Two very different styles of teaching. Students are very good, very well behaved.
On session 3 the teacher used google maps / earth (This was using the street view aspect) & asked the kids if they recognised it (about 4 said yes, & one had put a placemareker on to google maps). He then asked a few to show us where they live. I was confused as to why he was showing this as we were not doing maps (I’m doing a mapping project with the art class, but not with his history class), but a historical newspaper – kids being detectives & hunting out clues!
Don’t know where he was going with this. But kids seemed to enjoy it (anything to do with them & their lives). But it used up one of my classroom time slots!
This highlights the lack of clear communication with this teacher. He is quite dominating in the class; he controls the classroom more then the art teacher, making them sit quietly with a number of teachers techniques. Interesting to be able to observe these differnet teaching styles over a number of sessions.
Not only do you have to adapt approaches to the children and the class dynamics, but also find a happy medium ground between you and the teacher. I always like to work with people and activly collabourate, but i am finding this a little difficult with this teacher.
The mapping project with the art class is very different, he has some free time after our class slot has finished and this has allowed us to sit together and discuss the project and agree an outline plan for the following week. While with the history teacher I have no contact with other then within the classroom with the children. I can see that that he has a busy schedule, class turnaround times are swift and precise.
