Happy Friday! Today we visited the Joseph Chamberlain Sixth Form College. We met at 8 o’clock this morning and took taxis over to the school. We all had to get visitor passes in order to enter the building. We met with the associate assistant principal, Tom Williams, and we were welcomed with coffee, water, and even croissants! This was delightful because I did not have the opportunity to eat breakfast before we left the hotel this morning.
We split up into two different groups of around eight people per group. I was in Group A, and our first observation was an IT class for students who do not have English as their first language. In this class, they were learning how to create their own websites! We immediately noticed how calm and respectful the English students were compared to typical students you would see in a high school back in the United States. The teacher would go step by step, instructing the students on the next thing to put on their websites, and then he would walk around the room making sure everybody was on the same page. This class was very interesting to observe because I was never taught how to create a website in my high school.
We got to actually interview the students from the first class so they could practice their English. We asked them where they were born, what kind of house they lived in, and who they lived with. It was interesting to hear the different places all of the students came from. The teacher worked more closely with the students who struggled a little more with their English, but he was able to get everyone to accomplish the same goal. I admire the teacher’s ability to work with all different academic levels and get them all to the same end result.
After our first observation, we met back with the other group and discussed the different teaching strategies the teachers were using in the classes. We were told to focus on the coherence of the activity, resourcing, student activity, teacher expertise, assessment/feedback, and classroom management. Tom Williams also took us on a tour of the college. We got to see the different centers for health sciences and sports, as well as the library. Tom taught us about the teaching cycle and the importance of making eye contact with students in order to gauge how much information they are taking in and comprehending. We learned that assessments are critical in monitoring progress and helping students get to where they need to go. For example, teachers may need to get their students from point ‘X’ to point ‘Y’. An assessment allows the teacher to see where the students get to from the lesson, and also allows them to develop a plan to get them to point ‘Y’. I thought the education lesson was very interesting because a lot of it was information I have never heard before as a nursing student. It was really cool to see how much goes into lessons, and the importance of all the activities we do in school.
After our education lecture, we got to observe an English class. They were preparing for their English GCSE, which is coming up in about two weeks. The teacher went over the format of the questions they will have to answer on the exam, and broke down exactly what components their answers should have. The question we were reviewing almost reminded me of a short answer question that would be on a test like the SAT or ACT. The teacher would cold call the students to ensure that they were active in the class discussion and understanding what she was teaching them. This class was far different than the teaching style we have in my nursing classes at Pitt. The class size was much smaller than our large lecture halls, so the teacher was able to spend time asking questions to every student in the class. While I know this style of teaching would be near impossible for our giant cohort of about 180 students, it seems like the teacher’s strategy forces the students to stay engaged and really helps them learn. This class was very student focused, where most of my classes all tend to just be a professor standing in front of a giant hall of students and giving a lecture.
After we left the sixth form college, we took taxis to the Seacole Building at Birmingham City University for a brief reflection session before breaking for the day to have some free time! During our reflection, we went over the requirements for our presentation and research papers. We will be presenting this Monday, so this weekend it is time to lock in and get started on our presentations. Afterwards, a few of us went to the Birmingham Botanical Gardens and then ended our day with dinner and shopping at the bullring.