Planning
Once again, please may we remind everyone about the planning expectations.
Beginning teachers should now be familiar with any planning from which they will be creating lesson plans. Please can mentors continue taking time to model the planning process to their beginning teachers as and when necessary.
All beginning teachers should now be producing detailed planning, and evaluations, for all their teaching, whether it is whole class and small groups.
Further guidance and planning examples can be found on the lesson planning template page and the importance of detailed lesson planning page.
This Week
Further details of this week’s activities and responsibilities can be found in the Weekly Expectation grid on p32 of the School Placement 2 Handbook. This is provided as guidance and need not be adhered to if it is not in the interest of the beginning teacher’s learning to teach. If mentors have any concerns regarding the pace at which their beginning teacher is progressing, they should contact the relevant tutor.
This Week’s Theme
The placement theme for this week is Questioning and Modelling and targets have therefore been pre-set in ePortfolio. There are also activities that must be completed this week as part of the theme and they can be found on the Theme 2 page.
The Weekly Review
The agenda for this week will be an amended version of that set out on p.8 of the placement handbook. Please note, there is no need to set three targets for next week (Week 4) because these have set already:
- Review pupil progress
- Discussion the reflection on the targets beginning teachers have been working on
- Review teaching moments 1 and 2
Set three targets, and their action plans, for next week(This is not needed as targets have already been set – see Week 4 in ePortfolio)- Discuss any findings from the PDAs completed during the week
- Plan which lessons will be taught next week and discuss any other logistics for the week ahead
Further details can also be found on the Weekly Reviews page.
Mentors will find further guidance on how to support the Weekly Review discussion on this page.
Lesson Observations
The lesson observation form is available for download on the Lesson Observation Forms page. Further details can be found on p19 of the handbook.
Teaching Moment 2 that mentors identify from the formal lesson observation should focus on adaptive teaching, which is next week’s (week 4) theme. Targets have already been set for this (see ePortfolio Week 4) so mentors should work backwards from the FIA target in identifying teaching moment 2 to align with it.
This week’s Teaching Moment 1, can focus on any aspect of practice.
Target Setting
As previous mentioned, next week’s FIA target (week 4) has been set, so there is no need to set any more. However, as a result of reviewing teaching moment 2, the targets may be amended slightly to tailor to the needs of the beginning teacher more.
Looking Ahead
The final SP2 placement theme is on Adaptive Teaching and will take place next week during week 4. There are activities to complete during the week and details can be found on the Theme 3 page.
Reminders
Last week’s update is available to read here and the things to remember from it are:
- Formal lesson observations: must be video recorded on the university iPads. Further details can be found on this page.
- Delayed Debrief: A reminder for mentors that there is no longer a formal approach. Further details are in this post.
- PDAs: Beginning teachers should continue with these activities found in the PDJ.
- Please could all mentors and beginning teachers ensure they have read and are familiar with the contents of the Primary Entitlement Document. Thank you.
- Beginning teachers should begin completing the appropriate Professional Development Activities (PDAs) found in the Professional Development Journal (PDJ).
Happy Easter
As this is the last post before the Easter break we would like to wish all beginning teachers and their mentors a restful and refreshing break. Happy Easter!