Observations

As of today I have two observations left to complete my required 9 observations as part of my PGCE, this week I had two including a joint observation which resulted in my first grade 3 mark. I’ve been consistently a grade 2 (with a single grade 1) throughout this process and getting this grade 3 when I thought things were getting better was quite a hit to my confidence.

I know that we are not supposed to see observations as ‘progress’ but rather a snippet into our teaching practices but it can’t be helped but to want to improve and getting a 3 so close to the end is pretty devastating.

I know that the class I had are difficult and I know that the observer is a harsh but fair observer but it was still hard to get that ‘requires improvement’ grade. Deep down I know that I do have areas that do require improvement (especially with this class) and I know not to take it to heart that I got that rating because things in that class could have been better and to have been given a ‘good’ I might not necessarily have learnt but it was still hard to hear that grade 3… and I am still upset about it.

I have been trying with that group quite a lot and I have seen improvement but the observer doesn’t see that and I think that is something I do not like about the observation process. The observer only sees that one hour from that one class and does not see that improvements that have been made, they don’t know what a nightmare of a class they could have been and that the fact you can get them to sit and pay attention at all is an improvement – sure there is still improvements to be made if you compare them to any other class but for this class this is their ‘good’.

I know requires improvement isn’t supposed to be a negative outcome, it is all about improving but with the stress I am currently feeling it was hard not to see it as a “you’re s**t” and that the effort I have been putting in to get this class under control isn’t reflected in the observation at all was also really hard to swallow. Obviously, I need to look at the positives, take those ‘requires improvements’ and improve and I guess in a way prove to that observer that I can do it because deep down I know I can myself!

Half Term, Again!

So half term has come and almost gone again! And that leaves just one more batch of 6 weeks until the course is over (well kind of, the last deadline is just after the Easter break with a conference in May, but then it’s over).

Unfortunately for myself my deadline is pushed forward due to a holiday (booked before I accepted a place on the PGCE) which falls on the two weeks before the Easter holiday. This means I have the most stressful four weeks I can imagine coming up. One big part of this stress is having to squeeze in four observations within those four weeks. I’ve managed this by having two in one day which isn’t perfect as I feel it isn’t really showing much teaching progress having the observations so close together. I am glad to have two in the one day however, as the day they are on is the first day back after half term which always brings its own problems regarding classroom management (A.K.A. these days are great tests of experience and sources of reflection). These observations also bring with them the paperwork and 1000 word reflections each which take up time and rely on others getting feedback to you which if they are busy delays your own work.

The observations however are the least of my worries (apart from the physical doing the lessons) as I also have to write a 3500 word essay on professionalism due the 13^th March – something I should be working on now but I’ve decided to vent via blog first. The essay I understand is important but I feel time would be much better spent with more experience in the classroom, behaviour management and admin – elements which we have been learning more on the job rather than in session and I feel depending on your situation there could be serious gaps in knowledge once you get into a real job (I simply feel that there are things I don’t even know I need to know).

I know that this course has not run as smoothly as the college or any of us students wanted but coming to the end of it, I now feel that the varied classroom experience you get in a traditional PGCE is something that this course could do with adopting. I know from friends who have completed secondary and primary PGCE courses that you would typically have two or three placements in differing institutions but that with this PGCE being aimed at life-long learning the varied experience has obviously been deemed unnecessary.

With the last leg of this journey about to begin I know it is going to be tough getting everything done, but I will knuckle down and get it done – it will all be worth it in the end.

Starters & Break-Outs

Through my teaching experience so far I have struggled with getting a certain class settled and kept motivated through the two hours and other class talking. So far I have tried to implement starter activities with the quiet group but this ‘morning news’ starter which I started doing with them fizzled out due to a lack of engagement from the students and I have yet to start something new with them.

The lively group however can take a long time to settle in the class which so far  I have tried to take control of but feel that by getting them doing something as they walk in could help them focus since the class is the last of the day (on a Monday) and is after lunch. Keeping this class motivated is also difficult, they drift off task often towards the last 20 minutes of the lesson so thinking of Break-out tasks is a must to avoid wasting that time and to stop low level behaviour issues developing.

I also hope to use these activities to develop the students creative thinking as they have been very linear in their thinking which has not been helping them in their projects. This should also help the students see relevance in the activities as many have the attitude that if it is not clearly relevant to them or the course then they do not want to do it.

So far ideas considered have included:

• Quick draw activities
• Sketch journal
• Puzzles to solve (best targeted towards maths and English)
• Word association
• Pictionary
• Perfect Monster drawing game
• Describe your partner in images
• Paired drawing – describing something to a partner who has to then draw it.
• Chindogu – useless inventions
• Paperclip uses.
• What’s in the box.
• Animal jumble

Until I try some of these however I will not know how the students react to them so it will be a case of trial and error, like the morning news idea.

Working to the Students needs?

Today was a day where the student and their needs seemed to be a difficult choice to make. The groups that I deal with both had a deadline for a project which was stressing them to considerable degrees; some claimed not to know that the deadline was today while others complained that it had been changed which was causing the stress. The topic of this Unit was visual studies, including perspective, architecture and colour theory – the perspective and architecture were two topics they all claimed to have disliked and all (apart from three students) had a considerable amount of work to do.

This created my first issue of the day as before my 9am class had even started I had students begging to do their visual studies work in the two hour session. In the end I made the students have the introduction to my class and then allowed them to do their visual studies work as I had scheduled roughly 95 minutes of the 120 minute lesson to book work anyway (though for a different Unit). I decided this because with the deadline at the end of the day I knew many students would not be able to focus but felt they still needed some of a class to their current Unit as my session was designed to help them think of ideas for this project which they are currently struggling with and I did not want them to continue the week with no ideas.

A massive problem for these groups seems to be doing the work on time and I partly feel this is because the students do not get enough timetabled time – they get 10 hours a week, currently split over three units (one unit is recommended to get 60 guided learning hours in total)  but also that they are not working effectively, they get tired and fed-up easily so do not use the time they do have to the best, often stating that they will do it at home which most of them are unable to do really. This causes a problem for me because I feel they should have more time in college to do the work but that at the same time the students are not getting the idea yet that it is their fault for not being productive in the time they do have which is very immature of them.

This mood of wanting to get on with visual studies continued on to the second period, still with my morning group but this time they were taking part in the college ‘Have a Go’ week which is different departments showing examples of what they do in the main reception . Today was the turn of the art and design group which happened to be my two groups. This meant that the time my AM group were typically in class they were taking part in mono-printing. For this group however this technique works to a unit they are currently working on and so despite them complaining they did all take part for the first hour… after that though they all switched off and did not want to be there. Stuck with just me I tried for the next half hour to get the group continuing to do designs and work but I could easily see that if they were doing this task in a classroom that we would have moved on and felt it was unfair on these students that they should spent two hours on this task while they should be doing work for their course.

In time they were allowed to go on their lunch break early (after checking with a more senior member of staff) however I felt let down by the college and tutors that I had no other choice but to attempt to encourage the students in the task even though they had done what was asked of them, as I couldn’t leave all of the materials in the reception area or leave the students as there was no one else!

Moving on to my second group and PM session, this group was also supposed to be doing Mono-printing but most had already done it for their project as this group have dedicated print classes so were set against doing it again with the impending deadline of their visual studies. This time however with more staff now available it was deemed that those students who had examples of mono-print in their books could be in the classroom with me continuing work which apart from some classroom behaviour issues which I felt I tackled better than I would have previously (trying to keep in mind recent observation feedback to be more assertive) they then got on with their work surprisingly well.

 

What bothered me the most about today was this insistence on this ‘Have a Go’ week; I saw little in how it helped the students (or even the college) and how out of all the students around why it had to be the students with a deadline that day.

Other outside influences caused the lack of staff in the morning which impeded being able to split the class but I also felt that two hours was far too long on and the length of time students were doing the mono-print activity should have been considered.  This made me feel that whoever had planned this all was not thinking of the students needs, the thing we are always thought to consider and that as a trainee I felt I had failed them in a way by not being able to help them when usually we could have.

I also felt in two minds however as, like I mentioned, these students have always struggled to get work done on time and that if they had got their work done then the mono-print activity should not have been a issue. I was also annoyed at how the students could not just sit and do the printing! Why was it such a big deal that they had to play around with drawing designs, printing them and printing them onto Bags, it was as if one drawing, one print was enough for them! They’re supposed to be art and design students! They’re supposed to play around with new techniques and methods but it was one go, don’t like it, not doing it again with them which really annoyed me as I am slowly getting more annoyed with the students ‘can’t do attitude’ when things are hard or do not go right the first time no matter how many times I tell them it will only get easier the more they do it and it doesn’t matter if it goes wrong just tell me why it went wrong!

 

Either way today felt like a lot of work… and I don’t know how I feel about it really.

Experience Marking – Part 1

Back at it after the Christmas holidays and my first real trial at marking students work. Just before the holiday I sat with a mentor who showed me how they mark the BTEC work and we did one together going through it step by step, today I sat going though my small pile of allocated students alone using the one we did as a guide along with the assessment criteria from the BTEC handbook/ website.

I found that the marking became easier once I had done a couple; as a problem with Art and Design is that it can be quite unclear on if the student had really achieved the evidence to fulfil the criteria. I found that a couple students had but not quite (in my opinion) shown evidence of for example ‘compare ideas and concepts in art and design work’ the first marker for a Pass on one of the Units. It was sometimes difficult to gauge if that student had really done enough to achieve that mark as the marking was simply a yes or no on achievement for various points to achieve a Pass, Merit or Distinction (broken down into Pass 1, 2, 3, 4 etc.) but the more I did the easier it was to spot and understand if the evidence was there or not, comparing the evidence of one student against another.

Taking this on board it was still sometimes difficult to mark the work, but it was also a slow process. I started with reading the marking criteria so I knew what to be looking out for, then I sat and read through the students full work (sketchbooks and everything) returning to the criteria after to fill it in. Sometimes it was very clear if a student had or had not fulfilled the criteria but the next issue was the notes that had to be written. Because work is double marked and for the feedback to the students I was told it is very important to give notes and feedback on how the student had or had not fulfilled the criteria but without giving away if they haven’t,  what they need to do to achieve it (that’s for the verbal feedback) as this is a summative assessment and as teachers we should help students in their learning, rather than just tell them what it is that needs doing which I found difficult as I sometimes thought how can I tell them what they need to do without being too vague.

Something that concerned me was the feeling that I was being fair to the students, and I think that comes from always having those students say how certain teachers are strict with their marking then others but after looking through the assessment criteria more and after giving it ago I found that it is really down to the evidence. Making sure that I could clearly say yes there is evidence or not the evidence is not there / not enough was the important thing to clearly get into my head deciding that pushing the student to be better is what matters so if I was unsure that a marking criteria hadn’t been met then mark it as a no rather than a yes as the student wouldn’t then be able to learn, I just have to make sure my feedback is clear and helpful so they see this.

I have told my students to treat their work like it is being marked by people that do not have a clue what they are doing (in terms of Art and Design that is) and to literally spell out everything they are thinking and doing in their sketch books to prove they have done something and it is this which makes it easier to mark, where students have headed the pages ‘development ideas’ rather than just plain sketches randomly in the books (as they rarely run chronologically to the design process like they should).

Going through the work made it clear why it is so important to double mark, due to the ambiguous nature of the marking criteria and also helped me see where students were failing the most (typically written work, which isn’t surprising but disappointing as I’ve been trying to work with the students on this) so I can go into the next project with this in mind.

The next step is the double mark and then I have to give the students their feedback, then comes the re-mark so watch this space for updates.

Cover for Others!

Today was my first day back teaching after having two weeks off and was I thrown in the deep end or what!

Arriving at the college at just past 8:30am I was informed that three teaching staff were currently off and cover was urgently needed. This resulted in me taking the two classes I typically have but together! Two classes in one! So obviously I had to change all my lesson plans as it would have been impossible to do my planned one-to-ones as the second class (Group A) are more needy than my first so I basically had to do as much as possible, moving around the class, helping those that needed it and checking in on those that didn’t just to make sure.

Obviously this led to many difficulties, mainly that of keeping students on task. The mixed group and change of normal class structure meant they were already disrupted in their mood to work and more excitable and I feel I saw a glimpse of how substitute teachers feel being a cover teacher out of the loop almost. Having more students to watch also meant that it was easier for the students to fall off task (though I do believe I am slowly developing the ‘eyes in the back of my head’ phenomenon but it is extremely difficult to do) and also hard to get them back on task. This wasn’t helped by the students being unsure on what they should be doing and or really needing a sit down to go through their work which just isn’t happening. What I am finding with both groups is the feeling that many of the students struggle to get past issues they have with the work which stops them and sucks all the motivation from them, especially since they know they will fail if they don’t do the work which I find baffling. I feel that many of the students fall back on a loop hole of having 10 days to re-sit work which takes some of the finality of doing the work.

Another issue was that the students who also needed the help only had me, while lately they have me and their regular tutor and I witnessed the old issue of too many students and not enough teacher time – trying to get these students to do something else while they wait for help is also near impossible as they’re so linear in their working and thinking, which links back to if they have an issue they stop dead and don’t work.

I think a big problem is my classroom management, I do feel I am not being strict enough with the students but I don’t really know how to do it… I have a feeling it’s all down to tone of voice and nipping issues in the bud but I think it could be my own confidence of doing it and what to do if they do have issues. I  feel it is a matter of not treating the students like they are back at school but obviously giving them freedom isn’t working all the time which is the worst issue as sometimes the classes work fine and although I felt there was a pattern emerging this class really threw that idea into the wind.

The second block of classes had the issue of having too many students and not enough space but thankfully the technicians helped with having students (those more capable and who knew what they were doing) moved to another class to work in their sketchbooks, this allowed the remaining students who were all doing practical sewing work to have the attention they needed and once the over-crowding issue was solved the class ran smoothly.

Lunch however was interrupted by a fire which had most of the college evacuated meaning that Group A who I have after lunch came in excitable and hungry (not a great mix) I allowed them to spend the first 15 minutes of the class finishing off their lunches and settling as I felt this was the only method of getting this group to settle and it did work as they then worked well for the hour and 15 minutes. With 45 minutes left of the class is when the students began to really fall off task again, I sometimes feel that this class being two hours is too much for this class as we often have issues with keeping the students on task, motivated and driven in the last portion of the class but I know that I probably gave in to the students as I tried to get certain students working over and over again but ran out of options!

Covering for other teachers was an experience and having a larger group (25 students) again was an experience I will not forget as it was very different and it was good as I have not had these experiences yet and its all good reading up on class management but as I have seen knowing what to do is very different to doing it in place. I also feel that I need to figure out (AKA Research and ask around)  tactics to get students back on task as I really felt I had ran out of all the options I knew of and became exasperated with the student.

Feelings so Far

It’s been 9/10 weeks (I’ve lost track a little) of the PGCE now and it has honestly been (please excuse the cliché) a massive rollercoaster of feelings and emotions. The most common feeling I have had is that of an overwhelming daunting pressure from the amount of stuff that needs to be done.

I’ve found that the lesson plans and the lessons are coming easier, I still get nervous, especially if I am doing something new or getting observed but these elements of the course are typically becoming the least of my worries as I feel I am steadily improving and getting the hang of it. My lesson plans are taking on average less time to do and I am actually finding myself enjoying classes. The full amount of paperwork a teacher much do hasn’t quite hit me yet (I’m expecting this after Christmas) but I have started dipping my toe in, making sure my registers are correct and absences sent to the reception to be chased and the students’ progress being tracked on my very own spreadsheet.

In regards to the other emotions I’m feeling we recently had one of our eight assignments which I was slightly concerned about, a micro-teach with reflection. Again the teaching aspect I was only slightly concerned about as would anyone who was about to stand in front of people might get but the written reflection was what I was/am most concerned about. 1000 words for a reflection isn’t really a lot anyway but then when we have to link that to theory – something I am still trying to get my head around – the pressure of doing it, and doing it well hit and I froze with no clue of what I was supposed to be doing even though I have basically done this task already in typical class observations. I have basically done it now but my biggest concern is that it is absolute rubbish and not at all a show of what I am capable of. But I can’t think about that for too long anymore because the next assignment has loomed its ugly head from the background with only three weeks to do it which really hit me today as seriously not enough time!

I have come to think the pacing of these assignments is ridiculous as the Micro-teach really should have been earlier as now I am just getting the hang of everything else thinking about an essay is now in my mind possible but thinking about an essay with three weeks to go is insane! Personally I was so busy thinking about normal classes and then this micro teach that the essay was a tiny (and I mean tiny) niggle in the back of my brain… my main concern was that I was using my time to plan and teach actual people! These poor teenagers have a student teacher as their teacher and I need to be the best that I can for them, their future is at stake and yes I know mine is too but that leads on to other feelings… those of doing enough for me and doing enough for them.

Almost every day I have to remind myself why I am doing this and why these assignments are there, to make us better teachers. We are learning as we are doing as well as learning outside of doing which is pretty full on and hard (not that I thought it wasn’t going to be) but the thoughts of ‘well I could have just stayed in retail, worked my way up’ are hard to fight as I struggle with this pressure that really got me in my Masters.

Some days it is a real struggle, I just want to sit and cry and think why I am doing this to myself. I try to take my own advice, taking little bits at a time, make the lists and progress little and often through it but when I’m trying to do so much as well as do the work it’s not as easy as it should be to just sit and do the work, especially when you just want to sit and have a Harry Potter Marathon to cheer yourself up.

But anyway I digress, these 9/10 weeks have been hard, I’ve enjoyed parts and dreaded parts… I’ve already cried (they said we would before Christmas) and had thoughts of packing it all in (more precisely, packing it ALL in and just going off to read in a corner of the world somewhere where it’s warmer AKA my “if I actually played and won the lottery” plan). The dread these couple of weeks have outweighed the happy feelings and I know that once this essay is out the way things should run smoother… maybe after the feedback too? I’ve had other little worries, some personal some college based as well so it has been tough emotionally, the bigger picture is what matters I and each day am that step closer, I just have to repeat that a lot.

No matter what I feel though I must get back to doing actual work as this blog has turned somewhat into a form of positive procrastination.

Activity Makes the Class Run Better

Last Monday I had an observation and it could have gone a lot better, the students were really rowdy and would not keep to task, they got little done in the session and it was s big waste of two hours. They were however doing Risk Assessments and Health and Safety of the workroom… not the most interesting of subjects and since this task was sprung on me as something they had to do that lesson I had not planned for it so a whole heap of things just went wrong and that old saying which our tutor is fond of saying came true ‘fail to plan, plan to fail’.

Anyway my thoughts on the class were that I should have got the students working together with me to do the risk assessments, worked as a larger group to 1. Keep them on task and 2. Actually get the damn thing done but alas I didn’t and it all went to pot and I would rather not dwell on it here.

This week however the class were being practical, working with fabric manipulations and though many were apprehensive about using sewing machines and hot wax they were angels!! The class was split into two groups due to the number supplies and although not split how I would have split them (making sure the two trouble makers were in different groups) it was like a whole different class. Okay so soon they need to sit and annotate their samples but this class really hit home how activity in the class is the best way to get certain levels of student (in this case low achieving level 3 BTEC students) working.

Learning by doing is after-all considered one of the seven factors that underpin successful learning (Race, 2010).

 

Reference

• Race, P. (2010) Making Learning Happen: A Guide for Post-Compulsory Education. Second Edition. London: Sage Publishing

 

Another lesson and more things learnt

So today was another lesson that I took by myself with just another teacher in the room who is simply there to support if I need it.

I have started to get to know the class much more now so find it easier to talk to them and understand how the class works however the quietness of the class is still an issue I need to deal with when it comes to questioning. So far open and closed questions have worked well with this class however getting them to speak out on their own feelings is where I am struggling.

This lesson was a struggle to have open discussions though as the topic was personal with ‘memories’ being the focus so getting the students to discuss in a group was a little awkward and due to the questions being open and personal I felt that I could not question a particular student like I would if I was asking a more factual question. I hope that through continuing a method of asking personal opinions, especially through group critical analysis of their own work and other artists/designers work the students will open up and feel that they can answer and not feel that there is a ‘wrong’ answer as I feel that this is a big issue with students. Also reading up more on methods of directing a discussion would help, I have done a little reading, just from Geoff Petty’s book (I own it and so far have found it easier to read however I am aware that I need to read more around the subject) but know it is something that takes practice to develop.  Discussing on a smaller group basis (myself and three students maximum) and one-to-ones however is another matter, the students are happier to open up and talk about almost anything so it could be a larger group dynamic issue.

I do feel that the classroom layout was also not the best to encourage group discussion, this class is in a MAC room and typically for the use of contextual research so students are in rows, sat behind computers facing forward. This however was the student’s first lesson on their new subject so they needed to work on mind-maps first. Ideally I would have had the students in a different room but I wasn’t aware this was an option until I felt it was too late to inform the students of the change.

With this class I wanted to make sure I started the class with a reminder on phone policy, I made sure to have the class focus on me before I started and I feel that the reminder went well and that they all listened but only time will tell.

One thing that cropped up was the lateness of two students in particular, this was the second week running they were late, with no real excuse (it is a 9am lesson so it is understandable for the odd lateness) so after discussing with the regular tutor it would not be unreasonable to talk to the pair and set punctuality targets with them.

I also feel that sometimes when I address the group, for example in this class when explaining the next steps in what they were doing, many do continue to work so it is hard to judge who is paying attention however with these classes being practical I also don’t want to disturb the students as these next steps are for the students have finished the first step but that this could just be my own inexperience, so far I have not needed to repeat myself after these addresses but I might find that this is the case and that it might be a case of judging when it is appropriate to stop the class to have 100% attention.

 

So far this is only my third full lesson so there will always be things to learn, but the important thing will be to take heed of what I am learning and apply it figuring what works and what does not.

One day, Three Lessons, Two Observations

Mondays are my busy day and this Monday was no different.  I have three, two hour lessons with Level 3 year 1 students, 2 of which I am slowly taking over for them to become my classes and this week those two classes were observed!

Observations we are told do not need to be scary, we are only weeks into our training so there are bound to be elements that we are lacking and or don’t even know yet so these early observations are critical in helping push us along the right path. For me I was a little nervous to begin with just because it was the first time I had been ‘watched’ and I felt that these classes were the first where I would be really alone in teaching however, the classes went alright without any major disruptions so I had nothing to worry about really.

The observations helped me notice where I was lacking and also brought to light ways to take advantage of opportunities in teaching. I realised that most of the time it was simply that, I lacked the information to know what I was doing or I lacked the knowledge that what I was doing was right… if any of that made sense to you?

Basically where I had failed to fill in a lesson plan I never realised that when discussing with students what they had achieved today or the symmetry in a face for example actually does cover ‘assessment’ and ‘numeracy’ two key areas observers look out for. Areas I was lacking such as embedding equality and diversity I’ve never even heard of before so I was naturally clueless on the whole process and although worried about not including this had to accept that it wasn’t something we had yet covered so there was no need to be too hung up on trying to do something that you don’t know how do to.

 

 

One part of the observation process is reflecting on the lesson and what your observer has discussed with you and I generally find reflecting easy however we have to think about reflecting with links to theory for these reflections and that is where I have struggled so far. It is still early in the course after all  but I already feel I am mountains behind in my reading and doing these reflections made me realise this a little more (and made me panic, brought on a massive feeling of being overwhelmed which brought on a crippling migraine). I realised in the reflections that yes I have these areas I need to improve, yes I know I need to do research to improve but I haven’t yet done the research so how could I mention this?

I hope the next reflection is where you can show all this progress better as by then I should be able to mention what I have changed from the last lesson and how I have changed it by (typically) reading such and such book or I so guess.

We have a minimum of nine observations to undergo before we complete the course so I’m sure I’ll get the hang of things…hopefully.