11  Teaching Journal

You are entitled to keep your teaching journal confidential from your teacher on placement, but it will be assessed by the course tutor at the end of the course. You will also need it to help you complete your end of course report.

Here is some general advice about filling out the Log Sheets:

• Complete ALL sections as fully as possible
• Refer to the examples and assessment briefing guidelines to help you use the right content style and layout
• Be selective in what you choose to write about. You are not expected to be able to report everything you do in the classroom, but you are expected to select the experiences that you can write about in a reflective/evaluative way. You will be assessed on quality rather than quantity of contribution and reporting
• Do not merely describe what you did. Each example of your work should follow the process of what you did, why you did it, and what happened as a result. You should also include suggestions of how you might improve what you did the next time
• You should aim to link each situation or example of your work with the specific assessment criteria outlined in the assessment briefing
• Do not be vague in writing up your evidence. Sing your own praises and don’t be afraid to say ‘I did this’, ‘I did that’. Do not write passively as though anyone could have done what you are writing about
• The ‘Observation Logsheet’, is intended to give you the opportunity to observe others’ competence against a range of learning criteria, in order to help you analyse and develop your own competence

11.1 E-Journal Prompts

For each week, pick at least one corresponding prompt per each part to reflect on.

Week and Topic	Part A: University-Based Learning	Part B: Placement-Based Learning
Weeks 1–2	What compelled you to choose this course? What do you think you can learn from this course? What challenges do you anticipate from this course?	What skills do you want to develop from your placement? What do you think you can offer a school during a placement? What do you think will be the biggest difference between teaching your peers and teaching in your placement?
Week 3 National Curriculum Understanding the mathematical curriculum and its purpose	What do you think hindered your mathematical learning most in school? Why do you think students are commonly averse to mathematics? What surprised you most about the National Curriculum for mathematics? To what extent does the curriculum reflect your own experience of learning mathematics?	Placement How did learners experience the lesson differently from one another? Where did you see evidence of effective mathematical communication? How did being present in the classroom change your understanding of mathematics teaching? How did the teacher explain a mathematical idea? How did the teacher respond when a learner gave an incorrect answer? Did the teacher adapt their explanation during the lesson? Did you observe anything during placement that you would have done differently? What is one technique you observed that you would like to use in your own teaching? How does the teacher adapt their communication for different learners? How has your understanding of the role of a mathematics teacher changed? Special Project How might the age, confidence, prior experience or needs of learners affect your approach? What have you learned from observing lessons that influenced your understanding of the problem? How might the perspective of a teacher differ from your own perspective on the issue? Why have you chosen particular methods or activities? How did learners respond to the activity or approach you used? How did you adapt your project in response to learners’ needs? How did your host teacher influence the development of your project?
Week 4 Resource Development	What mathematical tool (that you have learnt about or used first-hand) do you think enables you to understand mathematics best? Which resource or strategy that you learnt about would you implement in your own teaching? Why? What design choices have had the greatest impact on your learning?
Week 5 Reflective Teaching	What did you learn from reading another student’s journal? Which piece of feedback on your journal was most valuable? Why? How has your thinking about mathematics teaching changed since the start of the module? Which area of your communication would you most like to improve?
Weeks 7–10 Special Project and Mini-Teaching Session	Special Project What is the purpose of your project? How will your project benefit your intended audience? What educational principles or research have influenced your design? What feedback did you receive from your peers, and how will you act on it? Mini-Teaching Session What did you find most challenging about communicating mathematics in a short teaching session? To what extent did the session go as planned? What did you adapt in the moment, and why? What did you learn about collaborative teaching?