Week One Done

The first week of this placement is finished.
The idea that I don't have to get up at the crack of dawn, head into school and teach, mark and reflect is amazing! Even more amazing is the fact that I don't have to plan anything tonight. I might - possibly - but I don't have to. Freedom!

It has been an up-down week. Tuesday was the pits. But, since then it has been okay.

Today's literacy lesson went down very well with the class. They were role-playing scenes from our novel and we practised pulling faces and using our body language to suggest different things before we started. In front of 24 children, I pulled different faces and "acted" a part. Madness. I don't do things like that lol. I guess I got caught up in the moment and the children really enjoyed it. One girl - who yesterday refused to do anything in literacy, until I worked with her one-to-one at break time - said she had really enjoyed it. Despite them being in groups, the children kept on task and we watched 5 out of the 6 groups perform. One group didn't, but that is fine. I didn't want any of the children to feel concerned - I would have hated to be set a task like that - so I just wanted them to explore the ideas and have a go. The group in question had worked really hard, so I saw no problem in letting them not perform - if that makes sense. Maybe, if we do something similar again, they will be ready to stand at the front and have a go. :) Another amazing side of that lesson - no marking! I was able to formatively assess and reflect on my planning etc, but I didn't have to sit and mark all the books. That alone was enough to put me in a great mood lol.

So, in short, first teaching week of this placement is done. Two more weeks to go and 5000 MA-level words to write and then it will be time to celebrate. I don't get half term, but by god, I am going to have a blast of a weekend on Feb 10th - not least because a friend is visiting from home. Yay! :D