Belated 2nd Entry

Here I am writing my second entry of five entries concerning my year 4 internship, however, I am writing this blog a month late due mostly to the fact I lost my login details to this blog.(we will over look that small details though)

So now we are going to pretend that I am midway through my 3rd week of my internship rather than midway through my 7th week. I will paint a picture of the Monday I experienced...

8.30am- Staff briefing...the news is announced that today we will have a high ranking political minister visit the school to do some press and will only be staying until recess...who is this high ranking official you ask?...only the Prime Minister Julia Gillard..

12pm-Julie, her entourage and every tv news team have finally finished their visit and are trickling out the front gate, just in time for period 4..which is year 11 modern history.

I plan on continuing the lesson on Britain before and after the industrial revolution. My class arrives and because they haven't been in a classroom all day, they aren't particularly motivated.

Along with this, I seem to have lost focus, spending the first half of today standing around with other staff members discussing politics and joking about the various physical features of the members of the labor party, I am not in the right headspace to be taking on a split double period.

The lesson goes well enough excluding the fact I ran short and spent the last 10 minutes trying to seem like i knew what i was doing with nothing up my sleeve and that the sheet that I handed out missed out on some of the main points i was hoping to discuss with students. This I feel was a poor effort in relation to Element 3 of the NSWIT Professional Teaching Standards, which refers to planning, assessing and reporting for effective learning. In this situation I feel I let myself down on the planning aspect of this element, however I didn't feel I let myself down in the assessing aspect. I was fairly unhappy with this lesson to say the least, however, i bounced back the next day in my double period with the same class...I overcame these shortcomings by providing greater focus on preparation that night, reading the sheets i wish to give students as well as ensuring the next day that I had my head in the right space prior to walking into the classroom to teach. Needless to say, the lesson I had the following day was a big success, with students engaged and much learning occuring.

References

NSW Institute of Teachers Professional Standards <www.nswteachers.nsw.edu.au/Main-Professional-Teaching-Standards.html>