I have been out on 3 trips with different groups over the past 2 weeks as part of the Year 7's Humanities projects.
Students were split into groups of roughly 12-14. The day was split into 3 activities: A history walk around Henley, a tour around the gallery and a Flood workshop. With the exception of the gallery tour, the other events were led by Museum staff and Academy staff were on hand to support. It was very interesting, particularly watching the Flooding workshop and seeing the students being hands on and learning in a practical and applied manner.
On my first day there I had to deal with one particularly problematic student who caused a bit of a scene. It was all resolved in the end but an experience nevertheless. On this particluar day I was with a group of students whom I have never taught; It just goes to show how effective knowing the students and having a raport with them can be. On the following two trips I had groups of whom all I taught or part of the group; all the students knew what to expect from me and vice versa, there was no situations like before. The students knew what was expected of them and I knew who to keep a closer eye on shall we say, this was much smoother as a result.
Friday, 27 January 2012
Yr 8 Observation 23/1/12
My mentor observed me with the Year 8's on Monday. They can be quite a difficult class at times and abilities are very varied.
I played an 'interdependence trade game with them.' The higher ability students seemed to really enjoy it. However, I added extra parts into the game such to encorporate arithmetic. I thought all weekend as how to do it and ddecided upon preparing each group (designated country) with a list of the goods they would start with. From this values were assigned and I asked them to jot up their total, some values were given. e.g Gold = 5 points, you have 2 units of Gold, so the total = 10 etc. I thought given examples in their work would help them to incorporate basic maths whilst also then having to think Geographically about trade/development and so on.
Like I said the higher ability flew through it and the lower ability jujst got confused. When it then turned to actually doing the trading, certain lower ability students just didn't get the concept of trading like goods for like, so the rich countries become very poor and the poor very rich-Nothing like reality!
The game was fun for some but possibly too complicated and pitched too high for the lower ability. This lead to some behavioural issues and low level chatting- my mentor did mention that the chatting was to do with the lower ability asking higher ability students questions and attempting to keep on task. I felt this wasn't a good sign though.
In reflection: possibly I need to explain the game and it's intended outcome in greater detail and clarity. More consideration needed to be put into place for those students who are of lower ability and to be a bit more flexible in my approach.
I played an 'interdependence trade game with them.' The higher ability students seemed to really enjoy it. However, I added extra parts into the game such to encorporate arithmetic. I thought all weekend as how to do it and ddecided upon preparing each group (designated country) with a list of the goods they would start with. From this values were assigned and I asked them to jot up their total, some values were given. e.g Gold = 5 points, you have 2 units of Gold, so the total = 10 etc. I thought given examples in their work would help them to incorporate basic maths whilst also then having to think Geographically about trade/development and so on.
Like I said the higher ability flew through it and the lower ability jujst got confused. When it then turned to actually doing the trading, certain lower ability students just didn't get the concept of trading like goods for like, so the rich countries become very poor and the poor very rich-Nothing like reality!
The game was fun for some but possibly too complicated and pitched too high for the lower ability. This lead to some behavioural issues and low level chatting- my mentor did mention that the chatting was to do with the lower ability asking higher ability students questions and attempting to keep on task. I felt this wasn't a good sign though.
In reflection: possibly I need to explain the game and it's intended outcome in greater detail and clarity. More consideration needed to be put into place for those students who are of lower ability and to be a bit more flexible in my approach.
Friday, 13 January 2012
Contact with Parents/Careers
I have my year 11 class sitting an exam on Tuesday 24th January and I am quite concerned with a number of their attitudes and behaviour in class. Myself and the other Geography teacher have put in place various methods of raising their levels of achievement; since the end of October we have been running a Friday after school revision session; as well as providing them with revision booklets and holiday revision sessions, targeting to their individual need via a personalised learning checklist. However this so far had only really been benefitial to those that it wasn't particulary aimed at.
Last Friday myself and the other teacher split the class; normal practice for when we have a double lesson with them, so we could give them as much support as possible, but a number of individuals were really disinteresetd, lethargic and disruptive. As a result I decided to call a number of individuals who had been acting like this in lesson and also failing to attend any of the revision sessions.
I decided to go out of my way and contact their parent's on a Saturday afternoon. One hoping I would catch them as opposed to right after school and secondly to highlight my concern.
All of the parent's didn't seem best pleased that they were receiving a call at the weekend but it really helped drive home the importance and flag what lack of preparation some of these individuals had made.
This week I have seen a marked improvement, particularly amongst those really falling behind. This has drastically improved the productivity levels of the whole class, I have even had the students of whom I contacted visiting me after school for more help, emailing me for requests and finding out when I am free to support them further. I think they have finally realised the significance of their forthcoming exams, without contacting home I don't think this would have been possible. As was highlighted in an assembly yesterday, the most important aspect of a child's education is: 1.) Them; 2.) Their parents/careers; 3.) Their teachers; 4.) Their school and lastly; 5.) The area in which they live in.
Last Friday myself and the other teacher split the class; normal practice for when we have a double lesson with them, so we could give them as much support as possible, but a number of individuals were really disinteresetd, lethargic and disruptive. As a result I decided to call a number of individuals who had been acting like this in lesson and also failing to attend any of the revision sessions.
I decided to go out of my way and contact their parent's on a Saturday afternoon. One hoping I would catch them as opposed to right after school and secondly to highlight my concern.
All of the parent's didn't seem best pleased that they were receiving a call at the weekend but it really helped drive home the importance and flag what lack of preparation some of these individuals had made.
This week I have seen a marked improvement, particularly amongst those really falling behind. This has drastically improved the productivity levels of the whole class, I have even had the students of whom I contacted visiting me after school for more help, emailing me for requests and finding out when I am free to support them further. I think they have finally realised the significance of their forthcoming exams, without contacting home I don't think this would have been possible. As was highlighted in an assembly yesterday, the most important aspect of a child's education is: 1.) Them; 2.) Their parents/careers; 3.) Their teachers; 4.) Their school and lastly; 5.) The area in which they live in.
Friday, 6 January 2012
Back to work. Looking at group work
...It feels like the Xmas holiday was so long ago now. This week back has kind of just carried on from where I was last term. I mentioned in a previous blog how I disliked doing group work, particulaly moving students out of their seats and working amongst new people. I had found a good seating system which worked very well in terms of behaviour, additionally I was very reluctant to get students working in groups; this always caused too much noise and it appeared too many students were off task.
As normal practice, I was observed in a lesson by my mentor this week. I split the students into mixed ability groups and gave them a topic to research on which they had to do a mini presentation on. This lesson went smoother and was much more hassle free than other group lesson I have taught with this group. I think the improvement was partly down to me reiterating my expectations of them before they began the task; that I expected the same behaviour and work from them as when they are sat in their normal seats. I also found that even though I set them 10minutes for the task that it needed to be broken down and not just left to their own devices. I worked my way around the groups, supervising and listening to their discussions and repeatedly stopped the whole class every 2-3 minutes to check progress and do some mini AFL questioning which appeared to keep them far more focused.
I was unrealstic in my time expectations of them but it was clear that they were doing what was asked and if anything thoroughly. This is certainly an approach I will adopt more regualrly in terms of group work.
As normal practice, I was observed in a lesson by my mentor this week. I split the students into mixed ability groups and gave them a topic to research on which they had to do a mini presentation on. This lesson went smoother and was much more hassle free than other group lesson I have taught with this group. I think the improvement was partly down to me reiterating my expectations of them before they began the task; that I expected the same behaviour and work from them as when they are sat in their normal seats. I also found that even though I set them 10minutes for the task that it needed to be broken down and not just left to their own devices. I worked my way around the groups, supervising and listening to their discussions and repeatedly stopped the whole class every 2-3 minutes to check progress and do some mini AFL questioning which appeared to keep them far more focused.
I was unrealstic in my time expectations of them but it was clear that they were doing what was asked and if anything thoroughly. This is certainly an approach I will adopt more regualrly in terms of group work.
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