Diversity

Diversity is “essential to our survival” and “a range of different things” (UNEP, 2015). It can be split into 2 subtopics: biodiversity and cultural diversity. Biodiversity  can relate to species, genetic and ecological diversity. It is important to teach biodiversity in schools because it is important to understand the importance that species have on the planet. For example, why bees are the most important pollinator of food crops. I have learned effective ways to teach children biodiversity may be food chains or studying a small ecosystem. An example of this may be the local woodland or the pond ecosystem.

Cultural diversity is an important subject to teach children within the classroom because it allows social equity. I found out from the 2011 census that Scotland is very diverse, with 138 different languages spoken in the country. We looked at recent debates in the world that be controversial, such as should a child be allowed to wear a hijab within school. We came to the conclusion that the child should definitely be allowed to wear a hijab because it is a part of their religion. Also, Scotland and Scottish schools think that it is very important to promote inclusion, therefore they should accept the child wearing a hijab. We then looked at the changes that cultural diversity has brought to Scotland. We came up with different cuisines, different food types and different religious beliefs.

Rights respecting school is an important factor of many primary schools values. Our rights are very important in the world today. It is important to have the right to education, food and shelter. Children should understand that there is a rights declaration that should be followed. I have developed knowledge that I was unaware of before, such as some professional standards that have to be met as a teacher, such as social justice and integrity.  This has been helpful in understanding the standards in cultural diversity that I should meet as a future educator.

 

Energy

Week one

Energy is a topic that I was never very skilled at throughout my school years as it was mainly linked to Physics. I was apprehensive about the energy topic because I thought that I would be unable to partake in a lot of the activities. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was not as difficult as I first anticipated and developed a number of skills.

I gained a lot of new information from the lectures which gave me insight into what changes may be happening in the near future,for example fossil fuels changing to renewable energy. I developed a lot of knowledge through learning that can be transferred into a primary classroom in the future, for example the difference between a series and parallel circuit. I believe that I have become more confident through the workshops as the hands-on experience allowed me to immerse myself in certain areas that I would not have been comfortable teaching in the future. I improved my teamwork skills through working in teams to make different circuits. Through this, we had to listen to each other and communicate effectively in order to create the circuit. This was very difficult, therefore if I was teaching this in a primary school class I would make sure to dedicate a longer amount of time in this task so that the children could solve the problem.

From this module, I can say that I feel a lot better about teaching in the future. Through the workshops, I was able to immerse myself in the topic and will most certainly teach energy in the classroom. I believe it is important to teach children about energy as it is a current topic where vast changes are happening in the near future, therefore it is only fair to keep children updated on what is happening currently in the world.

Week two

Today has given me insight into a STEM ambassadors feeling about teaching technology within the classrrom. I was very surprised to see that the ambassadors primary one class were creating models to such a high standard. I would never have thought that a primary one class would have the capabilities to do this task, therefore it has allowed me to become mindful to really challenge pupils in the future. It was also interesting to see that the STEM ambassador used a wide range of books to get the children into an engineering thought process, such as Rosie Revere Engineer. This has allowed the children to improve design and thinking skills.

We made individual turbines which would be a fantastic idea to teach in the classroom. The instructions could have been clearer which made me use my problem solving skills on how to determine what the instructions meant.

My wind turbine creation.

We then had to create a lesson plan on making the wind turbines as if we were going to be teaching a class. This improved my thinking skills because it put me in the mindset of a class teacher. In the future, lesson plans will be a huge part to my success in teaching, therefore it was very useful to do this.

Overall, the energy topic helped me to improve a variety of different skills which will prepare me for my future career.

Disasters

The topic that we covered in the past two weeks have considerably built up my knowledge on disasters. In this weeks input we were asked to take part in a micro teaching task where we were split into groups and given separate tasks to do. My group was assigned to give a presentation on floods.

The micro-teaching task was not only interesting, but useful as I have improved various skills. My group had to have effective communication to decide what we wanted to include in our PowerPoint presentation and also assign roles for each person. In the beginning, communication was poor because everyone had different ideas of what we should include but eventually we all agreed and listened to each others ideas. I also improved my time management skills because we had to make sure our PowerPoint lasted 15 minutes. This was difficult because we were all speaking quickly so we had to slow the pace down. This also meant that the audience would be able to  hear everyone clearly. I focused on improving my presentation skills because I felt like this would be useful for the future. As a teacher, I will be presenting regularly. I wanted to make sure that my body language was positive and that I spoke clearly and concisely in order to present myself effectively.

I was intrigued to learn new facts and figures about floods and other disasters. The PowerPoints presented were helpful in giving information that I can take to the classroom and also if I am ever involved in a disaster.

Click on the link below to view the Floods Presentation.

Floods Presentation