Category Archives: 2 Prof. Knowledge & Understanding

Today in my Dance input we were introduced to many different possibilities of how to deliver a dance lesson. One which I particularly enjoyed was when we were left to move and sway freely, and at the shake of a symbol we struck a pose. I got thinking about how I could vary this and create a full lesson out of it.

I began to think of different types of dances and what poses you could take from each one. This lead me on to thinking about dances from all over the world, and imagining iconic poses that children would enjoy copying and would most likely find familiar. Some key moves I thought of was walking like an Egyptian, Chinese dancing, Hula dancing, Highland dancing and Flamenco dancing. Each of these dances have a varied and contrasting look.egyptian walkhula dance

To begin the lesson I will play music and ease the children in with warm up activities. These will include stretching and moving around the room. For this particular lesson I will need to make the children aware of different world dances. This could be done prior to the Dance lesson, perhaps in subjects such as Geography or RME. Once the children are warmed up I would put examples of different world dances on and encourage the children to think about poses they could extract from these dances. An example could be that of the photos above. I would give 5-10 minutes of practice time for the children to become confident in their poses. Next, I would put the children in groups of 3-4, encouraging them to share their poses with others in their group. The children can pick 2-3 of their favourite poses and create a sequence of each one. The groups could then present their dance to the rest of the class.  To conclude the lesson I would ask each child to find a space and I would provide instructions to cool down, such as lying down and stretching each body part sequentially. This lesson could be followed up by many subjects across the curriculum.

Outcomes which this lesson would cover from the Curriculum for Excellence are:

Expressive Dance

I can explore and choose movements to create and present dance, developing my skills and techniques. EXA 2-08a, in the way that they are choosing the dance moves they favour, practicing in groups, and presenting to their peers.

I have taken part in dance from a range of styles and cultures, demonstrating my awareness of the dance features. EXA 2-10a, in the way that the children are learning dances from different cultures.

RME

I can describe and reflect upon practices and traditions of world religions. RME 2-06c, in the way that the children can show dance traditions of religions and countries.

The learning intention of this lesson would be “To develop an understanding of different dances from around the world.”

The Success Criteria would be ” To observe dances from around the world, practicing poses from each dance and implementing them in a group performance.”

Assessment opportunities of this lesson would be observational. Each child could be assessed on their perception of poses that can be taken from the world dances, and the child’s ability to copy them. The child’s participation in the group task could also be observed as an assessment opportunity.

Prior knowledge would be very beneficial to this activity.  Although the children are given examples of world dances in this lesson, it would be helpful for the children to recognise each culture and perhaps even reasons they may perform these dances, such as for celebration. Children would also benefit from previous inputs on how to strike a pose, and hold it in synchronisation in a group.

 

 

 

Maths is what?

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Today I was shown a quote describing maths as ‘Elegant and Beautiful’. This left me baffled as I thought back to my Maths jotter full of messily written, panic stricken, bunk bed sums. Otherwise known as “vertical calculations” to those more Mathematically capable. How could Maths possibly be beautiful?

That’s when it clicked. As a teacher it is my job to make it beautiful. In today’s class we explored what made maths so terrifying and difficult to children. It shocked me to realize that a massive part of the problem can be down to a parents view or even a teachers apprehension. As a teacher it is my job to show children that maths is not something to be scared about. I must put forward that even great mathematicians make mistakes, and alike every other area of the curriculum, mistakes are welcome.

So how do I change my view on maths? According to Haylock (2014) there is evidence that some teachers experience anxiety and panic when they encounter mathematical tasks they are unfamiliar with. One way I can combat this is to be as familiar as possible with the maths I need to teach. This will reduce panic during teaching if I perhaps make a slight mistake and get the incorrect answer. If I continue to be relaxed when teaching maths, I will hopefully be able to keep this relaxed manner when faced with new problems in the subject. This air of confidence will in turn reflect on the children in my classroom.

Another common cause of anxiety in teachers in relation to maths is that it is a difficult subject that only clever people can understand (Haylock, D, 2014). Personally, I think that the difficulty of a topic should not stop someone from attempting it and trying their best. I believe that if I put my mind to it I could achieve anything I wanted to. I also want to pass this belief into the children that I teach. However, I have never applied this term to my ability in maths. From this point on-wards I will strive to do my best in mathematics. This way I will begin to see that I am capable of understanding and teaching in a way which children will enjoy.

There is so much more I need to research in relation to maths and how to teach it in a way that will engage children and provide a math promoting environment. These points are just the beginning in what I hope will be a process of changing my fear of maths, in turn allowing me to eradicate this fear that is ever present in school so far.

Haylock, D. (2014). Mathematics explained for primary teachers. 5th ed. Los Angeles: SAGE.

Stop doing that for your kids!

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I recently read a very interesting article/blog that highlighted one Mum’s new revolution on how much we do for children. I’ll add a link here, so that I don’t take the credit. http://www.yourmodernfamily.com/stop/

The basic idea of this post is that we are doing far too much for children which is potentially doing more harm than good. I really enjoyed the description of the event that this woman used. It made me think back to my childhood in a way. I was always the child who would go to my friends house and try to keep as much to myself as possible in regards to their possessions or when offered food. I was terrified that I would make a mess and their parents would be angry, whereas my friends seemed not to care. They would tell me to leave wrappers on the floor or to leave my dirty plate for her mum. I felt very uncomfortable knowing that I was effecting someones home and leaving them to tidy up after me.

Taking this all into consideration I think back at how my mum raised me to help out and mentally thank her. She would help me tidy my room, but never do it herself, she would encourage me to pick up my toys and take my dishes to the kitchen when i’ve used them. I would help her dust and I understood the importance of my actions at a young age. I grew up to continue to help my mum around the house and it set me up to do well at school too. I was used to having responsibilities and could cope with them well. I think starting to get young children to take small responsibilities around the house can really do them well and set them up for a good future. So many things in life depend on having responsibilities and following them through effectively. We should all teach our children to take responsibility and enjoy it.

I then started to think about how teachers could promote this. I have previously come across teachers who kept plants in their classroom, and each week a new child would have the job to water this plant. This is a small example of a responsibility that is not too complicated for a young child. We can help children to become more responsible, they may need reminders now and then, but that is all part of our nurture.

This was a very interesting post to me and I enjoyed the thoughts it brought to me and hope I can use these in my future career as a teacher. I have a new found interest in the way we encourage children to take responsibility and how it can effect them throughout their lives. This is looked into more in the original post and I do not feel comfortable discussing these points as they are put forward so well there, but I do greatly believe that doing too much for our children can lead to lazy, dependent adults.