Category Archives: 3.1 Teaching & Learning

Twisted Tales in Time

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In learning about social studies, I felt it was important to go out and ‘do’ it. Our Tutor recommended the Dark Dundee walking tour company, so Kim, Katy and I headed out to see what we could learn. Dark Dundee are a local company which specialises in walking tours in and around Dundee. They run lots of aptly-named tours, such as : ‘Crimes of Passion’, ‘A Dark History’, and ‘Dead Centre’, all of which sounded exciting, but we went for ‘Twisted in Time’. This was to explore the “truth to Dundee’s darkest myths and legends”, look at the facts behind what people believe today, and the truth to the stories that we hear in Dundee. I can assure you, we were not disappointed!

Another motivation for going on this tour was that it was specifically related to Dundee. I’m from edinburgh myself, and I have very little local knowledge. If i were in Edinburgh, I know lots of stories and local legends, which I think would be nice to share with a class of. So far, this has not been a problem, however, with probation year looming, I know that I need to act fast. Having recently had a talk from the GTCS on where I will choose to go next year to work,  I have decided that I would like to stay in Dundee. This throws up the issue of what do I do if I am to cover a topic based on local history? Being honest, I would not know where to start! I thought this tour could be the much needed start in exploring my adopted home!

The tour promised “Dragons, cannibals, plenty more real monsters and tales of savage punishment and ancient feuds, this twisted tour just might keep you up at night…”, so we were excited when we approached the dragon statue in the city centre to begin the tour…

 

At the dragon, we learned about the story behind it. The story of the Nine Maidens of Pitempten. The legend goes that there was a farmer, who had nine daughters, and sent one down to fetch water from the well, and when she did not return, he sent another to find her, until eventually they were all gone and he had to go out to look for them himself. When he reached the well, he was met with the horror of the nine girls bodies strewn around a large dragon, which had killed them all. The farmer escaped and raised the alarm in the town and Martin, the supposed lover of one of the girls lead the charge to slay the dragon. He was egged on by cries of “Strike, Martin!”, and he eventually killed the dragon and saved the town. Nowadays this is why there is an area of Dundee called ‘Strathmartine’, named after this hero of local legend. Our tour guides, at this point, started to unpick the legend. Firstly the legend actually speaks of a serpent, not a dragon, so why the dragon statue? And if the hero of the legend is Martin, why is the statue of the villain? Well the answer is very simple, because a statue of a dragon is far more impressive! The dragon looks ‘cooler’ than a statue of an ordinary-looking man, plus there is no way of knowing what Martin even looked like!

The story is certainly unlikely to be true. I did a search of the story to gain a little insight into the story! According to some of research, the monster was a dragon, a serpent, and two intertwined snakes. One respondent to Dark Dundee’s explanation of the story suggested an alternative, which said that ‘Nine Maidens’ are referred to throughout Scottish folklore, dating to Pictish times, where there were nine maidens who were the daughters of a St Donevald, and upon his death they lived near a large oak tree, where they were eventually buried upon their deaths, and the site became a pilgrimage location. According to this respondent, a cult of these nine maidens was created and the church forbade pilgrimage to this site. It could perhaps be that this story was used to deter people from making the pilgrimage. This could be very plausible, as our Dark Dundee tour guides noted that the story could have been a fictional cautionary tale, and that the girls were eaten for the terrible crime of dancing on a Sunday…

We also stopped at this plaque on the Murraygate. It is to commemorate Grissell Jaffray, the final woman in Dundee to be executed as a witch. She was killed in 1669, however the records of her trial conveniently were destroyed in a fire, so only limited information is known. Because if what is known of witch trials at the time, it is very likely that a confession was extracted through some means of torture, such as the removal of fingernails. In this case, after her death, three presbyterian ministers were held responsible for her horrific death, where she was eventually burned at the stake.  

Supposedly the day she burned, her son was captaining a ship arriving into Dundee port, and the pyre’s smoke was high and visible from the ship. The son turned to a fellow sailor and asked what was happening. He was told that it was his mother’s execution for witchcraft. Upon hearing this, the son turned the ship around and sailed out of Dundee, not wanting to be associated with his mother. Also, there is a gravestone in the Howff cemetery in Dundee, which is the final resting place of her remains

This was all very interesting, we lent in further to find out more… only to be told that this is not even true! Well, Grissell Jaffray was real, and she really was executed for witchcraft in 1669. However, for a convicted witch to have been buried on consecrated ground is just not possible! Our tour guides also told us that the story about her son is just a tad implausible! Surely if one’s mother was burning on a stake and you heard about it you would want to rush there quickly? And how could the other sailor have known about it, but not the woman’s own son? And to cement this doubt, our tour guides offered us one more piece of evidence to disprove this part of the story: there is no record of Grissell Jaffray having any children!

So what did I learn? Well there were a lot more stories and tales told, with various levels of authenticity, and as one might expect, more is known of the more recent stories. I have not referred to them specifically, as I wouldn’t wish to reveal too much of the tour, but there were many different things I learned. I think that as a learner I found out a little more about Dundee as a city, and as a local resident I think it is good to know little things like this, as it makes me feel more of a part of the local community, and this is something I think could be pertinent to children in classes I will work with. I think as a teacher, if I ever move to work in a new city, I will try to find out about local folklore and history, as I think it would be nice to share with children.

I think that children could benefit from a tour like this, where they could see the things they were learning about. I think that the tour offered a different approach to the stories we learned, one where the walking element itself could be underestimated, as this kept me interested and wondering what was coming next throughout! I asked one of our guides if they ever did tours with school groups, and he told me that they didn’t, but that is wasn’t out of the question. I think I wouldn’t take children on this tour specifically, as it was perhaps a little too gory and grim for the age groups I would be working with, however i think a tour like this has potential to be a fantastic teaching resource.

We really enjoyed our 90 minutes walking around the city centre, this is the link to go to if you’d like to take the tour, I can assure you you won’t regret it!

https://www.darkdundee.co.uk/#the-tours

 

After the tour, I stopped the other two and filmed a short video of each of us saying what we thought of the experience!

 

 

 

 

http://angusfolklore.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/martins-stone-and-nine-maidens-and.html

http://www.dundeemessenger.co.uk/myths-and-legends/the-dundee-dragon/

http://www.dundeemessenger.co.uk/myths-and-legends/the-dundee-dragon/

Oh to be a Pilgrim

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The RME elective is definitely been interesting, and I can already say that I’ve learned a lot! As a TDT task, we were set to visit a ‘special’ place, and as a group, we decided to investigate a pilgrimage. We found one which was first ‘done’ by the Picts, who were alive around 1500 years ago. While we do not know any details of this journey, not even its purpose. The route was long and involved many stops:

  1. Dundee
  2. Coupar Angus
  3. Meigle
  4. Alyth
  5. Glamis
  6. Kirriemuir
  7. Glenprosen
  8. Kirriemuir (again)
  9. Forfar
  10. Brechin
  11. Edzell
  12. Fettercairn
  13. Glensaugh
  14. Auchenblae
  15. Stonehaven
  16. Letham
  17. Arbroath
  18. Carnoustie
  19. Dundee

We decided to go out and try it for ourselves. We changed our minds pretty quickly. It turns out that walking to all 19 of these places would be quite hard going, so we changed the plans a little and decided to try the route in the car.

The Route

The Route

Arriving at the car, all I could really think about was the fact that I had called shotgun on the front seat and that I wanted to keep it; that and the fact that we had to get snacks for the journey. Not the most profound of thoughts, but nonetheless, all that was really in my mind. The trip took us just over 6 hours in total. It consisted of driving from location to location and singing along to the playlist along the way.

Before we started...

Before we started…

By the end we were all tired, hungry and uncomfortable. I began to think about what the journey was like for the original Pictish pilgrims. I did a little research and discovered that the journey would have taken us 55 hours to walk! This wasn’t the end of it,we should remember that that’s without a rest! Also, we have roads and paths etc. which would now make the walk a lot easier, my estimation is that the journey would have taken us 4 or 5 days back when the pilgrims made the original journey.

I wondered if perhaps we missed the point from the beginning? I thought that we hadn’t really considered the point of a pilgrimage. I sat in the car with the others, and been to Stonehaven before; and we did not really talk about the journey very much while we were on it. I have done a little research on what exactly a pilgrimage is, and The Scots Magazine says:

“It’s been described as a journey or search for moral or spiritual significance, in many cases a journey to a location of some importance to the person making the pilgrimage.”

This made a lot of sense to me, as it explains that a pilgrimage is more than a journey, its about some kind of spiritual, or enlightening moment. Now our journey was only to simulate a special journey, and we were unlikely to have any kind of epiphany, but I did wonder if we should have taken it a little more seriously. Our main mistake was not researching the pilgrimage enough before we started. I think that we could have stopped throughout and thought about what the original pilgrims were thinking and feeling throughout their journey.

Having said this, I think that perhaps I did learn something important. While writing this post, I have started to think, and I have realised that  by the end of the day we all felt tired, hungry and uncomfortable; just like I thought the Picts probably did. Also, as a group we set aside the whole day to do this task, which was a significant time out of our reading week. We all felt a sense of accomplishment for lasting the whole time. I wonder at this point, was it really so different from the Picts? Naturally we had not spent the whole week doing this journey, but the feeling that we had upon completion felt very similar. I also think that I learned from some our mistakes, specifically that pilgrimages are not meant to be easy or taken on lightly, and that they have to be significant to be considered a meaningful experience.

From a teaching perspective, I think that I learned that when teaching about pilgrimages. I think that I would not take a class outside without fully learning about it beforehand. I would want to teach them about pilgrimages in general and then take them out to mimic one and consider their feelings. I would take them out on a walking mini pilgrimage and have them consider how it would make them feel to be walking like that for several days, how hard it would be and the physical and mental strength it would require to complete. I would then like to work with the pupils to discuss these feelings and think about what a pilgrimage would mean to them, and consider what their personal journey would be.

I think that I have learned to appreciate the concept of a pilgrimage a little more. I even began to consider what a pilgrimage would mean to me. I feel that a non-theist, a pilgrimage would be difficult for me, because it is hard to determine what would be a significant personal experience.  I think that for me it’s about going somewhere I have always wanted to go, and will have to work hard to get there. In recent years I have thought about New Zealand a lot. I would love to go there one day, and perhaps move there to work. I know that I’ll have to work really hard to get there, as it’ll require a lot of saving up, but also a lot of work to get my degree to be allowed to go over and work there. I believe that, should it happen, this will be my pilgrimage. Now that I understand what it means to me, I believe that I am in a better position to teach the concept to the children that I will work with.

We made it to the end!

We made it to the end!

On the Pilgrims’ Trail

Mosque Visit Reflection

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Beginning the RME module, it was suggested that we go as a group on a trip to the Dundee Mosque to the Open Doors day. I was very curious going in, as I had never been in a Mosque before. I would have been the first to admit to knowing only a little about Islam,  so I had absolutely no idea what to expect. What first struck me when we went in was how welcoming and pleasant all of the volunteers were. Of course I was not expecting anything different, but I felt that it was great how open they were, and how willing they were to share their own thoughts and experiences of their religion. I felt very welcome, and it was very interesting to see the religion! I feel more confident teaching Islam in a class, and I would definitely take a class there on a trip, as it was a great experience which I would like to share with any children I work with.

 

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Our group trying on scarves in the women’s prayer hall

 

To learn more about Islam, I watched the following video. It follows the lives of two young Muslims: Sara and Kaisan, and gives them the opportunity to explain and demonstrate what their religion means to them and their families. I felt that it was a great way of showing children what it mean to be a muslim in the UK. I believe this it is a great resource to use with children as it explains Islam in practice, and from the point of view of a child, which is very important.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L45T4Q7dxV0

 

It is quite different to what some children may have seen in the media about the religion and its practices. A simple google search of “BBC News Islam” had the following top two results:

“Islamic State conflict – BBC News”

“Islamic State group: The full story – BBC News”

And other versions of this search all brought up similar results, pages and pages about extremism, conflict, and many other negative images. On a personal level I struggled with this, as I  saw no similarities at all to the real Muslims I met at the Mosque. The people were so pleasant, kind and open to us, that I found it uncomfortable to read the pages that my web search brought up. It seems wrong to me that these are portrayals of the religion that children can see. I considered the representations of Islam I have seen myself recently and came up with two very different ones which  portray it in very different ways.

One was a recent television drama called ‘Our Girl’, set in Kenya, where a young female army medic is kidnapped by an extremist group and then rescued by her friends. I do not feel I can say whether or not the storyline was realistic, however it did make me think about the way that Islam can be shown in a negative and even scary light. Alternatively, the second was ‘My Jihad’, a series of ‘shorts’ – four 15 minute episodes of a drama about Nazir and Fahmida, two young British muslims, who meet by chance and decide to marry. The story follows them as they attempt to  navigate their way though their relationship while maintaining a strong devotion to their religion. To me, this show was a far more realistic and fair representation of Islam. While I accept that the two shows are very different – being set within two very situations; in different countries; and of course with very different characters, I believe that they evoke different reactions in the audiences, and the portrayal of Islam in a negative light has contributed to there being a sense of unease around the religion, which my own trip to the Mosque simply proved was completely wrong.

 

Want to watch these two shows for yourself?

My Jihad: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p01ssrp2/my-jihad-1-a-bus-a-burka

Our Girl: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0452t2n

Fragile X – What is it and How do We Support Those who Have it?

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What is Fragile X?

In basic terms, Fragile X is a genetic condition which is the cause of most common inherited learning disabilities. Fragile X is also more common in men than in women, affecting 1 in 4000 and 1 in 6000 respectively.

Fragile X has many associated traits, and not everyone who has it will have all of those characteristics.

There are many potential effects associated with Fragile X, and each individual will only have some of them, in some cases almost none. The effects of fragile X appear to manifest differently in males and females, with females generally being less affected.

Some people with Fragile X will suffer from Epilepsy. This is around 15% of boys and 6-8% of girls.

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What are the effects of fragile X on the individual?

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  • Strengths of Fragile X
  • Good imitation skills
  • Good visual learning skills
  • Good long term memory
  • Sensitivity to others’ emotions
  • Likeable personalities
  • Good sense of humour

Different Effects by Gender

Males

  • More significant intellectual disability
  • Moderate to more severe learning disabilities
  • ADD
  • ADHD
  • Autism & Autistic Behaviours
  • Social Anxiety
  • Hand-Biting
  • Hand-Flapping
  • Poor Eye Contact
  • Sensory Disorders
  • Aggression

Females

  • milder intellectual disability
  • Moderate to mild learning disabilities, if at all
  • Emotional Health Issues
  • Mental Health Issues
  • Social Anxiety
  • General Anxiety

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How Can We Support These Individuals?

  1. One of the most obvious is to notice and encourage the use of some of the previously mentioned, or other, strengths.
  2. Give them plenty of warning before transitions, like 5 or 10 minute prompts before moving between  classrooms.
  3. From this, it is also a good idea to have a consistent routine so they know what to expect and when.
  4. Don’t try to force eye-contact, some individuals with Fragile X find this uncomfortable.
  5. Allow them frequent breaks to keep their attention focused on learning, this should include the opportunity to move around the room a little.
  6. Provide visual cues to assist them in following instructions and sequential activities.
  7. Some people with Fragile X are prone to hyper-arousal (high nervous system activation), so it is worth knowing what environmental factors cause it in an individual and to try to minimise this. Examples include sound, light, textures, taste, and smell.
  8. Try not to put too much pressure on them to perform, i.e. not giving a strict time limit for tasks, as it can be difficult for them to cope with.

For More Information

The Fragile X Society                                                                                                                                

NHS National Genetics and genomics Education Centre

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SQA? SQWhy?

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3 2 1

 

These pictures are of my 17 year old sister, who is in fifth year of secondary school, all taken this afternoon in the space of around 4 minutes. She sitting Higher History at 9am tomorrow morning. I sat this afternoon trying to help her to revise the materials she needs for tomorrow and I was struck by just how irrelevant most of the questions were. I accept that history is about things that have happened in the past, but I simply do not understand why the questions ask students to simply remember past events. One example of the 2015 exam is as follows:

How effective were the Liberal reforms of 1906 to 1914 in dealing with the problem of poverty?                                                                                                                   20 Marks

What is the point in this question? What does it really test?  I genuinely do not know the answer! I know that my qualification is primary teaching, but I believe that this is still pertinent, as it refers to where the children I will work with will end up at the end of their school education. I do not mean to say that we cannot have exams, but I believe that we do not use them in the right way. For example, the history exam  now consists of two papers, one which asks pupils to answer questions like the one above; the other asks them to answer source questions.

I believe that the source questions are a far better test of history. The exam asks pupils to use historical sources to draw conclusions from it. To me, this is better, because it is ‘using’ history, as opposed to knowing and regurgitating it; then forgetting it straight after sitting the exam.

I find it a little depressing, that we are told that primary education is all about learning experiences and opportunities, yet by the end of their education they are expected to sit formal examinations and remember facts they have learned at school. I feel that it goes against everything that we do in the primary years. This is why I am against the introduction of standardised testing in primary schools, I feel that it sits in direct contrast to the aims of the Curriculum for Excellence, for children to have experiences and to learn freely.

Not sure? See for yourself: http://www.sqa.org.uk/pastpapers/papers/papers/2015/H_History_all_2015.pdf

The End is Near…

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At the beginning of this module, I tested myself for maths anxiety and the results suggested that I was ‘fearful’ about maths but that I didn’t have maths anxiety. As this is the end of the module, I have tested myself again and came out as ‘on the fence’, the level below the one I was a before. This is great, because it means that my feelings around mathematics have changed. It means that I am more positive and have become comfortable doing mathematics after having completed this module. Now though, I have to wonder what that means and why my feelings have changed.

The lecturer, Richard Holme, has been great. He is very enthusiastic and I thought that he was really good at keeping us interested and engaged. I also thought that he made us feel that we could ask questions and email with questions or queries to ensure that we really understood the content. This is something I am specifically going to take away from the module as I think that a lot of the feelings children will have about mathematics will come from the teacher. When teaching maths as a teacher, I would like to make the children feel that they can come to me and ask questions. I also would like for them to feel engaged and included in my lessons.

Additionally, I think that the content of the workshops we did were great because they were especially engaging. My most favourite was the ‘Demand Planning and Logistics’ workshop, especially the game we did to learn it. I thought it was a great activity to engage all of us and in response, I decided to us it as an example in my assignment. I think that other activities, such as the Fibonacci in art workshop or the using boardgames, were the same – active, engaging, and fun. I hope to do this for myself when I’m teaching.

Of course, if I am being honest, I have not enjoyed absolutely everything in this module. I found my biggest weakness came in the ‘Maths in the Outdoors’ input. I knew I couldn’t read maps before the input, but to be honest I never really thought it was that important as I don’t like the outdoors and was almost certain that I was not about to take up hillwalking. That was before I took part in the workshop and when I realised that everyone around me seemed to know a lot more than I did, knew exactly how to complete the activities we were being asked to do. I hated that floundering feeling of just not being able to access these activities and I now realise that that is exactly how any children in my class will feel when activities are simply too obscure to them. This is something that I will always keep with me and try to use to help me be the best teacher I can be. I also realise that I need to look at my map reading skills, something my friend Kim has assured me that she will help me to do this very soon!

Chance and Probability

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In this lecture on __/__/__ , we learned about probability and chance. We tried many activities in order to test probability and the chances of things happening. One such example of this was the ‘McBuckman’s’ task.

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We were asked to work out how many meal combinations were possible using this menu. I struggled with this in the workshop, so I’ve had another go and came up with the following:

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It took me a long time to put this together, and I had to get a bit of help, but I completely understand now. What is most striking to me is that there are clear patterns forming in the options. I worked out that each combination would only start with either ‘Starter1’ or ‘Starter 2’, and there were only three options for main (‘Main 1’, ‘Main 2′, or’Main 3’), so I then knew there were 6 possible starter and main combinations. Adding on dessert options meant multiplying the 6 options by 2 to get 12 combinations, and then it was simply a case of getting the fancy pens out!

So where does probability and chance come into it? I’ll admit that I had no idea! The best I can come up with is the probability of getting different things on the menu if left to chance. What I mean by this is:

There are 2 possible Starters, therefore there is a 1 in 2 chance of customers choosing each one;

The same goes for the dessert, there is a 1 in 2 chance of the customers choosing each one;

There are 3 potential main courses, so there is a 1 in 3 chance of each one being chosen by the customer.

I find that this makes a lot of sense and in a made-up example my simple probability calculations are accurate. Except, in real life there would be many more variables to consider, such as popularity of different items, so ‘Starter 1’ may be a lot more popular with people so more people pick it. For example, the most popular meal in McDonalds is the Big Mac meal, less popular seems to be the Fillet-O-Fish meal. This means that realistically, the probability of customers choosing the Big Mac meal is significantly higher than the Fillet-O-Fish meal. Clearly it is significantly more complicated than it seems and this links in nicely to a previous post about demand planning {https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/glowblogs/klduodeportfolio/2015/11/17/demand-planning-and-logistics/}

 

https://www.quora.com/What-are-McDonalds-ten-most-popular-products

Boardgames and Maths… Surely not?

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  • Boardgames are fun,
  • There is maths in boardgames,
  • Therefore, Maths is fun

I’m not sure if that is quite right, but I do know that the second premise is true. Boardgames really do contain maths. On 1/12/15, we were all invited to bring in a boardgame and to play in the workshop, and I’ll admit that I was skeptical about it, but again, I was proven wrong. We  talked about where the maths comes into it, and I was not disappointed!

 

One such example was a jigsaw. We were tasked with finding as many uses for a jigsaw as we could, I could think of:

  1. Grouping
  2. Distribution
  3. Tessellation
  4. Randomisation
  5. Fractions

This makes a lot of sense as when most of us pick up a jigsaw, we tend to split the pieces up by colour, then we look for corners and straight edges and begin to build up the picture. The particular jigsaw we were using was a ‘Where’s Wally?’ one, so we considered distribution in the number people in the picture and then looked for the average number of people in a piece. Another obvious mathematical concept within comes in the form of tessellation, essentially that all the jigsaw pieces fit together to form a continued pattern, which is of course the case with a jigsaw.

Another game we had was Monopoly, the related mathematical concepts in Monopoly and I struggled to think of any. Yes, there is the obvious money, grouping of similarly priced properties, but I felt that there should be more, and they should be easier to find. When in doubt, take to google! I found this blog called ‘MONOPOLY MATH’ by someone called Lainie Johnson {http://blog.keycurriculum.com/monopoly-math/} which gave me loads of ideas, including:

  1. Shape (rectangles and squares on the board)
  2. Numerical orders (Properties are laid out in ascending value)
  3. Probability (Dice)

Or as Lainie sums it up, “addition, subtraction, multiplication, fractions, percentages, statistics, probability, interest, patterns, number lines, and basic geometry”

This, to me, is amazing, I love to think that there is still more to discover in the world of mathematics, things that are not abstract beyond my understanding. So from a teaching perspective boardgames are an untapped resource for children. In my experience, the only time we see boardgames in classrooms is during free time or on the last few days of term as a means of keeping children quiet. To me, boardgames could be used far more constructively, to improve maths skills in children. I also think that the activity we did in the workshop, where we had the game in front of us an had to find the maths could be a good co-operative learning activity for groups of children, with perhaps a reward near the end of the week to be able to play the game.

Uncut Lesson 1- James Evelyn

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http://www.playbackschools.org.uk/programme/2262/uncut-lesson-1-james-evelyn

What are the most effective aspects of teaching which emerge for you?

  • Actively using numbers as opposed to writing down
  • Asking the children what they already know
  • Peer assessing each other’s work
  • Effective use of technology
  • Lesson linked to children personally
  • Included all children
  • Recapping on what had been learned previously
  • Effective use of visual tools
  • Cross-Curricular learning – maths and Spanish
  • Teacher took on the children’s ideas
  • Worked individually, in groups, in pairs and as a whole class
  • Final activity to consolidate what had been learned

What are the least effective?

  • Potential for some children not to be following the lesson
  • Some children may just be copying each other

What are the factors contributing to success or problems?

  • Temperamentality of technology
  • Children’s ability to work independently
  • Children’s ability to work unsupervised (ie. without the teacher sitting with them)
  • Respect for each other
  • Individual personalities
  • Engagement with the lesson
  • Level of interest in the lesson
  • Willingness to cooperate with the lesson

How could you use some of the success factors?

I think that the teacher here used a very effective method to start the lesson. I think that to use the numbers where children had to actively be the numbers worked really well, I imagine that this is a recap of something that they had learned before, which I think would be an effective way of keeping up with past learning. I also thought it was good to have the other children to peer assess what they were doing and correct each other’s mistakes, I think they will have remembered their mistakes and not made them again. I think that when I am teaching, I am going to try to use this idea and use starter activities to help to focus on learning and to remember previously learned knowledge.

I also think it was a really good idea to link the children to the lesson, to make the data for the lesson the children themselves and their characteristics made them feel more involved. To use all of the children meant that they all felt included in the lesson, which would mean that they pay more attention and learn more. When I am teaching, I think it could be an effective method to include all the children and to use them as the subjects of the lesson.

I think that the way that the teacher has included Spanish in the maths lesson is a really good idea. I think that to include another subject in a lesson is what the Curriculum for Excellence is all about, so when I am teaching, I will have to try to do this. However, I can see how effective this is in the video and will be very active in my attempts to do this as a teacher.

I also think that it was effective to use different groups. I think that using groups, pairs and working as a whole class allowed children to learn from each other as well as the teacher allowed them an opportunity to consolidate their knowledge, and helped to improve confidence, which I think is very important. When I am teaching, I am going to remember this, as I think to do this is very important and it can also improve social skills, which is a valuable skill to have in children.

Uncut Lesson 1- Rachel Atkins

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http://www.playbackschools.org.uk/programme/1330/uncut-lesson-1-rachel-atkins

What are the most effective aspects of teaching which emerge for you?

  • Choice of what to do
  • Stations
  • Some children were outside while others were inside
  • Teacher did not do things for the children – got them to try themselves first
  • Teacher did not give the children the answers – the children had to think about it first
  • Stickers, star chart, ‘happy face’ board – positive reinforcement
  • Use of the specialist teacher
  • Pairs work
  • Hands up
  • “1,2,3” – method to get children quiet
  • Actively involved in the story
  • Going back through the story at the end
  • Realising that the kids were thirsty and bored, so changed what they were doing to accommodate that
  • Mixing with the other classes

What are the least effective?

  • Children working on their own – could lose focus and start wandering around
  • Took a long time explaining/getting started

What are the factors contributing to success or problems?

  • Respect for each other
  • Individual personalities
  • Engagement with the lesson
  • Level of interest in the lesson
  • Willingness to cooperate with the lesson

How could you use some of the success factors?

I think that the teacher here used some very effective methods to teach. I think that by giving the children a choice of what they wanted to do, she was engaging them better as they had an interest in what they were learning, which I think would make them more focused on their task and likely to take more from why they were learning. When I am teaching, I am going to remember the idea of having stations and letting children choose between them, as I think that it was a very effective method of teaching.

I think that when they read the story, and all the children felt like they were a part of it was a good idea. When I am teaching I am going to remember this practice, as I could see on the video that the children were enjoying it, and that they were not sitting passively listening, so they were taking more in, which I think is really important, as it gives the reading of the story a point during the lesson.

When I am teaching, I am going to remember the resilience of the teacher in the video. When she realised that the children were all thirsty and becoming bored, she changed the plans and sent them to get a drink and to find an activity to do. I think this is very important, as I can imagine that it is very easy to want to stick to your plans, despite how the children feel and how they are acting – especially with the inspector there.