The healing power of poetry,
Ok, 5 weeks of school placement. 2 weeks of manic excitement when I couldn't get the grin off my face and teachers kept commenting on the spring in my step. Half way through week 3 reality began to seep in.
If you spend every waking hour working at teaching, thinking about your classes,your porfolio and your first assignment then pass your few hours of sleep dreaming about same and occasionally waking up to write down your ideas about Grammar Bingo, your brain will melt and run out of your ears. You will loose the ability to punctuate. You will become so tired and confused by lesson planning that you won't be able to see the wood for the trees, creating just one learning objective will become as hard as scaling Everest in a Bikini and flippers with an armful of porcupines.
If you are a trainee teacher don't do this. If you are researching new ways of punishing miscreants give it a try, you will probably find something you can use.
Reality began seeping in then engulfed me in a torrent when my other life as a human being insisted on intruding on my teaching. All of this just in time for my crit. Learned my lesson and paced myself better week 4 to be more mentally alert for second crit. Didn't make any difference still got 3Ss' and one U.
Cross tutor lived up to name and ignored all my wonderful formative assessment, demanding summative assessment instead. He marked me down for not achieving a lesson objective I didn't have and said my lesson dragged because I had various children teaching the class ( 6 of whom had missed the last weeks lessons and 3 of whom have specific learning difficulties and no learning support) what we had done last week. I had intended to do more including an exciting group task that went very well the following day but thought it more important, bearing in mind who turned up on the day, to make sure they all had a fair chance to write the best poem they could.I had differentiated , i had already marked and returned several first attempts and the new teaching that was done was geared to the needs of those who had grasped the previous learning.
Cross tutor was right I shouldn't go at the pace of the slowest learner. I think he wants me to gear pace to the ones who are at the top of the average spectrum. I also think he wants me to be shorter than him, 20 years younger and just a bit more deferential but these thoughts definately originate in my pique at his reasons for giving me a U. I did deserve a U but I don't agree with his reasons for giving me one.
Now at end of week 5, both cits over with reassurance from Hugelyimportant and other Jordanhill tutor that i am not the worst student teacher in history am back in as sane a state as it is likely i can achieve without the kind of salary that buys Paul Smith skirts. Poetry and first years have cured me.
I'm glad i did the recap lesson on Monday even if it cost me a U in professional skills. The submissions for the poetry competition are due tomorrow and I have 25 finished and redrafted poems. Two are exceptional and i've made sure by getting them to do them in class that they are not by the poet Google. All the rest are better than we could have hoped. Only two need to be redrafted for submission during tomorrow's lesson. For the last 3 lessons there have been cries of dismay when i've brought the lesson to a close. One has told me that mine are her favourite lessons and she "never even liked English before" even though i have disciplined her several times.
Today's lesson wouldn't have passed a crit either. There were 27 pupils all engaged and interested in producing the best poem they could.One very able pupil waited the whole lesson for my attention,bad,bad,bad but I will learn to manage this without them mobbing me, waving various bits of paper and arguing about who's turn it is to talk to me about their work. Last period of the day, a whole lesson tomorrow before we have to submit the poem. I had to shoo most of them out or they would have missed their busses home.
Perhaps every lesson, every day doesn't have to achive a Satisfactory grade on all 4 Jordanhill criteria to make you what Brian Boyd told us to aim to be ie "a good enough teacher who is a self reflective practitioner, always trying to improve," because nobody will ever be the perfect teacher.
Ok, 5 weeks of school placement. 2 weeks of manic excitement when I couldn't get the grin off my face and teachers kept commenting on the spring in my step. Half way through week 3 reality began to seep in.
If you spend every waking hour working at teaching, thinking about your classes,your porfolio and your first assignment then pass your few hours of sleep dreaming about same and occasionally waking up to write down your ideas about Grammar Bingo, your brain will melt and run out of your ears. You will loose the ability to punctuate. You will become so tired and confused by lesson planning that you won't be able to see the wood for the trees, creating just one learning objective will become as hard as scaling Everest in a Bikini and flippers with an armful of porcupines.
If you are a trainee teacher don't do this. If you are researching new ways of punishing miscreants give it a try, you will probably find something you can use.
Reality began seeping in then engulfed me in a torrent when my other life as a human being insisted on intruding on my teaching. All of this just in time for my crit. Learned my lesson and paced myself better week 4 to be more mentally alert for second crit. Didn't make any difference still got 3Ss' and one U.
Cross tutor lived up to name and ignored all my wonderful formative assessment, demanding summative assessment instead. He marked me down for not achieving a lesson objective I didn't have and said my lesson dragged because I had various children teaching the class ( 6 of whom had missed the last weeks lessons and 3 of whom have specific learning difficulties and no learning support) what we had done last week. I had intended to do more including an exciting group task that went very well the following day but thought it more important, bearing in mind who turned up on the day, to make sure they all had a fair chance to write the best poem they could.I had differentiated , i had already marked and returned several first attempts and the new teaching that was done was geared to the needs of those who had grasped the previous learning.
Cross tutor was right I shouldn't go at the pace of the slowest learner. I think he wants me to gear pace to the ones who are at the top of the average spectrum. I also think he wants me to be shorter than him, 20 years younger and just a bit more deferential but these thoughts definately originate in my pique at his reasons for giving me a U. I did deserve a U but I don't agree with his reasons for giving me one.
Now at end of week 5, both cits over with reassurance from Hugelyimportant and other Jordanhill tutor that i am not the worst student teacher in history am back in as sane a state as it is likely i can achieve without the kind of salary that buys Paul Smith skirts. Poetry and first years have cured me.
I'm glad i did the recap lesson on Monday even if it cost me a U in professional skills. The submissions for the poetry competition are due tomorrow and I have 25 finished and redrafted poems. Two are exceptional and i've made sure by getting them to do them in class that they are not by the poet Google. All the rest are better than we could have hoped. Only two need to be redrafted for submission during tomorrow's lesson. For the last 3 lessons there have been cries of dismay when i've brought the lesson to a close. One has told me that mine are her favourite lessons and she "never even liked English before" even though i have disciplined her several times.
Today's lesson wouldn't have passed a crit either. There were 27 pupils all engaged and interested in producing the best poem they could.One very able pupil waited the whole lesson for my attention,bad,bad,bad but I will learn to manage this without them mobbing me, waving various bits of paper and arguing about who's turn it is to talk to me about their work. Last period of the day, a whole lesson tomorrow before we have to submit the poem. I had to shoo most of them out or they would have missed their busses home.
Perhaps every lesson, every day doesn't have to achive a Satisfactory grade on all 4 Jordanhill criteria to make you what Brian Boyd told us to aim to be ie "a good enough teacher who is a self reflective practitioner, always trying to improve," because nobody will ever be the perfect teacher.
posted by willieloman at 8:04 pm
2 Comments:
Thanks for the clock
Since technolgy has beaten me & I now no longer have broadband & this won't let me log in I'll have to be anonymous & give you praise anyway. I think it sounds as though students are learning stuff. Isn't that what teaching is about? Sometimes it's just nescessary to forget targets & achieve things - not all the time obviously & I know that we all need measurements - but keep up the great job! If my son finds the occaisional teacher along the way to inspire him I will be very grateful...
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