Ninth week in my school placement

This has been an important week, because I did my first session to collect data for my dissertation. I had a one hour lesson with the 4th graders where I introduced the topic of my autobiographical story through an open discussion, then we went through the questions they would have to answer after they listened to the story, then I told them the story, and then they answered the comprehension questions. So, if my questions were not well designed or my storytelling was bad, there is no going back.

Next Monday we will do the same activities, but based on the story of the unit they are about to start. That way, I will have data regarding two different types of stories, told in a different way. Too many factors will differ between both set of data, and being a small case study, the sample will be small, but it should allow me to reach some conclusions, nevertheless.

The pre-primary lessons continue being challenging, as I have taken over the role of the teacher. In some lessons she is not even present, like this afternoon, when she spent the whole lesson in the corridor with a student that doesn’t want to take part. It is her way of punishing the student, but I think he quite likes the attention. Taking into account what we learned on the psychology of education, her strategy shouldn’t work, but we will see. Apparently, the student agreed to take part in the next lesson.

These last weeks I want to concentrate on getting as much direct experience as I can, so I am happy with the way things are turning out. But doing more leaves less time for thinking, that is true, and I can see why it is difficult for teachers to reflect on their practice, because their schedules have no time allocated to that. There is time for giving lessons, preparing them, planning them and assessing students, but there isn’t a slot named “reflecting on what you do, how you do it, why you do it and what for”. But getting time for it is crucial, no doubt. Sometimes, I think that instead of engaging in the trivial smalltalk which generates in the staffroom, teachers would better use that time for “useful” things, like reflecting. But, then again, I think that socialising is also very important, because it can help create a sense of team. I don’t know; today I am too tired to think more clearly, I am afraid.