Doing our Best – Page 3 – Imagining Aberdeen

Learning treasures at Riverbank

For the last week at Riverbank we have been hunting for learning treasures. Each treasure describes a different aspect of learning and we had to figure out if we felt it was like us as a learner or if it was not like us as a learner. We plotted these on treasure maps so we could see clearly what we felt about each treasure.

Rhiannan found that she was very good at ‘keeping going and getting on well with others.’

Whereas Samantha enjoys ‘imagining and listening to others and understanding how the feel.’

We also challenged ourselves to think of one learning treasure we would like to use more in our learning and Franco felt that he would like to be able to ‘manage distractions better.’

Healthy Happy Safe

We at Children’s Parliament believe that every child has a right to an education in a setting where they are healthy, happy and safe and have an opportunity to do their best. In small groups we had a look at each of these factors individually and then discussed our answers as a class.

Some of the ideas we came up with to make our school a healthier place included: no litter, clean and safe spaces to play outdoors, healthy school meals and fruit from the tuck shop. We also felt that exercise was very important and realised that there were many different ways to do this.

Things which made us happy included: friends, sumdog, people giving respect, teachers and PSAs, our families, break time and when ‘Miss Murray gives P6 a good comment’.

Things which made us feel safe included: Teachers and PSAs, lollipop man/woman, our families, the new fence and the safe doors, learning about first aid and Miss Gray making sure no strangers come in.

Finally, we looked at how we could do our best in school. Some of the ideas we came up with included: to keep going and not give up, not allow ourselves to get distracted, having a nice environment to work in and using some of the things we’ve have learnt in Children’s Parliament.

Plotting learning treasures

The treasure chest is full of ideas about how children learn. The treasures are written on individual scrolls and put in a treasure box. Every child is given a treasure map and they have to plot the learning treasures depending on how much they are like them as a learner.

‘The learning treasure I would like to use more in my learning is I can manage distractions because I get distracted so easily from noise. I could manage distractions by wearing ear defenders. I would then stop going in tantrums as I would be able to get on with my work.’

Freya

‘The learning treasure I would like to use more in my learning is learning with others. I don’t use this because I don’t get on with other folk and shout at them. If we did work well together, we could help each other with the times tables, like if they are bad at the two times table and I am bad at the six times table, then we can help each other.

Brooke

‘I notice things – if I have made a mistake I go back and look at it and see it. The learning treasure I am going to use is watch and learn. I don’t do this a lot as I get worried people think I am copying them and they would tell the teacher. I don’t want to get into trouble.’

Katrina

‘I’d like to use the learning treasure listen and understand how people feel. This could be done by not shouting out anymore or speaking to them in a quiet place. Instead of shouting out you could go outside the class and calm down. I find it hard not to shout out – you want to have your answer out there and listened to.’

Brooklyn

Treasure hunting at Bramble Brae!

Today at Bramble Brae we went on a treasure hunt. We were exploring some of the different learning treasures available to us and looking and which ones we felt we possessed and which ones we would like to become more like.

Kate felt she was very good at ‘listening and understanding how other people feel and she wanted to work on asking questions.’

Quite a few of us noticed that we identified with characters other than the one we picked and we could also see who we would like to become more like.

Alex wanted to become ‘more resilient like Robert and not to give up.’ Nicole and Cameron felt that they were good at ‘keeping going like Robert.’

The treasure maps were great for helping us recognise our strengths and look at how we come become more like our learning characters.

What gets in the way of learning

The learnometer are measurers of what helps children to learn and what gets in the way of learning. Children at Tullos have been making their own learnometers. Here are some of their thoughts:

‘Noise can get in the way of learning. People chatting over or interrupting the teacher.’ ‘I find writing gets in the way of learning because it is very hard.’ ‘Everyday when I try and do my homework in the house I can’t hear because people are screaming at each other.’ ‘I do like reading my book in golden time but other books at school are too easy and boring and this gets in the way of me learning.’

‘Music helps me learn because it helps me concentrate – it calms me down.’ ‘My mum helps me to learn – she helps me with homework.’ ‘The pictures on the wall are pretty helpful as I can use them and copy them.’ ‘Assembly helps me as people tell you about stuff and I learn.’ ‘The teacher, as she helps me to spell.’

Niamh, Chloe, Jay, Victoria, Dean and Kaitlyn

What helps us learn

Children think about what helps them to learn and what gets in the way of of their learning by creating learn-ometers.

‘PSAs help you learn because they are always kind and they understand you and will listen to you. I’m Polish so my sister helps me with my homework as my mum and dad don’t understand. Maths games like Unlucky 13 help me remember more and more things.’

Julia

‘Things that get in the way of me learning are chatting to people when you have to work, when the teachers is busy and my phone because I don’t go off it and then I am very tired.’

Sara

‘When my teacher says ‘good work’ it helps me learn. I also like the spelling and maths sheets on the wall in our classroom and using YouTube.’

John

‘Running out of time, writing being hard and being distracted by people talking and shouting gets in the way of me learning. My mum, dad and teacher give me tips to help me learn. It is good when you get to work outside the room at school.’

Conal

‘When people get bullied it gets in the way of learning because you are angry and you can’t concentrate on your work. Sometimes I get sad because my dad works offshore and I this gets in the way of me doing my best. Doing Reading Wise with my PSA and doing challenges with my brothers helps me learn. I also like when my friends help me with the answers.’

Matas

Learning: helps and hindrances

This week we we creating learnometers which allowed us to think about what helps us with our learning and what can get in the way. To do this we made a ‘learnometer’ which is an adjustable scale allowing us to think about these helps and hindrances and where we are on the scale.

Scott found specific tools helped him to learn: ‘When I am doing maths, rounding helps me do my work fast.’

One thing we felt was really unhelpful was bullying.

‘Bullying makes your work difficult in class if their nagging at you and it’s stuck in your head and you can’t concentrate.’

Ashleigh

I am like…

To help children think about themselves as learners they have been introduced to some learning characters who have different learning characteristics.

‘I’m like Robert. When I am at football and I’m losing I try and do my best and keep going. Also when I run the daily mail I keep on running even though I am tired. I’m not so reflective or good at planning.’

Kacper

‘I chose Rebecca because I like making plans and being careful about my jobs. When I am doing my writing I check.’

Shannon

‘I’m like Ruby because I love to go to the library. I just feel like her. I ask a lot of questions about different stuff if I don’t understand, I think and I think. If I still don’t know I ask the teacher. I’m a bit like all the characters but mostly Ruby.’

Diana

‘Ryan because I like relationships. I like learning with other people – like maths games. I’m not like Rebecca as I’m not reflective. I like to go for stuff, not plan.’

Julia

Learning characters on Tour!

The Learning characters made it to their forth and final stop today at Tullos Primary School. Once again we went on an adventure to find out which learning character we are most like and who we would like to become more like.

Some of us struggled to pick just one character as we felt we shared a lot of similar characteristics with multiple characters.

‘I’m like Ruby and Rebecca because I think about everything and I talk to the teacher a lot.’

Caitlyn

Rhianna decided she would like to be more like Ryan.

‘I’d like to get better at learning with people.’

Others of us thought really hard about what we did or could do to help with our learning.

‘I go home [at lunch] and come back and calm down at my house and rest and make my brain all better. [Then] I feel nice and fresh,’

Jack

As you can see the class had already made snitches with the 4 different learning characteristics on them and this helped us when we were discussing who we were like.

Learning characters at Riverbank

We were looking at different types of learning today at Riverbank and learned 4 new ways of learning. Each learning style is attached to a character. We have Robert who is resilient. Rebecca who is reflective. Ryan who likes relationships and Ruby who is resourceful. We asked each of the children to choose a character who they could relate to and spoke about what we had in common with each of the characters as well as looking at our differences. We also had a think about which characteristics we would like to work on.

Sean identified with Ryan because: ‘he’s good at encouraging people!’

Keela felt she was most like Ryan because: ‘I like having relationships with my friends. I think it helps me learn because Tyler showed me something I was good at and I never knew I was good at it until I tried it.’

Nico wanted to become more like Ryan as he felt this would make him a better learner: ‘I want to get better at working with people as it’s hard to work on my own.’

Samantha wanted ‘to be more like Robert so I can challenge myself.’

Dennis even thought of a way to improve: ‘I want to get better at handwriting by doing more practice.’