Friday, January 20, 2006

Good bye 23.......!!!!

Tomorrow is my birthday and I will be 24. Maybe, this will be a good thing, and because I am older....I will actually feel like a teacher. In my first placement, I was having this whole issue about AGE, because my pupils thought that I looked about 17!!!!!!!!!!! This did not give me a lot of confidence; and nor did I feel old enough to be teaching 14 year old kids. NOW, I think I am moving in the right direction.....I may look like I am 17....(Oil of Olay does wonders) but I need to get into the teacher frame of mind from now on. We shall see.

After the lecture this morning at Jordanhill, I have become inspired and have loads of ideas of how to tackle my next teaching placement. It was all about thinking outside the black box; in terms of assessment and learning, and how that pupils do not benefit from getting graded. They should be provided with more feedback and comments to encourage learning. Two Stars and a wish was talked about, but I am going to turn that into "Two assets and a liabilitiy"...meaning two great things about a pupil's work and something they can work on.

So we go out for a days visit to our schools on Monday.....and I am looking forward to getting in again. I still need to work on my confidence.....so any ideas....to make me super confident...then HELP me...

1 comment:

Christine McIntosh said...

Think: you know more than they do. And they actually want you to be a leader who gives them firm parameters - despite appearances to the contrary!
The other thing you might like to think about is the way a dog will know if you're not confident: pupils are much the same and if you act the part it will become part of you. And this is something which goes on happening as you get older and more experienced - a compensation for advancing years!