Teaching Practice Reflections: Week 3

List three successes of your teaching this week and state why you feel each point was a success.

• A “start now” activity: I have a particularly giddy second year group, it takes them longer than other groups to get settled into work, which slows down the pace of the lesson. So this week I trailed a “start now” methodology and it has worked very well. Getting them to take something down from the board e.g. writing down the lesson goals, allows for quiet time at the start of a lesson, and gives them a task to start straight away. I will continue with this technique with this particular group going forward.
• “Name picker”: Based on feedback from my inspection last week I have set-up a system to pick students' names at random. It’s called wheelofnames.com, this has worked really well this week and allows for all students to have a fair chance of talking in class. It also has helped me learn the names of the students too. I will continue this going forward.
• House points – The school has a credit system in which good behaviour results in “House Points” so I have given points out this week as a result of everyone arriving to class on time. One particular group on a Tuesday is constantly late to class as it is after a break period. I used house points and it definitely seemed to encourage them all to arrive on time.

List three areas for improvement which you will focus on next week and outline an action plan that you will put into place for each area

• Don’t over-pack lessons: I feel I need to be careful not to pack too much into my lesson plans. Some days are better than others in terms of student concentration. It can depend on the day, early in the week is higher output for students and later in the week is lower in terms of output. It may also depend on the time of the class, early in the morning students are more sleepy and after lunch they can be giddy. I need to make allowances and adjust accordingly. .
• Making time to reflect after each class can be challenging especially if I have a busy timetable.
• Overall, a very positive week and really enjoying my experience in this school.

Discuss one theoretical idea that influenced your teaching this week

'Teachers are required to have a number of techniques to use at an appropriate time and situations to use correctly.' Welty (1989)

This theory applied to my teaching this week as I had to think on my feet if I don’t get time in the class to complete something, I will assign for homework. Or if an exercise or example isn’t working I have to think of another relevant example for students. The more practice and confident I become as the weeks progress, the better I will become at thinking on my feet.

What was your most enjoyable moment while teaching this week?

The most enjoyable moment this week for me was in a first-year Geography class. I’m covering the topic, volcanoes with this particular group and I wanted to do something creative and memorable with them as they are a very good group. Firstly, I asked them individually to research the height, eruption cycle, and last erupted of a volcano. Then in pairs, they created volcanoes from play dough using different colour, shapes, and design to reflect the volcano they had researched. The students were engaged and co-operative through-out the lesson and I managed to fit it all into one lesson. I was able to showcase the lessons on the School’s Twitter page. It was great to be able to display the students' work and the opportunities available to Geography teachers beyond the book.

First years having a blast creating model #volcanos from around the world in #Geography class today 🌋 @geogsocire pic.twitter.com/v4cnFN56hh

— Loreto on the Green (@Loreto_Green) October 25, 2019