For Module 5 (which should have been submitted at the end of the first semester, but had to be delayed to accommodate the late arrangements of placements and mentors and therefore teaching practice), we were asked to: "Critically reflect on your learning from the first semester of the DTLLS course and identify areas for development including gaps within your subject specialist knowledge to be addressed in Semester Two. Ensure you reflect on the importance of collaboration with your mentor and peers that support your professional practice. Draw on evidence from your reflective journal and feedback received through the observation process." Although I've just handed it in, I may as well post it in my Reflective Journal...
I entered the FT DTLLS course after a significantly longer period outside a formal learning environment and with proportionally greater life experience than any other student. This had positive and negative aspects: I could draw on a range of professional experience, including writing for various media and management training and consultancy, which supported my subject specialism and some aspects of teaching; on the other hand I had predominantly worked as a freelance or independent practitioner, was largely self-taught, and thus unused to a culture in which professional practice is rigorously monitored and assessed against prescribed and somewhat inflexible criteria.
Perhaps it was an error on my part to suggest at initial interview that, as someone with a degree in English and writing credentials, I could teach any related subject from Adult Literacy to English A Level for my placement. Having been told that Creative Arts placements were already taken, I did not pursue Creative Writing as my preferred subject specialism; I wanted to get onto the course. Perhaps it also reflects a certain lack of knowledge within the DTLLS team that I was offered a placement teaching Literacy – certainly my mentor, when I was first assigned to her, expressed doubts as to my (or anyone else’s) capacity to deliver the Adult Literacy curriculum without training. She suggested at once that I should take an additional course to familiarise me with the content and assessment criteria. I was at first panicked by the thought of any additional workload, but when I attended the two-day, ACER Introduction to Literacy course in February, I found it immensely useful and it has supported my teaching in this, and indeed the other areas of Numeracy and Creative Writing.
My first experience of formal teaching was the Module 1 Microteach assignment, when, after a pre-teach survey, I chose to teach “Uses of the Semi-colon” to the DTLLS peer group. I was able to apply some of the theoretical teaching we had received to that point on Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector (PTLLS). This module focused on the basic requirements for teaching and the role and responsibilities of a teacher, including legislation, functional skills, feedback, assessment and record keeping. As I had spent a number of years researching work-life balance issues, my first instinct was to take a survey of the DTLLS class to ascertain what area of literacy they would find most useful, the results of which I was able to use to demonstrate numeracy functional skills.
The build up to delivering the microteach was immensely stressful: the volume of new information from full-time classes, structuring the half-hour lesson bearing in mind the theory and practice of that teaching and simultaneously writing the series of short essays for the rest of the Module 1 assignment also coincided with the first meeting with my mentor. As I have noted above, she was not convinced of my ability to teach Adult Literacy and, moreover, had only three Literacy classes per week which she wasn’t entirely happy to give over to me. However, we instituted a regular weekly meeting leading up to my placement (which resolved into two Literacy classes and one Numeracy class), after which she gave me regular and ongoing feedback and support about my teaching in terms of specialist subject matter and professional practice during and after lessons as well in weekly planning meetings.
I also found very valuable the tutorials I had at this point with the course tutor, without whose input I would have attempted to introduce far too much information into an over-complex microteach; the video of my lesson through which I was able to assess my own performance; and the formal and informal feedback from my peers. I reflected on all of this at some length in my Reflective Journal.
As we moved into Module 2 (Initial Assessment and Functional Skills) at the same time as Module 5 (Professional Practice), I found myself enjoying the academic work, but less so the small amounts of teaching. Conscious incompetence is not a mode I find comfortable to work in, and once again, the in-class microteach on aspects of numeracy was stressful. The collaborative side – we worked in groups of three – was positive, though and for one day, two microteach groups worked together and rehearsed with each other. Again, tutorials with the course tutor and another tutor were highly supportive when I was finding the time pressures of DTLLS work and running a home with two small children hard to reconcile – though my mentor seemed unimpressed by my issues and suggested I might consider doing the DTLLS course in two years rather than one. I had no desire to do this, but in terms of the initial assessment component of our taught course, I was not the only FT DTLLS student to think we had not been given sufficient information about either the intensity and front-loaded structure of the course, or the uncertainty of the mentors and placements assignation.
For Module 3 our assignment was to prepare a case study of an assessment strategy, while in class we analysed and evaluated learning and teaching theories relating to different forms of assessment and influences on assessment. Although I was engaged by the issues of formative and summative assessment, the fact that I had not yet started my teaching placement meant that I wasn’t able to develop a real case study – though my mentor provided some material for the assignment. There was some confrontation, though, when I showed her a scheme of learning of hers which I had reworked (as I was not yet in a position to create one of my own) to submit as an appendix to an assignment. She felt that this could be viewed as plagiarism and took this up with one or more of the DTLLS course tutors.
Module 4, Communication and Supporting Students in the Learning Environment, included a fairly demanding, two part assignment. The first required us to create an innovative resource that demonstrated inclusivity and diversity – and, contentiously, emerging technology – and present it to the DTLLS peer group and tutor(s). I was pleased with my resource, which was a Free Writing activity based on the work of James W Pennebaker, though its only relation to emerging technology was that it could be used either in a hard copy or Word-based format. The feedback from peers and tutors was insightful and supportive, though again I was pressed for time to complete this part of the assignment by the deadline and as a result did not present with as much confidence or expertise as I could have.
The second part of the assignment was a so-called “professional discussion” – although it merely involved presenting to a sole tutor - about communication, behaviour management and barriers to learning. It took place at the end of term, following a significant incident in the teaching programme which adversely affected all the FT DTLLS students. The main course tutor was dismissed and, whatever the reasons and justification, we as students felt that we were not properly informed nor was there a robust plan or personnel to replace him or support us. There was a hiatus in teaching and pastoral support during an important transition time from full-time learning to teaching placement.
I enjoyed preparing and delivering the professional discussion. I was able to draw on my brief experience of teaching placement in an Adult Literacy course based at a Sure Start centre, a Get On Adult Literacy class of very mixed ability and an Adult Numeracy class in which many students had learning and physical differences. I was also able to draw on my professional background in child development, parenting and self-help related psychology. I was pleased to achieve a Distinction in this assignment.
By the end of the first semester I had delivered two microteaches and one solo lesson for a Literacy class. Feedback from tutors and my mentor was positive about my subject specialist knowledge, authoritative delivery, good relationship with students, use of humour, planning and resources. Points for development included directed and inclusive questioning and setting clearer timeframes for each activity. Activities which offer more differentiation and extension tasks were also aspects I needed to work on. To consolidate my knowledge of the Adult Literacy Core Curriculum, I had booked myself onto a two day course to take place in February on Teaching the Adult Literacy Curriculum.
Showing posts with label assignments. Show all posts
Showing posts with label assignments. Show all posts
16 December 2009
Coursework
Back in class on Friday. Jen told us she is now our permanent tutor, and when questioned about the fact that she is on Maternity Leave Cover in our department only till the end of January, told us that she had made clear to the VP she was only interested in taking on the FT DTLLS class if it was until the end of the course - and that she believed that had been accepted. Didn't sound entirely certain to us.
Once again, our learning time was taken up with a recap on where unmarked assignments were at and how and when they were going to get marked. Our presentations (of a creative resource) were an issue: Mike and Scott's notes were apparently minimal so we had the choice of "self-assessment" or repeating the presentations. Jay, who had indeed done a very good presentation, was dying to reprise his, but Kelly and Sarah were adamant that they would neither self-assess nor repeat; this was the college's problem not the students' and they demanded to be assessed by the notes taken and grades given at the time. Others agreed with their point of view, though to make life easier for Jen said they would self assess.
Later in the day the VP returned as promised - though only after Jen had been asked several times when he was coming, and had been out to "check". He breezed in, clearly expecting a quick interchange confirming that we were happy with the changes. He certainly did not expect the 10-minute broadside he got from Beth!
She found it disgusting (repeated fortissimo, several times!) that he had come back to see us with no notes, no knowledge of whether the updates we had requested last time were in place; that teaching placement issues for several people were still unresolved; that he had given no decent response to or apology for the stress and anguish caused to most people due to administrative failures dating back to application and enrollment, let alone placement. The VP tried to sooth Beth by suggesting she met with him separately to iron out her problems. This was a mistake: she stressed (crescendo) that she was talking for the whole class, that it was not about the teaching - Mike and Jen had been excellent - but about the administration, the people who were "cogs behind the DTLLS course" who had been a complete failure... and ended up telling him that his visit to the class today had left her feeling "just a little bit worse - if that was possible"!
An impressive tirade, and one which left most of us unable to look the VP in the eye. It hadn't helped that Jen had inadvertently played us a clip from The Office minutes before the VP appeared, as a light-hearted example of poor communication style.
Later in the afternoon, Anna came in to talk to the class, and offered a far more fulsome and personal apology for the problems we had experienced. She handed out a list of timetable revisions and a schedule for assignment returns. Some of these had to be changed. She also told us that Jen now had a written agreement that she would be remaining as our tutor until the end of the course. A small victory for student power.
Once again, our learning time was taken up with a recap on where unmarked assignments were at and how and when they were going to get marked. Our presentations (of a creative resource) were an issue: Mike and Scott's notes were apparently minimal so we had the choice of "self-assessment" or repeating the presentations. Jay, who had indeed done a very good presentation, was dying to reprise his, but Kelly and Sarah were adamant that they would neither self-assess nor repeat; this was the college's problem not the students' and they demanded to be assessed by the notes taken and grades given at the time. Others agreed with their point of view, though to make life easier for Jen said they would self assess.
Later in the day the VP returned as promised - though only after Jen had been asked several times when he was coming, and had been out to "check". He breezed in, clearly expecting a quick interchange confirming that we were happy with the changes. He certainly did not expect the 10-minute broadside he got from Beth!
She found it disgusting (repeated fortissimo, several times!) that he had come back to see us with no notes, no knowledge of whether the updates we had requested last time were in place; that teaching placement issues for several people were still unresolved; that he had given no decent response to or apology for the stress and anguish caused to most people due to administrative failures dating back to application and enrollment, let alone placement. The VP tried to sooth Beth by suggesting she met with him separately to iron out her problems. This was a mistake: she stressed (crescendo) that she was talking for the whole class, that it was not about the teaching - Mike and Jen had been excellent - but about the administration, the people who were "cogs behind the DTLLS course" who had been a complete failure... and ended up telling him that his visit to the class today had left her feeling "just a little bit worse - if that was possible"!
An impressive tirade, and one which left most of us unable to look the VP in the eye. It hadn't helped that Jen had inadvertently played us a clip from The Office minutes before the VP appeared, as a light-hearted example of poor communication style.
Later in the afternoon, Anna came in to talk to the class, and offered a far more fulsome and personal apology for the problems we had experienced. She handed out a list of timetable revisions and a schedule for assignment returns. Some of these had to be changed. She also told us that Jen now had a written agreement that she would be remaining as our tutor until the end of the course. A small victory for student power.
29 November 2009
Teaching Politics
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.
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.
14 November 2009
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).
22 September 2009
Week Two: Stressing
It's Tuesday of Week 2 and I'm feeling exhausted again. I should be writing one of the short essays that make up Task 3 (of Module 1). I could pick "Current Legislative Requirements (only 150 - 200 words), but we're having a tutorial on that tomorrow and, I think "Embedding Functional Skills" (300 - 400 words). We got all the info on "Evaluation of Assessment Methods" today, but I can't face 300 - 400 words on that tonight; or, indeed, "Methods of Feedback" - which is only 200 - 300 words. But there is a short (150 - 250 words) one on "Record Keeping" which doesn't seem too demanding.... I'll see how I feel when I finish this entry in my Reflective Journal.
One of the reasons I feel tired is the pressure of the Microteach coming up a week on Friday. It's both exciting me and stressing me out. I keep having ideas - and they wake me up at 5am, buzzing round my head, but not usefully or coherently. I'd decided to do something that will help everyone with essay writing, so punctuation and grammar orientated, and spent yesterday evening creating a little survey to see which areas might be most popular. But then in the car coming into college I heard this man on Radio 4 talking about the need for debating in state schools and thought - A Debate! Structure the Microteach as a mini debate, which would involve reading, writing, speaking and listening, assessing and responding....
But I gave out the survey anyway, and all the girls seem to be really excited about me teaching them basic punctuation stuff. Even Jay, the English specialist and novelist, asked for an explanation of when to use "past" and "passed". He knows all the terms - "homophones" in this case - but not, apparently, every last thing about them. So, ok, it's going to be punctuation. Lesson plans, learning outcomes, resources, a video, powerpoint - feels like it's going to take weeks to prepare! And some people (the girls!) seem to have frighteningly high expectations of me.
The other stress/exhaustion factor is that I met my Subject Specialist Mentor today, Laura. She' a very nice and interesting woman, about ten years younger than me, and we had a good discussion. But she thinks I need to do a two-day course on Literacy Core Curriculum Training - which I would have to source myself as they don't do it within the college, and possibly even pay for - though my "provider" (the college) should do. So that's a worry, especially as I can't see many free two day slots before Christmas. The other worry is that Laura doesn't see it as her job to sort out my teaching placement. She only teaches three literacy courses a week for college (one of which is off-campus anyway) - and even if I were to take over all three of them for the next two terms, which she's hardly going to want, it would only just be enough to make up my required 150 hours. So I have to find some other courses taught by someone else to work with. She's given me another name, but I'll have to talk about it in my Professional Practice tutorial tomorrow.
I'm sure it will get sorted out, but it feels like a mess and that the responsibility is on my shoulders. And just as I'd got to grips with the weekly timetable and workload, there's a new and unforseen extra load. It's probably the least impressive part of the organisation of the DiTLLS course. None of our mentors seem to know what they're supposed to be doing and the placements are completely unco-ordinated. I suppose I'm ahead of the game in that I've got and met a mentor - which is more than Sarah has. But still, the uncertainty of it is unhelpful when there's so much else going on simply in terms of course content and assignments.
It's now 9.45pm. I don't think I can bear to start on Record Keeping now, so I might just cut my losses and go to bed.
Over and out....
One of the reasons I feel tired is the pressure of the Microteach coming up a week on Friday. It's both exciting me and stressing me out. I keep having ideas - and they wake me up at 5am, buzzing round my head, but not usefully or coherently. I'd decided to do something that will help everyone with essay writing, so punctuation and grammar orientated, and spent yesterday evening creating a little survey to see which areas might be most popular. But then in the car coming into college I heard this man on Radio 4 talking about the need for debating in state schools and thought - A Debate! Structure the Microteach as a mini debate, which would involve reading, writing, speaking and listening, assessing and responding....
But I gave out the survey anyway, and all the girls seem to be really excited about me teaching them basic punctuation stuff. Even Jay, the English specialist and novelist, asked for an explanation of when to use "past" and "passed". He knows all the terms - "homophones" in this case - but not, apparently, every last thing about them. So, ok, it's going to be punctuation. Lesson plans, learning outcomes, resources, a video, powerpoint - feels like it's going to take weeks to prepare! And some people (the girls!) seem to have frighteningly high expectations of me.
The other stress/exhaustion factor is that I met my Subject Specialist Mentor today, Laura. She' a very nice and interesting woman, about ten years younger than me, and we had a good discussion. But she thinks I need to do a two-day course on Literacy Core Curriculum Training - which I would have to source myself as they don't do it within the college, and possibly even pay for - though my "provider" (the college) should do. So that's a worry, especially as I can't see many free two day slots before Christmas. The other worry is that Laura doesn't see it as her job to sort out my teaching placement. She only teaches three literacy courses a week for college (one of which is off-campus anyway) - and even if I were to take over all three of them for the next two terms, which she's hardly going to want, it would only just be enough to make up my required 150 hours. So I have to find some other courses taught by someone else to work with. She's given me another name, but I'll have to talk about it in my Professional Practice tutorial tomorrow.
I'm sure it will get sorted out, but it feels like a mess and that the responsibility is on my shoulders. And just as I'd got to grips with the weekly timetable and workload, there's a new and unforseen extra load. It's probably the least impressive part of the organisation of the DiTLLS course. None of our mentors seem to know what they're supposed to be doing and the placements are completely unco-ordinated. I suppose I'm ahead of the game in that I've got and met a mentor - which is more than Sarah has. But still, the uncertainty of it is unhelpful when there's so much else going on simply in terms of course content and assignments.
It's now 9.45pm. I don't think I can bear to start on Record Keeping now, so I might just cut my losses and go to bed.
Over and out....
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