Category Archives: Professional Studies

Words are our master.

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The importance of language to our world is undoubtedly massive. In a lecture I attended on language the lecturer brought up the idea that society would struggle without words, it was quickly pondered but then we moved on. However in my head I could not move on, this thought stuck with me. How different would be all be, how different would our world be, without words?

As I thought I began to imagine a world without words… and I could not. the idea is so unfathomable so impossible that even my imagination could not support it. Our society would simply not cope.

Even basic communication would be a struggle. Sure, some may argue we could ‘umm’ and ‘ahh’ to form some paths of communication however there are only so many different sounds that we can make. And moreover if this was practiced by all it would be the same as using ‘words’ and so, still, we cannot see a way for our society to cope without the use of words.

I cannot fathom living in a society where there are no words to describe where you are, who you are, what you are feeling? No words to make sense of the things around you. There would be no recognition of our own surroundings without having some way to communicate and discuss what it is we were seeing.

Without words we would not be able to merely have thoughts. If you think, think about anything, I can guarantee that you will have thought of even just one word. Without words we could not be the people that we are, we would not be as advanced or as brilliant a species.

Could you even begin to imagine a mute world? Can you imagine the chaos?

This is why words are so vital to us. We simply cannot live in a world without them. This is why as teachers and equally for parents, it is so important to build up communication with children, to talk to them, to help them understand the world that they live in. To enable them to communicate, to enable them to have thoughts and opinions ,to develop their knowledge and one day allow them to become fantastic individuals.

Without words I cannot see a world where all of this is possible.

My Gentle Reminder

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I’m sure we can all agree that by February or March this year we were entirely fed up of lectures, tutorials and essays. In fact, I felt so fed up that I began to question why I was doing all of it in the first place. And then, placement came along…

Being back in the classroom, doing the job I love is just the reminder that I needed to keep me focused on my end goal and remind me why I sat through all of those lectures this year. I did it all because I love teaching, I always have. The great buzz of energy you feel when you stand in front of your class and they are looking back at you totally engrossed in what you are telling or teaching them. The ‘eureka’ moment that you see spread across a child’s face when they finally understand something they have been working on for weeks. These moments are why I love being a teacher.

Being back in the classroom this time was greatly different to before. Previously I had just been in the classroom for work experience for around a week with very little responsibility. This time around I was there for much longer with much greater responsibility and this contributed to the experience being far more rewarding. During my 6 weeks at my school I was able to see the children progress and grow. This is something which I had previously not encountered but it brought me great joy to be able to see this.

The behaviour issues in my class, and generally within the school, were extremely challenging. I felt my own skill set was really put to the test, and I had to expand my knowledge using reading. I feel my behaviour management strategies have improved greatly and I look forward to using them again and seeing how they work in different settings.

Planning lessons was a very enjoyable task for myself. I loved trying to make them exciting and engaging and used my memories of school, both good and bad, to help me to do this. It was good to look deeper into lessons which I remember and understand why I was taught in a certain way.

I now understand my own school teachers so much more. Situating myself in their role I was able to see that everything that they did was for me and my fellow peers. Every time they raised their voices slightly, wouldn’t let us chat or gave us some sort of a sanction they were doing it all to help us. To help us achieve, learn and do well in life. I could not see that as a child, but now I can, and because of this I have such great respect for them all and everything that they did for me which allowed me to be in the position I am now.

My highlight from my placement was the day of my Summative Visit. The children had been warned to be on their best behaviour as we had a visitor coming into the class. Many of the children knew that it was “Miss Burnetts boss” coming back again. They did themselves and myself proud, their behaviour was great and they engaged in the lesson and the task. I was so pleased that they had did this for me so that I could do well. And whilst I was showing my tutor out of the school my class teacher had shared with them that I was being assessed and that I had passed my placement. Earlier in the day the children and teacher had made me a card and they presented it to me when I returned to the class. As they were giving me a card they decided to sing ‘happy birthday’ which really took me by surprise. The children were so happy for me, hugging me and saying ‘well done’, giving me a cheer. They were happy that I had succeeded and wanted success for me, the same way in which I wanted success for them in their school endeavour. This was the best part of my placement, knowing that I had made such a positive impact on these children that they wanted me to succeed.

I can’t say that I am happy to have finished with placement, although I am going to enjoy some long lies. I thoroughly enjoyed my time and feel I have gained and learned so much from the experience. Ahead of me is another year of lectures and I suspect I will have the same feeling again of questioning. I will remind myself to look back at this placement and the joy I felt during it, using this as motivation to keep going. It will be another two years before I will be back in the classroom and I hope that they fly in, until then I will continue with my studies all the while keeping in mind my goal, of being back in the classroom doing the job that I love and hope to be doing for years to come.

 

The Physical Child – History of the Brain Timeline

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20th Century –

1900 – Sigmund Freud

The interpretation of dreams – dreams are the unconscious mind where repressed                   wishes are played out. His theory is that the unconscious mind drives most of human behaviour even though society dictated that you must override such impulses with reason. There is tension created between the repressed drives and the expected social conventions and this tension is relived through dreams.

1906 – Santiago Ramón y Cajel

Research into the changes neurons undergo during the functioning of the nervous system won him a Nobel Prize.

1911 – Henry Head

Publishes Studies in Neurology where he disputes the theories regarding aphasia and argues that the function of speech is not localised.

1921 – Hermann Rorschach

Development of the ink blot test. The test gives useful clues to the patients ‘psyches’. Used to evaluate personality traits and disorders.

1929 – Hans Berger

EEG was invented.

1932 – Lord Edgar Adrian and Sir Charles Sherrington

Nobel prize won for research into neuron function specifically the mechanisms by which nerves transmit messages.

1934 – Egas Moniz

Research done into operation on the brain which cured depression as well as causing many other personality changes, similar to Phineas Gage’s “accidental leucotomy”

1936 – Walter Freeman and James W. Watts

First lobotomy performed in U.S.

1938 – Albert Hofmann

Research into ergot fungus containing natural hallucinating properties resulting in the production of LSD.

1949 – Walter Rudolph Hess

Nobel prize won for research into the interbrain being responsible for coordinating the body’s internal organs.

1950 – Karl Spencer Lashley

Experiment designed to look into the neural components of memory involving rats in mazes.

1953 – Nathaniel Klkeitman and Eugene Aserinsky

Development of Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep.

1963 – John Carew Eccles, Alan Lloyd Hodgkin and Andrew Fielding Huxly

Nobel prize for work on the mechanisms of neuron cell membranes.

1967 – Ragnar Granit, Haldan Keffer Hartline and George Wald

Research into how the eye passes images to the brain.

1970 – Julius Axelrod, Ulf von Euler and Sir Bernard Katz

Discoveries concerning storage, release and inactivation of neurotransmitters and how psychoactive drugs affect this.

1974 – M.E.Phelps, E.J.Hoffman and M.M.Ter Pogossian

Development of the first PET scanner which looks at the activity of the brain from a visual prospective.

1981 – Torsten Wiesel and David Hubel

Research on visual information send from retina to brain.

1990 – George Bush

Declares the decade starting in 1990 the “Decade of the Brain”

1997 – Stanley b. Prusiner

Research into prions as infectious agents in the brain which cause several diseases such a dementia.

2000 – Arvid Carlsson, Paul Greengard and Eric Kandel

Research into chemical transmitters and synapses.