Category Archives: 2.2 Education Systems & Prof. Responsibilities

Why would you want to discover maths?!

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When we were asked to choose an elective for MA2, it was not a hard choice. The minute there was a module that mentioned mathematics I knew that was the one I wanted to do. To me, mathematics is the subject that makes the most sense. The fact that I enjoyed mathematics in school was always something that my family and friends did not understand. The minute that math is mentioned as something that you love mathematics, people give you strange looks and ask you ‘Why?’. Many people struggled to understand why I would enjoy a subject that is all about numbers and equations. They struggled to see why I would choose to understand the language of numbers rather than the language we are all use to in standard English reading books. Well, why would I not choose the world of numbers? If you cannot understand the numbers around you then you will not be able to understand the world.

One common dislike of mathematics is that there is only ever one answer. That is always my answer to why I love mathematics so much. I have always loved that if you follow through an equation correctly then you will get the correct answer. Compared to English texts which could be interpreted in any way depending on the person and how you understood the text. However, this is not always the case. Some areas of mathematics are not as structured as always having one answer. In fact, some areas of mathematics might not even be about getting a correct answer but about what you can create using mathematics.

The way our curriculum is structured why would anyone see the fun and adventure in numbers. When mathematics is mentioned, the general response tends to be ‘why do you like it?’ or ‘when are you going to use it in day-to-day life?’.  Most mathematics that you learn in secondary school may never be used unless you go into a certain career. However, mathematics is used very differently in normal day-to-day life.  How can we get children to enjoy mathematics and see the fun in it if they only think of mathematics as times tables or algebra? Children need to be shown the fun in mathematics. They need to be shown how mathematics is weaved throughout several of their other subjects. Maybe if children were shown how people in history discovered how to work out the area of a shape or how symmetry is used in architectural they might be more interested in learning mathematics (Sautoy). If the curriculum brought in a context to mathematics rather than children learning an equation, how to use it but they think they will never use it again. Having more of an understanding of the background to math would help engage children in mathematics a lot more than simply sitting learning from a textbook.

Professor Marcus du Sautoy described mathematics as a language that you needed to work on to understand just like Shakespeare. I think this comparison describes mathematics and what you need to do to understand it perfectly. At school, I always struggled to understand Shakespeare but several people struggle to understand the language of mathematics. If the children that struggle with math are sat down and helped to understand the language of numbers, just as those who do not understand an English book or Shakespeare are treated then I think we would have a lot more people in the world who would see mathematics as a good thing and not something not worth learning.

 

References 

du Sautoy, M. (2009) The secret life of numbers. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2009/jun/23/maths-marcus-du-sautoy (Accessed: 14 October 2016).

Professionalism

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U58EFAwnKpw

What makes a teacher who makes a difference?

I think a teacher that makes a difference is someone who will go above and beyond for their pupils. The teachers in this video are teachers that make a difference as they take it upon themselves to better their teaching styles so that they are the best teachers that they can be. They do this all in their own time as well as hold groups so that they can discuss  different teaching styles. This means that everyone receives the best education that they could because of these amazing teachers. If these teachers had not taken this time, then their pupils would not be getting the best education they could which could harm what they go on to do in the future.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ychgs3rrdA&feature=related

Do you agree with what these teachers call professionalism?

I agree with every point that these teachers make about professionalism. Professionalism is the way you talk and your attitude towards the pupils. It is also about how the pupils see you and how approachable they find you. Pupils should find their teacher to be someone they can go to with they have any problems as well as someone they can look up to. There are also different levels of professionalism. You do not use the same level of professionalism with the pupils as you would with the parents. Communication is also extremely important skill for teachers to have which is mentioned in this video.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDf2oLt96O8&feature=related

What is the message here?

The message in this video is who values teachers as professionals? There are two very different talkers in this video.

The first is Chris Christie and he talk about how teachers should be highly valued and should be carried up high within society. He also talks about how teachers should be given what they deserve in pay as they carry our children through the educational system.

The second talker in this video is Karen Lewis. She talks about teachers being “education workers”. I think this view is a very negative view towards teachers and she makes teaching look like it is not that important a career. I think this is funny as Karen is a teacher herself so this shows how she has a negative view of her own profession

Overall, this video shows how different people look upon teaching as a profession. It shows how Chris who is obviously not a teacher thinks teachers should be valued highly within society, and Karen who is a teacher but sees her profession in a negative light and she does not think she is a professional.

Important Qualities of a Teacher.

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When looking at professionalism I feel like compassion is an important characteristic for teachers to have. Compassion is helping someone that is struggling or suffering. This is important for a teacher as they need to constantly be helping children who may be suffering. Teachers may also need to be compassionate towards parents or guardians if anything is going on out with the school environment.

Patience is another hugely important quality that teachers need. When working with children, patience is something that you need as children may not pick up ides and concept that you are teaching as quick as adults would. Children can get something wrong several times over, make a mess when doing art projects or playing. Teachers need patience to just keep calm in these situations and not get angry with the children but teach them what they need to do.

Another quality that I find important in teaching is fairness. Children come from all different backgrounds and have different skill levels. A teacher needs to be a fair person and treat all children the same. A good teacher cannot treat children differently because of where they come from or how clever they are. A lot of the time teachers can be seen as not being fair but this isn’t the case. All children learn differently so sometimes you have to teach children differently to combat this but at the same time you are still teaching children fairly. Fairness when disciplining children is also important as teachers cannot be seen as favoring one child over another.

In my opinion, tolerance is another important characteristic that teachers need. Teachers need to be able to tolerate a lot from all angles. Teachers may need to tolerate abuse from parents or guardians on the way they are teaching or how they may think you are doing something wrong. A teacher needs to be professional in these situations and tolerate what the parent say. It does not mean the teacher needs to do what the parent is telling them but they need to be able to tolerate the criticism but be confident in your teaching style.

 Lastly, honesty is an important quality for teachers to have. An honest teacher is a great teacher. Children do not benefit from a teacher that lies about what they are good at. A teacher needs to be honest about what their pupils are good and bad at. If a teacher was not honest then children would not know what they need to work on and what they are good at. On the other hand, teachers also need to be careful with honesty and make sure that they are not brutally honest and that they do not offend anyone.

Social Media In Schools.

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If I’m being honest, the power of social media scares me. Especially when you see how much children know and do on websites.
Do not get me wrong, the power that social media has is also fantastic. It means that pupils can connect and learn through several different web sites.
I keep going back and forth with whether I want to have two separate social media accounts for the personal me and the professional me or whether I will just monitor my one account. At the moment, I think that it would be more work if you had two different social media accounts. However, having one social media account for personal and professional purposes has its challenges.
I think the best way to marry the professional and the personal you on social media is to consistently monitor your privacy settings and make sure that you do not post anything that can get you into trouble at a later date. I am quite private with my social media accounts already and have my Twitter and Facebook page very private and I have to accept people that ask to follow me or see my page. I think my Facebook will always be for my friends and family only where I will be very careful with anything I post on that page and have it so that pupils cannot find me. Twitter is a little different. I don’t use Twitter a lot but I feel like it can be good for following educational hashtags that you might want your pupils to see. I think having a school Twitter page is a great idea as the pupils can then all follow it and post things onto it, as well as the teachers. If the teachers have a page with a different name that cannot be traced to them then the pupils would never know who is posting what.
Social media can be seen in positive and negative lights. I feel like using it within the classroom and engaging with pupils on it for educational purposes is an excellent use of the sites. However, I think that we also need to make sure that we are educating our pupils on the dangers of social media without making them scared to use