I found this weeks workshop extremely valuable and found that it made me think about things differently and consider things that I had never thought of before. During the workshop we were put into small groups. We were then handed out resources that we had to use to create something that a new pupil on campus could use. My group got handed lots of resources and the lecturer was very supportive of us. This made us feel very positive and we were able to get on with the task and work well together. It wasn’t until the task finished that we realised that not every group was given the same amount of materials to work with. They expressed to us, that they had noticed that they were not given the same as everyone and that that made them feel unmotivated and it made them question whether they had done anything wrong. Had I been in their situation I probably would have noticed the lack of materials as well and felt the same way but since I had what I needed I didn’t. This task was very beneficial as it really put a lot of emphasise on how important it is to give everyone equal opportunities to learn.

Giving everyone equal opportunities to learn does not mean that everyone should get the same amount of resources and support. Some individuals will need more resources and we need to try and match that to the child’s abilities. It’s the same when it comes to support; every pupil should receive positive praise and reinforcement but some will need more encouragement and motivation dependent on what the teacher observes. Teachers will have an idea of who needs more in both of these areas but they need to be open and flexible to this changing during the task. Having this knowledge of the pupils in their class will come from building and developing a relationship of mutual trust and respect.

It is human nature to make judgements and assumptions about people. These assumptions come from what the person looks like or what we know about them (or don’t know about them) whether that’s to do with age, gender and gender identity, race, religion and belief, disability, financial status and sexual orientation. Some people will even treat these people differently based on these factors. People see things differently and have different thoughts and views on everything and we need to learn to respect them. As teachers we need to be mindful that children coming into the class are exposed to this both within and out of school.

Although the workshop gave us an insight into what this would be like in the classroom we need to remember that these situations also happen in every day life.  There will always be the people that have and the people that don’t have (just like in our workshop).