The Think Tank

More and more paperwork

2006-10-11T21:33:00.000+01:00

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

2006-08-25T19:01:00.000+01:00

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

2006-08-22T18:40:00.000+01:00

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

2006-06-02T16:26:00.000+01:00

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

2006-04-07T12:08:00.000+01:00

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

2006-03-31T10:18:00.000+01:00

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

2006-03-29T23:27:00.000+01:00

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.

Jeopardy Continued

2006-03-09T11:32:00.000Z

Ok the 3rd yeard were a bit more reluctant to play jeporday individually so when one of the suggested going into teams I thought why not so had 3 teams of 6 and I tallied up the scores. For final jeporday like the game I allowed them to gamble so much of their money which resulted in the ones who were in the lead being last lol.

So i've reached the last day of teaching practice for term 2 and it's back to uni tommorow. I wont say it's been an easy experience espeically when I had one class I felt I just couldn't control no matter what I did. This week has to have been the hardest though since i've had a really bad cold this week and have hardly had the energy to do much. At least it's much better today if only I could get rid of this cough.

I'm looking forward to going back to uni and i'm not. I want to go back for the break and to see everyone again but I would also like to stay. I mean going back to uni means essay's again aaahhh. I'm not looking forward to them. Assignment 2 is complicated not to mention the ICT assignment mmm... decissions decissions as to which class to pick out lol.

Term 3 also means assignment 3 which i'm finding hard since I really don't know what to do for the behaviour management project. I could do it on the merit cards and rewards though not entirely sure.

Going to stop typing now before I start repeating myself.

Will write more later

Till next time

Jeopardy!!!

2006-03-09T09:52:00.000Z

Hi all, I bet you thought I had stopped blogging. Well the real reason is I have had a few difficulties with my internet just now and when I publish the post it doesn't go on but says it has or the page says it cannot be displayed. Oh the joys of modern day technology.

Well I can't really complain actually. Modern day technology has DEFINETLY helped me through this teaching placement.

Who wants to be a millionaire has been a hit with the kids though they are getting bored of that now because they play it so often in other subjects so it was my task to find something new. So I did. Jeopardy!!! I did change it though because I thought it would be a bit hard for them to give the question if i gave them the answer so just changed it to me asking the questions. The kids absolutly love Jeopardy so much so I think each class has had a go at it at some point this week. I think the difference between Jeopardy and who wants to be a millionaire is that they get to choose the type of question they are answering.

Anyways enough about jeopardy i've got a 3rd year class in about 2 minutes which is going to play this game so i'd better go get it set up.

Bye for now

Crit number 1 done and dusted!

2006-02-26T10:28:00.000Z

Well that's crit number one over with and I managed to get through it in one piece. The kids were playing up as usual although the tutor couldn't believe that this was actually them on a good day LOL.

I used powerpoint in my lesson and that went down really well with him which was good. Oh and I summed up the lesson using a multimedia science school program which had a cool animation which allowed me to show the kids exactly what was happening in the investigation they had just done.

It wasn't too bad though the amount of times I had to give someone into trouble for talking was unbelievable which is something I have to work on. I have been told I have to watch the way I'm telling kids to be quiet or whatever because I tend to give them the option to do what I am asking, like i'd say please be quiet or will you stop talking instead of be quiet stop talking. I do talk quite firmly when it gets to the ridiculous stage when i've been constantly giving them into trouble for something so that it means much more when I do start talking like this but obviously i'm wrong ha ha ha.

I'm not sure of my next crit it could be either this week coming in or next. There has been a bit of a mix up with the dates so have to get that checked.

Well just going to have my breakfast before going to the SECC wedding fayre to have a wee browse about and help my friend Sara who is exhibiting there

Long time no post

2006-02-16T16:50:00.000Z

Well it's been a while so I thought it was about time that I started posting again.

The arrangements for the anniversary party, which went really, really well, kind of a overtook everything and before I go into school stuff I also got engaged on valentines day. I think i'm the happiest and luckiest girl on the planet at the momet :-)

Ok so school. It's been a bit all over the place because the faculty head is now off on maternity leave and the position was only being interviewed for today and currently we dona't know who's got the job.

I decided to try and use a bit of ICT with my classes so used a website that had a few diagrams for the kids to copy down. That was ok though think the diagrams could have been much better.

I played who wants to be a millionaire with the kids and had the questions as a summary of the previous couple of days lessons which they loved. It went down really well with the kids including those who usually like to act up because they wanted to finish it even though it ran into their break. I'd most definetly use this again and would thoroughly recommend it to anyone.

Today I had the kids watching the science programme Brainiac. The kids loved this as well I couldn't believe it. 10 minutes of a lesson was spent on this since the experiment couldnt' be doen becuase the gas wasn't working properly but this was a great substitute. The first part was to do witht he topic we were doing the rest was just used to keep them quiet for a five monutes lol. It worked though and i'll need to see which other parts are relevant to various parts of the course.

Need to go have dinner now, i'll write again soon. This time i promise this. :-)

First week almost over

2006-02-02T18:23:00.000Z

Oh well that's week one almost finished though it hasnt been very exciting. I've spent most of this week saving copies of the 5-14 curriculum for science so that I have them because I so couldn't teach this without the help of the teachers notes.

The schools been realy good and our meeting with the head teacher today was really helpful. She made us all feel welcome and certainly made it clear that her door was open for us to go and see her whenever we were passing. She actually seemed interested in how we were getting on and wants to know how we do in our crits. Even though the head was the regent in the last school I was at it didn't seem like he was that interested in us. That makes him sound horrible and I don't meen it to be it just seemed that we seen him once a week for our meeting but apart from that we were lucky if we seen him at an other time though to be fair he was out at a lot of meetings. The other thing I found about this head teacher was that she told us she wants us to tell her if there is anything that we aren't happy with and feel they could do differetly but I wont be doing this lol. She wasn't saying this so that she could have a go at anyone she was more interested in what they could do differently that other schools use to improve various things.

Enough about the head teacher lol.

I'm getting to do part of a lesson on Monday woo hoo and it's actually part of the fuels topic that I can actually do lol.

The only other thing I have been up to was to go to the football last night. Even though we won we were living on dangerous territory. The good thing about going to the football though was I got to practice my shouting ha ha ha.

Bye for now

It's Monday, back to school again

2006-01-30T21:39:00.000Z

Wel it was back to school again today and at least this time it wasn't quite as scary though it was still a bit strange. It's been one of those days where nothing has went right between sleeping in, getting stuck in traffic, almost getting lost and just making it to school at 2 minutes to nine.

Apart from the getting there dilema the rest of the day was ok. Spent part of it in class and my main concern now is they don't seem to have any notes for the pupils for standard grade uugghh. I'm so glad i've got all my notes from when I did standard grade chemistry and the stuff I had been using in the last school otherwise I would definetly be up the creek without a paddle. I think i'm going to have to spend the rest of this week trying to get together loads of new resources so that I have stuff to go along with.

The only other thing that's left to talk about is my weekend. I spent Friday after uni with my mum deciding on favors for her anniversary all that needs to be done now is to make them up. That's the only thing about being crafty you're expected to do all these things.

On Saturday I was working at Celtic Park. What a carry on that was lol. Just the usual hastle of staff deciding they didn't want to clean up. If only I could hand out punishment exercises it would be heaving ha ha ha.

Went to see 'Just like Heaven' on Saturday night it was a really good film. A must see for anyone who doesn't want a film that's too tough on the old brain cells.

Think that's my weekend and today summed up. Again nothing too exciting lol

Bye for now.

Woo Hoo it's Friday

2006-01-27T14:47:00.000Z

I'm posting earlier today because I couldn't get signed on yesterday so missed yesterdays entry but to be honest there was probably nothing worth writting.

Today was all about PSE which for a wee change is something which could come in handy for teaching practice though i'm not looking forward to taking a class for social ed. in my probation year when I don't know half the stuff that you will need to cover although in saying that maybe it's about time I learned lol.

Need to go now to sort out stuff for my mum and dad's party whilst I still have a wee bit time left before starting school again on Monday.

Bye for now.

A much more eventful day

2006-01-25T22:24:00.000Z

Well today turned out to be a lot more eventful than yesterday starting with getting stuck in traffic on the way into uni. Luckily though i got into the lecture hall just as Brian Boyd had started introducing today's lecture so at least I didn't miss anything.

The tutorial today was the quickest tutorial I have ever had, well it felt that way though it was still a full hour. I think it went quicker though because we spent the entire tutorial looking at the criteria for assignment 2, and yup you've guessed it i'm not looking forward to this either though i'll save the moaning about this topic till another day.

After the tutorial it was time to go get our assingments. We were all shacking like leaves. It was like waiting on the dentist to call your name to go get teeth removed though in the end it wasn't as bad as I thought. I got a merit woo hoo!!!

In the afternoon it was the behaviour management class where we discussed te researcch project we have to do and that one's goign to be a lot more triky than I first thought. I'll need to get my thinking cap on for that one.

To end the day at uni I got stuck in traffic on the way home again. It took ages!!!

Bye for now

An uneventful day

2006-01-24T18:29:00.000Z

Today I was back at uni for a Principes lecture followed by a tutorial where I was in the group who had to do the lead task.

During the lead task I thought we could have done it slightly better I just found it hard to play the teacher to other students lol.

Other than that the only other thing I have been up to is finishing off making invitations to my mum and dad's 25th wedding anniversary next month so have been up to my eyes in double sided tape, card and envelopes ha ha ha.

Tommorow will bring the result of assignment 1 which I am so not looking forward to especially after the principles tutorial where the tutor was saying how we should have had sub-headings in each section we were writting which I didn't do, he said he wanted more than just the core text books, lecture notes and the school handbook all I had in addition to these was another book I had found and a few of the schools documents on behaviour and learnign support. I'm so worried about it now though I know there's nothign I can do about it. English was never my best subject in school which you can no doubt tell by the way i'm writing this blog lol and this is why i'm training to teach chemistry NOT english.

Ok enough complaining that's me had my rant for today about the assignment. Fingures crossed I don't have all 5 sections to redo lol.

Bye for now.

New school, new classes and a new blog

2006-01-23T22:07:00.000Z

Well I started in a new school for teaching experience so thought what better day than today to start a new blog since we've heard so much about it at Jordanhill from David Muir.

I'm still relaly unsure about the whole blog process but hey i'm willing to learn so any helpful tips from anyone would be good.

It was like starting a new job today being in a new school and having to find my way about but hey I got there.

The horror came today though when I was told I was taking a third year standard grade chemistry class to do the 'fuels' topic. It's a topic I hated with a passion when I was at school and even still i'm not overly fond of it especially after an experiment in this topic went drastically wrong and we had to move rooms during my crit lesson. Though now I think of it maybe it's not all that bad at least i've already got my lesson plans sorted for that topic.

I had a wee quick revision of the topic tonight when one of my Guides asked for help with her homework, I just can't get away from this topic lol.

Anyways i'm going to stop typing now to see if this works OK otherwise it will be a bit pointless.

Bye for now.