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My Experience as an UWS Student … So Far!

My experience of UWS so far has been pleasant. I have just started my third ‘official’ week here (excluding the induction week) therefore my experience is somewhat limited. Over the past few weeks I have learned a lot about myself, … Continue reading →

It is interesting as I thought I knew myself pretty well; however I learned something about myself I didn’t think was possible… I am capable of grasping Maths concepts! I have always had an anxiety when it came to Maths, and therefore when I found out that it was a core module and was assessed by an exam (which also brings great anxiety to me) I started to get a bit worried. When I walked into my second tutorial (Place Value and Number Base) I could feel the anxiety building up again. However, with the help of the lecturer and physical aids such as counting blocks I began to grasp how to calculate base values. Once I grasped the concept I stopped using the physical aids and even began helping other students! I feel I need to have more faith in myself, and that Maths doesn’t need to bring me the anxiety that it does.

Another module I feel like I have particularly benefitted from is the workshop in Situated Communication that is held in Performance Studio 3 a.k.a The Dungeon. Here we are pushed out of our comfort zones and expand the friendships we have already made. At first I found the class overwhelming as I am someone who hates having all eyes on them; however over the past few weeks my confidence has grown and I have become more comfortable with being in the lime light. I may take some of the exercises we have done into my future practice as it may help the children I will be teaching to build up their confidence. It is important to do this as the Curriculum for Excellence states that school must enable children to become ‘Confident Individuals’ (Scottish Government, 2009).

Reference List

Scottish Government (2009) curriculum for excellence building the curriculum 4 skills for learning, skills for life and skills for work. Edinburgh: The Scottish Government.

Situated Communication Independent Study/Reading Task

Within chapter five of the ‘Finding out about others: the skill of questioning’ book by Hargie (2011) it explores the importance of questions, as they are incorporated within a lot of interpersonal encounters. There are many different sections within this chapter, such as ‘Purposes of questions’, ‘Probing questions’ and ‘Types of questions.’ Under the section ‘Purposes of questions’ it gives a range of different examples in which questions are used, for example – teachers when teaching their class and sales workers trying to pitch to members of the public. The ‘Probing questions’ section discusses how questions can be used to prompt people to reply to what others have asked them. The ‘Types of questions’ section goes into a large amount of detail about recall and process questions, affective questions, leading questions and open and closed questions. Research mentioned during this section is (Dickson et al, 1997), in which they concluded during counselling that open questions are more effective. They backed up this evidence with three bullet points which state their opinion such as, open questions produce accurate responses. However, personally I don’t completely agree with this statement as I feel as though every question type is effective in different ways. To back up my feelings about this, I think more research should be done to strengthen their argument that open questions are more effective, as I do not think it is fair to just include one source of research from the same kind of environment.

There are also some arguments within this chapter, especially under the ‘Multiple questions’ section, as it starts off by mentioning that multiple questions can be useful in certain circumstances, however it then talks about how they are “wasteful.” The word wasteful is then indicating that multiple questions are useful at no point in time – this completely contradicting what was said to start with. I personally found the first paragraph of the chapter beneficial as it made me grasp the concept of just how important questions are, as one teacher portrayed this through a learning experience. During a lesson she made a rule that nobody was allowed to ask a question, however she quickly realised communication was vague after that, and the children ended up asking questions unintentionally.

References:

‘Finding out about others: the skill of questioning’, in Hargie, O. (2011) Skilled Interpersonal Communication: Research, Theory and Practice. 5th ed. London: Routledge.

Development of Children’s Art and Design

My Experience at UWS

I applied for the BA (hons) Education in Ayr last year while I was at school and after interview process I became unsuccessful. My second option was to go and do a year at college doing my HNC Childhood Practice. When it came to UCAS application I began to wonder if I should apply for Education again and I decided it was the best option as I have wanted to be a primary teacher as long as I can remember. When I used to stand in my bedroom with a magnetic white board and pretend to teach my students (my teddy bear and dolls).

Getting accepted into UWS the second time applying I felt overwhelmed and excited to start the course, as it has always been my dream. The first four weeks have went in really fast and I have met a few new friends. I felt nervous going into a new environment becoming the first year student again and was very nervous at the point of making new friends and speaking to new people.

There has been mass amounts of information given to me over the past four weeks and I feel like it is a lot to take in. I hope that over the next few weeks everything begins to settle in my mind and everything becomes clearer on what I have to do and how to find different things on Moodle.

I am not very confident in academic writing or used to regularly blogging but I hope that over the next few years it improves and I become confident in both.

I can not wait to see what the next four years has in store for me.

Hello world!

Welcome to blogs.glowscotland.org.uk – Glow Blogs. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

The Environment

For most of my life, I have stayed in Penilee, a small housing scheme on the southern western edge of Glasgow, Scotland. After growing up here, I have learned a lot about the small scheme and its changes throughout the years. The houses in Penilee are mostly houses that are provided by the council. These […]

The houses in Penilee are mostly houses that are provided by the council. These flats and tenements where built to accommodate workers who worked at Hillington Industrial state which Is a five-minute walk. The industrial estate includes many areas of work and opportunity’s such as factories, offices and retail shops. Penilee is now under major construction development. The council have begun by building modern new shops which include a chip shop, a Chinese and Indian takeaway, a butcher and a grocery shop. They have also begun to demolish old flats, and build modern up to date houses that can fit a family of 4 with a fancy drive way and a front and back garden. As these new homes are beginning to take shape, the green space in the area is starting to decline.

Penilee provides plenty of transport for the people who live in the community with a train station connecting to Greenock and Glasgow city centre. There are also bus links that take you to shopping centres such as Braehead and Silverburn, the city centre.

Surrounding Penilee there are 3 primary schools and 1 secondary school which is a short 5-minute walk in Crookston. Penilee used to have its own secondary school named Penilee Secondary school, however it was demolished along with Crookston Secondary School and Rosshall Academy was formed combing two schools together. This has created more green space in the heart of Penilee where the local park now is. Penilee also has a local community centre which caters lots of different sports and activities for the local community. There are also many free classes for the community especially the elderly where the can join a class to socialise with others and learn a new skill such as playing an instrument. The local gym is also within the community centre. According to the Scottish Air quality (2017) the air in my area is stated to be low.

The Curriculum for Excellence(2017) provides many opportunities for outdoor learning. During the sustainable development seminar, we had the opportunity to go for a sensory walk. This would be a perfect lesson for primary school children to learn about their urban environment as it would be engaging that the children would get to leave the classroom and explore the community they are living in. When I took part in this lesson around the university I was shocked at things I didn’t know of the environment I was in every day. I had the chance to explore and gain new skills and knowledge through the activity.

A perfect lesson for primary school children to use their seses to explore the enviroment around them. What can you hear, smell, and touch? What can you see?

References

Education Scotland (2017). Experiences and Outcomes. [Online]. Available : https://education.gov.scot/scottish-education-system/policy-for-scottish-education/policy-drivers/cfe-(building-from-the-statement-appendix-incl-btc1-5)/Experiences%20and%20outcomes#soc. [ Accessed : 25 September 2017]

Air Quality in Scotland. (2017) Latest Pollution Map. [Online] Available: http://www.scottishairquality.co.uk/latest/?postcode=G21+3HY&postcode-submit.x=0&postcode-submit.y=0 [Accessed: 25 September 2017].

Sustainable Development – Directed study task 1

I live on the outskirts of East Kilbride in a hamlet called Jackton. I have lived in East Kilbride all my life however I have moved three times. Me and my family moved to Jackton nine years ago when new estates were built on farm land. East Kilbride once called Kilbride used to be a … Continue reading “Sustainable Development – Directed study task 1”

Sustainable Development: Environment Learning Log

Last week’s input and this weeks directed study task had a focus on the Environment, both natural and urban. It’s crucial to note that while we covered both aspects, the inter-related nature of the two was also impressed on us … Continue reading →

The Environment

If, as teachers, we are to educate pupils about the environment we be aware of our environment and that of our pupils to maximise understanding. Last week’s workshops consisted […]

If, as teachers, we are to educate pupils about the environment we be aware of our environment and that of our pupils to maximise understanding.

Last week’s workshops consisted of a variety of activities. The activity I took the most out of was the sensory walk, it allowed me to explore areas of the campus I didn’t know existed and showed me the vast amount of green, open space in the University’s grounds. The sensory walk would be a great activity to conduct with pupils as no equipment is required. It can also be done at different points throughout the year and pupils could explain the differences they see in their environment as the seasons change. After the walk, many cross-curricular activities can begin, for example, writing a descriptive piece mentioning their senses.

During the directed study task, I learned that there is a much higher level of deprivation than I had imagined. I was aware that my town had obvious areas of deprivation but had no idea it was as bad as the statistics have shown. Last week’s classes taught also me that we need to care about the environment closest to us to care about the global environment, taking small steps make a big difference. For example, walking to the shops rather than taking the car.

Urban Environment

The Urban Environment