Category Archives: 1.2 Integrity

Learning from Life

Leave a reply

Learning from Life

Reflection

Last year, I really surprised myself while on placement. I was so nervous– which was expected– but I was unaware of how at ease I soon became once I knew exactly what was expected of me and where everything was, and I just got carried away with the flow of the hectic school life routine.

I was unsure how I would come off to the pupils and feared (maybe a bit too much) of what they thought of me.  But as one of my personal traits is the constant need to make sure everyone is OK and feels happy, it allowed my P7s to see that all I really wanted was to help them, and this lay the foundation for great relationships to form. For each of my placements to come, I am sure that I will go into each one with a more positive and confident outlook, founded by my ability to manage the many interesting situations that my first placement presented myself with.

My placement did however surprise me as many of the situations I did come face to face with often stemmed from mental health issues and the children’s open use of the terms ‘anxiety’ and ‘depression’. It worried me as I wasn’t aware that children in primary school would even know what these terms meant—but it was explained to me many times but many different pupils! I should have realised that with the heavy influence of social media that this sort of thing would be common in schools now compared to when I was at school. This realisation made me sad and I was constantly worrying about my kids as I often put myself into their shoes and could feel how stressful certain situations could make them feel. But I wondered ‘was my one and ones really enough to make them feel better or does this run deeper?’

Therefore, I want to take the opportunity from Learning from Life module and work within the healthcare sector to strengthen my ability to manage my emotions in a professional way in order for me to give pupils the best advice and guidance, and ensure they feel safe and happy while at school. I want to educate myself more about childhood depression and the safe ways to deal with these situations. Understanding the processes in which need to be put in place to aid children with depression would also be beneficial for myself (and everyone!) to realise what services are out their and who are involved.

 

Reflection on Semester 1

Leave a reply

I have started to write this blog for Derek’s TDT several times, but have found it harder to reflect on my progress each time. But this was until my pre-visit day put everything into perspective.

I have found it easy over the duration of the first semester to reflect on my Working Together team’s progress, the impact of the suffragettes on woman’s rights and the effects of discrimination to this day- yet, commenting on my strengths and weaknesses as a trainee teacher, seemed much too difficult. However, when I visited school and began to put everything into practise that we have learned– the reflection came easy then; it was a constant thought from when I left the school, until my eyes burned from being on computer too long, completing my pre-visit tasks.

Therefore, one difficulty of semester one that I am to overcome is self-reflection, itself.

Trying to identify your strengths and weaknesses is something that a lot of people struggle with but I thought at university it would come effortlessly. But for me, admitting I wasn’t great at something or acknowledging that I didn’t understand a concept, it’s very difficult.

Perfectionist 101.

Throughout the first semester I was very much focused on doing all the reading that I could, perfecting my referencing and making connections with my peers and tutors. The thing that I clearly avoided was thinking about  the progress I’ve made- the growth. Just like we have been taught recently in regards to ensuring the children’s understanding, I have been so focused on the product at the end of the learning (results), I have not really focused on the process of achieving that goal.  It wasn’t until I was standing in my primary 7 classroom, discussing Maths with a pupil, seeing everything in action, that I realised how much I had learned over these past few months and it was evident of what I had done well and not so well.

It is now that I can appreciate the relationships I’ve made, the knowledge I’ve obtained- but most importantly- I acknowledge the experience.

The ever-changing society who is incapable of change.

2 Replies

This week, our Value’s lecture really hit me hard. Not purely based on the content– the history of the Civil Right movement and that of feminism, is not new to me. Most of us would have heard the horrors through school and so forth, but it is scary how used to it I was hearing the stories. Which leads on to the main point of this blog: How many times do they have to be told before it makes a difference? 

In the lectures we were told of the great escapades of the Suffragettes and the Suffragists  but there was no mention of the men that were a part of the movement. In the past, I have looked into this out of curiosity, although there numbers were small compared to dominant, small-minded males who rejected the idea of woman with power at the time, they were there. You would think overtime with the ongoing development of the  movement and the growth of male representation in the would be significantly higher and the opposition would be not so intense. But then we were told of one of the presidential candidates of Brazil’s comment that some woman were “too ugly to rape” . Even quoting that disgusts me! Where’s the growth- the progress? This is a man who will possibly come into a lot of power. Is there an inevitable cycle of volatile men, who carry on these oppressive believes due to learned behaviour?

It is clear from the lectures this week that there has been a lot of progress in civil rights. The separate but equal rules seem ridiculous now and there are many strong Black Americans in places of power with respect, who are still rallying for more progress. But the rights of the gay community were touched on also, and I think it is easy to say that they are still are facing so much injustice. Panti Noble’s speech touched me as it was so honest and with her quick wit and humour that allowed so many of us to engage with her story. It is unacceptable that anyone should be ashamed of living, dressing, or acting a certain way- their way. I have started to immerse myself in Dundee’s drag scene; sometimes you hear of or witness the ill treatment that the LGBT community face. Sadly, it is often turned into a joke to entertain us during the queen’s shows and make light of an emotional heavy situation- but the wound is still there and this is their way of coping.

The discussion of Emmet Till’s murder made me think of story in the news earlier this year of a young boy who committed suicide due to bullying from older kids because they thought he was gay. Gay or not, this young boy was a child. Why are people still being attacked because of who they love or for who they are? Why do people believe they are superior to another because they do not share the same skin colour or sexual orientation? Why are these differences so different? We all come from the same place; we all share the same biology. But then, do we all have a heart?

I continue to use the word  ‘story’ as if these events were a fabrication of fiction, told to scare us. But  these are facts. True events of hardships that a lot of us are utterly unaffected by. The horrible experience’s the lecturers told us of seemed to have achieved so much for their cause at the time, but how far have we really come? Emmett Till death was so tragic that I would have hoped it would haved ended all suffering and fear among Black Americans there and then. But it didn’t stop. The lectures really made me think if there will ever be an end to discrimination and racism. What will it take? We’ve heard of the heroic characters such as Martin Luther King and the brave Suffragettes. Both made history, yet, King lost his life and woman were still not fully recognized as equal. It made me really wonder how, as a teacher, am I able to make change or even if I will be there to witness the end of such social injustices. I know I will treat my classes with the kindness and fairness they deserve, but how can I shield them from the outside world? I can try to prepare them, but why should they have to learn to build up such an armour to protect them for others who may treat them unfairly for just being themselves?

This blog post is a entanglement of facts, questions, anger, hope and is clearly a bit of a jumbled mess. But what is so different about the world today?

Where it all began…

2 Replies

I remember back in primary 4, the teacher posed the big, heavy question ‘What do you want to be in the future?’ Back then a teacher did not even cross my mind. I remember pondering the question for hours, thinking of more appropriate ideas for my little, nine year old brain- like a fashion designer or a singer. It wasn’t until I got home that evening that I asked my mum what she thought; without hesitation she said I should be a teacher.

The next day at school I watched the teacher very carefully, envisioning myself in her shoes. I already loved school but seeing my teacher mark the kid’s work with little ticks and using multi-coloured chalk on the blackboard, I decided I needed to do that as a career. Now, I laugh at how naive and oblivious I was but a job was something so far in the future, I used to sometimes believe it would never actually come. However silly, that is where the dream began. I was off! Red marker pen at the ready!

I continued to say I wanted to be a teacher throughout my first few years at secondary school, however, it wasn’t until the good old anxiety started to take hold of the reins and my dream of teaching took a seat on the back burner. I used to curse myself for not pushing myself forward for the dream earlier, instead of shying away from the prospect of rejection and my time after high school took a total different direction than expected.  I had a lot of growing to be done  first and during those next few years on working entirely on what makes me- me, it is what got me here, writing this post today, away to start my degree at exactly the right time.

It’s a learning curve, folks.