First two days of school based learning
Highlights:
Being told that the school sees us as part of the staff. i think thats really cool and will help with my confidence to do things and speak up when i have questions, it will also help with respect from the students.
I enjoyed walking around the school in the lunch time and just observing what goes on in the playground, it was quite stereotypical with boys all playing games on the courts and ball games on the field, with girls huddled in the shade in small groups close to the class rooms doing colouring competitions. I would like to get a few of the girls out and playing so games or something on more of my school based learning days.
being in the classroom for both days and just observing and helping with things. it actually blew my mind with how much you have to fit into one day and how much teaching it actually takes for kids to listen. the simplest things take so long. i have a lot of learning and hard work to do i think.
Challenges:
the kids made me feel nervous at times when they asked questions that i didn't know the answers too, i hope in time i will know how to respond. I felt nervous when i had a group of 8 reading them a book, i need to build confidence with the kids. I think i will be better when i am by myself in a class observing as i won't feel like i need to impress my other candidate teacher (who is very experienced and great with kids. i think he will be great candidate teacher to bounce ideas off and help grow me as a teacher too)
as a teacher- getting the class to all do what you want them to do is going to be a huge challenge. just holding the control and giving clear instructions and following up what needs to be done.
at this stage i think everything is going to be a challenge. i don't thing anything is going to be easy. i can just hope that i get feedback along the way to help me grow confidence and give me areas to work on.
Learn:
How to be clam and collective! when half the class has finished a task make sure you have a box of things or a list of activities they can carry on with! not everyone in the class is at the same level and you need to allow for that in your teaching! give time limits and count down when an instruction is given! even something as simple as passing books forward is the biggest mission and a disruption. its hard to keep the whole class focused, although they all seemed to be learning a lot of focus seemed to wonder. i had one student that really struggled to write 3 sentences for her goals, i really had to push her to write, eventually she got there, last one in the class to finish. when we did art in the afternoon the same student was really good at following instruction and had her pencil drawing finished within mins. i discussed this with the other candidate teacher and he said she must be creative and we could of said to her the sooner you get your goals done you can have a bit of creative time. we made of seen her do her writing faster.
I really enjoyed being amongst it at the school and can't wait till next week and be in another class room.
