Since finding out that I had successfully gained a place upon this course, my head has been swimming with ideas of what my ‘itch’ might be. All of the ideas have surrounded the curricular area of Technologies.
Technologies and the delivery of it within schools has been a passion of mine for a few years now, not only have I been lucky enough to drive this forward within our school, but I have been given opportunities to share our journey with many other settings.
This year, I am teaching technologies from Primary 1 to Primary 7, I am keen to narrow my ‘itch’ down further to something I can use with a few of my classes. Through discussions with my HT, she is keen for me to drive forward STEM this year, as the focus of my role the past two years has been more on the Digital Learning side of technologies.
Right now, my thoughts are torn between two topics:
- Approaching the Gender Gap within STEM and how this can be addressed within the Primary School Setting
- Within my setting, in the past couple of years we have seen an increase in the amount of female pupils who are engaging with our Code Club and that have displayed a passion for STEM. However, now that I am teaching throughout the school, I am aware that this is not the case in our younger children. I would focus on working collaboratively with classteachers to ensure that we are embedding STEM within our classrooms through the production of STEM challenge boxes/STEM areas within the classrooms for all learners to be exposed to STEM on a daily basis rather than just in their timetabled slot with myself. I realise that this might be difficult to measure the impact of though…
- Providing worthwhile feedback through Digital Learning and the use of Digital Learning Spaces (such as Google Classroom)
- This is something I would like to develop as the lessons I deliver to my Primary 4 to Primary 7 classes are done through a digital learning space on Google Classroom, where I set a task, attach the material and the pupils complete the work online and then submit it to myself where I can leave a comment. I would love the pupils to be able to share their learning with each other, collaborate and give meaningful feedback on each others work in technologies. I also plan to look at the other ways in which myself and the pupils can provide worthwhile and meaningful feedback to learners.
Any thoughts on either of these would be greatly appreciated.
