Sunday, March 26, 2006

Playing Catchup

Well that's assignment 2 done, all thats left to do is hand the damn thing into the office along with everyone else in the morning.

Looks like we've got a bit of an easy week coming up, The final principles class on monday, a day trip to the universities main campus on tuesday, coupled with a long lie and finally APD on wednesday then I'm off until the 18th of april WOOOOO!

The really scary thing is that we're so close to the end of this course. With 11 weeks to go, two of these are holidays, four are on placement and we all know how quickly those weeks will pass, where has the year gone???

I also should make note of the fact i've now had over 100 people check out my blog so thanks for reading, I hope I've not bored you too much!

Not really much else to report for now i'm afraid

Good luck to everyone with Assignment 2

Andy.

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Placement 2

So here we are, the end of placement 2. It's quite scary but on the
brightside I'm looking forward to a "break" when we return to jordanhill on
Friday.

Anyone who has read the first few posts I made will be aware that I was quite
worried about this placement, but I have to say it's been good for me.
I've had the chance to work with pupils using macs and not PC's with
windows, I've had many server problems, Lost my temper a few times and
that's just been today...LOL

I have also had the chance to try out new techniques and new ideas, I've
seen some work well, I've seen some fall flat on their face but overall
I've enjoyed this placement.

With 2 fourth year classes I tried some peer assessment.
The class were to make up questions for the other tables to answer.
With one class it worked quite well, with the second some of the pupils
responded well to it, others didn't.
What I have taken away from these lessons is that when I try it again take
more time to explain the task and have more support in place for any
pupils not interested or not taking part.

With my second year classes I introduced a five second countdown, they had
five seconds to stop turn around and face the board, rather than having me
shouting at them to all turn round and be quiet. With all classes it
worked well but I'm sure I can make more refinements to it

Third year was an experience I'll not forget in a hurry, one class were good, the other was nuts. I really wasn't sure how to tackle the class and when I did what I tried didn't work. Did anyone else encounter a class like this?

Well that's all for now, only 4 more classes to teach then it's all over.

Later.