Category: RE Specific

TS 4 – Plan and teach well structured lessons

Image - Posted on by Elizabeth Andriane Papanastasiou

TS 4: Plan and teach well structured lessons
– Promote a love of learning and children’s intellectual curiosity

Year 11
Topic – Christianity
Role of the Church in the local and wider community
Persecution

I have been feeling quietly confident about the improvement in my creativity and production of my lessons, and this has lead to sometimes seamless delivery. NOT perfect delivery, not by any stretch of the imagination. BUT there has been progress in the way I approach planning and it feels amazing. As a teacher, particularly a trainee, I have been regularly advised to take these small wins!

Today’s lesson was a great example. I was confident in my subject knowledge but, as always, I had overplanned. However, I am now becoming more aware of the importance of overplanning but with activities that are linked but not connected. Activities which can be picked up and instructed according to the progress of lesson, in terms of the time frame.

Persecution was the title of today’s lesson and I had researched the Open Doors project and the work they do. I found a moving video which I had hoped would engage the class, as they can usually find sitting still difficult, and actually the students were quiet and attentive during the video. This felt like another small win! Students are familiar with me now and my teaching style. They know the feeling of being in my classroom, they are still cheeky, they still talk and chit chatter. But, once engaged, they are interactive, interested and grateful for the time I give to them and the knowledge they gain. I have established routines with them, and this has informed my planning as well as my behaviour management strategies.

I organised an activity which enabled them to be responsible for their own note taking, responsible for their own learning and for the knowledge they absorb which they need to know for the assessment next week. This independent learning gave them the opportunity to speak with those next to them, without me having to tell them to work in silence; they were genuinely talking about the work. They stuck in the maps, drew lines and labelled persecution of Christians and the way it is executed in countries around the world. They were curious and engaged. By asking students to label the map, I was facilitating cross-curricular learning with Geography, and this really got their minds focusing on the task at hand.

I always create my lesson power points with visual aids which are colourful and interesting for students to look at. I make sure the task instructions are on the board as well as explained verbally, to ensure students have a point of reference if they lose track of what they are doing. As per school policy and as part of my class routine, I always have a starter activity to engage students which does not necessarily need to link to the lesson, however, I like it to as it gives students a taster of what we are working on.

[embeddoc url=”https://eportfolios.roehampton.ac.uk/papanase1/files/2017/12/Persecution-19p2yto.pptx” download=”all” viewer=”google” ]

The lesson finished within time and smoothly. I wondered to myself why today they were in such high spirits! At the end of the lesson my mentor requested this lesson to be put into the shared earlier so other teachers can use it. That for me is an amazing honour, as a student teacher and trainee.

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TS 1 – Set high expectations which inspire, motivate and challenge pupils

Video - Posted on by Elizabeth Andriane Papanastasiou

TS 1: Set high expectations which inspire, motivate and challenge pupils
– Establish a safe and stimulating environment for pupils, rooted in mutual respect

‘A pleasant surprise’
Blog post
Year 10 Religious Studies

The day has come. My nerves, I feel, may overtake me. I wear dark colours so the nervous sweat patches aren’t visible to students. I wouldn’t want to add fuel to the fire!

Students enter. I have meticulously planned this lesson, to their abilities as I have observed many lessons with this class, taught by my mentor. They are loud, noisy, boisterous. They push, shove and show unruly behaviour. The classroom is unsettled. Miss settles them slowly, as she was to take the beginning of the lesson today for some administrative tasks. Time passes and she tells me to just crack on.

The class fall silent I look around, they are all watching me. I raise my voice, take the register. They start talking again, and as I ask for quiet, they settle. I introduce the lesson topic, incarnation. They choose a picture from their desks which I placed there, I ask them to see which they feel best represents Jesus as they believe. They do as asked, they fall quiet again as I continue a positive but stern approach. I have seen this class so disruptive and unruly, I am pleasantly surprised and feel surprisingly confident. Not only are they listening, but they are interacting and it appears, through teach and testing, they are learning.

This class dislikes making notes, and I do not want to spend a lesson asking the to copy notes from the board. They will not learn from this and this will negate my aims as a teacher for both knowledge and behaviour management. I ask them to draw the outline of their own hand. I put 5 key points on the board. I ask them to write one point in their own words in each finger. They do it. THEY DO IT! With some gentle prompting and monitoring, they are compliant and generally (for this class) settled!

[embeddoc url=”https://eportfolios.roehampton.ac.uk/papanase1/files/2017/10/The-Life-of-Jesus-Incarnation-Year-10-v3pr7i.pptx” download=”all” viewer=”google” ]

The lesson comes to the end, and I do not start a new task as time will not allow for this. Before they leave, I thank them. Lots of research into positive behaviour management has shown me that I should appreciate when they are good, reward positivity. In return, they thank me back. Echoes of “thank you Miss” and “bye Miss” fill the room. I stand there for a moment, feeling pleasantly surprised.

TS 1 – Set high expectations which inspire, motivate and challenge pupils

Video - Posted on by Elizabeth Andriane Papanastasiou

TS 1: Set high expectations which inspire, motivate and challenge pupils
– Demonstrate consistently the positive attitudes, values and behaviour which are expected of pupils.

‘Don’t smile until Christmas’
Blog post

Friday midday. Lunch time is pending and of course Friday is here again, alongside a variety of playful moods and the inability to sit quietly. I have been meticulously planning this lesson all week; I want to make a good impression, as my mentor observes from the back of the class. I also want the students to learn; the topic is Multi-culturalism. It affects all of us; it is a part of our lives here in London.

I find an awesome video. It makes me smile. It is called the ‘Happy Muslim’. An incredibly catchy and current pop song plays as Muslims of all ethnicities mime and dance to the tune. It is lively and I thought it would be a great way to hook in students for the lesson. Last week their behaviour was excellent and I was under the assumption that this would end up being my best class! Oh, how wrong was I! Students seem to appreciate the video, but the lively buzz and undercurrent of low level noise does not stop. The class really responded to me last week. What changed?

I foolishly pleaded with them, saying “I am new” and “Come on guys, I thought that you were really good, why are you not listening?” It must have been so cringe worthy to watch! There were moments of good behaviour, especially when the head teacher had come in, and I was showing them a video. I remained positive and upbeat, thinking the students would be nice to me and would like me. Slowly, I lost control of the lesson, and by the end, noise levels were high, at times I had to speak over students, which is something I have been told NOT to do! The bell goes, there is a mad rush to pack bags and a scramble towards the door.

Later on, in the staff workroom I was reflecting with another student teacher. She said to me, “Lizzy, hasn’t anyone ever told you? You are not supposed to be too nice yet, set boundaries and let the kids know that there is a level of acceptable behaviour in class. And, don’t smile until Christmas!”