Week 8

I feel as though I've actually made some progress this week.

In uni we've been looking at exam boards. We had to give presentations on WJEC and a local teacher visited to talk about AQA. Apparently they're the main exam boards for this area.  My school's chosen OCR.

We also looked at many many ways of teaching Cormier's Heroes. We had a play at some of the activities ourselves- it's nice to feel like you're in school again. University's been great this week.

For some reason I was dreading going to school this week. I still don't fully know why. I'm thinking it was a combination of not having been in school for so long because of half term, and of not really knowing what I'll be doing when I'm there full time, which is only about 2 weeks away- eek!

Thursday in school is my busy day. I have four lessons (just observations at the moment). Being busy really helped dispel the dread. I was also invited to attend parents' evening on Thursday night. This made for a very long day, and a very tired Lotte; however, parents' evening was a fantastic experience. I am very pleased that I've seen one.

Friday was the weekly meeting with my mentor. I used this opportunity to ask my mentor to check over my lesson plans, for the lessons I'll be teaching next Thursday and Friday. These lessons make up part of my first assignment, so I'm desperate to get them vaguely on track. Her feedback was positive. She said it was clear that I'd thought carefully about the activities and levelled them well for the ability of the group. BOOM! Massive confidence boost. I am well chuffed with that. It's nice to have some kind of reassurance that I'm  not completely missing the mark. I'm nervous about teaching them, but I have spent quite a bit of time with the class, so I know which characters to watch out for, which are shy, cheeky or general boundary pushers. Just got to get my resources ready.

I used the meeting to ask the questions which had been worrying me. Can't believe I worried and worried when it was just so simple to ask. Sometimes I think I try to do too much myself- and I have to tell myself that I'm not expected to be able to do everything right now. I've been training for less than two months. Anyway, now I'm far more relaxed about things, and have some idea as to which direction I'm going. I'm really looking forward to starting full time.

This week's top tip is:
  Do not be afraid to ask questions. If you're nervous about asking in front of everyone (for fear of looking stupid or something) just take someone to one side to ask, or wait until your mentor meeting.


And now, back to the assignment.

Week 7

This week has been half term but only for school.


Monday was an incredibly long lecture about bringing technology into the classroom. It was interesting and I've definitely taken away some ideas, but, we were stuck in a lecture theatre for 3hours, mostly listening. It wasn't particularly interactive and I know I shut-off at points. Some people from the course had a 3-hour round trip for this. I agree with them when they say a lot of this could've been done online. For all its faults though, I am genuinely more interested in the potential of technology in the classroom. I'm certainly going to talk to the ICT guy in school to see what opportunities I can take into my lessons.


Then I went home. Monday evening to Wednesday afternoon was my half term break. I couldn't completely switch off from the PGCE because I was very aware of what I still needed to do, but it was nice to be away.

I've quite enjoyed the train journeys of the past week though. I've used them to catch up with some reading. On the journey home I read Robert Cormier's Heroes. We need to read this for our English sessions next week. I'll probably discuss this in more detail in a later post. On the journey back I started Robert Swindells' Stone Cold, which I intend to finish today, and then crack on with Natalie Babbitt's Tuck Everlasting. These are both books that the kids at school are studying. I'm halfway through Stone Cold and it's not as bad as the first page suggested.

Once the above have been read I'll start Sophie Coulombeau's Rites. I won a copy of this book over at Jen Campbell's blog where Coulombeau was guest blogging, and I'm so eager to start reading it. I was excited by the potential this book has in the classroom, especially with regards to narrators. There will definitely be a review blog.

Thursday was a day working on our Method project. Researching and creating a thirty minute presentation on an exam board. We're presenting on Tuesday.

The first PGCE assignment is due in twenty days- eek.
The assignment is to plan six lessons, write a rationale and analysis of the six lessons and teach at least two of the lesson, then write an evaluation of the taught lessons. Easier said than done when, currently, we're only in school two days a week.


I created a medium-term plan and my lessons have been sitting there for a little while. Yesterday I sat down and applied some structure to them, using the University's lesson planning forms (which I'm not overly keen on). They're the first full lessons that I've actually planned, and it took me about 6 hours. An hour/lesson. Not bad for the first time, I think. It did feel slightly redundant as I know that, due to the dynamics of the class, I'll only have the opportunity to teach the two classes that are needed for my assessment. I only hope that I can leave my ideas with the school for future use/adaptation.


Tomorrow I'll be sitting down and writing a rationale; and attempting to link it to theory.




As I do all this, I have one eye on Ofqual saying teachers are cheats- way to boost morale- and the other eye on my department in school, who are jittery because Ofsted are overdue. I hope they show up soon so everyone can calm down.

I feel I've earnt my day off today, even if it is to catch up with the odd jobs that need doing around here. I'll enjoy reading though.

I'm still on the lookout for Teenage Fiction, so please keep your suggestions coming.