A good practice...

Right then, had the first two weeks  in classroom, I have been introduced to the course and the expectations of me as a student teacher. When doing my blog yesterday I did not write about the sessions I had yesterday, which so far I must say were very interesting.

Sessions started at 9am and ended around 4 pm.

Yesterday's morning session got off to a good start with an activity to reflect on how I would like to be perceived as a teacher. The activity required me to identify an item, object, animal or material, draw it and discuss my drawing with a peer in my group.  I must say the activity was really good apart from the idea of drawing, I am not a really good drawer. Therefore for this activity I ended up drawing a sunshine, which actually turned out really well, because the idea was to try and explain how I would like to be perceived as a teacher.

 



Shining example to my students!

Therefore this meant that as a teacher I would like my students to perceive me as a shining example, someone they can always look up to ( a role model).  Also adding to my drawing I would like to be perceived as someone who is inspirational, caring, supportive, organised, hard working, and someone who is fair.  It was good to see that as a group we are already comfortable to share our thoughts and opinions with each other. Therefore it was a fantastic activity used to get to know everyone in a group better.

 

The module we are currently doing is called 'Preparing to Teach in the Learning and Skills Sector (PTLLS), which is basically going to inform us how to keep our teaching practice professional and give us the skills needed in teaching such as how to plan, observe and asses learners.

 

During the morning session, reflection and self-evaluation were introduced to us.  This was not was not something new to me as I have learnt about it in my previous courses. However I must admit I have never really applied it effectively. Therefore in this session, I was reminded  how important it is to re-look my work.  Thinking about it, reflective practice is vital in just about anything I want to do well.   Therefore I came to a occlusion that reflection is an opportunity to look over what I have done and see what needs to be improved.  However  it is not only supposed to look at what worked well but also to make a record of what did not go well and look for ways to improve my practice.  Consequently in learning all these, our tutor introduced Kolb's Learning Cycle, which again was not all news to me as I have come across it many time:

 



Kolb's Learning cycle

Whilst discussing about Kolb's cycle, we were introduced to a good model to refer when reflecting called the experiential learning cycle, which our tutor did put simply as:

• Do
• Review
• Develop and implement ideas fro improvement

From this I gathered that as a student training to be a teacher, I need to constantly think about what I do and review my past performance so that I am clear about my own practice. This session was basically about the  competence need to reflect and evaluate my own practice.   Reflecting on my practice is a tool for self-evaluation which will enable me to develop and learning from assessing my own performance.  This will particularly be important when I come to start my teaching placement, which is in few weeks. One thing that I will definitely need once I start teaching is feedback from my students, my mentor and my tutor.  My tutor mentioned that we need to be thinking of ways that we will use to collect feedback from our students in placements. Myself I really like the idea of post notes, which students will use to write their thoughts about my lesson.  It is scary than it sounds, one of the things that I do not like is feedback, I always feel nervous about it but I guess I will have to get used to it because at the end of the day I need to know what is needed to improve my teaching methods.

 

 

The afternoon session was mainly based on what it makes a good session.  again, in this session we started with an icebreaker.  The activity was to create a bridge strong enough to hold a cup of coffee, Luckily my group won! The group was also tasked to discuss what makes a good session and what it means to be professional or unprofessional. In our group, we though that the most important thing that makes a good session is a 'good teacher'.  This is because a good teacher will have all the qualities needed to create  a good session, these includes to be organised, knowledgeable, approachable,  supportive, use appropriate resources, manage time well and reflect on the lesson. We also came up with differ ideas about how will a good session look like, we felt that a good session will be fun, interactive, organised, group activities, etc.  Furthermore, one of the things which came up when discussing about being professional and unprofessional was dress code, this is always a difficult one, wherever your professional is, people will always expect you to 'look the part'.  Therefore to me this means that I need to dress appropriately or simply ' look the part'. This will be vital especially when I start going into placement.  Additionally, one thing that got me thinking was knowing my stuff, basically ' be knowledgeable about my subject area.  This got me thinking really hard because if I am going to teach students about positive relationships for example, I really need to know the ins and outs of the Unit.  This is because once I stand there teaching, I do not want to look like someone who did not do their homework properly.

 

When doing these activities I found asking myself ' what type of a teacher do I want to be?'. whilst it was a strange experience, I felt the above did pretty much sum me up, but how does that transfer across into what my principles would be a s a teacher?  I am open to suggestion at this point, as I fell it is hard to define who I am when I a still trying to figure out and learn what the world of teaching is all about!

 

 

The day ended with me meeting my placement mentor.  I came out of my last session and rushed to the Further Education (F.E) department where my placement will take place. My placement is going to be on Childhood studies BTEC level 3 and entry level.  For some reason I have ended up with two different groups t teach.  This however is an opportunity for me to gain different experiences.  So when I went in, I met with my mentor, she was so helpful and willingly explained  to me all about the Unit I will be working on. After meeting with my mentor, I went on to meet an entry level tutor who I am going to be working with. She was also very supportive. I must admit both tutor seemed really good and I ma very much looking forward to working with both of them.  I hope I will learn so much from both of them.

 

Finally, Just like I said before, this year is definitely going to turn me into a busy bee.  Things are starting to get pretty serious, fro example I have already got things to keep me busy this week. Here is my to do list:

 

• 5oo words essay on role and responsibilities of a teacher ( I have already made a start on this)
• 2 observations of an experienced teacher ( I have already managed to arranged some dates to do this)
• Reading list ( recommended by my tutor): Geoff Petty (2004), Teaching Today and Jocelyn Robson (2006), Teacher professionalism in further and higher education
• Find out more about John Bayley and Stephen Brookfield

A tip to remember: Do, Review and Develop ideas and implement to improve

 

More to come soon..

 

Emmakulatha :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A new beginning!

The moment I was waiting is finally here..  

So after a long break of  nearly eight weeks I am once again a student only this time I am a PGCE student  in training to become a college teacher. Two weeks ago I started my  Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) in lifelong learning.  I am so excited about this course, however, obviously what I have at the moment is just the right amount of nervousness and apprehension about this year and what it will eventually lead to, a career in teaching, but other than that I honestly cannot wait to just get on with it. I know I am too late starting this dairy but I have decided to keep a dairy for the whole year for the following important reasons:

 

·         It will give me something to look back on and evaluate my progress, strengths and weaknesses over the year. My tutors mentioned the idea of keeping a diary which got me thinking, why not share it?

·         I hope that it might give future PGCE students a realistic idea about course content, placements, time management and the highs and lows which are inevitable over the course.

·         I’d like it to inspire those who think they have what it takes to be a teacher to put themselves out there and apply for courses.

·         I endeavour to keep this diary honest, positive and entertaining and will (time permitting) post every week.

Because I have missed two weeks already, I will Just briefly  talk about what happened over the past two weeks (Week 1&2 : From 16/09/-27/09/2013).

The past two weeks has mainly been based on the course and module inductions, which so far have been very inspiring and exciting. I was  also given a timetable which shows I will be in university on Mondays 9am-12pm and Fridays 9am- 4pm.  Basically I will have two days for my placement and  1 day a week for independent study. My placement days are Wednesdays and Thursdays. So this means that I will have Tuesdays for my independent studies, assignments, etc.



Each different colour block indicate a different module

I have been given so much information, which all seem rather daunting at the moment, but each tutor has reminded us that it is all achievable and the course is structured in a way to make achieving the outcomes doable. I have also been given a brief idea to each modules content and how and when they will be assessed. I have to admit that all my tutors are very supportive.

Also during these past two weeks I was introduced to one of the modules: PTLLS( preparing to teach in the learning and skills sector), ILPs  and Road Map. The following were covered in the sessions:

·         Reflective practice and evaluation my teaching

·         Professional values and practice

·         Equality and Diversity, safeguarding and observation paperwork

To be honest the past two have been very relaxed and less busier , however I have no doubt I am going to be far busier  especially when I start my placement, which is next week, I shall talk more about that next week.  All in all the past two weeks have been good, I have had the opportunity to talk to other members of the course both about the course and socially during breaks, I already know that they are a lovely bunch of people and I am looking forward to getting to know and working with them more as the year goes on.

More to come...

Emmakulatha :)