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Teacher training: Teach First?

(not really. Tbh the thought that last week I was getting up at 5:45 every morning and teaching all day is totally unbelievable)
 
I've got a two week half term. Nearly did a jig when I found out. I have taken over the classes that were being done by a teach first trainee who have up which means I don't have another teacher in the room. It's a lot nicer learning to teach like this.
I have v much enjoyed the lessons I've been observed in, but having a lot of other lessons where there isn't an observer is also good... just sometimes it has been total chaos ha.
 
We too have kind of a 2 week half term... 2nd week is reading week, so it is work but mostly from home and no teaching at all.
 
I do have to edit together a load of video clips from my lessons (CRINGE) and put together a PowerPoint presentation about "how I progressed this term" against 4 curriculum points though...
 
End of November and all is well, I like it. My assignment is going to be on cognitive load theory and particularly "maths anxiety" and its affect on cognitive load for both students and teacher, and the balance between reducing cognitive load and teaching for conceptual depth and complexity.
 
I do have to edit together a load of video clips from my lessons (CRINGE) and put together a PowerPoint presentation about "how I progressed this term" against 4 curriculum points though...

My university visiting tutor didn't visit me because of the covid, I had to send him a video of me teaching instead. Which meant I had to watch a video of myself teaching. I realised that I fiddled relentlesly with my shirt cuffs, so now I teach with my sleeves rolled up. That was about all the professional development I got out of it tbh.
 
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As interesting as it sounded, I'd prefer you gave us a summary of it and your findings here. Then can be discussed.
But that's my ADHD brain's preference.
 
i'm not sure I really found anything. it was a summary of cognitive load theory. I guess the key bit is that anxiety reduces working memory (so it isn't just that not being able to do the work causes anxiety; it is that pre-existing anxiety itself makes the work more difficult to do). And in fact maths anxiety might actually affect students with the highest maths attainment most, particularly girls. ALSO it is catching! Parents and anxious teachers (eg those without higher level maths qualifications) can pass it on. I guess the key quote I referenced was "Educators should not only consider math learning in terms of concepts, procedures, math curricula, and instruction but also the emotions and anxieties children may bring to the learning situation."
 
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