Fun Days at Hogwarts aka Howells

Today was an exciting day. I taught my first lesson in senior school, year 7 maths. I was introducing fractions to them, and as I know all of you are cringing, fear not because my girls did too. They started off very confident, and then by the end of the lesson they were hopelessly lost. Although, Mrs. Scott, my mentor teacher, complimented me on my boardwork and class involvement, saying they were "brilliant"! How exciting! Maths is definitely my comfort zone!

Then off the the prep school for double maths with the year 5 girls. We were discovering mental math short-cuts for multiplying. For example if you have 14x35, you can halve 14 to make 2x7x35 and then double 35 to make 7x70, which is much easier to calculate in your head. Took them a little while to catch on but in the long run, they will be better off, because those are practical math skills, that I feel we miss out on a lot in the states. We focus so much on methodology and application, that we miss out on the practicality of math.

Then off to year 6 science. The girls were completing circuits and testing metals to see if they would conduct electricity. One of the materials they wanted to test was gold, well, there wasn't a sample readily available (don't freak out Mom and Dad) so I let them use my Aggie ring! It was so cool though. So of course I had to document it, and my students loved looking at my ring.

Only 2 more days until London!!!!

One Month In

I was able to be "Ms. Roberts" for 3 days last week! What an experience! I was able to try out and practice my classroom management skills, practice making the flow of the class smooth, dealing with discipline issues, and following through on discipline, etc.

Ms. Hodgson gave me some good pointers after her evaluation of my teaching practice over gases. Like I mentioned in my earlier blog, I know my weakness is leading class discussions; Ms. Hodgson suggested tone inflection, walking around the classroom instead of being stationary, and make a clear and definitive end to each activity or topic.

She complimented me on my student's use of vocabulary and scientific terminology, saying that I must have been doing a good job with them thus far because they have a deeper understanding. She commented I had good activities and demonstrations as well. She said I seemed a little nervous, which was very true because it was the first time I had a stranger (not in the classroom on a normal basis) in the room doing a formal assessment of my teaching. I think it went well, and Rachael complimented and thanked Jen and I for all we do and how we do it.

I will start teaching 2 more lessons a week, year 7 maths. I am excited about this because the girls are enthusiastic and they seem to respond well to me already, since I am in their maths lesson and chemistry lesson.

On a totally different note, it snowed again last night, but we have decided to continue our tradition of walking around Denbigh. This time though, we will have a guest, Rosie, the yellow labrador. She belongs Ms. White, who is in charge of boarding. Should be a nice day.

Weaknesses

I was observed yesterday by Rachael, the head of the school. I think the lesson went mostly well. We were exploring gases, so we talked about the uses of gases, such as inflation, flotation, to create heat to cook, etc. I also brought a fizzy drink so we could talk about carbonation, and the girls love the sparkling raspberry! I also bobbed across the street to the printers and asked the nice man gave me a helium balloon for FREE! We also built our own monorails out of towel rolls, balloons, and string, and discussed how the release of the blown up balloon propels the towel roll, and how different modes of transportation use propeller to move. All of this sounds fine and dandy, but I am really awkward at leading discussions! Oh my word! Its really quite atrocious! I guess realizing it is half the battle. So I will talk to Gill and Rachael and ask for pointers. BUT, all in all, I think the girls enjoyed the lesson and it at least got them thinking a little more about gases.

After my first lesson in Gill Platt's class, I took over Sarah's class again for the rest of the day, which I am happy to do. Luckily, they had math and science yesterday, and I just talked about "is", "are", "were", "was" aka the "being" verbs. So nothing too complicated, and maths and science are my comfort zone. I think the girls are responding well to me being the only teacher in the classroom as well. There is a chance I will get to be Sarah again! Holla!

Surprise!!!

I went to school this morning, like every other morning, thinking it would be a normal day. Well, it wasn't. One of the prep school teachers was out today, unexpectedly. So since I was already scheduled to be in the prep school half of the day, and my year 11 student is out skiing this week, I just cleared it with Mrs. Scott (my mentor, whose class I was to be in later today) and took Sarah's class for the day. I taught maths, science, and RE (religious education) Luckily, in maths and science they were covering similar topics to what I have been teaching in my other classes. Things went fairly well, the only thing was the girls acted like they had no brains sometimes. They would say, "I'm stuck," or "I'm confused," before they even looked at anything on the page. I then told them they were not allowed to say either of those phrases for the rest of the day, and things went a little better. I think it was a good learning experience, because I had full responsibility of the class for most of the day, and things went fairly smoothly.

Miss Hodgson is coming to observe me tomorrow, so I better finalize my lesson plans....

Denbigh Mornings

One of my favorite things to do is to wake up at 7 (before the sun comes up) come into the kitchen and sit by the window. I either do schoolwork, mark papers, email etc. and wait for the sun to come up as I sip on tea (another one of my favorite things) all before anyone else is stirring. I can hear birds chirping this morning, that means that it isn't raining outside; maybe the sun will peak out today!

We have a full house now. There are 2 equestrian girls, who, you guessed it, take care of the horses and stables, and the 2 housemistresses from George's who only sleep here on their 2 nights off a week. It has been a challenge to be receptive of their moving in here, and loosing the privacy and quiet that Jennifer and I so much enjoyed. Its nice to come home to a quiet empty house after a long day, but that usually isn't the case anymore.

We are going to Manchester with the boarders tomorrow, but since it is an exeat weekend, we don't have any prep girls to take care of! Thank goodness! So we get to explore and do what we like, rather than go to Build-A-Bear, which is a nightmare! Especially when the are having a birthday party on the first weekend of the year where there wasn't snow on the ground so everyone and their dogs where out.

Today should be a little less hectic than yesterday. I just felt tossed about, trying to follow my schedule, and a little unwanted/in the way of a few of the senior school staff. So needless to say I was very irritable by the end of the day. Today should be better.

No more teaching practice until Monday.

Second Day of Teaching

Today was a learning experience indeed. I know full well what the meaning of being a flexible teacher means. I started an experiment in my year 5 class, noticed it was taking longer than I had hoped, and that there was really no point to weighing the air displacement in sand when you poured water into it; what was more important was that they made the correct observations about what was happening. Things went very smoothly and the girls made some very insightful observations! I was so proud of them!!

My next lesson was a continuation over 100 pairs with my year 6 class. They didn't quite get it like I had hoped and worked much slower than they should have. Guess I'll have to assign some review work for them next week. The show must go on though!

I also received the scheme for my year 9 Biology class, so I suppose she wants me to start teaching soon! Oh goodness! Guess I'll really have to do my homework on that one. Classroom management will be key for this group, they are very disrespectful and she is constantly telling them to stop talking. Note to self, it's not a popularity contest so I don't necessarily have to be nice. Seat changes may be in order!

First 2 Lessons

I taught my first 2 full blown lessons today! I think they went really well. The first one I taught to year 5 over sequencing, and counting by a certain increment, and to year 6 I taught adding to make 1, 10, and 100. I do believe it is a little easier here than in the states, because the students at this school know they are here because their parents pay for them to be here, so they are better behaved. One thing I observed my mentor in the senior school do, is she doesn't have students raise their hand, she just calls on students. This way the students are more attentive because they know they could be called on at any moment. Luckily for me the 2 teachers whose classes I taught in have effective classroom management strategies in play. I did however make one student cry today!! I know, what an awful, mean teacher Miss Rothrock is! Some of the year 5 girls were fighting over these blocks that they wanted to keep on their desk, and I just didn't want to deal with it so I told all of them to just put them back in the bin, and we weren't using them at all therefore there was no need to have them. Two of the girls were arguing about putting them back in the bin, and so I told the girl who had them on her desk to put it away. I watched her walk to the back and put them away, so I turned around to begin my lesson. The next thing I know, she is bawling!! Ms. Platt had to take her out in the hallway to ask her what was wrong, but was sent back to her seat straight away. Oh boy! What a way to start the day!

Other than that, I think everything went pretty well, I think smoothness of delivery comes with practice, so that is something to work on. I was marking their work this afternoon and most of them did really well; of course there are always a few that just rush through their work and make careless mistakes.

I am teaching a science lesson tomorrow and continuing the lesson in one of the maths classes, so I have to go to school a little early to set up the experiment. Should be a fun day!