Learning Journal

The past week has been another process of easing into a new situation. As for the course itself, I feel as if little has changed regarding the aims of the student group as a whole. We're still all contemplating a situation composed of many unknowns, and trying to deal with it in whatever ways we can. The time for becoming comfortable with all the arrangements is essentially scheduled for a later date. Although the initial fears have passed, and some questions have been answered, now everyone is beginning to plan for the immediate tasks ahead.
The microteaching is the first hurdle being contemplated en masse. I find it concerning that it worries people so much, considering it seems to me a much easier test of our faculties than actually standing in front of a class and assuming the role of teacher. I've already got a very solid idea of what I want to do, and am toying with how I can use the resources on offer to represent some of my knowledge on the subject on a way that will edify the group, and how to structure these ideas within the lesson planner. Actually, it seems that I find the microteaching rather easy. Perhaps it is because I am used to helping my younger siblings with homework, or teaching them about a problem with which they are struggling. If this turns out to be legitimate teaching practice, all those evenings will have been doubly useful. 'Cashback'.
The placement has been a wonderful experience. My mentor is unashamedly pleasant and ready to spring into action with whatever I need. Already I have all the literature about the Psychology A-Level course at the college, and know what the students are to be taught. Some observations have been written up, and considering my academic background I found that I was practised at the skills needed to complete them. The atmosphere is very laid back, with informal dressing and a first-name basis with the students - who are remarkably pleasant and intelligent. I already respect them, and find it imperative that they are able to pass the course and get the grades they deserve - as well as perhaps have time to learn something as they negotiate the rapid watercourse of assessment. It perturbs me how much of a gap there is between AS and A2, and I am thinking of how to help get the AS students ready to tackle the demands of the A2 curriculum before the placement ends. One technique that is in place is that of short ‘mastery tests’, where class time is used to let the students ponder exam-level questions about what they have learnt, which helps them link what they know (and how to express it) to the questions they will be asked. The only problem I have had was that I ended up missing observing an evening class because of last-minute domestic problems. I'll endeavour to not let this happen again when I start to teach, and make sure to get in very early if I want to cover any evening classes again!
My current reading is Kelly. He is angry with the National Curriculum and still writing about Curriculum Studies after retirement. That is excellent. I feel that an education under strict government control is unable to do anything but represent that government's ideals, dressed up within the rhetoric of 'standards' and 'choice', and it should be challenged at every turn. Any attempt to define knowledge - how it should be taught, what is important about it - reworks its raw metal into manacles, rather than leaving it for its learners to make their own devices from.