And after a very quick weekend, I’m already past my first day of the second week. Where is the time going!?
I started the day off by learning how to photocopy a booklet so that it prints double sided and adds staples! What kind of witchcraft is this!!?? I had no idea this was even possible. There were a lot of steps to remember so I wouldn’t call myself an expert quite yet but a worthwhile experience regardless.
I also talked through the behaviour management policy as well as the child protection procedure for the setting.
I also went through a template I had prepared for a literacy lesson on writing letters and my supporting teacher gave me some advice on how I could improve my template as he believed it may be too easy for some of the children in the class.
Me and my supporting teacher also looked out glitter for a lesson on handwashing that I would run later in the day. As a result, I found out where the school craft cupboard is.
First up was Maths! The children were moving on to dividing by 8. The lesson began by the children revising multiples of 8 and also working what dividing sums can be supported with this knowledge. I have been trying to get the children to use their timestables knowledge rather than counting cubes during my lessons and from what I saw today, this is a great strategy for just that.
I was asked to focus on a table of children who had been identified as students finding difficulty with the work on some days. This didn’t show on this activity however. Having the reminder of their 8 times tables, seemed to help these students work out the work with little to no help from me and I was mainly there for reassurance. It was lovely to see them so engaged as they were really proud they could do the work.
One thing I have learned is the last question on textbook pages are incredibly difficult and troublesome to explain. I chose not to explain it as this could confuse all the knowledge the children had gained this lesson. My supporting teacher said this was the right move as this last question can sometimes bring confidence down among pupils as it is so demanding.
For reading, I had the same group as last week. I asked each child to read a page of the reading book and then discussed their reading target with them. Some targets included: “being more expressive”, “being more fluent”, “learning not to rush” and “being loud and clear”. The children all achieved their target as they all worked really hard and it was evident the children were considering what their target was while reading.
We then got out the show-me boards and I read out some comprehension questions to them. Some questions only took about 1 minute for children to think up the answer while some lasted for 2. I separated the children into teams to do this. Since the book was about planes and flying we had team names such as “The Aviators”, “The Planes”, “The Gliders”, “The Aerodynamics” and “The Pioneers”. The children seemed to really enjoy it! :)
After that, it was time to move on to coding. The supporting teacher took the lead on this one. He explained to the children how to get two sprites to interact with one another. It was quite a complicated task but the booklet we had photocopied this morning was really good at breaking it down and explaining how it could be done.
I helped the children power up their Chromebooks and log in to Scratch. I also helped them with trickier bits such as adding a “broadcast” block multiple times. Just as the children were starting to get the difficult part of the activity, the lesson came to an end and it was time for lunch. I’m excited to see how the children will get on with the next few parts of the activity next time.
And this is where the glitter comes in. I first asked the children to settle down and face me to show they were listening. After that, I asked “does anyone know why we actually wash our hands?” Many children correctly answered, “because we need to wash the germs off our hands”. I explained they were correct and then moved on to showing how easy it is for germs to spread. I dipped my hand in a bowl of water and glitter and as you can expect, my hand was soon covered in the stuff. I then asked “okay who wants some of my germs?”. I chose someone to shake hands with and then they chose someone to shake hands with and then it happened again once more. I explained how easy it is for germs to travel from one place to the other.
I then moved on to telling the children the procedure for washing hands effectively. I explained that you wet your hands first, add soap, rub your hands together ensuring all parts of the hand are washed before rinsing the soap off and drying your hands. I explained that singing the “Happy Birthday to you” song twice was a great way of making sure you are washing your hands for the right amount of time.
I then asked the children to design a poster on what they had just learned. The children seemed really engaged throughout.
My supporting teacher suggested showing some posters to the class as a plenary. So I did! I asked around 2-3 people to come and explain their poster to the class. I made sure I praised the children for their hard work and for doing their best.
The last lesson involved the children discussing each other’s robot story they started writing last week. The children found it difficult to stay on task so I circulated round the room to try to keep the children focused and engaged. It was great to see such meaningful feedback from the children.
Finishing up and preparing
After the children had left, me and my supporting teacher took the writing jotters in and marked them. It was great to read the stories and see how individual the children are. I was surprised that I was able to guess who had wrote each one just by the way they wrote or the words they used. I got through about 7 in 20 minutes so it’s a clear that marking this type of work takes time but I valued the experience as now I know what sort of things you may add when marking such as spelling mistakes, capital letters and full stops.
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How to use some features of the photocopier
The school’s child protection procedure as well as the behaviour policy
Where the craft cupboard is in the school
The last question in a Maths textbook isn’t always the best option if you feel it is a troublesome concept to interpret at this stage
How to code a conversation on Scratch as well as how to teach it
Strategies for teaching handwashing
How to mark creative writing
Prepare to run a writing lesson for starting a letter
Focus on communication skills in the classroom and make notes
Focus on questioning in the classroom and make notes
Plan my second literacy lesson
Plan my music lesson for Thursday
