My computer has taken over my life!

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The use of computers in the classroom is becoming increasingly more widespread. IWB are in most classrooms now as a teaching tool and computers, even iPads have been introduced for children to work on.

While I believe that the internet is a wonderful resource to find information and share ideas with other members of the teaching profession and beyond, I also believe that their use in the classroom is growing out of control. Children do enjoy using technology, as I have experienced while out on placement recently, however, there are so many other parts of the curriculum in which computers are resorted to for teaching.

Can we as a profession no longer use creativity to think up exciting lessons? Children in years to come are unlikely to remember a computer project, they will remember lessons which engaged and involved them. I am not saying that computers should be scrapped from classrooms completely, merely that they should be used in proportion.

From my time at primary school, I can only remember tasks which were active in involving and engaging me – in primary 7 we built a life size Anderson Shelter and decorated the cupboard to look like the inside of one. It taught us how cramped conditions were during air raids without even looking at a computer. Although this was quite a few years ago, and computers were only just beginning to be used in the classroom, I think the case would be the same for children in the classroom today.

Therefore, I ask the question, would modern teachers manage without computers in thinking up, finding resources for and conducting lessons? I believe they could, but how many would do it?

Lunchtime Lunacy

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http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/parents-could-forced-pay-children-7357886?ICID=FB_mirror_main

I found this article while scrolling through social media a few days ago, and was appalled by what I read. A council in South Wales are proposing to charge parents for sending their children to school with a packed lunch due to the amount that it is costing them for the clean up of these lunches. This is budget cutting to ridiculous extremes.

There are parents who simply cannot afford to pay for school lunches, hence why they give their children a packed lunch. While some may argue that that is the reason for Free School Meals (FSM) benefit, however, not all families who are entitled to FSM claim them, sometimes through ignorance to the fact that they are entitled.

When reading through some comments on the site, it is clear that I am not the only one appalled by this proposal. Many others who have read the article have also noted that it is some schools’ policy for the children to take their rubbish home, which allows parents to monitor what they eat at lunchtime. If this is the case, it makes it even harder to see the reason behind this proposed “Sandwich tax”, even if the council are saving money.

This proposal enrages me, and while it will apparently save the council £174,000 a year, it would be interesting to see where that money will end up. I do not think that it is fair to pass costs on to parents because of budget cuts.

 

Sit Down and Shut up

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file5571249338839 I’m sure it would not be too hard for us all to think back to a teacher who had a very “sit down and shut up” attitude, and these would often be teachers whose subjects I tended to like less.

In the classrooms of the past, it was clear that the teacher was in control and no talking or movement would be tolerated. However, this should not be the case in modern day classrooms. Teachers should be open and enthusiastic, and group discussions are promoted rather than seen as a nuisance.

In terms of behaviour management, the following video analyses the way in which 5 teachers engage and control their class without any need for forceful language or gestures.

Boost Your Teaching

How do they help maintain the attention of the children? – The teachers all make use of movement and hand gestures to engage their class and keep them focused on the task at hand. They move around the classroom in order to keep engagement across the class, which ensures that those sitting at the back listen and contribute as they know the teacher will come over to them. The hand gestures they use are very open and keep the children’s attention.

How do they show respect for the children? – It is clear that all of the teacher’s respect their children. They do not raise their voice or shout at the children, and they use positive praise, smiling when the children answer a question correctly. In particular in this video, the history teacher is given wrong answers, however, he does not make the children feel bad about these answers, he simply helps them to work through the wrong answer as to why it is not what he is looking for.

How do they show the authority of the teacher? – All of the teachers in the video show a commanding presence in the classroom, although it is warm and inviting at the same time. They refuse to talk over children, as demonstrated by the geography teacher, and use their authority to move around the class, ensuring that all children are involved and engaged.

How do the teachers manage the movement of the children? – As shown by the PSHE teacher, the children enter the class in single file rather than in bunches, which calms the children down after any high energy occurrences that may have happened outside the classroom. This is also reinforcing the teachers authority. At the end of the lesson, shown by the geography teacher, it is important to let the children go in groups/tables as this avoids a chaotic scramble towards the door.

I believe that the ideas in this video, while based in a high school, will work well in the primary school setting. The need to include positive praise is essential, especially with younger children, who have a shorter attention span, and need some form of constant engagement. It is also useful to note how your stance as a teacher can either invite pupils to learn with you, or switch them off completely. For example, folding your arms creates a barrier which the children may feel they need to fight or break in order to form a good relationship with their teacher, which is the first step to effective learning. This can lead to poor behaviour in the class, and the teacher may not understand why without this knowledge of effective stance and body language.

 

3, 2, 1… Action!

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http://archive.teachfind.com/ttv/www.teachers.tv/videos/ks1-ks2-drama-teaching-drama-a-structured-approach.html

This video is an excellent resource from “teachfind” on how to structure a successful drama lesson.sw_StageLightBar_sa101665

The lesson begins with an agreement between the teacher and the children, in this case using the 3 C’s : Concentration, Cooperation and Communication. I believe that this is a great agreement to have with the children, not just in drama, but in the classroom also. I will take this strategy with me, on placement and beyond, as I think the children will connect with these rules well. The use of the simple 3 words is also effective in my opinion. It means that there is not pages of rules for the children to remember, or in many cases forget, and this strategy will stick in the children’s heads as it is better than a long, boring list.

Next, you shoustretching_legs_on_ringld then move on to warm up. These can be games which get the children moving and/or communicating (referring back to the rules), and should get the children interacting with each other. In my opinion, this is one of the most important parts of a drama lesson, especially with a new class of children. It will allow them to let themselves go (to an extent) and interact with their new classmates in a playful, semi-structured way. Some of these games could include:

Fruit Bowl/ The Wind Blows – good for mixing the class up. Must refer to rules to ensure chaos does not pursue.

Change the Action – the children must repeat an action after you have changed it. For example: Teacher claps hands, pupils sit still, teacher shouts “CHANGE” and pats her knees, children clap their hands and so on. This is good for building the concentration element of the rules. If the pupils struggle to concentrate with this activity, they cannot progress into a drama lesson.

Hula Hoop – must pass hula hoop “through” everyone in the circle without breaking hands. Concentration control.

Cross the circle – All the children are numbered and when their number is shouted they must cross the circle in the way you say i.e. fashion model, astronaut, hopping etc. This should be a fun activity to loosen the children up and make them willing to have fun and participate fully.

There are lots more, these are just a selection.

(Accessed at: http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/pshe/pdfs/dramawarmups.pdf)

Next is the focus of the lesson. This is where the children should come together to interpret a source (pictures are used in the video) in order to establish a theme or topic for the drama lesson. For example, if the lesson was linked to the history of World War 2 that they had been studying, a picture from that time could provide an assessment for the knowledge they have taken in from the history lesson. This stimulus is also a way to provoke new learning by having the children act out and hopefully share the feelings of the people of that time.

Once the children are focused, then comes the development of their ideas. Allowing the children time to visualize a place or image that you, the teacher, prompts through words, allows the children to ‘get inside’ the story. This links to the ability to feel what a Capturecharacter feels, an important aspect of developing the character to be realistic and believable. Allowing the children to vocalize what they see/hear/feel ensures that they are fully engaged and involved (somewhat of an assessment). It also shows that they can put what they feel into words. Sharing how they feel or see things is an important skill for writing, ultimately linking drama work to further language tasks.

Body-scaping is a good way to allow children, in groups or as a whole class, to physically create a picture from their visualizations. This just uses their bodies with no props, and sound is optional.

CaptureAllowing the children to perform what they have created is key in giving the lesson a purpose. If the children know that there is no meaning to a particular lesson, it can lead to a lack of enthusiasm for some children, whereas others will be shy and not want to participate in acting to the whole class. It is this mix of personalities in a class that can make performance difficult to gauge. While this seems difficult in theory, I think that once you have your class and know them well, you should be able to work out what is best for them.

Once this decision is gauged it is important to ensure you are getting the most out of the children. This can be done through further prompting, as in the video, like thought tracking. This again allows the children to share their thoughts and feelings as the character, and shows the teacher that they have truly thought about the story and their image. This can also take the form of adding sounds to a silent still image. However, this must be incorporated slowly so that the children do not get carried away and cause chaos.

In order to give meaning to the lesson in terms of a teacher’s point of view it is important that the children evaluate what they have achieved, what they would like to achieve next time and what they have learned. This brings the children together at the end of the lesson and can reinstate calm before either heading back to the classroom or getting on with other work.

These evaluations link to a cool down activity, which has the same purpose, which is to calm the children at the end of the lesson.

There are various cool down activities, just as there are with warm ups, however, this one caught my eye in keeping the concentration of the children right to the end of the lesson.

Pass the pencil – a detective goes out of the room and one pupil is given the pencil. The children  must then pass the pencil around the group without the detective seeing. The detective has 3 goes to work out who has the pencil.shcesey 053_pe

Another cool down that I remember from primary school is sleeping lions. While looking back this was just an excuse to give the teacher some peace and quiet, it is a good way to get the children to relax after a busy lesson, or indeed day. Basically all the children lie on the floor and when tapped by the teacher, they may line up at the door quietly – so that they don’t wake the other sleeping lions.

In overall reflection of the video, I think it lays out how to structure a drama lesson brilliantly, taking any teacher through the steps they need to know to keep control of the class while structuring a fun lesson. I agree with the teacher at the end of the video who states that the importance of drama is to bring the subject to life. I think this shows the versatility of drama across the curriculum to reinforce what the children have already learned, but to learn new skills at the same time.

 

 

 

 

 

Reading Enthusiasm

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After reading through these posts from my peers, I am now looking at my own posts with a more critical eye. While I do engage with my professional blog on a fairly regular basis, from looking at these excellent posts, I really want to engage with the idea further.

All of these posts are highly insightful in the subject that they have chosen to talk about, and provide a very interesting read indeed. It is clear that these students have spent a long time working on their posts and have truly grasped the idea of collaborative learning by sharing the excellent ideas they have come up with. Also their enthusiasm for their subject and commitment to their learning shines through in abundance.

By reading through these posts, I have learned new ways to show my understanding of ideas and I have seen first hand the excellent results that can come from sharing our creative and insightful views.

In future, I want to spend more time on my e-portfolio to ensure that my ideas can be as structured and well thought out as these.

Dance like no one is watching!

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“Only 9% of respondents attended a dance show or event (7% of males and 12% of females). The highest level of attendance is among those aged 35 to 44 (13%) and the lowest is among those aged 75 plus (4%). The majority of respondents who attended dance shows/events did so once or twice a year. Dance is the fourth most common cultural activity adults participated in, with 12% of adults indicating they had taken part in dance in the previous 12 months. ”

The number of people participating in dance in Scotland today is exceptionally low, especially considering that we are a culture rich with both Highland and Scottish Country Dancing. The studies conducted in this review show that girls more than boys, and youths more than adults, participate in dancing of their own free will. This is particularly evident when looking at dance classes, including my own, which are overrun (and in our case entirely filled) with girls. It’s a pastime which boys find much less attractive than other sports such as football, and I believe the awful stigma surrounding male dancers needs to be eradicated.

In terms of in schools, the focus tends to be on the heritage of Scottish country dancing, which often fills pupils (certainly in secondary school) with dread. As a Scottish country dancer,  who has been attending class for over 10 years, I believe that schools are not teaching this wonderful art form with the credit that it deserves. Children become bored with the dances that they ‘learn’ year after year, which are then forgotten about until the next wedding they attend. Schools should be teaching these dances with enthusiasm to allow children to understand the culture they come from, just as Bollywood is respected in India.

Schools should focus on teaching children the benefits of dance, as a relaxation technique or as a social activity for example. The dedication and concentration required for dance can be used as inter-transferable skills across the curriculum, and it is my belief that dance must be taught in a more positive, inclusive and meaningful way to unlock the potential of more able children.

Get Scotland Dancing: A Literature Review Produced by Catch the Light for Get Scotland Dancing.

Available at: http://www.creativescotland.com/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/26149/GSDLitReviewv2.pdf

Accessed on 20/01/16

Real Book to Fake Book

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Fakebook is a wonderful resource which allows you to create a profile for a historical or fictional character, working just like Facebook. You can post as your character and add their “friends”, just as children are exploring on the real site. I think this resource is particularly useful for the upper end of the school as it allows them to connect with their learning in a more approachable way than simply reading and writing.

As well as developing ICT skills, my opinion is that having a context like this to display learning will motivate the children to find out more facts and further research into the topic at hand.

This tool can be used across the curriculum in subjects from Language to Social Studies. In particular, I believe this could be used well in history as when writing a ‘post’ it allows you to state when it was posted, which could be a useful resource to help create timelines of events.

 

http://www.classtools.net/FB/home-page – Accessed 19/1/16

Animation Fun

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As 18 year olds we had great fun creating this animation, and I think a class full of eager children would feel the same.

This fun activity teaches the children the skills of using a camera, and also using a microphone to record sound. This can be done in the form of recording a song as we did, or the children can record their on voices to fit the animation. This kind of task if completed in a group can also teach the children about teamwork, and the importance of including everyone.

In terms of where animation can fit into the classroom, I believe it is a wonderful resource to link subjects across the curriculum. Allowing the children to create their own figures for the animation can be their art lesson, the recording of the animation can be their ICT lesson, and the subject of the animation can be varied to cover many different aspects in order to support the knowledge that the children already have.

I would say that animation slots into TCH 1-04b / TCH 2-04b:

“I can create, capture and manipulate sounds, text and images to communicate experiences, ideas and information in creative and engaging ways.”

I believe this to be the case as animation allows to the children to work with a range of media, including sound, text and images, to portray their knowledge in a different way, which can hopefully allow them to retain the information.

My Not-So-Secret Identity

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In my opinion, personal values and morals make a person, and while others could argue that a career changes those values, I believe that it is the values themselves that change a career.

To explain what I mean, if someone has a generally calm, confident and caring personality, as I hope I show, my opinion is that they will be a better teacher. There are obvious exceptions to this rule, however, I think that the mindset you go in with will effect the outcome, not vice versa.

A teacher who genuinely goes into school in the morning with a passion to motivate their children, allows the children to “get more” out of the lesson. Without the key role model of a motivated teacher, children lack enthusiasm to learn.

While there are some personal matters which should be left out of the classroom, I do not think that it should be a “Jekyll and Hyde” situation.

I’m not sure how many of you are fans of Downton Abbey, but in the final episode, one of the footmen becomes a teacher in the local school. He has lots of motivation preparing lesson plans, however, the children do not engage with him. However, the next day when he explained that he was in service, they related to that as many of their parents were in the same position. This, while only a TV drama, emphasized the importance of having a rapport with your class and the benefits that can have on learning.

I’m a professional, and you’re under arrest!

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The police force are in a career which would, I believe, undoubtedly be seen as a profession, and having watched “24 hours in Police Custody”, that has been proven to me even more.
Capture

These were the words that I have previously used to describe a professional. When looking back on these after observing the police unit, I believe that these are truly, but not exclusively, the qualities needed to be a professional. However, on reflection, there are a few more I would add. Linking to caring, I would add that professionals must be concerned about and considerate to the people they are working with. This was shown particularly by the police force in that they understood that they had a “duty of care” to the individuals they worked with. They were always asking if the suspects, and the families had any questions, and in one instance worried for the health of a suspect as he looked “pale”. This shows genuine care that I believe not everyone could show to these individuals. Another instance of this was where the officers did not want to go to the home “mob handed” as there was a child living there, and they did not want to frighten them. Again this shows a duty of care, not just for the suspect but for their families. For the second suspect, this was evident where the officer sat down with the wife, and explained what was happening. This would make her feel included and could lead to better cooperation with the police.

In terms of the video itself, I would reiterate my thoughts on having to be calm but confident. The first suspect shown in the video was not particularly helpful in the interview, however, the officers stayed calm, and treated the suspect with respect, even though he was under arrest. The officers in the same interview also showed confidence that must come with being a professional. The officer was determined that she was going to ask a certain question, and was confident, even though the solicitor was not happy.

An example of professionalism can be described in the scene where the viewers were informed that the suspect would work with social services whilst on bail. This inter-agency working takes the strain from the police as they can allow the suspect out on bail knowing that he will be looked after and can no longer pose any threat to his family.

In spite of the overwhelming professionalism of the police officers, there were some points which struck me as rather unprofessional. For example, the officers did not have a dress code as such, apart from the police body warmer that they wore while out visiting houses. While I understand that this may have been to make the suspects feel more at ease, I believe that dress code is important when considering professionalism as the way you look can often be the first impression people get. To establish a sense of professionalism, and the qualities that go with it as listed above, can form an early trust or bond between the “service user” and the professional. In positions such as police officer or teacher I believe that this relationship is extremely important. From a police point of view, without trust from suspects, there is less chance of cooperation. From a teacher’s point of view, this trust may not only come from the children, but also from the parents who will look at the teacher and instantly make assumptions about them and the school they work in, which I believe can all come from dress code.

The impact of the police officers’ professionalism was evident in how the suspects acted. They were not disrespectful towards the officers, as they themselves had been shown respect, and they were cooperative, especially in the case of the second suspect.

My university degree:

Attending Lectures – 20%

  • Lectures give basic knowledge about topics

Background Reading – 20%

  • Background reading emphasizes what students have learned in lectures and can spark new ideas and interests
  • Develops commitment and time management skills

Role Play etc – 20%

  • Allows students to use the theories that they have been taught and that they have read about to develop practical skills which are useful in their profession, without as much pressure

Work Based Learning – 40%

  • Gives students a feel for what it is actually like to be a police officer, and will draw in all of the other elements that they have learned at university

From watching this programme I have learned that the term “professional” is really an umbrella term which includes connotations of many other skills and qualities. While each profession will interpret these differently, they will all be used to some extent whether in the medical, police or teaching profession.The programme has reiterated to me that a “professional” is much more than someone who goes to work in a suit and tie and carries a briefcase. A professional is a well rounded person with genuine good intentions and a desire to succeed in what they do for themselves and the people they work with.