Page 2: Doing a degree through COVID-19....
During the current, uncertain times many things have been cut short. In all honestly this is probably one of the main reasons to start my yearbook. As an individual who likes to stay busy, often gets fed up of their own company and quite frankly gets bored, I decided this was the perfect way to continue to develop my learning on my path to becoming an effective and inspirational practitioner.
My time at university and placement learning took a sudden stop. Becoming ill I unavoidably missed days of placement and returned to my hometown from university. Whilst I was home, the announcement was given that the rest of the year (third term) would be taught digitally. For some courses following online lectures can be relatively simple, however, as the first four weeks of third term consisted of a block placement, it was evident there would lost experiences of practical learning. Due to the pandemic and being unable to go into our schools, our digital term consisted of creating an online portfolio. This included over 30 annotated lesson plans, powerpoint lessons, academic readings and reflections against those all important teaching standards. When being told in April that this was what was going to 'replace placement' I could not lie and say I was excited. I loved my time so far on placement! My first ever class was wonderful, I loved learning alongside the pupils and inspiring them to adore learning as much as me. I was so disappointed that my time at the school had come to a forced end, heightened by the fact I missed some time on the placement the week before from being ill. I had a whole range of emotions of not being able to say bye. Not only to to the pupils who allowed me to be their teacher and start my journey qualifying but to my class mentor who I learnt invaluable lessons from that I will take throughout my whole career. In hindsight of completing my replacement portfolio, I absolutely loved it! I found it great to create my own bank of lessons and therapeutic to read academic books and reflect on the experiences in them. The two books I have found the most useful this year would have to be:
1. Learning to teach in the primary school (T. Cremin, C. Burnett)
2. Your primary school-based experience: a guide to outstanding placements (C. Robinson, B. Bingle, C. Howard)
I highly recommend reading these to any current or aspiring education students. They both include a surplus of in depth case studies which explore the theory in practical situations, which is not just refreshing to read, but also useful, through using the books findings to placement and discussing the themes and how to put these into action with my class mentor. I find these not only informative, but inspiring.
Furthermore, the initial thought of planning 30 lessons was extremely daunting. Personally, I found it really useful planning alongside a peer as we were able to bounce ideas off each other in order to create the most fun and engaging lessons. An area we established in the plans which I believe has helped to increased my versatility in teacher training and planning, was to ensure that all lessons could be taught traditionally in the classroom, but also have the ability to become adapted to be taught online during the current pandemic. On reflection of this task, I have created a resource for myself that will be invaluable throughout my teaching career. It allowed me to practise my planning and begin to develop excellent lessons.
Although I learnt to love my portfolio, my favourite thing I have produced whilst my degree has been put online is my online lesson. As part of a project, I decided to produce an online year 6 maths lesson. I filmed, edited and produced the resources to go alongside my lesson. Across is a snapshot image taken from the video of me teaching the lesson. I look forward to sharing this lesson and put processes behind it on here soon.
The effect that this digital term has had on my degree inevitably effects the next two years of my studying. In order to achieve the qualified teachers status, all student teachers must complete 120 days in school. Due to the fact this year has been cut short, there is 20 days that need to be made up. This means we will have increased placement over the next two years. This is something I'm really looking forward to as this is definitely my favourite aspect of the degree.
This leaves me to sum up my views on my current online learning and first year being cut short. As any young university student, I can confirm I was indeed a little disappointed by the abrupt end. Nevertheless, this was definitely the best way to handle the rising pandemic in order to keep as many people as safe and healthy as possible. I thrived from my experience of living in halls and starting my independent life as a young adult. I enjoyed attending lectures, socialising with new friends and exploring a new city so I can confirm the best way to describe the sudden end to this was 'strange'. I feel the support my university gave was outstanding. We learnt to use zoom and had many online tutorials, not just to check in on our academic progress, but to check in on how we were doing as people.
What I thought was going to be a quick overview of my cut short year, has evidently turned into a long ramble. This only begins to highlight my passion for education and teaching as when I start discussing I just can't stop! I promise my pages will get shorter and will become more educational, introductions just take a while! I will end today's page with a quote which I believe perfectly sums up education and online learning during this uncertain time:
'The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you' B.B. King
- Miss Yeoman
During the current, uncertain times many things have been cut short. In all honestly this is probably one of the main reasons to start my yearbook. As an individual who likes to stay busy, often gets fed up of their own company and quite frankly gets bored, I decided this was the perfect way to continue to develop my learning on my path to becoming an effective and inspirational practitioner.
My time at university and placement learning took a sudden stop. Becoming ill I unavoidably missed days of placement and returned to my hometown from university. Whilst I was home, the announcement was given that the rest of the year (third term) would be taught digitally. For some courses following online lectures can be relatively simple, however, as the first four weeks of third term consisted of a block placement, it was evident there would lost experiences of practical learning. Due to the pandemic and being unable to go into our schools, our digital term consisted of creating an online portfolio. This included over 30 annotated lesson plans, powerpoint lessons, academic readings and reflections against those all important teaching standards. When being told in April that this was what was going to 'replace placement' I could not lie and say I was excited. I loved my time so far on placement! My first ever class was wonderful, I loved learning alongside the pupils and inspiring them to adore learning as much as me. I was so disappointed that my time at the school had come to a forced end, heightened by the fact I missed some time on the placement the week before from being ill. I had a whole range of emotions of not being able to say bye. Not only to to the pupils who allowed me to be their teacher and start my journey qualifying but to my class mentor who I learnt invaluable lessons from that I will take throughout my whole career. In hindsight of completing my replacement portfolio, I absolutely loved it! I found it great to create my own bank of lessons and therapeutic to read academic books and reflect on the experiences in them. The two books I have found the most useful this year would have to be:
1. Learning to teach in the primary school (T. Cremin, C. Burnett)
2. Your primary school-based experience: a guide to outstanding placements (C. Robinson, B. Bingle, C. Howard)
I highly recommend reading these to any current or aspiring education students. They both include a surplus of in depth case studies which explore the theory in practical situations, which is not just refreshing to read, but also useful, through using the books findings to placement and discussing the themes and how to put these into action with my class mentor. I find these not only informative, but inspiring.
Furthermore, the initial thought of planning 30 lessons was extremely daunting. Personally, I found it really useful planning alongside a peer as we were able to bounce ideas off each other in order to create the most fun and engaging lessons. An area we established in the plans which I believe has helped to increased my versatility in teacher training and planning, was to ensure that all lessons could be taught traditionally in the classroom, but also have the ability to become adapted to be taught online during the current pandemic. On reflection of this task, I have created a resource for myself that will be invaluable throughout my teaching career. It allowed me to practise my planning and begin to develop excellent lessons.
Although I learnt to love my portfolio, my favourite thing I have produced whilst my degree has been put online is my online lesson. As part of a project, I decided to produce an online year 6 maths lesson. I filmed, edited and produced the resources to go alongside my lesson. Across is a snapshot image taken from the video of me teaching the lesson. I look forward to sharing this lesson and put processes behind it on here soon.The effect that this digital term has had on my degree inevitably effects the next two years of my studying. In order to achieve the qualified teachers status, all student teachers must complete 120 days in school. Due to the fact this year has been cut short, there is 20 days that need to be made up. This means we will have increased placement over the next two years. This is something I'm really looking forward to as this is definitely my favourite aspect of the degree.
This leaves me to sum up my views on my current online learning and first year being cut short. As any young university student, I can confirm I was indeed a little disappointed by the abrupt end. Nevertheless, this was definitely the best way to handle the rising pandemic in order to keep as many people as safe and healthy as possible. I thrived from my experience of living in halls and starting my independent life as a young adult. I enjoyed attending lectures, socialising with new friends and exploring a new city so I can confirm the best way to describe the sudden end to this was 'strange'. I feel the support my university gave was outstanding. We learnt to use zoom and had many online tutorials, not just to check in on our academic progress, but to check in on how we were doing as people.
What I thought was going to be a quick overview of my cut short year, has evidently turned into a long ramble. This only begins to highlight my passion for education and teaching as when I start discussing I just can't stop! I promise my pages will get shorter and will become more educational, introductions just take a while! I will end today's page with a quote which I believe perfectly sums up education and online learning during this uncertain time:
'The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you' B.B. King
- Miss Yeoman
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