Cues and Cubes

I really am struggling for witty titles as you can see...

English was straightforward today. I understood nearly everything he said which was fantastic! We did also hand our PLP's in (Personal Learning Plan's) today.

With that in mind I wanted to share with you 2 books which I purchased on Amazon yesterday which had really good reviews.

I've only flicked through them but they look REALLY useful. I'll update obviously when I've had a chance to use them.

Massive realisational shock today when our Maths lecturer said "Of course this will help you when you are in schools in 3 weeks,"

Well... 3 weeks is nothing. Yes I am pretty nervous, BUT we are all in the same boat and it is paired. Just want to make sure I'm up to date before I go in.

Dinner with my mum tonight put things in perspective, I apparently seem a lot happier and as mum's always do make you feel better about the position that you are in. Made me feel good about myself.

Tomorrow is our afternoon at the Imperial War Museum. I am looking forward to this a lot, always been interested in History and especially with World War II.

Right, bed methinks. 'til tomorrow.

Smartboard link / Podcast / Tutorial Videos

I listen to a lot of podcasts on the way to Uni as it helps to pass the time on the way. This is a really good idea for learning about smartboards.

I will be downloading them from iTunes to learn more.

http://teachingwithsmartboard.com/

Interactive Whiteboards and Classroom Management

So today was ICT and Professional Studies.

ICT was very much a review of an audit we were meant to have done. I had done it but had left it at home! All I needed to do was to brush up on Excel which I have done... I used this video to good effect, but probably need to learn it a bit more. It is a good example though of he things youtube is actually useful for! I tend to search on youtube for most things that I need to learn!



Anyway, the IWB is a fantastic tool but I know I have plenty of practice still to do!

Professional Studies was great. Our tutor is fantastic, she has been there, seen it and done it all! So many great tips, I will definitely be paying extra attention.

I would recommend watching this video for some good tips for classroom management.

A well earnt day off tomorrow as usual for a Wednesday. Thoughts wandered to maybe going for a swim in the morning, I'm not sure though. I suppose its student prices though?

Looking forward to Friday and the trip to the Imperial War Museum. Still wondering whether to take my video camera to get some footage as a reminder. Let's see, maybe I'll take it and see if it's appropriate.

For now, a relaxing evening calls for the first time in a while...maybe even a beer after taking the dog for a walk...

Junk Modelling and Trauma.

First, let me say that dancing... for me... is reserved for the time when you have had 5 or so pints or you do it unconsciously whilst listening to a song you like...

The above statement was not true of my dance class this afternoon! We were put completely out of our comfort zone, rather like Music and Drama. However, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, we all had fun and it is something we agreed would be useful for when we teach!

We even managed to dance to this, but obviously not in such an impressive manner;



Anyway, Art was good this morning, I enjoyed it although the others threw themselves into it literally! It was a practical on how to use plaster of paris and junk. Basically we had to make a model about weather. We went for a windmill. What you think?

Friday's MIA Posting or FSP

Well, following on from "I'm going to try and keep this writing up every day," comes the Friday Substitute Post or FSP for short. I'm sure it will make many appearances through the year, most probably on a Sunday evening like this one.

So, in summary;

Friday

Started out with a bit of Geography. We ended up building coastal/river models in trays of sand, using water etc. Messy but fun (until the clearing up). I didn't take a photo as I forgot before we demolished it, BUT I was assured by the tutor that she would email me a copy of the one she took. Fingers crossed. As for Geography...that's it!! I am now apparently competent to teach it! (At least I hope so!)

Afternoon, ahhh everyone's favourite PHSE. You guessed it... Sex education. Not much to say really. It was.. different to my day and I can see a lot of red tape and good reason for it, but it will all change in 2011 when its compulsory.

Anyway, it was a couple of pints in the Union on Friday, a good chat with Kim (Chelsea fan) and off home and out for dinner (hence no blog). The hardcore students were out on the RAZZ in Clapham North. Next time...!

Anyway, I'm off to commiserate Drogba 2 Arsenal 0. Dance tomorrow and Imperial War Museum on Friday....should be an interesting week!

Stories, Tutorials and Handshakes!

So the regular Thursday with a twist.

Thursdays require a swift walk down the Waterloo Road up to Uni, not forgetting to stop off for a 'Red Bull' breakfast. A quick stop at the cafe inside Uni and up to the classroom.

Today was all about Fiction and Non-Fiction and how we can get children more involved in the text by getting the to be interactive whilst they or you read.

12noon and my first personal Tutor Session arrives. It all went well until I found out that my tutor was...yes... a Spurs fan (Sorry couldn't resist this...). Being an Arsenal fan I'm sure we will have some good old chats when we see each other in passing! Anyway, it all went really well and we spoke about the AES and Alan told me that my choices seemed sensible and if I wanted to run anything past him to drop him an email. My pre-course essay to assess my writing skills was good so no problems for me there. All in All a job come good.

So after lunch it was INVESTIGATION TIME. We (Clare, Harri, Ahmedur, Machaela, Andrew and myself) had previously decided to do an investigation into 6 of us and how many handshakes can we do? (explained better here!)

Anyway we set to work, as you can see! Once we got going it was confusing but we put it all down in the tables etc. We then sat down and looked at each other blankly as we all knew that this was the only problem out of the questions we could have picked that had a formula.

FINALLY.... EUREKA!

Andrew got the formula, personally I put it down to the green post it notes. It definitely took the pressure off, so we decided to go for coffee.

So that was it for Thursday. I can honestly see these entries getting lazier as the weeks go on, partly due to not really wanting to sit here going into mass detail and boring you, but also as my tutor Alan said time will become precious soon!

Day of Rest??

So, Wednesday, traditional day of rest for our PGCE course. Hahahahahahaha. Wednesday's are my traditional day to catch up on the reading that I've missed etc.

So no day off really! So today not only did I get all the English reading done and the Art reading done; I managed to call up 2 "Alternative Education Setting" (AES) places up. Not looking to give too much away at the moment in case they don't come off but the first one said that the person who had done it previously for them wasn't there anymore and the position was vacant. He said to send him an email and he would get back to me... not too hopeful but would be great to do it.

The other one I called a blind charity to see if they could point me in the right direction. The lady gave me a great website to look at as I couldn't find a partially sighted specialist school near me.

I have found one that looks perfect but want to run it past one of the tutors first.

Anyway, the rest of the day was reading and as I subscribe to the TES I cut out things that I think might be useful and put them in my relevant folders!

Oh and I also have just remembered I need to collect Junk to take to my Art class on Monday where we will be making models...how exciting!

Investigation in Maths tomorrow, concerning handshakes... all will be revealed tomorrow!

Electric Atmosphere and Teaching Theories

Just a quick post tonight, I'm over the moon that I finally have another Blackberry on my insurance!

This morning we had our 2nd science lesson where we had a play around with bulbs, motors, buzzers, batteries and crocodile clips! It was basically back to year 6 circuit making.

This meant seeing if different ways or connecting things meant that the bulbs were brighter/motors spun a different way etc. We also were given a nice Science audit to complete (similar to the maths and English one), and after looking through it on the train I also have a lot to brush up on in Science!

We briefly talked about Lewis Latimer, a black inventor who was the chief rival to Edison who invented the lightbulb. Here is the QCA Standards for Science as well.

Professional Studies in the afternoon, I managed to finish the reading on the train but not add to my notes! Obviously the Teaching theories will be key to getting a masters so I've noted this chapter in the EIC book as particularly noteworthy.

The main things that came out of this workshop was the a video where a 2yr old child was completing a large piece puzzle. We were asked if we should dive in and help at points and guess what, I couldn't stand more than 30 seconds of it!! So I put my hand up and said that he should find the corners first etc... Of course forgetting he wasn't an adult. I also found out that I was a dominantly right sided thinker which means this (have a go yourself with the spinning girl!).

Day off tomorrow which means catching up on tons of reading (and its only the 4th week!). I'll see if I have anything to write tomorrow!

Inspirational Artists!

ART ATTACK!

So today was the first half day we have had, and if I'm honest I am the most tired I have been so far! I really am still adjusting to being a student still! When you are at work you are very interactive, yet at the moment it is a lot of listening!

Anyway, wearing a white t-shirt and hoodie (I had tottally forgotten we were PAINTING today) myself and my fellow table mates Andrew, Sarah, Emma and Clare, embarked on our 2nd Art class.

The purpose of the class was to learn about Primary Colours, Secondary Colours, mixing colours etc. We first took out watercolours and were asked to find a colour as an inspration and ty to mix paint to match it. It was a lot harder than you think and I ended up just mixing some colours and then finding things to match them to instead!

Here are some attempts that Andrew and I ended up coming up with!

We then went on to do do some printing and used West African "Adinkra Patterns" as inspiration. Traditional examples can be found here.

This was my attempt (I know what you're thinking, its not my specialism!).

Once we had all put it all together on a cloth this was the result, and we were all pleased with it!

Just to document what we had done in the first and previous art lesson, we had been talking about self portraits. Although mine does not quite look like a self-portrait it was the best I could do with the materials I had! (Art really isn't my strong subject!)


You will have to excuse the photo, I've not worked out how to rotate photos on a Mac yet but I'm working on it!

Welcome!

Welcome to my Primary PGCE Blog.

I am 28 years old and decided to leave my job to follow up my aspirations to become a Primary School teacher. Having worked in sales for 4 out of the 5 years since I graduated it was a big step for me, but if you are thinking of embarking on a PGCE then I can re-assure you that the people on my course are from very diverse backgrounds.

I travel from Epsom (in Surrey) to South Bank at least 4 days a week to attend University.

As a bit of a twist I am studying a 'flexible' manner on a full-time course at London South Bank University. This means that instead of the usual September start and summertime finish, I started on 11th January 2010 and will finish just before Christmas (but then, people who know me would always say I never do anything the normal way!).

As mentioned earlier, I started the course on 11th September 2010. I have completed the first 3 weeks of the course with the first week just being an induction week to settle us all in.

I won't go into detail too much about what I have been doing for the first two proper weeks, but will summarise what the experience has been like.

As you can imagine, we were all bombarded with booklets, course guides, handouts and resources for us to use throughout the duration. The PGCE staff and lecturers all spoke to us at length about the course, the administration and the subjects they all taught; But also understood that it was a lot of information to take in!

Indeed this is going to be the most challenging year of my life and I am not naturally an organised person. I decided that I was going to get organised and this was the result...

It seems key (for me anyway that you are organised because so much does go on and you really need the Wednesday that you get off to catch up on work. Even then, I sit down at the weekend to do reading and audit my English and Maths (I will come on to those later on in my blog, as I should get the results soon)

A "to-do-list" really has been key for me and it is helping me keep track of everything I do. I was taught this when I worked in a job 2 years ago and have kept the idea going as it really works for me. As soon as I get home I write down what I have to do and then once I have done it I highlight it through, gives that 'visual satisfaction' that I've achieved something!

I intend to take my camera with me from now on and will try to update this blog as often as possible. This blog not only serves a purpose as an account of my time throughout my PGCE but I hope that it will serve to help others and illustrate the role that ICT can play in education.

I hope to be able to use a range of media perhaps even braving a video at some point. Please feel free to comment on any of my posts.

I am in no way an expert so please take whatever I post with your own interpretation. The blog is totally independent of LSBU and the views and opinions are mine entirely.