Category Archives: 2 Prof. Knowledge & Understanding

Developing Effectiveness in Learning and Teaching – TDT Ocearch!

Me and fellow student Kirsty Gallacher decided to focus on one resource from Derek Robertson’s input – that resource being ocearch.org .

This is a shark tracker which shows the real time location of sharks movements. All the sharks have been tagged on their dorsal fin and have been given names by the organisation. You can find out the length, weight and type of shark as well as its recent locations. Above this you can focus on certain geographic locations, such as countries or even continents and track the sharks who live in their surrounding waters.

An example of Oscar the sharks recent movements off the coast of New York.

Here is a link to Oscars profile – http://www.ocearch.org/profile/oscar/

We think that this is a great ICT resource for ensuring the enrichment of learning across subject boundaries. Not only does it tap into science, for example, a topic on sharks in itself, but it also looks at geography. This resource can also link to maths and literacy.

By looking at the weight, size and types of sharks that exist in specific area, the children could look into why certain types of sharks inhabit specific areas of the world. For example, hot and cold climates.

This resource can also help children practice their map skills, and help them become familiar with continents, countries and oceans.

We can also launch an investigation into why these sharks travel so far and so erratically, possibly discussing what they eat, how they mate and how fast they travel. By looking at distance, speed and time, this could be incorporated into their maths. Looking at their diet and how they mate is again tapping into science as they explore further into the sharks habitat.

This could be done in groups or as independent study depending on age and ability of children. This could then turn into a literacy project where they can either write up their findings in the form of a power point, a booklet, a poster or a report.

This is a brief look into how this resource can be incorporated into interdisciplinary learning. We plan on looking into this further while researching for our assignment.

By Kirsty and Samantha

Create A Drama Bag (Drama 1H)

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As part of my Expressive Arts project I am going to create a Drama bag in which i will choose a variety of objects to represent particular characters. This bag can be used as a stimuli for role-play or improvisation.

Object – Glasses

Character– Old Lady/Grandmother

Object – Tiara

Character – Princess/Fairy/Queen

Object-Guitar Pick

Character– Rockstar

Object-Pen

Character– Business man

Object– Key

Character– Janitor/Grounds Keeper/ Security Guard

Object– Thread

Character– Seamstress/Maid

Object– Plaster

Character– Nurse/Doctor

Object-Pound Coin

Character– Rich Man/Woman

Object– Lip Stick

Character– Posh Lady/ Make-up Artist/ Diva

Object- Teddy Bear

Character- Small Child

Learning About Colour and Pattern! (Art 3H)

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Picture taken from Google Images – www.stationeryinfo.com

For this TDT we have been asked to research into colours and aspects of them before going in to personal research around our own favourite colours. After completing this i will then make my own colour wheel, which I will photograph and post at the end of this post.

First, I aim to define some artistic terms to be able to understand and reinforce my learning.

Primary Colours- There are 3 Primary Colours, which are Red Yellow and Blue. These are the main element of all other colours and no other colours can be mixed together to make these colours (Williams,2008).

Secondary Colours- The secondary colours are purple, green and orange. These new colours are made by mixing any two of the primary colours together (Williams,2008).

For example:

Red + Blue = Purple

Blue +Yellow = Green

Yellow+ Red= Orange

Hue- Are the 12 most bright and pure colours, the 3 primary colours, the 3 secondary colours and the 6 tertiary colours. All of these 12 colours together form the Colour Wheel (Williams, 2008). Hues can also be measured in degrees of where they are on the colour wheel, from 0 – 359 degrees (Workwithcolour,2008).

Brightness- Brightness is something which a person will determine themselves. It is often confused by the lightness of the colour. Brightness can be change by using the saturation tool as a higher saturation will make the colour brighter. The hue will also affect the colours brightness (Workwithcolour,2008).

Temperature- Temperature is expressed through the description of the lighting on a colour. This can be using either Blue (cool) or Yellow (warm) it is measured in degrees of Kelvin (Lowel,no date).

Expressive Qualities- Expressive qualities in colour express the mood and emotion behind the piece. It can also be used to express atmosphere such as tensions surrounding the piece etc (Color, no date).

Colour Theory- Colour theory is the heading which all of these definitions come under. Colour theory is the breakdown of colour under 3 sections; colour wheel, colour harmony and the context in which colour is used (Voodoo Publications, no date).

Scientific Properties of Colour and Light – Light is part of the electromagnetic spectrum, which is the only part of the spectrum that is visible to the human eye. The different wavelengths of light all radiate different colours, for example the shorter wavelengths give off a blue colour,where as the slightly longer wavelengths show a yellow/green colour (IES, 2011). ‘Rainbow light’ as such, can be shown through a science experiment when a ray of light is directed to shine through a glass pyramid this will split the ray of light into the coloured spectrum as shown below. This would be good to look into in the primary classroom.

Picture Taken from Google Images – mangahelpers.com

My Favourite Colour

Picture taken from Google Images – colorpalettes.net

Since I was a young girl my favourite colour has always been pink. I have chosen this TDT specifically as I am quite interested in finding out more about it.

As the colour pink comes in many different shades and tones they all reflect different emotions and feelings. For example the darker shades of pink, express feelings of romance and passion however the less strong shades of pink, like baby pinks, are more childish and show fun and excitement (Smith, 2015). Smith (2015) also tells us that pink has connotations of happiness and times of being carefree and childish.

The colour pink can also have a physical affect on us by promoting energy and confidence. As well as this pink is also known to be used in prison cells to calm erratic behaviour (Smith,2015).

The colour pink is also known world wide on a ribbon, which signifies hope in the hunt to find a cure for breast cancer.

My Colour Wheel

References

Color (no date) Elements in art – color. Available at: http://highered.mheducation.com/sites/dl/free/0072965258/340806/color.html (Accessed: 23 September 2016).

IES (2011) Discover lighting! The science of light > color. Available at: http://www.ies.org/lighting/science/color.cfm (Accessed: 23 September 2016).

Lowel (no date) Lighting Resource Centre. Available at: http://lowel.tiffen.com/edu/color_temperature_and_rendering_demystified.html (Accessed: 22 September 2016).

Smith, K. (2015) All about the color PINK meaning, psychology, symbolism. Available at: http://www.sensationalcolor.com/color-meaning/color-meaning-symbolism-psychology/all-about-the-color-pink-4342#.V-U7H5MrJPM (Accessed: 23 September 2016).

Voodoo Publications, C. (no date) Basic color theory. Available at: http://www.colormatters.com/color-and-design/basic-color-theory (Accessed: 23 September 2016).

Williams, S. (2008) Primary colors « color wheel artists. Available at: http://color-wheel-artist.com/primary-colors.html (Accessed: 22 September 2016).

Workwithcolour (2008) Color properties: Hue, tint, shade, saturation, brightness, Chroma. Available at: http://www.workwithcolor.com/color-properties-definitions-0101.htm (Accessed: 22 September 2016).

Ephemeral Art!

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Who knew something so simple as making pictures out of leaves, twigs and other natural resources can make you think so much?!?

In our most recent expressive arts module we learned about the artist Andy Goldsworthy and his passion for art in nature otherwise known as Ephemeral art. Goldsworthy’s work was always transient so would not last very long, this is because he uses only natural resources. This, however, meant that his work could only be documented through his use of photographs.Picture Taken From Google Images – prezi.com

Goldsworthy had an obsession with shape, line, texture, form and colour and would express this through his work.

Trying to decide the meaning for some of his pieces turned out to be the most difficult part…

This piece of Goldsworthy’s was one which we took forward as a group to try to recreate. This piece really captures just how impermanent his work really was.

This piece was created by Goldsworthy, himself, laying on the dry surface in the rain only to move himself when the rain had passed to leave his silhouette printed on the surface.

When trying to decipher the meaning of this piece, we struggled but came to the conclusion that it represents the short nature of life itself.

Picture Taken from Google Images – www.pinterest.com

Our Turn!

In this tutorial, we formed a group of 3 and tried out some of our own ephemeral art pieces. First we stared by gathering leaves and grouping leaves together by colour. Then we tried finding some sticks to use before deciding on what our project would be.

Next we had a discussion about what we could try and make. Me, I am nothing close to being an artist and you would struggle to find an artistic bone in my body. However, this task was easier (and more enjoyable) than first thought.

We then decided on our first project… the human outline made entirely from leaves… which wasn’t entirely our idea (although we’d love to take credit) but a take on one of Goldsworthy’s pieces pictured previously. We had Kirsty lie on the ground while the two of us laid leaves all around her.

The meaning of this was, like our interpretation of Goldsworthy’s piece, was to show that life does not last long.The fact that the wind could blow away at anytime represents this.

As well as this, we also were careful to use colours which fade downwards. This was to show the developments we make in our lives and the changes and choices we have to make and go through every single day. The way in which we grow as people are also represented in the leaves.

Finally our last original piece we created was a large tree.

This piece was one we made to reflect the changing of the seasons we felt like the colour of leaves were correct to show the time of year. As well as this we also thought this represents the passing of time, through the seasons and our time through this university course also.

This task would be simple and effective to recreate in a class of pupils. I also feel like the children would benefit from this artistic activity with being given extra time outside to explore their own surroundings… putting safety first of course!

Differences Between Sweden and UK

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Photo taken from Google Images – www.ucl.ac.uk

A few weeks ago we had an input where we discussed comparative education. We mainly focused on the differences between Sweden and the UK and the different perspectives they had on learning in the early years.

The Swedish School system contrasts with the UK school system in so many ways. The first one being their school starting age. In Sweden, children do not start school until they are 7 years old, which is a whole 2-3 years after we do in the UK. When this was first mentioned I assumed that they would be so far behind in their learning compared to children in our country who start so much earlier. However, I was shocked to discover that this is not the case. According to The Guardian in 2010, Sweden has over taken the UK in reading and Maths! They also are not to far behind the Uk in the science rankings either. (Shepherd, 2014)

Sweedish Children attend Pre-school from the age of 6 where they place a strong emphasis on the importance of play. However, In most other countries play is looked at as more of a chance for children to relax and relieve stress. As in the Uk children are in school at this time trying to build on their reading, writing and numeracy. Sweden’s pre school prioritises play and social skills as well as sharing, being considerate and tolerant towards others. (Swedish Institute, 2014) These are qualities and values which I feel are extremely important to learn at this age. Tolerance for reasons which seem obvious to me, Children learning how to be tolerant of others makes them realise that people are different (whether by skin colour, disabilities or things as simple as the clothes they wear) and understand how to deal with those differences effectively so they will not be causing anyone to be left out because of this. Consideration is also important as it allows children to consider other peoples feelings and show a level of compassion and kindness for others and situations they may be in. In my opinion, so many more children (in our country, specifically) should be taught these important values and social skills before starting school as I am sure this would lower rates of bullying in and around schools, and even just to help ease everyday stress on the teachers in the teaching practice. Swedish pre-schooling is now viewed as the foundation stages of life long learning as it is well known for the high impact it has on the children’s dialogue, interaction and communication.

Picture Taken from Google Images – globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com

Outdoor Education is another HUGE focus in Swedish schooling as children play outdoors any opportunity that they have. No matter what the weather may be. (Swedish Institute, 2014) In my opinion, this is what children should be doing at that age rather than being stuck in a classroom, children need to explore the environment and the weather first hand instead of being shown flashcards of rain and different types of weather… go out and feel it!

The homely environment in Swedish pre schools is something else which is to be desired in British schools. The staff are called by their first names instead of their last which makes everything more casual and gives the children a sense of security and comfortability. Just more of a friendly atmosphere I would say although it can be argued that first name terms does not show children how to be respectful. The room itself is also very homely. There is huge amounts of space for the children to play and a kitchen where they can snack in when they would like. They eat all meals and snacks around a table as if it was a sit down family dinner with pupils and staff. As well as this, children and staff members both remove shoes on entrance to the building as if it was their own homes. Comparing this to British schools, everything seems to happen at a certain time and things are a lot less relaxed. Children are allowed outside to play at 2 distinct times of the day and only weather permitting as they are made to stay inside if the weather is “too bad”. Now comparing the 2 school systems, it seems to me, that UK schools need to allow children a little more freedom in this regard.

Money is also an issue in the UK as childcare is becoming more and more expensive.Over the last Parliament the cost of a part-time nursery place for a child under two has increased by 32.8 per cent. A family paying for this type of care now spends £1,533 more this year than they did in 2010, while wages have remained largely static. (Rutter, 2015)

This quote from the Family and Care Trust article shows us just how expensive child care in the UK is and how much a family would have to pay to have their child to be in a nursery so they can go work to make money to provide for their family. When in actual fact the money they make from work will most likely be spent on the actual child care facilities. In Sweden there is a maximum fee policy which makes childcare affordable for everyone. The price is capped for the highest amount families can pay for childcare SEK 1260 per month (which works as just about £100 per month) where as low income families will pay nothing. (Swedish Institute, 2014)

From my research on the subject, I feel that Swedish children have more opportunity to learn first hand and in a more enjoyable way. Even starting school a few years later than what we are used has shown not to make a huge impact on the learning of the child. Maybe the UK should begin to follow in the footsteps of the Swedish Schooling System?

References

Rutter, J. (2015) Family and Child Care Trust. Available at: http://www.familyandchildcaretrust.org/sites/default/files/files/Childcare%20cost%20survey%202015%20Final.pdf (Accessed: 23 October 2015).

Shepherd, J. (2014) World education rankings: which country does best at reading, maths and science?. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2010/dec/07/world-education-rankings-maths-science-reading (Accessed: 22 October 2015).

Swedish Institute (2014) Play is key in preschool. Available at: https://sweden.se/society/play-is-key-in-preschool/ (Accessed: 22 October 2015).

Number Systems

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Numbers are everywhere we go but why do we have them? Time, temperature, weight, height, phone numbers and even on the front of buses. Something I learned from this input was that in fact numbers were thought to have came about through trading a long, long time ago.

Number Systems have never crossed my mind before this recent maths input, to be honest. I have always just assumed that people everywhere stuck to the “normal” , being the European system i am used to. I was aware of Roman Numerals from past school projects and some watch collections. However, I was not aware it was still used, as such, but now that I have looked into this, I see that I must have been pretty narrow-minded to think that maths and numbers would be the same worldwide.

Picture from Google Images – education.scholastic.co.uk

From further research after the workshop, I realised there was far more number systems that again I had never heard of such as Hindu- Arabic, Roman, Greek, Egyptian, Babylonian, Chinese. Which are displayed in the chart below.

Picture from Google Images – www.earth360.com

The task in this workshop was to create our own working number system. Our group decided to use a line per number and join them up… it worked but the higher the number the longer it would take to write. So we decided to stop at 9 and put a simple dot next to our number 1 to make 10. Our number system was a success.

Integration of Special Needs in the Classroom

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Integration within the primary school is a big concern for many people in our society, children and adults, but I do not see the issue with it. In my opinion, I feel that children from the age of 5-12 need to be able to see the world for what it is. They need to realise and understand that there are children, just like themselves, that face extreme struggles every single day. These by mental difficulties or physical disabilities some of which are long term. However, that does not necessarily mean that problems will not occur with this. Sometimes we can notice that other children look at the Additional Support Needs children differently simply because of their disability. This is why I feel that inclusion of special needs should happen very early on in the children’s school experience, as by the later years of their education they will be looked at as no different from anyone else.

Picture found on Google Images from cnotinfor.imagina.pt

On my MA1 placement and my previous experiences in the primary school, it is clear to see that with inclusion of ASN children they are still looked at by their peers as “different” but we can not make this any worse by not including these children in “normal”activities which could make them stand out more. Yes we will come across certain activities that these children will not be able to do but there will still be some way in which they could take part. For example, a disabled child that is in a wheelchair will not be able to take part in a class game of rounders on either the batting or fielding team. However, this child can still be made to feel important by giving the child the role of time keeper or score taker, therefore working on other skills which are just as important in a team sport. This way they will not be made to feel discouraged as they are still a valued member of the class game.

Picture found on Google Images from www.haltontennis.co.uk

“Special” schools are looked at as a good thing, for better use of money/ shared resources, but i do not necessarily see them as beneficial to all children either. Although the pros of this could be one to one support? …but would children really achieve the one to one support they need in a school of this kind, where all children have a need for extra help?

However, putting my views aside, research shows that sometimes the inclusion of pupils with additional support needs can have non-inclusive outcomes. (Dyson and Millward, 2001) When Inclusion fails it can be down to the lack of training for teachers on how to handle and prepare for children, of all abilities, inside the classroom, as well as limited funding for resources. (SEDL,1995) This is where the need for specialist teachers come in. Again on my placement the class teacher was appointed an ASNA who was in the class to aid the ASN children. All children bonded with her, even more so the ASN children. She was a huge asset to the class and the class teacher, although I realise that due to staff shortages this will not be the case in all schools.

Although I realise that cost, training would be factors for inclusion to not take place everywhere. I think inclusion of these children pose many benefits to other children and teachers. We can learn a lot from their strengths and teach to their weaknesses.

Me, I would hope that if my child was born with special needs they would not be made to feel singled out, discouraged, disheartened or looked at as different in anyway. My child would be loved for who he or she was, their strengths, weaknesses and personality just like any other child in their school or community.

References

Dyson, A. and Millward, A. (2001) Schools and Special Needs: Issues of Innovation and Inclusion. 1st edn. United Kingdom: Paul Chapman Educational Publishing.

SEDL (1995) Concerns About and Arguments Against Inclusion and/or Full Inclusion – Issues …about Change, Inclusion: The Pros and Cons, Volume 4, Number 3. Available at: http://www.sedl.org/change/issues/issues43/concerns.html (Accessed: 7 October 2015).