It's been a while since my last post. My summer was filled with sunshine, a few (not enough) 5Ks and absolutely loads of apples!! I also found time to research my classes for this academic year (8/1, 8/5, 9/3 and 10/6 plus a lesson a week with 7/7 to make my hours up to 20 (year 9 only on 4 hours a week)). I was a little disappointed not to get any A level classes but the challenge of teaching middle and low ability students, many of whom, I had been told by colleagues, had low ATLs and were prone to misbehave in lessons, was something I was definitely up for - behaviour management had not been my forte during my PGCE!!
Three weeks in and I'm having a ball! It's baby steps at the moment but I'm becoming increasingly skilled at adapting on the fly and self assessing on WWW each lesson. My most feared class (13 year 10 set 6) are not as bad as expected though still hard work! Keeping them on task is physically as well as mentally draining...But I like them, even the ones I was told I probably wouldn't, so that's a bonus. I really want them to do well and not because it will reflect well on me, but because it will reflect well on them, if that makes sense?
My holiday reading on lean lesson planning, AfL and these two brilliant books:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0025433407
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0192860860
have saved me hours and I've focused my planning and saved me the hours I previously mostly wasted making perfect notebook and ppt resources for each lesson. Sometimes a board pen and a bunch of questions is all that's needed!
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