Two Schools - One Good Day. :D

This morning, I opted to forgo the lift I had been offered and took the bus [or two] up to school. It was so nice, plugging in my MP4 player and just relaxing a bit on the way. The guy who had offered me a lift is lovely, but we are quite different, so conversation can be a little awkward. Having that time, especially on such a lovely, sunny day, was great. :)

At school, we were meant to be assessing spelling. Not an area I like, given I am pretty bad when it comes to spelling. However, the actual activity completed was much nicer. We worked with the same children we had worked with last week, when we assessed their reading and wrote a report about it, and used a picture to do some creative writing. I recalled that the boy I worked with loved football and space, so I took about 8 pictures in - 4 of which were based on those topics, and a couple of on other topics just in case they took his fancy. He opted for a picture of the solar system and we managed to write lots of things about it. When the note writing was done, we looked at some of the words spelt incorrectly and used our phonics knowledge and a THRASS chart to put them right. I have to type it up, with the picture, and send it into school so he can have a copy. It made for a nice morning. :)

This afternoon, we went to another school to group teach a geography lesson. The 'group' part has caused a few problems, as there have been tensions. In the actual lesson, two of us ended up taking the lead at the beginning - I was, surprisingly, one of them, alongside Matthew. We then worked with different groups. Our focus was on Barnaby Bear - who visited Australia. One group was creating dramatic skies, using chalk, to go behind a silhouette of the Sydney Opera House. One group was making kangaroos that had moving parts. One was making postcards. Another was creating a Sydney Harbour Bridge using craft straws and my group looked at Aboriginal art, using techniques to decorate individual boomerangs. It was really nice, even if one person - in particular - behaved in a slightly unexpected way. Considering the bulk of their experience is with EYFS [and this was a reception and year 1 class], they didn't seem to be able to talk to the children on their own level. Oh well... We were running out of time, so I took the initiative as most groups seemed to be nearly finished. I used the clapping technique my placement school suggested and it worked really well. The children clapped their response and listened to the instructions, meaning we were able to gather on the carpet and go through what the groups had done - a bit of a show me, tell me thing. A few of the others said they were glad I took the lead, but I had felt a little awkward at the time. Team teaching is a bit of an odd experience, but I enjoyed it over all. The children were lovely. Plus, it was EYFS/KS1 - definitely my area of preference. :D

It was Kate Crumpet with the poison!

Today has been an interesting sort of day. The morning featured three hours of maths [the usually fourth hour was instead a free slot and was used productively - to discuss famous men mainly and discuss the merits of gems like Bill Nighy lol].

The afternoon should have brought three hours of music! Not a great prospect, especially as I am not the biggest fan of having to stand in front of the class and sing [as we have done the last few sessions]. Instead, the teacher had us trek around Durham [up into Gilesgate, through a wood and back into Durham centre via the river] to solve a Murder Mystery. On the whole, rather fun. Plus, it only took one hour thirty, leaving Lyndsey and I free for coffee and a good chat. All in all, it has been a pretty nice afternoon. :)

On Placement: Start of our Ancient Egypt display.

[10.02.2012]