I thought that the trauma of the sheep dissection was the worst I’d have to deal with. But, it would not be as fun if life was simple. So this week I am teaching all of the AS, A2 and some Access Biology as well as AS and A2 biology in Lliswerry school. This means I have four groups of students for 3 lessons a week each, all of which are doing different parts of the syllabus to the other, so I have to teach cell division, digestion, cloning and protein synthesis, so no repetition of classes to take some of the pressure off. I do find it oddly fun and the students are all great so its fun even if it is stressful teaching it all. Then next week I have a 3-hour night class to teach, in to this I have to fit everything on the specification about Digestion and disorders of the digestive system, this has taken five lessons with the day class. So that should be simple….

To add to this I had my second University observation, which went surprisingly well considering the game I started the lesson with got a bit large and out of hand. But they enjoyed it and it had a good revision function. I was very happy with the grade I got . So now I only need to have one additional University observation and a final mentor based observation and I'm all done with that bit.

On the University work side, I think I have finished writing up the RBL assignment. Out of my 7 years of University I think this is the single hardest assignment I have ever written. Oh well its done now, so roll on Friday and the RBL workshop, then I can realize I’ve done it all wrong and start again.

On a much happier note, I managed to get a full time teaching job, teaching on a BSc in Clinical Physiology and BSc Clinical Technology. So that’s good I can finally earn enough to have to pay my student loans back.

Don’t worry Dolly was a sheep, and i think she was headed to the dinner table but the students were happier thinking she died of old age.

This week was a busy and mad week. In teaching I had to cover DNA transcription and I have managed to make most of my lessons student centred now, which really helps to take the pressure of you, and I can now get through a  lesson without losing my voice. The other big bit of teaching this week was the dreaded dissection of the sheep. To my surprise the students were really interested in the dissection, in spite of the smell and blood and other things you find in sheep intestines. We were able to use theoretical knowledge to identify key features and discussed what enzymes and other things we would find in the various sections of the digestive tract. This worked really well and consolidated lots of theory together. Following this we were then able to complete a couple of past examination questions and carried out peer assessment to mark and grade the answers.

In addition to teaching lessons this week I have been roped into being involved in the college open day, this meant that i had to talk to prospective student and their parents and advise them about what courses would be best for them to take, In addition to this if they were interested in the range of biology courses I had to interview them and fill in endless amounts of forms, this was fun though and so it when by quite fast.

This week was also the week for the HE experience trip I arranged with my research libratory, four students that were interested in taking biology to an HE level were taken to UWIC in Cardiff and we were able to take part in a Level 4 practical activity. The benefit of this was that the students got to use lots of advanced equipment that they had not seen before; they were also able to see the lecture halls, research and tissue culture labs. They really enjoyed this, we were also the only group in the practical that got the experiment to work properly and give accurate results.

Finally, i had an interview in Nottingham for an HE teaching post on a clinical physiology degree and foundation dental nursing, ths seemed to go well so hopefully i will have some good news next week about that. I also have an interview on Tuesday in Monmouth girls school to teach 13-18 year olds IGCSE and A-level biology, this is a mad interview it starts at 8:55 and lasts un till 14:00 with me having to teach one class, and have dinner with students and staff.

All that remains for me to do in this blog is to thank Dolly for all her help and hope we are not cutting up any of her relatives next week in heart dissection lesson, Dolly you were great help!!!

PS: If you have an interview talk about differentiation i was asked loads about it!!!!!!

On top of this, this week I have arranged a University visit for some AS and A2 students to visit my research laboratory in Cardiff, and to sit in on some university lectures on a course they were thinking about applying to do. This should be fun and lets them see what University lectures and environments are like before they pick what to do.

Then to top of my time I have had to set up a demonstration for next week which involves dissecting the entire GI-tract from a sheep. This should be interesting, it will stink and the entire thing is massively huge some thing around 6-7 meters in length. So sheep guts galore, I doubt I will have any students by the end except the ones that like gruesome things, just as well I used to chopping up bits of organs in hospital.

Roll on Friday so we can use some flip chart paper…… and no guts in sight.

Had a fairly mad time of the end of last week and beginning of this week so far... I am covering for an absent member of staff in Crosskeys College at the moment. This is a very different environment from where I have been teaching in Coleg Gwent Newport campus, I have been working a full time timetable which is good for getting the required hours done, but is massively taxing when it comes to producing lessons and recourses. The staff are really nice and the students are very uniform. They are nearly all 16-17 and are all at grade B or above in GCSE biology so there is very little need for differentiation. They are all able to work well, but can get a bit chatty and then I have to use my scary ‘you’re talking in my class’ face on them which seems to work. Some of the classes are very large too the biggest was a combined group of 30 this was a bit daunting but the class went well.

I Should be back in Newport for a revision day on the first Monday of half term then back there until I finish my placement. I’m looking forward to having my normal range of abilities and ages to teach.  The RBL assignment is becoming really annoying; I have carried out surveys of staff and students on what they think of what I have made, it has also been accessed by the students as part of exam revision. What I cannot find is any good references for the process of designing a ‘good’ resource.

Oh well back to writing more lessons and making more mad biology games.......

Well had an eventful week....Kind of

On tuesday had a large group trip to Birmingham to look at an exhibition hall full of dead people cut into pieces.  Thats sounds quite grim but it was interesting and the Access to nursing ad a-level groups got to see the structures of the body in context to the to other organs, so it was worth it educationally as well as allowing me to get a lot of contact time in, i also had to do all the risk assessments and form filling for the trip so was happy it all went to plan and no one got injured or left behind. I spent most of the day with one of my Access groups which was good as the next days lesson was good as i feel i had made more of a social non-educational bond with the group, this seems to have made them more willing to do the activities i like to do (which they did hate doing). This could also be that I have desensitised them to my tasks by now.

The down side of this week was having to teach exactly the same lesson to 4 different groups, the content was exceptionally dull by the fourth time, but the group seemed to enjoy the ideas I taught them about genetic diseases.

I ran the A2 tutorials this week on my own, we had to look at a reflection on the UCAS process for communication key skills. We also started to look at enrichment activities and decided to do an event to raise money for Haiti. This was a good session as it allowed me to not be a biology teacher for a while and to look at other issues. They were very interested in my stories about life in Uni, having been there for 7 years i have a few.... I only told them student friendly ones.

On a more University based issue, last week i had Richard observe one of my lessons, and the feed back was good and i was graded higher than i expected so that was very good, and we decided on some points to work on for next time. The whole process was much less intimidating than i thought and the class that was observed were well behaved, and as Richard left they were shouting at him to pass me as they like me, not sure if that helps at all.  

I have also applied for three teaching jobs, one in Newport, one in Cardiff and one in Nottingham, so i may even get job out of this teaching malarkey... well i can hope anyway

Uni tomorrow and we might get those assignments back 

Hi all

Well with all the snow not a lot of teaching has been going on lately.

The last few lessons have been going much better. My Access to nursing group are enjoying my lessons mainly due to the subject knowledge I bring to it and the fact I make them do activities, they moan about them but they end up having fun and they all passed one of the assignments I set them. 

They have to write about vaccinations and infections, so i am planning to teach them how to access journals and reference them properly. These lessons are a bit dry, as the college wants them to be like university lectures. So I’m a bit restricted in activities and things like that, but I put them in as when I can. That being said it is fun they are all older students and so there is a bit more banter.

My A/S biology are taking their exam this week so hopefully the bits i covered will get them trough the exam. Starting new modules now so should be fun. My mentor thought it was funny to give me the sexual reproduction strategies module to teach so I have to deal with giggly 16 year olds now. Oh well its all fun......

On Tuesday I'm taking the Access and A/S group to Birmingham to look at dead bodies in an attempt to et them to relate relief physiology to the images found in text books, should be interesting as long as they don't all start to get ill it is a bit graphic. It is apparently appropriate for school age students. So that should be interesting and as I haven't had time out of class with the Access group I'm hoping that being outside the class may allow me to get to know them all a bit better.

Just have to arrange for observations next not sure if im looking forward to them or not....

Well finally handed in the assignment so now I just about have one free hour a day to sleep now. Not sure if i will survive the stress to see the DFS sale end though.........

I have spent the last couple of weeks teaching AS Biology, this has been really fun, the group are good and all join in with all my mad-capped activities, with only a modicum of chivvying along. I have set up a moodle site with all my resources on, and I spent hours making a who wants to be a millionaire PowerPoint quiz. This class is going very well with the only issue being that my mentor wants me to be very enthusiastic when a student answers a question, this requires a lot of acting on my part and I am worried about patronising them. I also have been doing tutorial sessions with the A2 group and this has been fun, like all of us on the PGCE we have at least been through one Uni course, in my case this is my third so I was able to give them a good idea of what Uni entails.

I have also just started teaching on the Access to nursing course this is very different environment to the AS course. The classes are set up to be more university like, in order to prepare them for their future course. These classes have a massive range of entry level knowledge with some having long history of employment in the nursing field whilst others are much more close to school leaver levels of education. This means that you have to target the teaching at the lowest levels whilst try to engage the higher-level students. Luckily I have lots of relevant experience of working in a hospital and I can get the high level learners to put the theory in to a practical context whilst the other are still exploring the theory as an abstract concept.

I have also been observing and taking part in some classes at the local school in A2 and AS biology classes and the difference is massive. The school kids are so lively not like the college students.

All in all the last few weeks have been massively fun and useful I am much more confident in the class room. I just have to get my resource based learning assignment started properly now.

Today was my second day of observing and I had to deliver a 1.5 hour lecture on the uses of microorganisms in the biotech industry to an A2 biology group.

It was not too bad, I had good knowledge of the area, but getting them to interact was like pulling teeth. I had a lot of activities but as I was unsure of prior level of knowledge it was hard to get them all operating at the same speeds and level of comprehension. I also found that utilising the methods we have been taught may not be as easy as it was in our micro-teach sessions, as they really don’t want to do the work, or so it seems. I was happy to have three students in the session that really seemed to pick up the ideas I presented and were able to do all that I wanted of them, just the other 9 I need to sort out next.

This session was assessed by one of my mentors and we may use it as an assessed observation as it should be a good baseline level to improve from. So I’m hitting the ground running so to speak. I am teaching on the AS and A2 biology, BTEC in applied biology and access to nursing courses, so 150 hours should be simple. I’m also going in to the college’s partner school tomorrow to observe an A-level biology session taught there by the college staff.

I’ve also managed to wangle a trip to London to go to the science and natural history museums so should be fun.

God i hate blogs!!!