Evaluation of 4th Year School Placement: BA (JH) Education and Design or Fine Art

STUDENT: Emily Briody

SCHOOL: Cnoc Mhuire Granard, Co. Longford

PRINCIPAL: Pauline McBrien

ART TEACHER/S: Charmaine Hetherton

CLASS TIMES/GROUP:

Tuesday: 11:20-12:00 5th Year (Single), 12:00-1:20 2nd Year (8.5) Art (Double), 2:00-3:20 2nd Year (7.2) Art (Double)

Wednesday – 11:20-12:00 3rd Year Art (Single), 2:00-2:40 5th Year Visual Studies (Single)

Thursday- 11:20-12:40 5th Year Art (Double), 12:40-1:20 1st Year (8.1) Art (Single), 2:40-3:20 2nd Year (7.2) Art (Single)

Friday – 9:40-11:00 1st Year (9.2) Art (Double), 11:20-12:00 3rd Year Art (Single)

OVERALL EVALUATION OF 4thYr School Placement

Cnoc Mhuire Secondary School is a voluntary, co-educational secondary school in Granard, Co. Longford was established in 1947 by the Sisters of Mercy and initially was a girls’ boarding school until 1987. Cnoc Mhuire has approximately 449 students along with 40 members of staff. The school has sixteen general classrooms and a number of specialised classrooms. There is a Home Economics Kitchen, a gym, a music room, a Sports Hall, 2 woodwork rooms, a DCG room, 2 science labs, an Art room, a Geography room, 2 computer rooms connected to the printer via the network, and a needlework room. Cnoc Mhuire also has a full-sized GAA pitch, 2 basketball courts and a tennis court.

During my ten weeks of school placement in Granard I have definitely developed as a person and become much more confident in myself as a teacher. I’ve had a wonderful experience in Granard, all of the teachers were very welcoming and I felt I fitted in really well. When it came to observations, I wasn’t afraid to ask any of the teachers as they were already very accommodating towards me. My host teacher, Charmaine, gave me classes that she knew would work well with me as it can be tough going in to teach straight away on my own with no team teaching involved this year. Charmaine helped me when it came to planning out some of my lessons as she knows how her students work already as well as my tutors Noel and Aoife. I felt I had a good rapport with the students as some of them thought that I only did my leaving certificate as I appear to be not much older than them. The students enjoyed how enthusiastic I came across in the classroom, my approach to their learning giving them lots of group work and interactive multimedia tasks. After my second week of placement, I realised I was still struggling to own the classroom and I needed to build more confidence in myself after my first supervised visit with Noel. After listening and reflecting on Noel’s feedback from the first visit, I realised I needed to look like I own the classroom, it is my classroom for the 10 weeks, I needed to be in control of it and not appear incompetent as I have the confidence to own the room. I then started to build confidence in myself as a teacher and what I am teaching and planning for the students.

My Strengths

 I was able to manage my classes well, I had a good seating plan in place for all my classes. I don’t mind chatter going on in the class as long as the students are doing their work. The students knew that if they were fair with me, I would be fair with them. There would be silence while I would be presenting or demonstrating when they would have to gather round my desk. I worked really hard to prepare all of my visual aids which were effective and wowed the students which is the impression I wanted from them. There were times where I felt my physical presentation (boards) were a bit confusing for the students and I would spend my weekends adjusting them and making them much more understandable. I picked good support studies that suited the lessons so that the students could have another example of work that they need to work towards as well as my own. As this is my final placement, I have learned from previous placements that I need to be realistic about my learning intentions. When it comes to my learning intentions that I write up, I think of what I would like to expect at the end of the lesson, what the students should have learned and what they did to understand the lesson.

I have a kind manner which encourages students who have any issues, big or small, can come up to me and discuss their problems with me . This could be a school problem or a problem outside of school. I feel in the future, I would love to be a career guidance counsellor or a home school liaison officer as I’ve got good social skills and I feel lots of people trust me young or old with any issues they may be facing. It feels very rewarding when you feel like you have helped a student and made them feel better. I’ve had the same experience last year in Kylemore College, where students felt comfortable discussing any little problems they are having that may be affecting their school work.

Cnoc Mhuire is a well-known school for their Junk Kouture. Two of their students won the 'World Designer of the Year' title at the first ever Junk Kouture World Final in Abu Dhabi in 2022. This is huge for the school, there is a huge uptake for art, there are two class groups in each year who do art so it’s a popular subject in the school. I have a huge passion for fashion, I love my style. Actually, most days some of the students would compliment my clothes that I wore into school and ask me where I got my clothes from and who my style icons are. I did puppetry last year during my 3rd year school placement, so I am familiar and well used to using a sewing machine. On a Thursday afternoon when the school would finish, I would take in the Transition Year students who were working on their Junk Kouture until six in the evening. This was another nice way of getting to know the students and building a teacher-student relationship. There was a nice relaxed atmosphere in the classroom. I would let the students bring in coffee/tea and eat a snack while they were working and I would play some music in the background. I felt this also encouraged the students to come to this afternoon class every week to work on their Junk Kouture because of the relaxed atmosphere and it was also a nice way to socialise with their friends as they could chat while they were working.

My Weaknesses

I feel like I am definitely a much stronger student teacher to what I was last year but at times there are still areas that I need to brush up on. At the start of my placement, I did find it daunting starting straight into teaching on my own, no team teaching involved. The students were quite frozen and never came across a student teacher for art as this was the first time the school took in an art student teacher. Therefore, the students are only used to the host teacher and her way of teaching and they knew I had a different approach to teaching. I felt at times within the first two weeks, I would get a little stage fright as it took a while for the students to get used to me and answer questions. I tried to do a few icebreakers with the students and group them together to get them to start speaking up as they are so used to sitting by themselves at their own individual tables.

I definitely feel I am a much better teacher than a planner. I found planning quite difficult during placement as I would be struggling to write up all of my lesson plans for the following day as I could possibly have a visit and I needed to have the lesson plan written up. I could have four classes the next day and I would have to look at what I did the previous class with the students and think realistically what it is I needed to cover or finish off before I go onto the next step. So, I found having to have all lesson plans written up before I would have the class very time consuming. Therefore, I ended up diluting them down and not putting in as much detail into them as I should have. Whereas, when I’m in the class teaching, I do a much better job, so comparing my planning to me as a teacher are two completely different subjects. I know I’m not great at planning, but I do know I am a much better teacher as I was never very good at English in school and writing up essays etc. It is something that I struggle with and with time I know I will get better with it the more I practise the better I get. I know for a fact my planning is much better this year than last year.

I found it hard to come up with different ways of evaluating the lessons when I would be wrapping up the classes at the end. I used numerous ways of evaluating the work but I did find I was repeating the same kinds of evaluation such as the sticky notes a lot and bringing the students around a table with all students' work picking out the relevant AEDP, exit tickets and traffic lights. I would love to figure out more ways to evaluate the students' work so that it isn’t just the same thing again and again for them, making it quite repetitive.

It took me a good two weeks to eventually differentiate the lessons properly so that what I was teaching would cater for all abilities in the classroom, I had to get to know all the student’s strengths and weaknesses first so that every time I would plan out my lessons, I would be able to research ways that would help the students of all abilities to learn and become successful after the lesson. I do struggle when it comes to differentiating the lessons so I had to ask my host teacher for tips when it came to keeping the content inclusive for all abilities.   

Overall Experience

Overall, I had a lovely experience in Cnoc Mhuire, and I gained plenty of knowledge. This being my second block placement, I came into this school with experience and confidence that I gained from my previous block placement Kylemore. I got on very well with staff in Granard, having observed 10 classes between single and doubles, theory and practical, I got to pick up different teaching strategies that I felt would work well in the art room. A well-established woodwork and construction teacher Mr Dawson who has been teaching for nearly 40 years, told me after I observed his class that it teaching should all start off with “building a relationship with the student first”, being a practical teacher, he was saying that the woodwork room like the art room should also be a place for the students to be able to “socialise with each other and problem solve”. This class gives students a chance to excel in the subject who may be weaker in other areas. I felt very privileged to be able to observe his class as he has had nearly four decades of experience teaching.

I got on very well with my host teacher. She was very good to me and so grateful to have me as she never had a student teacher in taking most of her classes, she used to love hearing my ideas and what I would do instead when it came to planning. I brought in a new energy into the classroom that she found gave the students new ways of seeing. I was able to get the students to open up to new ideas such as stop motion etc. I wanted to make my lessons interactive that involved group activities. Every Friday my host teacher would come back to me at break time after I had a double first year class with a takeaway coffee (mocha) from the local coffee truck, I used to appreciate this so much as I would always have a busy double class which could involve clay, painting, stop motion etc. The art teacher knows I love coffee as well as herself and it was a nice way to end the week on a Friday.

I’m going to miss Granard a lot, as it was a lovely community and I started to feel very comfortable as the weeks went on as I grew as a teacher. I was asked by my host teacher to come back to do the Creative Engagement programme with the 5th years in February as an artist, so I’m planning on doing puppetry with them as I absolutely enjoyed making puppets last year in Kylemore College. This programme encourages students’ creativity, initiative and expression so it was a pleasure to be asked to come back as an artist to do puppetry with the 5th years as part of the Creative Engagement Programme in February.

I also got to make friends with other final year and PME students who are on placement too. I got to go on staff evenings out, lunches and parties so I really felt like I fitted in and I know I’ve made a close bond with one of the student teachers Olivia, who I know I will be lifelong friends with. We share an awful lot in common such a failing our driving test numerous times and have the same way of going on. I’m going to really miss my lunch time chats with the people I got on best with.

Overall, I had an enjoyable ten weeks in Granard and have learned lots and have definitely gained a lot of new skills that will stand to me in the next school I go into.