Week 1

17/09/2010

This week has been an intense week. Firstly there has been a large focus on our virtual schools project. I am part of Apple school. At first, I was a bit sceptical regarding the group assigned, as it is a large group containing quite contrasting personalities. However, my scepticism was unnecessary as the group is working well together, and have made good progress on the virtual workspace. During the course of the week, I developed my ICT skills further by working on the apple school workspace, using features that I had never before used. I also believe that I have developed my leadership skills, as our virtual school consists of three members of PGCE Science. I decided to start the ball rolling and create the framework of our ‘science page’ mocking up a draft of the information that will go into our page. This was uploaded onto the workspace for review by the rest of the members of the science team. As a group we also have visited a secondary school in the London Borough of Redbridge. This was a fantastic experience, as we were able to talk to teachers, students, admin and various support staff. This experience gave me a good insight into the role of a teacher and the education system from many different viewpoints. I believe this is very useful, because as a student we again have a different view of these roles, and gaining insight into others’ opinions provided me with new attitudes and opinions etc. Also speaking to members of support staff increased my understanding of their roles within the daily proceedings at a school, e.g. ICT support, special educational needs support, administrative, finances etc.

Through the delivering of the lectures, I have learned a lot about the qualities involved in becoming a good teacher, the national curriculum for science, teaching in east London, the educational system, teaching and learning skills, how children learn, teaching and learning in science, and misconceptions. These lectures have all been very interesting, and will without a shadow of a doubt be vital to my development as a trainee teacher. I now understand in much more depth the effect of different teaching/learning styles, and how to incorporate each of these styles into a lesson. The ways in which children learn, and bloom’s taxonomy has helped me to understand the ways in which a student will learn, understand and fully accept what they are taught. This has also helped me to understand why and how teachers must determine what stage their pupils understanding is at, as well as the sequence in which the process of learning will occur.