Student Teaching in London-Fall 2007
 Week 5:  November 19-November 25

Dr. McDonald and a group of CMU student teachers are currently in the Enfield, England area.  Dr. McDonald is sharing his diary and pictures of the students as they experience student teaching in England.

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November 19 - Today I observed Connie and Naomi at Woodside Secondary School in Wood Green.  Connie taught a lesson on probability to a Year 7 class.  First of all she put ten statements on the interactive whiteboard for students to determine whether the events listed would definitely happen, maybe happen, or little likelihood of occurring.  Then the students placed the statements of a probability line to see the difference in probability.  The students then went on to learn about probability expressed as percentages and decimals. Students then did quite a bit of independent work to practice and reinforce the concept. The 100-minute period concluded with some mental math problems.

Naomi taught a math lesson to class of Year 8 students on adding and subjecting positive and negative integers.  Each student received a set of tiles that had a white side and red side.  The white side symbolized positive, while the red side stood for negative.  Students first added and subtracted positive integers to review.  The students added both types of integers using the tiles to visually represent the positive and negative numbers.  Naomi had also prepared some slides for the interactive whiteboard (IWB) so that students could come up and move the tiles just as they would at their desk.  Students did sets of independent problems to get a better grasp on the concept.

November 20 - Cynthia started out the morning when I observed her reception class at Galliard.  Students were learning about rhyming words.  Cynthia had prepared sets of words that ended in the same sound.  After going through four to five different ending sounds, students had to see if two words rhymed or not.  In order to hear more rhyming words, she read a story that had plenty of rhyming words in it.  Students would then put their thumbs up if they heard a rhyming word on that page of the book.  Later in the day students would come to Cynthia to work individually on writing and drawing a pair of rhyming words.

Then I was off to Potters Bar to observe Trevor teach a history to Year 7 students on Roman slaves using primary and secondary texts.  Using the IWB to set the stage for the lesson, Trevor had students write a brief paragraph about what it would be like to have a slave.  Students then shared their responses with the class.  A sheet full of sources was then passed out from various historical periods.  The sources were a mixture of first hand accounts and textbooks.  Students worked on the differences in reliability in the sources.

Kayla did an afternoon lesson Turnford School in Cheshunt on camera angles with her Year 9 English class.  Students study media in Year 9 and have been viewing the film Let Him Have It.  Today’s lesson reviewed the concept of storyboards, camera angles, lighting, and music.  Students looked at a sample storyboard from a movie in order to see a scene from another film.  Students worked with partners to determine three scenes from the sample that they would change and then draw the changes for a few of the scenes.

This evening at the student teaching seminar we talked about cultural diversity, reviewed what services were provided at each placement, and how to effectively teach the students in their current school assignments.  Ideas were exchanged and strategies were discussed.

November 21 -  Andrea and Jessica were today’s observation at the Hornsey School for Girls.

Jessica taught a lesson on franchising and how it works.  These business students learned about the relationship between the independent owners and the company whose products they sell.  Students worked through advantages and disadvantages of creating a franchise by using strips of statements to see both sides of the issue.  Students then glued the strips into their notes for future reference.

Andrea taught a lesson to her Year 12 class on financing.  These students have important exams coming up in December and Andrea used this opportunity to teach them the four parts of answering an essay question for the exam.  Students go through the content, application, analyzing, and evaluation of the answer they have developed in response to the question.  Students discussed the first portion of the answer with a peer and then did the other three portions on their own.  After each step Andrea would ask them to share some of their responses.  The practice essays were then handed in so that Andrea could mark them.

November 22 - Happy Thanksgiving!

Today was a working day for us, so I observed Allison and Alecia at Hendon Secondary School. 

Allison taught a service-learning lesson to a Year 11 physics class.  Students prepared a PowerPoint presentation for a Year 7 class on how physics can cause problems when driving or operating a motor vehicle.  Students were wrapping up a second day of work on the projects so that they could inform the Year 7 students on be careful about walking or riding to school.  One of the groups presented their slides to the rest of the class.

Alecia taught her Year 12 Travel and Tourism class about effective communication.  Using scenarios to pose different situations, students had to come up with responses that considered the customer’s body language, tone of voice, and the situation in order to construct and effective response.  In order to get her point across, Alecia had the students play Charades to guess answers without the benefit of speaking.  This allowed the students to see the importance of going beyond the spoken word.

This evening we had the annual Thanksgiving dinner for CMU students at the Strugnell’s lovely home.  Annie purchased the turkeys, students made pumpkin pie, green bean casserole, stuffing, and helped with the rest of the cooking.  Some of us brought a bunch of decorations for the table, the hallway, the outside of the house, and for the kitchen.  Annie had accumulated quite a bit of material from CMU students.  This is her 8^th year in a row of providing this for our students.

Annie, thank you so much from all of us!  You really gave us a wonderful memory, a meal that was delicious, and a needed reminder of home.

November 23 - Today was a day off of school for many of the students.  Students did some shopping at Burbury’s in the Knightsbridge area of Central London.  Other students went to museums such as the Imperial War Museum, the British Library, the National Gallery, the Tate Museum of Modern Art, and other sites.

One of our host family members is a secretary for a Member of Parliament (MP).  So I arranged for a tour of Westminster and the House of Parliament (House of Commons and House of Lords).  What a tour!

In the morning I was able to go the War Cabinet Rooms where Winston Churchill met with the War Cabinet during the Battle of Britain in 1940 and again during the V1 and V2 raids in 1944 and 1945.  This is a must see if you enjoy World War II history.

November 24 and November 25 - The shopping and cultural tours continued for the students.  I went to Warwick Castle, Stratford-on-Avon, and Oxford on Sunday.  Stratford is Shakespeare’s birthplace and there is a center devoted to his writings and life.  Warwick Castle has a definite medieval flare to it and has been recently purchased (within the last few years) by Madame Toussard of Wax Museum fame.  They have upgraded the exhibits, you can climb on the wall and in the towers, and walk the grounds.