1st Day of Observation

I was terrified. I had so many questions going through my head and the one that stood out most was: 'how are the students going to react to me?'

After having a quick chat with my mentor about my college timetable. I went to my first media class. I sat in the corner to make sure I wasn't in anyones way. As students started to arrive, I was slowly getting noticed... One of the student said hello to me, which put me at ease. Later on another student approached me and asked if I was 'new' - Im not gonna lie that made me happy because I thought: 'Yes! I still look young". I told him I was a teacher and to my delight, he was shocked. I was advised earlier on by one of the teachers that I should not refer to myself as a 'trainee teacher' because in the past students tend to take them 'less seriously'. This made me worry a little.

Over an hour later, I was not introduced to the class and the students kept glancing over at me then one of the students shouted out: "Sir you haven't introduced Miss!" A huge smile crept across my face as the teacher introduced me and allowed the class to introduce themselves in an animated fashion. I enjoyed it because it allowed me to have a preview of their personalities.

Later, I went around the class to check on the feasibility of their ideas. I didn't get to go around the whole class because some students needed more help. Mental note: I will need to manage my time with each student so everyone gets help.

I also found that some students did not know where to start when making proposals. I advised a couple to do some research on YouTube. I wanted to avoid spoon feeding at all costs. I think when I get to set work, I will make students do research and use it as a form of assessment. Also, my goal is to move students away from using wikipedia!

Looking at how many students there are and the structure of the classroom, I think it is important that I think about how I would create a collective environment. As media studies lessons tend to be centred around the Mac rooms, I need to be able to bring the students together. The structure of the room makes it difficult because its been set up to divide the class so they can have their individual Macs. For this reason, I will gather the students in a circle for discussions or explanations.

Later on that day I was in a tutorial and the Year 2 students had to choose courses and universities they wanted to study and attend but from the looks of it, they had no clue what they wanted to do. I heavily advised a couple of students to READ the course SPEC. Lost count - How many students have been sold by the title and only the title, only to find out the course is the complete opposite?!

The Year 2 class is only a group of 7 and unlike the Year 1 group seem to be introvert and a little passive. They seem to have a low level of understanding so I need to be a little cautious about the level of difficulty. They also seem to need a lot of pushing when it comes to written work. I think, if I can help them structure and plan their work, writing might be easier for them? I think they also need reminding that if they are going to university, they will need to get use to writing large amounts.

"Ahhh Miss, I love you! Miss..."