Placement is still going well. I'm knackered and coulod really do with having even half a day this weekend when I didn't have to plan lessons, but that's just not going to happen. I've been up since 8 and have only planned Monday-Thursday's numeracy lessons (plus resources)... and then I realised I'm not actually teaching Monday as I'm in with year 6 for the morning! Needless to say, when I realised I almost said something very naughty, and I don't normally say or even think those kind of things...! Well, it had taken me an hour and a half to plan a lesson I'm not actually meant to be teaching. :(

But other than the constant planning, it's going well. My mentor observed me on Wednesday, the lesson went pretty well and I got a really good report. This week numeracy looks like being quite fun (shape) and I'm planning on taking the children shape-hunting round the school... if they behave well! My behavious management is coming on leaps and bounds. I wasn't tooo bad to start with (my work as a TA taught me a lot) but it became clear to me pretty quickly that if I insisted on a few things (i.e. silence when I'm speaking, or someone else is, all eyes on me when I'm talking etc) then things are a lot easier. The school I'm at is in a pretty rough area, but it's a good school, and the kids are generally not too badly behaved. But some of them do need reminded how to behave from time to time!

My uni tutor is observing me on Friday (numeracy) and my mentor on Wednesday (literacy... argh!) so it's a busy week. I really love teaching numeracy, but am slightly less confident about literacy. I have top set (of 5) for literacy, hence they are very bright! I'm a little worried they know more than me on some topics, as their english education is very very different to that which I received at school, even though I have 2 English A*s to my name.

I don't think many people of my generation could reel off a load of connectives/conjunctions, or split a sentence into its manin and subordinate clauses... but these 7 year olds can! They make me feel positively dim! But I'm managing to hold my own, and am swotting up on as much as my poor little tired out brain can take in.

So, that'll probably be my weblog entry for the week. I'm off to plan some of the dreaded literacy lessons...!