New teacher's diary - March 2008

Steve Rivers (PGDE: Primary student)

The reality of teaching my own class later this year is becoming more apparent as after the Easter break, there are fewer than two whole weeks of lectures and workshops remaining, and I’ll then be expected to have most of the skills and knowledge required to get me started. I get the feeling that most people are looking forward to graduating though. A graduate ball committee has been formed by students on the course and they seem to be creating a great night out in Edinburgh in June. Photos are also being collated for our mysterious 'final conference'. Everyone has tacitly agreed to having their photos displayed so embarrassment is clearly on the cards!

Prior to Easter though, we had to present for 15 minutes individually, talking about our knowledge of reading comprehension teaching and learning within our previous placement. Fortunately, there were three fellow students who I knew well in my presenting group, and the two tutors who observed and questioned me were positive and not too Paxmanesque, so this all made the task a bit less nerve-wracking. I’m sure the final presentation in June will be a different matter, as it is the last assessed aspect of the PGDE.

During the last few weeks, there have been some excellent workshops in different curriculum areas. Learning how to make shapes from number squares, linked to teaching about Islam, was a brilliant way to link up different curriculum areas. Wandering around graveyards in the Old Town of Edinburgh carrying out surveys of gravestone data gave us ideas about teaching about people in the past. Inventing our own rules for bat and ball games in PE was just fun! There are now three weeks holiday to recuperate from this terrible exertion, although I’m sure an assignment due on the first day back will be tucked in the back of people's minds somewhere.