AfL's Biggest Fan!

Yay!!! I passed all three of my QTS tests on Monday! Such a relief to get them out of the way. I honestly thought I had failed the Numeracy one but must have got through by the skin of my teeth!

However, there's no rest for the wicked! I'm just sat here catching  on some reading from last term. One article is on Traveller Children and the other Assessment for Learning (AfL).

I am officially AfL's biggest fan! Last week a few of my course mates and I went to observe at a school which does AfL and Cutaway amazingly! I took away some really great ideas I would love to say that it's going to transform my next placement class. Unfortunately, i'm not 100% convinced that my class could handle it. I have a feeling it takes some training to get the children as efficient as they were at the observation school and I'm not sure 5 weeks is enough....but i'll give it a go!

Well I should stop procrastinating and get back to reading!

Have a lovely day,

Student Teacher

QTS Tests

Have any of you done your QTS tests yet? Mine are on Monday so am just cramming in some last minute revision this weekend. Passed both the Literacy and ICT practice tests this morning but putting the Maths one off until later!!


My uni haven't been particularly helpful in preparing us so I organised some Maths sessions with a few people from my group. Only a couple of my friends have taken theirs so far, one passed all three, another failed Maths by 2 marks and the third failed ICT by 1 mark!!!


We were discussing that it seems a bit unfair that you don't actually get to find out how well you did if you passed but when you fail you get told how much you failed by??? Never mind, i guess we don't really need to know!


Well I hope you all enjoy your well deserved Christmas holidays!


Wish me luck for Monday's tests!!


Take Care,


Student Teacher

Christmas Holidays!!!

We'll that's the first term over and done with!!


You would think that they would have let us have a nice relaxing break??? You thought wrong...we have been given all of the details for our second assignment and have our second Placement 2 weeks into next term...no rest for the wicked!


To be honest I have found this stint at uni quite dull but I can't say I'm looking forward to going back to placement though. Let's just say my class teacher doesn't really do anything the way I would do it, for example planning at 5.30 for the following day!!
Anyways, I have a plan of action in place and my fingers are firmly crossed for a less stressful second placement!


Well I have exactly 5 days before I'm off to Centre Parcs on holiday so I think its time to plough through all this work!!

Take Care,


Student Teacher

More Maths Resources

Just a quick one to show you a new resource!


Seaside themed flash cards which can also be used for bingo.


They cover number bonds up to 20 and can be used for both KS1 and KS2.

Check out the TES link to the left for the full set!!


Have a good evening!


Student Teacher

Some really good planning websites!

One of my amazing teacher friends pointed me in the direction of these really useful websites to help we when planning my maths lessons.


Planning from the National Numeracy Strategy - Loads and loads of stuff arranged by unit and year group!


Maths Planning - similar style, sorted into units and then into year groups.


She also showed me this website to help me with attainment levels.


Tool-Kits - Toolkits for Mathematics, Reading and Writing which each have different Levels matched to the National Curriculum levels


I hope you find them as useful as I do!


Student Teacher

PSHE Resources

During my first placement one of my directed activities was to plan and deliver a "Health Day". I decided to base mine on healthy eating and to get the children to have an awareness of what they should have in their lunchboxes in order to make them healthy!

We did a range of activities including designing your own healthy lunch box.

If you check out my resources on TES (see link to the left) you can download all of the resources I post on here and loads more.

Student Teacher

Resources on TES

Just a quick one to let you know that I've started putting some of my resources onto TES.

Here are my Maths ones so far:


Both of these maths resources can be customised by adding your own categories or images and you can alter the scale on the y-axis depending on your results.


I added a grid on both of the graphs to help the children (Yr1) to keep their data in line. My original worksheet didn't have this and we ended up with columns going all over the place!! :)

Block charts

http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/Fruit-Block-Chart-Bar-Chart-6144898/

Pictograms

http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/Pictogram-Worksheet-6144900/

If you want to be more creative when using pictograms with your class you could get them to cut out pictures rather then drawing them. This is obviously more time consuming but develops their fine motor skills at the same time!

I hope you like them! If you would like any similar resources made please give me a shout!

Student Teacher

Assignment and QTS Tests

I'm having a break from my assignment...only 400 words left...to bring you up to speed on some QTS Test news which was announced at uni last week.


PGCE students are no longer be required to take the ICT QTS test. Currently students are able to take the test but are not required to pass it in order to get QTS. From April 2012 the tests will no longer be available.


Similarly, I have heard that PGCE student in the 2012/13 cohort will be required to pass the English and Maths QTS tests before they are offered an unconditional place on the course.


The government really seem to be shaking up teacher training this year...I guess all we can do is watch this space to see what happens next!


Hope you're all having a good Monday!!


Student Teacher

Placement 1 done and dusted!

Hi Everyone,


Sorry for such a delay in writing my next entry. Placement was so busy, I didn't have time to breath never mind write a blog!!


I have been back at uni now for a week after a 3 week placement (1a as the uni like to call it!). I was based in Year 1 and will be going back again after Christmas for another 5 weeks (1b!). I have to say I was very skeptical about the school when I went for my initial visit. It's a pretty rough school, in a deprived area of the city. Within 10 minutes of being in the school I had to break up a fight between 2 year 6 boys.


However, since being at the school I have grown to love it! My class are lovely, a challenge sometimes, but most of the time they're just regular kids!! I've taught quite a bit but as it's a paired placement I haven't actually taught a whole lesson by myself yet. We're supposed to team teach around 4 hours of the core curriculum (so maths, english and science) so it's not really that much. We took it in turns to teach the starter, main and plenary. I also gained a love for teaching phonics! I LOVE IT!!!!

Awesome phonics resources on TES.

Over all it was a really lovely placement and the teacher was very supportive too. My only negative is the long hours!!! Most days I didn't finish school until 6.30 and then had to go home and do all my uni work too. We tended to write our lesson plans in draft form at school and then I had to type them all up for uni in the evening...such a pain!!! Also, I have grown to hate filing!!! I love marking but hate then having to put it all into their folders! One tip if your school uses cardboard folders with treasury tags for kids work....don't put the back covers on until the end of the topic....they're a pain to take off when you're filing!!!


Anyways, I best get going as still have 1000 words of my first assignment to do! Fortunately we have Wednesday off this week due to the union strikes so that will be nice!!


Oh one last thing, if you haven't signed the bursary petition yet please do so....here's the link!!

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/162

Thanks,


Take Care,


Student Teacher

First PE Lesson!

Sorry for the delay in posting about the handball lesson I was planning. It has been a really crazy few weeks!


So, the lesson actually went really well. The children seemed to enjoy it and my groups worked really well together. We had originally divided the lesson into sections so that we could each take a section but in the end we all just mucked in and helped each other out.


The other groups did similar, non-traditional games like Dodgeball, Kick Rounders, Gaelic Football with the exception of one group who did Hockey. 


All of the sessions were really great and we all swapped lesson plans at the end too!...that's 5 PE lesson I don't need to spend hours planning now!


I'm currently in the middle of writing my first assignment. We were allowed to pick the topics which actually made it much harder to get started than you would have thought! I knew I wanted to do something on Maths but until I started reading through papers and books I didn't know what to focus on. On Monday I had a break through and now my assignment is on the use of resources in a primary maths classroom!


On that note, I best get back to business, 1500 words down, 4500 to go!! :)


Take Care,


Student Teacher

Handball or not to Handball!

I've had a really amazing week this week. I'm half way through a PE placement at an amazing school. We spent the whole of yesterday experiencing the breadth of their PE curriculum and tomorrow we get a chance to have a go at teaching!


We've been split into groups of 3 to plan a 45 minute Games lesson. Currently we thinking about doing Handball as it is not traditionally taught in Primary Schools....but it does seem quite a complicated game!

I'm off to a planning session now so will report back with our progress!!

Student Teacher

Placements here I come!!! :)

I have just had my last day at uni for 5 weeks!! Off on a PE placement on Monday for a week and then a welcome break over half term followed by the first 3 weeks of my first proper placement!!

Found out that I'll be off to spend my first placement in a mixed Year 1/2 class which I am extreamly happy about! Within all that I need to also spend a few days in reception!! :)

The school I am going to is very local to me...10 minute walk! At least my hours shouldn't be too long. One of my friends is expecting his journey to take about 3 hours including a 55 minute ferry ride which leaves the dock at 5.45am! We were told that we would have one "round the corner" placement and one travelling placement (up to 1 hour drive we were told!)...so i'm not hopeful for my second placement, God knows where i'll be placed!!

I've not have much homework this week so will be using the time to get ready for my PE placement and my main placement...we have so much to do in the first three weeks that I hope that if I do as much prep as I can now there will be minimal stress later!!

Well i'm going to settle down to a night full of X-Factor and sewing!!

Student Teacher

Placement Drama!

Well, after a 4 day weekend it was back to Uni today! 

I was hoping for some good news about my placement but no, nothing! I still don't know what Key Stage i'm in, never mind what year group. The uni have organised a Teacher Meet today for class mentors but my teacher isn't coming :( slightly worries now that I will be severely under prepared for the placement which starts in less than 3 weeks time (straight after October half term)!!


On a positive note, we had a great Maths lesson today. Our mental starter was Maths Tag! Basically the teacher asks the class questions and the child that gets the answer right gets to take a step (oh...all of the children are stood up in a space...), if they get close enough to another child then they can "tag" them, making them "out". Etc....until only one child is left standing - who is the winner!!


I have a quite night, work wise, tonight. Only a bit of maths to do from today, so I think a cuppa and a DVD might be in order...Chalet Girl arrived today via LoveFilm!

Have a great evening everyone!


Student Teacher

Spells and Mouse Fears

Hi Everyone!

I recently joined the local library so that I could have free reign on a bunch of children books! 

Last year I was introduced to some of Emily Gravett's books, and they are truly amaizing. The illustrations are fantastic and beautiful.

Here are two that I have had the pleasure of reading so far!!

Little Mouses big book of fears is all about a little mouse (obviously) who details all of his fears in the pages of the book. Everything from being scared of the dark to being sucked down the plug hole! The illustrations are wonderful!!

Spells is all about a little frog who finds a book of spells and in trying to find a spell to turn him into a Prince he ends up become a variety of animals!! This book has a series of flaps which bring a whole new aspect to the story!

Other than Emily Gravett books I have also become quite fond of Michael Morpurgo. I'm currently reading "This morning I met a Whale". I'll pop a post on here when i'm done!!


Have a lovely evening!


Student Teacher

Boomwhackers!!!

We had the most amazing Music lessons today. We were introduced to a load of coloured plastic tubes...called Boomwhackers!! There were AWESOME!!!

We have such a mix of musical abilities in our group and it was really great to have something that we could all use and together we made some really great music!!

I'm defiantly going to use them with my class!! :)

Enjoy the video,

Student Teacher

How ICT has changed my life!!

I'm currently sat in an ICT seminar and we've all been asked to write a blog on how ICT and technology has changed the way we go about our lives.


So, lets get down to business.....How has ICT/technology has changed my life?

I suppose the biggest change digital technology has made for me is email. It has made it so much easier to keep in touch with friends, especially when we all went our separate ways to go to uni. Snail mail takes so long these days that it is so much more convenient to quickly type up an email and send it (and with reciepts you know if it's arrived or not too!!). The last company I worked for relied so much on email that if there was ever a problem with our computers or the network everything just screeched to a halt!!



I had better give Facebook a mention! I probably wouldn't keep in touch with as many people if I didn't have Facebook. It has been a great way to get back in touch with friends from my childhood too. The only downside to facebook is that it is very easy to get a bit "obsessed"!! The event pages are great as it is much easier to organise activities with a lot of people via a single page.


Other than communication I really find it much easier to shop online than going into town. I guess the only down side is that you can't see if before you buy it, but generally the returns procedure is quite simple! It is really great for buying things that you wouldn't nessessarily find on the local high street for example websites like Not on the Highstreet and Etsy which have a range of weird and wonderful things you would never find at a shopping centre! http://www.notonthehighstreet.com/ and http://www.etsy.com/?ref=so_home


With regards to blogs, I have never really used them religiously before. I have read a few but this is the first one I have written. Cherry Menlove's blog is one of my favourites, it's great for cooking and craft ideas. http://www.cherrymenlove.com/


When it comes to university work, the internet has made it so much easier to do research and find sources of information. Rather than rummaging through hundreds of books in the library trying to find the one paragraph on the topic you're interested in, you can just stick a few words into Google and it's done!! Google is so popular that it has become a well used verb...to google!

This week I have probably used hundreds of different aspects of digital technology without really thinking about it: Email, iTunes, Google, Facebook, Online Shopping, Freeview TV, Mobile internet, YouTube....the list goes on. My favourite online facility is Google Calendars! My boyfriend and I both have separate calendars but can view each others as well by sharing them. This make it so much easier to plan events and to find each other! And now that we both have android phones...Google calendar is with us every second of the day!! Well Done Google! :)


Thinking about computers in general, we tend to get on OK but I find it extreamly frustrating when they have a mind of there own. My old laptop used to do some very odd things, without me even touching it half the time! Fortunately my new one seems to be better behaved but sometimes I do think that a pen and paper would be easier!


Other than the internet and computers, technology has made many day to day tasks much easier, quicker and, most of the time, more effective. For example, electric toothbrushes, solar powered calculators, television remotes and the more obvious, mobile phone and iPods. I don't remember the last day when I didn't use my mobile phone (...maybe at summer camp in the Lake District when there was no signal!). Technology has also made it more convenient to communicate and therefore I think more people tend to get in touch with each other these days. When I was at school, before mobiles and email were popular, I saw my friends but then on Friday, unless plans had been made, I wouldn't talk to them until the following Monday. It is however, a shame that people don't write letters anymore. I love getting post, but now it's mainly bills, junk or the odd postcard (its strange how people still send postcards!).


So, we've covered the fact that technology has made our lives easier, but I also think that it's made us much lazier too. From not having to go to Tesco to do food shopping, as we can now order online, to using escalators and lifts to get to the next floor, so we don't have to use the stairs. Technology has also made it very possible for us to never have to leave the house again!, and surely that is not a good thing.


I am sure that there are many other technological items and gadgets which I haven't mentioned here which impact on our lives massively but at the end of the day I really don't think you can ever replace the real thing....people will still read books even though kindles are available, people will still meet up with friends even though they have Skype and people will still write letter (even if it is just a postcard or a Christmas card) even though they have email.


Well I better get off to my next lecture!


Student Teacher

Mosquito Bites and Music Lessons

Well i'm back from a weekend of camping, covered in mosquito bites ready to get down to some work. I am extreamly grateful for the Monday Study Days otherwise I would never get my work done if I went away!


We didn't get a huge amount of written work to do this week, it's mainly reading, but for me its the reading that takes up all of my time (i'm a pretty slow reader!!)


I've got Music for the first time this week which i'm very much looking forward to and we have an interactive whiteboard practical too....which could be interesting!! :)


As I need to get on with work i'll keep this one short, but i'll pop back later in the week to tell you all about Music!! :)

Student Teacher

Science Lessons and Soggy Paper Towels...

This week seems to be flying by! I can't believe it's Thursday tomorrow!


We had our first Science seminar today and it was great! After a short lecture focused on getting us, in groups, to discuss why science is important we got onto an investigation of our own! We were tasked to investigate "Which brand of paper towel is the best?". In typical primary school fashion we all delved in, pouring water onto paper towels, squirting syringes and wandering around campus gathering customer feedback on a selection of kitchen towels!!


After all the fun was had...and cleared away...it was great to see what the different groups had done during their investigation. It was all designed for us to realise that even though you give the same instructions to 30 children, they will all approach a problem/investigation in a different way.


We have a lecture on our first masters credit assignment tomorrow which is going to be interesting!!


Well, have a good evening,


Take Care


Student Teacher

Test Marks, Action Plans and Cycling!

Well that was a long weekend! We had Friday and Monday off which was quite nice. I managed to get quite a lot of my work done on the Friday so I had Saturday and Sunday off and sorted out the last few bits yesterday. We were all really shocked by the amount of work we got this week. I'm hoping we don't get as much as that every week, i'm off camping next weekend and don't fancy doing English homework in the tent!! :)


I marked my Science, English and Maths tests on Friday. I did quite well in the Maths and Science (only missed the 75% mark in two sections) but English wasn't great at all. I don't think I got more than 50% on any section. But no worries, I have until March to get my marks up to 75% and we've been asked to make up "action plans" to fill in any gaps in our knowledge! My action plan consists of spelling tests, practice QTS tests and writing a terminology glossary! Fun, fun, fun!!


Right I'm going to try out cycling to uni today so wish me luck. The drivers around here aren't the most patient with cyclists!!!


Have a great day!! :)


Student Teacher

First Self Study Day

Well that's the end of my first "self study" day...and I've not stopped.


I knew we would have a lot of work but I never thought there would be so much in the first week. We have had homework from every lesson, usually more than one piece. It all ranges from post-session reading and reflective journal entries to the audit tests we have to do for English, Maths and Science. 


I'm giving myself tomorrow off to spend with my boyfriend and his family but i'll be back on it on Sunday, still have all my post-session reading to do for next week.


One down side to our course, at the moment, is that our timetables are still being finalised. For example our timetable for next week has only just been given to us. This makes it quite difficult to time manage as we don't know when any of our work has to be completed by. The timetables differ every week as we don't have all sessions every week, for example we had Maths and English last week and have Maths and Science next week.


Well I'll catch up with you all next week! Please let me know if you have any questions about Primary PGCE courses.


Student Teacher

Book Reccomendations

Primary Maths, English and Science Audit and Test (Achieving QTS)


These three books are all super and helped a huge amount during the Subject Knowledge Audits I had to do in my first week. The maths and english one will also help with QTS test revision too!

Try amazon market place for a cheaper price!

Student Teacher

1 Week down, about 35 to go!!

Well that's the first week done...and considering it was only a four day week, i'm shattered!!


We've had introduction lectures on this, that and the other. 
We've been thrown into audit tests for English, Maths and Science, with questions I couldn't read, never mind answer!!
We've left every seminar with twice as much work to do than we did when we entered the room.
And we've got a self study today, which we all thought would be a welcome day off....but no....my To Do list is growing by the second!!!


Next week looks like the same thing (timetable only arrived today). Even though we have Monday off, a jam packed four days will follow!


See you all next week!! :)


Student Teacher