Returning to the subject of Mike, our FT DTLLS Course Tutor's dismissal.
We had received no communication about the situation from the powers that be by the end of Tuesday, and the majority of my classmates were wanting action. One or two urged caution and letting sleeping dogs lie - on the basis that they weren't keen to compromise their chances of employment at the college post graduation - but this incident (along with the ongoing administrative problems) had made this seem a less attractive idea to some, and they wanted answers.
So on Tuesday evening a substantial email, penned by Jay and me, outlining our grievances from the reasons and timing of Mike's dismissal, through the failure to let us know about the situation, to the detailed results of this action on our classwork, assignments and ongoing placement issues, was sent to the college Principal and the Vice Principal who is in charge of Adult Education. We had concerned responses within hours.
The next day we were told that Jen, a new tutor to the department (covering a maternity leave), though not to the college, would be teaching us for the rest of the term and that the VP would be talking to the class on Friday (the next time we would meet).
On Friday, Jen welcomed us and within minutes the VP arrived. Concern about our issues was forthcoming, but not an apology. The VP, it seemed, had allocated us a whole five minutes of his valuable time - but we kept him for over half an hour, making him go through the detail of our work problems and possible solutions - essentially creating a long To Do list for Jen and yet another rescheduling of assignment hand-in dates and course timetabling. This unenviable project may demonstrate to Jen the problems of the course design and organisation that Mike has been struggling with all term and which have caused his massive overload - in our view.
All queries about Mike's dismissal were deflected with the response that it would be unfair on Mike to discuss it with us; and interwoven throughout the discussion were supportive statements about Anna and implicit criticisms of Mike. We tried to make it clear that we did not think Mike to blame for the organisational inadequacies.
Eventually the VP managed to extract himself from our classroom, but said he would return next week to see how Jen was getting on with the rearrangements - not as full as response to our issues as we had hoped for.
However, we all took to Jen - her personality, experience, willingness to help and - when we actually got round to experiencing it - her teaching style and depth of knowledge. But the amount of work she now has to undertake (including all through the Christmas break, she told us) and the waste of our learning time in introducing ourselves to her, explaining what we have covered so far, and making more explicit the issues with our assignments etc - is highly detrimental to us as students, and frankly unacceptable.
We wonder, while all this is going on for us, what is happening to Mike; whether he is looking for work elsewhere or appealing his dismissal. Even at this late stage, he would be welcomed back by his students.
29 November 2009
28 November 2009
Teaching Placement - Week One
Monday, 9.30am was the first day and class of my teaching practice. An adult literacy class offsite at a local Surestart centre. I arrived before Laura and was let into the "learning room" - a basic room with tables and chairs, a sofa one end and a flipchart. Nothing to assist with the ICT functional skills or emerging technology we're supposed to pack into every session to hit all the criteria of a top teacher.
Laura arrived after a couple of the students;we pulled the tables into a central block and six students settled themselves around it. The five women and one man were all thirties and upwards, a couple of women working towards Level 2, the man just Level 1 and the rest in between. A nice and hard-working group, who Laura had just got started on a recap/warm-up about prepositions when a seventh class member turned up. This woman had a poor attendance rate - in fact should have received a letter telling her she was no longer on the course, but Laura welcomed her and included her in the work.
Laura used the flipchart and handouts, directed questioning and discussion to good effect - in fact in the literacy classes I've observed so far, the more basic teaching aids seem more appropriate than using hi tec ICT - although in college they all work on individual PCs for a large proportion of the class. At Surestart, the same work is simply done on paper.
At break time Laura took the latecomer aside and chatted to her on the sofa. After the break was over, she left me in charge of the rest of the group and took the woman out, returning alone after 10 minutes. It transpired later that Laura had noticed the student had refused a cup of tea (which costs 20p) and putting this together with various other signs, realised something was wrong. This woman is a mother of two small children and had £10 to last her for the rest of the week and no credit on her phone, so Laura had given her some advice about accessing emergency funds and taken her to the main Surestart office to make some phone calls. It was difficult call, she said, but with small children involved and me there to cover briefly, it seemed the best option in an emergency situation.
When Laura returned she set the other women individual tasks, set up tests for a couple of them to do at college next week and I worked with Mark, the student who had joined most recently. It was an enjoyable lesson with an interesting anc committed group and I look forward to working with them further.
I went over to the college after this to meet Jay. As the two DTLLS class reps, we went up to the departmental office to see if we could talk to Anna - Mike's line manager and the FT DTLLS manager, to see if she would talk to us about the situation with him. As it turned out she was off sick, probably for the whole week, and though she looked distinctly uncomfortable, Pearl couldn't suggest any other course of action than seeing her when she returned. Not satisfactory.
Tuesday was Numeracy - 9am to 12pm onsite at college. Yasmin, who did the FT DTLLS course with a Literacy placement last year, is helping Laura with this class as a voluntary teaching assistant to help her get paid work. There are six students, one of whom is deaf and has a signer, one has brittle bone disease and is in a wheelchair, and another speaks unclearly and has learning difficuties. Laura did a recap exercise on the whiteboard on number bonds, which raised a number of other issues. The class collectively has poor memory for concepts.
Yasmin had prepared a section on Healthy Eating, involving weighing and estimating the weight of portions of five-a-day fruit and vegetables. Although she got an aspect of fractions wrong which Laura had to correct, the class loved the Noughts and Crosses team game around which she framed some intital questions about weight values, and enjoyed weighing the portions of real fruit and veg she had brought with her. I worked with a pair of students during this exercise, which I was happy with.
After the break the whole class moved rooms to a computer lab where they all did individual tests and online work sheets. I worked with one student on a test, which went well enough. Then while they were working alone, Laura, Yasmin and I discussed next week's class and activities. I volunteered to create some worksheets around estimating prices, actual prices and adding more of the five-a-day portions. It was agreed that I'd need to include pictures to help the wheelchair student who has poor literacy skills.
In the break, Yasmin told me that last year's FT DTLLS course had been run by four tutors for two classes, but they had many problems, especially around mentors and placements - which have certainly not been solved this year. It seems that all four tutors took voluntary severance after being off long-term sick (stress) at various points during year. Mike was dismissed but appealed and was reinstated - to end up running the full time course more or less single-handed. I went up to the departmental office after class and had the conversation with Scott, as reported below.
Wednesday 12 - 3pm: the Literacy class I've observed a couple of times already. The normal room was having the ITC equipment upgraded so we all, me pushing the wheelchair student, decamped to a less than pleasant classroom in another block without the suite of PCs these students are used to. After a group ice-breaker/recap, Laura set the class differentiated tasks on handouts; I worked with the more advanced group on Active and Passive voices, rewriting sentences from one to the other. I enjoyed working with them, though even amongst three there was a mix of abilities and I wasn't sure I kept the least able learner focused and completely understanding the concept. When I checked his learning with directed questions, though, he seemed to have taken the concept on board.
Normally the second half of the class would have been individual working at PCs, but as this was not possible, Laura asked the class to visit the Information Store (library) and borrow a book or DVD to bring and talk about in class next week. She asked me to find some handouts for next week on commas and clauses, simple and complex sentences.
During this first week of teaching practice, although I didn't take any class on my own for any time, I was reassured that I would in time, with Laura's support, be able to do so, starting with small time periods and working upwards. I felt I related well to the students I did work with, and started to get a feel for their learning styles and abilities.
My biggest area for development remains directed questioning, and asking questions that properly check learning and promote attention and confidence. I also don't think I would have had the experience to note the signs and deal with the problems of the learner in the Monday Surestart class.
Laura arrived after a couple of the students;we pulled the tables into a central block and six students settled themselves around it. The five women and one man were all thirties and upwards, a couple of women working towards Level 2, the man just Level 1 and the rest in between. A nice and hard-working group, who Laura had just got started on a recap/warm-up about prepositions when a seventh class member turned up. This woman had a poor attendance rate - in fact should have received a letter telling her she was no longer on the course, but Laura welcomed her and included her in the work.
Laura used the flipchart and handouts, directed questioning and discussion to good effect - in fact in the literacy classes I've observed so far, the more basic teaching aids seem more appropriate than using hi tec ICT - although in college they all work on individual PCs for a large proportion of the class. At Surestart, the same work is simply done on paper.
At break time Laura took the latecomer aside and chatted to her on the sofa. After the break was over, she left me in charge of the rest of the group and took the woman out, returning alone after 10 minutes. It transpired later that Laura had noticed the student had refused a cup of tea (which costs 20p) and putting this together with various other signs, realised something was wrong. This woman is a mother of two small children and had £10 to last her for the rest of the week and no credit on her phone, so Laura had given her some advice about accessing emergency funds and taken her to the main Surestart office to make some phone calls. It was difficult call, she said, but with small children involved and me there to cover briefly, it seemed the best option in an emergency situation.
When Laura returned she set the other women individual tasks, set up tests for a couple of them to do at college next week and I worked with Mark, the student who had joined most recently. It was an enjoyable lesson with an interesting anc committed group and I look forward to working with them further.
I went over to the college after this to meet Jay. As the two DTLLS class reps, we went up to the departmental office to see if we could talk to Anna - Mike's line manager and the FT DTLLS manager, to see if she would talk to us about the situation with him. As it turned out she was off sick, probably for the whole week, and though she looked distinctly uncomfortable, Pearl couldn't suggest any other course of action than seeing her when she returned. Not satisfactory.
Tuesday was Numeracy - 9am to 12pm onsite at college. Yasmin, who did the FT DTLLS course with a Literacy placement last year, is helping Laura with this class as a voluntary teaching assistant to help her get paid work. There are six students, one of whom is deaf and has a signer, one has brittle bone disease and is in a wheelchair, and another speaks unclearly and has learning difficuties. Laura did a recap exercise on the whiteboard on number bonds, which raised a number of other issues. The class collectively has poor memory for concepts.
Yasmin had prepared a section on Healthy Eating, involving weighing and estimating the weight of portions of five-a-day fruit and vegetables. Although she got an aspect of fractions wrong which Laura had to correct, the class loved the Noughts and Crosses team game around which she framed some intital questions about weight values, and enjoyed weighing the portions of real fruit and veg she had brought with her. I worked with a pair of students during this exercise, which I was happy with.
After the break the whole class moved rooms to a computer lab where they all did individual tests and online work sheets. I worked with one student on a test, which went well enough. Then while they were working alone, Laura, Yasmin and I discussed next week's class and activities. I volunteered to create some worksheets around estimating prices, actual prices and adding more of the five-a-day portions. It was agreed that I'd need to include pictures to help the wheelchair student who has poor literacy skills.
In the break, Yasmin told me that last year's FT DTLLS course had been run by four tutors for two classes, but they had many problems, especially around mentors and placements - which have certainly not been solved this year. It seems that all four tutors took voluntary severance after being off long-term sick (stress) at various points during year. Mike was dismissed but appealed and was reinstated - to end up running the full time course more or less single-handed. I went up to the departmental office after class and had the conversation with Scott, as reported below.
Wednesday 12 - 3pm: the Literacy class I've observed a couple of times already. The normal room was having the ITC equipment upgraded so we all, me pushing the wheelchair student, decamped to a less than pleasant classroom in another block without the suite of PCs these students are used to. After a group ice-breaker/recap, Laura set the class differentiated tasks on handouts; I worked with the more advanced group on Active and Passive voices, rewriting sentences from one to the other. I enjoyed working with them, though even amongst three there was a mix of abilities and I wasn't sure I kept the least able learner focused and completely understanding the concept. When I checked his learning with directed questions, though, he seemed to have taken the concept on board.
Normally the second half of the class would have been individual working at PCs, but as this was not possible, Laura asked the class to visit the Information Store (library) and borrow a book or DVD to bring and talk about in class next week. She asked me to find some handouts for next week on commas and clauses, simple and complex sentences.
During this first week of teaching practice, although I didn't take any class on my own for any time, I was reassured that I would in time, with Laura's support, be able to do so, starting with small time periods and working upwards. I felt I related well to the students I did work with, and started to get a feel for their learning styles and abilities.
My biggest area for development remains directed questioning, and asking questions that properly check learning and promote attention and confidence. I also don't think I would have had the experience to note the signs and deal with the problems of the learner in the Monday Surestart class.
25 November 2009
I'm not alone
How exciting - two comments on the post before last, and my site meter tells me a few other people have read this blog other than me and the two (now one) course tutors who presumably check in with this Reflective Journal occasionally.
One from James Atherton, whose website learningandteaching.info is a brilliant resource for trainee teachers like me - and even has a ready made reference to cut and paste into the Reference page of your essays! It has all the theories and principles summarised succinctly but critically with wit, humour and further refs. He's even quoted me in his Recent Reflections blog and made some insightful comments about my moaning.
And another from Sean whose Reflective Journal post on some of the teaching he's been on the receiving end of is quite horrifying. Makes it even more ridiculous that our college has dismissed one of the apparently few good teachers in Adult Education.
One from James Atherton, whose website learningandteaching.info is a brilliant resource for trainee teachers like me - and even has a ready made reference to cut and paste into the Reference page of your essays! It has all the theories and principles summarised succinctly but critically with wit, humour and further refs. He's even quoted me in his Recent Reflections blog and made some insightful comments about my moaning.
And another from Sean whose Reflective Journal post on some of the teaching he's been on the receiving end of is quite horrifying. Makes it even more ridiculous that our college has dismissed one of the apparently few good teachers in Adult Education.
Unexpected Turn of Events
At the risk of sounding like Victor Meldrew, I don't believe it!
They've dismissed our Course Tutor, Mike.
On Friday, our last day in class before we disperse to start teaching practice, we were disappointed to find that Mike was ill and we were being taught by Pearl. Enquiries as to what Mike was suffering from went unanswered and we all went for a pub lunch. In the afternoon, Jay, somewhat merry from the meal out, became a little loud and started to complain about lack of differentiation for those at the top end of the class learning scale. Pearl was flustered by this - well, she only knows us from independently assessing some of our microteaches - and found it hard to take Big Jay in her stride. It made several of us realise how well and adeptly Mike knows and handles us - our diverse needs and personalities.
However, when I got home I found an email from Mike telling me, not that he was unwell, but that he had been dismissed by the college as he hadn't "completed his probation satisfactorily". It was a professional email, sent on the college system, telling us what had happened out of courtesy and in the hope that we would continue to enjoy the course in his absence. But beneath the professional surface, his distress was clear to me.
Obviously I sent it round the group and we were soon emailing and phoning our shock, upset, fury and disgust that the best part of the DTLLS experience had been summarily excised, leaving us with the poor admin, badly organised placements and mentor system, no academic or pastoral tutor, past assignments unmarked (such as the Presentations, some of which only Mike had seen), future assignments waiting for his input, and the loss of his valued teaching. Quite extraordinary to dismiss a key member of staff mid-course and mid-term. How could they do this to us - students are supposed to be at the centre of learning? They certainly never asked for our feedback.
Jay and I, as class reps, went up to the Departmental office on Monday to speak to Mike's line manager and administrator of the course (including mis-managed placements etc). She was off sick and likely to remain so for the week. No one volunteered to tell us what was going on. We all waited, fulminating, for another day - in between our first teaching practice classes), to see if emails or phone calls explaining the situation with Mike would be forthcoming. They were not.
I had a brief conversation with Scott in which we both knew what was being discussed, but he couldn't break professional boundaries and I wasn't willing to tell him how I knew what had happened. He advised us to contact to the Vice Principal in charge of our department -- so late last night, a measured but very concerned letter from the whole DTLLS class (signed by us as class reps) was emailed to the college Principal and relevant Vice Principal.
On the stroke of midnight a brief but concerned reply (not an automated one!) was received from the Principal; by 8am this morning, a similar response came from the Vice Principal. The grapevine now tells us we have a stand in teacher for the rest of this term (only 3 days of teaching) and that the Vice Principal will be speaking to the class on Friday. He should be warned that the class is in fighting mood and only one response will do.
Realitically, we are hoping that Mike will take his case to arbitration and/or tribunal and that the college will reinstate him asap. It's simply not possible to replace the relationships built between a really good teacher and a group as diverse in learning styles, abilities and personalities as ours at this stage of the course. All of us relied on his support and one-to-one tuition as well as his excellent class style and management. At this moment we have many questions, no answers and no one to go to with them.
Given that the college and course are supposed to be modelling good teaching and learning practice - designing and delivering a high quality course for trainee teachers - it seems a questionable way to be going about it.
They've dismissed our Course Tutor, Mike.
On Friday, our last day in class before we disperse to start teaching practice, we were disappointed to find that Mike was ill and we were being taught by Pearl. Enquiries as to what Mike was suffering from went unanswered and we all went for a pub lunch. In the afternoon, Jay, somewhat merry from the meal out, became a little loud and started to complain about lack of differentiation for those at the top end of the class learning scale. Pearl was flustered by this - well, she only knows us from independently assessing some of our microteaches - and found it hard to take Big Jay in her stride. It made several of us realise how well and adeptly Mike knows and handles us - our diverse needs and personalities.
However, when I got home I found an email from Mike telling me, not that he was unwell, but that he had been dismissed by the college as he hadn't "completed his probation satisfactorily". It was a professional email, sent on the college system, telling us what had happened out of courtesy and in the hope that we would continue to enjoy the course in his absence. But beneath the professional surface, his distress was clear to me.
Obviously I sent it round the group and we were soon emailing and phoning our shock, upset, fury and disgust that the best part of the DTLLS experience had been summarily excised, leaving us with the poor admin, badly organised placements and mentor system, no academic or pastoral tutor, past assignments unmarked (such as the Presentations, some of which only Mike had seen), future assignments waiting for his input, and the loss of his valued teaching. Quite extraordinary to dismiss a key member of staff mid-course and mid-term. How could they do this to us - students are supposed to be at the centre of learning? They certainly never asked for our feedback.
Jay and I, as class reps, went up to the Departmental office on Monday to speak to Mike's line manager and administrator of the course (including mis-managed placements etc). She was off sick and likely to remain so for the week. No one volunteered to tell us what was going on. We all waited, fulminating, for another day - in between our first teaching practice classes), to see if emails or phone calls explaining the situation with Mike would be forthcoming. They were not.
I had a brief conversation with Scott in which we both knew what was being discussed, but he couldn't break professional boundaries and I wasn't willing to tell him how I knew what had happened. He advised us to contact to the Vice Principal in charge of our department -- so late last night, a measured but very concerned letter from the whole DTLLS class (signed by us as class reps) was emailed to the college Principal and relevant Vice Principal.
On the stroke of midnight a brief but concerned reply (not an automated one!) was received from the Principal; by 8am this morning, a similar response came from the Vice Principal. The grapevine now tells us we have a stand in teacher for the rest of this term (only 3 days of teaching) and that the Vice Principal will be speaking to the class on Friday. He should be warned that the class is in fighting mood and only one response will do.
Realitically, we are hoping that Mike will take his case to arbitration and/or tribunal and that the college will reinstate him asap. It's simply not possible to replace the relationships built between a really good teacher and a group as diverse in learning styles, abilities and personalities as ours at this stage of the course. All of us relied on his support and one-to-one tuition as well as his excellent class style and management. At this moment we have many questions, no answers and no one to go to with them.
Given that the college and course are supposed to be modelling good teaching and learning practice - designing and delivering a high quality course for trainee teachers - it seems a questionable way to be going about it.
21 November 2009
Post Presentation
It's been a heavy week - and it's only Wednesday.
Today we had to give our 15-minute presentations on a subject specialist resource we had designed. It sounded like a reasonably simple assignment, but typically I made my Adult Literacy resource relate to my previous area of expertise, psychology and well-being. James W Pennebaker has long been a hero of mine for proving, in controlled clinical research, that writing about trauma - in a freestyle, but structured way - promote psychological and physical well-being.
The result was I didn't finish writing the presentation and preparing the Powerpoint until late the night before so there was no time to rehearse and I ended up reading from notes - which I'm sure I'll get marked down on. But in a choice between free delivery but losing my place and thread and leaving out important info, and sticking to a script which progressed with clarity and got in all the necessary points, I chose the latter.
This course is making me feel strangely de-skilled in many ways. I've delivered management training, talks, seminars, workshops and creative writing classes for many years; ok, I may not have done so in a technically perfect way, but feedback has always been good and I've always thought that I can get information over to people and relate well to an audience/class. Now I feel like I don't know how to do it right any more at all; that my natural style has been compromised and I may be too old a dog to learn new tricks successfully. When I have presented research reports in the past to an academic audience, there has been no problem with working from notes - in fact it's expected.
I feel the same about writing, after the marking of Module 1 essays - though these are now being re-checked and it has been admitted that they were marked at Level 5 standards instead of Level 4, which this course is.
And yet I'm not impressed with the administration of the course nor the modelling of how to run a satisfactory course for students (not "learners", we've now been told - "students" is college policy). The teaching of our two main tutors has been excellent, but the surrounding admin and support pretty useless.
Today we had to give our 15-minute presentations on a subject specialist resource we had designed. It sounded like a reasonably simple assignment, but typically I made my Adult Literacy resource relate to my previous area of expertise, psychology and well-being. James W Pennebaker has long been a hero of mine for proving, in controlled clinical research, that writing about trauma - in a freestyle, but structured way - promote psychological and physical well-being.
The result was I didn't finish writing the presentation and preparing the Powerpoint until late the night before so there was no time to rehearse and I ended up reading from notes - which I'm sure I'll get marked down on. But in a choice between free delivery but losing my place and thread and leaving out important info, and sticking to a script which progressed with clarity and got in all the necessary points, I chose the latter.
This course is making me feel strangely de-skilled in many ways. I've delivered management training, talks, seminars, workshops and creative writing classes for many years; ok, I may not have done so in a technically perfect way, but feedback has always been good and I've always thought that I can get information over to people and relate well to an audience/class. Now I feel like I don't know how to do it right any more at all; that my natural style has been compromised and I may be too old a dog to learn new tricks successfully. When I have presented research reports in the past to an academic audience, there has been no problem with working from notes - in fact it's expected.
I feel the same about writing, after the marking of Module 1 essays - though these are now being re-checked and it has been admitted that they were marked at Level 5 standards instead of Level 4, which this course is.
And yet I'm not impressed with the administration of the course nor the modelling of how to run a satisfactory course for students (not "learners", we've now been told - "students" is college policy). The teaching of our two main tutors has been excellent, but the surrounding admin and support pretty useless.
14 November 2009
DTLLS Class Song
I wrote this in a moment of madness/creativity in half an hour last weekend - who knows why?
To be sung to the tune of ABBA's "Dancing Queen"
We can learn, we can teach; distinction, merit or pass.
Take it down, feed it back – diggin’ the DTTLS Class.
Thursday night and the essay’s due;
Will our theories in use ring true?
Have we referenced our sources; Gravells, Petty, Race -
Got Bloom and Schon in place?
Anybody could mark our work,
Can’t assume they’ll accept our quirks.
Add a plug for Vygostsky; Maslow motivates -
We’re in child ego state,
Let’s differentiate!
We are the DTTLS Class, SMART of aim and truly diverse;
DTTLS Class – reflective journals all getting worse?
We can learn, we can teach; distinction, merit or pass:
See those guys, watch those girls diggin’ the DTTLS Class.
We're assessing and feeding back,
Formative, summative – got the knack!
Struggling with our mentors – if there’s one in reach –
We’ve done our microteach;
My ILP’s in breach...
We are the DTLLS Class, SMART of aim and truly diverse;
DTLLS Class – trying hard not to swear or curse.
We can learn, we can teach; distinction, merit or pass;
Write that SOL, cloze that gap; diggin’ the DTLLS Class.
To be sung to the tune of ABBA's "Dancing Queen"
We can learn, we can teach; distinction, merit or pass.
Take it down, feed it back – diggin’ the DTTLS Class.
Thursday night and the essay’s due;
Will our theories in use ring true?
Have we referenced our sources; Gravells, Petty, Race -
Got Bloom and Schon in place?
Anybody could mark our work,
Can’t assume they’ll accept our quirks.
Add a plug for Vygostsky; Maslow motivates -
We’re in child ego state,
Let’s differentiate!
We are the DTTLS Class, SMART of aim and truly diverse;
DTTLS Class – reflective journals all getting worse?
We can learn, we can teach; distinction, merit or pass:
See those guys, watch those girls diggin’ the DTTLS Class.
We're assessing and feeding back,
Formative, summative – got the knack!
Struggling with our mentors – if there’s one in reach –
We’ve done our microteach;
My ILP’s in breach...
We are the DTLLS Class, SMART of aim and truly diverse;
DTLLS Class – trying hard not to swear or curse.
We can learn, we can teach; distinction, merit or pass;
Write that SOL, cloze that gap; diggin’ the DTLLS Class.
Been Too Long
Nearly a month, I see, since I lasted "reflected" here - I'm supposed to be doing so at least once a week so might lose marks for this in some formative assessment! The fact is, I've been finding it increasingly hard to keep up with the demands of the DTLLS course.
The week after I last posted, my old life made a bit of a come back and I had a morning off co-presenting a radio show, an evening talk to a writers' group, a day in London judging a work-life balance competition - and it was my birthday. The week after that was half term - a good time to get assignments and extra studying done for most of my co-students, but for me impossible to do any work at all with children also on half term, visits to both sets of grandparents planned, another book talk to give and my eldset son to stay for the weekend. In some ways it was very healthy to step out of DTLLS-world for a time, and realise that the course is not the be all and end all of my existence.
Last week, though, when we came back to college after the break, it all seemed to close around me again and with an assignment which I hadn't even started to be handed in on Friday, I went into a bit of a meltdown. My mentor, Laura, suggested I might go part-time (it's possible to do the DTLLS course in two years rather than one, but you don't get the bursary for that, and the financial imperative of finding actual teaching work asap after finishing makes that a non starter for me); Scott was very sympathetic in my tutorial with him, ordered me to take some time out and asked whether I had ever been told how much work the course would involve - given that my only working times outside college are the Thursday we have off and after 9pm in the evening. The answer was no - nothing about the course was explicit until I was actually enrolled on it. Mike gave me a two week extension, but with that as a backstop position, I just worked long nights and got the "Assessment Strategy" and accompanying essay in on time - last Friday.
This week I've had little chance to recover from the exhaustion that produced as we all had to give another microteach on Wednesday. Working in groups of three, we had to research and prepare a 45-minute Functional Skills Numeracy lesson. I was working with Hugh and Sarah on "Fractions, Decimals and Percentages and Eequivalences Between Them", with my section being the introduction then Fractions and Decimals. It was a rush, but Hugh is great on creating Powerpoints, we came up with some good activities and it went ok, if no more than that. There was a lot of material to incorporate (normally that would have been covered in several sessions), so some of it was certainly a bit rushed.
Developmental Feedback from Scott was: not enough differentiation, more directed questions and time activities so learners focus and teachers can time-manage better. All quite fair enough and will be taken on board. Positives were good communication, eye contact, clarity of info - in Powerpoint and on the whiteboard, creative activities.
The minute that was over, I had to start working on the next assignment - a "Resource" for my adult literacy learners and a 15-minute presentation of same, which is to be given to tutors and the class next Wednesday. This means I have several more long nights before then looming, though I'm rather pleased with what I've put together - a simple writing template to combine cognitive and affective understanding (Bloom's Taxonomy) based on James W. Pennebaker's work on Expressive Writing - which can be used to consolidate/explore learning or to manage challenging behaviour or incidents. Very Vygotsky - not just his Zone of Proximal Learning stuff, but also his theories on how children learn language. I have the PowerPoint and structure of the presentation to put together before next Wednesday.
Then, before the end of term we have to prepare a 15-minute Professional Discussion (ie viva voce examination) on "Positive Behaviour, Communication and Barriers to Learning" - and start work on Module 7's assignment, a reasonably major piece of research: only 2,500 words for the report, but with demanding criteria.
Talking of criteria, we got our Module 1 assignments back at the beginning of this week. I got Merits for everything - microteach, reflection, essays.... I was quite happy with the grade and feedback for the teaching, but disappointed with the essay grades - and lack of constructive feedback about why I hadn't achieved a Distinction (which Mike had been quite clear I had on the drafts I submitted to him) or how I could do so in future. The fact is, as he too had succumbed to work-overload, Mike didn't mark our work and almost everyone was disappointed by their grades and feedback. As I got ticks, "good", "excellent" or other positive remarks on almost all paras, and notes consisted of a few minor quibbles about word choices, in the main, I - along with several others - have resubmitted mine for independent assessment or at least clarification. In one sense the grades don't matter, as the end result is either Pass or Fail - no grade for the DTLLS course - but the work all goes into your Professional Portfolio, and it was intensely demotivating to find I had the same grade as some people who don't write as well as me, or have the same academic background. Having helped Nat shape and structure her essays, I know for sure that mine were a grade above, at least. What use is it to know that I got a "strong" merit, when merits are not differentiated within the grading system?
At the end of this week we had a role play session on providing each other with a badly behaved class to see what sort of behaviour management we could achieve. My session came towards the end, by which time the group had become semi-hysterical with acting out pregnant chavs, violent teenagers, recalcitrant leaners, over-smart students and a range of other disruptive scenarios for each other. My class had two people smoking out of the window and one drawing rude pix on the whiteboard. I can't claim to have managed them remotely effectively, devolving instantly into "controlling parent" ego state (Transactional Analysis), yet failing to control. It wasn't very lifelike, but did make me think about my own habits: one of which is I never give of my best in fake situations, rehearsals, hypothetical scenarios - but reality and real people bring out the best in me and I can surprise myself by how effectively I can deal with difficult situations in real life. Also, I don't get much challenging behaviour when I'm teaching or chairing or managing groups, perhaps because I like and understand people and on the whole they like me.
The week after next, class work reduces to one day a week and teaching practice starts in earnest - 3 x 3-hour classes a week for me, probably two in Literacy and one in Numeracy - following the discussion about my placement and which Laura has been very helpful in sorting out. I'll be starting by observing all classes, then taking small sections with Laura present, then when I get to the stage of being in charge of an hour's worth of class, she'll leave me to it... then at some stage next term I shall be taking all three classes full time and madly writing lesson plans, finding resources, creating Powerpoints, understanding where everyone is in terms of assessment and learning outcomes.
In the mean time I'd better give myself some SMART(ish) objectives:
Teaching style: Don't: get freaked by outlandish, hypothetical situations; get competitive or undermined in class/group situations.
Do: ask direct questions for inclusion and to check learning; be clearer about instructions for activities; think about differentiation in all activities
Assignments: Don't: panic about time - it will all get done in the end and Merit is perfectly acceptable, given I have so much less time than most people to do the work.
Do: start work on the Professional Discussion as soon as Wednesday's presentation is over, and write at least the Proposal for the Research Project before the end of this term (check it with Mike).
The week after I last posted, my old life made a bit of a come back and I had a morning off co-presenting a radio show, an evening talk to a writers' group, a day in London judging a work-life balance competition - and it was my birthday. The week after that was half term - a good time to get assignments and extra studying done for most of my co-students, but for me impossible to do any work at all with children also on half term, visits to both sets of grandparents planned, another book talk to give and my eldset son to stay for the weekend. In some ways it was very healthy to step out of DTLLS-world for a time, and realise that the course is not the be all and end all of my existence.
Last week, though, when we came back to college after the break, it all seemed to close around me again and with an assignment which I hadn't even started to be handed in on Friday, I went into a bit of a meltdown. My mentor, Laura, suggested I might go part-time (it's possible to do the DTLLS course in two years rather than one, but you don't get the bursary for that, and the financial imperative of finding actual teaching work asap after finishing makes that a non starter for me); Scott was very sympathetic in my tutorial with him, ordered me to take some time out and asked whether I had ever been told how much work the course would involve - given that my only working times outside college are the Thursday we have off and after 9pm in the evening. The answer was no - nothing about the course was explicit until I was actually enrolled on it. Mike gave me a two week extension, but with that as a backstop position, I just worked long nights and got the "Assessment Strategy" and accompanying essay in on time - last Friday.
This week I've had little chance to recover from the exhaustion that produced as we all had to give another microteach on Wednesday. Working in groups of three, we had to research and prepare a 45-minute Functional Skills Numeracy lesson. I was working with Hugh and Sarah on "Fractions, Decimals and Percentages and Eequivalences Between Them", with my section being the introduction then Fractions and Decimals. It was a rush, but Hugh is great on creating Powerpoints, we came up with some good activities and it went ok, if no more than that. There was a lot of material to incorporate (normally that would have been covered in several sessions), so some of it was certainly a bit rushed.
Developmental Feedback from Scott was: not enough differentiation, more directed questions and time activities so learners focus and teachers can time-manage better. All quite fair enough and will be taken on board. Positives were good communication, eye contact, clarity of info - in Powerpoint and on the whiteboard, creative activities.
The minute that was over, I had to start working on the next assignment - a "Resource" for my adult literacy learners and a 15-minute presentation of same, which is to be given to tutors and the class next Wednesday. This means I have several more long nights before then looming, though I'm rather pleased with what I've put together - a simple writing template to combine cognitive and affective understanding (Bloom's Taxonomy) based on James W. Pennebaker's work on Expressive Writing - which can be used to consolidate/explore learning or to manage challenging behaviour or incidents. Very Vygotsky - not just his Zone of Proximal Learning stuff, but also his theories on how children learn language. I have the PowerPoint and structure of the presentation to put together before next Wednesday.
Then, before the end of term we have to prepare a 15-minute Professional Discussion (ie viva voce examination) on "Positive Behaviour, Communication and Barriers to Learning" - and start work on Module 7's assignment, a reasonably major piece of research: only 2,500 words for the report, but with demanding criteria.
Talking of criteria, we got our Module 1 assignments back at the beginning of this week. I got Merits for everything - microteach, reflection, essays.... I was quite happy with the grade and feedback for the teaching, but disappointed with the essay grades - and lack of constructive feedback about why I hadn't achieved a Distinction (which Mike had been quite clear I had on the drafts I submitted to him) or how I could do so in future. The fact is, as he too had succumbed to work-overload, Mike didn't mark our work and almost everyone was disappointed by their grades and feedback. As I got ticks, "good", "excellent" or other positive remarks on almost all paras, and notes consisted of a few minor quibbles about word choices, in the main, I - along with several others - have resubmitted mine for independent assessment or at least clarification. In one sense the grades don't matter, as the end result is either Pass or Fail - no grade for the DTLLS course - but the work all goes into your Professional Portfolio, and it was intensely demotivating to find I had the same grade as some people who don't write as well as me, or have the same academic background. Having helped Nat shape and structure her essays, I know for sure that mine were a grade above, at least. What use is it to know that I got a "strong" merit, when merits are not differentiated within the grading system?
At the end of this week we had a role play session on providing each other with a badly behaved class to see what sort of behaviour management we could achieve. My session came towards the end, by which time the group had become semi-hysterical with acting out pregnant chavs, violent teenagers, recalcitrant leaners, over-smart students and a range of other disruptive scenarios for each other. My class had two people smoking out of the window and one drawing rude pix on the whiteboard. I can't claim to have managed them remotely effectively, devolving instantly into "controlling parent" ego state (Transactional Analysis), yet failing to control. It wasn't very lifelike, but did make me think about my own habits: one of which is I never give of my best in fake situations, rehearsals, hypothetical scenarios - but reality and real people bring out the best in me and I can surprise myself by how effectively I can deal with difficult situations in real life. Also, I don't get much challenging behaviour when I'm teaching or chairing or managing groups, perhaps because I like and understand people and on the whole they like me.
The week after next, class work reduces to one day a week and teaching practice starts in earnest - 3 x 3-hour classes a week for me, probably two in Literacy and one in Numeracy - following the discussion about my placement and which Laura has been very helpful in sorting out. I'll be starting by observing all classes, then taking small sections with Laura present, then when I get to the stage of being in charge of an hour's worth of class, she'll leave me to it... then at some stage next term I shall be taking all three classes full time and madly writing lesson plans, finding resources, creating Powerpoints, understanding where everyone is in terms of assessment and learning outcomes.
In the mean time I'd better give myself some SMART(ish) objectives:
Teaching style: Don't: get freaked by outlandish, hypothetical situations; get competitive or undermined in class/group situations.
Do: ask direct questions for inclusion and to check learning; be clearer about instructions for activities; think about differentiation in all activities
Assignments: Don't: panic about time - it will all get done in the end and Merit is perfectly acceptable, given I have so much less time than most people to do the work.
Do: start work on the Professional Discussion as soon as Wednesday's presentation is over, and write at least the Proposal for the Research Project before the end of this term (check it with Mike).
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