Some of the best learning I have got out of the PG Cert so far has been in interactions with peers. The session I enjoyed the most was the microteach: observing and participating in other people’s practice, I picked up so many techniques I want to integrate into my teaching. For example:
- Tactile teaching tools: Katriona gave us each a piece of plasticine to shape into a container during The Carrier bag theory of fiction by Ursula Le Guin. By linking making with the text, the learning became embodied and thus more engaging.
- Breaking down a complex text by reading aloud as a group.
- Simplifying teaching tasks: Andrea ran a session where we stamped a repeated pattern on a piece of cloth for the whole 20 minutes and I learnt a lot about pacing and focus during this process
- Using unstructured play that leads to complex outcomes: Eva gave us coloured blocks to play with and then used the shapes we made to create costume designs.
During the PG Cert sessions, I particularly liked the practice of collaborative reading to cover a lot of theory in a short amount of time, this is something I will definitely start applying in my teaching.
Body doubling (a practice where two people work on a task in the same room, though not necessarily together) with Fred Anderssen has also been invaluable part of this experience. We spent two afternoons together writing up our blog posts and just having Fred in the same room to pick apart certain points, or sharpen our ideas helped me be so much more productive. This is a practice I will recommend to my students for getting work done.