Sunday, 11 December 2011

Assessment

Had my official assessment on Friday and it went well so was mostly pleased with the outcome. It was an unusual lesson to get observed in as it was a revision lesson for the year 11 class that I team teach. The assessor told me at the start that he didn't like revision lessons, just what I needed to hear! I did think about just teaching a one off lesson to them but as they have a modular exam in January I thought it wasn't fair on them and they'd be quering why we weren't doing revision based material.

Any way, I didn't think it went that well but he assured me at the end of the lesson that he thought it was good. I felt much better when he said that and then looked a bit more positively towards his feedback later. He highlighted some areas of which he thought I done well at and areas for improvement. As has been mentioned before I do not praise the students enough and that is something that was pointed out straight away. Also sometimes my instructions were a little rushed, I think that was partly to do with nerves on the day though. However, he did say that as revision lessons go, he quite enjoyed it! Also my folder probably needs a bit more attention given to it. Admittedly the last few weeks I have really focused on the teaching side and failed to collect as many Q standards as I could have done.

Really looking forward to a much less stressful week and the 2 week holiday Xmas holiday now!!

Monday, 5 December 2011

Blog catch up

I haven't done a blog in a while and I haven't seen many uploaded so I presume everyone is super busy!

I have my official end of term assessment at the end of the week. No doubt this week is going to turn out to be very hectic and stressful.

In general I feel my teaching has been going quite well over the last few weeks. I am certainly improving in learning how to differentiate and even managing to give more verabl praise, something I had been criticised over previously.

I did however really struggle with my year 11 class last Friday. I think two factors were to blame. 1, I don't think I prepared thoroughly enough for the lesson and secondly I had let them start to get away with too much, for instance sit where they chose. This really affected the flow and effectiveness of the lesson.

Over the weekend I spent a far greater deal of time planning almost every minute bit of detail for my lesson. I also changed the seating plan around and placed them into groups of 4 all of whom are mixed ability. In today's lesson this seemed to make a great deal of difference. Students normally switching off appeared more engaging, possibly stimulated by their higher achieving peers. The behaviour was of a much more acceptable level also.