My first time at blackwood highschool I was nervous, natural with it being a new environment and all. It took me about three weeks in total to start to feel completely comfortable, and once I was I truely started appreciating how special the school was. I loved my teaching placement there, it was hard work, but it was rewarding, I felt supported, and most of all inspired by the maths faculty and particularly the maths coordinator Amanda Aulert.

I’ll separate my posts about Blackwood Highschool by subject, as then it will make the most sense, with sequential events, lesson plans, and adustments being in context. Here I’ll provide a brief overview of what I taught and when, to put the following posts into perspective.

In my first three weeks of placement at Blackwood highschool I was mostly adjusting to the new environment, learning the ins and outs, and getting to know the students. By the end of the third week, I had:

• started teaching a year 10 maths class, a year 11 general maths class, and I a few lessons of a year 11 chemistry class,
• begun regularly observing a year 12 maths methods class, a year 12 chemistry class, and two year 12 general maths classes.

In a little more detail:

The First Three Weeks

I was aclimiitising, by the end of week 2 I was teaching two classes: a year 10 maths class, and a year 11 general maths class. I also taught a few lessons of a year 11 chemistry class.

Week 4

By week 4 I was feeling alot more comfortable, and so as I felt less overwhelmed I started observing more different teachers, learning so much from the variety of expert teachers around me. I stopped teaching the year 11 chemistry class as I was feeling borderline overwhelmed, partly because of the number of other classes I had begun observing, including year 12 chemistry, maths methods, and maths specialist. In week 4 I started teaching a year 12 maths methods class in addition to my two other regular classes. Meanwhile a year 10 science class began an interdiciplinary unit that I was involved with, although I wasn’t directly teaching it I was involved in the whole process and would come into the classes regularly to help out.

Week 5

In week 5 I was teaching 3 classes, my regular year 10 maths and year 11 general maths classes, as well as a year 12 maths methods class. Throughout I continued observing the year 11 chemistry class as the plan was to eventually come back to teaching that class as well.

Week 6

Week 6 was an interesting one, with Monday being course councilling for the year 10 and 11s, meaning they didn’t have any classes, and Friday being a student free day. This was a really amazing experience for me, not only because of the opportunities to be involved and learn more about the ins and outs of how schools operate, but also giving me a chance to catch up on all the lesson planning and preparation that had been backing up.

TODO: Flesh out the discussion, and illustrate with evidence.