Lack of updates

I've been far too busy and stressed during the last 2 weeks of my final placement to post any updates here. However, that's me now finished the placement - and I passed!!!! Passed the final hurdle and galloping down the home straight now .... just some pieces of work to hand in today and that's pretty much it - a newly qualified teacher!!!!

We've got Induction Week now - a full week of lectures, workshops, etc getting us ready for having our own class in August.

I'll be returning to Orkney in 2 weeks - with mixed feelings about that - and am getting an operation on my right wrist in 2 1/2 weeks - so this next wee spell is still going to be busy as I've got to get everything packed and get the flat totally cleared out.

Off to uni for the day now, will post some more later.

About time I posted again

Thought it was about time I posted here again. My wrists have been a little worse after seeing the specialist so it's been enough coping with placement without trying to do any extra like posting on my blog.

The first week of placement has gone well. Busy, tiring ... but fun. I'm still really enjoying it - despite all the hours spent every evening on paperwork. It's a holida today so that meant an extra day for all the planning and writing up, so I was able to take a little time off over the weekend. My friend Lorna came down to Ayr for the day - she's been working in Canada since I moved down here, so it was great to catch up.

Weather's been horrible today - cold and wet. Not exactly a nice day for the beach .... Ayr's getting noticeably busier now, with lots of folk out on the beach at all times of the day. And the ice cream vans have been out - and a giant inflatable ski slope (was going to go back and get a photo of it to post but I guess with the weather today it'll not be out!).

Mossgiel Ploughing Match

I got up early (the new 8am - yesterday it would have been 7am!) and got a few hours work done so I could go and see the Ploughing Match at Mossgiel, Mauchline. It was a lovely sunny day - but I was glad I had gone in the morning as the wind picked up later and it got really cold.



I really enjoyed it -there were quite a lot of entires in the ploughing match - and also stalls, food (including haggis, porridge & an entire spit roasted pig) and vintage tractors, etc. And there was a birds of prey display ...

Although I had got really cold at the Ploughing Match, by the time I got back to Ayr I was warmed up, and it was still such a nice day (& I was celebrating end of placement) that I headed down the coast to Culzean and spent a few hours walking round the gardens.

Now I'm trying to catch up on the rest of my write-ups....

Peaceful evening in Ayr

I've had a lovely day. Woke up early and got some of my 'post placement' work written up ready to hand in on Monday. Then I headed off up the road to visit my wee nephew. Had a lovely time playing with him in the house and out at the park (it was cold!!!), followed by a fish supper for tea, then headed back down to Ayr. It's a lovely, peaceful evening - I got back in time to catch the last light in the sky and the crescent moon above Arran. Now I'm sitting typing up more notes from my placement ready for handing in on Monday. I'll be spending a lot of tomorrow doing the same thing I think...

End of placement

I really enjoyed my last day with the class. It turned into a real fund day for them as they had swimming, and it was their last swimming lesson so it was a fun session with the floats.

Then it was back to school and some language work, before the "topic party" - celebrating our Scotland topic and my last day all together. They had taken it really seriously - some of them brought clothes to change into (tartan dresses or party dresses!) and they had rehearsed their entertainment. One of them had made home-made shortbread, so with that, my shortbread and irn bru and the entertainment we had a great time. We had some presentations from pupil groups about aspects of their topic work, then a slide show and Scottish music - where they were able to demonstrate their learning by pointing out features, etc on the photos. Then 2 pupils entertained us with Scottish tunes on their fiddles, we had a great recitation of a Scots poem complete with actions, and then a whole group performed a song they had written for me!!!! And in keeping with the theme, they had used Scots language. It was great!

In the afternoon we had PE which was also a really fun session. The teacher did a game called "mattress madness" with them. There were a lot of good learning points in it, but it was also a whole lot of fun.

Several of the pupils gave me lovely cards they had made, and wrote messages for me saying how much they would miss me. And 2 of them had made me a book describing some of the work we had all done together over the last 5 weeks. It was great - and also demonstrated what they had learned.

It's going to be really strange on Monday, having no class to teach and instead sitting at lectures for 6 solid hours with only a 20 minute 'lunch break'.

Last day tomorrow...

I got my report from the school so I've now passed my placement - only got to submit my targets and wider aspects to my tutor for final checking.

I had the class on my own for the whole day today!!!!!!!!!! And I survived it!!!! I really enjoyed it actually. Stayed at school until almost 6pm, but that's all my marking done and my planning done for tomorrow. I'm looking forward to tomorrow (got them all on my own again) - but I'm sad too that that's me finished with that class. My Maths set made it to the room ahead of me and quickly wrote a goodbye message on the board, saying they'd miss me...... And they were using mini whiteboards in maths and kept writing messages about missing me. Awww.

Anyway, I'm going to award myself a well-deserved evening off now and watch Monty Halls on BBC i-player, with a glass of wine.

Arran

I went over to Arran on Friday evening. It had been another lovely day, and I was hoping the weather was going to hold. Saturday started off a bit dull - but we headed out for a walk anyway - and gradually the cloud and mist lifted, the sun came out and it got warm. I was just wearing a t-shirt after a while as I was too warm!!


We had a lovely walk up the footpath to the top of the Brodick hill, then out across the new forestry track towards Clauchlands Point. It's really lovely now that the views are opened up.

We then headed over Dunfion, where we got great views across to Goatfell and into Brodick Bay.

By the time we got back along the front in Lamlash there was blue sky with hardly a cloud in sight.

It was a lovely, relaxing day for me before the hard grind of the last week of placement.

Busy day

I went in today to find there was a teacher off and some juggling being done to arrange cover - so I ended up teaching 'my' class from 9-10.40 unexpectedly. Then I was teaching them (planned) from break until 2.30 anyway - so I've taught practically the entire day today. And doing the same tomorrow (planned this time though). I'm exhausted (as usual!) but also 'high' as it's been a really good day.

Placement Update

My teacher is back at work now, she came back on Friday (thank goodness). My crit is 1st thing Tuesday morning, so I'm busy not just planning all my lessons for this week, but also making sure that they're written up neatly in the correct format. Also making sure the rest of my file is up-to-date - hours of work - self-assessments, pupil assessments, wider issues, ASN task, formative assessment task, special interest topic, lesson plans, sequence plans, class lists, class plan, lists of main resources .... it feels never-ending! At the same time, it feels like time is speeding by very fast. I can hardly believe that's the 1st 3 weeks of placement over already!!

Misty

Yesterday morning on the way to school ..... the mist was really thick, couldn't see a thing along the esplanade. Unlike Orkney mist, though, it had burnt off by about 9am.

Thursday evening ...

... and I'm exhausted. Only one day to go and it's the weekend!!!! And then I can ...... work all weekend again getting all the lesson plans, assessments & other paperwork up-to-date and ready for next week. It will all be worth it in the end, honest!

Full morning!

Survived a full morning teaching the class - I'm exhausted now though, and still got notes to write on today, lesson plans to finalise for tomorrow, and marking to do (29 pieces of writing!).

Interactive Whiteboard

It's going to be my first attempt at using an interactive whiteboard (IWB) with a class tomorrow - fingers crossed.....

I've just spent ages playing lots of multiplication and division games on the BBC website and elsewhere trying to evaluate them for use with my maths groups. Things like that take ages to do, I've spent about an hour finding 2 games to use, in some ways it feels like a waste of time when I've got so much else to plan. But it has to be done.... and in time I'll build up a bank of resources to use and I'll know which ones are good without having to play hundreds of them first to find out!!

Placement

I'm really enjoying my placement so far. It's busy though ................ so no time to post much at all!

Placement

My next placement - in a P5 class - starts tomorrow. I'm quite nervous, but I'm sure after a day or two I'll be well into the swing of it again. I'm busy preparing paperwork for my file today, it feels like it's never-ending .....

We had a lovely evening with my wee nephew on Thursday, and a great trip to Glasgow Science Centre on Friday. I got lots of ideas I can use for teaching there - as well as just having a great time!

Kye went away yesterday, so it's lonely just now ...

Placement

I was at the school I'm going to be spending my next placement at yesterday. It's about 20-25 mins walk, which is great. It seems a realy nice school and I'm really looking forward to my 5 weeks in the P5 class there.

I can talk a small detour on the way there so I can walk along part of the esplanade and enjoy the views of the beach and Arran. It was very cold walking that way yesterday though. We've not had that much snow (more of that in another posting) but it has been cold - enough to make some ice form on the 'dry dock'/offshoot of the harbour in front of the flat.

End of 1st Term

I can't believe that's the Christmas holidays now, the last 5 weeks of placement have flown by. I'm really pleased with my placement reports from both my tutor and from the school. I'll miss the school and the children - I had a great placement there. The children performed 'Hosanna Rock' yesterday which was great. My favourite part of the day, however, was when they heard it was my last day and they started asking me to come back and visit them, and then one of them said "We've loved having you here". :-)

Now I'm tidying up my folder and writing up stuff for my e-portfolio - like my placement targets, wider issues, etc. And I'm packing for heading home tomorrow - and trying to work out how much paperwork I can manage to take home to catch up on some reading and get my patchwork tasks done (like a resource to make, evaluate, etc for Language and Drama and a game for Maths). The weight limit for baggage for the flight is definitely limiting what I can manage to take home with me!

I was hoping to get over to Arran last night but gave up in the end when Scottish Power failed to fix a navigation light at Ardrossan meaning the ferry was heading to Gourock instead. It was a horrible evening - wild, wet and windy and the ferry wasn't going to be getting to Arran until at least 9.30pm - and I was heading back this morning, so sadly decided not to go. So I've missed seeing my family before Christmas which is a big disappointment. But looking on the bright side, I'll be seeing Kye tomorrow :-) And I can hopefully do a bit of relaxing and catching up on sleep over the holidays.

I was seriously disappointed and needing cheering up as I was leaving Ardrossan harbour in the dark, wind and rain, so I decided to treat myself to chips. After my last experience at the chip shop in Ardrossan (top of Glasgow Road) I decided not to go there. I'm sure it used to be good - but last time I went there on my way back from the VHF course in Largs, both the fish and chips were so bad as to be inedible and I had to throw it all away. And the staff were very unfriendly too. So this time I decided on a very late tea when I got back to Ayr and went to the Wellington (which I had heard about before I even moved to Ayr - thanks, Lesley) - it's always good and it lived up to expectations. I was then so tired that I was in bed by 9pm - a record for me I think as with the amount of coursework and preparation of resources, lesson planning, etc I'm generally not in bed much before midnight. I feel much better after a good night's sleep.

Placement Update

Struggling quite a bit with wrist pain, coping ok at school but struggling to make resources and get things written up at home. At least I don't have so much to make/write now as it's nearly the end of my placement - it's flown by, and I can hardly believe I've only got 2 days left! I'll really miss the class - and the school, I've had a great time there.

I got the report from my tutor today, andI'm chuffed to bits with it!!! It's even better than I expected :-)

Paperwork

It's been a looong week. I've had a cold and a bad throat - which has made teaching very challenging at times. Trying to control a class with no voice (ok slight exaggeration, but not much of a voice) has been a challenge and a good learning experience. I've now taught several lessons on my own: language (a few lessons including functional writing & phonics), drama/PE & art. Next week I'm onto maths and a few others, so it'll be a busy weekend getting all the paperwork from last week in order and up-to-date and also writing my lesson plans for next week. The first lesson plan (full grid & implementation) I had to write too about 4 hours - luckily I've got a bit faster with them now!

We have a lot of other paperwork to do as well - evaluations (both of our own teaching and assessment of the pupils' work) after each lesson taught, as well as 5 observation tasks, wider professional issues to investigate/reflect on/critically evaluate - and our chosen 'special interest topic'. And of course notes to make on school organisation & policies, class organisation, daily & weekly timetables/planners .... We're certainly kept very busy but it's all valuable learning - and I'm getting a great experience in my school and am learning a huge amount from all the staff - and the pupils!

On another topic, I saw some of the folk from the kayak club tonight - they're off for a weekend's paddling. OK for some ... :-) Meanwhile I'll be doing 'door duty' at the pool session, and getting on with all my paperwork and planning. I think I'll have to make time to watch more of my new kayaking DVD (This is The Sea 4) as a consolation - I've watched the 2 films on the bonus DVD so far (New Zealand circumnavigation & the Queen Charlotte Islands in BC, Canada) and they're excellent.

Placement

I'm really enjoying my placement so far. The school is a small one around 15 miles drive away. The staff are all really friendly, and the pupils are great too. I stayed on late tonight to help out in the hall during parents' evening, which was really interesting.

I think the learning curve over this 5 weeks is going to be huge, but I'm lucky I've got the opportunity to learn from a group of staff rather than just one teacher - I'm seeing some great active learning in the classroom and it's good to be able to see in practice what we've been learning about in theory.