8th January 2014
It's the first week of January and this week has been all about my KS3 placement in order to experience the transition from primary school to secondary school and the pressures, worries and excitement pupil’s face. I chose to do my KS3 placement at a high school and sixth form centre in Mirfield, West Yorkshire. The school arranged days for me to spend in different departments, a day each observing maths, English and science lessons taught by different teachers. The other two days are to be spent observing assemblies and lessons in practical subjects such as drama, art, DT and music, as well as some time spent in year 7 tutorials so I can talk to the pupils about the transition and how they felt about it. I think January is a good time to be on KS3 placement as the year 7 pupils have settled into their new school but can still remember what it was like when they first arrived. I have received some interesting responses from the children whereby some have been worried about the change whilst others were excited and felt more grown up.
I also noted the use of ICT, there were numerous computer clusters in the ICT department and these were used by students to do independent work and were booked by teachers for various subjects. It was interesting to note that in order to keep track of the pupils reading, ICT was used heavily. The school uses the Renaissance Accelerated Reader Programme, this involves pupils choosing a book to read that is in their colour band (level of reading) and once they have finished reading the book they log on to their personal account and answer comprehension questions about the book. They are then given a percentage score based on how many questions they answer correctly and are advised whether they can move up a level and chose a book from the next colour band, or if they were still in the same band, but they are congratulated on finishing a book and encouraged to choose another. These scores are electronically passed to their tutors who are able to keep track of the pupils reading scores and ability.
I also noted the use of ICT, there were numerous computer clusters in the ICT department and these were used by students to do independent work and were booked by teachers for various subjects. It was interesting to note that in order to keep track of the pupils reading, ICT was used heavily. The school uses the Renaissance Accelerated Reader Programme, this involves pupils choosing a book to read that is in their colour band (level of reading) and once they have finished reading the book they log on to their personal account and answer comprehension questions about the book. They are then given a percentage score based on how many questions they answer correctly and are advised whether they can move up a level and chose a book from the next colour band, or if they were still in the same band, but they are congratulated on finishing a book and encouraged to choose another. These scores are electronically passed to their tutors who are able to keep track of the pupils reading scores and ability.
14th January 2014
I team-taught a problem solving maths lesson at a Primary School in Rochdale today to a group of Year 1 children. This was a great experience as I was able to experience how to teach problem solving in maths and how this can be achieved in a fun and interactive way. As well as this, I have not had the opportunity to spend much time in KS1 as the majority of my experience both prior to the PGCE and so far on the PGCE has been based in KS2. Therefore through this experience I was able to gain some more experience of teaching KS1 prior to FPP.
22nd January 2014
Joined the events management team for theme week in order to, in the words of Vygotsky, reach my Zone of Proximal Development! Lots of preparations underway for theme week! First meeting for theme week and the cat is out of the bag! Well, it is for those of us who have joined the theme week events management team. Unfortunately I can't say what the theme is going to be unless someone has a sneaky peek! But I can say I am really excited about the whole event and more so about being one of the people who gets to organise it! Liz has promised us there will be some work to be done in order to prepare for theme week and we are going to have extra work on our hands - but I am well prepared for this and looking forward to getting stuck in with all the organising as it is going to be an amazing experience!