Category Archives: Contemporary issues

Global Citizenship

Today we had our first lecture on the third part of Social Studies ‘People in Society, Economy and Business’ and focussed on the idea of what it is to be a ‘Global Citizen’.

To me, a global citizen is someone who is aware how their actions can impact other people and holds the values of respect and diversity.

As an activity we watched a clip from the Paddington movie where you see Paddington meeting the Brown family for the first time. We were then to pick a theme from this scene and develop an activity you could use in the classroom. Paddington has found himself homeless and is sitting in the train station wondering his next move when the Brown family get off their train. Mr Brown makes assumptions about Paddington straight away and says things such as ‘stranger danger’, ‘keep your eyes down’ ,’ he’s probably selling something’ and is not happy when his wife goes back to approach Paddington. He then continues to be hostile towards Paddington as he explain how he came to be homeless. Therefore I choose to look at the theme of making judgements and ignorance.

I brainstormed the various ways we can make judgements in society. For example about: homeless people, refugees, people of different nationalities and race, criminals, celebrities and politicians. I then began to think about why we may hold these judgements, for example influence from the media and our family. My activity idea involved presenting pupils with a photo of different people in society and get them to write down the words that come to mind. As a class we would then discuss, challenge and begin to explain where these ideas have come from. The main outcome of the lesson would be to encourage pupils to be critcal about what they are told by the media and other people in their lives before making up their own opinion with he values of respect and diversity in mind.

I took this further at home by watching a Ted talk about something called the ‘Ignorance Project’ conducted by GapMinder. The project conducted studies on peoples answers to stereotypical questions and then analysed why people were giving the stereotypical answers. They discussed how all we see on the news is the bad and we forget that the majority of the society/people/the world are not experiencing this ‘bad’. They suggested the way to lessen these judgements is to teach positively, that the ‘bad’ is getting better. For example poverty levels have reduced, defences against natural disasters are increasing and that refugees bring valuable skills.

Ted Talk: https://www.gapminder.org/ignorance/ (Accessed 1/10/18).

Overall I found this lesson extremely motivating and helpful. I feel I have benefitted as learner by taking a minute to challenge the judgements I may personally make which will in-turn positively impact my professional values. While I have also developed an understand of how to teach a Global Citizenship lesson and have gathered some useful resources for this.

Dance… love it or hate it?

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Friday mornings dance workshop gave me a whole new perspective on the subject I once did anything to avoid. I have no previous experience of dance and always thought it was not for me. This, combined with the fear of making a fool of myself left me ‘hating it’ throughout my childhood.

However, after Friday’s workshop I began to realise I can no longer be the child scared of making a fool of themselves. I need to be an adult; A teacher that inspires children with full confidence in the subject. The workshop highlighted to me the importance of this subject in the curriculum. I believe if dance had been part of the curriculum when I was in primary school this would have given me the chance to try it and learn some basics. By the time it became part of the curriculum when I was in secondary school many children had thrived in outside school dance clubs and I still had no experience. This has motivated as a future teacher to give every child a chance to try out dancing and inspire them continue it into later life.

But why bother you may ask?

After doing some reading on the ‘Get Scotland Dancing’ campaign and the Curriculam For Excellence Subject outcomes and experiences I have found dance is a huge part of Scotlands culture and brings in many important aspects of a child’s development. First, it helps the child develop their creativity through choreographing and demonstrating their feelings and ideas through a different media. Second, it is a very good and fun activity that can help towards children reaching their 60 minutes of physical activity a day. Finally, dance is a very social activity that builds on teamwork, cooperation and friendship all of which are very important for good mental wellbeing.

This new information got me motivated and inspired to teach dance in a successful and exciting way to all children. However, I am obviously facing some challenges due to my lack of experience. Therefore I am going to make a professional commitment to improving my knowledge of dance and my ability to teach it. I plan on doing this through more reading, watching dance performances and fully participating in the dance workshops. I thoroughly enjoy physical activity therefore I know I can do this in order to make me a better teacher in the future.

GIRFEC – The debate on the Named Person

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In this evaluative post I am hoping to reflect on Thursday’s class debate and come to my own conclusion on the issue.

GIRFEC (Getting it right for every child) is built on 3 main aspects. The wellbeing wheel, The Named Person and the Child Plan. While I could sit and talk about GIRFEC all day there is one key area I will be focussing on….Is the Named Person a positive or are there too many negatives???

If you would like to find out more information about GIRFEC follow this link – http://www.gov.scot/Topics/People/Young-People/gettingitright/what-is-girfec

Before evaluating the positives and negatives it is important to understand the Named Persons role. Every child in Scotland up to the age of 18 is to have a Named Person who they have regular contact with. From the age of 0-5 this is usually the child’s health visitor and once the child starts school it becomes a Guidance or Head Teacher. The Named Person is to be the first point of contact for anyone, including the child, who has any worries or concerns about the child. The Named Person is also there to provide advice to parents or children and help them get into contact with other services if needed. Finally they have the important role of getting into contact with the Lead Professional to put into place the ‘Child Plan’ if there are serious concerns about the child’s wellbeing. Many welcome this introduction and have no problem with it but on the other hand a large amount of people have found various negatives and fail to support it.

So, here we go… I’ll begin by summarising some of the negative aspects I found.

The child may not like or want to speak to their Named Person therefore problems still could go unnoticed. There is no element of choice for the child, the Named Person should be someone the child chooses and that they are comfortable with. If this were the case it could be argued some problems could be identified and acted on quicker as the child would be more likely to report them.
In a primary school of 300+ children It will be very difficult for the Named Person (usually Head Teacher) to know every child well enough to be able to identify problems especially with quiet children. It is also a lot of work for the Head Teacher who already has various tasks and some argue they cannot do the job properly when they are so busy.
The are many gaps in the scheme. For example children who move around a lot can be without a Named Person for sometime until they are settled and even then they may find it hard to build a relationship with them. Also when a young person leaves school – which they can at 16- they are left with no Named Person and this can be very vulnerable time for them.

However there are positives…

The named person is someone the child is able to speak to about problems at home if they are unable to speak to family. This reduces the chances of problems at home going unnoticed.
Some also argue the child and the Named Person do not always need to be friends it is simply an extra person watching over them.

Overall it is obvious the negatives out weigh the positive but this does not mean the Named Person scheme is not a good idea, it simply means it needs improving. Having an extra person aside from parents to look after every child is never going to be a bad thing. In practice it should mean problems are identified quicker and solved sooner. However it cannot be fully effective until the negatives listed above are addressed.