Update time

So the crit is done, I managed to get through it with a little help from a friend known as the robosapien. I used an interactive worksheet during it and david asked me to post it for others to use I haven't forgotten about this i'm just refining in before putting it up for the world to scrutinise. *EDIT - Posted on first class 28/02/06*

This week was quite interesting. Although it was week four it was only the second full week at the school. The PT of the department as just gone off sick and it looks like he won't be back by the time my school report is due so it will be interesting to see how this gets sorted out.

The school is getting a visit from the charter mark people on monday and have decided to visit my class period 1, the the class that always has network problems.

There are 3 computing classrooms in this school and they're furnished as follows -

1 PC room with 20 PC's ( Do not get to teach in this room )
2 Mac Rooms
- 1 with 20 Imacs
- 1 with 20 Emacs

Now the Imacs work perfectly but the Emacs for some reason just don't want to work. the school has bought all new pc's but are waiting until the higher programming coursework has been completed before converting the remaining two rooms

Not all the pupils have problems with the network which poses the question what do the pupils who have problems do if they cannot access the materials to do the work? how do i make sure all members of the class can do the same work? and with no ICT co-ordinator to help sort the issues (The PT has been doing that job) I'm slightly worried!

Well I'll stop boring you all now,
Later!

PS - I've edited the blog links at the side so they should all now be in alphabetical order if I have missed anyone from the list please leave me a comment and i'll be happy to add it.

Holiday!!!

Friday was an in-service day in the school which was cool but it's a very eery feeling being in a school when there are no kids there. The best comment of the day goes to my old physics teacher who said "I bet you thought we did nothing on these in-service days" quite frankly i did think that, and given that all we students did was spend the day in meetings I still think that! I know next year I'll be working more on days like that though and that we didn't get to see all the work being carried out.

We were given talks about the probation year, discipline and behaviour management which were all very informative as well as that we were given the chance to participate in discussions regarding new policies for the school, most of the students ended up in the same room.

I'm trying to plan my lessons for the week which include spreadsheets for second year, automated systems for 4th year, word processing for one of the 3rd year classes and my crit but i keep getting distracted...(Damn internet). If anyone has any advice on spicing spreadsheets or automated systems up please let me know, the best i've got so far is a short video of Wallace and Gromit to try and grab their attention.

I have however today managed to get video's ready for the classes to watch but i'm not sure how much use they actually are.

I'm quite worried about taking over one of the 3rd year classes, they've been up and down like a yoyo over the past 2 weeks and it's been very difficult to step in, even the class teacher has trouble with them and has co-op lessons with the class.

Anyway i best get back to work!

07/02/06

Ok so i'm feeling a bit better about this placement now, i've taught 2 lessons on DTP which i think went really well, had them doing the theory however i ran through my slides far too fast, i tend to speak far to fast at times and when i know i'm running out of things to talk about i get a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach but improvisation is a great thing. The second lesson went far went far better, i cleared up some confusion and went over some more theory before backing everything up with a practical activity so things are looking up.

I've even got some marking to do for an assesment i gave an S2 class last week, and i'll get to run the assesment with 2 other classes this week so even more marking...yay! :(

I've been trying to think of good stuff to do about automated systems which i'm to do with 4th years for 3 weeks - All theory! All i can think of so far is a couple of video's like robot wars for the robotics section and i've got a great one for introducing automated systems with wallace and grommit after that i'm dead in the water...lol

It's been nice to see COMAL being used again, it's such a great little programming language but getting the classes to do the analysis and design first is a bit of a problem, i'm getting used to being asked for help with a program and wehn i ask to see the analysis and design for some reason they say they find it easier to program without it and work backwards...AAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGHHH!

I've also has my 3rd crit arranged and would u believe it it's on friday the 17th, date of resubmission of assignment 1 and the day after my birthday so i guess my night will be a quiet one this year, just need to make up for it on the friday night!

I'll stop boring you now,
Later!