ACfE In Action

Hey

It’s the end of our first full and proper secondment week and I am beginning to feel like I know what I am doing and what my purpose is - well a little bit more!!
I am working with Katie Letchford the Primary 1/2 teacher at Cockenzie and her lovely class. Our topic is My Street/Cockenzie/Port Seton a mouthful I know. Katie sat with her class in small groups and spent time talking with them about what they knew about Cockenzie, what they wanted to know and what they could show me – the outsider! They were planning to be my tour guides!
It was very clear that the school and the beach/harbour were the main focuses.
When I arrived on Monday morning the children had decided they were going to show me around! One group had birds eye style drawings of the classroom to show me to help me find my way around the place! Apparently the teacher’s desk and the Star of the Week were the most important things to be able to find!
The next group had made a map of the school. This involved photographs stuck down on a scroll in a circular fashion with arrows showing me which way to go. The pupils were really motivated and we used the map to navigate our way round the school referring to it at all times!
The last group had photographed the enormous playground. We went round trying to find out where all the photographs had been taken. The children had again displayed these too and we took them out as a kind of map!

On Tuesday afternoon the pupils were showing me around the streets of Cockenzie they had a list of things they were to show me! Before we went out Katie had used a Claire Warden’s idea of a Talking Tub to stimulate thinking and discussion around what we would see on our walk. This helped to activate prior knowledge. The children loved the walk and there was a great deal of quality discussion going on during it.
When we got back to class we were unfortunately very short of time. Ideally the children would have recorded, in groups, what they could remember/enjoyed/learned/wanted to know more about however Katie and I split the class and did the writing ourselves. It was clear the childrens’ main focus was still the beach/harbour but also the Secret Garden. Find out where the children will lead us next?
Off to do some more professional reading – not done this much since uni!! Its very interesting and insightful!
Katherine