Category Archives: 1.4 Prof. Commitment

Reflection – I Want to Better My Practice!

Personally, I find taking constructive criticism somewhat difficult. Throughout my high school years, I would tend to have the mindset to ‘give up’ if the slightest thing was wrong – a list of corrections in an essay, a failed test. The list can go on and on. It would put me off that particular area of learning, making me think I wasn’t good enough to pass or meet the grades expected of me. For the subjects I enjoyed – such as English, Music and History – those slight mistakes maybe mattered too much. The crosses on the page made me dread to even look, although they were easily fixed. For subjects I didn’t particularly like, I saw the mistakes as just me not understanding the question or the topic. Those did not bother me as much somehow. Maybe, because I realised, I wasn’t the best in that particular subject and my score wouldn’t improve drastically. However, I knew how important it was to persevere and try my best, and improve these scores – even if was only by 1%. Being reflective and asking myself ‘what can I do to better my grade? Even by a couple of marks!’, allowed me to realise that the grade was on the paper was a learning curve. It can be worked on if you can reflect on what went well and what didn’t.

I have learned throughout the Values module from last term, that it is completely normal to make mistakes. Most mistakes you can fix, you can improve on. It was made clear that this can only be done by reflecting on what had maybe gone wrong with your work. It is a human trait to make wrong decisions sometimes, and it makes us into the person we are today. But we cannot fix these mistakes without reflecting on them and asking ourselves ‘what can I do to improve this?’.
Being able to be receptive to constructive criticism and learn from it is an essential trait to have when working in the classroom. Every day is different, and this may mean that lessons do not go the way you had specifically planned them out to go – and it is important to accept that. Teaching means you are constantly developing different strategies on how to tackle certain behaviours and mishaps in the classroom. You are continuously learning about what works and what does not. By being reflective and understanding what did not go so well on that one particular day, when the moon was full and the children were noisy, we can always improve our practice and explore different strategies to enhance our methods in teaching.

I am nervous for those days that may occur when I am on placement. The truth is though, you cannot hide from these days. They will come and they may be a kick in the teeth, but it is all about learning from the errors that have happened in that lesson. I am going to accept any feedback that comes my way because I know this will help me improve for the next lesson I will take. I will reflect on what went well and what I can use again and again in the classroom. I will ask myself ‘is there any way to improve this, to take the children to the next step of learning?’. I will be able to consider different strategies if one did not go so well, and ask myself ‘why?’.
Reflection is a vital part of education – bettering your own learning, and improving your own practice will have a massive impact on the children’s education in the class.

An Agency Visit to Downfield Primary School

Within our module, Working Together, an agency visit was set up for each group to attend. There were a range of different places each group could visit. My group visited Downfield Primary School, situated near Kirkton in Dundee. As soon as we walked through the door we could tell it was a very welcoming school – bright, colourful pictures on the walls and a very warm and friendly headteacher. Karen, the head teacher led us into one conference rooms. Our team were really well-prepared with a list of questions and some notepads to write down answers and thoughts. Our meeting was very well organised and we were able to speak to lots of different people throughout the professions – Karen (the headteacher), Stacey and Kirsten ( Family Support Workers), Monica and Kerrie (Social Workers), and many more friendly faces, who played a vital role in this multi-agency school.

I think my whole group would agree how interesting the visit was, and it was fascinating to speak to each of the professions involved in our course. They all had one mutual goal in the school; to get it right for every child (GIRFEC). From the information we received, the whole team seemed to work really well and their best interests were every child involved in the educational environment. It wasn’t for each child to come out on top, achieving 10 out of 10 on their maths test. It was for every child to feel nurtured and safe in the classroom, to reach their full potential and to have every opportunity possible in their short, but sweet, school life. Each child would have an amazing support system around them, which also was there to support parents too. Their ‘promise’ provided children with the knowledge that they were to be looked after, respected and included in the school environment and in the community. To know that both children and parents/carers were involved in creating Downfield Primary’s ‘Promise’ was wonderful. It seemed as if the staff had created a great way of including everyone into the school life.

The visit was very eye-opening and demonstrated how vital it is for each of the three professions (Education, Social Work and Community Education) to work together to achieve that one goal – getting it right for every child, young adult or family  that may use any of these services. If we do not work together, we cannot achieve this goal. There needs to be prominent communication and co-operation skills, positive partnership and collaborative working, and a similar mindset of each member of the professions.