C.E.P.D
Response to Transition Point One
As I near the end of my PGCE, I am able to reflect upon the professional development I have made, allowing me to identify particular strengths and weaknesses I can build on further during my NQT Year.
For me, one of the most rewarding aspects of teaching is seeing children develop over a relatively short period of time. I enjoy encouraging children to have the confidence to tackle challenges and new situations and watching their confidence grow as they succeed, progress and develop into individuals. I find providing extra-curricular activities for children both interesting and rewarding, as it provides different opportunities and experiences than the National Curriculum. I feel that these activities allow children more freedom, and thus children participating within them become more intrinsically motivated as the clubs can be guided by the interests of the children. I often find this enthusiasm can spill into daily lessons thus progressing children learning further. Whilst I have found that this attitude is easily transferable when planning in the Foundation Stage, it is less easy to do so in Key Stage One. Given the opportunity I would like to develop my ability to plan around the children's interests whilst still adhering to the National Curriculum. This could be partly achieved by developing my interest in outdoor learning by incorporating by planning learning outside the classroom style activities in my day to day teaching. I would hope to be able to attend some courses on this topic to gain inspiration for my own teaching and to improve professionally. Whilst in the long run I would like to attend a Forest School Practiser's course, it might be more appropriate to attend several shorter courses first.
Over my three placements I believe my greatest strength is my ability to build a rapport with the children I teach. By building this rapport, I am able to understand each child better, thus adapting my planning to their interests. One particular example of this would be the minibeast topic I planned during my final placement, in which all six areas of learning and development were based around minibeasts, and more specifically around those that the children displayed an interest in. I found this approach encouraged children more than normal as they were interested and could see "the point" of many lessons. I would like to develop using this approach further by gathering children's ideas before starting the topic, rather than as I went, as I feel that the latter approach meant I was always slightly behind the children's ideas.
I would value further experience in planning and working with children with SEN and EAL needs, as so far these opportunities have been limited. I am also looking forward to the challenge of assessing children over a longer time scale rather than just six weeks, particularly if working in the Foundation Stage where a new framework has just been released. As previously mentioned, I would like to pursue further CPD in outdoor learning as I feel it can be more intrinsically motivating for children, especially those with behavioural needs than traditional classroom based sessions. I would also welcome the opportunity to develop more behaviour management techniques, as I feel this is an area in which I am less confident, especially during my second placement, where many children had significant ESBD. Similarly I would like to gain more experience writing IEP's for children, as although in my second and third placement many children were on these plans, I did not know each child for long enough to write them without support.
In the future I would like to be part of a successful Foundation Stage with strong links to Outdoor Learning and the Forest School Approach. In this respect I would like to build on the online CPD courses I have taken, building my own knowledge and experience up so I can put theory into practice. I feel this approach motivates me more than any other aspect of teaching as I grew up spending much of my free time outside, and feel that this opportunity is being rapidly replaced by tv's and video games in modern society, and therefore feel some responsibility to provide children with the same opportunities to enjoy nature as I did. As many of these opportunities can incorporate learning I see no reason why this cannot take place in school. I would also like to look into the prospect of setting up an outdoor education company to encourage schools to bring children on week long courses, in which normal lessons can be taught using the outdoors.
I am looking forward to applying for jobs and improving my skills and professional knowledge further in the future.
Over my three placements I believe my greatest strength is my ability to build a rapport with the children I teach. By building this rapport, I am able to understand each child better, thus adapting my planning to their interests. One particular example of this would be the minibeast topic I planned during my final placement, in which all six areas of learning and development were based around minibeasts, and more specifically around those that the children displayed an interest in. I found this approach encouraged children more than normal as they were interested and could see "the point" of many lessons. I would like to develop using this approach further by gathering children's ideas before starting the topic, rather than as I went, as I feel that the latter approach meant I was always slightly behind the children's ideas.
I would value further experience in planning and working with children with SEN and EAL needs, as so far these opportunities have been limited. I am also looking forward to the challenge of assessing children over a longer time scale rather than just six weeks, particularly if working in the Foundation Stage where a new framework has just been released. As previously mentioned, I would like to pursue further CPD in outdoor learning as I feel it can be more intrinsically motivating for children, especially those with behavioural needs than traditional classroom based sessions. I would also welcome the opportunity to develop more behaviour management techniques, as I feel this is an area in which I am less confident, especially during my second placement, where many children had significant ESBD. Similarly I would like to gain more experience writing IEP's for children, as although in my second and third placement many children were on these plans, I did not know each child for long enough to write them without support.
In the future I would like to be part of a successful Foundation Stage with strong links to Outdoor Learning and the Forest School Approach. In this respect I would like to build on the online CPD courses I have taken, building my own knowledge and experience up so I can put theory into practice. I feel this approach motivates me more than any other aspect of teaching as I grew up spending much of my free time outside, and feel that this opportunity is being rapidly replaced by tv's and video games in modern society, and therefore feel some responsibility to provide children with the same opportunities to enjoy nature as I did. As many of these opportunities can incorporate learning I see no reason why this cannot take place in school. I would also like to look into the prospect of setting up an outdoor education company to encourage schools to bring children on week long courses, in which normal lessons can be taught using the outdoors.
I am looking forward to applying for jobs and improving my skills and professional knowledge further in the future.
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