A ray of light…

I was going through the DCSF schemes of work for KS1 and KS2 Science today and found out something rather interesting. Children don’t know much. I mean, seriously. We take so much for granted that we forget that, at some point, we didn’t know quite a lot. For example, some children may think that the sun moves across the sky in one direction one day and the other direction the next day. It’s easy to understand the misconception that light is just a “thing” and it doesn’t really have a source – it’s just there. But there’s a lot of stuff kids just don’t know. [Having found the DCSF website, I am heartbroken to find that all the stuff I copied for two hours is actually available as free pdf files. Bugger it. Ah well.]

Year 1 did a lesson on “estimating capacities” this morning. For example, “How many teaspoons of sand would it take to fill a plastic cup?” and “How many straws long is the table?” Apparently standard units are only taught in Year 2, although I’m sure most of the class would know their height in centimetres. The lesson started by the children learning what “estimating” is (“making a sensible guess” is the definition they were taught) and, horror of horrors, they had to guess my age. The range was 13 years to 61 years. (For completeness, I can say that indeed my age does fall in that range.)

Year 1 also had to grow cress in little pots on a windowsill today. Except their teacher forgot to buy cress seeds. So supergirl here went to the local garden centre at lunchtime and demanded, “I want all your cress seeds – now!” and a scared looking 17-year-old ran off to get them for me. Supergirl saved the day!

But what intrigued me the most today was a drawing a fairly bright boy did this afternoon. He drew a stereotypical house in garden with green grass and a blue line across the top that’s supposed to be the sky. But it was the way he drew the sun that caught my attention. He drew the standard yellow circle in a corner of the page but, instead of drawing beams coming from it (I say beams, but children normally just draw dashes and don’t really know why), he drew a block of yellow going from the sun to the house. And then I noticed that the colours on the side of the house that would be in shadow were in fact coloured in with darker colours. I mean, I just couldn’t believe it. I thought the concept of light having beams would be alien to a six-year-old… wow.

And I admire teachers for not showing favouritism – it’s easier said then done…

I like doing the computer. I like Ross.

My my my, how crazy Year 1 is. Their main task today was to write their self-evaluations for their annual school reports, commenting on their favourite aspects of the last year. It took me straight back to being in Reception class (many moons ago) when I had to write mine, which my mum still has somewhere. It read: “I like playing in the house. I like doing the computer. I like Ross.”  Some of the children were really special needs, or stupid (I couldn’t tell), and couldn’t spell words like when and the, but that’s by the by.

The morning started off with the most bizzarre thing ever. It was called “Brain Gym“. One of the songs from High School Musical was played in the classroom and the children unrolled their ears (to help them listen), did cross-crawls (to activate both sides of their brains) and rub their lips and throats (there are “brain buttons” there). I mean, really??

We walked to the local library as well, which took about ten minutes. The librarian read them a story about some boy or something and then one about a flying dog. I got really annoyed by this story but thankfully some of the clever dogs say: “Dogs can’t fly!” However, the book goes on to say: “Some dogs can and some dogs can’t.” Ah well. I just hope the children don’t grow up thinking that some dogs really can fly. It’s like the time I was in John Lewis with my better half – we came across a soft toy rabbit that had a pouch on its front with a baby rabbit inside. Now, anyone who knows me knows my classification of species is appauling, but even I know that rabbits are not marsupials. I hope children know that too. Anyway, that’s besides the point. What I wanted to say was that it dawned on me I could get Year 1 as a thank you – Penguin by Polly Dunbar. It’s most awesome book about a young boy called Ben and his friend, Penguin. Finally I have found someone who is of the right age group for the book!

I had really good fun with Year 1 today and I think they responded really well to me. They figured out I was nice but I wouldn’t be nice if they were being rude or disobedient. Their class teacher even commented on how well I was working with them. It did make me think about whether I should actually train to be a primary school teacher, as the thought’s been in the back of my mind for about ten years. But then I realised that (1) I don’t want to ever, ever have to teach art or PE and (2) it’s almost child-minding. So I guess it’s secondary school for me after all. And I do want to use my science degree. After all, I worked hard enough for it.

And just for your information, I’ve managed to eat 100g of pretzels while I’ve been writing this post. Someone’s going to be thirsty later on… And I’ve decided that if I don’t think about just how tired I am, then I won’t be tired! It’s OK, the boyfriend can treat me to dinner later…

So here starts the PGCE…

I’ve been waiting for this moment for five years, and I am somewhat surprised that I am not more excited than I actually am. I’ve just come off the giddy high of finding out I didn’t actually fail my undergraduate degree (in fact, I did rather well!) and tomorrow, as they say, is the beginning of the rest of my life. The first part of the secondary PGCE at my establishment is spending one week doing primary school experience (PSE). They say it should be carried out in September, although, and I quote, it is possible to do it “in July or at another time”. In my opinion, that makes the whole time-frame much of a muchness, but that’s besides the point.

PSE is designed to be an introduction to a classroom and the “learning experience”. I think that objective is absurd as it is impossible to make and informed application for teacher training, let alone be successful in getting a place, without observing “learning experiences”. I guess, for trainees who have been out of education for a while, it could be a nice, gentle introduction. We have been given tasks to do: assess the factors that define your school (area, transport, ethnic mix etc.), review the school (how delightfully vague!); shadow a pupil for half a day; shadow a teacher for half a day; see how your subject is taught at KS1 (age 5-7) and KS2 (age 7-11).

As I always am before doing school placements, I’m ridiculously nervous. Will the pupils like me? What if they’re mean? Will the staff like me? What if I look like a loner in the staff room? As I’m only there for five days, I don’t really care. It normally takes me a few days to settle in anyways and by then I’ll be nearly finished! I’m also worried about whether or not I’ll get all the tasks done as, when I spoke to the Science coordinator on Thursday, she said that none of the school will be doing science until September as they’ll be starting PSHE. And it’s sports day on Friday as well. Oh what larks(!)