Reflection

I have enjoyed the teaching aspect of this unit a lot, and I think I definitely want to look in to doing a PGCE after my degree is over. I have learnt a lot about myself and the skills I have, that I didn’t think were skills.

Initially the main ambition for the project was to work with the children to create an interactive feature in their playground, I think I got too focused on that at the start and worried about it. I had to think of the real reason I had decided to do college one and that was because I wanted to gain experience teaching and working with children and to decide whether that was something I would like to do after finishing this degree.

I think through running the workshops I have become more confidant working in a team and working with the children, at first I was nervous in case they were naughty and I had to shout at them, but I after the first session and knowing the children better I felt more confidant in telling them to listen and settle down.

One of the greatest challenges for me was saying to the group that I wanted to just focus on the teaching aspect and not the making of the playground piece, obviously I haven’t consistently been in due to my dad being ill so I didn't feel that I was really in a place to be a bit selfish and say this is what I want. The group divided any way and I think everybody was happy with the decisions we had made.

The subject specific skills I used were taking the things I have learnt through my time in education and trying to get the children to think about what they were doing before diving straight in. Thinking about texture, form, shape, colour, pattern, shading and personality’s for their aliens. On the last workshop there weren't enough 3D planets to go around so I drew a big rocket and on an A2 sheet of paper. When my group found out that’s what we were doing they became very excited at doing something different to everyone else and the group kind of united more. They had discussions about where to build up materials and layering sections which I prompted but they seemed to have taken everything they had learnt and bring it together as a group.

The transferable skills were hard for me to identify on my own but when I was working with the children I could see what they were. I think I am quite calm and patient, so when things were getting hectic I could calm my group down without having to shout I just tried to make them focus again. I am also a neat person so when I showed my group examples they picked up on that and tried to be more careful when colouring and painting. I am a friendly person and I got on really well with the children, we chatted about things they like to do and their plans for summer etc… That made it easier for me to get to know them.

As I said before I am seriously considering doing a PGCE or more placements in different learning environments or with different age groups. I really enjoyed my time at the primary school and feel like this is something I want to do in the future. I think that has been my greatest learning achievement, realising that teaching is something I enjoy and that working with children isn't as terrifying as I first thought!