Tutor and mentor observation

After the visit please attach your reflections on the comments made by the observer. Please consider the following:

How do you feel the session went?
What are your views about the strengths identified?
What are your thoughts about the development points?
What have you learned as a result of the observations?
How do you intend to change your approach in future lessons?

Please comment on the impact your teaching has had on your learners. You may refer to further activities planned for them, or how this session builds on previous teaching.

09/05/14
As this was a joint observation, which consisted of my mentor and my tutor together. My mentor commented on the good use of support I provided to learners as it was a workshop based session, she commented how the lesson was very productive and students were very engaged and participated well.

Following my observation, I felt although this lesson went really well, I was pleased with the feedback given and I have from previous observations from my mentor and from my tutor tried to implement all those targets and successfully combat those. Those issues such as classroom management I have addressed such as classroom layout plans, therefore I had table organised into blocks so learners can work in groups.
However for the future, as a development target I will use appropriate lesson plans, as I had used a normal one when there is a lesson plan available for group activity. Which in essence affected the way I planned and devised the aims and objectives for the particular lesson. To my mistake I devised the aims and objects very basically as I previously knew what to expect and students knew what to expect from a workshop.
A workshop in Health and Social Care especially in my lesson, it consists of a number of things in which learners can advance such a one to one tutorial in which feedback is given, students work will be assessed formally and graded, record keeping, peer support was present, group work, and individual study was present. In addition to me observing what was going on in the class and making sure all students were on track and was aided. The use of my materials to enhance those learners who prefer the learning styles which involves visua;l , audio, and kinaesthetic VAK ,promotes learning and inclusion.

My teaching practice identified by Education Scotland (2014), states that my types of delivery caters for all learner types and all students are expected to take part in activities and contribute. Engagement in lessons will naturally evolve and students will engage in lesson activities knowing that the teaching method is learner centred, this idea is favoured by Elizabeth A. ET all (2003). Visual learners will be included through reading, researching and presenting information through presentations and video news clips, audio learners will be included through class discussions and communications, kinaesthetic learners will benefit as they will be writing and researching. This will reinforce learning, as learners will use and will be encouraged to use their preferred way of learning. This is indicated by Cook (1964) as he mentions the potential effectiveness of right use of methods to reduce barriers to learning. Students using a variety of learning methods will reinforce information into their memory and will be easier to recall.

Furthermore, Socratic questioning was used in my delivery style, which was commented by my tutor, there are benefits to this. One being I enabled the learners to think, rather than providing students with the answers. This involves deeper thinking and encourages students to take reasonability to answer their own questions. The tutor mentioned following my observation I gave clear guidance on areas students struggled, this lesson enabled me to combat areas in which students found difficult and support students to progress and through Socratic questioning which enabled deeper thinking. The tutor also commented on my positive language and praises I gave to learners during the session, which encouraged learners to continue with their work, in essence being motivational to progress which has continued since my last observation.

However, if I was to do this lesson again, I would definitely use the appropriate lesson plan in order to plan correctly for lesson and for other collages, whether it be a mentor, tutor or anyone else in my department was to use my lesson plan it would be ideal to have the one fit for purpose for group activity.

References
Cook, H, R (1964) The Effects on Learning of Structural Drills in Spanish Broadcast via high frequency AM radio. NDEA Title VII Project No. 1018. Bloomington: Indiana University

Cook, S, A. (2001). Unrolling roles in techno-pedagogy: Toward collaboration in traditional college settings. Innovative Higher Education, 26(2), 121-139.
Education Scotland, (2014) Inclusion and Equality, [online] Available at: , [Accessed 15/04/14].

Elizabeth A. Linnenbrink and Paul R. Pintrich (2003), The Role OF Self-Efficacy Beliefs in Student Engagement and Learning in The Classroom, USA: Taylor and Francis

Teaching interview

It’s that time of year, were all PGCE students will inevitably be looking for employment. We’ll done for getting this far into your PGCE I know it is a stressful time for all. But hopefully the tip I provide here are very helpful in securing a job as these tips are grounded well and have been advised by the TES website which I have provided the link to below, and to browse if there are other tips you are in need of.

4 tips to success.

1) Research the school thoroughly. You do not want to turn up to a interview knowing nothing about their institute, so it may be good to look at their recent inspection by ofsted.

2) Keep bright and enthusiastic – make sure you stay focused and you let that great teacher about you to shine as I know it is a nerve wracking time.

3) Do not feel the need to ask questions in a tour or group interview – from my own personal experience I did panic after the group tour as everyone was doing the talking, where as I didn’t know what to ask, however to put you at ease if you follow tip 1 then this section should come at ease. But whatever you do, remember you do not need to feel like you have to ask any questions , just be comfortable and JUST BE YOURSELF!

4) Finally, a good tip for answering interview questions is to make sure answers follow a specefic pattern (a ripple effect, like when you throw a pebble into water), an example to answering a question such as Behaviour Management, or “what makes you a good teacher” You could answer in the following way;

Me (teacher) ; The pupils -&; The school -&; The community

So for example: “What makes you a good teacher”

Me- planning, preparation, assessment, delivery (etc. there is loads more but it’s all about you!)

The pupils- mixture of formative and summative assessment, clear expectations, positive atmosphere and feedback, etc.

The school- professional development (if you participated or delivered some yourself) sharing resources, observing others, self evaluation of teaching, not afraid to ask experienced teachers advice, working with other departments, etc.

The community – parents (how you keep in contact with them), charity links, extra-curricular activities, etc.

I hope these 4 tips will help you readers in securing your future job, I have provided the TES website link below if you would like some further advice on teacher interviews.

Good luck

Reference and further reading:

http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storyCode=6037988

Reflection

Tutorial

This blog is on my recent tutorial I had with my PGCE tutor, it wasn’t a great tutorial to be totally honest, I received my grade for my professional essay. To say the least I was not happy with the grade I received for it.

To my mistake what I have found experienced with this PGCE course is that everything you have learnt over your past three years or so on your degree does not and will not apply onto this course. That was my mistake, especially when I adopted a specific learning style and a specific way of writing assignments and using that very same technique in my current course.

To tell you a bit about my self, at university I studied Sociology as a BA, consequently my brain was wired to use many theorists and be very critical and evaluative all of which consisted of old historical theoretical information. Hence, why my recent feedback was not so great. I was told that my professionalism essay did not provide no up to date laws and regulations in regards to the educational system. As I focused my essay predominantly around former historical information, laws and theories that are pretty much out dated and no longer applicable.

Therefore, for the future to other PGCE students and a note to my self, I must provide recent, relevant; and dated facts, figures and information especially if the topic is regarding education, as everything in the educational system is always revisited and revised regularly.

University of Hull Conference 2014

Yesterday, Saturday 17th May 2014 I attended a conference in Hull University with tutors, delegates, professionals , guest speakers; and with my PGCE peers. The day consisted of guest speakers and PGCE teacher trainees presenting their seminar paper. The seminar presentation was regarding how we deliver our innovative and creative practice in our subject specialism area.

I had an extremely enjoyable, productive and active teaching and learning experience, this day by far will be a highly memorable experience for me I took a lot away from this day.

The day consisted of a welcome talk by Dr Carol Azumah Dennis, which then followed onto a guest speak conducted by Dr Sai Loo on the topic ‘knowledge and applying the teaching contexts and opportunities for excellence in teaching and learning’, then we went onto refreshments as we spent that time looking at posters which were created by other subject specialist on the day. The day was relaxed and very informative, as the second guest speaker was presented by Trevor Gordon, which informed us all on ‘Excellence,e/quality and diversity’ . After lunch we all went into our pre-organised groups to present our own seminar presentation of our innovative and creative practice in our specifics subject specialist area.

Guest speak conducted by Trevor Gordon, had enlightened me with his lecture and his delivery technique. His knowledge, passion and his sincerity really had me star stuck even though I had not met him prior to this event. Not ashamed to admit, that I was not alone, he successfully spell bounded everyone from the looks and sounds of it, every individual in that lecture theatre was even in its minimalistic form inspired by his experience to have a positive change on the world, not just accept it but to make a positive change for everyone for the better.

He delivered the importance of laws which teachers and society must comply with, what are these laws ? The ones we all are protected by, yes you guessed it ! The Human Rights Act 2010. Not what he taught us was of anything new, it was a topic that I’m pretty sure everyone gets bored of as it is something that is quite repetitive especially working in such a diverse environment. Yet, merely what we all learnt was the way he delivered a lecture/lesson through his enthusiasm, his passion, his technique; and how he successfully made a dull subject interesting, even more so whilst having previous knowledge of it.

*Hats off for Trevor Gordon*

The seminar papers we all presented to our mini groups were all very interesting, it was great to see how other professionals in our field teach their subject differently, the day provided you with an opportunity to try experiment these different techniques and adapt into your own lessons as we all shared and promoted our innovative teaching practice.

Overall, the professional practice conference was a successful day in which professionals collaborated to promote learning as we share good practice which is always favoured in the teaching and learning environment. The innovative and creative teaching practice presented by other PGCE subject specialist has provided me with the the opportunity to try implement and incorporate it into my own delivery.

Teachers as push overs?

Hi to all my readers,

I have finally completed my professionalism essay which has been signed, sealed and delivered. I feel as though a load has been taken off my shoulders pheeeewwww! During my planning of the essay I have found a few links and articles that have interested me along the way, one of which was published by the Guardian, which I must warn is a provocative read, especially for someone like me ‘a trainee teacher’. I would like to note this article does refer to school teachers, although us teachers are still the same regardless . This article still applies to those who work in Further Education in this sense.

I would like to quote this from the article “Don’t teachers have the same level of professional expertise as doctors and lawyers?”

Here is David Cameron’s policy. “He said he wanted to give schools “more independence” and that by becoming academies they would have the freedoms to “improve standards the way they see fit”. He also insisted, quite rightly, that “every child is different, with different interests and different talents”.”

Yes! I agree to this and Cameron is going in the right direction. Yet he still interferes with the teaching method and the professional autonomy of teachers. Why is it that they (Government) can interfere with our profession, yet they stay silent for Doctors and Lawyers.

I’ll let you read on.

The link is below.

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2011/sep/19/ebacc-schools-teachers-independent-professional”> . a href=”http://www.theguardian.com/education/2011/sep/19/ebacc-schools-teachers-independent-professional”>http://www.theguardian.com/education/2011/sep/19/ebacc-schools-teachers-independent-professional