Dance Workshop

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Following the dance workshop, I feel my understanding of dance within schools has been deepened. I had very little of knowledge of how dance links into the curriculum as in my experience dance was always outside of school, the workshop has made me realise how I can use dance to aid my teaching.

The workshop helped me realise how helpful non-verbal communication can be for pupils within a class, getting to move with the class and be in a non-traditional classroom setting allows you to become more comfortable with those in your class, just like we did in the workshop.

Dance helps the children to get rid of the awkwardness they may feel in a new class or if they don’t know many others in the class, but in a fun and subtle way. After doing some reading on dance activities I was also surprised to find how easy it was to use dance across the curriculum to aid other subjects. Such as using dance to help the children understand other cultures traditions.

I also found that dance can be the best way for children to express themselves if they aren’t comfortable using words. Doing exercises that allow children to display different emotions can be a great way for many of the children to blow off steam or even help deepen their understanding of how they are feeling.

Expressive arts within the curriculum is something that I think is commonly overlooked which in my opinion is a big mistake as we are moving into a new less traditional way of teaching and the expressive arts will be a huge aid in bridging the gap to these new methods.

Mathsphobia

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I had never heard the term ‘Mathsphobia’ before coming to university. Now that I have, I’ve realised that I have it, or at least used to. In high school math’s was the subject that caused me the most anxiety and upset and I never really knew why. I had never been terrible at math’s or found it to be hindering my learning but always had an overwhelmingly negative attitude towards it. This attitude carried all through high school where in my Nat 5 I had teachers telling me they couldn’t figure out why I thought of it so negatively to my higher where I fully decided maths was the worst subject in the curriculum.

However, until now I had never thought about where my negativity of maths may have come from. As we are spoken to about how heavily influenced a child’s attitude towards a subject is by their primary school teacher and family, I thought about my relationship with maths during my childhood. When doing this I realised where the hatred comes from. Growing up I not only had teachers who frequented the phrase ‘oh maths was never my thing’ but also had an older sister struggling with her higher with my parents not understanding it either. Being surrounded by maths in the setting made me automatically give maths negative connotations even though none of the situations have anything to do with maths itself rather than the individuals relationship with it.

After thinking about this it has made me rethink my attitude towards maths. During the maths workshop I have found myself to be enjoying revisiting and remembering old maths formulas, tips and tricks that I had previously forgotten which to me shows that my negativity truly was because of the setting I was in rather than myself. Reflecting on this has made me realised that in my teaching career I want to always ensure that my personal biases do not shine through my teaching but also push to try and dispel prejudices around subjects that children gain from those around them.

Have we moved on?

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Tuesdays lecture was based around racism and patriarchy within society, both in the past and present. Throughout the lecture we were shown graphic photos and told heart breaking stories from the past which were met with both gasps and head shakes but the question that truly captured my attention was ‘have we really moved on?’

I personally feel that there is many ways this question can be answered. Obviously societies outlook on both race and patriarchy is not the same as it was in the 1950s but could anyone truthfully say that there is no similarities?, Take the Charlottesville riots that we looked at in the lecture for example, Not only were they mimicking Nazi marches, they were also full of people who whole heartedly believed in what they were marching for. If there are still so many people who have this mindset how can we say that society has progressed?

Racism is something I have never had to deal with but have always been aware of growing up. Yet I feel as I have got older it has only become more apparent that there is still a long way to go before we can call society fair. This generation is leaps and bounds ahead of previous generations not only in terms of racism, but acceptance and pride in the LGBTQ+ community and doing work for women’s rights has a lot of importance in many young peoples lives which gives this generation something to be proud of.

This pride though is completely diminished when things like the Charlottesville riots happen, events like that not only dishearten but also erase progress that has been made. Changing slogans such as ‘black lives matter’ to ‘All lives matter’ and feminism being met with ‘menimism’ shows that people still do not have full understanding of what people are fighting for. It is not superiority it is equality.

Tuesdays lecture made me think about many aspects of society that are not always brought to my attention, it made me rethink how much society has progressed and how far we still have to go.

Inequalities within the classroom.

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Reflecting back on the workshop I completed on Tuesday I have many thoughts on how inequalities in a classroom can not only go unnoticed but can also completely change the way someone feels about learning.

Upon arrival on Tuesday I was looking forward to the workshop ahead of me. From the introduction I felt very positively towards Brenda and was excited for the rest of the class. It wasn’t until we got our resources that I felt slightly disheartened.

In my envelope there was a post it note, 3 paper clips, a pencil and a small amount of blue tac. After seeing our resources my group started to think that the task at hand could possibly be a lot more difficult than we had previously anticipated, however we tried to look past it. It wasn’t until we found that we were struggling with the task, and looked to see if other groups were in a similar position that we noticed that a few of the other groups seemed to have far more resources – including paper, scissors and pens. Of course we immediately pointed it out to each other and said how unfair it was.

Before this we hadn’t had any feedback from Brenda and had heard her being very positive towards other groups. So when she came over we naturally felt comfortable to ask questions. Our first question to Brenda was if we could use the envelope as part of our resources, this was met with an almost exasperated reaction of a nod and an ‘if you want’. After this was when we, as a group, knew that we were definitely being treated worse than the other groups. We were confused to why this would be but felt extremely disheartened and unmotivated to work as we knew it was going to be met with a negative reaction. Obviously as the rest of the workshop played out we understood why we were being treated differently, but those first 30/40 minutes were really eye opening for me as a student.

One of the main things that shocked me about the workshop was how blissfully unware the groups with more resources were of how uneven the resources had been distributed. I found this interesting as for my group it was one of the first things we noticed. I think this was an extremely effective way to show how people can be blinded by what they have and not even stop to think that there could be inequality around them. It also shows that being at more of a disadvantage can be very difficult to ignore.

Another point that surprised me was how unmotivated I felt to work. The knowledge that whatever we presented was going to most likely be received negatively made it difficult to put 100% effort into the task. Our group felt completely isolated, when  in fact there was another group beside us that had just as little resources yet no one in either of our groups noticed this. I think this is a great metaphor for how on the reversed side of things that sometimes you can get so caught up in you being at a disadvantage that you don’t even realise that there’s other people in the exact same position as you. This shows how easy it is for children to feel isolated within a classroom.

I feel that through seeing the exasperation and shock of the other groups in my class as they witnessed the inequality, it has become apparent to me just how easy it is to be blinded from inequality even from a teachers perspective. The task in the workshop mirrored both classrooms and society as a whole and I found it very beneficial to my understanding of both equality and equity.

Why I chose teaching.

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Throughout my life I always enjoyed school and my teachers had a massive role in this. I always had a very positive relationship with teachers, throughout my school career, which made me interested in the field from a young age. The organizational aspects of teaching – planning lessons and marking papers- appealed to me as a child but as I got older I found that working with children was something that I was becoming more and more interested in.

Primary school should be a carefree and enjoyable time for children, and teachers have a lot of control over this. The relationship you have with your primary school teacher can set up your attitude towards education for the rest of your life and only a teacher has the ability to impact a child in such a way. Being able to make every child’s school experience a positive one is one of the things that attracts me to being a teacher. I could never understand those who didn’t enjoy primary school and being a teacher would allow me to ensure none of my pupils felt this way. Being a teacher is one of the only jobs that allows you to play such a big part in so many children’s lives.

Volunteering in Comely Park Primary school confirmed my want to be a primary school teacher as experiencing time with an actual class, and gaining experience in a classroom made me more motivated to pursue teaching as a full time career.