Colin reflects on his experiences as a student teacher of secondary mathematics

Thursday 20 November 2008

Halfway through. Already?

That's right, first placement is halfway done. I'm going to have a think and post something more lengthy tomorrow or over the weekend but for now..... it feels like I've only just arrived but I'm already halfway done. Or should that be half-baked?
A couple of things to reflect on for today:
- a potential disaster avoided with my 5th year - one of the more vocal girls was texting under the desk, everyoen else was on task and going well so I decided to leave it until the end of the lesson before speaking to her, rather than risk a set-to in the middle of class. Within minutes she was in floods of tears and had to be taken out by one of her friends. She was so upset one of the office staff volunteered to drive her home. I don't know what news she'd received that had that effect but I'm glad I didn't just put my size 10s in when I first saw she had her phone out. Of course, she shouldn't have had the phone out.... I know that, just saying I'm glad I thought about how to react rather than not.
- I stood behind the most chatty of the 3rd year group for pretty much all the time they were working independently, which sort of worked to keep them subdued. Not perfect, but better, though the downside is that it takes me away from some of the people who really do need more help and who don't ask for aid.

2 comments:

David said...

Can I say how much I'm enjoying your reflections on the placement. Would you mind If I posted a link to here on my blog and encouraged other people (including your peers) to come and check it out?

Col said...

You're welcome to do so David, though you'll notice that my output has dropped off in the last couple of weeks - partly due to trying to get some portfolio work done but also for family reasons. I'm going to try to get something more extensive up shortly.