I'm feeling really positive at the moment, so I thought i'd record it for posterity.

I love teaching!

I've been playing the song which reminds me of my class after Friday (Kelly Clarkson "Since You've Been Gone" - 3 girls were playing it in the classroom at lunch whilst planning their 'warm up' for PE) today and everytime I hear it it makes me smile as I think of 'my' class. I'm really enjoying placement. I don't even feel 'blue' about going to work tomorrow.

That's a feeling I haven't felt for a few years before this year. :)

Had a really good week this week (not that the others have't been)! I'm feeling pretty confident about my ability as a teacher, and my uni tutor observed me yesterday and was really positive about my teaching. I'm enjoying being around the kids, and my mentor and i are getting on like a house on fire - she's very cool. keeping everythng crossed that i'll be as lucky with my mentors for my next 2 placements, although I know it's unlikely.

I've got loads of lessons to plan this weekend - teaching almost 100% of core subjects (not doing ICT this week as it's an assessment and levelling exercise) as well as RE (!!!) and music. RE should be interesting - I'm very un-religious, and don't know the first thing about Jesus/temptation/miracles etc! Think I'm going to try to get lots of drama etc into it...!

I'm starting to keep my eyes open for jobs, but very little so far.... not really surprising, as I think most will appear from Easter onwards. I'm hoping that a job comes up at my placement school, as I'm pretty sure I'd like to work there. There are a few negative things, but they are castly outweighed by the positives - friendly teachers, good 'vibe', children who try hard etc. It's in a rough area, but is one of the best schools in the city, because the teachers work so hard, hence the children do as well.

Anyway, just thought i'd check in. Best get going and plan some lessons! :)

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...!

I'm knackered!!

Planning lessons, making resources, evaluating lessons, making displays, being observed... and to top it all off, I have another cold (yes, THREE days after my last one went!) and am feeling rotten. Damn those children's germs! ;)

I had my first and penultimate formal observation by my University tutor yesterday, which seemed to go pretty well. Got some good feedback, and a couple of targets. She's back in next week for my final observation... which is rather surreal, considering I'll still have 3 weeks of placement to go!

My mentor completed my summative report over the weekend, and wrote some really nice and positive comments. Was very chuffed when I read it. She took it to the head for him to sign it, and had a 15 minutes talk about me (!) and apparently he's pleased with how things are going. :)

I'm in the middle of making maths resources for my observed lesson tomorrow, so I'd best get back to it. We're doing number bonds, and I'm fed up with just putting sums on the board, but there's not too much exciting stuff you can do with number bonds. so I've printed off lots of sums (challenges!) at 4 levels of difficulty (and colour), laminated them, and now I need to guillotine them up. Hopefully they'll go down ok tomorrow. I taught literacy and numeracy today, which were ok, though I was feeling terrible, so I think they could have been slightly better... I was just feeling like I was going to keel over most of the time! Ah well, things can only get better.

Overall, things are good. My 'gang' from uni are in regular contact, and it's good to see how everyone's doing. One of my friends has the placement from hell, but we're all trying to keep her positive, and convince her that she's going to find the next 2 placements a doddle after this, which I'm sure she will.

Right, I really am off now....

Placement is going well. :) I've taught a few lessons, and from Monday (the start of my 'teaching week 1' I'll be teaching almost all literacy and numeracy, all science, and some of ICT. The lessons I've done have gone pretty well, especially maths, which I really enjoy teaching. I have set 5 (our of 5) and they're absolute stars! They try so hard and are really keen to learn and try new things. They're a great bunch.

On Monday I'm being observed by my uni tutor... I'm a little nervous, but it should be ok. I wonder how the kids will react to having a random person in the room?

I've spent all day today planning lessons, and have managed to do 4 (and that's only the plans.... not even the resources needed for a few of them)! I have 4 more to do before Monday... really trying to get the planning done at the weekend so I can have a few evenings this week - last week I spent every evening planning until gone 11pm.

I'm knackered, I still ahven't shaken off the rotten cold I've had since 19th December... but I'm having a great time. :)

Over the days I've been in school I've taught several starters/group activities/guided reading sessions etc.... but today was my first real whole lesson!

And guess what? It went really really well. I did a maths lesson with my year 3 5th set (out of 5) on ordering numbers, and they picked it up so quickly. I was so pleased with how it went, particularly my time management, which is something I was worried about. My starter was 10 minutes, carpet activity 20, activity at tables 20, and plenary 10 - great! I desperately don't like using worksheets too much, so I planned their main activity to involve sorting out items from the argos catalogue (previously cut out, and the .99 bits crossed out... by me at 11.30pm last night!) and ordering them from smallest to largest, then sticking them on paper, and writing smallest at the left side, and largest at the right side. They behaved pretty well, and at one point I had 4 children lining up next to me just to ask if they could wash their fingers (in my school they use glue with their fingers.... don't ask....)!

I'm so happy that it went well. For a while I've been looking forward to getting my 'first lesson' out of the way, just to know I can do it. So now I've done it, it wasn't too bad.... so the world is my oyster!

Bring on maths tomorrow and science on Friday...!

In 2 days time I'll be in school! Yes, I got through 3 months of being pumped full of theory, and now it's time for me to try it all out in the big wide world of 'real school'. I'm really looking forward to it, although there are a couple of nerves in there too. It's only natural though, and my predominant feelings are of excitement and anticipation.

I've done a very sexy assessment file, with lots of pages all ready to be filled in in the first week, ready to impress my tutor on her first visit on.... 9th January! Yes, I'm being observed on my very first official day of teaching. Luckily I should be getting some teaching done in the first 4 days of 'serial placement' so it won't actually be my first lesson ever.

I haven't had much of a real rest over Christmas, as I've been ill with a cold and subsequent chest infection, so I hope I'm still physically ready for this term. it's gonna be a long one! 6 weeks in KS2, 3 weeks in Uni, then another 4 weeks in KS1.

Oh, and then the small matter of another 6,000 word assignment to write over Easter. Nice!

But all in all, the PGCE is going great, and I haven't regretted my decision to train as a teacher once. :)