Week 5

In lectures we learned about English as a second language, health and safety, and student voice. I found most of these lectures really good. As the leader of the EAL task within my virtual school, I had already done some research into EAL policies etc. Dr Raymonde Sneddon provided valuable feedback regarding each virtual schools work on the task to date. From her feedback, I feel we can now improve on the task, and I feel a little more understanding of what EAL students go through, and the ways in which they can be helped within individual lessons. During the lecture on health and safety, I felt as though for me personally, I did not learn anything new. This is because at my previous job, we dealt with CLEAPS all the time, and I am very familiar with CLEAPS software and hazcards. Regarding the COSHH, again I feel competent as I was the COSHH co-ordinator at the school I had worked in. The lecture in student voice made me think more about student’s opinions, and the fact that sometimes it’s the little things that they need to keep focused (such as blinds to stop the sun getting in their eyes). I think that this lecture has helped me to remember not to ignore students’ opinions. It is easier as a teacher to assume that everything is ok, and that you are doing well, but by gaining student feedback, I will be able to improve myself, and my quality of teaching.

This week, I had the opportunity to perform a demo in front of my peers. This was recorded, and I was able to view this afterwards. This was excellent! I really did find it useful as in my own mind, I thought that my voice was high pitched, and I was really worried that people could see that I was nervous and shaky. When watching the video back, I realised that I need to worry less about those things, as they are not visible. My voice was clearer than I had thought and the pitch was not too high. In general I believe I looked more relaxed than I had actually felt.  This has given me a lot more confidence in myself.