Category Archives: 1.1 Social Justice

Immigration

In my school, there were a few children who had recently moved to the area from abroad. Specifically, in the the CE2 class I was working in there were two young boys who had recently moved to France from countries in North Africa. The teacher of the class explained to me that both these boys had a very poor level of French when they had first arrived and this was a challenge for both the children and the teachers when they had to communicate with one another.

Due to the pupils’ ages, as upper school pupils, when their classmates studied French Literacy and Grammar, these two boys would work from textbooks aimed at the earlier stages. This level of differentiation seemed quite difficult for the teacher to manage as the boys needed a lot of her attention. I also wondered whether this language barrier ever made the boys feel secluded from the rest of the class. However, due to the teacher’s inability to split her time between her and the class the whole day, the boys took part in other lessons with the whole class in other curricular subjects. This meant that even over the short period that I was in the class, I noticed how much more they had integrated into the classroom environment and were now managing to communicate with their classmates much more confidently.

Immigration is becoming more of a recurring them across Europe and so I feel as though witnessing firsthand how children from other countries with language difficulties are accommodated for was valuable for me in the future. It was also nice to see how the current political climate regarding immigration in France, which is met with some hostility, did not seem to filter into the school and that these children were not hindered by their cultural differences.

School Culture

Throughout my time in Orléans, I have noticed some key differences in the French lifestyle compared to the Scottish lifestyle, which have been interesting for me to experience.

One thing I have observed during my time here is that the relationships between the children and the teachers are quite different from in Scotland. I have noticed an increased level of respect from the children towards any adult, which is evidenced in some of their mannerisms. For example, whenever another adult enters the classroom, the whole class stands up as a sign of respect to their authority and they then wait to be told to sit back down. In response, I feel as though the teachers are more trusting of the pupils and there is an extra level of maturity from the children, even in CP, which I have seen when I have accompanied the children outside the school grounds.

Perhaps this increased level of maturity comes from the difference in the school structure and the ages at which a child reaches each stage. Children do not start formal schooling until age 6, making them a whole year older and more experienced than the children starting school in Scotland. Equally influential is the amount of time they spend in “maternelle” or nursery school. Children can attend nursery school from the age of 3 until they are 6, though attendance is not compulsory.

Recent debate in France has arose from French President, Emmanuel Macron’s declaration that school will be compulsory from the age of 3 from 2019, which has sparked more concern regarding teacher shortages in France, a large issue. Cortes (2018) explains in his article for Marianne that if Macron’s plan was to go ahead, a minimum of 800 new teaching positions would have to be created to accommodate what is estimated as a further 25,000 pupils. This will be difficult for the French Government as they are already facing teacher shortages, with one article explaining that people are not even considering the profession are they are put off by the insufficient wages and how difficult it is to enter the field academically (Bancaud, 2017). Teacher shortages is an issue that has also plagued Scotland in recent years, however, the cultural aspects of the job, such as the difficult testing to achieve the qualification and the inability for teachers to choose where they want to work has made the profession even less desirable to the French.

Not only is the structure of the school different, the management of the school is also slightly different. The main difference is that the Headteacher or “directeur/directrice” is part of the teaching staff and is responsible for their own class. At my school, the teacher was present in the class 4 days a week and the children had another teacher on Tuesdays. The Ministry of Education (2014) outline three main responsibilities of a Headteacher above and beyond a normal staff member, which are: to have pedagogical control, to control the operation of the school and to maintain relationships with parents and partners of the school. In Scotland, the Headteacher would take a backseat from teaching in order to perform these extra duties, however, in France, this is not the case. As a result, I felt as though the Headteacher’s attention was divided quite often as she performed the role of both a teacher and a director simultaneously, which must put a lot of strain on these teachers.

References

Bancaud, D. (2017) ‘How to fight against the shortage of teachers in the primary?’, 20 Minutes, 11 October. Available at: https://www.20minutes.fr/societe/2149171-20171011-comment-lutter-contre-penurie-profs-primaire (Accessed: 6 April 2018).

Cortes, A. (2018) ‘Preschool compulsory from 3 years old: ok, but with which teachers?’, Marianne, 28 March. Available at :https://www.marianne.net/societe/ecole-maternelle-obligatoire-des-3-ans-d-accord-mais-avec-quels-profs (Accessed: 4 April 2018).

Ministry of Education (2014) The Job of the School Director. Available at: http://eduscol.education.fr/cid82065/le-metier-de-directeur-d-ecole.html (Accessed: 5 April 2018).

Les Temps d’Activités Périscolaires

On Monday afternoons at my school, the children participated in, “Les Temps d’Activités Périscolaires”, or, as it was more frequently referred to as, “TAP”. During this time, there is no formal teaching. Instead, adults who specialised in various activities would come in to the school to teach sessions in their specialised field, normally those who have formed some sort of partnership with the school and local government through the community. Espinosa, Barthélémy and Dejaiffe (2016) categorise the activities offered during TAP as, “sports, play activities (for example: big games and board games) and artistic and cultural activities”. On the noticeboard outside my school, there was a timetable, which outlined the activities offered during these sessions and the group of children participating in those activities each week. Some examples of the activities on offer were creating art out of recyclable materials, learning different musical instruments and practicing sports, such as judo.

In my school, there was a specific room where they kept some of the resources used for each activity. However, they would also make use of the outdoor area, communal areas and other classrooms throughout the school as the teachers were not present for the sessions. The sessions were optional for the children, though most children participated in them. Due to the school day being very long (from 8.30am to 4.30pm) the children do not have as much time after school to take part in clubs out-with the school. Plus, with the curriculum heavily focused on scholastic subjects, such as French and Maths, this period of time is perhaps the only time children have to expand their creative knowledge and develop skills and talents, all important to a well-rounded education. The extra-curricular nature of the activities also allows the children to communicate with each other in a different, more relaxed setting, so that relationships are given the chance to grow and flourish.

Reference

Espinosa, G., Barthélémy, V. and Dejaiffe, B. (2016) ‘Extracurricular Activity Time (APT): school experience and transversal skills developed by students’, Education and Socialisation, online(41). Available at: http://journals.openedition.org/edso/1718; DOI: 10.4000 / edso.1718 (Accessed: 28 March 2018).

Dictation – La dictée

Dictation is an exercise used in schools when teaching language. Brunfaut and Banerjee (2013) describe dictation as, “an exercise in which a selected passage is read aloud to students in carefully chosen chunks at a speed that is slow enough to allow them to copy it down”. Dictation is used as a way to test many aspects of language, such as spelling, punctuation and grammar, which is why the exercise is held in such high esteem in France, as Valette (1964, p431) explains that the student, “is examined on his knowledge of orthography and his understanding of grammatically agreements”, which is a difficult aspect of the French language to grasp.

Through my observations at this school, I have noticed that each teacher approaches dictée differently. Teachers of Cycle 3 approach the exercise in a more traditional way by reading out a passage for the children to listen to and copy, which they then discuss in part. Where as teachers of Cycle 2 tend to recite short phrases for the children to copy before they progress onto full texts. As well, each teacher reads out the text differently, some repeat small chunks as many times as necessary and others limit the amount of times a single phrase can be repeated. I think this highlights how important it is for a teacher to know the pupils in their class well, as they will have tailored their approach appropriately to suit their needs.

As the French language is such a prominent part of the French curriculum, teachers use dictation techniques quite regularly throughout the week. Due to falling standards in French children’s reading and writing skills, with studies showing that, “the CM1s are now significantly behind the average of the European Union countries,” (Pirls Survey) the French Education Minister, Jean-Michel Blanquer, has proposed daily dictation nationwide, in an initiative called, “une dictée par jour” (Le Point, 2017). French newspaper, L’express (2018), reported that this initiative was just one of four circulars published by the Government, which Blanquer described as, “a national reference of text” providing recommendations to teachers.

References

Brunfaut, T. and Banerjee, J. (2013) ‘Dictation’ in Byram, M. and Hu, A. (ed.) Routledge Encyclopedia of Language Teaching and Learning. Available at: https://books.google.fr/books?id=XxZbhSsqnUQC&pg=PT470&dq=teaching+dictation&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwizptXA6LLaAhWMHsAKHdrQCj44ChDoAQg1MAM#v=onepage&q=teaching%20dictation&f=false (Accessed: 15 April 2018).

L’express (2018) ‘Dictation, Mental Arithmetic, Reading: the recommendations of the National Education to teachers’, 26 April. Available at: https://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/societe/dictee-calcul-mental-lecture-les-recommandations-de-l-education-nationale-aux-enseignants_2003741.html (Accessed: 28 April 2018).

Le Point (2017) ‘A dictation a day: the Blanquer Formula to raise attainment levels’, 12 May. Available at: http://www.lepoint.fr/societe/une-dictee-par-jour-la-formule-blanquer-pour-remonter-le-niveau-05-12-2017-2177440_23.php (Accessed: 28 April 2018).

Valette, R. (1964) ‘The Use of the Dictée in the French Language Classroom’, The Modern Language Journal, 48(7), pp. 431-434.

Week 6

Monday

This morning, I spent time observing in the CE1 class, which was my first time in this classroom. In terms of the layout of the classroom and structure of the timetable on a Monday morning, it is very similar to the other classes in the school; they have the same whiteboard and projector system at the front of the class where the teacher conducts most of her lessons from, they have desk layout of pairs and rows and they have small areas, such as a library and a sink. They also focus a large majority of the morning on French and Maths. However, there was one new activity that I picked up on in the class, which I thought was a nice addition to the day. In the back corner of the room, there is a small table with a box and pieces of coloured card on it. In the box, the pupils can put in any thoughts and ideas they have that they want to be heard by the whole class. The teacher then takes the box to her desk daily and reads out these cards, which are colour coded by content, to the rest of the class for evaluation.

I think that this is a nice addition to the daily routine of the class, and the children have now become accustomed to the protocol and now know that the teacher expects them to share their opinions to then be discussed democratically as a class, rather than shouting out their thoughts when they feel like it. It is important that a teacher sets clear expectations for the children so that they learn to behave in such a manner from the beginning and that they behave in this way consistently. Stronge (2018) points out that effective teachers are those who know how important a role each child plays in the classroom, and therefore involves them in setting the expectations for the classroom. I feel as though this teacher has achieved this through her methods and it is certainly a method of behaviour and classroom management that I will try in the future.

Tuesday

This week, the weather is meant to improve significantly, and so I am curious to see whether the teachers will incorporate the outdoors into any of their lessons. Today, I took part in a sports session, which was outdoors at the local sports centre. I was working with the CE1 class, their teacher and a support teacher on some parachute and ball games. I had heard from the teacher that this class was quite challenging in terms of their behaviour, which is something I did pick up on whilst I was with them as they were very easily distracted from the task, which would quickly escalate to disruptions. This happened more and more as the tasks set by the teacher became increasingly more difficult, which the teacher was also aware of. Though, she had ways of dealing with this, one method was for her to remove a particularly disruptive child from the activity completely for a short period of time, then allowing them to return after they had settled again. When the whole class was beginning to lose focus, the teacher would have them drop everything they were doing, run to one side of the field and back again. This short burst of energy released seemed to refocus many of the children and they were ready to listen again. This session was, therefore, valuable for me pedagogically, as controlling a class in large open space is something that I have been worried about before, and so being able to observe different ways that the teacher was able to command the space was very useful for my professional development.

For the games, the teacher had a booklet that she worked from, many of which were simple games, but some required quite a bit of explaining and demonstration. The teacher had clearly planned these activities in advance, but, because I joined the class for the session today, she quickly adapted the activities to incorporate some English. For example, one of the activities required the children to roll a ball around the edge of the parachute, and then when I said a colour they had to work together to get the ball to stop on that colour. It was nice to see how easy it was to incorporate some English into a sports session, which made me consider some games that I could play in Scotland that incorporate basic French, so that the vocabulary is becoming a part of the children’s daily routine.

Wednesday

Today, I was out of school because we had a group meeting with Nina to mark our placement coming to an end. This was a 45-minute session in her office, where we reflected upon and evaluated our time in our schools over the past six weeks. We mainly discussed what we had learned from our experience, which led to the realisation that school in France is quite different to school in Scotland. One thing we all agreed on was that behaviour management is a lot sterner in France than in Scotland, which seems to have advantages, as the children are very respectful towards the teacher and other staff in the school, including me.

Nina was also keen to hear whether we had enjoyed the experience, which I had, though I did share with her that I was disappointed that I had not had more opportunities to teach the children, as there are some classes that I had not taught in the school and there were a lot of days where I could not participate because the teacher was not teaching English that day. I told her honestly that I felt as though my low level of French had held me back at that particular school because I had struggled to negotiate plans and teaching time with the teachers. She took this feedback from me on board and explained how this surprised her because I was there to teach English and that my expertise as a native English teacher should have been exploited more. However, I cannot argue that I have not learnt a lot about teaching styles, language and pedagogy during my six weeks, all of which is valuable knowledge for my future career that I am delighted to have gained.

Lastly, Nina finished the session by suggesting that in the future, if we ever wanted to make a connection between our current school and a school in France for educational purposes that we shouldn’t hesitate to connect her in the future. Having a connection like this is amazing and will be of great value when I teach in the future, and it would not have been possible if I had not taken this big step out of my comfort zone and come to France for my Learning from Life Placement.

After the meeting had finished, we visited the local bookshop in the centre of town, which had

French Stories

lots of children’s books in French. After being asked to read, “The Three Bears” in the CP/CE1 class last week, I was inspired to buy a French book that I could use when teaching French in a Scottish school. After spending some time searching the shelves, I found three great books. One of the books was specifically about colour and so could be used in the early years as an introduction to the topic. The other two were classic stories that the children would know in English, which were, “The Gruffalo” and “Little Red Riding Hood”. The language in the last two books is slightly more advanced, but the children will know the stories well and so should be able to follow them, similar to the children in my class last week with the book I read. Plus, I will need to read these books to my class, and so this is a personal goal for me to practice my French so that I am able to read the book aloud in the future.

Thursday

Today, I did a follow up lesson with CP/CE1 on school uniform and clothes. This was a 30-minute lesson consisting of four main activities. I began the lesson by revisiting the PowerPoint from before, which had all the items of clothing and the name of it in French and English. As I was going through the PowerPoint, I followed the same protocol as before and said the word first then asked them to repeat, with the children showing me that they remembered a lot of the vocabulary as we got nearer the end because they wanted to say it before I said it. Taking on board what the teacher said about extending my time spent on vocabulary, I often asked the children to repeat some of the items of clothing twice or three times, as there are a few words they continually struggle with pronouncing, such as, “trousers” and “shoes”.

Once I was happy that they had recalled the vocabulary from the previous lesson, I moved on to an activity using the flashcards. This activity was, “What is missing?”, where I had each picture flashcard placed on the whiteboard picture-side up, then asked the children to look at the board before closing their eyes, at which point, I would remove one of the flashcards from the board and they had to tell me which one was missing. After a few rounds of this game, I then asked some of the children to come up to the whiteboard and remove a flashcard. After this whole class activity, I had the children work on an individual task using a worksheet I had produced on the school uniform. The worksheet has the outline of the clothes in the school uniform that need coloured in (see Appendix 1).

Completed Worksheet

The aim of this task was for the children to listen to me as I told them what colour to use when colouring in each item of clothing, for example, I would say, “colour in the trousers red”. From this, I was able to see which children had understood what each item was because they would have a sheet filled with clothing items of the correct colours. Equally, the children had the opportunity to practice their knowledge of the colours in English, and some of them even picked up that I had read the colours out in order of the rainbow from the song they had learnt, which was very perceptive. I think that an activity like this was a good assessment method for the class as I received some of the sheets back from the children and they had all managed to follow the instructions. Before doing the lesson, I had considered adding blank captions for each item and then had the children fill these in so that they had a resource sheet with the pictures and the words in their jotter. However, I now realise that this would have been too difficult for this year group as they are just in the earlier stages of writing French and would therefore struggle to spell English words, so I am glad I removed this element and kept the lesson purely focused on listening and talking.

Lastly, I finished the lesson by reading the book the teacher gave me to the class. The book was great because it incorporated all the items of clothing I had previously taught them, as well as including a few extras, which the children could guess from the corresponding pictures. The book was written in short phrases that rhymed, so it was easy for me to read and would have been pleasing for the children to listen to. They also recognised and got excited by the pictures of the animals despite it all being in English, which was great to see.

As a whole, I think the lesson was good, as the children participated in a variety of activities to keep them engaged and occupied for the full lesson. One thing I would criticise is my transitioning between activities as these were quite clumsy and the children became restless. I think this may be partly down to the language barrier, as in Scotland, I would fill the time between handing out sheets with speaking but this is difficult when the children only understand basic English and I do not speak lots of French. As well, the lesson ran slightly longer than I had expected and so if my transitions between activities had been sharper, I would have avoided this issue.

Despite this minor setback, I did think that the lesson was successful and I received good feedback from the teacher regarding my resources and the delivery of the lesson, which I was happy with. Even the children expressed how much they liked my lesson, which was great to hear. I think that this lesson has shown how far I have come over this placement as I was much more confident throughout the lesson and I think this showed in my delivery of the lesson.

Friday

It is the final day of my six-week placement at école Bel-Air and I have returned to the CE2 class. Before the day began, I received my completed “End of Placement Review” from my teacher, which she had filled out. She briefly discussed her answers with me, which I mostly agreed with. I was glad that she thought my lessons were interesting and that she expressed how much the children had enjoyed having me around, as I feel I have bonded with quite a few of the pupils over the past few weeks. The learning points the teacher has provided for me are very helpful and I feel as though I have learnt this and more from observing and practicing teaching. It is a shame to hear that she wouldn’t want to take a student next year as the school is a great school with lovely children, but I do agree that they do not have the time to incorporate a student into their timetable as I struggled to obtain opportunities to teach and I feel as though I have not progressed as much as I would have liked to because of this, but I was glad to hear that they were pleased with what I did do and the issue was not my ability.

To finish off my time at the school, I had the opportunity to teach one last lesson to the CE2 class, which was a continuation of the body parts, which I had done with them the previous week. The opportunity was quite spontaneous as the teacher had planed to do the lesson herself but offered it to me, so I had to quickly review the resources and the plan for the lesson. Luckily, I had thought of this idea before for teaching body parts if I was ever asked to do a follow up lesson, which meant I could jump straight into the lesson. The activity was a worksheet with a circle in the centre. From this, the children had to listen to my instructions in order to create a drawing of a monster. For example, I would say, “draw three heads”, and the pupils had to draw these onto the body outline and this continued until I had said each body part.

As part of this activity, the children were practicing both numbers and body parts in English and, because they are nearing cycle 3 in their learning, I wrote the instructions on the board so that they could see the spelling of the word. The children seemed to manage this task quite well, however, they sometimes struggled with understanding the body part as I was saying the plural of the word, which can sometimes be quite different from the singular, such as feet. Apart from this, the children were showing signs that they were solid on body parts. Having the opportunity to finish my time here by teaching was a nice way to end; especially when I could see how engaged the children were with the lesson.

Reference

Stronge, J. (2018) Qualities of Effective Teachers. 3rd edn. Alexandria: ASCD.

Appendix 1 – School Uniform Colour Sheet

The French School System

Before going on placement, I took part in a lesson with a French Teacher on my first day in Orléans. This was a taster session on the structure and characteristics of the French School System. The session was given in French, so it was challenging to follow, however, I surprised myself on how much I was able to understand. The information received on the French school system was very interesting and has been useful to know prior to my placement, as there are some differences between the system in France and in Scotland.

One of the key differences I learnt was that, in France, children are not obliged to start school until the age of 6, where as in Scotland, they begin school at the age of 5. Another very apparent difference between France and Scotland is that French schools are described as “laique”, or secular in English. A secular school system separates the church from the state, with the view that religion is a private affair and not for public life, therefore pupils do not express the customs of their religion and the classrooms do not have any religious symbols, such as a Bible or a Qur’an present. This is to emphasise the French values of libertié, égalité and fraternitié, as the children view each other as the same and, therefore, equal. As a result of this, French teachers do not teach Religious Education, unlike in Scotland, where Religious Education is compulsory. Instead, French children learn about how to become valuable and civic members of society. There are some schools is France where religion is part of the school, however, these schools are part of the private sector and so they are not free to attend.

The French school system is separated into four cycles, which encompass children from ages 3 to 18. These four cycles span four different buildings, as children begin school at “maternelle” (nursery), move to “école élementaire/primarie” (primary school), then “collége” and “lycée” (high school). By the time pupils reach their last year of “lycée”, they will have sat exams to receive, “le Baccalauréat”, a leaving certificate, which can be achieved in specific streams, such as, the sciences or literature.

“école élementaire/primarie” is the equivalent of the Scottish primary school and it is where pupils work through Cycle 2 and 3. Also included in Cycle 3 is “sixiéme année de collège”, known as first year of high school in Scotland, as the French Government wanted to ensure a successful transition between the two school by continuing on the skills and knowledge obtained in Primary School and encouraging Primary and Secondary teachers to work together to bridge this gap. This was something I thought as similar to the customs of Scottish Education, as Primary 7’s in Scotland often take part in transition days and special events at their cluster high school to prepare them for the transition.

Teacher employment is also very different in France than in Scotland. I was informed that teaching is a very popular career and jobs are sparse. Like Scotland, France is split up into different regions making up 13 regions on the mainland in total. The region we are staying in is Centre – Val de Loire and so students who study to become teachers in this region will sit an exit exam, called the “concours” to become teachers. However, they are then not guaranteed a job in this region and may have to travel or move far away depending on the demand for teachers. Therefore, teachers in France do not get to choose what school they want to work in, which is a definite downfall for prospective teachers who may have family commitments or location preferences.

Overall, I found the differences between the two systems fascinating, and there are definitely pros and cons for each. When evaluating the French system, one aspect I particularly liked was the structure of four cycles used to split up the different stages of school. The use of cycles groups several years together so that there is communication between these years, thus ensuring a steady level of progression within and between the cycles. However, personally, a major con in France is that the education system is secular, as for me, a child’s religion is a part of their identity. Children spend around 30 hours a week in school, a huge portion of their childhood and so to spend this amount of time suppressing a part of your identity is something I disagree with.

References

École supérieure du professorat et de l’éducation (2017) Livret d’accueil 2017-2018. [pdf]. Orléans: ESPE.

Placement Proposal

For my Learning from Life placement, I would like the opportunity to experience teaching abroad, specifically the connection with University of Orléans in France. From researching the University of Orléans, I have been made aware of the unique links between the city of Dundee and Orléans, as twin cities, particularly in teaching, where students from the University of Orléans have travelled to Dundee to visit Scottish Primary Schools. I feel as though this experience would have been valuable for these students, as they immersed themselves into Scottish culture and practice, and it is an experience I would like to take full advantage of in Orléans.

Throughout my time at school, I studied French up to SQA Higher Level; constantly updating my French vocabulary, learning about the customs of France and developing my basic skills in reading, writing, listening and speaking. Also, during my first year placement, I had the opportunity to teach a French lesson to my pupils, however I did struggle with the proper pronunciation of some words and accents. Therefore, I feel as though my core language skills and accent would significantly benefit from a period of full immersion in French culture.

Not only will my knowledge of the French language hopefully improve, my practice will also benefit, as I am provided with alternative methodologies, which I believe will provide a broader perspective of our own curriculum, when critically compared with the curriculum in France.

As well as being able to contribute practical experience teaching and a developing knowledge of the French language, I am a native English speaker. Therefore, my extensive vocabulary and comprehension of complex grammar systems will be advantageous in supporting those who study English as a second, or even third, language. Equally, I can provide French children with knowledge of Scotland; her culture, her customs and her history, somewhere they might never get the chance to visit themselves, and I would be proud to be an ambassador for Scotland and Dundee.

An Important Moment in My Professional Development

As part of the Working Together module delivered in Semester 1, we focused on the collaborative practice of teachers with other professionals from a variety of disciplines, in particular, their close knit relationship with Social Workers and CLD Workers. One particularly defining moment for me, professionally, was our visit to Partners in Advocacy in Dundee. Before the visit, I was rather uninformed about the role of an advocate and how much our two professions overlapped. As I recall the visit, I remember my fascination at just how much work they do with children in all different, and rather difficult, situations, which you may say I was slightly naive to.

All I could think of was, “Will I have children in my class who need that extra bit of support in making their voice heard?” Certainly, in a child’s education, I could emulate an advocate to ensure their views and opinions as learners are being recognised. This sort of advocacy on by teachers on behalf of the pupils learning responds directly to one of the key design principles of CfE, “personalisation and choice”, where children are given the opportunity to have views on their learning and I am merely acting as a vessel for them to voice those views.

It has been suggested that “teachers have been an underutilized voice on how to improve schools” (Flom, 2010). As a result, both their views and the views of their pupils have been forgotten, even undervalued. My now newfound knowledge regarding advocacy and it’s role can ensure that as a professional, my opinions are listened to and that I will pay extra attention to guarantee others’ views are treated with the same respect. The visit provided me with a sense of empowerment and I was able to evaluate the injustices I had heard of.

Of course the work of the trained advocates must not be undermined by teachers, in fact it should respected and engaged with. As a teacher, I would feel as though I could only go so far in advocation whether I wanted to or not, but the independent nature of the advocates must be appreciated by teachers. Teachers have a particularly strong bond with their pupils that it may be impossible for them to adhere to the impartiality needed in advocacy. Therefore, teachers must rely on outside assistance from independent parties to achieve this and ensure true advocacy is taken place.

Thinking back to the visit, I almost felt ashamed that I had never heard of advocacy before when it is such an integral part of the holistic approach to a child’s health and wellbeing. I feel as though prior to university, I was perhaps in my own little teaching bubble, where I hardly considered the work I would do outside the four walls of my classroom. Semester 1 has really opened my eyes to the collaborative nature of our work as teachers to provide the best possible level of care for every child, particularly in reference to the GIRFEC approach (Getting It Right For Every Child)(Children and Young People (Scotland) Act, 2014).

Not only has collaboration been emphasised to me but also the reliance on continual reflection has become apparent. I particularly like Schon’s (1983) concept of reflection-on and -in-action, with both of these theories playing equally parts in a teacher’s career. I consider being able to reflect on a current situation, in the moment, as a valuable skill for any teacher. The classroom can be very fast paced and a teacher must be prepared to adapt their lessons for any number of reasons in order to keep up the focus of the children. Equally, a teacher must be able to look back on their work in more depth with a critical eye, to either learn from their mistakes or develop their successes.

References

Flom, J. (2010). Emerging trends: Teachers as advocates. Cooperative Catalyst. Retrieved from: http://coopcatalyst.wordpress .com/2010/06/11/emerging-trend-teachers-as-advocates/

Schon, D.A. (1983) The reflective practitioner. New York: Basic Books.

The Scottish Executive. (2008). Building the Curriculum 3 – A Framework for Learning and Teaching. Retrieved from: https://www.education.gov.scot/Documents/btc3.pdf

The Importance of Early Year Relationships

There has been multiple debate surrounding the importance of building up strong, nurturing relationships within the first four years of a child’s life. Dr Suzanne Zeedyk discusses the flexibility of the human brain in the first four years of a child’s life and how it can be shaped as a consequence of relationships. Once these relationships are formed and the subsequent pathways a child will follow as a result of these relationships, it is very difficult to adapt the behaviour that their brain has come to recognise as crucial for coping in challenging environments.

It’s important that as teaching professionals, we recognise that some children have spent the first few years of their lives in a rather stressful environment and have not had the opportunity to form and develop good relationships due to a variety of circumstances. Therefore, a child’s first experience of a healthy relationship could be with me, as their teacher. Associate professor in EC Education, Sheila Degotardi, explains how, “a focus on relationships places interactions with others at the very heart of the learning process, with the view that learning is socially and collaboratively constructed through mutually responsive interpersonal exchanges,” (Degotardi, p1). Peer relationships can also be encouraged through a teacher’s style, whether that includes a focus on partner and group work, or the classroom seating arrangement; providing children with further opportunities to build up strong relationships from the beginning of their lives in a controlled and respectful environment.

The environment created within a classroom can impact how the brain fully develops; a stress-free and welcoming atmosphere can be created by the way in which a teacher decorates and organises the presentation of the room. A teacher can also impact the mood of the classroom through their techniques and mannerisms. Teacher who continually shouts, rarely rewards praise and puts unnecessary pressure in the early years are providing the grounds for early development of anxieties which have a long-lasting effects, such as worrying and constantly feeling threatened.

Dr Zeedyk speaks technically regarding the brain, explaining how brains that feel threatened metaphorically “drown” in a stress, causing young children, who’s brains have developed this way, to be physically incapable of calming themselves down. Obviously, some children have a genetic affinity to stress but it’s becoming more apparent that relationships can have an equal impact on a child’s future behaviour.

John Carnochan equates the atmosphere that some young offenders grow up in as “war-like” as he expresses the need for consistency in a child’s life from the very beginning. Teachers can easily provide a child with the stability and consistency they require by being there as a responsible adult each week. Sometimes, through no fault of the parents, children do not receive a lot of attention and their time to build up a relationship is compromised. Parents may believe they are doing the best for their child by working to support them but they may be unwittingly depriving their children of healthy relationships. Often, the strong bond between parent and child is replaced by another significant adult, like a grandparent, but in some cases this role may be partaken by the teacher. Equally, a teacher can provide support to many parents to aid them in the emotional development of their child, a concept they may not fully understand how to achieve but something teachers have studied and developed techniques to achieve.

Values Module Workshop

As part of our first workshop for our Values: Self, Society and the Professions module, we were split into groups of around 10 people and given the task of creating something useful which would aid new first years arriving for their first week at the University of Dundee. There were four groups and each group was giving an envelop with various materials, such as paper, pens and other pieces of stationery, with the catch being you could only use the materials provided in the envelope; no outside materials could be used.

The first thing that happened was the splitting into groups, a completely random process, where I ended up in group 2. Towards the end of the session, the need for the groups to be numbered became increasingly apparent. As I was in group 2, we were provided with a healthy amount of materials to create our design, though I personally did not realise other groups had less or more materials than us until it came to the presentations. Our design was a “Student Survival Kit” which acted as an essential care package for any student staying away from home, including; a welcome letter, handy tips and advice, shopping list and recipe templates, flash cards and the stationery basics.

After all the groups had shared their designs, it came to the production. There was plenty for everyone to do and all the tasks were divided up efficiently. Throughout the manufacture process, Carrie repeatedly came across to our table, asking questions and taking a real interest in our design. She even commended how well our project was going. It wasn’t until all the final presentation of our products that I noticed the difference between the groups. Groups 1 and 2 had lots of materials at their disposal and they were given great feedback from Carrie. Where as, Groups 3 and 4 had the bare minimum to work with and when they were presenting, Carrie hardly engaged with them at all and looked as though she wasn’t interested in what they were saying.

Most of the group quickly picked up on her mixed attitudes towards each group and began to question it. It was then explained to us why each group got what they were given and why Carrie was behaving in that manner. This short exercise largely resembled today’s society in which we live, where a lot of the time people have more than others yet we are all held to the same standard despite our advantages/disadvantages. Also, Carrie also represented many peoples mentality towards possessions, where many show their keenness to those who can provide them with something in return; in essence, people look out for their own best interests. There is also the point to consider how, in society, it is said that, “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer”, which was highlighted in this task, as Group 1 were given all the encouragement they needed to be more successful than ever but Group 4 were shunned and not given any form of help to take what little they had and grow on it.

As a whole, the task was very though provoking, which quickly lead to further discussion about how money plays a large part in peoples’ standings in society, something which is even true in Education. Those children who come from affluent backgrounds have the opportunity to join private funded schools, can afford the very best materials and can pay for expensive tutors to further their capabilities. Children from disadvantaged families don’t have the same opportunities and when they realise their position within society they perhaps become disheartened and self-defeatist. It’s therefore important, as teachers, that we do not succumb to societal pressures and treat every child with the dignity they all equally deserve, regardless of their personal situation, so that each child has an equal playing field at least when it comes to their Education and can begin to create good opportunities for themselves in the future.