Serpentine Jarrahdale Grammar School Reflections May 7, 2013

Distributed Days

Tuesday 7th May 2013 This was my first day at SJGS and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I found the structure of the school day to be unusual as it was not a traditional Primary school layout. The school system was also very unusual as there was one teacher who taught Homeroom, Mathematics and Science, and another teacher who taught English and World Studies. When I found out about this structure, I thought it might be clumsy and that there may be an unsettled feeling in the classroom with the teacher changing so many times during the day. This would be compounded by the addition of specialist teachers for Sport, Art, Health and Cooking. However, even after only one day I could tell that the students had adapted to the continuous change and were in fact very settled with all of the teachers I observed them with. Normally on the first day of term students can be overexcited and not engaged in the lessons but I found the students to be focused, interested and eager to learn. As a whole the student in my 5.1 class were friendly, enthusiastic and excited about my being in their class. My first day at SJGS has been thrilling and it has ignited my thoughts as to different teaching styles, opportunities and topics. I am looking forward to getting to know the students and the teachers better over the next few weeks and experiencing all that SJGS has to offer.

Monday 12th May 2013 I thought that today went well and this included my first opportunity to teach a lesson at SJGS. My lesson was the first of the day and I was nervous as I didnt know the students particularly well yet and the topic was new to me and to the students. As I was going through the lesson, I felt as though it was moving at a good pace and that the students were engaged in the topic. However I think that the students needed to spend more time on the worksheet I gave them. I also felt that the students required clarification on where to draw the vertex on the diagrams. There were some students who

Serpentine Jarrahdale Grammar School Reflections May 7, 2013 finished the worksheet much faster than I had anticipated they would. For the next lesson I will need to make sure that I have an activity prepared for these students to do if they complete work early. When I was asking questions or for volunteers, I found the same students to be putting their hands up. In future I need to ensure that I call more equally on all of the students and encourage quieter students to speak up and have something to say. The rest of the day went well and I enjoyed observing the Science lesson. As todays topic was new to the students I found it enjoyable and educational to watch the students be enticed and engaged in the topic. The enthusiasm of the teacher was infectious. All of the students, even the quiet ones, were offering suggestions and stories based on the topic. Today I also observed my first ICT lesson. I havent had the opportunity previously to observe an ICT lesson and I was unsure of the practicalities. In the lesson I found that the students were far more experienced in computers and technology than I had thought they would be.

Tuesday 13th May 2013 Today I was more comfortable in the school as I was aware of the structure of the day and I had experienced all of the classes before so I knew what to expect. I feel as though the day went smoothly and I am beginning to form more of a rapport with the students in the classroom. Interacting with other teachers was also more comfortable and I thought it was excellent to be able to hear the thoughts of other teachers. Today included my first experience of teaching English at SJGS. The lesson was enjoyable to teach and I thought that the students were engaged. The lesson was introducing the novel Charlottes Web for the students and creating excitement within them in order engage them in the novel for future lessons. I thought the lesson went well and I was pleased to see that the students had ideas they wanted to share and they wanted to read the novel to find out if their predictions were correct. My main issue with the lesson was that I didnt seem to be able to control the number of questions the students had or the number of stories they wanted to share with me. In my feedback, mu mentor suggested giving the students a limit on the number of questions

Serpentine Jarrahdale Grammar School Reflections May 7, 2013 or stories and ensuring they stick to it. By doing this the lesson would have a greater focus on hopefully the students would all find the lesson more interesting.

Monday 20th May 2013 Today I taught two lessons, Mathematics and World Studies. The Mathematics lesson was my second lesson on angles and I felt more comfortable than I did the last time. However, I had to adjust my planned lesson, as the teacher knew that the students would not be able to complete part of the lesson. I was going to ask the students to measure a reflex angle but it was felt that the students would near more experience measuring acute and obtuse angles before moving onto reflex angles where they need ot be able to measure in two parts. Overall I thought the lesson was successful and I was pleased with the outcome. I believe all of the students were comfortable completing the task had set them and I was happy to see that all of the students worked continuously and there were no students who didnt follow the structure of the lesson, or follow what I was saying. My reflection of the last Mathematics lesson was that I needed to be clearer in my instructions and ensure all of the students knew what they needed to complete in the lesson. My first World Studies lesson today and I felt as though I was not as comfortable during this lesson as I was in the Mathematics lesson. I had not conducted a lesson including computer research before and this was a new experience for me. I felt as though the students were excited about the lesson and they were keen to participate. However, I felt at times as though their excitement overwhelmed the normal focus of the lesson. For the next lesson I will be looking to implement a more effective way of gaining the students attention and keeping them focused on my instructions. I will need to research more effective ways. I believe that a more effective strategy will also help the lesson to flow more smoothly. Today I also got to interact with some of the other students in the Primary school during duties and I felt it was a great way of making me feel more

Serpentine Jarrahdale Grammar School Reflections May 7, 2013 comfortable in the area. It was also interesting to speak with the other students and find out some of their interests.

Tuesday 21st May 2013 Today I taught a Science and an English lesson. I had an interesting day but I felt as though I could have done better in todays lessons. The Science lesson today was very heavy and although I thought the lesson would be interesting for the students, when I implemented the lesson, I felt as though the students were not as engaged in the lesson as they could be. There was a large amount of writing and copying from the board. The students seemed to interested in the topic as a whole, but the lesson tended to be a little dry for them. My teacher suggested incorporating interesting videos into the lesson so that the students could see what I was talking about, rather than just having to visualize it. This is something that I will endeavor to add into the lesson should I take a similar lesson again. During the English lesson today, I thought the lesson was going well. All of the students were engaged and reading and they seemed to be excited about the novel. Unfortunately when I heard the feedback from my mentor I was initially disappointed with how the lesson had gone. Upon further reflection I understand why the lesson had not been successful. The feature of the lesson was successful and engaging but the delivery was not as clear as it could have been and I had some difficulties with my classroom management strategies and control while monitoring all of the students. Tonight I went to parent teacher conferences where I was able to observe several teachers interacting with parents and giving feedback on students progress. I found the experience enlightening and a positive experience as next year I will be in the position of holding these conferences myself and it was comforting to be able to see how it should be handled. It was also fascinating to see the different kinds of parents there are. Some parents are extremely enthusiastic and want to get involved in the education of their children while others are more inclined to be focused on the feedback from the teachers.

Serpentine Jarrahdale Grammar School Reflections May 7, 2013 Week One Monday 27th to Friday 31st May 2013 I thoroughly enjoyed my first full week at SJGS. I feel as though I have settled into SJGS more this week and I am more comfortable in the surroundings. I also feel as though there has been an improvement in my general confidence. I believe all of my lessons this week went well and I am pleased with the progress I am making. My greatest success this week would have to be my Mathematics lesson where I introduced the concept of fractions and the student undertook a Skittles Fractions activity. All of the students were engaged and enthusiastic about the lesson and at the end, all of the students could answer my simple questions about fractions. Most of the students were so enthused by the lesson they move through the work quickly and went on to early finishers work. Many of the students also completed their worksheets before the end of the lesson those who did not, were to complete it for homework. Another success this week was the Science lesson where the students began to make LapBooks and foldables to display information they research about a chosen desert animal. This lesson was hands on and engaging for the students. It was also more of an open forum where the students were able to discuss the animals they were thinking of researching. I felt this lesson was enjoyable for both the students and me.

Week Two Tuesday 3rd to Friday 7th June 2013 My second full week at SJGS went well. I feel as though I have learnt more this week than I have before. Not all of my lessons were successful but I took a risk with some of the learning activities and I have learnt from the areas that need improving. My Mathematics lesson this week was not a great success as I had pitched the work at too high a level. If I had given the students concrete materials to work with in addition to the Fractions Cards I gave them, then the lesson may have been more appropriate for the students. They needed to have a

Serpentine Jarrahdale Grammar School Reflections May 7, 2013 concrete material to look at rather than have to visualize the fractions in their minds. However, I still feel as though the activity is one that could be used in the future if it is appropriately adapted. The experience with taking a risk in my lessons for both Mathematics and World Studies has taught me a lot about myself and about the students I am teaching. When the Mathematics lesson was not a success I was able to use the information I did get from the lesson to adapt a lesson plan for the next day that had a better focus and was more accurately aimed at the students learning level.

Week Three Monday 10th to Friday 14th June 2013 This week I felt as though I was more prepared and more organized for the week ahead. For the planning aspect of this week I moved across to working with daily workpads. The transition was difficult as I still felt as though I needed to keep track of the timings of the lesson. The workpads didnt give me the opportunity to do this. Once I was able to get the hang of this, I felt that the time I saved over the planning, was huge and yet I still had enough information in the workpad to follow the lesson sequence I had set out. I struggled slightly with the planning of the lessons this week as I was trying to complete the programming for World Studies and Science. The planning documents were difficult but I tried to add in as many creative lesson ideas as possible. The good thing about these planning documents was that I knew a lot more about the students and their strengths and weaknesses than I did when I completed the Literacy and Mathematics document. In terms of the actual lessons this week, I felt comfortable in the classroom and I was at ease with the students. The Mathematics lesson this week I came up with the ideas of Popsicle Fractions. The idea of this was excellent and the activity was well set up. However, of all of the groups, only one group was able to complete the task in the way I had envisioned and set out. In retrospect I think the way I explained the activity was more of the issue than the activity itself. By this I mean that the instructions could have been clearer

Serpentine Jarrahdale Grammar School Reflections May 7, 2013 and next time I would probably model the activity for the students so that they could see all of the steps they need to take themselves.

Week Four Monday 17th to Friday 21st June 2013 This week started out as a great week for me. I was much more organized and I planned to be more creative in the lessons I was teaching. This week my teaching load increased dramatically and in addition to teaching 5.1, I was also taking the homeroom lessons for 6.2. The homeroom lessons were a new experience for me and it was more difficult for me to get them under control. I was note firm enough with the students in the beginning and as such, the students were able to push the boundaries further. On Friday of this week, I also had the 5.2 class in homeroom with the 6.2 class. This made 40 students for me to take charge of. This was an excitable class as the students were practicing a song and dance routine for their performance night. I found this homeroom more challenging than any other I have undertaken, as the sheer number of students and the level of activity were slightly overwhelming in the beginning. By the end of the homeroom lesson, I was still not completely comfortable in the situation but I could not find the exact reason why I was not comfortable. I took on an addition health lesson this week, which I was a great experience. The students were not used to having me as a Health teacher and I was pretty firm in getting them under control and in the learning zone. I took them outside for the lesson and the students had fun. The learning for this lesson may have been limited by the fact that the students were already well versed in the topic and it was more of a refresher, or revision lesson for them. The increase in teaching load for the week was something I was excited about and I was not particularly daunted by the increase. I felt as though I was prepared and organized for most of the week. Where I felt I was lacking was in Mathematics. I felt as though the students were consistently pushing themselves further ahead than I was expecting. I feel as though I was not preparing far enough in advance as I was constantly having to track where the students were up to at the end of each lesson and go from there. Next week I

Serpentine Jarrahdale Grammar School Reflections May 7, 2013 hope that, because I am more familiar now with the speed at which the students as excelling, I will be able to plan further ahead. I took a risk with the final Mathematics lesson of the week and I decided to work with Mathematics learning stations. I was very nervous about this lesson as the students have not worked with stations before and they were not familiar with the processes of keeping the stations rotating etc. However, the lesson overall was more successful than I expected it to be. I found one of the activities to be unsuccessful and as such, I have revised the activity for the next lesson. I changed up the spelling lesson for this week after a discussion with Holly where we clarified that it was acceptable for me to change the structure of the spelling lesson and to put my own unique stamp on it. The lesson was successful and it went smoothly and it is therefore a lesson structure I will keep. The World Studies lesson on Friday of this week was not a good lesson for me. The structure of the lesson was good and the learning from the activity was high. I also felt as thought the students were excited about the lesson and enthusiastic for the learning aspect. There was an incident in the class this lesson where two of the boys became physical with each other and it became a dangerous situation. I was speaking with other students at the time and I did not see the incident until Holly addressed it. This incident has deeply shaken my confidence in my ability to manage the class. I know that in the future I have to be firmer with the students and take on the advice of my mentor teachers to vary the tone of my voice more in the lesson. Behaviour management is becoming an issue for me when I have never had this issue before with any class. I think that I have to be extremely firm with the students next week and be more particular or consistent with the negative behaviours I pick up on the classroom. Overall I think this week went well but I was disappointed with the final day as I it has shaken my confidence. I would hope that next week I can be stronger and more firm with the students in terms of behaviour management. In terms of planning etc., I hope that next week I can be more on top of the Mathematics lesson planning.