Category Archives: My educational philosophy

Revitalising Reflection

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Following Derek’s lecture upon our ePortfios, we were asked to review and reflect upon the posts of our peers, and how they structure and present their posts.

For me this was a very enlightening task as I have previously struggled to engage with my own portfolio, for the simple fact that I forget to post when I complete tasks. I was able to see the effort my peers had placed on structuring and presenting their chosen topic ideas in a way that has whole-heartedly motivated me to do the same.

While reading through posts, I noticed that a few things were clearly different between mine and my peers posts. The most engaging posts for me contained; catchy titles, pictures and videos but the most prominent difference between my work and the work of others was the length of posts and the amount of time they have spent crafting each post.

For me, I took this as a kind of wake up call to work on my portfolio more in, order to compete with some of my peers. Following on from this is, and Richard Holmes lectures, I have created myself a SMART target in order to improve the quality of my ePortfolio. in essence I hope these targets I have created for myself will improve quality and heighten my engagement. They are:

S – to write a minimum of two blog posts per week

M – post at least two per week

A – use blackboard posts to help follow up on TDT’s

R – link each post to my development as a professional/teacher

T – weekly evaluation if I have achieved it.

Overall I feel these targets will help me improve my portfolio, and ultimately help me become the professional I wish to be. The benefits of this will undoubtedly help me become a reflective practitioner, something which the SPR guidelines state as a must.

 

 

 

 

 

Managing My Learning

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Activity 1

Complete the table below to identify and reflect on those factors and plan actions for each.

Recognition/ Reflection Action
What helps my learning? How can I utilise this?
Discussing the topic with others
  • Set up a study group of like-minded peers
  • Engage with the online community
 Using colours for key words in notes
  •  Rewrite notes in spare time to ensure they are clear
  • Make posters etc. and place around my room to subconsciously engage with Education
 Getting alternative perspectives
  •  Set up a study group
  • Listen and note ideas of others to then consider and/or criticize
 Visual representations of topics
  •  Search the internet for visual representations of subjects, such as YouTube
  • create my own pictorial notes of topics
 Rereading
  •  Read relevant books/chapters more than once in order to reinforce knowledge
 Sport
  •  Engage with sporting activities such as the gym and football to release positive hormones and endorphins.
 Planning
  •  Create a timetable for myself of lectures, tutorials, study time, and sport time to ensure good time management.

 

 

Recognition/Reflection Action
What hinders my learning? How can I address this factor?
I’m easily distracted
  • Study in a place where distractions are minimal
  • Read lecture notes before the lecture and then take notes lectures to keep me focused
 Motivation
  •  Engage with sport to increase positive hormones thus giving me more motivation
  • Set personal goals, and rewards for achieving those goals
 Social functions
  •  Be sure to only engage with social functions after due work is complete
  • Use social functions as a reward for completing work
 Independence
  •  Create a day to day plan of activities to ensure I do all tasks needed throughout the day without getting distracted
 Illness
  •  Join the GP
 Sport
  •  Do not participate in sport if deadlines are not met or if sufficient work has not been completed
 The internet
  •  set limits on how much internet I use for pleasure purposes such as Netflix to ensure work is completed
 

 

Why teaching?

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Teaching has always been an integral part of my life from a young age; with my mum owning, and running an early years practice in my home town of Guildford. Since this time I have periodically worked and helped at the practice, whether it be for a little extra pocket money, or purely for the enjoyment of working and watching children grow and learn at such a young age. This led me to a job within a primary school within an after school care club, in which my enthusiasm and enjoyment in caring and teaching children flourished. It was here that I finally decided on a career choice, after an arduous seventeen years of wanting to become; a footballer, an actor, a singer and even a dinosaur. Finally an epiphany came; I was due to work at the school, and I could not dream of a worse way to spend my afternoon following a rubbish day in college. However after the short three hours of work on that day came to an end, a smile arose from my face and it was then I knew I wanted to work with children. If all goes well with my MA course, I hope to not only get a career as a teacher but to work my way to the zenith of a practices hierarchy. Furthermore I wish to change the perceptions of male teachers within primary teaching, which I feel is a hugely female dominant career. This is a strong goal of mine because as a child going through school I always felt far more engaged by male teachers than I did by female teachers and felt I always put in an extra mile when working with my male teachers. I hope all goes well within my course, and hope me and everyone involved comes out with the results they strive for.