Category Archives: My educational philosophy

Demand planning

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Demand Planning

Although a three-hour slot was put aside for this workshop it absolutely flew by. We were all so absorbed in how we were going to buy next and what was going to make us the most money etc. we finished with over £50,000 profit! Pretty good considering we started with £5000.

The mathematics involved in this task was endless. We worked within the financial quarter and started with April-June. Not only did we have to work out how many products we were going to buy, we had to first look and see what kind of products would make us the most money. Tinned beans (pack of 4) could be bought at the bargain price of 25p but sold for a whopping £2. From there we had to then decide how much of our budget we many tins of beans we would order. This process was repeated for maximum of 5 products in the first instance. When we had chosen 5 or less products, Richard gave us the percentage of products that were sold for that quarter. Cue more maths. We had to multiply the number of products we had bought by the percentage and then multiply that amount by how much they were sold for. And then repeat for maximum of 5. And then move on the next quarter. Now we knew that some of the products did not sell as well as other we could make wiser decisions and also incorporate new products as we still had some old ones left over.

This went on and on and I absolutely loved this task. We were all so engaged. Richard did put in a few trip ups for us – for example all beans had to be recalled -which for one group was a nightmare as they had spent almost all of their money on beans because it was going to make them the most amount of money and then they were left with not very much at all. Also, the wafers had a shorter sell by date so any leftover products had to be disregarded.

Richard also explain at the end of the year if we had any left-over products, the suppliers would buy some of them back. This allowed any products which we had previously anticipated to sell at a higher percentage to then be bought back and not leaving us at a total loss. He explained stores such as Home Bargains and B&M buy products with shorter sell by dates from suppliers who know they may not sell them in time at the profit they would like. Therefore, allowing these discount shops to keep the prices extremely low. The suppliers do not really have an option here as they may lose out of money anyway if they decide not to sell them to the shops at a low cost.

Although the mathematics involved seemed complicated, we used calculators and were really working out basic percentages. What we were doing was relatively simple – to us. To get to this point we had to have sound knowledge of basic arithmetic, ability to use a calculator to work out percentages, budgeting, problem solving, such as time of year to buy products i.e. probably not as wise to buy selection boxes in April etc.

Profound Understanding of Fundamental Mathematics (PUFM)

Multiple perspectives applied here as with working out how much you have made from a quarter there were two options. Calculating how many ordered by the percentage sold, then calculate the cost or calculate how many ordered by the cost then by the percentage sold. We did it the first way as it just seemed easier but both ways would have been fine and perhaps the second way would have been less confusing for some.

Basic ideas – the basic mathematics was not difficult but the thought and problem solving behind this.

Connectedness – there were so many topics pulled together in order to complete this task we had to combine a lot of previous knowledge. To be able to get to this point to carry out this task, if doing this with an upper stages level, it would be beneficial of the teacher to have revised some of these previous topics in the run up to this.

Cross curricular opportunities and wider world connections

The demand planning task allowed for opportunities of awareness of “financial awareness, assessing risk and making informed decisions”, all of which are stated in the Experiences and Outcomes of Curriculum for Excellence (Scottish Government, undated, pg. 1). Taking beyond basics and connections within mathematics, by predicting increase and decreasing in prices drawing on other knowledge out with mathematics demonstrates the Experience and Outcome mentioned above. Although the basics and fundamentals within this task were mathematical, due to the context, it did not seem this way, showing how this gives many more opportunities to link to other curricular areas.

References

Ma, L. (2010) Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics. London: Routledge.

Scottish Government (undated) Principles and Practice: mathematics. Edinburgh: Scottish Government. Available at: http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/learningandteaching/curriculumareas/mathematics/principlesandpractice/index.asp. (Accessed: 10th November 2016).

 

Not so scary Maths

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When asked to rate ourselves on a scale of 1-10 for enjoyment and confidence of maths I rated 8 and 4 respectively. Maths is a subject that I enjoyed at school but the thought of teaching maths is frightening. It’s been while – almost 2 years since I’ve studied mathsimages and prior to that 5 years since school – so I am nervous children may know more than I do!

In Tara’s input we discussed maths myths and anxieties:

  • It’s not needed for everyday life
  • You are better at maths or language and not both
  • My mum wasn’t good at maths so I won’t be either
  • Some people just can’t do maths

Genuinely, I’d never heard of maths anxiety until I started University but it is something I need to understand. Maths is not something I was ever frightened of. That’s not to say I’m an expert but I did and still do enjoy using numbers. I feel I do have a positive attitude to maths and but must admit I did/do agree one of the myths that you are stronger in either maths or language as I felt exactly that, that maths was my stronger subject compared to language. (Something I need to get out of the habit of thinking).

It is paramount that teachers show a positive attitude and confidence to maths. As soon as you show weakness with any subject but particularly in maths you give reason for children to doubt their own abilities. Mistakes can be made but not being indexembarrassed and using them as learning opportunities is important as a teacher to show children it’s ok. Equally saying something like “I wasn’t very good at maths” or “I was better at language” sets doubt and leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy.

My thoughts were that I may have confidence in my own ability but not teaching maths and as long as I show enthusiasm then I’ll be ok. However, Tara then showed us a quote:

“Teaching enthusiasm cannot be maintained where a teacher is unsure of the material… consequences of unsound subject knowledge is hesitancy in teaching, lack of direction to the lesson and lack of clarity in explanation”. Banks and Mayes, 2001, p25.

This then scared me.  I have only engaged with the Online Literacy Assessment a few times (okay only once) and my score was embarrassingly low.  I really need to get my knowledge up to scratch and there is little time left until placement.  We are not required to teach hard mathematics but unless there is understanding (apparently) then doubt will be cast over my teaching of the subject. Better get to it…

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Nurturing their nature

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Deciphering different personality types and understanding different theoretical approaches of personality is paramount when it comes teaching. The ability to recognise and accommodate why children of the same, age, and ability react in different ways is fundamental. Being a positive role model is central in teaching as children learn behaviour through observation and not only reinforcement as the behaviourist theorists would suggest. However, as a mother myself, I would tend to agree more with Bandura’s social learning theory that personality is reinforced through interaction between environmental factors. My daughter’s standards and ideas of self-efficacy will reinforce her personality then through the behaviourist approach they will be further strengthened.

The Big 5 personality test I carried out consisted of 50 questions of which were rated from 1-5; disagree to agree. I agree with the specifications of my results however I was not confident when answering some of the questions with the correct context. The results I received, as no surprise to me, was that I am 96% extrovert. However, I know that depending on the social environment can have an adverse effect on this part of my personality and I can become a complete introvert. Carl G Jung said “there is no such thing as a pure introvert or extrovert. Such a person would be in a lunatic asylum”. It would not be socially acceptable to behave only in the approach these results suggest.

Openness to Experience/Intellect – 0%
High scorers tend to be original, creative, curious, complex; Low scorers tend to be conventional, down to earth, narrow interests, uncreative.
You prefer traditional and familiar experiences.
Conscientiousness – 83%
High scorers tend to be reliable, well-organized, self-disciplined, careful; Low scorers tend to be disorganized, undependable, negligent.
You are very well-organized, and can be relied upon.
Extraversion – 96%
High scorers tend to be sociable, friendly, fun loving, talkative; Low scorers tend to be introverted, reserved, inhibited, quiet.
You are extremely outgoing, social, and energetic.
Agreeableness – 32%
High scorers tend to be good natured, sympathetic, forgiving, courteous; Low scorers tend to be critical, rude, harsh, callous.
You find it easy to express irritation with others.
Neuroticism – 22%
High scorers tend to be nervous, high-strung, insecure, worrying; Low scorers tend to be calm, relaxed, secure, hardy.
You are generally relaxed.

Constructive or destructive

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I’ll be honest to say it will take some accustoming to give and receive feedback. Emotions play a huge part in reactions to feedback and we are on a journey now on how to understand and use feedback constructively.  A few weeks ago the whole year were instructed to engage with three peer’s eportfolio’s and I feel this task has highlighted the fact that I commented on two blogs, only one time…. Naughty me!

The feedback I received was mostly positive and framed in a way that didn’t make me feel uncomfortable.  Previously, upon receiving feedback that has firstly been construed negatively had an adverse effect on my confidence and willingness to share future blogs. Confidence is something that can take a long time to build and can be shattered in second and with a few short sentences.  Learning how to frame feedback positively will help immensely deter any conflict in the future with colleagues.  You could list ten positive points about a persons writing but if there is one critique then that can outweigh the positives. To combat this, Nicki mentioned framing feedback in a positive way such as “have you thought about trying this” instead of something like “I didn’t like that”.

The process of giving peer feedback is a daunting.  You might have a thick skin but that doesn’t mean to say the person on the receiving end does.  I found that considering criticising someone’s work before I’ve read it is difficult.  The success criteria of this task was to make suggestions however if you feel the person has met all the criteria do you then pick at their punctuation or grammar?

Certainly from this exercise and in the past I have come to realise the importance of taking time and reading over feedback a few times, as tone is impossible to interpret over text.  In a professional environment, most, if not all feedback will be constructive so I need to learn first time to take my feedback positively to improve my practice.

What, why, how – the power of enquiry

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An enquiring practitioner is responsible for maintaining and enhancing professional competency for pedagogical development. It means going beyond the role of reflecting and conducting practice based research for a deeper insight to improve practice.

Professor John Hattie said “The biggest effects on student learning occur when teachers become learners of their own teaching”.

Teaching in Scotland has been reconceptualised vastly within policy, legislation and what it means to be a teacher; the benefits of which are tangible in practitioner enquiry.  This quote places huge emphasis on the fact that practitioner enquiry should always be carried out in mind of improving practice for the benefit of the children being taught.  An enquiring practitioner creates space to review and engage in reflective practice to help gain an enhanced understanding of not only their own teaching but when working collaboratively.  Now, there is more emphasis about understanding incentives to drive teachers, colleagues and children forward to make a difference.

It’s easy to be critical of others however to challenge yourself takes confidence.  You wouldn’t do the things the way you do if you didn’t feel it was suitable.  What we, as students, need to understand that the fundamental principles of practitioner enquiry is not to root out weaknesses but to refine existing ideas on what it means to be a good teacher.

As first year students there is already huge importance on the Standard for Provisional and Full Registration in preparation for autonomous life-long learning.  Practitioner enquiry impacts on us all as students as we need to always have higher expectations of ourselves, become critically adaptive in how to improve our own learning and utilise this is practice.  Ultimately, the result of practitioner enquiry is to better meet the needs of children and improve achievement.

Improvement without reflection?

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Reflection, in its simplest form, is recalling what you have done and is an essential part of learning. There are different levels of reflection that can take many forms. A reflective model I am encouraged to use in my social work module is Stephen Brookfield’s Four Lenses: autobiographical, peer (student), that of or fellow professionals and theoretical. The lens titles have been adapted slightly to suit the module but ultimately have the same meaning. By looking at ourselves through an autobiographical lens we identify our own assumptions in order to reveal pedagogy that may need reinforced. A peer (student) lens focuses on observations, evaluations and group work. Fellow professionals can provide support and feedback to enhance learning and teaching. A theoretical lens offers a view to support, understand and consider teaching or learning.

Reflection correlates with one of the most important professional values of being a teacher in my opinion: integrity. The SPR description of integrity is “critically examining the connections between personal and professional attitudes and beliefs, values and practices to effect improvement and, when appropriate, bring about transformative change in practice”. We must reflect on what we do in order to improve ourselves; it is imperative to recognise strengths and weaknesses. Without reflection there can be no improvement or change and without reflection, we are doing, not only ourselves, but our students a disservice.

Reflective writing is an opportunity to critically analysis what you have or haven’t done and include suggestions of your intentions to improve and develop yourself. I am really enjoying using the ePortfolio to reflect on my university life so far. Previously my writing may only have been conveying information but my ePortfolio is helping not only identify where I am, but what I need to, to help shape me to be the best practitioner that I can.

Honey and Mumford learning style questionnaire

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For my Social Justice module I was asked to complete the Honey and Mumford learning style questionnaire to identify and build on areas of development as a professional for collaborative working.  The questionnaire was developed based on the work of Kolb, corresponding with the experiential learning cycle he suggests – experiencing, reflecting, generalising and application – and involved answering eighty questions to result in a particular learning style.  There is a maximum score of twenty indicating learning styles and my results are the following:

Activist                 16

Reflector             10

Theorist               9

Pragmatist          15

Activists like to act quickly, get involved and get things done.  Reflectors look at situations from various perspectives and are more concerned with processes than outcomes.  Theorists are known for their thoroughness, solving problems and working alone. Pragmatist’s strengths are getting things done, preferring a more hands on experience with practical application of what they learn.

I can relate to these results based on the types of questions asked however I know that I adopt all four of the learning styles in a different environment or circumstance on a regular basis without conscious thought.  In a previous blog post I discussed the VARK learning styles which gave very different results and Richard Holme pointed me in the direction of this article suggesting that there is no empirical evidence to suggest instruction based on learning styles are effective. The results from the two said learning style surveys actually contradict themselves.  The VARK suggests I am predominantly a read/write learner however Honey and Mumford learning style questionnaire suggests I am more of an activist.  Theorists are described in the Honey and Mumford questionnaire as enjoying being taught in a didactic way which would agree with the read/write method of VARK however this was my lowest score in this questionnaire.

So are learning style questionnaires reliable? I do understand that the point of doing the Honey and Mumford questionnaire in relation to my module was to apply a method to explain and reflect my thinking. I believe that I know what my strengths and weaknesses without doing such learning style surveys. Tasks assigned for us to do such as the Online Unit and thorough reading and reflection of The Study Skills book will help identify how to strengthen my underdeveloped skills to become a more rounded and effective learner.  I appreciate in my profession as an educator, understanding learning styles is important however as previously mentioned there is no absolute way to learn and basing teaching on style-based instruction for a whole class in not practical and some subjects are best taught in a collective way.  Learning is an individual processes however knowing how you process it can help maximise skills that fit your strengths.

Co-operative Working

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The benefits of working co-operatively are endless especially in the teaching profession. Working in a supportive, team environment is much preferred than on my own. Working, studying and discussing ideas with others helps consolidate and enhance your knowledge and learning. Working co-operatively helps develop skills such as effective communication, time management and meeting deadlines, compromising to ensure harmony and commitment. If everyone puts in the same effort and work, the outcome will be significantly more successful. Co-operative working, if successful, will help in future endeavours as you can use your past experiences and put them into practice.

Challenges of working co-operatively

It’s not fair to others to only contribute a marginal amount and doing so completely questions your integrity if you take credit for others hard work. On the other hand it is equally unfair if one person takes charge and makes it difficult for others to contribute their thoughts and ideas. In the first week of my social justice module, we set reasonable rules for everyone to adhere to. One included all taking a turn to scribe for the blog. This allows everyone at some point to take a leadership role and organise our group. If we do not contribute and communicate our ideas then the scribe will be doing all the work their selves for the blog and this is not fair when it comes to your turn.

Professional Attributes

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Integrity and conscience I think are the most important and have shared meaning. Professional integrity means having strong moral principles in the job you do and you want to do the best you can for yourself and for your students. Not only do we need to meet the standards within the GTCS, we need to maintain them through continued professional development in our careers.

Compassion, empathy, kindness, justice, fairness, patience, self-control and moral courage I feel all come under the same category as they all have similar meaning. All of the terms are subjective and can be hard to define by different people e.g. pupils, parents and colleagues. For example, teachers need to be open-minded and patient to allow equal opportunities for students to speak. We need to be concerned about all of our students and be empathetic to their emotions or feelings and also morally courageous to act on something if we feel that child is at risk. A just attitude, a fairness in rewards and punishments are just as important; we have all been through school before and know how unfair things can be. A “that’s just life” approach is not acceptable in the classroom.

All qualities are essential because we as educators need to adapt to the ever changing daily environment. I believe integrity is the most important as it comes in to question if we are not passionate and proactively striving to improve ourselves professionally – we can’t rely on experience alone.

Balancing personal and professional presence on social media

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What challenges/opportunities may you be faced with when marrying the personal vs professional presence on social media?

The main challenge is finding a balance on social media presence between my personal and professional life. I have been debating whether I should use separate accounts for social media. The platforms that I use frequently, I rarely post comments or information and use it more as a photo sharing tool. I confess that I am more of a social media ‘ghost’ who floats around observing what people are doing but not acknowledging what they are doing! I actually think that is called Facebook stalking! All of my settings are private so that only my friends can see what I post and I will not be tagged in something until I accept it. This allows me to monitor what I do and don’t want the outside world to see. The more you share the more vulnerable you are. Someone, no matter what you say, what you do, what picture you post, will scrutinise you. We need to be careful how we present ourselves to the outside world. So based on this I don’t see fit to separate my personal and professional social media accounts.

The GTCS has specific guidelines regarding appropriate use of social media. Social media is a valuable tool but as perspective teachers, we should never use it to put ourselves at a disadvantage. Timing on social media is everything. Posting something without considerable thought can lead to massive implications that are very easily preventable. As prospective teachers, not only are we representing ourselves but all teachers. How many times have you stereotyped a profession based on one person? Once a teacher has compromised their professional integrity, their reputation, as well as the school they work in, may forever be remembered.

How are the challenges/opportunities afforded by social media framed? How will you frame things – positive of deficit viewpoint?

I will frame social media in a positive way in my classroom. The story Derek shared with us about his daughter was a real eye opener. The innocence of children unfortunately is getting shorter and shorter and I am troubled that children are exposed to things at such a young age. However, the sites and resources that are available for teachers are brilliant and I think we need to utilise and embrace them. The GTCS website encourages social media as a way to deliver the curriculum in innovative and exciting ways. In order to do with we first need to use websites such as NCPCC and Share Aware to demonstrate safety in the online world; proactively teaching children how to use it positively and safely.

Skills and abilities audit

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Activity 1

  1. Below are a list of skills and abilities. Complete an audit of where you are now. Record this in your learning journal/portfolio.

Rate yourself (1=Not very well developed; 3=very well developed)

Skills and Abilities 1 2 3
Time management ☺
Setting personal goals ☺
Working under pressure ☺
Conversing confidently ☺
Listing to others ☺
 Flexibility  ☺
 Self confidence  ☺
 Linguistic skills  ☺
Using technology ☺
 Take risks  ☺

 

Although it is important to identify where we are now, it is not enough to stop there. We need to reflect upon how we can develop the skills where we are less confident and how we can transfer the skills in which we are confident and competent.
Activity 2

Complete the audit below, using the information from the table above.

Recognition Reflection Action
Skills already developed How will I use these How do I know (evidence)**
Personal skills:·

  • Time management
  • Setting personal goals
  Prioritising my work load and setting goals within a realistic time frame Using a diary, study timetable, listing and priorities the tasks I need to complete.Setting aside time to complete tasks in a distraction free zone.  most of my studying will be carried out at home.  I know it will take a lot of will power to focus on the tasks I have set myself an not become distracted by house work.  I feel the library is not the optimum environment for me now as I have my books, laptop, IPad and notes in one place to refer to.  I may have to re-valuate this in the future if my study environment is not proving to be effective.
 Interpersonal skills:·

  • Working under pressure
 (Linking to time management). Using my time effectively will help when it comes to deadlines for assignments and placement. I work well under pressure academically and in a work setting. When I studied at college I was put to the test when I was studying many different subjects with assignment and assessments all in a small time frame. This has helped prepare me with the level of expectation at university.
Communication skills:

  • Converse confidently
  • Listening to others
 Transferring and learning knowledge.  These skills have contributed enormously to intellectual discussion that I have already participated in with students on my course

** This section should be completed as you identify when/where/how you have used/developed these skills.

 

Recognition Reflection Action
Skills to be developed How will I develop these How do I know (evidence)**
 Intellectual skills:·

  • Critical thinking
 This will be a gradual process of regular practice.
 Communication skills:·

  • Taking notes
  • Linguistic skills
 These can only be developed through practice. More reading and practice. Recording my thoughts and work on my ePortfolio will improve my writing skills
 Technical skills:·

  • Using technology
  • Be creative
 Using videos or animations in my ePortfolio.
Personal skills:·

  • Take risks
  • Self-awareness
 I tend to stay within my comfort zone and my preferred learning style. I need to learn identify where needs improvement. I need to learn how my peers learn and how I can effectively use their styles and apply it to my own learning. I need to believe in my abilities own abilities.

 

Gender Roles – interview with kids

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This video shows how gender roles and stereotypes are engrained in all of us from a young age. These children identify what they believe to be male and female roles such as men go to work and women cleaning and take care of babies and characteristics such as hair, clothing and masculinity.
Functionalist George Murdoch said that functional pre-requisites for the family such as sexual reproduction, economic and socialisation were necessary to reiterate and reproduce individuals in society. I am a mum that has played out the role of looking after the baby, cleaning the house while my partner worked. In my family, my expressive and his instrumental roles, in this instance maintained stability in my family.

There are some matriarchal communities in the world, where women are the head of the family. This shows the traditional stereotypes that the children have in this video are not innate but learned from their parents who learned from their parents and so on.

Social Mobility

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Polly Toynbee’s Guardian article discussing social mobility brings a lot of debate. We are meant to live in an open and meritocratic society so in theory anyone should be able to change their social standing. We have an education system that is fair to all but there are hidden barriers to stop people becoming part of some classes.

Polly suggests an upward surge, post war change of social class from working class to middle class jobs. However, previous to this and over the last 100 years, mass deindustrialisation has changed class structure greatly. During deindustrialisation, popularised money lending allowed working and middle classes a means to owning their own homes where as previously only the upper classes were wealthy enough to own properties etc.

Class has changed so much and modernised objective measurements of class, defined through occupation and income are measured through NS-SEC and the Great British Class Survey. Resulting from the lateral test, I am from the ’emergent service workers’. Reasoning given for this is that I am young, enjoy a cultured social life and rent my home. I don’t believe that social class is or isn’t fading as Polly suggests but that for some, social class is too subjective and people’s perceptions are ever changing. I know (and hope) that in 5 years time if I take the Great British Class survey again I would be categorised to a different class due to changes in my life.

Changing Education Paradigms

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Changing education paradigms TDT

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This animation, narrated from a speech by Sir Ken Robinson, a world-renowned education expert looks at how the current education system we use today was designed for a different age. We live in a society that is ever changing with an economy, that even he mentions, cannot be anticipated on a weekly basis.

I found the debate of the ‘plague’ of ADHD in America most interesting.  From my experience, what I’ve read and from the video, children with have ADHD think differently and his speech highlights their stimulus is being dulled and muted by medication in order for them to conform. These children need to learn at their own pace and preferred method and are unfortunately being herded through school.

This video evokes thought and what he is saying makes so much sense. An education reform is in order to embrace and encourage divergent thinking.  We need to teach children how to think and learn for themselves in a society that is changing every day.

On the technology bus!

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As I’ve said in my previous posts I was not on the technology bus. I felt that social media was taking over people’s lives (including my own) for a few reasons. There’s been so many hours of my life lost on social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram. When I’m out for a meal with friends every single person uses their mobile at one point and has it sitting on the table!! When I walk down the street almost everyone is engrossed in their mobile phone! For me I think that people’s over use of social media is an unhealthy addiction.

After the social media input I feel so excited to use different platforms to enhance student engagement. I’ll be honest and say I didn’t know there were so many resources available for teachers to use in the classroom. In our first week, we were assigned the QR code hunt task which was so fantastic. Our group to work collaboratively, people were taking on leading ship roles, we were problem solving to work out ‘who dunnit’. I didn’t know such a thing existing but I have thoughts of how I can use this when I have my own class.

As mentioned Facebook and Instagram are the only social media sights that I use regularly. I have been reluctant to using Twitter mainly because I didn’t want to become addicted to another social media website. Even my mum has been telling me for a long time to get involved with Twitter. She uses this to keep informed of current events in the local community and with my siblings school announcements. With Derek’s recommendation I have now signed up to to Twitter but don’t think I’ll be tweeting just yet.

Having thought more and more about social media I can see the potential and central role in children’s education and certainly in my university education. Glow for example I believe will invaluable for sharing ideas and developing my writing skills. I do still think we need to find the right balance in using social media as an education tool to enhancing learning and using it safely.

Good Morning boys and girls

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It was just a norm that girls and boys did different tasks. Our teachers always say ‘good morning/afternoon boys and girls’ so straight away we are identified by sex but I was not conscious of gender affecting me at the time.

Gender differences manifested themselves in the playground and and classroom and certainly became more apparent as we got older. The boys wouldn’t allow the girls to play football or red rover. It was too rough and the girls would end up crying whereas the boys would shrug injuries off. In the classroom it was always myself or someone from my friendship group who would take the notes other teachers or be asked to do administrative tasks. The boys in my class would be asked to help move chairs and tables and I remember thinking I could do that too, I was strong enough but we weren’t routinely asked to carry out those types of tasks.

My class stayed almost the same through my seven years at primary. The majority of us were exceptionally well behaved but there were a few problem students in my class and they were all boys, they used to sit at the naughty boy table. I always remember thinking none of the girls would end up sitting at that table and we didn’t! Most of the girls in my class were so eager to please our teachers and loved being the teachers pet.

This carried on in to my secondary school where the boys were more disruptive than girls. Gender specific subjects became more apparent too. Most of the girls chose to do subjects such as art and home economic whereas the boys chose techy and woodwork.

As a child at home I was a girlie girl and played with toys such as Barbies and dollhouses. I loved Disney princess films watched them over and over again. I played netball – a predominantly female sport. I also played cello in the school orchestra, (not a very delicate instrument I know) and there was not one boy in our orchestra. My cousin (a boy) used to play with cars and wrestling and was generally quite boisterous and I would shy from that type of play. 

 

Study skills and time management

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Reading the first chapter of the Study Skills book assigned for us I found some parts interesting but I do think some parts are not relevant to me e.g. Student accommodation, freshers week, financial issues, fitting in part time jobs. However having a browse through the book it will be definitely be a useful tool throughout my university career.

Some conclusions from the goal setting exercise were that I want be a positive influence in my daughters life and be a good mum. My career path is of course to be a primary teacher but I would aim to one day be a PT, DHT or HT. MA Education is a specific professional course and I would frankly be terrified going to university to do a a generalised degree. The certainty of knowing I am working toward a vocational degree personally gives me security as a mature student. Having met all of the lecturers over the last few weeks and find out most have a background in teaching is interesting because I know there are other opportunities for me in the future.

The general expectations are realistic and I know that I and I alone have the responsibility to get my work completed. Time management is one thing that will be a major factor in my university experience. I have to manage my time so well due to child commitments and I know nothing can be left last minute in case of unexpected illness or emergencies. Throughout my academic career I have always said ‘Right this it. This is the time I will be organised’ and end up writing essay into the wee hours of the morning. Or writing to do lists and losing them!! Now though in the past two weeks I am the most organised I have ever been. This smug satisfaction of knowing I’m getting my tasks done is such a nice (and new) feeling and I know I will continue.

One main area I’ve identified that I have always lacked confidence is writing, as in essay writing, putting thoughts on paper etc. This is something I know I can develop but it will come with practice and perhaps blogging might help!?

Recognising change through Wii

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Having a lot of experience with my siblings definitely influenced by decision in choosing a career in teaching however when I was a teenager my career was not something that I was focused on.  I’ve always whole heartedly put everything in my previous jobs but these were not jobs that I aspired for a career in. Teaching has always been in on my radar and a few years ago I volunteered with a friend in an orphanage in Sri Lanka for a month.  The experience was absolutely amazing and the children were so clever and eager to learn but did not have the schools or resources that are available to us which really saddened me.  On this trip I realised not only did I definitely want to work with children but I really enjoyed being in a faraway country.  So, I put my saving hat on and decided to travel in South East Asia and Australia for a year. On my return there was no question that I wanted to be a teacher so off to Dundee College I went to gain some more qualifications to meet the entry requirements to start this course.

I barely recognise the person I was a few years ago when I decided I wanted to be a primary teacher.  I have three younger siblings and I was nicknamed ‘Hilter’ because I was strict and regimented and expected all rules to be followed.  I was that uptight they even had my Wii character named Hitler. Fast forward a few years, well I have done a complete 180 turn and I realise I didn’t actually like that uptight person.  Since the birth of my lovely, cheeky daughter Annabel last June I have adopted a more carefree attitude.  She started walking last week at almost 15 months which is well within normal range however for so long I thought she was behind so I’m really starting to understand that every child is different and develops and learns at their own pace.  She has definitely been a positive influence in my life and I hope that the impact she has made on my different attitude will follow through into the type of teacher I will be.

Lastly until last week I was not on the technology bus largely due to my experience in schools and the teachers I know not being tech savvy. Yet I have transformed my view of using technology (from Derek’s lecture) in classrooms using YouTube etc. and that’s just from one lecture.  Again this is showing me that I am more open minded than I previously was and university is already having a positive influence on me.

 

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