Category Archives: 1.1 Social Justice

The Final Wrap Up

This placement has provided me with several learning opportunities and I am developing my own educational philosophy and teacher style. I was fortunate to have such a wide range of experiences during the six weeks with school trips, sports competitions and one to one observations. Gaining insight into these aspects has allowed me to grow in confidence of what is to face me as a teacher. I think by going on school trips as a student, I will be better prepared for when I need to plan one as a qualified teacher.

At the beginning of placement, I was not feeling confident in my ability to be a teacher. I think my tough placement last year made me really doubt myself and wonder if this career is the one for me. I now feel more confident in my ability to deliver a lesson. Last year, I was constantly feeling I needed to refer to my lesson plan and stick to it. Whereas, this year I was confident enough to teach the lesson without looking at my plan and was able to take the learning wherever the children led it (within reason!).

I have found lesson plans are coming more naturally to me and I am getting the learning intentions and success criteria are appropriate. Clarke (2001, pp. 19) believes that sharing the learning intentions is the first step to formative assessment. Research has found that children are more motivated and focused when they know what the objective of the task is. I have developed an ability and understanding of how to gauge a lesson right for each child and differentiate accordingly. I know that I still have a long way to go with my confidence and just trust my own judgement as if I act confident the children will trust me. Whilst I have taken some risks on this placement, I think it is important for me to challenge myself to continue taking them as I need to build up my confidence by seeing that risks sometimes do pay off.

As a student who was educated in Northern Ireland until coming to Dundee for university where I have experienced 6 weeks of the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence, I have found it interesting to compare the two systems. I would say that the aims of each subject area are more specific in the Experiences and Outcomes. With NI, it is less specific on what topic the learning would be on and is instead about developing the skills. Additionally, whilst Scotland has standardised testing at the end of P1, P4 and P7 in primary school, Northern Irish children are assessed every year through teacher assessment and planned tasks and activities. Formal results, in the form of levels, are reported to parents at the end of primary 4 and 7. Certainly, from this experience I would say that Northern Ireland schools are more open to expressing and exploring Christian values. This, however, may just be the case for a few schools rather than the majority in NI.

Last year, my class were extremely difficult for all staff and myself to manage. This meant that my tutor’s feedback on my behaviour management was poor, decreasing my confidence in myself. This placement has really helped me to build this confidence up as the class have been well settled I adapted a firm but fair approach with the pupils which appeared to work as they respected me whilst we also had fun together. Pitt (2001, pp.155) believes that the best ways to support good class management are to vary the type of activity to cater for different learning styles, link learning to children’s interests and maximise the time spent on direct teaching. I tried to incorporate this into my lessons. During my time on placement, I tried to minimise interruptions, however, it is not always possible to avoid interruptions e.g. children from another class with a message. I felt my expectations were clear so the children were not distracted or likely to interrupt e.g. talking or playing with pencils. The class teacher was very impressed with my control over the class and didn’t see any cause for concern.

I really appreciated getting to see some work with children who have additional support needs as this wasn’t something that I experienced on placement last year yet is likely to be extremely common in my future classes. I feel better equipped to deal with these situations, however, each situation and how I approach it will be unique to each child.

I tried to work on cross curricular learning during this placement. My main literacy topic of the Lighthouse Keeper provided many opportunities to link learning to crafts, RE and even data handling. I planned to read Jack and the Beanstalk to lead into measuring and planting beans but unfortunately as I learned there can be interruptions during the school day. I developed a confidence and ability to deal with change and take over from the class teacher without notice.

Finally, the types of assessment I saw in action have helped to inform my practice and consider how I might assess future learning. Clarke (2001, pp.40) suggests training children to self evaluate e.g. what made you really think? What helped you (e.g. a friend, a teacher, wall display) when you found something tricky? What are you most pleased with about this lesson? This helps improve self esteem as pupils feel more confident with admitting they were wrong and what they did to try and help themselves. The school has adopted the following assessment for learning strategies:

“No hands up, its thinking time” – this means that all children need to think as the teacher could ask anyone. Children cannot hide and not make an effort, everyone needs to try.
Positive discipline- rewarded or praised for good work in the hope that others will change their behaviour to follow the example of the hard working pupil
Traffic lights- red “I need help”, amber “It’s making me think but I can manage on my own.” And green “I understand this well”
Response partners- In pairs the children read each others work and write some comments about it. For younger children, this could be an oral activity.
2 stars and a wish
Self assessment at the end of a topic using traffic light colours

Overall, this placement has been a great success and I am feeling more content with teaching as my chosen profession.

References:

Clarke, S. (2001) Unlocking Formative Assessment. Bristol: Hodder Headline Group.

Pitt, E. (2001) Ready, Set, Go – Maths. Interboard Numeracy Group.

An envelope with potential?

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I love receiving an envelope. There’s a sense of mystery and excitement when you are handed an envelope. It amazes me that something so small can hold something incredible with so much potential. You never know what you will find when you tear that seal off and look into that small space. Envelopes can hold pieces of optimism such as acceptance letters or they can hold disappointment e.g. those ever so depressing bank statements. You never know whether that envelope is going to make or break your day. On Tuesday, during my workshop, that envelope brought me hope; It contained several items with purpose.

As part of my course, I participate in workshop style classes which put our team work skills to the test. I was fortunate to be in group two (the group which received the second best set of resources inside their envelope). The aim of the workshop was to invent something using the materials in our envelope to create a resource to help a new student to the University of Dundee. Groups three and four had fewer items than groups one and two, making the task more difficult for them. Inside my group’s envelope was: post it notes, pens, pencils, paper clips, crocodile clips, coloured paper, scissors, two smaller envelopes, blue tack, sellotape and elastic bands. Within two minutes we had agreed on an idea- a survival kit for a university fresher containing various essentials for starting uni life.

We used the paper to make a tray with a handle to place the items in and sellotaped it together. As we had some extra paper, we made some flashcards for the student to use when it comes to making revision notes. Meanwhile, a few of us made the other parts of the kit including a shopping list and a to do list and using blue tack stuck a pen onto each of these lists. It can be hard to remember what you need to be doing and when at uni with so much going on especially during the first few weeks. This is why we created the to do list. We wrote down various tips for surviving at university on the pieces of paper such as “Hand your work in on time”, “Join clubs and societies to make new friends” and “Make a list before going shopping”. Additionally, we thought it would be nice for the student to have something to read before they get started at uni so we composed a welcome letter and put it in one of the smaller envelopes. Without a doubt, for many students, university is a huge change and they begin to miss home. Therefore, we agreed that the other envelope could be used to send a letter home to keep the student’s family updated on how they are doing. Finally, we created a contents page for the tray so the student could easily see what was in it. We also included a list of any other essentials the student may need such as drawing pins for putting up their timetable and photos, clothes hangers and a diary to write down their work deadlines and lecture times/locations.

During the task, Carrie came over to our group quite a lot. She encouraged us and told us that it was very obvious that we were training to be teachers with our organisational skills and love for stationery. Carrie continued to give us encouragement and told us she liked our idea. We noticed that Carrie was spending less time with groups three and four but we didn’t think much of it and just thought their ideas weren’t as interesting as ours. At one point, group three asked us if they could have one of our pens. We decided that they could considering we had several pens and didn’t expect anything back. We later discovered that this was because they had less resources than us. We noticed that during group four’s presentation of their idea, Carrie seemed bored and was looking out the window and checking the time. This seemed quite unfair on them but we still didn’t think much of it. It wasn’t until all the groups had presented their ideas that I realised that each group had been given a different amount of materials and then I started to realise the point of the task.

When it came to scoring each group, Carrie awarded the highest amount of points to group one who had the most materials. We thought that our idea was just as good as theirs and gave ourselves an 8 out of 10, however, to our surprise Carrie disagreed and gave us a 6. Group four received a very nasty 2 points. We were surprised at how badly they had done. Personally, I felt it was unfair because groups three and four had tried their best with the resources they were given.

Carrie then revealed to us that the workshop had been set up and the scores had been decided before we even entered the room. The main lesson of the workshop was that in the classroom we are going to have children from different backgrounds with different resources. Some children will come from a good background where they can get help if it is required whereas other children may come from poorer backgrounds in which they can afford to get additional help. Some children will come into the classroom with top branded stationary whilst others will have poorer quality materials or maybe even none. Therefore, it is crucial that all students have access to equal resources and opportunities so that the classroom is a fair environment for everyone. By having equal opportunities for all pupils, those from poorer backgrounds are able to achieve the same things as those more fortunate. This is so important for a child’s wellbeing as they will feel more accepted for who they are in a diverse classroom where each student is treated equally and has the same chances as the others to achieve their potential.

Even though I wasn’t in the groups with fewer materials, this workshop gave me an insight into how to relate to those who don’t have as much and be willing to help them wherever possible e.g. giving the pen to group three. It also showed me the importance of giving pupils equal opportunities as I could see the disappointment and effect that rejection from the teacher can cause. No pupil deserves to feel the way groups three and four felt. Each pupil needs feel comfortable in the classroom so they can enjoy learning and do their best. They need to feel accepted by the others in their class as well as their teacher as their minds and behaviour are moulded by these early experiences. We as teachers need to ensure that the classroom is a place of equality and acceptance! No pupil should be left behind!