Habemus magistrum!

Hello and welcome! Today I’m going to write something about classroom routines. This week I’ve been focusing on it and maybe I found out something that might be interesting and useful for us, young teachers. The first lesson in the school begins always with bringing students to the classroom from the common-room where pupils wait for the teacher. If someone is late for the class, they usually come with parents to the door, then enter the classroom alone saying “Sorry I’m late”. If the teacher starts his day later, they just enter the classroom before the break ends, take over and starts the lesson. Important is that younger students are not allowed to travel around the school during the break, they spend it in the classroom with some exceptions for bathroom or school shop, so students don’t leave the classroom during the lesson. There is also no bells, which makes it more difficult for teachers as they have to make sure to start and finish the lesson on time. The official beginnin...

Good evening!  What do you think of when someone asks you about your primary school? For me, it brings up some memories of ugly green walls, traditional blackboard, 45 minutes without moving and constant yells “DON’T RUN AT THE CORRIDOR”.  Nowadays schools are changing. More and more attention is being paid to create a student-friendly environment for learning. And in my opinion, that’s a brilliant idea. An average student spends at least 5 hours in his classroom every day. The older the student the more time he spends at school and at some point it seems like a second home. The school that I do my practicum in is much more adjusted to the new standards. Observing the classroom environment is my favorite part of each practicum, as I find it very interesting and crucial for the effectiveness of the learning process. It should consider the pupils’ needs, create a nice, low-stress atmosphere, and be practical to use by the teacher and students. This week I’ve obs...

After a long and intense week of studying and visiting new places, I've realized that it's the time for me to sit down and think of everything that I've seen and heard. First of all, on Thursday I had a great pleasure to meet my mentor teacher and conduct a preliminary interview with her. We agreed to meet in the classroom every Monday and Thursday. I am really looking forward to this practicum, I believe it will help me to organize all my ideas on teaching to make something interesting and useful out of them. Knowing lots of theories does not make one a good teacher, being able to use them in practice in the right way- probably yes. Coming back to practicum, the school that I was assigned to is located in Ksawerów, Warsaw . It's not a public school and so each class has an English lesson every day. They also work with projects, so teachers are not following the book's script but connect units basing on the need of a particular project. It makes a lot o...