Cassie’s Laws

I plan to begin to use Comic Life with the class tomorrow. I thought it would be a good idea to try an example myself first. Here it is!

I spent HOURS last night playing about with the blog. I was inspired by another teacher at Cshore mentioning that she knew how to do something. She had explained that she now knew, thanks to Margaret, how to add things to the sidebar. This is something that I had not thought of doing before now so last night I thought I would try and work it out.

It did take me ages but eventually I managed to add the things I wanted. Although I did it own my own (first time for everything) I used all the things Margaret has been trying in vain to explain to me over the last 10 months. Although I was really just playing around and the whole thing was a process of trial and error, I now feel more confident and I’m beginning to feel like I know a bit more about the insides of blogging.

Next challenge – managing a class full of wikis!

After a few weeks the class is now starting to feel like my own. I am getting to know the kids a lot better and they’re getting to know me as well.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when starting primary 5 and I’m still getting used to it. Having only had placements within p1 and p7 it’s strange to have kids somewhere in between. When in p1 nothing ever seemed to go to plan and I always thought that it was because they were p1 and you could never anticipate how long something was going to take. Then in p7 again, nothing ever went to plan but I also came up with my own reason for this- p7 always have a million and one things to do that don’t involve being in the class! However, I’ve now come to the conclusion that when you are a teacher you should expect that although you have spent hours planning the chances are nothing will follow this plan. Something always happens to stick a spanner in the works! It’s one of the good things about this job as you never know what’s round the corner and every day you learn something new!

I had my first observation on Mon and I’ve no idea how it went! I’m keeping my fingers crossed though. It’s such a thought to think that it could all go wrong at this point. Not worth thinking about it!

I’ve been trying to keep the class blog up to date but sometimes it’s hard to find the time. The class love it and they love getting comments. I really appreciate P7V, now L.H.S. 1st years, keeping in touch. Monica, Sophie and Maryam have been great. Maryam won the ICT prize last year at Carronshore so it’s great to have her to inspire the new P5LW.

Although P5LW are having a great time exploring the world of blogging I think that I need to keep one step ahead of them and provide them with new and exciting things so that they do not get bored. My next challenge will be to set up Wikis for the class. Margaret and I have been discussing whether to use wikispaces or pbwiki. I’ve still to decide but I will need to get my act together and make my mind up otherwise it’ll be Christmas before I get round to it.

The next thing I plan to do with the class blog is to start a homework forum. We will do this on Thursday night. I am aware that not all of kids in the class have a computer at home so I will give them the chance to contribute to it during class time. Our first topic is going to be to write something they have learned so far in p5 (hopefully there’s something!). I plan to encourage the class to keep an eye on the other kid’s posts so that their comments relate to other people’s ideas.

Here we go Mrs V, I’ve set this up so we can have a practise! I’m quite pleased with myself!

For a start I can’t believe that a week has passed. It went very quickly. I loved every minute of it, it wasn’t without its trials however!

One thing I have notice is that I don’t feel all that much different than I did whilst on placement. The idea that this classis mine hasn’t quite set in yet. Evelyn (my 0.3) has been great, she’s left me to get on with things on my own and has also been there when I needed advice. She’s been very clear that it is my class and, provided I don’t give her lessons that require marking, she’ll pretty much do whatever I want her to!

I think that the main reason I still feel a bit like a student is because I am at CPS. I love the school and the staff and I’m really happy to be in a place where I feel comfortable and supported, however, it is strange trying to change my attitude from student to probationer. Perhaps if I had had a completely fresh start I would still feel like this, who knows? All I know is that I’m happy to be where I am and so far so good!

I have been in contact with Margaret a couple of times this week, and it’s great to have someone who is also going through a major life change to talk to! We’ve discussed the blog and we’ve been talking about new ideas to make it even better. I never thought I would say this but I’m really keen to look at how ICT can enhance my practice. A year ago I would have thought ‘No way, computers?! You’re kidding right?!’ Even on my first day on placement when the HT said that Margaret was into ICT and she hoped I was to I thought ‘Oh no, I haven’t a clue!’ My attitudes have totally changed and something that I once thought was boring, scary and more work that I could cope with, is now something that I would love to try out with my new class.

It’s a funny feeling when you reach the end of the third year of the B. Ed. course. You feel ready to be a teacher but you’re slightly demotivated by the thought of another full year at uni. I don’t know if anyone else felt the same but I really felt ready to go out and teach. However, I have to say that my favourite, most challenging and also most fulfilling placement, was my final one.

This is true for many reasons, I was comfertable with the idea of teaching and for this reason I was ready to enjoy my placement. This made a huge difference to the way in which I was able to relate to the class and respond to their needs. I learned more about myself within this placement than in any other. This was due to the help of a great teacher and also a great class. Although I was, as a student, open to new and exciting ways of teaching, my views and ideas were challenged in a different way than ever before.

Not only did I recieve advice from Mrs Vass, I also received very valuable and critical advice from the class. They were keen to point me in the right direction!

This post was prompted after I read a comment from Monica on Mrs Vass’ blog. She wrote:

stop helping with the blog i will help miss law iif she needs help

Monica and Sophie were the two P7s that helped me to set up my first blog back in December. So really I owe them a lot. I really hope that they continue to blog so that I can share the next part of my journey with them and also so that they can share the next part of their journey with me!

So…..on the off chance that there is anyone out there reading this that is about to start their fourth year at uni, it is worth it and it will probably be the best (and hardest) year of your whole course so enjoy it!

Well that’s 3 whole weeks of the summer holidays gone and therefore I start my new job 4 weeks on Monday! It’s a very exciting, but also scary, time for us NQT.

I’ve been looking around for help and advice and the GTCS Probationer Blog has been a good source of information. People can post their ideas on there and I suppose it’s a kind of online help community. It may be of use next year as it’s always good to know how others are feeling that are in the same position as you.

With Falkirk Council we all get a learning journal in which to reflect over the course of the year. I intend to use this as reflecting on my practice definitely helped me throughout my degree. However, it’s one of those things that at first (probably the first 3 years actually) I could not understand the point of it, but last year it seemed to all fall in to place. I think keeping a blog throughout my final placement allowed me for the first time to reflect naturally as opposed to the structured way in which I had previously. This helped me a great deal whilst writing my final assignments. For this reason I intend to keep writing on this blog throughout the course of next year and this, along with my learning journal, will hopefully help me to inform my practice and therefore complete the induction year successfully!

P7’s last ever school disco!

This is a movie trial using crazy talk.

I’ve been thinking about next year a lot now that I have time on my hands. I learned a lot with P7V especially with regards to using ICT for learning. I’d really like to have a class blog next year. I’m not ready to manage individual blogs but I do feel I’m ready for the challenge of one for the whole class.

 I’d really like some advice from people who have contributed to a class blog (nudge nudge 7V!). I’d like to know the following:

What are the good bits of a class blog?

Is there anything that should be avoided when having a class blog?

Although it is clearly successful with P7, would it work for children further down the school?

 Hopefully someone will have some insight!