Hi everyone
So it is the last day tomorrow and to be honest I have enjoyed it so much I don't want to leave!!
I taught some IT today which was great except I had to hold back from going into too much detail! I was teaching effective search engine use. The children seem to have really taken to me ("best teacher ever - all the others left after two days" is among the classics!) and have given me brilliant experience in handling their innappropriate questions about my life ("is your first name Dan?", "do you have a girlfriend?", "can I add you as a friend?" and what I get up to in such a way as to get out of doing work!
I have got some great experiences of SEN too with a boy with autism. One thing that really struck me was his range of intelligence yet inability to communicate effectively. He has been able to reel off abstract facts about massive ranges of subjects at any time but often without significance. For example we had a talk from the local vicar today and the boy at the end of the prayer towards of the end of the talk, put his hand up, struggled with his words briefly before asking the vicar an intelligent question about evolution and his beliefs to which the vicar did not know how to respond.
I enjoyed being involved in focusing the attention of the class also. I have found the more the class warmed to me, the easier it was for me to show brief dissappointment in them for not listening and get a great effect in directing their attention back to the teacher. They begun to listen when I told them what they should be doing.
Anyway I am absolutely shattered so am keeping this one brief, will probably detail a few more of the things I have been doing when I am less sleepy!
Sunday, 19 September 2010
First PGCE Placement
Hello again,
Thought I would make a final post here about my experiences on the Friday. As I mentioned before the IT department is very basic at the school with no technicians or IT support on site. As the "IT expert" I was called in to help fix an audio cupboard. After about 20 minutes of poking and scratching my head I realised that it was only two wires that needed changing around. On my way back the IT co-ordinator told the head who thanked me and said I had saved him hundreds of pounds. I was quite surpirsed and asked him how. He said, I was just going to get the whole thing ripped out and replaced. A perfectly functioning audio cupboard and all it was was 2 wires the wrong way round.
Magnify that across the country and we may be seriously lacking in IT awareness in primary school. This was a fairly large school that you would imagine has a lot of funds directed to it relative to its size but the IT facilities were less than poor. The Head asked me to stay as he recognised the problems they were facing! I passed my email address on to the ICT co-ordinator and said she could email me with any issues and if I knew I would try and help but I am no technician.
Ok now onto my last day with the class. It was very sad to leave after such a brilliant week. I got the kids soime sweets which they had in "golden time". They made me a nice leaving card! Some of the highlights of the week have got to be showing children how to do certain sums and watching the penny "drop". When explaining Nelson Mandelas experiences the children did not understand why he didn't take his freedom when he was first offered it. I managed to use the example of animal cruelty to show them how they would feel if they could not stand up for what was right. That was amazing to see them understand how important he was.
Thought I would make a final post here about my experiences on the Friday. As I mentioned before the IT department is very basic at the school with no technicians or IT support on site. As the "IT expert" I was called in to help fix an audio cupboard. After about 20 minutes of poking and scratching my head I realised that it was only two wires that needed changing around. On my way back the IT co-ordinator told the head who thanked me and said I had saved him hundreds of pounds. I was quite surpirsed and asked him how. He said, I was just going to get the whole thing ripped out and replaced. A perfectly functioning audio cupboard and all it was was 2 wires the wrong way round.
Magnify that across the country and we may be seriously lacking in IT awareness in primary school. This was a fairly large school that you would imagine has a lot of funds directed to it relative to its size but the IT facilities were less than poor. The Head asked me to stay as he recognised the problems they were facing! I passed my email address on to the ICT co-ordinator and said she could email me with any issues and if I knew I would try and help but I am no technician.
Ok now onto my last day with the class. It was very sad to leave after such a brilliant week. I got the kids soime sweets which they had in "golden time". They made me a nice leaving card! Some of the highlights of the week have got to be showing children how to do certain sums and watching the penny "drop". When explaining Nelson Mandelas experiences the children did not understand why he didn't take his freedom when he was first offered it. I managed to use the example of animal cruelty to show them how they would feel if they could not stand up for what was right. That was amazing to see them understand how important he was.
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