Eleventh week in my school placement

It seemed like it would last forever, but the last week is here! Oh, and we are all sad to say goodbye.

The week went by quite peacefully. The group in the fourth grade of Primary missed two lessons, which add to some others over the past few weeks. There are weeks when bank holidays, school trips and other events pile up and the English teacher needs to manage those interruptions the best she can. The pre-Primary groups have been doing fine, and they are following the lesson-plans set up by the teacher.

In the last two weeks I have also been attending a group of second graders in Primary, because next Tuesday I will be taking over one of the English teachers, and I wanted to get to know the group a bit beforehand. I took over her once she had a burial to attend, but next Tuesday it will be more intense, because I will have five lessons: two 4-year-old groups, two 5-year-old groups and one group of second graders in Primary. I am happy and excited about this.

The only group where it might be a bit more difficult to perform the lesson will be the first one, because they will have a new pupil in the group, and another pupil who has been away for several weeks will come back. The whole group was terribly excited today about the new friend who will join them tomorrow, and it hasn’t been easy to calm them down and guide the class. Besides, the pupil who will come back next Tuesday has Special Educational Needs and he will most likely need some days to adjust back to school. One of my former classmates, who is doing her school placement with this group, will stay during the lesson to help me manage the group, so I am sure it will go well. This afternoon I have planned all the lessons with the English teacher, so everything is set up.

In the last few weeks I have been working on ways to interact with the groups in such a way that they will follow the planned activities without me having to raise my voice. I hate shouting; I dislike noise, and this school is very noisy. Well, to be fair, ours is a noisy country in general, and this particular school is only maybe a bit over average. The noise is especially bad in the corridors and the stairs. Children are not noisy by nature, I believe; we make them noisy. And we make them noisy mainly by shouting at them. So I am determined to be a teacher with a reasonable tone of voice, but it is not easy, especially when children are used to being shouted at. Still, I think I have made some progress with these groups since I took over the English teacher conducting the lessons. Tranquility is a desired feature for me in a school; it is a condition for learning, and too often we ignore it.