Today was the last day of turn and also the last day of enrichment week. Today as mentioned the children were making badges based upon their own rights and responsibilities for children under 18. Throughout the day we took 4 lessons of which the 4th lesson I took. It was fantastic to finally feel confident enough to want to teach a lesson, but admittedly I was feeling very nervous just before the students arrived. My nerves were calmed the moment they arrive as they seamed keen to get going. It was great to finally start gaining experience teaching young children. I look forward to gaining more experience teaching when the term starts again on the 31st.

This week has been by so quick due to having only two days of lessons and the rest of the week is something called enrichment week. This to me was a new thing as it had only started in 2009. It consisted of day events that focused on how the children feel and if they are enjoying school. This i feel is a fantastic thing to do within a school as a lot of elements can effect a child's potential in school. The children had to fill in 2 surveys about how they are feeing and how they work within the school and overall it worked well.

Here is one of the fabric samples I have created by using the computer and also another piece of equipment is the heat press.

Textiles department at placement.

Today at 3:30 I was invited to attend a pyramid meeting, with know understanding of what this was I agreed and it was worth it. We met at Corfe Hills upper school and i met the head of the technology department there as well as a textiles teacher from Broadstone middle school. With in the meeting we discussed the percentage of students that had progressed from our middles schools and had achieved there predicted grades in the pervious year and the students that had fallen short and why this had happened. Other areas that were discussed were gifted and talented, changes to key stages and the governments new policies for schools. Gifted and talented is a programme to inspire emerging talents and skilled students and this year the staff are planning to take the students to the V&A. I think this is a fantastic way of inspiring students to be creative in there work and to really explore the subject of textiles and all areas connected. The rest of the meeting was a bit long winded and once i have checked in with my mentor at school I will blog what it all meant.

With the Year six students we have started to look at designing for a set customer this at first was set be letting them access the computers and researching any famous person they liked, but this gave the students too much room to move and they struggled to understand just what it was they were meant to be researching. I suggested that we gave them a sheet with a basic customer profile on it I.e. Name, age, job, famous for, likes, dislikes ect. They were then told that they were designing for Lady Gaga and this helped them find out and understand the research process as well as the importance of designing the appropriate product for their customer. Overall the year six students listened well and completed there work well. I have found with in this week that by keeping the time allotted for the tasks short their concentration is better and by allowing them to chat quietly they respect the noise level and classroom rules more. Overall this week has been fantastic and i'm enjoying working with the school and all the staff.

In the last week we have covered many subjects with in the subject textiles. With the Year eight students we started the week off by looking at their year seven results, this is to give them an indication were their strong areas are and where they need to aim higher. Next was to give them their design brief and get them to read through it and highlight any information they felt was key to starting the research process. This is an excellent technique used to show there reading and processing levels, as well as showing they have full read and understood the brief. Once they have read and discussed the brief they are then asked to write a short sentence about what they have been asked to design and make. Overall the students listened well and understood mostly what they were being asked to create, any students that didn't understand were taken aside to discuss what they didn't understand and then explained in a simpler way. At times I get frustrated that they don't complete the tasks set and also That they don't understand a way in which to complete the tasks, but then when I see them on the playground and the way they talk to each other I am reminded of the fact they are only children and that I have been educated more than them.