2.3 Pedagogical Theories & Practice |

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.

For our health and well being workshops, we were instructed to create three lessons based on one of the Experiences and Outcome’s for that area of the curriculum. When I left that workshop I had already started to think of some activities that I could do– which I know now is the wrong way to start planning a lesson. This week, there has been great emphasises on the attention we need to put on the learning itself, rather than what makes a fun activity.

I decided to try and make a series of lessons that all build on from each other to start looking at the way lessons flow and all interlink in some way. I selected two of E and O’s as I thought they would work together well, they were:

I understand that people at different life stages have differing nutritional needs and that some people may eat or avoid certain foods.
By applying my knowledge and understanding of current healthy eating advice I can contribute to a healthy eating plan.

After I began to think about the outcomes, I started to have more ideas about what I wanted the lessons to entail and I decided to create my lesson plans for primary 6. I wanted to use a lot of resources, discussions and to include an art activity, to make the lessons as engaging as possible. Moreover, it would allow me to incorporate other areas of the curriculum such as ICT and Literacy.

I have decided to attach my lessons plans to the blog, instead of just describing them in order to record my learning. I am not very confident in my ability to create a lesson plan to an appropriate level, but I think it will be a great resource to look back on after placement, to really see my progress.

SEE ATTACHMENTS

Healthy Eating Starter Lesson Example (HWB)

Food Pyramids example (HWB)

Diabetes exaample (HWB)

On reflection, I have tried not to alter my lessons plans once I had initially uploaded them as I do want to consider the progression and the development of each of the three attempts, but also compared to the plans I will complete before, during and after my first placements. Already I can see key areas that I will start to build on through readings and practical;

I did not factor in transition times between activities and disruptions that may occur
Differentiation
Initially, I started off developing the activities and assessments before actually stating what the Success Criteria was going to be

These issues revealed that some sections of my lessons lacked relevance and it was not very adaptable to the constantly changing conditions of the classroom or to the pupils themselves. Despite these areas that are in need of much improvement, this activity has made me feel that itty bitty bit more prepared for my first placement and I know I still have a lot more to learn in the next few weeks, that will inevitably enhance my practice and build on my confidence with planning.