy to say that I have taken some well-needed time off, exploring Dublin & London, celebrating a good friend’s birthday and another good friend’s hen party. I got a first draft for each of my essays done before all of this (so I didn’t feel too guilty!) and then relished in putting my own wellbeing first! 

Whilst it has been a lovely break, I am now struggling to get my head back into ‘PGCE’ mode. I’ve redrafted my work today – it’s due in Monday next week – and I’ll probably give it one last look over on Thursday, as I have a busy weekend ahead again! 

My main worry at the moment is jobs – as mentioned previously, I have only applied for the one job (basically at my dream school) and I haven’t heard anything as of yet. I’m kinda stuck in the mentality of ‘if they don’t want me no one will want me’ as I was there for my first placement. The deadline was today, so hopefully I’ll hear something tomorrow, if not I’ll email in! Annoyingly, I haven’t seen anything else I want to apply for yet… so I’ll just have to keep my eyes open!

But for now, I am trying to remind myself what I actually need to take to uni…. Chances are I’ll forget something! Only a short post for the past fortnight, I’m sure I’ll have something more interesting on Friday!

Teaching Targets

J

Currently Reading:

Bleak House – Charles Dickens (actually managed to read this on the plane – something about having an allotted slot of nothing that makes me feel less guilty about reading for a long period!)

Why I Write –George Orwell

This is actually a collection of different essays Orwell wrote – I started reading this for my assignment but it’s actually super interesting! 

Introduction

I wasn’t going to write a blog post this week, save up the 3 weeks and write one blog – not much to comment on when I’m not in school or uni. But then, reading 2 posts from 2 different fellow PGCE students, I was inspired.

Firstly, I forgot to mention last week that I was part of year 12 parents’ evening (a friend wrote about his parents evening experience last week, reminding me to talk about it this week!). I know I helped out at tutor evening waaay back in P1, but I hadn’t really gotten to know my tutees that well by then. Luckily, I had them for English as well, so I could make the occasional comment. But I was lost in a whirlwind of data, not really confident enough to know when I could chip in. (I may have spun it more positively when I first wrote it but looking back… this was definitely more the case!)

Not much has changed between then and now. Unfortunately, I’ve missed the year 9 and year 10 parents’ evenings, where I know I could confidently talk to parents about the students. But, honestly, I didn’t really see the point in going – the year 12 students have 2 teachers, each for 4 hours a fortnight. I have been teaching these students for 2 hours a fortnight this half term. It doesn’t equate to much! However, the teacher I sat with for literature regularly asked me what I thought and, even if I couldn’t say much, it felt good. It will be way more exciting when doing it with my own classes though!

Secondly, another one of my friends decided to write a short story – a wonderful piece about the aftermaths of the destruction of the internet (if you want to read it I can send you a link… if that’s ok with my friend that is!). So that got me thinking yesterday, maybe I should do some writing. I never did. But then this morning, inspiration struck – the one thing that I have been struggling most with this week: 

(WordPress has formatted it weirdly so I’ve had to put in full stops to separate the stanzas… why does nothing work just how I want to!)

Procrastination: A Poem

Words 

leave my head through my fingers

tapped out on the screen in front of me

then

Deleted.

.

Excuses.

I need to warm

up my brain.

Maybe a word search

or sudoku.

Anything to help me regain my flow and finish this work and suddenly it’s been 3 hours.

And I’ve still not written 

anything. 

.

Target.

I’ll get to XYZ number of words by ABC O’clock

Ping

Better check that.

Stumbling

into

a

world

of 

lost

time.

And before I know it I’m back on Facebook or Instagram or Twitter or anything to prevent the words from forcing their way out of my brain.

.

It’s got to be done.

Why not do it early?

Why not finish it before I need to?

Why not waste a few days complaining about it and using emails as an excuse as to why I can’t get a 

bloody 

first 

draft 

finished?

.

But then

inspiration strikes

and I am that much closer to the word count 

or the word count is far behind me.

I reach my goal and it should feel better than anything; 

I should feel relieved, hopeful, ecstatic the hard work is over!

But it’s not

and I don’t

feel

better.

.

Words 

leave my head through my fingers

tapped out on the screen in front of me

then

ignored for another day.

.

.

J

Currently Reading:

(part of my procrastination this week has led me to finishing a few of the books I have been dipping in and out of over the past few weeks!)

Bleak House – Charles Dickens 

Not that I’ve actually read any of it this week! I plan to take it to Ireland with me though.

Dreaming the Bear– Mimi Thebo

Loved it! Such a sweet, simple tale about a sickly teenager and her relationship with a hibernating bear. Now I want to visit Yellowstone park… Perfect for middle grade readers, I will be lending it to my step-cousin to read!

Our House– Louise Candlish

Very odd book – few twists in the end, a couple I didn’t predict (always welcome in a crime novel!) but I liked it because it was a bit different to the classic who dunnit books. A fairly easy read, gripping – but not one I couldn’t put down.

The Ones That Disappeared – Zana Fraillon

A fairly decent book; definitely had potential but the ending ruined it for me. The book was inspired by child slavery – sending out a message of hope. But it was very unrealistic. I won’t spoil anything, but don’t get your own hopes up too high if reading this one. I enjoyed it nonetheless – just wouldn’t reread.

Introduction

We did it! We have made it through the hardest part of the PGCE year and survived. More importantly, I have finished P3 feeling like I still 100% want to be an English teacher and I am 100% sure that I will make a good English teacher… someday! It is now the beginning of our study week, latched on to the Easter holidays. 3 whole weeks off, dedicated to the big assignment, organisation and actually having some time off.

So, considering this, I am going to make this a fairly meaty post, both reflecting on the past week, but also thinking about my time with each of my classes as a whole – the goods, the bads and the steps I can take to continue to improve my practice. 

UT visit

Tuesday was a frantically busy day – in a good way! As mentioned previously, my lovely UT came in to observe me in my year 12 language lesson. I was unreasonably nervous, mainly because I took them for the first time just last week. In my head, I didn’t know the class very well and there were a few students that I was concerned about – their engagement levels fluctuate dramatically and, in my last lesson, one student just walked out of my lesson saying she was going to the toilet… turns out she had an anxiety attack and couldn’t face coming back in. 

I spoke with their normal teacher, and decided to split them up into pairs, making sure they wouldn’t be with someone they normally work with. This was going to go one of two ways – it would be the worst idea I have ever had or the best. I don’t know whether it was the groupings themselves, or if it was the fact that an unknown adult was sitting in the back of their classroom, but thankfully it worked amazingly! The student I mentioned previously was paired with one of the highest attaining students and they worked fantastically together, despite complaining about it to begin with!

Needless to say, the lesson went a million times better than I ever could’ve imagined it going… thankfully! Obviously, the lesson wasn’t perfect (I can always think of a plethora of things I could’ve done differently after the lesson). But the range of activities (this class love a language bingo!) and attitude to learning worked fantastically – plus I rather liked the dinosaur theme!

I had my feedback afterwards, as usual, which ate into my only free of the day. With a full day, plus tutor clearing duty and an after-school session (which 1 student turned up to!) ahead, I didn’t really have the chance to stop and think about the work load. I guess that is what it will feel like when my timetable ups when I (hopefully) get an NQT placement next September!

Saying goodbye (for now!)

It’s so weird how I felt a little emotional saying goodbye to my classes, even though I will be seeing them again in a month and a half. At the moment, I will only be dropping one class (signs are pointing towards 9X5) and keeping the rest – I will go into more detail about that further down! So, I have been keeping my goodbyes vague, saying I am not sure what will be happening when I come back. 

Some of my 9X5 students brought in a few treats to share in my last lesson with them (resulting in a lack of concentration for the last 20 minutes…. At least they had finished their DIRT by then!) and they gave me a round of applause at the end of the lesson… was super sweet but felt a bit overwhelming, especially as this class is the class that I am likely to drop! 

My other classes left showering me with praise, a mixture of disappointment as I won’t be there, but excitement at the potential of me coming back. Going back to the start of the post, this is what has made me 100% sure that I will be a good teacher someday. The students could just leave the classroom, not saying anything at all, or just saying a polite goodbye and good luck. Yet so many students took a few seconds of their precious time to give me personal thank yous, telling me I had boosted their confidence, helped them to understand something they never thought they would, that my lessons were fun (less of a compliment but I’m glad they’ve enjoyed my lessons!) and so on. Yes, some of them might’ve been postponing going to their next lesson, and yes there were quite a few students that didn’t even acknowledge me on the way out of their classroom. But to know I have made such a difference in some of these young people’s lives over 11 short weeks has given me more confidence than any pupil progress data ever could.

And here I have left the best until last. The teacher who normally takes 10X5 is the one who nearly had me crying today, and I am sure she will have me crying on my last day of p4! (Those who know me well know that this actually isn’t much of a deal… I’m rubbish at goodbyes!!). She started my day with a card and a present (a set of beautiful stationary – what a dream!) telling me how grateful she was for the work I have done with her class. But it didn’t stop there. She organised for one of our students, who I also see at tutor time (and she also only learned my name last week!) to organise getting each student to sign my card – I’ll pop the picture underneath (obviously names are blanked out!). The best part about this, was that I thought she was trying to give me her exit ticket for the lesson and I was busy encouraging them to write as much as they knew about Animal Farm before the end of the lesson. I asked her to sit down twice and it wasn’t until the teacher said to me “just take it!” that I realised it wasn’t her exit ticket. It completely took me off guard and was just the most beautiful moment! At first, I wondered how they managed to get this done in my lesson without me knowing… until the student proudly told me that they did most of it in science! (she must’ve been planning this for a while, because a couple of my students had been off for the past couple days. 

So, even though it was hard saying goodbye today, I am excited to spend the next few weeks working hard on my assignment (and having a well-earned break!) before going back to university for a few weeks, then back to my lovely placement school. I imagine it will fly by quickly – as the rest of the year has done so far!

Reflections

9X5

19^thCentury prose has been a challenge for this group. They are a bunch of talented creative writers but grasping how to write a literature essay has been harder for this group on the whole. This week they did their end of unit assessment; I planned it with them, and their other teacher took the lesson where they wrote it up. Focusing on feedback from the students the last time they wrote a short essay, I decided to adapt my planning sheets and have them to just do a quote explosion instead of putting it into a structure. I massively overestimated what they would be ready to do, forgetting that these are year 9 students and are getting used to simply writing an essay – the last one they did was way before Christmas! I forgot my number one rule – scaffold down in mixed ability lessons. 

This led to 11/26 students not meeting their target grade, and I am completely and utterly disappointed by this. I feel like I have failed nearly half the class by not differentiating properly. This is something that I had worked so hard to get right and it has just spiralled downwards. However, this is my PGCE year and it is natural for mistakes to be made… many mistakes to be made! The most annoying part is that I know that these students could’ve done better than this, and that it was my planning sheet that had let them down. So, next time, I am going to focus on making my planning sheets differentiated – making sure my lower and middle attaining students have the support they need in order to achieve. Adding in the PEAL structure so they are crystal clear about what needs to be in each paragraph and sentence starters for those I know struggle with phrasing. 

I have also learned a big lesson with regards to medium term planning – don’t plan for DIRT work on my last day! They were far too excitable for any useful improvement work. The whole class model of a paragraph went well (although a few students were still adamant they wouldn’t be able to do it!) but, when they went to reflecting on their own work, I completely lost them, however this could also be to do with the sugar rush from the treats they had brought in!

9Y3

I have relished the experience of teaching travel writing in two completely different ways, especially as the research, drafting and redrafting lessons in the computer rooms meant that the projects were mostly student led. In these lessons, I had time to go around and speak to each student individually at least once, gauging where to best put my support, and the support of other adults in the room. I am extremely proud to say that, with most students, good progress was made. On average, each student made progress of nearly 2 marks each. This may not sound like much but, as the grade boundaries are so narrow, it shows that all my hard work was not futile! Only one student went down in marks (one of my high attainers; she completely changed her travel writing, adding in a storyline about a father who died with cancer – whilst it was still a grade 9 level, these tweaks meant that her register wasn’t assuredly matched to her purpose any more). 

I also believe that, for the students who neglected to listen to my advice (I regularly prompted them to improve what they had done already as opposed to adding in extra ideas and paragraphs) they have learned a valuable lesson. These were the students disappointed by their mark – don’t get me wrong they still did well (only 4/25 were below their target grade whereas 14 were above!) – but I think they imagined they would be getting a grade or two above their target grades. This led to a very interesting discussion about how best to use their time – particularly when it comes around to writing a timed creative writing piece.

Obviously, this was a successful scheme of work, with the majority of the students making great progress. However, if I were to teach this unit again, I think I would do a mixture of the two units. The planning and drafting stages, whilst useful, took up 3 out of the 5 weeks, weeks where I missed out some of my favourite lessons, I did with 9X5. I like the idea of giving the students a choice on what to write about (within reason!) but I also liked the more structured creative writing, using video clips and images as inspiration. One thing I will definitely be using again are my pink for perfect starters and the peer assessment sheets, the students loved celebrating their own work and it was lovely for them to have a range of different people giving them feedback, as opposed to just the person sitting next to them!

10X5

We did it! We finished Animal Farm with 15 minutes to go before I left P3! I am honestly so proud of this group. They have worked super hard and are regularly demonstrating to me that they understand this novel – they can link it to context and most of them are able to tell me quotation too! Surprisingly, the idea of linking actions to themes (taken from the Science of Learning framework) has worked incredibly well! They still remember all of the actions for the themes nearly 5 weeks later – hopefully meaning that they will be able to remember them for their PPEs and (eventually!) their GCSEs. They are a very biddable group, when it comes to trialling new ideas, and are quick to tell me if something doesn’t work or if they don’t understand something!

I’m not going to dwell on these lessons any more … mainly because I’ve just looked at my word count and I’m already over 2,000 words (oops!) but also because I will be focusing on these lessons over the next week or so as part of my curriculum practise assignment. This class have given me valuable experience in behaviour management. The school I am at are at a kinda of turning point with their RtL system – it is not as strict and rigorous as my first placement school and teachers are urged to build these great relationships, only calling for ‘on call’ if they are extremely needed. I have only needed to send one student out once, but I sent him to their normal class teacher in the office as opposed to calling on call. Now, I realise that I wouldn’t be able to do that if I had a class on my own, and I am aware of the procedure I should follow. However, I am also painfully aware that I do not have a job for next year yet, and I don’t know what behaviour system they have in place. I have only worked in RtL schools thus far, so I have been experimenting a little with different ways of managing behaviour.

I feel as if the most effective way is building up those good relationships and making praise the focus in my lessons. Although low level disruptions are very much in every lesson with these students, they are all getting the work done and I regularly assess their learning and see progress being made. Yes, I may turn a blind eye if my students are quite obviously not reading along with the text (some of them pretending to have a nap!) but actually, when they are doing that, they are not disturbing any of the other students and I know they are listening – out of all the lessons I have had with them, I can only think of 2 occasions where one student in particular (the napper!) could not answer a question about the plot of Animal Farm.

For a bottom set, I’m calling that a win!

12 Language

I will be definitely working with this class again and, now my confidence has soared with this class, I’m looking forward to seeing what new challenges await with this class. I am going to focus on two things with this class when I’m back with them: firstly, not being afraid to differentiate my questioning right down to closed questions when I am met with the a-level wall of silence, and ensuring that my students are stretched and challenged as far as they can be – there are a lot of predicted A and A* students in this group!

12 Literature

I feel like this is the class that I have made the most progress with since January. I was petrified to take this class. Similarly, to 12 language, there are a lot of predicted A and A* students, in a very small class. The students come up with some fantastic ideas, but the level of subject knowledge needed was one that I doubted I would get to. Now, coming from a stretch and challenge perspective, I feel as if I had begun to address that in the lessons this week. However, I think the best way for me to know what it is they need is to work closer with the class teacher (easier said than done – she is the head of department!) in what elements high level students need to know, and consult with the OCR mark scheme and frameworks to make sure I am clear on what they need to cover. 

I am also excited about an idea I had as a project for these students. After watching a couple of (completely terrible) video adaptations and summaries of the poems, I had a chat with the teacher about maybe getting the students to create their own videos, to be used as a teaching tool in the future. Knowing the students in this class, and some of them in the other literature class (a fair few take English literature and language!), I can imagine some fantastic videos will be produced… if one student’s ‘topical memes’ about Coleridge and Wilde are anything to go by! 

Plans for P4

As mentioned previously, it is likely that the only class I will drop is 9X5, leaving me to have a less packed timetable and an opportunity to do things I have not had the opportunity to do before. A couple of these things include:

• Teaching at a local middle school
• Visiting the school’s trust first schools
• Spending time in the student welfare and inclusion centre
• Observing lessons in other subjects
• Creating a lunchtime club

I will be going back in the midst of PPEs, which will be really useful, with regards to getting some experience around mock exams. Hopefully, I will be able to use my existing knowledge of my classes to ensure I really help them achieve their full potential in these exams!

J

Currently Reading:

Pains of Sleep & Kubla Khan – Coleridge

Our House – Louise Candlish

Bleak House – Charles Dickens

Dreaming the Bear – Mimi Thebo

Animal Farm – George Orwell

Introduction

I planned to write this on Friday, but I was in no frame of mind to do any work. I was going to do it yesterday, but RP3 and lesson planning (quite rightly) took priority. So, I’m sitting at home, writing this on Sunday and I’ve found that the week is a bit of a blur. I’ve decided not to worry too much about this – I’m just going to keep this a short post picking out the best and the worst of the week!

9Y3 – Pink for perfect

I’m pretty sure I mentioned this last week, but I’m not 100% sure so I’ll explain again. As I was marking my 9Y3 travel writing (first drafts), I decided to try something new and dedicate a part of each of my lessons this week purely to celebrating what every single one of my students has achieved. One of the other English teachers uses highlights one sentence ‘pink for perfect’ in her marking; I loved that idea, but I wanted to take it one step further.

I decided to collate together all my ‘perfect’ sentences and use them as a starter so they can pick out what makes these sentences so great. This meant that, over the whole week, the students had 25 examples of fantastic sentences in their books, combined with annotations as to what makes them so brilliant. I was very proud of my idea and couldn’t wait to see it unfold.

The reaction from my students couldn’t have been better. It was incredible to see every single student’s face light up when they saw I had actually picked one of their sentences. Following this up with a discussion about what made it good, boosted their confidence and got them thinking about the different aspects I was focusing on this week (sentence variety, vivid description and ambitious vocabulary). 

I knew this was going well. My AT observed one of these lessons and showered me with praise afterwards – particularly mentioning the p4p sentences. But the one moment that I will treasure forever is this:

One of my students has not been meeting her target grade in the past couple of units, and has resulted her in feeling completely unconfident, extremely frustrated and has come close to tears in more than one of my lessons. In the lesson her sentence was used, we went through the sentences as usual and nothing was said. About halfway through the lesson, she had her hand up with the biggest grin stretching from ear to ear. “Miss, this is my sentence! I thought it was absolutely fantastic and then, as I was looking at my work, I realised it was mine!” – or words to the effect. She was so proud of herself in that moment, but she couldn’t be as proud of herself as I was of her. The realisation that she wasgood at English and that she coulddo it was such a ground breaking moment for both of us. She told me afterwards that she is determined to make her travel writing as good as she can and is even doing extra work on it over the weekend. 

This is why I got into teaching. For moments like this.

Spiralling downwards

I have been doing great recently. I have been teaching well and I have felt extremely happy – like everything has just fallen into place. So why was Friday such a bad day?

Not enough progress happened in any of my three lessons that day. The students were rowdier than usual, I had to raise my voice to get their attention in all 3 lessons. But it wasn’t them. There was something about myself – I felt foggy. Like I couldn’t focus properly and therefore couldn’t teach. I was stressed beyond belief and just felt utterly exhausted – despite getting a good night’s rest. I am just slightly concerned that this will continue to happen. I’m sure it won’t – I’ll try not to let it… but I suddenly thought to myself… what if I’ve peaked? What if I am thrust in a classroom next year and suddenly find myself totally incapable – like I felt on that day.

Realistically, I know this is just my anxiety bubbling up. I am a massive hypocrite – I am always on at my friends to make sure their mental health is cared for, but I consistently never get mine checked out (normally because I can’t warrant spending any of my precious hours of the day at the doctors). I have, however, become very good at rationalising things to myself. So, this morning, I have come to the conclusion it is probably because of a mixture of the following things:

1. My university tutor is coming to see me teach year 12 next week. I only took this class for the first-time last Thursday, and it was such a mediocre lesson. I don’t know the class as well as my others (I only see them twice a fortnight) and there are a few unpredictable students that can be quite challenging. I’ve spoken to the class teacher and, as they’ve got a few lessons dedicated to these texts, I have made this a slightly more fun lesson – including Bingo with prizes (yes I reward my students with edible treats every now and again – don’t judge me) so, hopefully, they will be on the ball on Tuesday! 
2. I’ve started applying for a job. A job that I want more than anything. It is at my first placement school and I loved it so much there… it’s almost as if there is a mountain of pressure on this application and interview. My university tutor has very kindly accepted my plea of looking over the application for me… but I just have this gut feeling – if they turn around and say they don’t want me then what chance do I have anywhere else? 
3. There are other non-university factors that have definitely been affecting my mood – I won’t go into them as they’re fairly personal and about other people. 

I’m hoping this is just a blip and I am praying that next week goes better!

J

Currently Reading:

Bleak House –Charles Dickens

Dreaming the Bear – Mimi Thebo

The Red Queen – Victoria Aveyard

Animal Farm– George Orwell

1 week left on placement and only 3 chapters left to read! I’m hoping we’ll finish the book before I go, would love to see what my students think of the novel as a whole!

Introduction

Placement 3 begins! It’s quite refreshing having a new ‘placement’ but still being at the previous school – I’ve become quite comfortable here and I’m relishing having (on the whole) a fab rapport with both staff and students! I’ve had a few hiccups this week but, on the whole, I am definitely seeing a great improvement in my teaching… about time!!! Teaching the same topics again, as well as creating a detailed medium-term plan, has really shown me that it is worth putting in extra effort at least a week before teaching – I have felt much more comfortable with what I am teaching, which I feel has really come through in my lessons. 

First Lesson Back Fail!

Period 1. Monday. First day back after a week off. Poetry Assessments. 

Not a group of things that are particularly nice to combine! I have definitely learned a lesson this week!

Basically, myself and the class teacher decided to postpone the assessment until after half term, as it was more pressing to get all the poems taught, so they had notes in their anthologies. I thought that it had to replicate their GCSE exams, so I hadn’t planned in any extra support at all, just a quick starter to go over the poems, a bit of group work to get some ideas flowing about what poems could link to Kamikaze, before getting them to start their assessment.

Yeah, this totally failed. I decided to stop half way through the lesson and give them a plan (turns out they were allowed as much support as they needed for this assessment!). Now, I redid this lesson on the Tuesday and they were much happier and confident – neatly reflecting in their results! I am very proud to see that the vast majority of them had met or surpassed their target grade! 

Subject Knowledge Success!

This is my awkward week where, with my 9x group, their class teacher teaches them on Wednesday period 5 and I teach them Thursday period 1. I had planned most lessons in advance this week and asked the class teacher to go over gothic in Bleak House chapter 16. By the time I had finished my EPS session, I had an email from her saying that they didn’t really get it, and they would need to go over it in the following lesson – commence frantic planning session!

When I first started teaching Bleak House with my other year 9s, I honestly felt a little stupid at times, because I didn’t fully understand things and I definitely needed to work on my subject knowledge! However, this time round, I had surpassed my own expectations in Bleak House subject knowledge, and I was able to engage all 26 students just by talking to them about gothic in chapter 16. It was one of those moments where I wanted to thrust my fist in the air and shout with joy! They got it!!!

The moments in teaching when the class seem to hang on to your every word have to be my favourite – and then when they actually reproduce work that shows they do understand it makes all the time spent planning and reading worth it.

Sixth Form 

As I am only here for another 4 weeks, I decided to pick up an extra year 12 language lesson, as I have a lot of frees on Wednesday week B.  We are finishing off the topical language issues, preparing them to write a final blog about taboo language. I’ve only been team teaching these lessons so far (I will be taking full lessons in the next couple of weeks), but I have been loving them! English language is fascinating and taboo language is an interesting topic that engages all the learners – they all seemed to have a strong opinion on it!

This week is also the week I see the year 12 literature students, who are just a delightful bunch of hard-working students – I am super lucky with the class I have been given! I team taught ‘Lime Tree Bower my Prison’ on Thursday – one of my favourite Coleridge poems so far (I just love that he wrote a poem whinging about not being able to go on a walk, because his wife spilled boiling milk over his leg!). 

In their following lesson, (well it was actually only a couple of hours ago as I write this!), I took the plunge and took the whole lesson and got an official observation in as well. I got the students to become the teachers – working in groups to look at the themes in different sections of the poem and then getting them to annotate on the board and talk it through. This worked really well – I wasn’t sure if some of them would be completely unwilling to do this (I know speaking in front of their peers can be quite daunting at times) but they were all comfortable to do this – and they did it well!

The one thing I need to make sure I do, which is quite overwhelming for me, is to make sure that I know what the highest-grade students should be pulling out from the poems and making sure they do this! This will come into my planning – I am teaching Rime of the Ancient Mariner next week, so will have to have a look at all sorts of criticisms, mark schemes and example answers to see what I need to include. =

HA Sessions

I actually love taking these sessions! It is so refreshing to be looking at the same content as my bottom set year 10, but from the perspective of the highest ability year 11 students who are due to take their exams in a matter of months. The difference is incredible – I am still not sure which one I prefer though!

This week we looked at context points simply about George Orwell and how these relate to Animal Farm. This is mainly so they can write a more sophisticated answer by including context about why Orwell was doing what he was doing and not simply relating it to the Russian Revolution. I had found a few things over half-term that I thought were quite interesting, and the two girls seemed to really engage with the material which was very exciting for me! 

J

Currently Reading:

Frost at Midnight & This Lime Tree Bower My Prison – Coleridge (recap for lessons)

Animal Farm – George Orwell

Bleak House – Charles Dickens

Split Second – Sophie McKenzie