Work Experience so far...

Right, well I've done two days work experience now. Both fridays, both in the same class. It's a mixed yr3/4 class and we work with the lowest set maths and the highest set english.
Some of the kids doing maths still have to check the number square to work out what 6 minus 1 is, others have a higher ability but the difference between them and the high set maths I saw last year is incredible! Mind you, their level of maths is much more the level I am happy working at right now, maths is not my favourite subject!
The english lesson is more my cup of tea. I write a lot myself, am part of several wirters groups, and am about to start running a creative writing at the bookshop I'm at right now.

To remind myself, if nothing else, I'm going to list here the lessons I've been part of and anything I've learnt or questions I now have.

Friday 2nd
Maths was about adding and subtraction using H,T,U. Hmmm, I should remember to write these things down straight away as I've forgotten already what happened! Apart from realising that I'm having problem explaining things in an easy to understand way. Although I guess I didn't know what we were doing until 5 minutes before I started so I'll have time to think it over when I'm actually teaching!
Creative writing - the kids were read the start of a story about a dragon appearing in a little boys room and demanding he gets him loads of food. The kids had to decide how they thought the story ended and write it. That was enjoyable - loads of imagination in the room. It was good too because the teacher sat in the corner of the room listening to readers and left me to answer questions and generally manage the kids.
I found that my 'stare' worked a treat to settle kids as they were beginning to get rowdy, and if a group were chatting or messing about too much I just had to stand next to them for them to calm down and get back to work. Not a word said!
Then I took a group into the shared area to do some sewing (argghh), which went well. Mostly.
The youngest lot were well behaved (the arghh comes from 5 voices all at once needing needles threaded and stitches unstitched) but after lunch I had to have a go at the older ones to calm them down. It really brought home that you cannot be too pally or let the kids get away with too much because they WILL talk advantage of you!
I ended up saying something like 'I can't believe you older children are so much less well behaved than the younger ones I had earlier!' in a sharp and disbelieving voice. I was a little nervous of telling them off since they weren't 'my' class and I was a visitor in school, but as I said it another teacher walked by and said 'Quite right.' backing me up. The kids calmed down, needing only a few more sharp words to get them working with just normal chatter instead of stupid behaviour. Phew!
Then we had PE - hockey. I only had to tell of a child for whacking his stick around a tree, another for deliberately slamming into another child and following a pair of girls around who would rather just natter. Easy!
Friday 9th - Maths: more adding and subtracting. I worked with the lowest ability children while the rest of the class did more complicated work. They were pretty good with 1:1 attention but I can imagine that when they're lost in the whole classroom with no help they must get very far behind, their potential missed. One girl had an illness that meant she missed lots of school, she was really bright and picked up everything incredibly quickly and it was such a shame she was disadvantaged.
Creative writing - putting speec within speech marks and using correct punctuation.
The highest ability kids picked this up really well, the lower ability had great imagination and worte funny enjoyable stuff but struggled with the concept of speech for different people beginning on different lines. They also often needed a kick start to get them going. It's often hard to get going with a blank page and I think that a quick roleplay session or working in pairs to discuss ideas migh have fired them up more. It was also a shame to see kids (boys mostly) with a good ability to write so disinterested about writing. It's something to think about.
Listened to some group reading. The teacher said that she didn't have a hope of listening to 30 readers a week so getting them to take turns reading a page each of a book was a good way of hearing lots of readers at once.
Then more sewing - mothers day is looming and they are behind! More arggghh, but it wasn't so bad. I kept a group with me while the others had PE. It was good to be in charge of the group alone.
Looking forward to more next week.
The questions I came away with were - children were told they could not subtract 9 from 7 as 9 was larger than 7. Do they then learn in year 6 about negative numbers? Do we just pretend they don't exist until then?
Also, the learning objectives were on a whiteboard but not referred to and in very technical SoW type language - is this t=normal? Wouldn't it be better to have it in 'kids' language? That's what I'll try to do. If they don't understand the LO then there's no point it being there!
Anyway, there's my thoughts.
Advice for today - write you experiences down RIGHT AWAY or you will forget what happened!

Beginning work experience...

So, at the moment I work Sunday to Thursday and have Friday and Saturday off (in the bookshop, for those of you who haven't been following from the start), and I need to do three weeks work experience in a school as a condition of my GTP offer.
Those of you who were paying attention will recall that I only have 8 days leave left between now (or at least Apr 1st) and when I leave (25 weeks and counting). So, I need to spend 15 days in school and I have 8 days holiday left. Sigh. And I've already booked us into an apartment in Edinburgh for the first week of the Fringe Festival (Hurrah!!), so that's several days already taken.
I've arranged with my lovely local primary (my son's school) to spend a week there in June and a week in July when I'd need to arrange childcare for my kids anyway, and the other 5 days I'm making up by using my Fridays off during the whole of March. Big Sigh. That's at least 7 days unpaid leave (sigh) and 5 weeks of only having a 1 day weekend. (sigh).
Still, I'm really looking forward to being in school again.
I was asked by the deputy head if there was anything in particular I'd need to do and replied: 'nope, they just said "time in a primary school" so it could be in the school office!'. I think now it could be a mistake to say this, but hopefully I'll spend my days in the classroom and not filing paper!
I've asked to spend some time just observing since all my other times I've been so involved in working with small groups that I haven't had a chance just to watch the teachers in action.
Anyway, my first day back in class is next friday.

Still reading and enjoying Beginning Teaching (etc).
More soon...

New teaching book...

I've finally got "Beginning Teaching, Beginning Learning" from eBay and I'm finding it really easy to read, enjoyable and generally very helpful. At the start of each chapter there are 'Cameos' taken from real classroom situations and real experiences of real student teachers. These are interesting and bring the book to life a bit. There's loads of stuff about why we teach the various subjects, as well as how they can be taught.
I've read various opinions that GTPers don't get enough of the background knowledge - not just subject knowledge but also teaching theory - so I thought I'd use my spare hours trying to get ahead a bit.
The only problem with this book that I've found is that it gets me so excited about the prospect of teaching that my mind keeps wandering off to thinking about how I might plan a lesson on story writing and how exciting it'll be to ignite the imagination of a bunch of seven year olds with my incredible lessons! So it's taking me longer to read than normal, but in a good way!

In my current job as a bookseller I've recently moved 'upstairs' and now I manage the education section!!! Excellent - I get paid to hang around the teaching books, read them (obviously it's important know your section well) and order in anything I think looks like it might sell (or that I fancy looking at, borrowing and putting back on the shelf!). In short, this means I'll be doing a few more book reviews on here, in the mean time I'll say that there are loads of Teacher's Resources - lesson plans etc out there, especially for Literacy and Numeracy - and the 'Getting the Buggers to...' series are worth looking at.

ho hum

Hmmm, not much to report. Still waiting to hear about schools and even which key stage I'll be teaching in. Spending my time on TES forums mostly, and still reading the 'readings for reflective teaching' book. It always seems like it's going to be hard going each time I pick it up, but some of the readngs have been really quite interesting.

Sigh. Just want to get on with it! Argghh.

I've arranged to do my work experience - 5 fridays in March, a week in June and another in July. I'm really looking forward to it now.

On the book front - Hogfather was fab, and now I'm reading Lady of Hay by Barbara Erskine. Again.

Impatient...

Sigh. I hate waiting for things, and I've got seven months or so of waiting for the GTP to start.
I'm thinking about doing the OU's start writing poetry course to give me something to get my teeth into in the meantime. I'll do some research into that.
I think I have to wait to hear back from my DRB in around April, which is when they said they'd be in touch about joining the VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) where the trainees could chat and start reading things and doing assignments or whatever for before the course starts.
Further research on TES tells me that:

• I need to wait for my TDA number before I can do the QTS tests and I probably won't get that until after the course has started,
• My contract will eventually be with the school and they decide whether I'll get paid until June (when apparently the GTP officially ends) or July or August.
• I can use stuff I do during my work experience before I start as evidence during the GTP
• I should keep a note of all books I read as these can all be used as evidence too.

New websites I have discovered:

• www.poetryclass.net
• http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/graduate_teacher_group/
• http://www.parasitesparadise.com/
• http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/TVS.htm

Teaching books: I've started reading 'Readings for Reflective Teaching'. It's very academic, which isn't a problem for me since I recently finished a degree in Child Psychology so I'm used reading this kind of thing, but for someone who isn't used to reading academic studies of teaching then it would probably be quite hard going. I'm enjoying it, and I think it's given me some things to think about but I wouldn't recommend it to everyone. If you're interested in the research behind various aspects of being a teacher and classroom management etc, then have a look through it in your local bookshop or library (and then buy one on eBay!).

Personal books: I've given in with Cross Stitch. Hogfather was calling me and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. Cross Stitch was well written with good characters and stuff but a bit slow and too much the love story for my mood at the moment. She doesn't really write like Barbara Erskine. Erskine's books flip between past and present much more and there's nearly always an element of supernatural and danger which make them real page turners. Poop.

Books...

Okay, so I've skim read the 'Insiders Guide for New Teachers' by Sara Bubb and I would thoroughly recommend it!

It takes you from choosing a training course right through to passing NQT year with loads of really useful advice.
The only bit I wasn't impressed with was her advice on the GTP. She basically told you what it was about and then chose a single quote from the TES forums from someone saying it was 'awful and don't do it' (or words very much to that effect.)
It was very one sided. She obviously didn't like the GTP.
Apart from that, it's easy to read, informative and humourous. Snippets from the TES forums bring it to life and because they are from real people make you feel like she really knows what she's talking about.
I'm glad I bought this book.

Next I shall be reading: Readings for Reflective Teaching (cos it came in the post this morning!)

Personal fiction: Still reading Cross Stitch. It's okay, but I keep itching to pick up Hogfather instead. It's too much the love story, and a bit slow. I still prefer Erskine.

Kids books: Haven't bought it yet but really want to get 'If I had a dragon' by Amanda Ellory.
It's a picture book all about a little boy with a littler sister that he is told to play with. He imagines her as a dragon and what they would do together. None of it works out as he thinks though, and by the end of the book he's quite happy that she's his sister and not a dragon after all!

Oh, and Harry Potter's coming out on July 21st! That means I get to do the midnight event at the bookstore - dress up as a character, play games with the kids etc until the book can be sold at 1 am. Oh, and I get to handle the books before anyone else!

Hornets nest....

...I started a thread on a teachers forum (apart from the TES one) recently about whether I could possibly hope for an afternoon off to see my son's school play when either training or working as a teacher. Blimey!! Can of worms, opened and spilling!
The consensus was that if you had a nice school and put a lot back into the school (helping out after school, covering for others etc) then you may be lucky if you have no pressing teaching commitments and ask the Head nicely you might manage it.

Generally the comments were fine but there was a feeling of 'if you can't give up your commitments to your small child for the sake of the school then you are not a commited teacher.' That sucks.
Surely as teachers we must recognise the importance of these events to the children (even if we disregard the parents feelings), and how bad it could make many children feel if their mum or dad can never ever turn up to their most important event of their school year?

Why should our own children suffer - especially if it's for the sake of money?
Obviously if the school play or some other important event is happening on that particular day then there's nothing you can do about it, but if my son's play is 3 days before the end of term and my school is just winding down for christmas, then what's the problem with sitting the kids in front of a christmas video or letting them have some freeplay time?
Work-home life balance is something I worry about going into this job. My family have always come first, and up until now I've never really thought of myself as a career woman - it breaks my heart to think I may never see one of my son's christmas plays. That I'll have to experience them all second hand by word of mouth and videos. That he may say 'Oh Mummy, I wish you were there!'
I'm still going to do it, and maybe it won't be a problem. Maybe it will. I'll soon find out I guess.