Category Archives: 3. Prof. Skills & Abilities

Why is Teaching Health and Wellbeing Important?

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Firstly, I would like to say how strongly I feel about the importance of teaching children about Health and Wellbeing from a very early age. I think it would be ridiculous to teach children about fractions and symmetry but not educate them at all about looking after themselves.

Health and Wellbeing focuses on many different aspects of life but I definitely think that it is all key information that can really help children to make informed decisions right from their first few years on earth. It teaches children about their mental, emotional and physical health as well as preparing them for the changes that they will go through in the years to come. Some may argue that teaching children topics such as “sex and relationships” is inappropriate but with the amount of younger children using social media these days it is inevitable that they will find out at some point so obviously it is much better for it to come from a professional. 

Relationships don’t always have to be romantic ones, from the moment we are born we are forming relationships with others around us, if we can’t make and keep friendships then this may have a negative impact on mental health also. I know from personal experience that during tough times my friends can sometimes be the only ones that keep me positive so I personally think that it is brilliant that there is room within the curriculum to educate children about this.

As well as this, children are taught from nursery about hygiene and food preparation, if they start eating healthy early on then they are way more likely to carry it on throughout their lives and then hopefully pass it on to the next generation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is ideal that health and wellbeing is taught in schools mainly because children spend all day every day with their class teacher and so they may be many of the pupil’s main role model. If a teacher speaks about healthy living then pupil’s may be more likely to follow.

 

Let’s Make It Personal

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Following the ePortfolio input where we had the opportunity to read some of our peers blog posts, I have realized that there are in fact a number of ways to display my professional thoughts within my own blog. I have also decided that I need to reflect more upon my own practice and take the initiative to create my own blog posts, not just sticking to tutor directed tasks.

Many of my peers have spoken about aspects of their personal life, I found this interesting as it made me feel like I was really beginning to understand the reasons behind their motivation to become a primary teacher. Some spoke of hobbies whilst others told stories about conversations with family members that really got them thinking. it was fascinating to see how much real life actually correlates to the theory that we have been looking at in lectures, workshops and tutorials.

Most of the best posts included some form of media, most commonly pictures or videos. I felt like this was successful as it allows any readers to gain a clearer understanding of what is being discussed in the post, as well as making it more interesting.

I think that others will benefit greatly from many of the posts that include personal experiences and media, due to the fact that for our tutor directed tasks we all write on many of the same topics and we are then directly able to compare our own posts with others and see how we could possibly improve and better our own work.

How I Aim to Learn More About Space

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When asked to come up with an aspect of science that I would not be confident to teach, space immediately sprung to mind. A whole solar system out there that I know very little about. During my time at primary school, there were a number of occasions where we did make the effort to learn about aspects of space, however, not many of these activities actually stuck in my mind. My goal as a teacher will be to give interesting and important subjects justice by creating fun and engaging exercises for all of my pupils. This way, there is a much larger chance that the children will retain more information about their topic.

So back on to space, where to start? There is a vast amount of information out there on the subject so this task in terms of time scale, may take a while. I aim to be able to cover the basics of what is actually going on up there, and anything extra is an added bonus. If I were the class teacher and I had made the decision to teach my class about the solar system for a science topic I would start by taking them on a trip, mainly due to the fact that most of the memories I have of primary school include a break from routine, some sort of exhilarating outing.

My chosen excursion would be to Mills Observatory in Dundee, as this will give the children an opportunity to actually see some of the stars and planets that they have been learning about in class prior to this. Of course this outing will be weather permitting, a foggy night wouldn’t really be ideal. I have chosen this because it is easily achieved due to the fact that it is not far away and it is also extremely relevant to the topic of space, allowing the children to make the connection between class work and what they are seeing through their telescope. However, this trip isn’t just a plan for when I have my own class, it is something I could do myself before starting placement to brush up on my own knowledge of space, and I will also have an opportunity to ask some of the staff at the observatory any questions that I have regarding space.

As well as this trip I will use a combination of books, internet and television to build on what I already know. Following news updates regarding the astronauts who are currently in space may also be useful in my attempt to build up a clear knowledge base.

 

My Maths Journey

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I could confidently say, throughout primary school I was one of the best in my class at maths, I was bursting with confidence in the subject and I found every aspect of it painfully easy. On my final day of primary school I even received a prize for maths, I was that good at it.

However, after my transition into high school it all went downhill. I began to find maths extremely difficult and I seriously lacked the confidence to progress in the subject. I was never bad at maths, I still remained in the top class for my year group but something had changed. I was now the worst at maths in my class and I felt too stupid to ever ask my teacher for help.

A well-known saying is: “a good workman never blames his tools” but I am going to contradict that by placing most of the blame on my high school maths teacher for my lack of confidence. He snapped at me whenever I asked him for help and he even told my mum at parents evening that there was no chance of me passing the subject. He was wrong, I sit here today with a C in higher maths, a very low C, but still a pass.

In my experience, those who were good at maths were regarded much smarter than someone who was good at history or art. I think this is a main reason as to why the subject intimidated me slightly when it came to secondary school. Another reason is that I strongly believed the myth that we were born with either a mathematical or a literacy brain, I was always good at history so I then decided that it just wasn’t in my genes to be talented at maths.

There is also another myth circulating that people wont need maths once they leave school. I feel very strongly against this as we use maths in many aspects of life. When I get on the bus every morning I have to deal with money which is pretty much basic maths that I learned in primary school. When I become a teacher maths will be a large part of my job so that directly proves that this myth is rubbish.

I aim to incorporate group work into my maths lessons because I feel that children will be more likely to ask for help when they are in a group rather than on their own. As well as this speaking out in class is much less daunting because it wont be as humiliating giving a wrong answer when it is a group effort.

In today’s maths input there was an extremely interesting saying:

I hear, I forget

I see, I remember

I do, I understand

This backs up the idea that group work among other things, may be beneficial. Children learn better by actually trying things out instead of just working from textbooks. If they can apply their maths to everyday life and make it interesting they are more likely to remember it in the years to come.

What is Reflection?

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I personally found this question extremely difficult to answer as there are so many different examples and definitions of reflection. This video helped me greatly in my attempt to understand what it actually is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wHANninAl4

It starts  by saying it is the ability to consider solutions to problems. Although very broad, I somewhat agree with this statement. Reflection is using past experience and knowledge to actually solve a problem. For example, if I was to fail an assignment (hopefully that wont happen) I would look at what I actually did wrong and I would use this for my future assigments to avoid making the same mistakes again. This is reflection, in a way it is an ‘action plan’ to help improve our learning.

It could also be said that reflection links to being self-critical. If we reflect after each lesson we deliver we can identify which aspects we could improve on. It is important to accept that we will make mistakes so that we can enhance our teaching methods and reach our full potential.

 

Online Units Section 1C, The Benefits of Active Learning and Co-Operative Working

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When faced with completing this task I firstly attempted to find a definition for active learning, Education Scotland website came up with the ide that it is a sort of learning that really challenges a way a child thinks and it des this by using situations that are both real-life and imaginary. this website also provides examples of this being used in practice which I find very useful. Here is the link just in case anyone is interested:

http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/learningandteaching/approaches/activelearning/

So what exactly are the benefits of active learning?

I personally think that this learning style has an endless amount of benefits, it is exactly what children want to be doing in class. it is exciting because it is an extremely hands on approach and children are less likely to get bored. As a result of children being more entertained behaviour may improve also. Young children shouldn’t be stuck in seats all day copying from a board, they need to get up and get moving and that’s exactly what the active learning approach is looking to do.

What are the benefits of co-operative working?

 I would personally say that working co-operatively to study for something is extremely useful, it creates that security of knowing that people are thinking the same as you, its a good way of finding out if you are actually on the right track too, similarly if you are doing things completely wrong it makes it easier to find that out before it is too late. Working co-operatively is useful for more than just study, group tasks can create friendships and build confidence when speaking to new people. It may also mean that overall the work produced is of a higher standard because people have been able to discuss many points and have more ideas to put down. The benefits and drawbacks of each idea have been discussed before a conclusion has been reached.

However, there are also a few drawbacks to co-operative working, when working in groups the discussion may often end up going off topic and this may result in little or no work being done. Also, if there is a disagreement within the group then that may effect the quality of discussion.

Overall, there are many benefits of both active learning and co-operative working and I think they both contribute greatly to the future of education.