not SATisfactory!

My observation went very well. Phew!

My last obs did not go so well and although it came out as satisfactory (satisfactory does not really mean satisfactory, does it!?), my mentor had commented that the children had not been engaged in the input as it did not take account of all of their learning styles.

The lesson went very well indeed.

This time I made sure I had all the learning styles covered and she commented positively on that.

I was very pleased to see L, my TA, back after being off sick. She is an asset to me, particularly when teaching maths as she really knows her stuff and so I can rely on her to work with my most able children and to make a judgement about whether to move them on or not.

Yesterday's lesson had been tough. Teaching 'division as grouping' to year 2 is hard. Firstly because it is not the way we were taught at school. We learnt sharing and so grouping is the wrong way around for us. Secondly, because it is simply a difficult concept for them to grasp, or it can be. My children, even my top children, didn't get it. Some of them said they understood it, but when I came to mark their books, they hadn't got it at all. I knew already that the children I worked with just didn't understand it, no matter how many different ways I explained it. So, todays lesson was real assessment for learning in action. There was no point in moving on until they had understood division.

I reflected long and hard about yesterday's lesson. What was it that was missing? What was it that was confusing them? Why were they not getting it? I identified something which I thought it could be.

Today, I went back to basics and improved the explanation of it. They got it. I knew within the first 5 minutes that it was working. Some of them said, "Oh, I get it!". It is so gratifying when that happens. One girl even commented, "Oh, Mrs L, you have explained it so much better today. I really understand it now." (Those sort of comments help me to choose my star of the week! :oD)

It was a pleasure to mark their books. By George I think they've got it!

Now we are counting down to SATs, oops, not allowed to call them that now. They are 'Teacher Assessments'!