More and more paperwork

It's been a while again so thought it was about time I posted.

My first year of teaching hasn't been too bad so far although it has had its moments.

I can't believe the amount of paperwork that has to be done. Last year on placements I didn't realise there was as much because the class teacher done most of it but now that it is my responsibility it's hard getting on top of it.

Discipline within my classes has probably been the hardest thing to cope with but slowly i'm getting there with it. I think my classes are realising where the line is and the consequences if they cross it. The only problem is the kids who insist on trying to push things a bit.

I've not used much ICT yet though that's slowly starting to change.

I used my powerpoint games for revision for tests with each class but was advised by my PT not to use them. These games will come back though because I know kids like them and they do work.

I've only just got the smart board working in one of my classes on Tuesday and discovered to access the internet in that class I have to turn on the apple server thing, can't remember it's proper name. Now that the smart board is working it should make like a lot easier.

I have shown my first year classes the tv show Brainiac because a clip from it tied in with what they were doing and that was fantastic. The kids loved watching it and it allows them to enjoy science in a differnet way.

I think that's about it for the moment there's not really been that much so far so till next time.

Week 1 Completed

Well that's week 1 of teaching over with and it's been full of ups and downs.

It's been so much fun knowing I don't have to keep checking with the class teacher what to do with the class since i'm the class teacher but at the same time it's a bit worrying because if they lag too far behind in the work but as long as I keep checking with other teachers what stage they are up to then I shouldn't have too many difficulties.

Ok so here's the summary of my classes.

1st year - they are still angels for the time being. They are quite enthusiastic about science and were really funny when they were trying to light the bunsen burners.

2nd year - I have 3 classes of them luckily all doing the same topic the only problem is they are quite talkative and I have had to give out punishment exercises and had all 3 classes sitting copying out a book in silence for 5 minutes to make them realise they can't carry on in my class. I think i'm going to have to look out my Behaviour Management APD stuff to check what stategies I should try using.

3rd year - So far I don't really have much to say about them.

4th year - I can't get them to the same stage in their booklets. They done some of the worksheets before the summer with the problem being now they are all at different stages and no matter what I do I can't get them to the same stage.

Registration - It must be the most hectic 10 minutes of my day with doing the register, reading out the buletin, handing out letters, dealing with absence letters and reply slips and anything else needing done. I need another pair of hands for this period.

I'm starting to rant now so i'll stop typing though before I do I will say I am enjoying teaching so far :D

Probation has started

Teaching properly has begun!

The Inset days were really useful although I could have been doing with another few days to get myself organised. There were so many questions that hadn't been answered by Friday afternoon.

Yesterday was a rather eventful day to say the least. Registration was a whole new experience for me since i've never been in a registration class since I was at school. There were about a million letters to hand out not to mention the codes for registration, i'm just pleased they were all in and there wasn't any need to write anything on the register.

Second years were my first class which was a rather strange experience because there wasn't anyone to go and ask what have I to do next with the class like it is as a student teacher.

I have 3 second year classes with one being really nice, one being really talkative and the other being right in the middle of the two.

My first years this morning were angels, I just hope they stay that way, (wishful thinking). I'll saver the moment while it lasts.

3rd and 4th years were my problem. Trying to find out who had done what, what they could remember and what was to be done was a nightmare so my first two classes with them were a bit of a disaster but I managed it.

I was just so glad to teach a 4th year because as a student teacher I didn't get to do this so it certainly boosted my confidence a bit.

Time to sign off and do some preparation work but if any teacher can give me any help i'd really appreciate it :-)

Long Time No Post

It's been a long time since I posted so thought it was about time I got back blogging again though I will make this post a short one.

Placement 3 went well and i've got a few resources which I will review in the future. (Look out for them!)

I can't believe that this year in Jordanhill has almost came to an end. It's been such a quick year that i've hardly had 2 minutes to do anything though i'm starting to wind down now.

I've still got my Portfolio to finish aaaaahhhh lol Most of it is in note form at the moment I just need to put it all together. I should be able to get it finished before next Friday woo hoo.

I'm dredding getting Assignment 3 back. I didn't have much time to tackle the written part of it it in school so had to rush it in the last couple of days. I spent the night before it was due typing constantly i'm surprised that steam didn't come off my fingers lol. Anyway i'll find out soon how I went.

O.K. i'll sign off for now and PROMISE i'll post again soon!

Review of resource - Who wants to be a millionaire

Almost forgot about a post this week so here it is.

Who wants to be a millionaire' is a game which kids love the only problem with it is that so many teachers have realised this and are now using it in their classrooms. This game worked best for first years probably because they wont have come across it in primary school for specific subjects (though don't quote me on that lol).

Ok so how does it work.


I played this game in two ways one was just a put your hands up if you think it's A put your hand up if you think it's B etc. etc. This worked well with lively classes who all joined in. The other way was to just ask pupils the question allowing them to use 50-50, ask the audience and phone a friend. For these options if they asked to use 50-50 them I would give them 2 answers to choose from. If it wasask the audience I would do a poll of the class what they thought the answer was and for phone a friend they got to ask someone in the class.

On the whole this game worked well with most classes. The kids thought it was fun rather than science and it didn't take that long to make up the questions and put it onto the powerpoint game.

The website to get the template for the powerpoint game is the same as the one where I found Jeopardy so you'll find the link on the previous posting.

Till next time.

Review of resource - Jeopardy

Ok here goes. Thought I would use this post to talk about jeopardy and try and put a picture into the post and the link to the website so don't blame me if it doesn't work i'm just trying.


JEOPARDY

What is it? - This was an American quiz show where the contestants were given the answer to the question and they had to supply the question. So for instance the answer that they could be given is what is green or red and is grown on trees and their reply would be what is an apple?. Well I thought that this was a bit hard for the kids so I changed it so that I supplied them with the question and they would give the answer so it would be me asking What is an apple? sorry bad example to use.

The game was played using a game bored like the one on the left.
Across the top I had science topics so for the first years I had things like colours, what will happen etc. etc. These were relevant to the topic we were doing.

To play the game I it worked well with the first years to have them split into 3 teams and play although for one 2nd year class it worked well for them to play individually. If it was individually I would ask them to pick what quesiton they wanted so they could have colours for $200 or What will happen? for $500. The choice was theirs. For groups I got them to nominate a spokes person who would be the only person I would accept an answer from this stopped the hastle of people shouting out answers and I would play similar to the individual game the only difference being that I would keep a note on the board of their score.

At the end of the game comes final jeopardy which I would usually make a trick question to get them thinking. Here they would gamble some of their money on getting the question right just like on the game show. Once there was a huge difference in the scores but other times it's not that far out.

I would reccomend this game as a really good revision excrcise to any teacher of any subject as it is really simple to change the questions to your subject. I think it took me about 30 minutes to make up the questions and type it up.

Here is the link to the website I found this game on
http://jc-schools.net/tutorials/PPT-games/
It was actually the website which David previously posted on the website which also has many other games including who wants to be a millionaire. I think I will make that my next posting.

Bye bye.

Easter Holiday's Have Begun

Ok the Easter holiday has begun so thought it was about time I got back into this blogging now I have assignment 2 out the way.

We have to keep setting targets for each term and reflect on them so I've decided to do that here as well.

Target 1 - Post a message on this blog at least once a week.
Target 2 - Learn how to put pictures and links on blog.
Target 3 - Eat loads of easter eggs, yum, yum, yum.

To be reviewed 01/05/06.

Need sleep now,
Bye bye.

P.S. this message doesn't count as a message for this blog because it's the one that is settign the targets.