As part of one of the activities on my online units for my course, I was asked to design a word cloud filled with words that related to professionalism. This is what I came up with:
I completed this task twice with slightly varying words. Unfortunately the proper document wasn’t allowed to be uploaded here, so I had to simply take pictures of both word cloud and upload them instead.
This has made me think about professionalism more and gave me a better starting point to develop my knowledge.
I am currently working through my Online Professional and Academic Units. Although I posted the shorter version of this activity on the section “Personal Audit and Transferrable Skills” on my blog, I thought Id post the full version here.
Activity 2
| Recognition | Reflection | Action |
| Skills already developed | How I will use these | How do I know (evidence)** |
| Self-Discipline | I will use these skills when studying for exams and in general reading for modules or completing tasks independently. | I know I am disciplining myself as I am able to complete tasks and assignments in my own time without anyone reminding me and helping me. |
| Team work | I will be using this in Working together workshops with my peer learning group to complete our agency visit and presentation. I could also use this when studying with other members of the course. | We have used teamwork to plan our visit to agency and prepare questions to ask for the visit. |
| Contribute to Discussions | I can contribute in lectures when questioned are posed to us or when in workshops and working as a team to complete tasks or solve problems. I will also be contributing to online discussions with people on my course and my peers. | I have contributed to discussions in workshops every week, conveying my ideas to the group in order for us to complete tasks. |
| Work on own initiative | Again, similar to self discipline, I will have to be able to complete assignments and tasks without anyone prompting me. As a student I should be able to get things down independently. | I have done this by completing weekly tasks and by reading books of the reading lists. Reading week was a prime example of this as we had no teaching and had to get on with everything ourselves. |
| Set Personal Goals | Goals can be used in a number of ways but two ways a student can use them are:
Setting goals to do each day such as work to get done. The other could be something more long term such as when to get an assignment done |
I have set personal goals each day of what needs t be done by the end of that day and that week. |
| Use Technology | Technology can be used many ways. Laptops and phones can be used to research and use online resources. It can be used effectively for me to keep in contact with class mates and lecturers. Laptops can also be used to complete assignments. | I have typed up all of my lecture notes on my laptop.
I have researched for my assignment and completed online tasks on my laptop as well. |
| Work under pressure | This can be used when having a big workload or having a assignment to hand in. | I have had certain work to do for specific dates which I have managed to complete. |
| Manage Time | This like above can be used when many tasks have to be completed and reading has to be done. You have to plan when to do certain tasks in order to get everything completed and to the highest standards. | I have managed to plan my work to ensure that everything is completed and is done to the highest quality. |
| Take Notes | This will be used in lectures, you have to be able to take notes fast or abbreviate notes to have the most effective notes possible. | I have taken notes in all of my lectures and have managed to use different abbreviations to save me time in order to take down as much vital information as possible, e.g. PROF instead of professional. |
| Make a presentation | This will be used when my peer learning group make our presentation for working together. | I am going to use two types of presentation:
Poster for individual part of working together module. Group Presentation for the other part of working together module. |
| Problem Solve | This can be used in working together workshops when given tasks to do; you will have to work as a team to figure it all out. Also maths assessments to improve our maths and problem solving skills. | An example of how I have developed my problem solving is when I completed the NOMA (National Online Maths Assessment) and achieved 81%. |
| Generate Ideas | This can be used when researching and planning assignments. Also in workshops when working as a group. | Our working together group had to generate ideas in order to plan our agency visit.
I have been generating ideas whilst planning my essay for the Values module. |
| Organise and Plan | This can be organising and planning what work will be done each day or when you will go to the library or it can be your group planning when to study together. My working together group recently planned our visit to an agency and organised how we were all going to get there. | I have made rough plans for my values assignment essay.
I have organised all of my folders into modules and topics. My peer learning group have planned our agency visit. |
| Computing Skills | This can be done when typing up assignments or lecture notes. It can also be when engaging with online resources. | While completing online tasks and the online professional and academic units. |
| Listen to others | This can be listening to lectures or other class mates in opinions in lectures or workshops. | I have listened to many other people’s opinions in lectures and workshops to further develop my ideas and opinions. |
| Recognition | Reflection | Action |
| Skills to be developed | How I will develop these | How do I know (evidence) ** |
| Share Opinions Confidently | Whenever I have an opinion on anything. Just be confident and believe its right. If it’s wrong, that’s how you learn. | I have now started to offer my opinions both in workshops with my group and online in discussions within the online units. |
| Acting as a leader | Volunteer to be team leader and see how you get on, if it goes well then great. If it doesn’t, then work on what went wrong for next time. | |
| Be Creative | Encourage yourself to think more outside the box. | I have had to be creative as I have designed my own blog and have made it personal to me. I have already posted interesting posts which are public to read. |
| Self Confidence | Offer your opinions in lectures and workshops and talk to fellow classmates to share each other’s ideas and discuss. | I have gone and talked to my advisor of studies about some of my worries and that has given me more confidence. I am planning on meeting with people from the academic skills centre to show them my values assignment planning. This will be to give me more reassurance and confidence in my ability. |
| Build Social Networks | Try and get talking to as many people in your course, from the different disciplines. This will mean you can share ideas in the future and help each other. | I have different groups of people that I talk to in order to help us all be as successful as possible. I have my friends group, my flat mates, people from my education course, my Spanish class group and people from my working together peer group. |
| Converse confidently | Be confident in your voice and what you have to say when talking or debating anything with one of your peers. | I have been able to share my ideas confidently in our working together groups. |
| Think Critically | These can be developed by looking at critical thinking exercises in books on reading lists. It can also be done by thinking of questions asked in lectures and developing the answers. | In my online tasks we have been given to do each week for values, they have made me think critically about different topics. |
| Evaluate Information | Use the skills that I hope to develop with my critical thinking and employ them in order to evaluate reliability of information and sources. | I have used these skills while researching for values assignment and picking out and evaluating information. |
| Debate both formally and informally | Formally: take parts in discussions in lectures and workshops. Informally: Take part in discussions with peers out of class. | I have had to discuss topics online with peers as well as formal discussions in the workshops for working together. People have different opinions and you have to debate professionally and correctly to develop this skill. |
| Negotiation | When working in groups with people of different opinions, negotiate with each other to overcome these problems and move forward. | |
| Take Responsibility | Encourage myself to take on different roles in workshops and embrace the different responsibilities that come with these roles. | |
| Take Risks | When doing placements, if you are unsure if your lesson will work, try it and if it doesn’t, go back and reflect on it. |
Today, I attempted both online assessments for the second time.
My results were as follows:
Literacy – 83% and Maths 81%.
I improved 3% in literacy and achieved the same score in maths. I was really happy with this, however I believe that I could have achieved a higher score in both tests. This was for various reasons. In the maths assessment, I made a few little mistakes that cost me marks which I should have picked up and a computer error lost me another mark. I could have achieved 87%, possibly slightly higher. In the literacy assessment, a computer error was also at fault for one mark.
I feel like these tests are a positive and effective method of assessing our skills. I also think that they are enjoyable to complete. I will continue to work on the mistakes I made and attempt to further develop my skills.
UNIT 1 – SECTION A, Activity
Identifying Skills and Abilities
Activity 1
This activity was to create an audit based on skills you already have. After this has been completed, we can then move on to figure out how to develop each skill. It was an effective method as it has shown me which exact skills are already developed and which I need to work on.
Rate yourself (1=Not very well developed; 3=very well developed)
| Skills and Abilities | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Self-Discipline | * | ||
| Share opinions confidently
|
* | ||
| Team work | * | ||
| Acting as a leader | * | ||
| Contribute to Discussions | * | ||
| Write for Academic Purposes | * | ||
| Work on own Initiative | * | ||
| Be Creative | * | ||
| Self Confidence | * | ||
| Set Personal Goals | * | ||
| Use technology | * | ||
| Work Under Pressure | * | ||
| Build Social Networks | * | ||
| Manage Time | * | ||
| Make Presentations | * | ||
| Take Notes | * | ||
| Converse Confidently | * | ||
| Problem Solve | * | ||
| Generate Ideas | * | ||
| Thinking Critically | * | ||
| Evaluate Information | * | ||
| Organise and Plan | * | ||
| Computing skills | * | ||
| Debate both formally and informally | * | ||
| Listen to Others | * | ||
| Negotiation | * | ||
| Take Responsibility | * | ||
| Take Risks | * |
For my latest blog post, I thought I would choose to write about something that I feel very passionate about. The importance of children learning languages in primary school from a very young age. It was actually the topic did a presentation on for my Dundee University Interview, more specifically the 1+2 approach which I believe is vital in young people’s learning. I myself have had a great experience learning languages throughout school. I achieved A grades at both National 5 and Higher level German and am currently studying Spanish as a year 1 elective on my Education course. The reason for my enjoyment for learning languages was that the teacher made it interesting and fun and allowed us to learn in many different ways. I believe that positive environments and fun teaching methods are essential for our future generations and I would love to play a part in that. Learning languages has the power to change children’s lives and will give them skills that can help them be successful throughout school and in their futures. For example, my experience in languages was very effective to use while abroad in other countries.
I feel the most important thing is to aim to instil a love of learning into children. The world nowadays is hugely multilingual and in order for the children of today to fully prosper as citizens, they must learn the skills that learning languages offers them which will also lead to them having effective communication skills.
“In today’s global, multi-cultural world, it is more important than ever that young people have the opportunity to learn languages from an early age. The ability to speak different languages will equip Scotland’s young people with the skills and competencies needed in a 21st century global marketplace.” – Dr Alistair Allan, Minister for Learning, Science and Scotland’s Languages. (2015)
The delivery of an earlier start to language learning in primary school will be challenging for schools and teachers. Although all pupils at the moment are entitled to learn a language from P6, there are concerns that some primary children do not have access to an additional language due to staffing, training or funding issues, or other perceived curricular priorities. There are also particular issues in very small primary schools, especially in rural areas, where there will only be a small number of teachers with responsibility for delivery of the whole curriculum. Without ongoing training, many primary teachers do not feel confident in teaching a modern language and some do not volunteer despite training. Nevertheless, there is evidence of staff in some primary schools working successfully with children on language learning from the beginning of primary or earlier. Other questions that will have to be answered are
However, there is no doubt about the many benefits that will come from language learning from an earlier age. It will undoubtedly help Scotland become a confident, multilingual country. Some ways in which language learning can further benefit Scotland would be more effective use of technology and regular use of native/fluent speakers to engage the children and stimulate their interest in learning new languages and other cultures.
Practical uses of foreign languages in school that I have seen first hand are:
Overall, All language learning is valuable, it stretches us intellectually, giving us insights into other cultures and customs, broadening our view of the world, opening up new trade and business opportunities and enabling us to communicate with others. It is my firm belief that language learning is vital in helping children achieve their potential and broaden their horizons no matter who they are.
Die Sprache kann die Welt verändern!
On Tuesday 20th September, I had my very first workshop of the Values module. I found this to be a very interesting and fun first workshop of my University career. It felt like I was going into the unknown, but everyone was in the same boat as no one knew what to expect.
We first got split into two groups and went to two different rooms. Once there we were placed at tables based on numbers from 1-4 which is a basic method which would most likely come in very handy in our profession of being a primary teacher. I myself was in group 3. We were told to introduce ourselves to everyone and get to know people. Each group was handed an envelope and were told whatever was in the envelope was all we could use to make something that could be given to a new student of Dundee University as a guide. This instantly made us excited to see the contents of the mystery envelope and made the task relatable straight away as we were all new students too. Our first reaction when opening the envelope was that of surprise of what we had or indeed the lack of what we had. All we had was pieces of paper, a pencil, a pen, a few paper clips, rubber bands and post-it notes. We all had the same thought which was, how are we going to make something useful with these materials. Having a quick look around we noticed that some other groups had a lot more than us. This made me think already that there was something about this task that didn’t meet the eye. While the groups were working, it was clear to see that the lecturer was full of enthusiasm for the ideas that groups 1 and 2 had and on the other hand didn’t seem to care much about the other two groups. As a group, we all noticed this and began to wonder what was going on and why the task had been made so unfair for us. Again, after everyone’s ideas were created, each group took it in turns to present. During each presentation, groups 1 and 2 were greeted with praise while my group were just told to sit down after we presented and the lecturer was sitting checking the clock and not even looking at the group talking when group 4 presented.
After all the presentations were over, we were all informed that the lecturer was told to act the way she was for a very good reason. It was all done to show us about inequality in society. I believe that the whole task was set out very cleverly and really did make me think that this does happen in real life. It gave me more knowledge and understanding of how people do live in society, ranging from the wealthiest more well off people (group 1) and the most deprived people (group 4). The materials we had were to represent how much some people have and how little others have. This was very evident during the task as group 4 would try and trade with other groups but soon realised that the things they were offering to trade were already on the table of the other groups so there was no point. This can be transferred to people that have so little that they try and steal just to make ends meet and put food on the table. It’s horrible to think but its true that some people haven’t got enough to survive when others have enough to last them a lifetime and longer. The society we live in is not a fair one when there are people in countries who have nothing, not even clean water, something that in this country we take far too much for granted and even thinking about that sickens me. This task was to broaden our understanding about not only this sort of inequality, but inequality in Education and the effects it can cause. Through my experience, I have seen that some children will simply not have as much as their class mates and it does make you stop and think what could be done to stop this horrendous issue. The answer of course is not simple by any stretch of the imagination and that is the harsh, sad but very, very real truth.
Overall this was done incredibly well and I feel like it will help me throughout this module.
Over the past 2 weeks I have attempted both the OLA and the NOMA online assessments. The NOMA was easy enough to complete in my flat, however the OLA wouldn’t work correctly, so I had to head to the library.
My scores for both tests were:
OLA – 80% NOMA – 81%
I was very happy with my scores, especially for my first try at both tests. I have looked at the feedback which highlighted my strengths and areas that need to be developed. I will work to improve these areas throughout the year so that the next time I take the test, I will have increased my percentage.
In my opinion, these tests are very effective as it tests your knowledge to see how good you are at literacy and maths. However it also shows which areas you need to work on and it helps everyone develop further skills they thought they already knew how to do.
This is a very simple, yet difficult question for me to answer. I know it may sound like a cliché but I’ve always wanted to be a primary school teacher from a very young age, but my passion for this profession really ignited when I was in primary 4. There was a male teacher who engaged, enthused and made a huge impact on me. I have such amazing memories from primary school, which has always made me want to be a teacher even more. I have been fortunate to have had a fantastic learning experience which has further developed my interest and enthusiasm.
As I have grown older, I started to realise that I wanted to give something back to the community and help young children prepare for their future. I am a firm believer that children should be able to always achieve their full potential, no matter who they are and what background they have come from. I feel that it is vital to instil a love of learning from as early an age as possible.
During placement at a Primary school, I helped out in classes of all different ages and abilities and the children seemed to have a natural affinity towards me because of my young age. Also when I was teaching in smaller groups, I could see first hand how children love to learn and I couldn’t help the absolute joy I felt when seeing the happiness of the children when they learned something new, got the right answer etc.
Overall, I want to be a teacher because I want to transform lives. I want to be able to teach children new things and alternative ways of looking at challenges they will have to overcome in their lives. I feel that I can develop myself as a professional and as a person through my dream career. I know it will be difficult but I have absolutely no doubt that it’s the best decision I could have ever made. I am the only boy from my school who wanted to be a primary school teacher but that never stopped me believing that I could achieve my goals. The overwhelming feeling of happiness when I got accepted into Dundee is one that will live with me for the rest of my life and beyond.
Now starts the journey to become the best possible teacher I can be…
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