Today was my last day of placement, the teacher asked me to continue working at the primary school even after finishing placement as she also said that she saw a big improvement within the children that I had been assigned to from the first day of my placement. My teaching skills also have improved with working with children with learning disabilities. On the last day the children were all on their last day before having half term so they were given some homework to do during the upcoming week they had of no school just so they don’t forget what they were learning about in the pervious weeks. They were also given 3 different books to read at home.

The children had made me a card and told me to not leave as they gave me hugs. I felt sad for having to leave but I had told them I would be coming back as soon as I finish my academic uni year. Some children did not know what university was but those who did understood what I meant. Also the teachers had respected my decision which I had appreciated.

Before I entered placement I felt like I was catching a cold but I didn’t want to miss placement because I loved working with the children. As soon as I came in to placement everyone I walked passed said ‘morning’ and I replied saying ‘morning’ back to them. When I entered the class I usually work in the children had still not come in so I started fixing the book shelf. By the time I had finished doing that the children started coming in to the class room. When all the children sat on their table the teacher, they did some phonics on mini class boards and pens. When they had come back from break, there were 4 tables which had activities ready for them to be used. One group was taken by another teacher that helps them with their writing and speaking. A couple of boys got taken each day so by the end of the week they would all. In the afternoon everyone was reading and doing that linked to the story that they will be learning about all week. I was feeling slightly better in the afternoon.

Today the children had number day which meant that the children would be taking part in activities all day.
All the children came with tops that had numbers, some of the children had made their own personalised top.
All the children were excited about showing their families what they can do and races they can win.
As all the children raced, done the egg and spoon race they had a break and spoke to their parents.
They did different activities through out the whole day.
What went well is that the children were excited to participate in sports day. What didn’t go well on the day was the unfortunate fact that I wasn’t wearing the appropriate clothing for the sports activates that were being held by the school. What I now know that I could have avoided happening on the day was my clothing, by being more organised and prepared I could have made sure I was fully aware of any school activities that would have cause me to have changed my normal work outfit.

on the 5th day the class was looking at facts about the moon. The teacher had given each student a A4 paper to create a fact sheet about the moon. I went over to the table that I worked with to go over the strategy that we use and continued giving points to the table, which I had noticed that it motivated all the children rush to finish their work first but I had also told them that their writing has to be neat and they should remember where to put their capital letters and full stops. Once all the children had finished their posters on facts about the moon they had presented it to the class and spoke about different facts that they had remembered from their previous weekend home work.

During the day I had use a new strategy, I had asked questions regarding the worksheets and told the children to put their hands up if they knew the answers. I got answers from everyone on the table expect one boy. As the day went on we did different tasks. I used the same strategy this time round the boy that did not put his hands up did, it had made me happy to see that he understood what I had been asking. I had picked him to answer as he stuck his hand up with excitement to answer for the first time. He had told me the right answer as well which made me very proud and happy. I had also informed the teacher and she was also impressed at the improvements on the children’s work.

Before starting my placement I was quite nervous because I was going to a school that I did not know anyone. It was a new setting but to prepare my self I had went to the school to visit the head teacher to introduce myself and also to speak about what I wanted to get out from the placement. I was also able to meet the class that I will be doing my placement in and everyone gave me a warm welcome. The children were friendly and open to me as well as the teachers which made my nervous disappear. This had made me excited and happy to start my placement. I had been assigned with a year 2 class.

By the third day of placement I felt comfortable with the class as I had learnt some of the children’s names including the table I had been working on for the first two days of placement. I also knew the schedule of what time everything was for example, lessons and break times. In the afternoon, there was a supply teacher I was able to help her continue the structure that the class are use to so it doesn’t confuse the children. The supply teacher had let me lead half the lessons and the children were being disruptive before I had started giving warns. They had all started listening once I had told them that I would be giving table points to the table that keep their tables tidy and also quite but only talk when asked to by me. This had help settle the class after there lunch break.

On the second day of placement I had remembered the strategy I had used and found that the children also remembered what had helped them with their work on my first day of placement, they had asked for my permission to get a white board and Pen. Once they all had one, I had went thought the activity task as a table so that the children don’t feel pressured to know all the answers. I had explained the task twice before asking the questions from the task to be answered. The children seemed to have felt comfortable to write there answers on the board for me to check before writing it on their worksheet. I had noticed only one boy had not felt confident to answer so he drew pictures of places that he has visited or wanted to visit. I had let the rest of the table take it in turns to read out the questions, so I knew that they were listening to each other I had told them to place their finger on the sentence that someone from the table was reading at the time. This gave me time to help the boy that didn’t feel confident, which is the boy that the teacher had told me about on the first day of placement. I had motivated him to finish his work by allowing him to play Lego if he completes all his work. He seemed happy about the deal, I told him to read what was on the sheet and read the places were the answers were for him to notice what the answer was. This strategy helped him get better and allowed him to improve on finish the answers by making him read everything on his own with me listening.I noticed he concentrated more on the questions when I allowed him to read the text before answering.

On my first day of placement I had received the same warm welcome along with hugs from some students, the teacher from the class has asked me if I could work with the a table which consisted of children with different learning disabilities. I was unsure if they would have learned from me, I took on the challenge and sat with the group of children. The teacher had put on a task for the children to do in order for them to remember what they had previously learned as the children were still arriving to school. Once all the children and come in the children had went over the explanations of the work, 3 table out the 5 were able to do the task without support but two tables, including the table I was sat at needed support due to learning difficulties. Once the teacher explained the task I had quietly explained again to the group of 5 children I was supporting, I allowed them to ask me questions if they were stuck on anything but I had repeated the task again and noticed the children had struggled to do the task so I decided to get a while board and pen for the children to use to brain storm what they had thought the answers were. I had noticed that they became more confident when writing on the white boards as they knew that they could easily rub off any mistakes. I worked with them as a group to go though the task, they had all completed the task on slowly but surely. Once the teacher moved onto another task on another subject I had used the same methods, most of the children had completed the task but seemed to have struggled a bit. I could tell by the difference of how they were before I bought the white board and pens to the table and how they felt when I did, it was more of an improvement. When the children had gone out for playtime the teacher told me she has never seen the children write as much as they did when I had helped them, hearing that made me smile and happy to carry on finishing their work even if it took longer then the other children on the other tables.