“The voice of the teacher is of paramount importance in carrying out professional roles and responsibilities. It is essential that this asset is protected” (GTC, 2017).

In todays seminar we focused on the importance of the voice. We started off by looking at the GTC and their explanation of why the voice was important. They have a whole document explaining why the voice is important and what we should do if our voice is effected. This was a useful tool as it allowed me to follow instructions on how to use my voice effectively and what to do if it gets damaged.

We then went on to look at the use of voice in music and how we can use singing in the primary school classroom. We were shown a number of resources that were very useful such as Choon Baboon. Choon Baboon is a brand new, modern way to get the children singing songs they will love in the classroom. Each song is on YouTube which is quick and easy to access, and you do not need to have an account to access the resource. I would definitely use this resource as i lack confidence in music, and can allow the video to take over. Choon Baboon also fits in with the Curriculum for Excellence Level 2 music.

We then went on to sing a few songs of our own such as ” Penguin come for tea” and the “number 9” song. These were fun and engaging and suitable for the primary classroom. We were also shown Graphic Scores which was a way that children can draw their own music and follow it :

Each children will have an instrument which pairs up with one of the symbols. When ever they see the symbol they have to play their instrument. This is a fun way to get the children to compose their own music without using notes and scales. We practiced this in our own groups, following the theme of fireworks :

Overall, this was a very exciting lesson. I was engaged throughout and took some useful tips from the lesson!

Drama

In this week drama’s lesson we focused on the different conventions we have learned over the past few sessions. During the lesson, I felt as if my confidence has grown and I am starting to relax and enjoy being part of the drama. As a student teacher, I also feel like I would feel confident enough to teach drama in the classroom.

Overall, I think the arts should be integrated into all areas of the curriculum. As educators, we should encourage arts and give it an importance in the classroom.

Choon Baboon (2017) About us. [Online] Available : http://choonbaboon.com/about-us/. [Accessed : 3rd November 2017].

The General Teaching Council for Scotland (2017). Voice Management. [Online] Available : http://www.gtcs.org.uk/web/FILES/FormUploads/voice-and-the-teaching-profession1652_214.pdf. [Accessed : 3rd November 2017].

Today’s seminar was focused on presenting a PowerPoint based on natural disasters. Our group focused on earthquakes :

Skills I developed during this task where communications skills, digital literacy skills, presentation skills and time management skills. As we only had 1 week to prepare this presentation, my group found it challenging to all find a time that suits best to create the PowerPoint. Between uni, placement and work we all have a busy schedule, so not having an allocated time slot given by lectures was difficult. We came up with a solution which was to all create our own slides and put them together to create a final draft. Communication skills were vital as we all had to keep in contact to make sure we had created our slides. We used email to send back and forth the slides which was a great form of communication. We also contacted one another through the use of social media which we found beneficial.

As a student teacher, I think it is crucial that we manage our time effectively and also have great communication skills. As I am I placement just now, I think it is important I can manage my time effectively as I need to know how to balance a part time job, university, and placement. I have experience doing this due to college. I make sure I keep on top of all uni work and also that I plan for placement in advance so that I don’t become stressed.

I also think it is important that we teach children the importance of time management. Using a visual timetable in the classroom can let the children see how we will plan our time throughout the day and it is crucial that we stick to the timetable to stay on track. However, I also think it is useful to explain to the children that sometimes everything does not go to plan due to certain circumstances and this is just a matter of life.

This weeks sustainable development lecture and workshops were based around Natural Disasters. Although this is often a sensitive subject, I think it is appropriate for this subject to be taught in the classroom as it lets the children know about how natural disasters can effect people in our world today, educate them of the different natural disasters that are happening more frequently in our world, and what we can do to help.

We were asked to focus on the preparation and actions people have to take before, during and after a natural disaster. I created 3 mind maps and uploaded this to the Padlet website which challenged my digital literacy skills as I am not familiar with Padlet. However, this is a great resource to share ideas and look at my peers work. Here are the 3 mind maps that I created :

This was a fun and creative way to summarise what I had learned about natural disasters and I would definitely use this method in the classroom. For next week we have to focus on one natural disaster and create a PowerPoint presentation to deliver to our peers. Skills such as working in a team and digital literacy skills will have to be applied for the task to be a success.

When children create dances using their ideas, they are empowered to explore their thoughts, feelings, and perspectives (Cone, 2011).

It is crucial that children have the opportunity to dance freely to express themselves. As I was a dancer my whole childhood, I think that it is very important that we incorpate dance into every day life and through out the children’s school life. As a student teacher, I think it is important that we let children feel empowered by creativity letting them know that there is no right or wrong answer through dance which may be the case in numeracy or literacy.

During today’s dance session, again we had the opportunity to be the learner however, we also had the chance to create our own moves. We were split up into groups to create a move to fit in with this weeks theme Halloween. The move we were to create was inspired by a printed out picture of a mummy. This gave us inspiration to create the dance move.

After creating a move, the whole class came together and we put all moves together creating a mini dance routine. I really enjoyed this workshop as it showed me how I can use easy stratigies in the classroom to create a dance. It also helped me to understand that not everyone is very confident with dance, so giving them a visual can really help to get the creative mind flowing and a visual can act as a stimulus to create a simple dance move.

Drama 

This weeks drama session was based around a book named “The Tunnel” by Anthony Brown. The book allowed us to explore drama and learn new conventions such as voice in the head, mime, role on the wall, vox pop and thought tracking. I found the convention voice in the head a great tool as the children will be able to step out of the drama, while still in character and discuss how they are feeling through someone elses shoes. It allows the children to think deeper into how others are feeling and not just themselves. As the weeks go on, I feel like I am getting more confident at acting infront of my peers. The class seems like they are enjoying it more and more each week as we are starting to feel comfortable with acting infront of one another as it becomes more enjoyable.

Overall I think it is very important that we allow children to experience experessive arts.

The Sustainable Development module has developed my skills and knowledge not only as a learner but as a student teacher. One aspect of university i find challenging is academic reading, and summarising the main points. Some readings we are given are often lengthy and i often zone out quickly. However, after an input from the academic skills advisor i was able to pick up key skills that would help me with reading such as reading paragraph’s in chunks, using a highlighter to identify the main points and researching points further that i don’t understand.

Today’s independent study task involved summarising information and to use this information to create a Piktochart. We had to work collaboratively as a team to gather the information from different sources such as videos, academic readings and various articles. I found it difficult to pick out what information was useful and relevant for the piktochart. As there were 5 of us in a group, we all took on the roll of researching 1 source each, taking notes, and then we brought our information together. The other students in my group were very supportive and helped me to understand different concepts i did not understand.

Another skill i developed through this task was my digital literacy skills. In university we often come across new online resources such as Padlet and Glow. Its often difficult to get to grips with new formats and up to date technology. Working with others allows me to ask questions and familiarise myself with new resources.

Overall, i find that i develop skills as a learner that i can use as a student teacher in the classroom. I will be able to pass these skills onto the children in the classroom to allow sufficient learning.

Arts

This week, I had the opportunity to work with students who had missed last weeks class on print making. I had the opportunity to teach my peers how to complete last weeks task and the theory behind it, and how we could implement arts in the classroom.

First of all I gathered all the resources that we needed and explained the print making task. The students found the task fun and creative and mentioned that I explained things clearly and effectively. I explained to my peers that print making is not only about arts, but how we could use the subject to focus on other areas of the curriculum for example literacy. We were focusing on “Windows in the west” by Avril Paton, which would be a great picture to inspire a creative writing piece. I think this was a very useful lesson to consolidate my knowledge and pass it onto others.

Music

“I can use my voice, musical instrument and music, technology to experiment with sounds, pitch, melody, rhythm, timbre and dynamics.

Music is such a powerful subject as it can help us develop in other areas and skills such as literacy, numeracy, creativity, social and personal development and many more. Music can help us to become successful learners, effective contributors, responsible citizens and confident individuals.

In this weeks seminar, we had the chance to create our own musical piece digitally through a software named Garage Band. Garage Band is a “fully equipped music creation studio” through your computer. It gave us the opportunity to create our own piece starting from the baseline and building it up from there.

As I am not familiar with musical terms, or composing any sort of music, this was a creative, easy fun way to do so! This would be a great tool for the classroom and I would feel comfortable teaching and letting children in my class explore this app. Here is a video of the music I created :

In recent years, climate change has become a very important subject as it has a significant effect to the world that we live in. Floods, sea levels rising, and extreme weather is influencing people’s everyday lives and is become a huge problem. A great example of extreme weather that has happened recently due to climate change is Hurricane Irma which was the strongest hurricane recorded in recent years. It caused mass destruction in Florida and and the Caribbean with many homes ruined and lives lost. Climate change is also affecting our animals and many are become endangered such as polar bears due to shrinking ice sheets. Due to evidence, it is become apparent that climate change is not cause by nature but is man-made.

The Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 aims to create a growing, sustainable economy in Scotland. This act has helped to “establish Scotland as a world-leader in tackling climate change” (Scottish Government, 2017). The Scottish ministers have set a target that should be met in 2050. The target states that the net Scottish emissions account for the year 2050 is at least 80% lower than the baseline. The Carrier bag charge was a law that was implemented by the Scottish Government to help reduce and re-use the amount of litter in Scotland. The law came into effect on the 20^th October 2014 and all retailers must charge 5p for a carrier bag. This has a significant effect on my lifestyle choices as I now buy bag for life carrier bags and I must remember them every time I go shopping. This law made me think about how we should be recycling in everyday life and how easy it is if you put your mind to it. Taking things such as carrier bags for granted shows us how selfish and greedy we are as a nation. I think this law made people think about how they could help the environment by doing as little as keeping their carrier bags and reusing them.

The Scottish Government are still working hard to keep their promise to help tackle climate change. On the 5^th September 2017, the First Minister places Scotland at the front of the world fight against climate change.

After completing the WWF measure your footprint task I am shocked that my footprint is as high as 196%. This has made me think about how I could travel to work and university, how I could buy more seasonal food and how I could have more energy saving measures in my home.

During this task, the skill I developed most would be my research skills and digital literacy skills. I feel fairly confident when researching however, I find it fairly difficult to determine between what is a good academic source to use and what is not. When researching, I often ask my peers if they would use the source and if it was reliable if I am not confident enough to acknowledge this on my own. I often try to use websites such as the Scottish Government Website instead of information that is on a random website as it may not be accurate. Every week I also have the chance to further enhance my digital literacy skills. As a student teacher I think it is important that our digital literacy is always developing as it is important that we keep up to date and on top of what is going on digitally online.

In conclusion, it is very important that we try and tackle and prevent climate change globally. It is an issue that as educators we must raise awareness of and educate our children to take care of our environment.