Placement- Week 1

19/11

My first day of placement- and I have to say, I was nervous. But once I met my class and had a tour from two of the year 4's I'll be working with I felt settled in already. I started the day with listening to a child read and we then moved onto Maths. The children were continuing work on area and perimeter- using long multiplication to work out the area. After long multiplication was explained to me (!) I was able to support the children in small groups and see their progress throughout the lesson. We continued the day with Literacy, in which the children were doing a comprehension test. The last lesson of the day was Science and we observed a very successful lesson on light and shadows. The children were to use torches to see shadows of different objects in the room. By the end of the lesson the children were able to write in-depth conclusions and clearly understand how and why we have shadows. This will impacted on my practise as a teacher in that it is clear that practical experiments are the best way to understand science.

20/11

Today we started the day the same as yesterday- with reading and maths. We continued unfinished work from the previous lesson, however, it was clear that the children were still a little confused of the differences in working out perimeter and area. We moved onto Literacy after break in which I was able to have a look at the work the children had been doing on article and newspaper writing. They continued with work from a previous lesson and were to introduce a quote into their newspaper article. After lunch the children moved onto PE in which they were doing chest and bounce passes. Due to bad weather the lesson was forced to be inside which restricted the lesson a bit. However, I thought the plenary was a brilliant idea- the teacher passed the ball to different pupils using either a bounce pass or chest pass and asked them to tell the class something about that particular pass.

21/11

Today, after reading, we went back to area and perimeter, but the concept was simplified by asking the children to measure in cm rather than mm so as to allow the children to be able to understand area and perimeter better without having to also use long multiplication. The table I was working with were still struggling so I went through it again, breaking it down into smaller chunks. After I'd worked through the first one with them they continued on their own and were able to not only correctly complete today's work- they also corrected the work from their previous lessons. We had a French lesson before break which I really enjoyed. After break we went onto Literacy and worked on independent and dependent clauses in complex sentences and the children worked on their own in the style of newspaper writing in order to continue the topic. After lunch the children has ICT and were working on comic strips using word and were to link Egyptian Gods into a fairytale to make their story.

22/11

After reading this morning, we went through the children's test papers for Maths and asked them to work through and correct their answers. They were able to understand where they went wrong- it seemed that mistakes were made mostly due to not reading the question properly or misunderstanding the instructions. Literacy today was a lot of fun as the children were taken outside to the conservation area after a note was brought into the classroom from the Head Teacher to say a monkey had escaped from the zoo and the year 4's were needed to find it! We made our way down and the children were to look for evidence and ask the eyewitnesses (the teachers, my placement partner and I) questions and get statements from us to use as quotes in their 'Big Write'. The children thoroughly enjoyed this session- as did I. After lunch the children had Music. In year 4 they are allowed to choose a brass instrument to learn and they play very well- even after only 2 months. After this we moved onto DT in which they were making clay mummies. There was enough clay for me to join in- it was a lot of fun!

23/11

This morning in Maths- after some mental maths games- I took a small group of children out to go over area and perimeter one more time. After drawing rectangles on a mini whiteboard and asking them to first find out the area, then perimeter, I planned to ask them to measure rectangles they could find in the classroom (i.e. books, displays etc.) however, we had a fire alarm and I was unable to finish the task. I found this quite frustrating as I could see that the children were really starting to get the hang of it. I now understand just how flexible you have to be as a teacher as anything could interrupt a lesson. After Assembly and break the children started their 'Big Write' using the worksheets of evidence and quotes they had gathered from the previous lesson. I scribed for one child, and after he got his thoughts flowing it was hard to keep up! After lunch on a Friday the children have enrichment in were they move round a variety of different activities such as football, cookery, ICT, art and games. I went down to the school farm with a group of children where they have a donkey, two sheep, two pigs, chickens, guinea pigs and a duck. I really loved it down there, and it is clear the children do too- they were really up for mucking in and helping with all the animals.

I have thoroughly enjoyed my first week of placement. I think I've learnt a lot and am looking forward to next week when I am planning to do a bit of teaching myself (:

- Rebecca Moss

Self Watering Plant- Science Experiement

Day 1

Today, continuing our life processes theme, we each made self watering plants. To do this you cut the top of an empty 2L bottle (although smaller ones work just as well) and fill the bottom with water. You then put a strip of fabric through the bottle neck and let this fall into the water. You then fill the top of the bottle with compost, add some seeds (I used wheat) and add a little more compost. Give it a water and your done!

7 days later...

The first shoot has appeared!

- Rebecca Moss

Growing Beans- Science Experiment

Day 1

Today, in our Science seminar, we headed down to the greenhouse for a little science experiment. We were each given a broad bean and this is ours to see how it grows. We dampened some kitchen roll and placed it in a plastic bag with a seal and stapled it in place. We then placed our broad bean in the middle. I'm planning to photograph it every few days to see the development of its growth.

9 days later...

The first shoot has showed up! There was a small crack in the bean a few days ago- and now it has really began to grow. I'll continue to photograph the progress :)

Day 10

- Rebecca Moss

Specialist Week

All this week we have been meeting for seminars in our English Specialism group. On Monday and Tuesday we prepared for a visit from a local partner Primary School to visit. We focused all our preparations on looking through The Tunnel by Anthony Browne and preparing drama based activities for the children to take part in.

The idea behind using drama with The Tunnel was to see how using these activities could enhance a child's understanding and enjoyment of the book.

The activities we used were:

• 'Role on the wall' in which the children drew around each other to form a silhouette. The children were then to write what they thought Jack or Rose's personality was like on the inside of the silhouette and on the outside they were to write down physical qualities.
• 'Freeze Framing' in which the children would act out a small part of the book and after an adult shouted 'freeze' they would say what their character was thinking.
• 'Conscience Alley' in which the children would form a tunnel and either give a reason for or against either of the children going down the tunnel. The child would slowly walk through the tunnel as the children gave their opinions and make a decision of what they would do at the end.
• 'News report' in which the children got into groups of four and chose roles such as news reporter, interviewer and witness. They then performed a news report on the missing children.

Each group ran their own activity, but unfortunately my group were unable to run our activity as we ran out of time. We had planned to run a phone call activity in which the children would hold a conversation between the mother and her friend about the missing children.

Before we began the activities we went through the book as a powerpoint and asked the children to point out anything that was unusual or confusing. It was interesting that the children saw things and pointed out things that we had not previously seen or thought about. After this the children wrote down questions in their groups of four. They were encouraged to ask about anything that wasn't clear or they didn't understand.

At the end of the day we went back to these questions and answered what we could as a class. We also spoke to the class and asked how any activity could be improved and what they liked about the day. The news report activity seemed to be a favourite and most children were excited to show their report to the whole class. Unfortunately there wasn't time for them all but the reports that were shown were imaginative and showed that they had worked hard on them- even with the limited time.

I think the day has been really beneficial in that I now feel that I could confidently use these activities with a class and I know what activities are the most fun and beneficial.

- Rebecca Moss

Technology in the Classroom.

So I've been reading a lot about using all sorts of different technology in the classroom. The most common use of technology is Apple products and E-Readers. But some blogs I've looked at are pretty negative about technology. I think using technology in the classroom is extremely important. Since its everywhere, children should be taught how to use it sensibly and safely, and perhaps school is the first place children are able to get their hands on all this technology.

But books and whiteboards shouldn't be overlooked either. I think actually holding and reading a book is much more effective than reading from a Kindle. I also think that I would prefer to include mini whiteboards into activities than Ipads. However, I would like to include technology in lessons. So I think that perhaps an equal balance of these would be the best way to go about teaching.

I think I will try and include ICT in lessons or activities at some point in a placement, and will feedback on how it goes.

-Rebecca Moss

Education Studies

I am currently sat in a Education Studies seminar learning all about social networking. I've just started using my proffesional Twitter account @RebeccaMoss18 and I will be tweeting all my blogs on there so keep an eye out! Really enjoying this seminar and will definately be using my Twitter frequently. :)

-Rebecca Moss

1 month gone...

So its been officially one month since I started University. I'm already feeling more and more confident and I'm really pleased with the way everything is going.

Yesterday, in our English specialism seminar we read to the rest of the group using story sacks. I gave myself the challenging task of reading to the class while the rest of the group acted it out using finger puppets. However, the book was in French, so it was rather daunting. But once I got into it, I found myself really enjoying it and I would definately consider using books in other languages in the classroom. Perhaps I'll even give it a try on my placement in a few months. The story sacks were also fantastic and I think that when I am fully qualified I will use these to encourage the children's reading. I think it would be good for them to also take them home to engage their parents in reading with them.

Today, we looked back over out Pecha Kucha presentations. I was very pleased with our groups, even though I looked very nervous! But there were a lot of positives, and I have set myself some targets to improve. I'm seriously considering doing my assignment for Education Studies as an oral presentation now, I feel it will be very beneficial.

-Rebecca Moss