Category Archives: Professional Studies

ePortfolio Reflection

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At first I did not see the point in doing an eportfolio. As a result of this I didn’t post regularly and when I did it was only my TDTs that I was posting about. The class were encouraged to read and reflect on other student’s posts. Looking at my fellow student’s posts was an eye opener for me and it made me see how little I was posting. This gave me the kick I was needing. I want to start posting more on my blog about things that I have read, watched and heard about education. Once I read all of the posts made by my fellow students it has really encouraged me to want to post, comment and reflect more on my professional practice. The other students have gone into so much depth and detail about certain things that it has made me want to go on and read more about these subjects.  In their posts they have used images and videos which made me more interested in what it was they were writing about. Putting these into their posts made them more eye catching and more likely to read.

Most of the posts that other students have posted are not all TDTs, but were topics in education which they found interesting and has made me go online to gain further knowledge about these topics. They provide a lot of useful information and even topics that I did not know much about myself. They have inspired me to post more and make my blog more interesting by adding visuals and hyperlinks in my posts so that others can look at my blog. I hope that by posting more on my blog about topics that interest me, it will inspire my fellow students to do the same. I also hope that by reading my posts that they will want to research further into the issues that I raised. If other students do this then I hope that they will post comments on my blog which will encourage me to research further.

PENCILS

‘Every kid needs a champion’

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After having a lecture on self-esteem, I had gone home and explained to my Mother about what had been discussed in the lecture. As she is a teacher she was very interested in having a discussion about this with me. She explained to me that she had been on course and was shown this video so I went away and watched it myself.

In the self-esteem lecture we were taught that it was alright to make mistakes in the classroom and explain to the children in the class that you had make a mistake. This emphasises to them that it’s okay to make mistakes in life in order to learn. If you show children that you yourself make mistakes then this will show them that everyone in life makes mistakes too and as long as you learn from them then it is okay to make them.

In the video Rita explains that she gave her class a test and that one child missed every single 18 questions out of a possible 20. When she marked this test she said that she put “2+ and a smiley face” on the paper. The child questioned this as they knew that they had failed the test quite badly but Rita then went on to explain that they were “on a roll.” This was a good way in order to praise the child for their effort and not for their achievement which I think is a good way in order for the child to want to better themselves and try harder the next time. This also can help boost their self-esteem and make them not think that because they didn’t achieve the best grade but they tried their hardest on something anyway.

Another way that I felt was a good way to boost the children’s self-esteem in her class was to tell them that she had the best class and that they were to show off to others that they were so good and should “strut” their stuff in the hallways. I feel that this is a good way in order to boost children’s self-esteem as they may not feel great about themselves but she is explaining to them that they are the best which would make them feel more positively about themselves.

Overall I think that Rita Pierson is an inspiration and this video was very interesting for me to watch.

Gender

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After recently watching ‘The Secret life of 4 year olds’  I have noticed that children of this age are well aware of gender and the differences that they face because of their gender, The children were given a task in which there were to be two teams that would take part. The objective of the game was to put a bean bag on their head and, without touching it or holding it, they were to get from one end of the garden to the other without the bean bag falling off.  The teacher that took these children for this game chose a captain for each group, one boy and one girl. It was interesting to see that the teams were then quickly divided into a boys and a girls team by the children.  Once the game started the girls were adamant on playing by the rules and didn’t want to hold on to the bean bag as they were fully aware of the rules and didn’t want to break them. However, the boys were not concerned for the rules whatsoever. Their objective was to win at any cost. In result of this the girls were slower and more careful with how they moved as they wanted to obey by the rules. Almost every single one of the boys held the bean bag to their head and ran as fast as they could because they were so determined to win.

I found this very interesting how the boys and the girls made a clear choice that they wanted a girls team and a boys team. Which relates back to one of my earlier posts on gender. There is an obvious divide in gender still and boys and girls still do see themselves differently to one another. Also it was interesting to see they way the girls and boys acted in this task given. All of the girls wanted to obey by the rules and the boys were completely focussed on winning that they didn’t care at all about the rules that were in place. I find it extremely interesting how gender had played a part in this task and how differently both genders reacted to the task in hand.

Reflection on the Process of Feedback

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I was really nervous about getting feedback from my peers because I am not extremely confident in my writing yet. When we were given this task to do I wasn’t feeling great about it at all because the thought of other people in my class judging my writing made me feel sick to my stomach. I didn’t really like the idea of people judging me for what I am blogging about. I do enjoy to post things on my blog as I feel that I can get my views across to my peers. For some reason I saw this TDT differently than just posting a blog, I think it’s probably because I knew that people were going to be reading it and making comments on how I need to improve my work. It put into my mind, “why is it not perfect already? What’s wrong with my writing?” Overall, I was extremely nervous about it.

I then recently received my feedback which surprised me a lot. The comments that were made to me were all extremely positive and everyone seemed to like what I had posted. This made me feel great! I was happy to know that I could post a piece of writing on my blog and that people in my class were understanding what I was trying to get across to them. They understood my views on things and had a lot of nice things to say about what I had posted.

However, I then thought about this more. My initial reception to the TDT had changed. At first I really wanted to receive the positive feedback because I was so worried about being judged. I didn’t want to be judged as a person by what I am posting on my blog for university. I then thought about this more and as happy as I was about getting positive feedback, I think I really wanted to points to improve on. There wasn’t really anything that my peers said that I could have improved on which I feel would have benefited me a little more than all of the positive feedback had. I know it is nice to hear that my work is good and that I am doing the right thing, I want to know as well the areas that are maybe not so good.

I think that overall because I don’t really know the people commenting on my blog and they don’t really know me, that giving constructive criticism is a hard thing to achieve. You don’t really want to hurt anyone’s feelings because people take criticism personally when really all it is you are trying to do

What does it mean to be an Enquiring Practitioner?

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What does it mean to be an enquiring practitioner?

Being an enquiring practitioner is important when becoming and being a teacher. It means that we have to be able to work collaboratively and being able to fully commit to working with others. You have to be able to open to new suggestions from your peers and be willing to make changes to teaching and learning styles in which you already have. Making sure that you include all of your pupils within the class and to ensure that all children are able to learn with the teaching style that you have chosen to use. You have to be able to reflect on what you have done in lessons and be open to make changes to things that possibly haven’t worked previously. Being able to be open to suggestion a criticism is key in being an enquiring practitioner as you may have ideas and lessons planned that may not work for some children. Teachers must also make sure that they are sticking to the Curriculum for Excellence.

Being an enquiring practitioner is also important when being a student. In placements we will see so many different teaching styles in which we can adopt if they work or make changes to if you feel that they do not. This will allow us to learn about what kind of teacher that we want to become and will help us to work with our peers in order to succeed.

I think that being an enquring practitioner means that we have to be open to new things and ideas within the classroom, working with our peers in order to achieve and learning new and different teaching styles.

Personal vs Professional

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I think that making sure that your personal life maintains personal and does not get involved in your professional practice. One thing that may cause difficulties is social media and the role that it plays in your personal life. Teachers need to make sure that if they have a Facebook or Twitter account that they do not post anything that may endanger their career. I’m not saying that teachers shouldn’t have any sort of social media but I feel that they have to be careful and make whatever they are posting online private and make sure that they do not post anything that can jeopardise their teaching career. Parents and children all have Facebook account these days and they may try to add you as a friend but I feel that this would be an unwise move as you do not want to create relationships with people as this is unprofessional.

I have a Facebook account in which I use daily, it is extremely private and I have changed my name so that no one can find me unless I add them as a friend. I previously worked in a primary school and I did not want parents or pupils to add me as a friend so this is when I changed my name so that they were unable to find me and add me.