Tag Archives: University of Dundee

End of Module Reflection

Throughout this 1st semester, I have enjoyed the HWB module. It has been good to develop my knowledge & understanding in each of the different areas within HWB and also with some aspects relating to my ongoing thesis, it has enabled me to make connections and hopefully deepen my discussions later.

The module as a whole has enabled me to look further into specific areas which are of interest to me & those I did not have high confidence in delivering within the classroom. Working with others during the inputs has enabled me to further develop my communication skills as well as skills such as listening and empathy. Furthermore, working with others on some of the tasks has made the experience more enjoyable. The motivation & encouragement we provided to each other was invaluable. I feel I have learnt a lot from them as professionals, sharing ideas and thoughts about many different issues – seeing different perspectives and encouraging me to develop my own thinking.

I decided to do the tasks within this blog/portfolio for a variety of reasons. Firstly, we had 3 compulsory ones which had to be completed and thereafter the rest were up to us to make our own choices about which ones we were going to complete. I chose to do the vast majority of the tasks based on what I felt I had an interest in but also, I chose some which I thought would challenge me. For example, the tasks within the areas of Relationships, Sexual Health & Parenthood and Mental Health & Wellbeing. I believe I felt these would challenge me due to not having much experience in the areas, therefore aiding my professional development.

For the most part, these tasks have been enjoyable to complete. It was a continuous process throughout the module with the majority of tasks being completed before the end of October. I feel that by doing them throughout the module it has taken some stress away from the completion of the assignment as a whole. I chose to do this portfolio as a blog on Glow due to feeling like I wanted to make it a bit more interactive rather than just word documents on a USB. In addition, I wanted to again challenge myself but also make a start on building a resource bank/reflection for my future career & professional development. Having this online and on Glow means I will always have access to the information as this is a system teachers continue to utilise in practice. Furthermore, Thorburn (2014:207) also states, that

“teachers are urged to share examples of their practice across the Glow intranet network; an online resource platform designed to help create communities of practice and to offer practitioners new opportunities to share and collaborate”.

Having the opportunity to experience the Glow system before going out into practice, I feel more confident in using it and recognise the advantages of such a tool.

Although it has been good to experience this tool, it has been very time consuming & at times stressful. After completing each individual task and then having to place it on here & edit it to make the blog posts more engaging took a lot longer than I had first anticipated. I hope that the time & effort can be seen throughout.

I remember getting asked whether doing this module has influenced my own health & wellbeing. On reflection of the module, I would say it has – some positive, some negative. The vast amount of information, knowledge and resources which I have gathered has been great in giving me the confidence to go out and teach all aspects of HWB. It has also encouraged me to think about areas, issues & topics I have never really considered due to a lack of opportunities to experience them in university and whilst out on practice. In addition, I feel that it has made me want to continue making positive changes (ie. exercise more, eat better etc.) in my own life. However, uni life does make this slightly difficult at times!!

Unfortunately, it has been a very demanding module at a time when thesis is also very demanding which has been slightly difficult to balance. HWB is such a huge curricular area and there is SO much to learn and take in that it is impossible to know everything. But like any module/assignment, it has been a stressful process to ensure quality & quantity.

I have to admit that completing this portfolio has been quite a challenge and I have taken a lot of time & effort to (hopefully) make it the best it could be! I do feel a sense of pride & achievement after completing this module & portfolio as I believe I have taken myself out of my comfort zone many a times to complete tasks in lectures and also in this portfolio, for example making videos. This is something I still don’t feel completely comfortable with but you’ve got to give something a go at least once! The digital skills that have been developed, from creating the blog to editing videos & uploading files are also going to assist me in my future career & professional development.

The TDT Task Sheet & Assessment Criteria states that a minimum of 30hrs is to be completed out with class. I feel I have far exceeded the 30hrs due to:

completion of set tasks (compulsory/non-compulsory)
extra activities which I believe have been of benefit to me professionally
time taken to create and utilise the blog to make it more engaging to include short reflections, pictures, videos, websites & documents.

Overall, I have enjoyed the module. I just wish there had been more opportunities throughout university to build such a bank of resources as we have only covered small amounts. With HWB
being a responsibility of all, alongside Literacy & Numeracy, I don’t feel that there is such an emphasis on it in university. This is something which I feel should be incorporated more due to many practitioners leaving with very little knowledge/awareness as they may have not chosen it for either their 3rd/4th year elective. I am glad that I made this decision as I now feel more confident in delivering lessons in specific areas which I previously was slightly daunted by.

I hope that you enjoy reading the posts and that my commitment, time and efforts have been portrayed!

🙂

PS. if the videos don’t play first time, refreshing the page should make them work!

Reference:

Thorburn, M. (2014) ‘Educating for Well-being in Scotland: Policy and Philosophy, Pitfalls and Possibilities’, Oxford Review of Education, 40(2), pp. 206-222.

‘Snapshot’ Assignment Feedback

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Write a 250 word assignment (2 hrs)

Using the assignment criteria, write 250 words of your assignment, complete with references and bibliography. You will then write a self-assessment of your short piece of work and include this with your mini snapshot essay. You will then share this with your critical peer and give written feedback to each other on your work.

Evidence: Your written 250 word assessment. In addition you should add in your self-assessment feedback and your peer assessment feedback.

Personal Thoughts:

This was a difficult task to complete. I don’t often share any assignment work I have produced due to my lack of confidence and not wanting to pass on incorrect info or scare someone if they haven’t written about something I have or vice versa. Also, this task was a challenge to try and fit in. When it comes to writing an assignment, I like to lock myself away in my room and just get on with it!

In addition, sharing a piece of approx 250 words, that I felt happy with or that will even be used within the final assignment was a slight challenge. I was fully prepared for this and welcomed some feedback, positive/negative. I gave my justification for choosing this particular section and also what else I was hoping to discuss within the assignment.

I personally found this task very difficult to do – giving someone feedback on their academic work when I don’t feel like I am in a position to do so. For example, I don’t feel qualified enough to do this. I also believe everyone has different ways of writing an assignment, taking a different spin every time which also makes it a challenge to give some constructive criticism/feedback further than “looks good, keep going”. I feel we did manage to give each other something that we may want to look at and work on however this was quite an uncomfortable task to do.

My word count is slightly over due to in text references and not wanting to stop half way through a sentence.

A copy of the 250 words & self/peer feedback can be viewed as a word document –

Assignment Snapshot Task

HWB Presentation

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Develop a Presentation about HWB research; carry out a self-assessment of your work (3 hrs).

Working with a critical friend (peer), each person present five slides (must be pictures) that can be used to summarise a piece of research or a policy focus in the wider area of HWB. The pair should decide and identify the assessment criteria that have to be used. This should be displayed in your e-portfolio. Write up a self-assessment of your presentation before you present it to your critical friend. Present your presentation to your critical friend and collect detailed feedback from your peer.

Think about – are you meeting the agreed assessment criteria, have you practised your presentation, does it have impact, are you getting across the key points.

Evidence: A copy of your PowerPoint presentation. In addition, you should add your self-assessment feedback based on the assessment criteria. A copy of assessment criteria should be added.

Personal Thoughts:

This activity was quite time consuming to do. Thinking of the wider aspect of HWB, I wanted to focus on a policy/research document which hadn’t been considered in class. This led to the presentation focusing on the policy document ‘Achieving Our Potential’ which aims to tackle poverty and income inequality. The issue of poverty is something which we did look at in class however this was more based around the context of the attainment gap. Throughout the presentation, my aim was to:

discuss what poverty is, the causes, how it’s measured whilst giving statistics in relation to Scotland and also consider child poverty
discuss income inequality and its effects, also the notion of ‘working poverty’
discuss the government policy and it’s aims
consider the policy in relation to others, eg. Early Years Framework; early intervention etc.
emphasise there are many strategies/initiatives being implemented to tackle these issues in order for Scotland to become a fairer, healthier, more prosperous place to live – increasing the overall wellbeing of all those living in the nation; one alone will not achieve anything

Before carrying out the presentation, we decided on a criteria which we would self/peer assess against. Looking back, I believe we could have made this more specific however at the time of creating it we were unsure of what we should have. This may have helped develop the presentation further. In terms of practising the presentation, I feel this was something we lacked. Although we felt we knew our topics quite well and given the environment which it was presented (library) in, less reliance on notes may have improved the overall quality. I feel the chosen images, on each slide, were relevant to the current area being discussed – the audience recognised how they related to the topic.

By the end of the presentation, it was made clear that I had given clear and relevant information – focusing on key points – which is what I hoped I would do, enabling the audience to (potentially) learn something new, as I did with theirs. I found it challenging to be critical in my feedback however do feel I gave some constructive criticism to my peer.

The presentation can be viewed as a PowerPoint document –

HWB presentation

A copy of the self/peer assessment feedback sheet has been included –

Interview Opportunity!

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So last night, I was being a very good friend and helping out some fellow teachers do one of their Science Elective module tasks. This involved a group of us debating the issue of: Animal testing for medical purposes. The group was composed of Teaching students, Law students, a Maths student & a Mental Health Nursing student.

Before the debate, myself and few others on the science elective were heading along to the CafeScience event on Space at Avery & Co. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to enter the event as the venue had reached capacity. This was quite annoying as it was pouring with rain, cold and we had an hour and a half to spare before we said we’d meet for the debate…

Not to worry DUSA to the rescue!!

We headed along to Liar and got dry. Whilst waiting for the others to arrive, I thought this would be a great opportunity to ask my fellow teachers how confident they feel about going out into their probation year and future teaching career in delivering lessons on all areas of HWB. This was very spur of the moment so nobody was prepared, including myself, but it was interesting to get their perspective – especially because they have not undertaken the HWB elective in uni.

Although this was not a task set for the portfolio, I thought it would be interesting to do. Also due to my kindness of taking time out of writing my assignment to help them out, Niall & Laura were up for returning the favour in some way.

The interview can be viewed here and don’t worry, Laura doesn’t always have evil eyes!

Thanks to Laura Glass & Niall Ridgway (budding future scientists & primary teachers) 😀

Some pictures from throughout the debate –

Learning Goals

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Identify 3 learning goals at the start of the module and write reflections at three identified points during the module to indicate your progress in learning related to your stated goals.

Evidence: Learning goals identified and three short reflections will be written about your chosen learning goals and reflect about your progress in development of your ideas, knowledge and critical thinking during week 1, 6 and 10.

Personal Thoughts:

These goals were set after the first input of the module. I cannot be sure that the reflections were done on the weeks stated, more so following any input I felt related to a goal. This task was stated to only take an hour however I feel that due to the length of the reflections, this took me longer.

The task can be viewed as a word document –

Learning Goals

Class Energisers

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Learn to do three class energisers (1 hour)

Energisers are a good technique for using during health and wellbeing lessons. Learn three energisers.

Reading: The Gamesters Handbook

Hard copies available in the library and online at: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=rPxz9BaBfDIC&pg=PR3&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=2#v=onepage&q&f=false

Evidence: Collect copies of your energisers and reflect on how you could use these effectively within the classroom

Personal Thoughts:

This activity was quite good fun to do as we were able to participate and try the activities out for ourselves. It provided us with an opportunity to have a wee break from just thinking and writing up tasks and actually have some ‘time-out’. There are a vast amount of activities which practitioners can use in order to engage children and young people. One activity came after going along to the ‘Chat Happy’ workshop and discussing different ways of aiding children & young people’s mental wellbeing – we felt this would be a good one to use as we all love a good laugh sometimes!

We decided on 3 activities and wrote them up, however came across some other ones which we thought were really good and active/engaging. Instead of writing these up we have attached links to them in the word document and also videoed one to show we gave it a go! This was quite a challenge for myself. I am very uncoordinated, have no sense of rhythm and struggle to do more than 1 thing at once BUT … I persevered and eventually managed to get the whole of it right (not caught on camera) but an almost perfect one was captioned! Whilst looking through the numerous videos, some of the expressions provided some humour; therefore a short clip has been produced to show the bumpy process we went through before finally feeling a huge sense of achievement in the activity! I think from the look on our faces at the end give an indication of how we felt …

The task can be viewed as a word document –

Energiser Activities

Bim Bum Fun!

Our attempt –

Captions from the making process –

Sacro

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Friday 30th October 2015

‘Sacro’ were holding an open day at Dundee Voluntary Action – No.10 Constitution Road, Kirsty and myself decided to go along to it after being made aware of it through an email from the Education & Social Work Office at the University of Dundee. We had been reminded of the service after hearing about it back in 2nd year during our Interagency Module. We had also just had an input about ‘Restorative Approaches’ which is one aspect of Sacro’s service. This therefore reinforced our thoughts about attending the open day.

This is the Organiser Info which was provided on the Eventbrite page –

Sacro

“Sacro is a Scottish community justice organisation which works to create safer and more cohesive communities across Scotland. From providing conflict resolution that prevents disputes from escalating to supporting prisoners on release, Sacro works to reduce conflict and repair harm. All our services are designed to create safe and cohesive communities by reducing conflict and offending.

The organisation works with a broad range of people, including those harmed by crime and those responsible for that harm. As a Scotland-wide voluntary organisation, we are committed to providing services that contribute to positive transformational changes in the lives of our service users. We work independently and collaboratively within Scotland’s communities to provide support, prevent conflict and challenge offending behaviour wherever the need arises. Our services are based on research evidence, service user feedback, international standards of good practice and a commitment to development and innovation. Since its inception, Sacro has grown and developed new services for young people, bail, intensive supervision of high risk offenders and other priority categories. Sacro currently has almost 400 staff and volunteers, offering over 60 services in 22 locations across Scotland.”

The open day was between 10am and 4pm and we decided to go along during a break from other work. When we arrived we were handed a welcome pack and signed in before picking up a free pen and starting to go round the rooms. Each room had a different focus on the services provided by Sacro. 1 room focused on Youth Justice, 1 on Criminal Justice and 1 on Mediation.

The most likely service which I may come in contact with whilst working as a teacher may be Youth Justice Service. Here, we were informed that the Youth Justice workers will work with young offenders/at risk of offending through Restorative Approaches in order for them to acknowledge their behaviour and help change their ways. We were given the opportunity to ask questions about the resources that were laid out and the information provided was very helpful. We were very keen to know if practitioners had access to some of the modules which Sacro deliver, however we were told it was unfortunately not possible and only Sacro have access to them.

We were also told of some interesting findings that Sacro have found through delivering the work they do with young people – 72% of young people who go through the process do not re-offend & 100% of offenders/possible offenders offered the service have taken the opportunity up. This was quite surprising and enabled me to acknowledge that this a positive strategy with many benefits. The workers stated that they tend to work with individuals for about 6 weeks however this can be longer or shorter depending on the needs of that individual. The service itself is seen to be a short-term strategy which has long-term effects & benefits.

The second room displayed 4 services:

Circles of Support and Accountability (COSA): model of intervention that assists in the monitoring & community re-integration of certain high risk individuals who commit sexual offences.
Shine – The Women’s Mentoring Service: provides a mentor to help women to develop their independence & quality of life, improve their social skills, motivation and work towards addressing a life free of offending.
Veterans Mentoring Service: military veterans currently in or are on the periphery of the criminal justice system; aim of the service is to enable the service user to enjoy sustainable, independent living.
The Housing Support Service: support for ex-offenders who need assistance with re-settling into the community.

In this room we were given some information about the different services which other areas of Sacro provide. We spoke to a variety of representatives who were happy to answer any questions we had.

The final room focused on Mediation. Here we found out about how they work mainly with disputes between neighbours; peer mediation in schools and mediation in the workplace. This was interesting and we were also told about a project, ‘Fearless’, that they are away to start up to help those affected by domestic violence – particularly aiming it at those less likely to come forward; men and those from ethnic minority & LGBT communities.

Personal Thoughts:

I believe that taking the time out of doing work to go along to this event was very beneficial to my professional development. The information provided was of great help to me in understanding and gaining knowledge of what services Sacro can provide practitioners with. It was also appreciated that they were willing to answer questions and share some of their experiences with us. Informing us about how teachers can be supported and how to get in contact with them (even if not in Dundee City Council – offices all over) was also very valuable.

More information can be found on Sacro’s website:

http://www.sacro.org.uk/services/criminal-justice/housing-support

Trip To Madras High School

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The day after making our lentil soup & bread we were heading through to St Andrews to take part in a cooking class in the Home Economics department with Maureen Kyle who delivered a lecture about ‘Food for Thought’ the previous week. Before getting to the school we were unaware of what we were going to be doing, however Maureen was providing all the resources that we would require.

The session lasted 2 hours between 4pm and 6pm. We were to make our own way to St Andrews but this was fine as a number of people drive on the course and with the sessions being split into 2 meant a lift was easily available! Having little knowledge of St Andrews except the centre, it was handy to be given a map to direct us to the school.

When we arrived, Kirsty & myself couldn’t believe what we saw…ingredients to make Lentil Soup & Bread!! But the good thing was it was a different way ie. lentil soup using vegetables & Irish soda bread. This therefore enabled us to try something new out again.

The session was quite fun as we had a nice little group who all got on and had a laugh, particularly at the 2 lost guys wandering around St Andrews before finally appearing! It did however feel a little like being back in school, having to wait and be shown how to do things however I understand that it was done this way to help make us think about if we were to ever carry out a similar activity with our class.

In relation to doing something similar in my own class, I have some doubts. Having opportunities to do cooking with a class can be very slim due to staffing numbers; class sizes; age/stage; behaviour etc. I therefore feel that it may be sometime, if ever, that I would be doing a serious cooking lesson where we’d make soup or something similar. Making bread may however be more achievable as you could pair the children up/simplify the activity etc. This is all dependent however on the school that you are working in and the children you are working with.

Some pictures from throughout the session minus the final bread product –

Soup & Bread Making

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Learn to make bread. (1 hour)

Have a go at learning to make bread (from scratch). You will find recipes online.

Evidence: Include a copy of your recipe and take a photo of the finished product (2 hour).

So the two K’s decided to try and make some bread…easy right? hmm, kind of!

We chose a recipe and bought in the ingredients we didn’t already have in our cupboards! Much to Kirsty’s surprise, the Co-op sell 7g sachet fast-action dried yeast! And there we had it, all set to go…

We followed each instruction step by step and eventually it started to come together; we did need a little more flour when mixing. Next came the cooking part…we thought ‘oh bread in an hour fab, we’ll choose this recipe’, only to find out it actually doesn’t take an hour as you need to let it rise for an hour after prepping and before cooking!! Oops, maybe should’ve read past the first instruction after all!

Another slight problem…we didn’t have a bread tin to cook it in so we improvised and used a round baking tin, after all we are students! So we let it sit for an hour then heated up the oven and popped it in.

During the time between prep & cooking we decided to make some lentil soup to go along with our bread; mum’s recipe obviously 😉 I’ve made it a few times however Kirsty was new to the soup making process. Chopped the onions, cooked the pancetta and threw in the rest of the ingredients then left it to cook away nicely. Now all we had to do was wait…

Sadly the bread wasn’t quite cooked enough to have with our soup before we ventured out the house to a meeting so we left it in the hands of my flatmate to turn the oven off after a short period of time (she remembered woo!). I then had some of the bread alongside the rest of the soup for my tea, a standard student dinner in 4th year!

I have created two short flipagram clips which show the process of both the bread & soup making – there are some pictures missing as we forgot to take some (eg. bread covered to rise) & we also used olive oil instead of sunflower oil which is pictured at the start of bread video.

A link to the bread recipe we used –

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/10121/bread-in-four-easy-steps

Also a link to Delia’s video which helped us in our confused state halfway through –

Lentil Soup Recipe –

What you need:

1 onion; pancetta/bacon(cut up); red split lentils(half a cup, washed); hot water; butter; veg & chicken stock cubes; salt/pepper

How to do it:

chop onion finely
put butter in pan to melt on low heat
put in pancetta & onions to cook
boil kettle
add stock cubes when bacon nearly cooked
add washed lentils & boiled water (3/4 of kettle)
bring to boil then simmer
add salt & pepper for flavour if wish
simmer for about an hour
liquidise if wish

Team Building

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Learn a good team building activity. (2 Hours)

Choose a team building activity that you could use to promote ‘building relationships’ in the classroom. Organise a group of volunteers from the MA course and try out the activity (Aim for a full class!)

Evidence: Include a copy of the team building activity, photographs or video of the event and reflect on the implications for using this within a full class.

Personal Thoughts:

Both of these activities were done using a full class and a small group during two outdoor learning lessons; one on campus, one in Dudhope Park. They were both rather entertaining to do, particularly the Shepherd & Sheep activity. However, during the activity (in the outdoors) I did begin to think about certain things which may have to be considered if done with a class of my own. This was because as an individual with a hearing impairment and who wears a hearing aid on a regular basis I did feel that being placed too far away from the shepherd may have implications; particularly due to my hearing aid being broken on this day (typical). However I did not have too much of a problem due to my peers being aware and making some adjustments (ie. louder banging on drum etc.). This therefore made me consider how I could ensure the activity is inclusive to all those participating if carried out in the future.

Each of the activities can be viewed as a word document –

Team Building Activity 1

Team Building Activity 2