Category Archives: 3.4 Prof. Reflection & Commitment

New year, same pressures?

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The New Year and new semester are now well underway and with this, brings a time for reflection.

This past semester has taught me to have more faith in my own abilities. I have always wanted to go to Scotland to study; moving over here was an exciting new chapter of my life. However, I remember that as the move-in date loomed ever closer, I began to worry about how I would make new friends and if my friends at home would forget about me. I began to worry that I wouldn’t be able to keep up with the pressures of university life and independent living. I knew that I was making the right decision by moving away, but I was also aware that I was saying goodbye to my security blanket at home.

Professionally reflecting back on last semester, I feel quite proud of what I have achieved. Not just in terms of grades, but in regards to my own personal development. Although at first I know that many people were unsure of how the Working Together and Values modules related to teaching, I really did see both modules as a very important starting point. Values are the basis to teaching- to society as a whole in fact. Values form opinions regarding how we should treat others and shape our views as to what a moral human being actually is. As future educators, we need to be familiar with our own personal and professional values systems in order to benefit children as they form their own opinions. As for the importance of working together, it is evident that collaboration is at the centre of our profession. Throughout our careers, we will need to work together with not only our fellow teaching colleagues, but with CLD, Social Work, pupils, parents, other school support staff and many more people from different walks of life.

Without knowledge of these initial aspects of our work, we would be unable to thrive within our professions and give the best possible education to the children whom we teach.

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Starting this semester and coming into 2018, I also began to reflect on a lot of things in my personal life. As New Year’s Eve approaches every year, the same conversations always arise and it is something I have been thinking a lot about lately.

“What are your New Year’s resolutions?”                                                     “New year, new me.”

These statements alone, are fine.

However: although it is great to set goals and aims to motivate yourself, I feel that New Year’s resolutions are often so directly related to body-image and self worth. So many people that I know say that they need to lose weight, they need to get better skin and they wish they looked differently.

They can’t see that they are beautiful just the way they are.

The concept of what is ‘beautiful’ has been warped by advertisement and has left many in society today (especially the younger generation), feeling like they do not look good enough and they need to change themselves.

This issue impacts boys and girls alike, however I feel like there is extreme pressure put on young girls due to the nature of advertisements that are photo-shopped. This creates a snowball effect in which more and more retouched images are being published and therefore having a serious effect on the self worth of more and more people.

Unrealistic beauty standards within advertisements have caused me to see more and more retouched photos on social media. Many people nowadays are not only feeling a lack of self worth due to the false expectations of the media, but are retouching their own photos in order to fit in with this warped concept of what beauty is.

The images at the very start and end of this video are the same, however to me, the original looks different before and after seeing the edited version. Bear in mind that I have done minimal amounts of retouching in comparison to advertisements so you can begin to realise what a massive impact airbrushing in the media must have on the subconscious minds of those in society.

The affect that the retouched photo had on my initial opinion of the untouched photo, really highlights to me how damaging airbrushing and enhancements are within the media, especially for young people. This comparison made me realise why so many people feel the photos they post online will not be ‘good enough’ unless they retouch them.

I am not for one second slating those who do retouch their photos in any way. I am aware that most people in society today do do it in some shape or form. If you want to enhance certain features or edit out imperfections, you can. But what is important to realise is that you should only do this if you want to. You should never feel like you need to. Because you don’t.

If you want to, then you are the one in control and there’s no problem. However, if you feel uncomfortable putting up an unaltered image, then you have fallen victim to the image myth. To be honest, it’s difficult for me to advise what exactly you can do if this is the case. Self worth is something that I myself have struggled with for a very long time. You just need to try and override the conflicting messages in your head and be aware that everyone has flaws, no one is perfect and our individuality needs to be celebrated, not edited away.

Teenagers and young adults are probably impacted the most in terms of feeling the pressures of the image myth. However, this begins from childhood. If we can educate children about the fabricated beauty expectations in the media, then they can become more comfortable and confident with themselves from a young age. I am a Peer Educator through Girlguiding UK and a few years ago, I was trained in a topic called ‘Free Being Me’, designed to improve the body confidence and self esteem of young people. Although it is a programme run through guiding and is therefore targeted at girls, it is something that I believe could be (and should be) incorporated into the curriculum in primary schools. Although I have been referring to low self worth in terms of body image, there are so many other social pressures and aspects of life that can also affect it. This is an issue that must be combated. The Curriculum for Excellence has already highlighted the importance of Health and Wellbeing which is fantastic. Mental and physical health are both so important and are especially critical at this developmental stage. It’s something that I am very passionate about and look forward to incorporating into my lessons as a teacher. Social pressures are often what lead to a decline in mental and physical health so it is out job as teachers to tackle this in every way that we can through education.

 

[There is some strong language in this video however, I feel like it is has an important message regarding self-image.]

How Our Resource Allocation Task Reflects Society

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The resource allocation task seemed a simple endeavour. However, little did we know how thought provoking such a small and seemingly simple task could be.

As one of the many enthusiastic freshers in the room, I was eager to begin the activity. The task was to create a tool for a new student, using the materials provided in our assigned envelopes. As I emptied our group’s envelope to reveal three paper clips, a pencil, some blue tack and a lone post-it note, I realised that we had a challenge ahead. Not to worry though- everyone would surely be in the same boat and we could display our creativity with the little resources that we all received- couldn’t we?

All of a sudden, I could see that other members of my group were clearly perturbed by the assortment of materials that other groups had at their tables. Colourful paper, post-its galore, scissors, tape and an array of markers nonetheless! The dismay around the table as my fellow group members frantically shook the envelope in case we were mistaken, was a pitiful sight to say the least. Why did the others get more than us?

Although it was soon clear to me that there must be some sort of psychological test taking place, I was determined to make the most of our compromised situation.

It cannot be ignored that through our hardship, my group did bond to a degree. It’s safe to say that we were quite proud of ourselves, having made a 3D map from virtually nothing. Although it wasn’t anything special, we were confident that the hard work that we put in would surely be acknowledged. Therefore, I’m sure that it was clear to Brenda that the experiment was successful by the utter disappointment on our faces as she scored us a whopping 2/10. After all of our hard work, surely she had made a mistake? Obviously our project could not be directly compared to the other groups. We had less materials. This was the epitome of injustice. This was so unfair.

And that’s when the penny dropped.


Not only did this experiment reflect the accidental inequality that may take place within a classroom, but society as a whole. Brenda’s attention throughout the session was primarily focused on the groups with more materials. It almost felt as if we had done something wrong, or that she had some sort of personal vendetta against us. She was focusing on the other groups (who did not necessarily need her help), whereas we were somewhat bewildered by how to turn a few paperclips into a useful tool for a prospective student.
Brenda highlighted to us how important it is to treat all pupils equally, which sometimes, does mean giving certain pupils extra attention. She also highlighted that it is important to find a balance; varying techniques for different levels, abilities and circumstances.
There was a definite juxtaposition at the end of the session, as the individuals with a plethora of materials went from feeling positive about their projects, to guilty that they did not share with the more deprived groups.

This experiment exposed the fact that those who are more privileged, may not necessarily notice the situations of those less fortunate. The only groups who mentioned the amount of materials supplied, were the groups with less than the others. The fact that none of the groups with plenty of materials questioned why they had more than the others, highlighted how it can sometimes be difficult to notice inequalities when you yourself, are not personally affected.

As teachers, we will be faced with classes full of children from a range of different backgrounds; with a range of different upbringings. Some children face so many changes in their lives. For some, there is a lack of stability with few constants present. However, a teacher is a constant within a child’s life. Most children, from the age of three to eighteen years old, will always be able to rely on their teachers. Therefore, they have a duty of care to make each child feel valued; a duty to be aware of those who may need a helping hand, in order to ensure that everyone feels integrated.