It is not an understatement to say that my first block placement of the PGCE course has been one of the most enjoyable and fulfilling times of my life. It has also been one of the most challenging.
I had only taught one full lesson before the main block started (along with a handful of starters, plenaries and main activities), so the start of the block placement heralded a huge turning point in my progress towards becoming a teacher. It was somewhat unsettling to know that my responsibility-levels had just been turned up a notch as I became fully integrated with an efficient and hard-working Humanities Department at my school. Many of the humanities staff were in the midst of a mammoth session of marking, as my placement school operates under a system of 6 "Learning Cycles" whereby students are assessed in class at 6 separate intervals throughout the year. This creates a large amount of marking for staff, but allows them to track the progress of students very well. Despite the fact that the department, and indeed my mentor (the Head of History), was very busy, I was almost immediately working and planning my next couple of lessons to be taught that very week. I delivered a lesson to a Year 8 class on the activities of the women's suffrage movement, and another Year 8 lesson on the Peasant's Revolt. Unfortunately, the first of these lessons (the suffragists/suffragettes lesson) did not go as well as I had hoped, which knocked my confidence somewhat, especially since my lesson from the week before to Year 8 on the abolition of the slave trade had been labelled as "OUTSTANDING" by my mentor. However, after a short period of moping around and feeling sorry for myself, I realised that making mistakes in the previous lesson had helped me in the long run. I recognised the areas where I could improve or mistakes I could avoid, and further discussions with my mentor and other teachers helped me formulate new approaches to the way I delivered lessons. The next lesson, on the Peasant's Revolt, was much more successful, and by the end of the first week my confidence had grown and I was extremely excited about the forthcoming weeks and the lessons I was going to be teaching.
The notion of "learning from one's mistakes" has stuck with me throughout the 4 weeks. I feel by acknowledging areas where I need to improve, I can move away from what one might label "bad habits" and develop a consistent and effective approach to my teaching. One area where I certainly need to improve is my time management. In some lessons this has not been a problem, but it is something I have become increasingly aware of and I can often find myself looking up at the clock and realising I only have 10 minutes for pupils to move onto a task I intended to last 15 or 20 minutes! Discussions with my mentor, and other teaching staff, have really helped me recognise some of the traps one can fall into as a teacher, and I have sought advice from all of them on many different issues, from how to draw out answers from very quiet pupils (something I have experienced with one of my Year 9 groups) to effective ways of using source material in classes.
On the whole, my placement school has been a dream to work in. The staff are incredibly friendly and the pupils are extremely well behaved. In fact, behaviour has barely been an issue in any of the classes I have taught. The most I have had to deal with is minor levels of disruption such as pupils chatting during activities or the odd bit of shouting out. There has only been one instance where I have had to deal in any sort of "extreme" sense with a student who misbehaved, which occurred in my second week. In a Year 8 lesson on the work of women in World War One, I warned a boy about shouting out (twice) and then gave him a final warning on the third occasion. Unfortunately, he shouted out about 10 minutes after his final warning and I sent him out of the class for 5 minutes. I then moved the pupils on to the next task, and waited until they were all writing before I briefly went outside to have a calm word with the boy to tell him why he'd been sent out. He was very apologetic, and worked very hard for the rest of the lesson, with no more shouting out. Whilst I was pleased to have been able to put a behaviour management strategy into effect, I was slightly worried my mentor would say I was perhaps too strict with the boy at the end of the lesson, but fortunately he praised the way I'd handled the situation in our next mentor meeting, which was another great confidence boost.
Indeed the whole experience over the 4 weeks has been a fantastic introduction to full-time teaching for me. I now feel much more self-assured about my own capabilities as a teacher, and the initial nerves I felt on the eve of Week One have almost completely disappeared. It is still fairly nerve-wracking at times though, particularly when one loses track of what one's supposed to be doing with a class, as I experienced in Week Four in a Year 8 class on the Battle of Hastings when my mind went totally blank for about a minute! I don't think I've ever felt more self-conscious or isolated in my life, but luckily I don't think the pupils noticed, or if they did, it wasn't obvious! Having the tremendous support of my mentor and the rest of the Humanities Department has also been a marvellously beneficial. They have answered all my questions, helped me find or develop resources, and been refreshingly honest when something hasn't gone right or if they see a particular need for improvement in a certain area. I have learned so much in this placement, and I am so grateful to have been able to learn from a brilliant set of teachers and work with some truly delightful young people. As much as anything else, to have your mentor label your lesson as "OUTSTANDING" or to hear a pupil say "I love it when we do this kind of activity" (in my Year 9 lesson on The Treaty of Versailles) is one of the best feelings in the world.
An incredible 4 weeks.
Richard Austin is a PGCE history student at the University of York
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