For me, a key part of semester one was preparing for the working together group assessment. Through working with social work, community learning and development and primary education students, I was able to extend my knowledge and gain views from other professions. On the other hand, this meant there was a greater range of opinions and thus different ideas. We dealt with this by having group discussions and ensuring that everyone was able to share their opinion, demonstrating the importance of having a voice.

Without a doubt, when working in a group there tends to be a range of personalities. Through this task, I was able to learn of the importance of putting differences aside and getting on with the task set. I discovered that there will be leaders within the group and those who prefer to listen more rather than talk.  I learned that I need to have more confidence in my own opinions and ensure that when I feel something isn’t quite right that I am not scared to share my thoughts. The task also made me think more into the importance of reflecting upon each aspect of a task to ensure that in the future I can improve upon my previous performance. Teaching involves continuous learning and reflection allows for improvement and learning from mistakes.

Babies’ brains are very flexible which means that they can pick up on more things such as learning languages and coping with different family situations. However, once key pathways are established, they are carried into adulthood. This means that we need to place more importance on early years’ brain development as children’s brains begin to develop from birth.

Children’s brains need to be able to cope with their own environment e.g. a threatening environment. This means that their attention can become focused on looking for threats preventing learning in other areas. As teachers, we need to remember this and create an environment which feels safe for them to ensure they can develop empathy.

Whilst we need to ensure the environment is safe and friendly for children, we also need to remember that we also can’t mould children’s brains to believe that the world is all calm and secure. It is important to not fully shelter children from the outside world as they need to develop skills for later life which they begin to learn at this young age. We need to bring up a generation that can cope with this world and react to it by making good decisions when faced with challenges.

These skills are harder to develop in later life; therefore, it is important to introduce these early. By smiling, encouraging and taking an interest in them, these essential skills can be acquired. Consistency of these actions is needed as many children may only experience this in their nursery or primary school. We need to be passionate and genuinely show concern for children by encouraging positive relationships within the classroom. As teachers, we also need to support parents and carers to encourage positive relationships at home too.

In my own professional practice, I will try to ensure the classroom is a place where children can confidently develop skills in decision making and interacting with others. I will do this by encouraging friendships within the classroom, praising children and using facial expressions such as smiling. I will not just focus on the children who do not have positive experiences within their home as it is important that all children are able to continue to develop their brains within the classroom too.