Stepping Out-standing

This week, the sheep and I jumped over the stile and grazed in the sunny fields of the Land Outstanding. It was a beautiful place to visit; a journey to remember. I say that the sheep came with me because I realised that I cannot deliver an outstanding lesson without outstanding pupils, and they cannot be outstanding pupils without my outstanding input. It is like most things in life, a balance is needed for success and survival. I bow to all my friends who have been graded outstanding overall for their placements because to achieve that level of teaching is no easy feat. I did it for one lesson and was exhausted. I truly admire all of you and hope it won’t be long before every lesson I teach is of that calibre. Anyone who managed to be graded outstanding overall and raise a family at the same time… well, you are my idols.

On that note, I will start with my overall grading. I have remained in the ‘good’ category, but my mentor has now signed me off as ‘very good/outstanding’ for 3 of the 8 Teachers’ Standards. There were a couple more that were borderline, but we agreed that I still have to push myself a little more to progress from ‘good’ in those areas. As I said last week though, I am still amazingly proud of what I achieved; these grades are normative over the placements, so by going from scraping through on a ‘good’ grade in placement 1, to wavering between good and outstanding on placement 2, I have made some great leaps in my progress. Furthermore, I have now experienced how to teach an outstanding lesson so I can see exactly what the difference is between the different grades of lessons now.

So, this outstanding lesson of mine (yeah, I am still mentioning it). There was a moment it could have all gone wrong. This moment was when I went to meet the external moderator at the reception and I heard her say to the receptionist that she was waiting for her colleague who was just parking. My heart skipped a beat. 2 moderators? I went a bit wobbly at the knees when I saw my maths tutor walking through the gates. Not only is she my maths tutor who helped me get over my fear of all things number related, but she is the PGCE P programme tutor. If I wanted to display to anyone how hard I have been working, it would be to her, but not without prior warning! I composed myself though, and tried to turn the nerves into adrenalin. The external moderator was friendly and approachable, and she seemed impressed with my folders of work which gave me a little confidence boost.

The lesson that I then taught was a science lesson on air resistance. I decided that I wanted the class to work through a science investigation from start to finish, because over the last few weeks they have been concentrating on one area of an investigation per lesson. As the minutes went on I was concerned I was trying to pack too much in, but the class rose to the challenge. They had remembered so much about forces that I had taught them, and were like the model class. It may have been because there were 8 adults in the room (3 observers, the other year 5 teacher and 3 LSAs) including me, but as my maths tutor said to me after the observation, the children were only buzzing because I was buzzing, and they were only learning because I had facilitated that. The external moderator even commented that if that lesson had been recorded it would be worthy of going on the ‘Teacher’s Media’ website as an example of good scientific questioning. I was thinking, what? Little old shy me delivering a lesson that was good enough to be an example for others? Move over Sheepy, the Shepherdess has arrived!

The lesson progressed to the making of parachutes to be tested by dropping them from the climbing apparatus in the playground. Pupils had to decide on their variables and make their own predictions, and then I went through a risk assessment as a class. This was really affective because the pupils had to tell me what the risks were and how they thought I would expect them to behave. Rather than me just reel off the usual instructions I told the class that we were not going outside until they had done the risk assessment for me. It kept them on task and allowed them to consider their own actions. Once the pupils were outside the observation ended and my mentor took over the lesson whilst I received feedback. As I have mentioned, both the moderator and the tutor commented on my effective questioning skills, and also they stated that my subject knowledge was sound. There are two comments that will forever stick in my mind though and they are as follows:

Examiner: “I always rate a teacher on whether I would want them to teach my own children. I would be happy for you to teach my children”.

PGCE P tutor: “Yes, you are ready. You are ready to have your own class”.

What better compliments could I have? After I heard them, I just wanted to go and give the whole class a big hug because I could not have done it without them. All the battles I have had with them and the challenge I took on to gain their respect have now been worth it because not only will the room be the place I became a teacher, but they will be the class that helped me jump over the threshold.

This week my placement comes to an end. As of Wednesday I will be moving to my employing school and saying good bye to my wonderful colleagues and pupils of a truly wonderful school. My thoughts are now turning towards my CEDP (career entry and development profile) and the transition to becoming an NQT. I know that two areas I need to focus on are assessment and also my teacher presence. Both my visiting tutor and my mentor have commented in the past that sometimes what stops my lesson being outstanding is the projection of my teacher self, which in turn prevents some pupils from staying focussed. I certainly had teacher presence in my science lesson because I was 100% confident in what I was teaching, how I was teaching it and what I expected from the pupils by the end of the lesson. I had drive and I had enthusiasm for what I was teaching. I can completely understand what my VT and mentor meant now, and that will be a focus throughout my NQT year. I feel that with assessment, to some degree, is firstly about learning the ropes, and secondly building that expert judgement. The rest comes with experience and time. A third aspect of my teaching that I would like to build on is using dialogue in the classroom. This is still a big interest of mine and I hope to get the opportunity to build my understanding of this by going on courses and in time, being able to deliver training of this to others.

Two more days, and then I step back out into the world. It is daunting, terrifying, exciting, stomach churning, nerve wracking, electrifying and life affirming. Who could ask for a better career than that?

Nearly O

I am not really sure what I want the focus of my blog to be this week. There are all manner of thoughts in my head competing for attention, so I am not quite sure where to start. Perhaps I will list them to get them in order:

How will I feel on the 30^th of June, when I leave my placement school for the last time?

Will the external moderator disagree with my mentor and visiting tutor about my grade?

What will I do on the first day in my employment school?

Will I ever cross the threshold from good to outstanding?

Will I get on with my colleagues at my new school?

Am I good enough?

How am I going to survive the NQT year?

From listing them out, I would say that questions 2 and 3 are currently at the forefront of my mind. Taking question 2 first, I know that this is niggling at me because usually at this point in the placement I would be winding down. I have had my final observation by my visiting tutor (which was on Wednesday) and I usually would be in the knowledge that I have passed the placement. This time round though, that is not the case. I have the external examiner coming in Wednesday to observe my lesson and to assess whether my mentor and visiting tutor are grading me correctly and ‘doing their job’. She will also be looking at whether what I have been taught at university has been transferred successfully into my teaching. Both my mentor and my visiting tutor have said I am on the borderline to being an outstanding PGCE student, but what if the examiner doesn’t see that? In my heart and mind I know what I need to do to finish this long race as an outstanding trainee, but I suspect that nerves will get the better of me and I will not be able to show my potential. It is a matter of tweaking certain elements of my teaching that would make me outstanding, but I am the type of person that a) needs to do things a few times before I get it right and b) struggles when people are watching me.

I think for now, I just have to accept this is happening and try to stop getting worked up about it. In relation to question 3, it has become more significant because it will be a week on Wednesday when I move to my employment school. I still don’t know which year I will be teaching and, as with my PGCE colleagues, I don’t know what is expected of me when I transfer for the last week of placement. It is all very much an unknown at the moment and I don’t want to give a bad impression before I am even an employee there!  The school have asked me to attend the open evening for parents, new and old, where they get to meet the teaching staff, new and old. Gulp! Now I have to ensure I make a good impression on the parents too! My saving grace is that I now see myself as a teacher; I just need to ensure that everyone else sees that too. Actually, if I am honest, I think I would be feeling more excitement about starting my career if it was not for this external moderation on Wednesday. It is the proverbial black cloud following me around.

So there we go, just one more observation until I can start turning my frown upside down. I am going to heartbroken leaving my placement school, but there are bright lights on the horizon. And actually (yes, I used and at the beginning of a sentence) I should be proud that I am ‘nearly’ outstanding. That is no easy task, for me anyway, and I have worked hard to get there. I started this blog entry with the title  ‘untitled’. I will leave it as ‘Nearly O’.

Transition Time

Two weeks without your mentor will pretty much make or break you as a PGCE trainee teacher. You are responsible for: planning all lessons; marking the many, many books; organising resources (including your support staff); behaviour leadership; liaising with the year cohort; assessing children’s progress; wiping away tears; completing university paperwork and trying to consider your own professional development. In between all of this you need to find time to sleep and eat something more nutritious than staff room biscuits and microwave meals.

Somehow, I have come out the other side of this and still have the teaching bug. During the week following half term my mentor was away on the Year 6 trip to the Isle of Wight, and this week she has been out doing moderating at different schools until lunch time. She told me that she felt awful leaving me and not being there to help my development, but to be honest it has been very beneficial for me. It was tough, and I was shattered. A taster of my NQT year perhaps? There were definite highs and lows. Reluctantly, I admit that I did not handle a confrontational situation very well. I had two children arguing in the class and they were beginning to push each other. I managed to separate them and get one of them out of the room, but I could not resolve the issue single handed and had to ask the deputy head to assist (the procedure being that you send a child to the office with a ‘red card’). The adrenalin go the better of me and I shouted at one of the children, which in turn fuelled their anger. I did ensure that all children were safe and I acted as quickly as I could, but I am frustrated that I did not keep my cool. This is definitely something I need to work on. The ridiculous thing is that the children were fighting over a playground game that went wrong. It’s saddening to see children act like that. On the plus side though, I have seen some real breakthrough moments with my maths class. The classic “Miss, I get it!” never fails to give me a sense of pride.

I now realise that assessment is the main area that I need to get some more experience in and according to everyone I have spoken to, this is quite normal. I am more secure in how to assess progress lesson by lesson, for my own teaching benefit, but I find it harder to see long term progress and how teachers monitor termly and yearly progression. I am hoping to sit down with the headteacher before I finish my placement to talk over issues/concerns such as these. I have been able to partake in children’s end of year report writing, and I have observed writing moderation conducted by my mentor and the other Year 5 teacher. For the first time I have started to consider how I will ensure that my first class make progress throughout the year. I know that I will have a mentor during my NQT year who I will hopefully get a chance to talk to about my concerns, and as I mentioned before my current school has invited me to their NQT training next year. I am sure it will all fit into place over time and at least I will have my fellow NQTs to look to for support and give them support in return.

My favourite lessons this week have been a science lesson where we investigated water resistance with trays of water and play dough (which I made during the lunch break after discovering there was no plasticine in the school whatsoever) and conducting a cross curricular maths and PE lesson where we investigated measurement. Measuring out the distance between two cones in the playground seems to be much more fun than measuring the length of your desk, apparently! The children responded to both lessons by showing me real depth of understanding, and outstanding behaviour. This all just consolidated what my university have always said about cross curricular, creative learning. Not that I ever doubted it, but to see it in action really helped me understand what style of teaching worked for me. My mentor even said to me one afternoon this week that she enjoyed seeing my own style of teaching in my lessons. I felt quite chuffed by that!

The next two weeks are my final weeks at my placement school. I will be moving to my employing school as of 1st July. I have my final visiting tutor observation this coming week, and I have been randomly selected to be observed by an external examiner who will be assessing how I have been supported by the university, visiting tutor, mentor and school. Despite it not being an assessment of my teaching, as such, I still find it nerve wracking that someone could come in this late in the day and say actually, everyone is wrong and I am not ready to teach! I am not the only student on my course being assessed and deep down I know that really I just need to keep a level head about it.

If the contract arrives in time, and I don’t mess up between now and then, it is 30 days until my first day of employment as  newly qualified teacher. Gulp.