Leeds Teaching Fellow Report 2007/2008

Sally Morgan
 
I spent seven days at Carleton Community High School during the Autumn term and at least three days at University preparing/organising deliverables.  A lot of my time at school was taken up with observing and helping out in science classes and practicals.  The students I came into contact with ranged in age and ability and I had the opportunity to witness different teaching styles from the eight science staff.  The practicals I helped out in included, making concrete; determining the pH of different household products; learning about insulation; and learning about weight in air versus water.   For the project part of my teaching fellowship I decided to go through the GCSE syllabus and identify any geological areas in it.  I then took a close look at the teaching plans and students’ materials to establish any room for improvement or embellishment in the teaching of these subjects at Carleton.  The outcome of this was as follows:
 
1.    Useful websites list – a list of websites with the syllabus reference and a brief description of the content/relevance of the website
2.    Gold Panning Practical – run by the Earth Sciences Department at Leeds giving students the chance to pan for gold, linking in with the metals part of the syllabus (to be held on 23 January 2008). 3.    Leeds Rocks Boxes – A box of rocks complete with a description of each and information about their uses.  One set for each of the Ogden Partnership Schools (excluding New College).
4.    Geological Timeline Exercise – to aid with helping students grasp the scale of geological time.  One set for each of the Ogden Partnership Schools (excluding New College).
5.    Introduction to Earth Science Education Unit teacher training – to be organised by the school through the ESEU (www.earthscienceeducation.com).   I very much enjoyed my time at Carleton.  The opportunity to observe so many science classes and help out with practicals was very interesting and rewarding.  The academic and technical staff I came into contact with were all friendly, helpful and generally fun to work with.  
Regarding whether or not I would go into teaching I remain convinced that I would enjoy the teaching aspect of the job but am not sure I could tolerate the disciplinary or administrative side of a teacher’s role, let alone the general bureaucracy and ever-changing syllabus.
 
Emily Agus  
 
 As part of my Ogden Teaching Placement, I worked at NEW College Pontefract from September 2007 to January 2008, and Kings School Pontefract from February 2008 to May 2008.   I was interested in the teaching fellowship as I am now at a stage in my life where I need to consider and investigate the different career paths that are available to me.   Throughout my University and PhD studies I have developed both individual and team-working skills, which I hoped to build upon by taking part in the teaching fellowship. As I near the end of my PhD it is important for me to have confidence when talking to people who are outside my area of study, and my ‘PhD bubble’. Therefore, as I have always enjoyed interacting and working with others, particularly in challenging ways, this opportunity was perfect. It would also give me an insight into a possible career in teaching.   For my first placement at NEW College I devised a booklet to be used with an internet-computer based maths teaching programme, called MyMaths. This booklet contained information to assist students logging into the programme, and navigating around it. It also contained a list of ‘subject lessons’ that were available, and a space for recording their marks. In this way, they were able to keep a record of the lessons they had completed and the progress they had made. In addition, as the College has only recently acquired the license for MyMaths, I was able to assist a number of lecturers to incorporate it into lessons.   I particularly enjoyed taking part in the lessons whilst on this placement where I worked with students one-to-one to assist them when having difficulties solving the mathematical problems. During these brief chats I was able to help individual students with their mathematical reasoning which enabled them to solve the problems almost on their own. This type of interaction was also useful, as students asked questions about what I did, and how university life was. For some of the quieter, shyer students, these may have been questions that they would not have had the opportunity to ask otherwise.
 
At the Kings School I devised a ‘Maths Trail’ around the school for use as a revision tool. I first discussed this with my mentor at the school who hinted that it would be beneficial to take learning outside the classroom. As I have an engineering background I found this a stimulating opportunity for students to be able to solve mathematical problems using practical examples. The concept of the ‘Maths Trail’ was that it would be used with YR 10 and 11 pupils during an hour lesson, and deal with either ‘Shape, Space and Measures’ or ‘Algebra’.
 
As part of the process I worked with small groups of students who helped review and amend the worksheets along the way. Whilst they were measuring, timing and collecting information, they were all able to understand how it was to be used. As with the NEW College placement, working with a small group of students was interesting and enabled them to ask questions about college and university life.
 
Throughout both of my placements I have improved a number of skills, and developed a few more. Especially the ability to think on your feet! Probably the most important benefit has been the experience I have had explaining the reasoning behind solving mathematical problems, together with the confidence gained working with younger people.
 
It was also apparent how much teaching styles have changed from my own school days. Indeed there appears to be a lot more computer based work, with computers available for every student. In addition, it was also interesting to see how being a teacher is no longer just about teaching. It is about paperwork, reports and targets which is sad when it takes teachers away from what they are trained to do.
 
I would hope that during my placements I managed to pass on some of my own educational experiences, to show that you don’t need to know what you want to do. You must be inspired to pursue your interests!
 
 
 Rosey Grant 

I visited Carleton in December, prior to the start of the spring term to meet with my mentor and have a look around the school. John was very welcoming and took care to introduce me to all the relevant staff and show me around the department. John gave me a copy of the syllabus and we agreed that I’d look over it during Christmas and start to come up with some ideas. I went back in February and spent three consecutive days at Carleton sitting in and where possible, helping out, with science classes from year 7 up to year 11. This was a very valuable experience as I got to see what it is like to teach in a school such as Carleton. I was overwhelmed with the struggle the teachers had just to keep the class under control, let alone teach anything. During this time I feel that I helped out simply by being another adult to work with a group of students. It also enabled me to talk to some of the students and try to come up with ideas of projects that might be useful.

One topic that was repeatedly covered in the science syllabus was that of environmental responsibility and alternative energy sources. Given my background in both environmental science and mountain environments I decided to create a project that would tie the two together and help the students think about ways to exploit alternative energy sources. I built a model mountain out of plaster which serves as the project’s centre-piece. Students were to pretend that they owned the land and had the resources to build several alternative energy stations as well as a ski resort. These came in the form of tokens which the students could place anywhere on the mountain. In doing so the students would learn about the properties of the alternative energy sources as well as some mountain facts. There was also an opportunity to consider gravitational forces with regard to snow loading and avalanche risk on the mountain and hence decide where to place the ski resort. I also put a hand-out together to accompany the project

Unfortunately I did not get the opportunity to put my project into practice at the school as my placement time ran out. This was in part due to bad time management on my part, although I do feel it was more beneficial to spend time creating something worth-while rather than rushing it so that I could see it put into practice. Given the time again I think I would be more careful to arrange the time so that I was able to spend time at the school with the project ensuring that teachers and students could get the most out of it.

It was a real experience working at Carleton and it definitely helped me to realize what sort of school I do not want to work in! John left me to my own devices which I was happy with but I did worry that the school was not getting the most out of me. I feel that the teachers were using every available minute of their day already and therefore did not have the time to consider how they might be able to use me to their advantage.

Working at NEW College was a very different experience. As a sixth form college it is very apparent that most of the students have chosen to be there and have some idea of why they are there. Ned was an excellent mentor and provided a lot of support. On my first day we sat down and planned in detail how my time would be spent. I appreciated having a clear idea of what was required as it meant that  both myself and the college was getting as much out of the scheme as possible.  We agreed that I would come in and talk to a year 13 group followed by a year 12 group about studying physics beyond A-level. I would also plan the two physics extension days that the college held at the end of term and, if time, I would hold a workshop session, covering a topic related to my PhD.

The first talk to the year 13 group was given to a group of students who had applied to do a physics degree. The idea was to give them an outline of what to expect from the next three years and also to give them the opportunity to ask any questions they might have. It was a really great group and they had plenty of questions to ask so I felt it was a really worth-while session. The second group was for those year 12’s that were considering studying physics at degree level and the idea was to let them know what it is like to help them decide either way. This presentation did not seem to go down quite so well but I hope it helped out a little none-the-less. Both talks were a great opportunity for me to practice presenting, which I really appreciated

For the first extension day I organized a visit to Leeds University. I was wary to avoid giving the day an Open-day feel as the idea of the extension days are to give the students a taste of their subject outside the curriculum. To begin with there was a lecture for both physics and maths students titled “Are there parallel universes?”. This seemed to go down really well with a few students in particular really getting into discussion at the end. There was then a campus tour before the physics students came down to the material engineering department for a tour of the electron optical lab and a lecture on nanotechnology. (The lecturers that very kindly helped out with this were Professor Ian Lawrie in Physics and Professor Rik Brydson in Materials Engineering- SPEME.

The second day was based at the school. Both physics and maths students were involved. The students had to work in teams to build boats that competed in races during the afternoon. The idea behind the day was to get the students thinking about the physics behind sailing, to work as a team and to think about strategy with regard to time-management and available materials. The day started with a briefing and short lecture on the physics behind sailing. The students were then given time to design and construct their boats before competing in the afternoon. I really enjoyed the day, and I got the impression that some of the students did too which was really satisfying. I don’t think all of them totally understood the physics but I hope it will at least help when they come to cover certain subjects such as Bernoulli at a later date.

Overall I found this placement to be a really worth-while experience. I got to help out in several different capacities, and experienced several sides of teaching and college-life. It was a really great college to work in.