Monthly Archives: September 2015

How did gender effect you as a child?

Looking back on my childhood, I can’t really remember a time where I noticed any discrimination or unfairness due to gender. However at events such as sports day or even at athletics our class would be split up into boys races and girls races, or girls teams and boys teams. Which at the time I didn’t think anything of, but I know think that this could give the impression that girls aren’t as good at sport as boys and that they cant compete to the same level. Another thing today’s lecture has made me reflect on is that girls could get away with more than boys. This wasn’t the case in all classrooms, but I believe that it is stereotypical for girls to want to chat and gossip so they are more likely to get away with chatting in the classrooms than boys, which definitely happened in some of the classes. I think that it can be extremely hard for a teacher to break through stereotypes related to gender and sometimes teachers’ do not even notice that they are treating children different due to their gender. But also children do not often pick up on this.

The Study Skills Book

After reading pages 2 – 32, I have learned that unlike high school work cannot be marked and remarked, it is a one time submission. This is totally different to what I am used to. I now understand the importance of proof reading and getting others to check your work. I have also learned that no-one will chase you for your work, it is your responsibility to meet deadlines and complete work to the highest standard possible and that failure to do this could result in you being unable to continue your course.

I am more aware of the skills and personalities that employers are looking for in graduated pupils such as: being able to take risks, set personal goals, be able to work as part of a team and independently and finally you must display commitment. The book also highlights the fact that you are responsible for your own study and won’t be told when or possibly even what to study.

All in all, University is all about organisation, commitment and taking responsibility in your own work.

 

 

Why teaching?

I didn’t always want to be a primary school teacher, when I was younger I wanted to teach music. I started learning to play the violin in Primary 3, and then began learning the piano in P6. After a while I really began to enjoy music and could see myself teaching it. When I started high school music remained my favourite subject and up until the end of 4th year I wanted to study to be a secondary music teacher. However my mind was changed when I passed my grade 8 piano, I realised that teaching music everyday would take away the enjoyment of my hobby. In 5th year I began a sports leadership course through the P.E. department. After 6 weeks of learning one sport we would then teach local primary school children what we had learned. I really enjoyed this and decided that although I didn’t want to be a music teacher, I still enjoyed teaching but preferred primary teaching. I completed a ten week placement for 2 hours every Friday at my local primary school and enjoyed being able to help children develop their skills and found seeing their progress week by week was really rewarding.

At this point I find it hard to say what kind of teacher I’d want to be. Although I’d like to think that when I do start teaching I would be supportive and make learning as enjoyable as possible for my class. I think that finding ways to enhance each individual child’s learning is important too and hope that overtime I can develop skills to do this.