Category Archives: edushare

Twisted Tales in Time

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/

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:

Dundee
Coupar Angus
Meigle
Alyth
Glamis
Kirriemuir
Glenprosen
Kirriemuir (again)
Forfar
Brechin
Edzell
Fettercairn
Glensaugh
Auchenblae
Stonehaven
Letham
Arbroath
Carnoustie
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

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…

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!

: Setting out…

: Stopping for a break in Kirriemuir

: Glamis

: Alyth

: Alyth

: Edzell

: Fettercairn

: Alyth

: Meigle

: Meigle

: Edzelll

: Brechin

: Meigle

On the Pilgrims’ Trail

It’s All Relative

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Having just had a lecture about families, I feel that at this point it would be worthwhile reflecting upon my own family experiences, and considering what that means to my teaching career.

To look at my immediate family, it is a clear example of a nuclear family. My parents were married 2 years before I was born and my sister three years later; I have all four grandparents around, all of whom were heavily involved in my life throughout my childhood… the list goes on.

My family seems very ‘normal’, and in the most practical sense it is. However growing up, other people often said that my family was different to theirs. My friends would come around and speak to my parents, seeming to like them more than they liked me! For a long time, I didn’t understand why people seemed to like being around my family so much, but now that I look at it from a more detached perspective, I do. My house was a happy house growing up, we laughed a lot and we were, and still are very close. My house was fun and relaxed and my friends felt comfortable being there and interactions with my family were always similarly lighthearted, and this was not always the feeling I had when visiting the homes of some of my friends.

Unusually, I also grew up for most of my childhood without a television. It seems like a much bigger deal than it really was, people – often adult friends of my parents – would visit and look around for one, ask us questions about how we ‘survived’ without one. People still ask me that now when it come up that I grew up without one, and it’s a tricky question to answer – we spoke to each other and enjoyed time together, such as meal times, perhaps slightly more often than other families seemed to do.

At 20 years old most of my friends seem to keep most things to themselves, but I am still very close to my family and tell them almost everything. It took me a long time to realise that this was unusual, and I was surprised to see how many others rely on friends before family for support. To me, the most important function of a family is to provide support to one and other, especially in times of difficulty. My family has proven on numerous occasions that they will do this, dropping everything to come to each others’ aid. I feel 100% secure in the knowledge that I could phone up any member of my family, including my grandparents with a problem, and they would solve it for me. It is a great feeling to have.

I think that there are two major points I would like to consider. Even now, despite my experiences with many different children, I struggle to understand households and backgrounds different to my own. I cannot get my head around parents who do things differently to the way that mine do or did. I understand that this is definitely a weakness for me, as it means that my thinking can often be very one-dimensional. Another point I noticed was the reactions of other people during discussions on the topic of family during the lecture. I noticed that not everyone was as open to discussing their families or backgrounds as I was, and this made me realise again, that not everybody has the same kind of family experiences that I have. In conclusion, I believe that I need to read a little on this topic, as I feel I have some knowledge gaps. I think that doing this will help me to gain a new level of empathy when discussing families and similar topics with people in the future, as I will have a better understanding of where other people are coming from in their beliefs, values and thought processes.

While looking up some ideas on this topic, I discovered an online quiz which made me further consider my own standpoint. The quiz was on the CBBC website and was entitled “Is my family normal?” it asked fairly simple questions about family, such as “How do you settle an argument?” and “What winds you up the most about your family?” and it came back as 6/6 normal. I re-took the quiz, putting in different answers, and got the same result – 6/6 normal. To me, this quiz was very significant, as it reminded that that any family is normal, even if it is completely different from my own. I think that this is a key point for me to remember, and always consider during any interaction with families throughout my career.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/quizzes/normal-family-quiz

http://www.quibblo.com/quiz/2GuchYm/Is-Your-Family-Normal

My Family

SQA? SQWhy?

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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

Reflection on Experiences to Date

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I believe that my main experience to date has been 1PP1. This was my first placement as a student teacher. I worked with a primary 4 class and taught a variety of lessons on various topics, such as: road safety, football skills, the writing of formal letters, and multiplication in maths. I spent a lot of time on this placement, as I had to research the area, the school, and the children I was working with to be able to work sensitively with the children, something I have come to believe is really important in education. I think that to be sensitive in the way that we work with children and parents is one of the best qualities a teacher can have, I think that it can make them feel at ease and comfortable speaking to us, and therefore more effective work can be done – be that educational, pastoral or something completely different.

Another important element of this placement was the lesson planning. I found that it was a huge amount of work to produce just one lesson. Each required me to begin by considering what I wanted to teach, then how I was going to teach it, how long it would take and what I would need to complete the lesson. After this, however, it was essential to consider my most recent lesson, how it went – what worked and what did not, and more importantly why this was and how I would do it differently. At this point I believe that I learned to reflect. It was something I had been told about during a lecture, but it is a skill I had to really build up in practice, as it was necessary to be able to teach well, and as I realised on this first placement – the children deserved me to deliver the best possible lessons. Being able to reflect can be difficult, as it requires a high level of self-criticality, which can be difficult to do in the beginning. For me, it’s in my nature to only focus on the positive elements what I do, and I really learned that I had to go further. Of course we should feel good about our successes and remember them to recreate them, but I now know that I have to look past this and try to pinpoint where things have gone wrong, or even just where things are not as good as I hope they will be, and try to change this the next time around, all the while trying not to be too negative about oneself.

While, 1PP1 has been the most significant experience to date, I have a few others. Before I left school, I was a Rainbow Leader with Girlguiding and worked with girls aged 5-7 to create, organise and then run crafts, games and other activities for the girls to enjoy. On reflection, I think I built up a huge amount of personal confidence at this time. I learned that I could stand up in public, and work with the girls and really did not need to be conscious of people looking at me, and more concerned about what I was doing. I believe that this has been beneficial throughout the past few years, as it began to make me more confident in more areas of my life, so by 1PP1, I did not struggle as many people would have at the prospect of starting to teach, because I had had to put myself out there before and was able to do so again to begin teaching.

I was also a peer mentor while I was at school. For this, we were paired up with a child of primary school age who was considered vulnerable in some way, who we would then work with, there were five pairs in a group and we did a mixture of one on one activities and ones with the whole group. On reflection, the biggest learning experience for me was simply how incredibly lucky I was throughout my own childhood. Some of the stories I would hear about where some of them came from were truly saddening to know, often making me think back on myself at their age – I went to a large Edinburgh independent school and had grown up with the benefit of private tuition where I needed it and was involved in many extra-curricular activities. I think that this links back to sensitivity. For me at this point, I learned not to assume anything, not to take anything at face value and that it was really important to have a strong ability to consider different people and their points of view. I believe that I developed a more empathetic personality, which I think that I still maintain, and will always be useful to me as a teacher.

The Meeting

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On Friday, my group and I were asked to role play a meeting, each of us received a piece of paper with our character and some extra information on it. We were role playing a meeting about a child called Jack who has various issues and we had to try to find a solution to. The characters were:

Jack’s Mum
Jack’s Dad
The Head Teacher
The Class Teacher
The Health Visitor
Jack’s Mum’s Social Worker

It was really interesting to watch the scene play out. I was Jack’s Dad and I knew that Jack was not receiving enough care from the mother, that the mother had lost her job and that this was for stealing.

Among all the other discussions I found myself focussing in my head that the mother was clearly not capable of looking after Jack and, as one of Jack’s issues was stealing at school, I thought this behaviour had been learned from the mother. In the end it turned out that the mother had not been stealing but had lost her job due to too many absences because she was not coping. This really got me thinking, and what I realised is that nobody in that group had all of the information. Because of this, there was not an easy way of making the necessary decisions.

If this was a real-life meeting, I would imagine that the mother would feel ganged-up on by the father and all of the various professionals. Our group decided that Jack should go to stay with his dad to allow his mum to get back on her feet, but I know that in reality this would not have been so easy a decision and the mother would not have let this happen so easily.

What I have learned from this activity is that there are always two sides to every story and we need to be able to put ourselves in other people’s shoes. Another observation I made was that Jack was not included in any decisions we made, and it seemed that none of the adults had even asked him his opinion. This shows that there is a real need for childrens’ voices to be heard by those who hold the power to make huge changes in childrens’ lives. I will keep this in mind when it comes to my own practice, and in the classroom while teaching.

The Mystery of the Named Person

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Nearly every time I log into Facebook nowadays, I am faced with yet another post about the Named Person Act. Somebody always has a problem with it, often people who are not children and do not have children themselves! The same thing happened last night, a good friend of mine bemoaning the legislation, and now I am going to put my own opinion across!

To be fair on some people, simply being told that your child has a ‘Named Person’ surely sets off alarm bells. I don’t have children myself, but I can completely understand how a parent may feel, it does sound like there is someone who is in charge of a child over the parent, so I can see why they may panic. I asked my mum recently and she said “No one has my child’s best interests at heart more than me”. The problem comes when people stop there and don’t put any effort into finding out.

First, I’m going to try to explain what exactly the Named Person Act is and what it offers us. The role of the named person is to support children through the various trials and difficulties of their childhoods, be that moving school, bereavement, disabilities or something more serious. They are a point of contact for the children and families they work with. Before starting school, the named person is a child’s health visitor, and once they start school it will usually be the head teacher at their school, or possibly their guidance teacher.

The Scottish Government’s Website explains:

“What will a Named Person do?

The Named Person will be available to listen, advise and help a child or young person and their family, providing direct support or helping them to access other services. They can help families address their concerns early and prevent them becoming more serious.

They can also respond to requests for assistance from other services in situations where this may support the child’s or young person’s wellbeing.”

Does it say that the named person will take over from parents? Does it say that they will have children removed from their families? Does it say that the named person is in charge of the child in any way?

The answer is definitely no to all of these questions.

Now, my own understanding of a ‘named person’ is that the named person is the individual whom anyone who is concerned about a child can go to to share their concern. This means that concerns are shared with the appointed professional, who then has a full and more rounded picture of the life of the child in question.

For example, say a child’s teacher notices something in a child’s behaviour changes, then the school nurse notices something that causes them to have a concern, a social worker involved with the family is made aware of a change in the family’s circumstances, and finally then the child tells their scout leader something that raises their concern. If this information is not shared, the circumstances could become worse and cause something significantly more serious to happen. The Named Person’s role is to receive this information and build up a picture of the life of the child and inform the relevant professionals, deal with the problem themselves, or simply keep the information on record for future use.

To find out what people think of the legislation, I asked a few people I know for their opinions, here are some of their responses:

“Good idea for vulnerable children to give them neutral support if there are other professionals involved with the child. Not necessary for all children”

There are countless services out their like social workers, Childline which do similar things & I think improving those services would be much more beneficial”.

“I can’t see it being that effective compared to other services”

“a total waste of time”

“it undermines the parents and from what I can tell grants the person access to confidential information about the family and they have no say in the selection “

“I don’t see how this will actually help identify vulnerable individuals when everyone has a state guardian”

“affront to the freedoms of both parent & child”

“we shouldn’t operate on the presumption that all parents need monitoring”

“I guess they are a good thing but if people didn’t understand what level of involvement they would have then I could see why they’d be against them.”

This clearly shows that, while not everyone is in complete opposition to it, most people are not open to the legislation at all. I think that it is essential now to educate people, specifically parents in what this legislation is all about and what it means to them. The GIRFEC documentation refers to the role of the named person, saying:

“The Named Person also needs to help children and families feel confident they can raise concerns and talk about their worries to people who will listen and respect their point of view and work with them to sort things out”

This means that parents need to be informed that the named person is there for them and is not just a faceless professional who’s going to turn on them when things become difficult.

Ultimately, you and your families will probably never need to use your child’s entitlement to their named person, but who are you to deny that right to others, people who need the support or in extreme cases – intervention. To me it is essential the children have as many professionals looking out for them and their wellbeing as possible, and it is equally important that they understand this right and know that they are entitled to all the support they need. As I have already said, the ‘Named Person’ is not there to make parental decisions on behalf of children, but to co-ordinate people and resources, if the Scottish Government are guilty of anything when bringing in this legislation, it’s a poor choice of name for it!

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/People/Young-People/gettingitright/named-person

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/People/Young-People/gettingitright/named-person/top-ten

http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0042/00423979.pdf

Interagency Working, This is Just the Beginning…

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Since today was our third day back after the Christmas holidays, I thought it could do with a post about the beginning of the new module. The module is about Interagency or Multiagency working. This, as you can imagine, is highly important for teachers. In the most basic terms, it means professionals in the lives of the children: teachers, police, social work, healthcare workers, community learning officers… The list goes on but those are some of the main ones.

We have been split into groups of 7 or 8. We are to do group activities and go on community visits together. Having met and discussed this with the rest of my group, I am feeling really confident in our ability to work collaboratively with this group. This is a massive benefit, as we have been told that this is not always the case. Clearly, as professionals, we have to simply work with the other professionals in the childrens’ lives – obviously, we cannot allow children to be put in danger just because we do not particularly like their social worker. I believe that the same logic applies here, as we cannot just decide not to work with each other because we do not like each other. I think that it is essential to remember this throughout the module with the group and to reflect on any issues arising.

I think that the main goal for the module is to keep up with the lectures and tutor directed tasks. Of course it is always good to keep up with these things, but for this module there are 6 other people who will be relying on my to do my share of the work in order to be able to do do their own or to learn their own materials. I also would like to set the goal of building a relationship with the remainder if the group, as I have identified the need to be able to speak to each other openly and honestly, especially if any problems arise between us. Towards the end of the module, I will update this post to see if I have managed this.

http://amberleyeducationcumbria.co.uk/onewebmedia/Picture%2014.jpg

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.

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:

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