Charlotte's Web

Charlotte, 20, BEd Primary with Science, Plymouth.

[charlottesweb92]

Camp

Camp was amazing and I learnt so much about working with 3-5s. There were some stressful moments and some really really enjoyable moments. However, one of the main things I learnt on this camp was not to do with the children at all, it was about the importance of being able to work as part of a great team within an educational setting. My sub-team consisted of myself and two other people who got on fantastically well and were pretty similarly minded when it came to ideas and how to work together. Then there was somebody who only worked in the morning. 3 days a week, who didn't quite share the same work ethic and ideas as the rest of us did and they just failed to bond with us and work well as part of our team. This often disrupted the way we ran the camp as the other person would often just do what they wished and did not follow the structure to the children's day. So basically, I have learnt how important it is to be able to gel well with other colleagues when it comes to working with children.

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Happy Medium.

Yet again, working with the 3-5 has swung my interest back to that age group after having worked with 7-8 year olds for 5 weeks in April and being completely convinced they were the age group for me. 

I think i'm always going to be one of those people that will be forever changing their minds about what age they want to work with. Sometimes I'm totally convinced I want to work with the early years and other times I want to give year 6 a try. Hopefully I'll find a happy medium somewhere once I finish uni.

[charlottesweb92]

So I've just finished a great 5 weeks working at a summer camp and I've realised I really neglect this blog. I really want to find something worthwhile to write about on this linked to education and my working in schools but i'm lacking inspiration at the moment. I start back up on placement in October, hopefully being back in school will give me something to write about. 

[gjmueller-deactivated20181226]

If we want students to learn more, teachers must become students of their own teaching. This is not about accountability. It’s about providing feedback every professional needs to strive toward excellence.

‘This is Not About Accountability’ (via gjmueller)

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Placement - round two.

I start placement again a week on Monday in a year 2 class 45 minutes away from where I'm living, not too bad in comparison to others. We have the same placement partner as last time, which is nice. I look forward to it. I'm glad I'm in my ideal age phase again. However this means in subsequent years I probably won't be.

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There's more to geography in the primary school.

Doing this assignment has made me realise there's a lot more to geography in primary schools than just learning about people and places. 

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Changing the URL and title of my blog after a suggestion from a friend.

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This is the Barbie car myself and two other students made in our D&T module. How Exciting! 

[positivelypersistentteach]

I’d love to have more time / energy to write these types of things.   Most of the Tumblr teachers I know are using facebook regularly, but I think a lot of us miss out on what an asset (in addition to Tumblr of course) that Twitter can be for educators.  Here’s a good little guide to look into if you have the time.

[charlottesweb92]

Watchin' Telly

I just watched 'Secret Life of the Classroom' on 4OD and it was really interesting! After the children's fascination over the cameras died down it was very interesting to see the ins and outs of the first few weeks of reception class. It showed how the children made friends for the first time - ones that they choose, rather than once chosen by who their parents are friends with. It shows how the teachers deal with children who are not necessarily used to discipline or having to stick to rules at home. They cope so well! Something I need to work on really. Being in a reception class at the start of the school is something I am unlikely to experience at university due to placement timings and such but watching it has reinforced my interest in working with the younger years and has made me super excited to get back in to the classroom! 

[charlottesweb92]

Day 15 - Friday

Emotional.

Nothing out of the ordinary happened today. We helped with literacy and numeracy and observed a P.E lesson. 

I wanted to stay forever, but such is life we have to move on. I had a brilliant time on placement and I can't wait to start at a new school in may!

[charlottesweb92]

Day 14 - Thursday

This morning I spend time in the support centre for autistic children which is attached to the school I was placed at. I was scared and I was so super conscious of messing up something I said to the children as i didn't want to upset them because I didn't know what I was doing. It was overwhelming for me, but the children were lovely. I think this is an area in which I need to improve my confidence.

I then went to help with numeracy back in my own class. I realised that using practical activities and games with the children can help them understand tricky concepts such as time much more easily. We played 'what's the time mr wolf' and it was fun, although I had to take them in a bit early as they were getting restless and over-excited outside. 

In the afternoon my partner taught her history lesson, it was a good lesson and the children clearly enjoyed it. I think she had a though time as the kids were very talkative and restless. She did well at keeping them engaged though. I was proud of her.

[charlottesweb92]

Day 13 - Wednesday

Strike day - No children! Yippee!!

I put up my first display. It was fun?

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Day 12 - Tuesday

Nothing of interest happened today. It was 'normal'. If there is such a thing?

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Day 11 - Monday

Today I learnt about the modern child.

In literacy we did a 'big write' which basically means they spend the lesson writing about something or other. Today their topic was 'My weekend'. They had time for discussion and I sat with a group of boys. I began to ask them what they had done at the weekend. Many of them suggested things I considered normal such as:

'I stayed at my nan's house'

'I walked the dog'

'I had a sleepover with a friend'

'I played with my brother'

All innocent activities, would you agree? When I asked the children to go in to more detail about what they had done, especially regarding the last two statements, I was shocked. They spoke about how they played computer/video games. Okay, I thought, 'Crash banticoot'? 'Singstar'? 'Rollercoaster Tycoon'? I can understand those kind of games. Many of them come with an age restriction of 7+ and some with an age restriction of 3+ and all of the children being ages 7 or 8 in my class I guessed that was okay. I then went on to ask them what games they played. I didn't get the list I expected. Instead I heard names such as 'Call of Duty', 'Gears of War' and 'Assassin's Creed'. Now I know these games have an age restriction of at least 16, if not 18. These games are violent and I'm not sure children aged 7 can really understand that it's just a game and behaving in the way you can make your character/avatar behave is not acceptable in our society. I tried to explain this to them and they just looked at me blankly. I spoke to one child in particular who told me they have had an xbox since they were five years old. So, in essence, this child has been playing video games since before they can write their own name. Is this right? Should they be playing these games at their age?

Maybe I just feel this way because I'm a girl... 

[airows]