Today I witnessed a teacher completing a safeguarding report. this was interesting as I was able to see how the teacher picked up the issue and what she had to do with the information. The teaching assistant had firstly conferred with the main teacher of whom asked her to fill a full report and hand to the designated safeguarding person. This situation allowed me to see how sensitive you must be with the children when handling the situation. I had seen that you must not directly show them causes of alarm and try to get as much information as you can without causing any harm to the child’s feelings.

Whilst on playtime I had found that teachers use a bell to get the attention of children, this followed the theme of rhythm and sounds to get a child to listen. Linking with Pavlov’s experiment although done on rats there may be an explanation as to how and why this system is so successful. Continuing on the theme of discipline I had found that practitioners had used specific words when telling off a child. Instead of labeling them as a naughty child, the teacher explains ‘ I don’t like naughty Children, I don’t mind them being loud just not naughty”. This tells the child indirectly that they are free to be as loud as they are being, however, must be appropriate with what they are saying.

I was positioned in a year one classroom today as my current class was away on a trip. In the classroom, I had seen many similarities in discipline, rewards and getting attention as I did in year one. The rhymic beat that the children copied to listen to the teacher was once again a fascination I had as it was interesting to see that all the children responded. The teacher I was working beside was a teaching in training and was new to the class. This was interesting as it had shown me how the children respond to teachers who they do not know. I had found that they give more attention to the teacher which had me thinking of Mary Ainsworth’s study of when babies see strangers for the first time they are much more aware give attention to the stranger, some in the study avoid the stranger completely; in this case I had seen that more children had become reserved and shy towards the teacher whilst others were more welcoming.

Today I had the pleasure to work alongside a special education teacher. Her role was to take children who have a hearing impairment and work with them more closely. This allowed the children to pay more attention than they would in a regular classroom. What I found interesting would be the different techniques used to aid them in their work. For example, a Child of whom just received his hearing aids and is adjusting hearing for the first time they displayed activities similar to that you would find in a speech therapists classroom, less verbal communication and more nonverbal using picture cards and toys. Gradually the teacher would move into more verbal activities once she feels the student is more comfortable.

Looking at the other end of the spectrum, today I had looked at the rewards children would get for doing good. Today a maths medal was handed out to the student who had been exceptional in the class. The medal was given to a student of whom was in the top set and she was partnered with a lower ability student. She was recognized for her ability to help her partner by breaking down the maths question. This had me thinking that rewarding behavior like this allows the child to see that their actions are recognized just as much as their literal academic achievements.

Today I had seen a conflict between two students in the classroom. I was interested to see how the teacher would handle the situation despite knowing what had begun the conflict. She had asked the boys to speak to each other and resolve the issue individually without shouting at each other. I found this interesting as the boys had done that without any problems and the teacher had not taken any sides of the argument. I would maybe like to choose the topic of discipline and conflict for my presentation.

Another theme that I had been introduced to today was the idea around discipline. To capture the children’s attention if they were being too loud was to clap your hands in a rhythmic tone. This immediately reminded me of a lecture I had on musicality and how children are prone to react quickly to music. Secondly, another disciplinary tactic that I had seen was to remove the child from the classroom and into the other year two classroom. I would like to do more research on this to see if there are actual effects of using this method.

In class today I had seen a clear representation of culture conjoined with teacher-parent interaction. At the end of the day, one of the student’s mother had come to read to the class. She came from a Tamil background, she had brought in a well-known book ( Jack and the giant beanstalk), and continued to read it in class. The teaching assistant would later translate each page in English. The respect and attention given by each student displayed that they are regularly educated on the diverse cultural background in the class.

Today I was introduced to the year two class that I had the pleasure to work beside. I was told the schedule of the day and what jobs I had to complete. Immediately the first element of the classroom that had caught my attention was the seating positions assigned to each student. Firstly they were encouraged to sit boy girl boy girl. In continuation, it was apparent that the children were paired together according to their behavior, a more reserved student was accompanied by a student with a little more confidence.