I am most proud of a photography lesson on image distortion I did before Christmas. I also did a remote art lesson this week and received really good feedback for both.
These are some of the lessons which I think students enjoyed the most as they were really engaged in the tasks and created some really interesting outcomes.
I have been able to build good, strong relationships with my pupils. They now greet me by my name and say hello in the corridor. I also taught my first ever online lesson where all pupils were at home – something I was very nervous for but have quickly overcome!
I’m really pleased with how this first half of the year has gone. Don’t get me wrong it’s been tough, and I’ve had to be resilient, what with all the changes and turmoil thrown up by Covid.
Yet I have to say I have learned so much. I’ve really loved getting to grips with the online learning, planning and delivering my lessons via MS Teams. It’s been great to discover ways to engage with the pupils through websites like Kahoot, Menti.com and Edpuzzle.
I have had many great things happen during my time working in school and feel I have had chance to really spread my wings. I have had an impact on students learning. This had been particularly true with a year 7 boy who has said that drama is now the reason he loves school. This meant so much to me and he has excelled at the subject.
From the start of September, I believe I have developed massively as a teacher, the process has helped to grow my confidence and belief that I will be a good teacher. I have loved every part about being in school from day 1 and feel so lucky to be welcomed by everyone and made to feel like part of the team. With each lesson I teach I feel that I am becoming better and more effective in my teaching style and this process has given me the confidence to continue to do that for the rest of my career.
My year 9 class came to the end of their first GCSE unit and I designed a fun revision session for them prior to their end of unit test. It was full of competition, pair work and quizzes and they absolutely loved it! It felt like a real turning point in my relationship with the class and helped demonstrate which fun activities worked and got them engaged.
I have had the opportunity within my placement to create my own scheme of work, this has been a very successful and gratifying experience for me as a trainee teacher. I was able to plan a scheme of work that encapsulated all the key aspects I view as being important to the subject of drama. Through teaching my own scheme I have been able to instil creativity, imagination and confidence within my pupils, building relationship that are based in mutual respect for each other and the subject.
I’ve been able to bring real life business people into my business classes to meet students, and be interviewed by them. It’s helped bring on line lessons to life and given me a chance to link together both my experience and bring some meaningful experience to the students lives, hopefully a little bit of inspiration.
I am also really proud of the fact that all 15 BTEC students in a class voluntarily sent me their coursework to look at and check they are on track. The fact that they trust me and my opinion means a lot, and it’s a pleasure to give them my time.
I’ve been able to take full day lessons, on a large number of occasions now, so bags and bags of real teaching experience that I don’t think I’d have had on a uni led course. I am also starting to teach Economics lessons on top of business which is keeping me busy and challenging me perfectly.
As part of my placement I have been able to participate in the wider school community through extra-curricular activities. In particular I have been able to run a year 7 dance club which is a hobby outside of school that I really enjoy. In our first term we were able to prepare for a virtual Christmas celebration performance which was really exciting! Seeing students who have never tried dancing before develop over the weeks has been amazing! I have particularly enjoyed forming stronger positive relationships with the students I teach outside of the classroom. The positive feedback from parents and teachers about the performance was amazing and very rewarding that both me and my students got to have this experience. But most of all, the students had an amazing time and were really proud of how far they have come!
A particularly enjoyable lesson for myself and my students was a lesson on Zakat (Charity) and the Five Pillars of Islam. This was with a lower set who like to chat!
I wasn’t sure that my activities would be appropriate for the class but I decided to take the risk. The students thoroughly enjoyed the tasks and behaved excellently during the activity. They had to build a shelter for a dinosaur which was linked to the structure and stability of the Five Pillars. They also had to share out bunches of pens linking to Zakat. They were interested in the topic and were asking some really insightful questions i.e. can you just become a Muslim and receive Zakat? They engaged, completed all the tasks and behaved respectfully throughout. This was a huge success.