Week 15 – Professional

After having two weeks off I knew that getting up at 6.00am on Monday morning to go to placement was going to be tough but I was glad to be getting back into a routine and being able to see my class again.  When I arrived into my school I was greeted with numerous “goedemorgens” (good morning) and “welkom terugs” (welcome back).  When I entered my classroom all the kids were excited to tell me what they had got up to during their two week vacation and to find out if I had done any travelling.  With the help of Google translate and my mentor I was able to find out what all the children had got up to over the holidays and they were able to ask me questions about what I did during mine. 

When I went into school on Tuesday I was presented with a situation that got me very excited.  The P.E teacher was sick and the principal was giving me the opportunity to deliver the P.E lesson to my class.  This was very exciting for me as P.E is the subject that I have been doing extra work with during my time in Stranmillis.  Although I did not have anything planned for the lesson I was able to come up with a lesson that lasted for 1 hour and 15 minutes.  During the lesson I got to teach the children more about the skills involved in Gaelic football and even got them to take part in a mini game that got them practising all their new found skills. 

After my surprise lesson I then had to get ready for teaching my English lesson.  In the lesson I was going to be using a system called Groove.me to teach my children English.  

Groove.me is a method of teaching English in primary schools using music.  A song is chosen and the theme of the song is used to teach the children the different language associated with the theme.  There are 15 songs available for each year group and 30 lessons associated with the variety of different songs.  The song that I had chosen was “Drive by” by Train.  Firstly the children listen to the song and if they wish they can sing along to it, this means that even those children that have very little English can take part in the lesson by just singing.  It then goes onto asking the children what they think the song is about and it breaks the chorus down into sentences that the children can listen to and discuss the different words that they can see and understand.  The children are then provided with English words that they have to translate into Dutch and Dutch words that they have to

Part of the lesson

translate into English.  After this the children are then shown actions that they have to complete when they hear specific words.  This gets the children listening to the words of the song and helps them with their word recognition.  The benefit of this method of teaching is that it is all completed using the interactive whiteboard which is important as the GTCNI (2008) competence number 11 states that “Teachers will have developed a knowledge and understanding of how to use technology effectively both to aid pupil learning and support their professional role”.   Once the interactive session is completed there are worksheets available that the children have to complete. When evaluating my lesson I thought that using well known songs to help the children learn English was a great idea however I know that some of the children in my class found it difficult when they had to keep switching between Dutch and English on some of the activities.  I also found it difficult when some of the instructions on the worksheet were in Dutch but with the help of Google translates and effective planning I was able to translate the instructions and know what the children had to do. 

Part of the worksheet

I believe that this was a great experience for me as I got to see a different method for teaching English.  I also got to see how effective music can be when promoting learning and I will be using music in more of my future lessons. 

References

GTCNI Competences (2008). Professional Competences. Available at : http://www.gtcni.org.uk//index.cfm/area/information/page/ProfStandard (accessed 18/05/13)