Tuesday 13th January 2015

Over the last couples of days, I took time out for an interview I had in Essex for teacher training starting in September. As a result of this I have been quite distracted from completing my uni work, more focused on other things.

The interview was for the Thames primary SCITT in Essex. I did manage to get some work completed on the train to and from Essex, working more on my industry report. AS I did not have the time to sit down and continue writing, I went through what I had completed so far again, going over spelling and essay structure to make everything flow better. I do NEED really need to sit down and concentrate on my conclusion soon. I will feel a lot happier about my report when I have.

I did have my interview today, which I feel went very well. After we had some time observing a class, I had my interview with the headteacher where she discussed teaching practice and I gave lots of examples of how I would make a good teacher. This relaxed conversation ended with the headteacher suggested that I was a workaholic and would fit into the teaching profession. In the afternoon, I had my activity with a class of children, based on the egg creation.

Lesson Plan Lesson Plan based on Interview.

Starter activity...

• Start by getting the children to sit down on the carpet in a circle with their eyes closed, and tell a descriptive story about a journey, an adventure where you found an object, something special. This will give the children time sit down take a couple of minutes out to relax and focus their minds.
• Produce a box or similar with the object inside. Get the children to talk in their pairs and think about what they think is inside the box. Get them to think about the WOW words or adjectives you used to describe the object. Get them to feedback with a mexican wave, getting the children to shout out their ideas.
• Following this, slowly unwrap the box to produce the object. Let the children have a look, then get them to discuss some of their own WOW words/adjectives to describe the object and feedback.
• Continue the question, discuss and feedback with…
• How did the object get their?
• Where can you go/ who can help me find out these things?
• End the activity by going back through everything you have discussed as a group and the importance of the use of WOW words/adjectives and using them in writing to make it more interesting.

Key learning…

• Using a visual stimulus to gain ideas for writing.
• Understanding what adjectives are and how they relate to the senses, in particular sight.
• Learning about the use of adjectives and how to use them in writing.

Ideas to move learning on…

• Lead the activity in a story mapping activity based on the children’s retelling of the story. Produce a story map worksheet which the children will fill in using as much detail as possible, in particular, the use of adjectives to add more detail. This could be a plan which leads into a ‘BIG WRITE’ session where the children write a story based on a walk, an adventure where they find something, what it looks like and how they are going find out how it got their/what it is used for.
• Leading into an activity where the children make their egg/object and perhaps fill in a worksheet the think of adjectives to describe it. perhaps then lead into the story mapping.

My activity was based upon an paper mache egg which I placed into a box I created. The activity worked well and the children were really enthusiastic and engaged.

I think the next step with this activity is do print off pictures of the resources I used and a mini evaluation of how I think it went, what I could change to make it more successful and how the idea could be built upon.