Week 15
The week started slightly different than usual as we had a guest for history. A man came in for a Roman role play. This was a really useful activity as he used the class to demonstrate certain aspects of the Roman lifestyles, such as how they would stand in a cohort or how they would stand for battle. This was a really good learning technique, I certainly learnt from it and I think children will enjoy some practical learning.
Geography was all about the assignment as well as the upcoming field trip. The first point Pete made was that there are still mysteries in humanities and it is important to remember this, as children enjoy stories and mystery. We then went on to look at risk assessments, how to fill out the hazards, who could be harmed from the dangers and what can be done to avoid these risks.
We then went on to make I spy booklets, these are really good for fieldtrips as it keeps the children engaged and using geographical language. The booklets have a picture on each page of something that needs to be seen with a brief description, the children can tick them off when they see them and learn from the description. If children were to make their own booklets in class we should keep an eye out for if they go wrong to help them adapt their designs.
I.C.T in subject
featuring maths The Robot Invasion! This was the I.T lecture that included the use of robots in the classroom. We can learn from robots as these robots can be used to teach about shapes, angles, lengths, units as well as many other things. The good thing about the robots is it keeps interest whilst learning as they are fun. There are different types of robots to use too, such as bee-bot, which is designed like a bee.
This lesson got me thinking which robots might make good teachers, I immediately ruled out terminator, wall-e is probably rubbish too. I do, however, think that Robocop, C3P0 and that maid from the Jetsons will all be good candidates.
The follow up lecture was us playing with the robots and getting ourselves familiar with the way they work. We then each thought up an activity to use them with in the classroom.
In English this week we had a practise audit, this went ok but I do need to learn a bit about morphemes, that was my downfall!
Next we compared some spoken and written examples of a girl, and saw how much more detailed the written version of an events was a lot more descriptive than when the girl was just saying them. Also when speaking there were lots of pauses and modification to the story.
Before school children know very little about how to write, so they do all their learning with school. Before they start school they may be able to write letters and their names, but that will probably be about it, they come to school to learn the meaning of the language and what the symbols they are writing down are worth.
In the next part of the lesson we looked at the process of writing, there are 5 steps, the first is the characters, then setting, then drama, then what happens in between and finally resolution.
The last part of the lesson Tatti showed us something helpful, if you draw a hand, write on the palm how, then on each finger, who, what, where, when and why.
The last day of the week had primary education in context. We started by looking at reflective thinking and the stages of the reflective process, focus, awareness and critical analysis.
We then looked at planning a lesson, a good lesson should have:
Good teachers knowledge and understanding
Effective planning
Effective behaviour management
Effective teaching of basic skills
Good use of time, support staff and resources
Effective range of teaching methods
High expectations mapped well to activities
Effective use of ongoing assessment
Effective use of homework
Good supportive learning environment
We went on to show the lesson plans we went through in groups. This went well as our group made a smart board presentation; we then got feedback from another group and heard theirs.
When planning a lesson we have to keep certain things in mind, for example, it is important to know the children, we need to be ready to adapt, in case a lesson doesnt go exactly to plan, the lessons will start to fit together, rather than individual classes they will all be like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, timing and pace of the lesson, so the lesson and generally whole day will flow nicely and finally C.C.A.