Day Two!

So today I didn't do any formal teaching (as in, I wasn't observed by my co-op teacher), but I certainly did plenty of informal teaching! Oh boy... casual teachers = ugh! (to say the least)
My co-op teacher had a Stage Planning day today, so she was out of the classroom the entire day. I saw her briefly before and after school. The casual was... interesting. I ended up teaching the Year 1 kids for most of the morning, plus did some text type stuff with Kindy. All on the fly haha. The casual really didn't seem to know what she was doing.

And of course it was interesting to see how the kids behaved with a different teacher. They weren't too bad at all, but I could tell that a few kids realised they could get away with a few more things today. I stepped in and helped out as much as I could with management stuff, but I had to make sure that I didn't take over at the same time!

One of the other prac teachers at my school got to sit in the Stage Planning meeting with her teacher briefly - she said it helped open her eyes to how much planning we have to look forward to. Haha w00t! It is a lot, and seeing how much my co-op teacher juggles... it's an incredible amount of stuff. And you people think I'm busy now! ;)
Ah, part of the job, right?

So tomorrow I'll be taking the morning session - doing sight words/phonics etc with Year 1, and then running the whole class activity session where they rotate around the room. Part of that is having a Year 1 activity ready to go, which will be on identifying nouns, verbs and adjectives in a story and then playing a game with those words. Should be pretty alright!

Oh and our Tertiary Advisor came today, just to say hello. Woo hoo we scored a really nice Advisor - had a nice chat with her this morning, and she was full of advice and ensured us that she wasn't there to fail us, but to encourage us into great teachers. Awwww. How nice. We'll only see her once next week, when she'll come to observe us teaching. She's got a lot of schools to get around to and observe other Prac students.

Better get to this lesson planning...

Day One!

So the first day has come and gone, and it was good. I seem to have been assigned to a pretty good class! My co-operating teacher (Mrs P) runs a tight ship, that's for sure. For a K/1 class, they are very well behaved... hardly any behaviour problems, that I noticed anyway. The school is located in a bit of a Department of Housing area, and so there is a good mix of nationalities in the class. A number of Samoan, Indian and Sudanese kids in particular... which makes for interesting names (which I can just tell I'm going to get confused with!).

My teacher is great - friendly, experienced and was more than happy to offer me advice for the future, and show me how she runs things in the classroom. Oh and she is very organised! She really has to be with a K/1 class, as a lot of today was spent with the grades split up doing different activities. All the materials are ready to go at the start of each session, and she is very efficient in moving the kids around.

Here's a photo of the classroom - it's pretty big, with enough room for a Kindy gathering area, and a Year 1 gathering area!

Today was a pretty full-on day, with literacy in the morning (class split into grades), and then English activity groups. After "Little Lunch", it was Maths, with another teacher coming in to teach the Kindy kids, while Mrs P took the Year 1 kids outside to do number lines with chalk on the concrete outside - they had a blast! Then it was Computers, with Kindy using a Maths game, and Year 1 typing a reflection of what they'd just done. It was interesting seeing what skills they had with using a computer - not too much at the moment. It looks like I'll be doing a Computer lesson next week, showing the Year 1 kids how to change font, size, colour, add a border and pictures etc (hoorah! There's my e-learning task!). Should be fun!

I am a little bit nervous about teaching the class, particularly running the activity session, as my co-op teacher has developed a good routine with the kids and I don't want to go and ruin it or anything. I don't think I will, but I guess I just don't want to be stepping on any toes. Ah it should be fine. I'm not actually teaching until Thursday now, as my co-op teacher will be out of the classroom most of tomorrow (she's the relieving AP at the moment, so is pretty busy!!), and so there will be a Casual teacher in. Will be interesting to see how they manage the class.

Anyway, it's good to be back in a classroom again...

And so it begins...

It's time for Prac again!

It has come around so quickly, that's for sure. For this Prac I am with a K/1 class at Seven Hills West Public School - not far from home, although I would have liked to branch out of my LGA a bit more! Hopefully next Prac I will...
So yes... K/1 class... goodness. Not my specialty, I don't think. Well, I certainly haven't got as much experience with the younger grades than what I do with Yrs 4-6. I did teach a Kindy Scripture class for a year though, and I must admit that I did enjoy it. At least I'll get a bit more experience with that age group on this Prac now!
One thing I can see being difficult for me is that a K/1 class is across Stages (according to Syllabuses). Which is going to make it interesting doing lesson plans - 2 sets of outcomes etc. However, it certainly will be good to get the experience working in a composite class.

I almost don't feel prepared for this Prac. We're going in pretty much blind tomorrow - Prac has hardly been mentioned at Uni, it's strange. Tomorrow is observation day, and I am glad that we start with that! I might try to remember all the different classroom management stuff we worked on last Prac haha...

I am looking forward to this Prac though, despite the late nights that I will encounter doing lesson planning and so on. It's such an invaluable experience, and I'm sure that it will confirm for me again that I want to be a Primary Teacher. Just seeing kids faces when they learn something new, when they create something of their own (hoorah for Constructionism haha), and when they succeed... it's priceless. I look forward to seeing that this Prac!

I intend to post on this blog every day of my Prac. We are meant to be reflecting as we go along, so I thought I'd do that on here... you can have a read and comment, if you so desire. Thanks!

Until tomorrow... bye!