What is Time?

Time is one of the most important mathematical aspects which we use every single day. Time is something that is linear and can only move forward. As time is made up of years, months, days, hours and seconds, we can only move through each of these at a certain pace and can’t travel back.

The study of time is not only important to us humans, however, to animals also. This is due to many animals hibernating or migrating at certain times of the year. As this is seasonal, animals must be able to tell the time right? Or is it downloadjust the sudden changes in temperature when summer fades into winter? Seasons aren’t the only times animals must tell the time, but day and night. Nocturnal animals must know when to go to sleep and when to wake up. Or do they guess it’s time for bed when dawn breaks? Either way, animals are able to sense the time whether it’s through the sun and moon or temperature change.

Continuing the discussion on day and night, full days are made up of 24 full hours. This is based on a theory from ancient Egyptian time. During this time, Egyptians calculated 10 hours of day (light) and 10 hours of night (dark). They then estimated 2 hours each for dawn and dusk. This then linked together in order to create a 24 hour day.

However, how were people even able to tell an hour had passed sundial_2r-e1388980268843before the invention of mechanical clocks? They managed this through the creation of sundials or obelisks and water clocks. Sundials and obelisks were used in order to track the movement of the sun throughout the day. Water clocks on the other hand were used to measure time through the regular flow of liquid in or out of a container then measured.

Even though people were able to tell the time, it wasn’t until 1700/1800s that standardised timedownload was introduced. This is when all countries were synchronised to the same time. However, it eventually became confusing as countries were working with the same time although areas of the world were in darkness and others in daylight. GMT was then adapted by the US and the rest of the world in order to solve this issue. This is also described as different time zones.

Another factor that is important in everyday life that involves both time and mathematics is timetables. Timetables in the university or school setting are extremely useful as they show dates and times for each class and what room specific lessons are in. You can also find timetables for busses and trains which allow you to see exactly where they stop in order to travel on the correct route.

Overall, time and timetables are extremely important in everyday l008925ife. Time in particular is an important topic within mathematics that young primary children learn within school. As a teacher, I must make sure that children understand units of time before teaching how to read analogy and digital clocks. Being able to tell the time is important for the children to use every day throughout their lives and I, as the teacher, must make sure my lessons are adapted to suit each stage in order for their learning to be successful.

Longitudinal Coherence – Two Definitions

During the process of writing my assignment, i came across two different meanings of longitudinal coherence which caused me to become slightly confused.

The mathematical term of longitudinal coherence, stated by Liping Ma, is described as the layering of the subject. This can be like the curriculum and how there are layers of various stages in each topic area and what each ability should be learning and implementing. Ma describes that the teachers must be aware of all levels and areas of the curriculum and not only the stages they are teaching or have taught. This, therefore, means that the teachers understand what their students have previously learnt and what they’ll be learning in the future in order to lay the right foundations for future lessons.

On the other hand, when I was searching for other definitions of longitudinal coherence, i found that this term also has a different scientific meaning. Within physics, this term is defined as the “distance over which two waves from the same source point with slightly different wavelengths will completely dephase”. As I have never understood physics, I don’t understand exactly what this describes. However, relating it to the assignment, I believed that it was explaining how two different topics may cross over or link as they contain basic areas which can be used within both or multiple topics. As this is very similar to interconnectedness, it caused confusion. However, i never realised that there are two completely different meanings for longitudinal coherence and the scientific definition, therefore, has no relation at all to the topic being discussed within my assignment.

Although the scientific meaning of longitudinal coherence relates in no form to the mathematical definition, i found it extremely intriguing. I believe the scientific meaning in a way, of what i understand, can in fact be an interesting description of how subjects or topic areas can be totally different, however, have similarities.

Segre, C. (2010) ‘Longitudinal Coherence’. PHYS 570: Physics. Available at: http://phys.iit.edu/~segre/phys570/10F/lecture_04.pdf (Accessed: 20 November 2016)

 

Logistic and Supply Chain

The logistic and supply chain is describing the managing of planning, implementing and controlling the process of the shipment of goods. The best storage method during shipment must also be considered during this process in order to arrive safely to the supermarkets in order to meet the consumers’ requirements.

Food miles can also emphasise a way that mathematics is used in everyday life. These miles describe how many miles your food has travelled before arriving on your plate. download-1This includes the distance from the producer to the supermarket and finally to the consumer. Food miles are a good example of mathematics. These miles can be broken down into kilometres, meters, centimetres and eventually millimetres. This can be broken down further by the description of number recognition and sequences. This emphasises the fundamental principles of mathematics as it can be broken down in to the most basic concept.  Food miles are important in everyday life and are used to encourage people to buy locally as the miles are often calculated through the pollution that was caused during the journey.

During the journey, a variety of other mathematical factors must be considered. When shipping the products, the correct method of packaging must be considered in order to carry the biggest amount of goods possible at once. This includes thinking about the weight, size and temperature requirements for each of the individual products. The shelf life must also be calculated through how long it took the food to travel to the supermarket and how long left it has left on it’s sell by date. All of these factors are influenced by mathematics whether it be amounts in a variety of forms or simple calculations.

Before any of the products even make their journey to the supermarkets, the businesses must demand plan. This is when the supermarket plans exactly what products they want and how much of each. This can be done by looking at the previous years data free-pumpkin-clipart-pumpkin-clipartthat was collected in order to judge whether they need more or less and what to get at certain times of the year. A good example of this is pumpkins. This is because buyers are usually only interested in them around the time of Halloween. During a clip from BBC1’s Supermarket Secrets (‘Autumns Supermarket Secrets’, 2015) it’s stated that “no one wants a pumpkin a day after Halloween. And the stores can’t run out too early.” This is a great example why supermarkets must look back at the data they collected on how much pumpkins were sold previously and on which particular dates as they don’t want to buy too many or too little.

In the future, this will help me develop my own health and well-being lesson on these areas. I believe it is important for children to understand how their food was produced and how far it’s travelled before they were able to buy it from the supermarket. Using food I bring into class, I will have the children calculate the food miles of each product through using the ‘Food Miles Calculator’ – accessible from https://www.foodmiles.com/. Although this information has gave me lesson ideas for when I’m teaching, I have learned how mathematics is needed throughout the logistic and supply chain which will be useful for me when ordering a number of resources for my classroom.

‘Autumn’s Supermarket Secrets’ (2015) Supermarket Secrets, BBC 1 London, 25 October. Available at: https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/clip/27113 (Accessed: 20 November 2016)

 

Data and Statistics

Data and statistics are an interesting area within mathematics which can be used widely within different subject areas. Data is defined as the collection of any facts and information, whereas statistics is specifically collecting and analysing numerical data.

It is known that the use of data and statistics reaches back to 35,000 years ago. At this time, the oldest mathematical tool, the Lebombo Bone, was used in order to collect and record data by bushmen in Namibia. This was similar to tally marks and was carved into the piece of bone – often the fibula of a baboon. This method of recording information was found to be used near the Border Cave in the Lebombo Mountains between South Africa and Swaziland. As it had 29 markings, it is believed that it could have been used to track the moon phases, menstrual cycles, or simply as a measuring stick.lebombo

This finding emphasises how long data and statistics have been around for and how it has developed over the years. Thousands of years on, we are now using software on computers to withhold information for us. We are able to create tables, whether on paper or within the computer, and input the data or statistics in order to collect all the information together.

Within the public health department, doctors must be numerate every day. This includes working out the doses of medication for individual patients or organising money for new drugs. Workers within this department also frequently use data and statistics to track the health of their patients. Graphs are used regularly in order to plot the rate a baby is growing within the womb, so they can track whether they’re growing at a healthy rate or not. They also use graphs to plot a patients height against their weight to be able to work out whether they’re under weight or obese for their height.

To conclude, data and statistics have been around for many years and is used within many subjects and vacations other than mathematics. Children learn how to collect data and statistics within maths, however, will use it within different areas such as topic work or ICT, etc. and will find it useful in the future. As a teacher i must make sure my lessons are effective and are stage appropriate in order for the children to learn successfully. I will also use data and statistics when teaching in order to note and calculate when assessing children. I will also use data with the class register as it will include the children’s full names, date of births and whether they have any additional support needs. Overall, data and statistics will be used regularly during my teaching career.

Astronomy and Huge Numbers

Mathematics is widely used in astronomy. Astronomy, however, uses extremely large numbers since space is so huge. Maths can be used in astronomy to describe the distances between the earth and the moon, the earth and the sun, and between different planets. The distance from the earth to the moon is approximately 384,400km. This is a large distance considering there are things a lot further away form earth than what the moon is. The sun for example is 149,600,000 km away and that is still closer to the earth than what the dwarf planet, Pluto, is. Both of these large numbers don’t come close to how big our galaxy is alone never mind the distances between galaxies within the universe.

Light years is another example of the use of numbers to explain distance within space. Light year defined is how fast light can travel in 1 year and is used to describe the extremely large distances. In a vacuum, light can travel 300,000,000 metres per second. However, after using the speed = distance/time formula, you can calculate that in 1 year light can travel 9,460,800,000,000,000m. As this is such a huge distance, astronomers use this in order to describe the distance in space. They often use light years to emphasises how far different galaxies are away from the Milkyway.

Another example of using numbers in astronomy is to emphasise the amount of stars the universe contains. The universe approximately holds around 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars. This number is so big that people can’t get their brain to understand exactly what that amount of stars looks like. As it is such a long number, Astronomers use mathematics in order to simplify it’s written form. The amount of stars can also be described as 10²² (ten to the power of twenty-two). ‘To the power of twenty-two’ represents 22 zeros in the number and successfully breaks down the number to make it easier to read.

Overall, Maths is an important part in astronomy. I found this extremely interesting and literally couldn’t picture how big these distances are or how much stars that actually is. Even though i couldn’t picture exactly how far it was, the use of light years to describe a distance was useful as it puts it into better perspective than billions of miles away.6a00d8341bf7f753ef019b003e90e1970b

Mathematics in Art

Who would have thought that maths is used within art. However, I have now learned that many artists have used a specific number sequence to create their artwork. These numbers are called the Fibonacci sequence.

The Fibonacci number sequence is made up of the fact that every number after the first two is the sum of the two preceding ones; 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144. This sequence was named after the mathematician, Leonard of Pisa, also known as Fibonacci. Details of the sequence were published within his book in 1202 which introduced it to into the mathematical world. He stated that he found a simple numerical series that is found commonly in natpicture1ure.

This exact sequence has also been used by artists when creating their images. For example, Piet Mondrian has been known to have used it within his art work. During our workshop, we created an image in the style of Mondrian through using the Fibonacci sequence. We did this by the use of graph paper and a ruler. In order to create the different sized rectangles, we counted out the squares using the numbers from the sequence. I found this task to be great way in learning one way the sequence could be used within art and how simple it made creating the image be.

Within this work shop we also created a version of the Golden Spiral. Using the sequence, we were to create different sized rectangles in a certain order and then used a compass to create the spiral. Although I found this a little more confusing to create, it helped expand my knowledge on the topic.

Moving on to other forms of mathematics seen in art. In 1509, mathematician Luca Pacioli published an article on a number that is now broadly known as the ‘Golden Ratio.’ This is a special number approximately around 1.618. This ratio, symbolised by Phi (Φ) appears within mathematics, art, architecture and other areas. It indicates a special ratio of line sections when the line is divided through the use of an equation. In the workshop we tried to work out the ratio through inputting the short and long measurements of the lines into the equation (a+b)/b = b/a. We found that both sides calculated to be approx. 1.618.

This ratio was used by renaissance artists for beauty and balance in their artwork. Leonardo Da Vinci is once artists that has been associated with the golden ration and Fibonacci sequence. His painting “The Last Supper”, painted between 1494 and 1498, has clear examples of the design and architectural features to be using the golden ratio. Some also believe that Da Vinci even positioned the disciples around the table in proportion to Jesus using the ratio.lastsupp

As the golden ratio has been used when creating artwork, it has also been used when creatinglaon_cathedrals_regulator_lines buildings. It was in fact used in the designs and plans for creating one of the most famous buildings in the world, the Notre Dame in Paris.

Overall, before the workshop, I would have never believed that art can hold mathematics in such depth as the Fibonacci sequence and the golden ratio. I never thought that portraits would have hidden mathematics within them. I think that the use of mathematics is a successful and effective way to create images and has been proven by various artists. In the future, I will now consider mathematical concepts to have been used within the creation of artwork and will even try these methods with my own class to see what they can create.

What is Mathematics?

To a lot of people, mathematics is only about numbers and calculations. They also believe that, apart from the basics, a lot of the more difficult areas taught are pointless and will never be used outwith maths class. It’s emphasised that mathematics is all about finding the one correct answer and has been stated to be all about “remembering and applying the correct rule when the teacher asks a question; and mathematical truth is determined when the answer is ratified by the teacher” (Lampert, 1990, p.30). However, maths does not only consist of numbers but is made up of rhythms, sequences, patterns, time, etc. Marcus du Sautoy considers maths to be in the world around us – nature and man made.

Mathematics can be found in various areas throughout the man made world. It can be seen in shops and supermarkets through the use of prices, amounts or weights, VAT, or even calculating the total and change due. It can be found in buildings or building plans through the number of windows and doors the building consists of, if the building is symmetric, or even the use of the golden ratio in order to create sizes for rooms – without mathematics, architectures would not be able to create successful structures. Artists have also used the golden ratio in order to create proportionate artwork or interesting designs and spirals.

The golden ratio can also be found in nature within the spiral of sea shells and plants. Other ways mathematics can be seen in the world around us is through patterns created within plants and flowers or even the hexagonal shapes within the honeycomb of a bees nest.

Overall, mathematics is not only about numbers but holds many other components which can be seen and used within everyday life. Mathematics can’t fully be used everyday, however, basic aspects can such as number, sequence, pattern, etc.

Lampert, M. (1990) ‘When the problem is not the problem and the solution is not the answer: Mathematical knowing and teaching’, American Research Journal, 27(1), pp.29-63.

 

Can Animals Count?

Many people, pet owners or not, have the belief that animals in fact have the ability to be able to count. This has caused a large debate, however, many scientists became doubtful ever since the case of ‘Clever Hans’ about 100 years ago.  Hans was a horse that had his owner believing that he had a mathematical ability. Hans’ owner said to have taught the horse to add, subtract, multiply, divide, tell the time, work with fractions, and keep track of the calendar. It was said that the horse would answer both oral and written mathematical question by tapping his hoof the correct amount of times. Hans would perform his talent in front of crowds all over Germany, free of charge, and amazed many people including his owner.

As Clever Hans became well known throughout the country, Scientists became known of his abilities and were interested to investigate. Carl Stumpf, a psychologist, gathered a group in order to study the horse. It was observed through experiments that 89% of the time, Hans gave the correct answer when able to see the person who asked the question. However, when the person was out of the horse’s sight, the answers were only accurate 6% of the time. It was also found that Hans couldn’t answer correctly if the person themselves didn’t know the answer.

The overall conclusion the scientists found was disappointing for the owner of the ‘clever’ horse. It was explained that when answering a question, Hans could sense when to stop tapping due to the person’s reaction. He would begin to tap more slowly when he got nearer to the answer and eventually knew when to stop through sensing the expectation from the person. The owner did not realise that, by looking at Hans, he was giving him unspoken signals.

Through the tests conducted by the scientists, it was proven that Hans in fact didn’t understand concepts of mathematics, however, was clever in order to understand what was expected of him. This became known as the “Clever Hans effect” which is used in psychology to describe when an animal or person can sense what someone wants them to do without using deliberate signals. It’s now important to take this into consideration when testing an animal’s or a human’s intelligence. However, the question still remains. Can animals count? or are they in fact sensing what us humans want them to answer.

clever-hans-caballo_thumb9

Why I Chose to Discover Mathematics.

During  my first year placement within a primary 6/7 class, i found myself finding the maths lessons very difficult to teach. The highest maths group were learning about problem solving using decimals. For some reason i was finding this extremely hard to break down and explain. I then realised that i was finding some simple things difficult in order to understand, let alone how to explain it effectively to the children.

I couldn’t get my head round why i was finding simple maths questions so difficult and i was too embarrassed to admit it and ask for help. I then realised through a conversation with the class teacher that I wasn’t taught the basics effectively during primary school due to asking for help and getting told to “sit down and work it out myself”. This wasn’t helpful. This advice caused me to often sit for the rest of the lesson, stuck on the same question. I’d then get into trouble for not finishing the page. How was this method of teaching fair? Due to a teacher being bored of me asking for help too often, my missing knowledge is now effecting me in later life.

This is why i have chosen this elective. I don’t want to be that teacher who sat behind her desk and didn’t see a child was struggling and needed extra help. I want to be able to be confident whilst teaching maths and be able to assist the children effectively. I don’t want my pupils being effected in later life due to my non-existing support as i myself didn’t have a full understanding on the topic.

What’s the point in becoming a primary teacher when you can’t be bothered with your pupils asking questions or get annoyed when they approach your desk more than once. Teachers are in place to support children throughout their time at primary school and make sure they have the key skills and knowledge to prepare them for later education. Hence why I want to make sure I enhance my knowledge within maths in order to ensure my pupils get the correct information and support.

Scientific Literacy

Scientific literacy (National Science Education Standards, 1996, p. 22) is the knowledge and understanding of scientific concepts and processes required for personal decision making, participation in community and national affairs and economic productivity.

A scientifically literate person can ask, find or determine answers to questions, derived from curiosity about every day experiences. It means that a person has the ability to describe, explain and predict natural occurrences. Scientific literacy entails being able to read articles in the press, with understanding, about science and engage in social conversation about the validity of the conclusions. A literate person should be able to evaluate the quality of scientific information on the basis of its source and the methods used to generate it. Scientific literacy also implies the capacity to pose and evaluate arguments based on evidence and to apply conclusions from such arguments appropriately.

A lack of scientific literacy can lead to inaccurate media reporting, this inaccuracy can have a detrimental impact on the lives of many people. In 1998 Dr Andrew Wakefield announced that he believed the MMR jag was directly linked to autism in children. However, there was no evidence or proof of this link. (Daily Mail, 2006) Many parents decided against their children receiving the MMR jag, ‘in 2003/4 fewer than 8 in 10 children received the jag’ (BBC, 2013). In 2008 the NHS reported that there was no link between MMR and autism (NHS, 2008). The BBC (2013) interviewed parents about their decision to not have their child vaccinated, Craig Thomas disclosed “It’s been devastating and I feel terrible guilt. My daughter lost half a stone in weight. My son’s face was swollen, he had unbelievable spots and a rash. They were pretty much bedridden for three weeks.” Whereas another parent disclosed “With the recent measles outbreak, I am relieved that he is now protected. But if it happened again I’d make the same choices,” after her son decided to get the vaccination aged 14. Dr Andrew Wakefield’s ‘work has since been completely discredited and he has been struck off as a doctor in the UK’ (NHS, no date).

When conducting an experiment in science it is important to test it fairly. It is highly important to use fair testing in order to make the experiment results reliable. To conduct a fair test you must consider changing one factor at a time while the rest are kept the exact same. An example of teaching children about fair testing may include an experiment questioning if heating a cup of water allows it to dissolve more sugar. For this you must have various cups of water all heated at different temperatures. However, to test this fairly the teacher must use the same type and size of cup, the exact same amount and brand of sugar each time along with the exact same amount of water. Doing this is demonstrating to the pupils how fair testing allows them to get a more dependable result out of an experiment. Teaching fair testing in schools links to scientific literacy as it assists the child with understanding scientific concepts and has them questioning the best ways in order to conduct different experiments. Fair testing also allows the children to develop an evidence based conclusion as they

have gathered reliable information through conducting the experiment fairly and thoroughly.

BBC. (2008) MMR: How parents feel now about avoiding jags. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22354895 (Accessed: 5 February 2016).

Daily Mail. (2006) Scientists fear MMR link to autism. Available at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-388051/Scientists-fear-MMR-link-autism.html (Accessed: 5 February 2016).

National Science Education Standards (1996) Scientific literacy. Available at: http://www.nap.edu/read/4962/chapter/4#22 (Accessed: 6 February 2016)

NHS. (no date) MMR Vaccine. Available at: http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/vaccinations/Pages/mmr-vaccine.aspx (Accessed: 5 February 2016).

NHS. (2008) MMR Vaccine ‘does not cause autism’. Available at: http://www.nhs.uk/news/2007/January08/Pages/MMRvaccinedoesnotcauseautism.aspx (Accessed: 5 February 2016).

Science Buddies (2002) Variables for Beginners. Available at: http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project_experiment_fair_test.shtml (Accessed: 11 February 2016) Turner, J. (2012) It’s Not Fair. Available at: https://www.ase.org.uk/journals/primary-science/2012/01/121/2994/30-33.pdf (Accessed: 11 February 2016)

My Story Box Experience

While on placement within a primary 4 class last year, I created a story box bWorst_witch_book1002ased on the book ‘The Worst Witch’. When I was a child, I wasn’t a big fan of reading but instead read only when I was forced too by my teacher or parents. However, ‘The Worst Witch’ was one book I never had to be persuaded to read. Although I chose books for myself from the school library, they were often never looked at or even touched until it was time to return them. ‘The Worst Witch’ was different though. I found the book to be extremely enjoyable as a child and read it from beginning too end within a few nights – not something that I was seen to do. Due to my experience of the book, I chose it to base my story box around it for the class as I believed they’d love it too.

I started off by re-reading the book in order to help inspire me with ideas for activities that I wanted to have within the box. I also focused my attention on the topics the children were studying within each subject such as maths and literacy. I then started searching the internet for worksheets or activities which were linked to magic or witches. As they were learning about coordinates in maths, I managed to find a few different witch styled activates for varied abilities images (1)based on that topic. I also managed to find a witch’s position poem along with the lyrics to the school song that the girls sing within the book. As I was finding all these worksheets on the internet, I edited them with pictures of ‘The Worst Witch’ characters and even changed the text to make them look a lot more interesting in order to engage the children. As I had read through the book once, I read through it once again and found phrases or words the children would maybe not understand and created flash cards with the meanings on the other side – the side with the words or phrases were all coloured purple as I believed this colour linked to witches. Creating the box itself was a fun task for me as I wanted the children to be able to look at it and know that the contents were related to the book. For this I found some black wrapping paper which had gold speckles on it and wrapped the box with it. I then printed and cut out photos of the characters and the name of the book in order to arrange them on the box as well.

When working through the story box with the class, I always began the lesson by reading part of the book then moved on to an activity from the box. Throughout the reading process, I would ask the children questions to make sure they’re understanding the story before moving onto the next part. I would also often recap before starting the next lesson.download

Reflecting back on my experience delivering my story box, I found the creating part the most enjoyable as I’m a very creative person and enjoyed editing the worksheets to fit in with ‘The Worst Witch’ theme. I believe I need to work on my confidence when reading out loud to a class as I felt nervous doing this and occasionally stuttered and lost my place. However, I did recover well and reread from the beginning on the sentence in order to make sure the children weren’t getting confused with my mistakes.

If I was to do the story box/sack with younger children such as primary ones or twos, I would most likely chose a fairy tale picture book. I would make sure that I would be able to use props with the particular book in order to use whilst telling the story. For example, Goldie Locks and images (2)the Three Bears would be a good story to tell as I would be able to pull bowls, teddy bears etc. out of the box/sack. Another good way to tell a story would be to use finger puppets and get the children to act as the certain characters while I read through the story. This process would help with the younger children’s understanding of the story overall.

Overall, a story box or sack is a great way to get the children engaged and interested in the book or story that is being read. The different activates which link to the book are great ways to continue the children’s learning within different subject areas while constantly connecting back to the book.

Blobs in a Bottle

‘Blobs in a bottle’ is a great science experiment to do with children in orderbubblebottle3 to explore the term molecular polarity and what it means.

To begin the experiment you must pour 200 millilitres of water into a clear 1 litre bottle of water. Afterwards you must add 700 millilitres of vegetable oil. After a few minutes, the oil will settle and will sit on top of the water with a clear separation. This is called molecular polarity. This term basically means that the two substances can not mix; The water molecules are attracted to the other water molecules and the oil molecules are attracted to the other water molecules. Due to the structure of the two different molecules, it does not allow them to bond together hence the clear division of the substances.

To make this experiment more interesting for the children, you can add any colour of food colouring into the bottle – I found red to be the best as it was a strong colour. The food colouring will drop through the oil and will mix with the water. After the colour is as strong as

you want it, you can move onto the next step and add a fizzing tablet, i.e. an Alka Seltzer, into the bottle. When the fizzing tablet dissolves it creates a gas. As the gas bubbles rise, they take some coloured water with them. Once the blob reaches the top, the gas escapes and the coloured water then sinks back down.

This process looks just like a lava lamp which can look even more effective if a light is placed underneath the bottle. This is a great experiment for kids as they are creating something they may have at home while learning about molecular polarity and how their home-made lava lamp works. This experiment will effectively engage the children in their learning as it’s something they will enjoy doing at home or within the classroom.

“Under the Sea” – Dance Lesson Plan

I based this lesson plan on the class having taken part in previous dance sessions built around the theme and song from “The Little Mermaid”, ‘Under the Sea’. The previous lessons consisted on the children learning how to travel, i.e. swimming movements, and twist to represents sea creatures and underwater plants.

Working towards outcomes of a Curriculum for Excellence img-thing

Inspired by a range of stimuli, I can express my ideas, thoughts and feelings through creative work in dance. EXA 2-09a

Learning Intentions

To successfully use their bodies to imitate sea weed swaying within the water.                                                To successfully move loosely to emphasise how the plants move within the waves.

Success Criteria

How to loosen up their bodies and be successful when using loose movements                               How to successfully do a body roll and understand how the movement can be seen as the same as sea weeds movements when the waves cause the plants to sway.

Resources

CD player or docking station                                                                                                                         A variety of music including “Under the Sea”                                                                                             A large empty space, preferably the school gym hall

Setting the context/ Beginning the lesson (Introduction)

Introduce the lesson by recapping on the previous dance sessions encouraging the children to share what they have previously learned. Make sure the children check their l
aces are tied before beginning the warm up. Make sure I’m aware of any injuries the children may have in order to adapt the moves in order for the child to be comfortable.

 Octopus Tag2db7a88b5890e15e67663a083dfeaa77

One person (the tagger) stands in the middle of the gym hall. The rest of the children line up at one end of the hall and when I shout go, they all run to the other side. Whoever the tagger tags, they must stand where they got tagged and become an octopus. The octopus cannot move from their spot but must move around their arms in order to help the tagger tag the other children.

Quick stretch of the muscles the children are going to be using in order to learn the specific dance moves i.e. their arms, shoulders, neck, back and abdominal.

Teaching the learning intentions (Development)

Before starting the main lesson I will have the children find a space where they’re able to move freely. I will also check whether they are able to see me clearly through using the method of ‘if I can’t see them, they can’t see me’.

Begin by getting the children to sway lightly from side to side with lose movements.   Encourage them to follow their shoulders allowing their arms to dangle by their sides.                               Then have the children imagine that someone is pulling them by their belt which has their loose upper bodies follow their hip – Do this movement over, while counting in eights, until the children are successful with the movement.                                                                                     Now, encourage them to allow their arms to swing without them controlling the movement too much as this will cause them to tighten up.                                                                           Throughout this process, I will have music playing in order for the children to learn how to move loosely to the beat while counting in eights.

 After the children have managed to loosen up their bodies and do simple loose movements, I will move onto firstly telling them what the name of the move they’ll be learning – a body roll.     I will then show the children an example of this move before talking through it st5a41a5b5a19496512d516fd72f8cc591ep by step.   Start by rolling my head back, telling them to imagine someone pushing against their foreheads, then rolling the movement down to their neck, shoulders, chest, tummy, hips, then legs (demonstrating as I speak through each rolling movement).                                               Then have the children join in, slowly rolling each body part I am naming and imitating my movements (counting in 4s for this section).           Have the children try it on the own allowing them to speed up with practice.                                           I will walk around the hall observing the class and assist any children who are struggling.

Once I see that most of the children are becoming confident with this move, I will switch the music to “Under the Sea” and have them pretend to be sea weed within the water using the new body roll they’ve just learned.                                                                                                              I will encourage the children to other movements they have learned from previous lessons by shouting out their names and demonstrating them at the front of the hall for all the children to see.                                                                                                                                                          Count in fours for this song.

Ending the lesson (Plenary)

For this I will have relaxing ocean sound effects in order fit the theme of ‘Under the Sea’.

For the cool down, I will have the children and myself stand in a circle, having them hold hands in order to do this quickly.                                                                                                                             I will get them to drop hands once everyone is in position.                                                              The cool down will consist of having the children take deep breaths, raising their arms when breathing in and dropping them when breathing out.                                                                     After this, I will have the children lay down on the ground, close their eyes and listen to the calming music for a few moments in order to allow me to prepare for heading back to the classroom.

My next steps

During this lesson, as the children have been introduced into how to move their bodies loosely in order to successfully do the body roll, the next lesson will consist of more loose movements such as the arm wave which will represent the waves within the sea. For this lesson I will watch Youtube videos in order to give me ideas on how to break down the move and explain it step by step.

Healthy Body Bits

I believe an effective and fun way for children to learn and expand theirstuffy-4 knowledge on their human body topic is to take a class trip to the Dundee Science Centre. Here the children can take part in a 45 minute session called ‘Healthy Body Bits.’ The session is recommended for first level learners where they will explore what’s inside the human body through the use of Stuffee, the centre’s giant rag doll. The children are able to operate on Stuffee and search for his organs. Whether the trip is at the beginning of the class project or nearer the end, it will be a great way for the children to learn or revise the organ names and what each of their purposes are within the human body.

The session has a maximum capacity of 33 children and lasts around 45 minutes. This would be an ideal trip for individual classes between primary 3 and 5. This is due to how ages younger than p3 may struggle to sit for the long length of time that the work shop lasts as their concentration span is shorter than the older children. Also, children older than primary 5, may find the session boring as it’s based for younger children.

For this trip, as a teacher, I would first have to contact the centre with specific information which includes:

  • The name and level of the session I wish to book i.e. ‘Healthy Body Bits’, first level.
  • A selection of dates I’d be happy to book if available.
  • An idea of the time we’d arrive and departure noting the centre is open between 10am and 5pm.
  • The number of children and an estimate number of adults that will be present.
  • If I will require a time for the children to be able to have their lunch.
  • Whether I would like to be invoiced or pay on the day of the trip.

Once the trip is booked, I will then book a coach in order to transport the class and myself to the science centre. After everything is booked, I will work out the cost overall and how much the children will have to pay each depending on the school funds. Then I will create permissions slips stating the purpose of the trip, where and when the trip will take place, the price and the fact the children would need a packed lunch on the date stated. I will also include the chance for the parents or guardians of the children to state whether they would like to come along and help. Along with having parents or guardians to assist with the trip, I will seek the help of support staff, teacher’s assistants or management who are free on the day.

On the day before the trip, based on me having the knowledge of the number of adults going to be present, I will split the children into smaller groups assigned to one or more adult. This adult will be responsible for the children while they explore the centre before or after attending the workshop. The centre offers a great opportunity for the children to learn about a wide range of science along with the human body. The class can spend a maximum of three hours within the centre exploring the different areas of science along with taking part in the booked workshop.

The day after the trip, I will then plan a lesson to find out what the children learned while in the science centre. This may include getting them to draw a picture of one important new thing they learned or even write a small story about their day.

Giving and Receiving Feedback

I enjoyed giving feedback on my peers’ posts about being an enquiring practitioner as reading other people’s thoughts helped with my own understanding. I found writing feedback for them to be a good experience, however, sometimes found it difficult to find areas that I thought they could improve on. On the other hand, I liked being able to tell the person what I thought was good about their post as it helps with confidence and feeling positive about their own work.

When I saw that my own post was gaining replies, I was eager to read what my peers thought about my own post, ‘What it means to be an enquiring practitioner’. It was great to see that people had interest in my work and took the time to write me some feedback. The feedback I received was extremely positive and allowed me to understand where I went right with my post and what they enjoyed about it when reading. It also let me see areas I could improve on which I found helpful and will take the time to amend my post based on the feedback I received.

What is reflection?

Reflection is when you look back and analysis an occasion or situation in a critical manner. This allows us to learn from our experiences and understand what we can do differently the next time. Questioning yourself such as, what did I do well? What did I not do so well with? Are great with helping you manage how you would deal with something for a second time. Reflection is important as it’s about exploring what you thought and felt instead of only thinking about what happened.

As a student I’m completely open to receiving feedback from my peers as I know that it will help me understand my situation with tasks better. It also helps me with realising things I maybe didn’t notice I had done wrong which I could go on to fix. Positive feedback for peers can also make me feel confident knowing that they believe I had done something really well. Refection is really important as a student teacher within a classroom. Everyone makes mistakes and doesn’t always get things right first time. Reflection allows us students to look back on the event and analysis ad understand what went wrong and what we could do differently next time.

Gibbs’ Model of Reflection (1988)

Gibbs'model

Language Acquisition – Skinner and Chomsky

B.F Skinner’s theory was based on his beliefs of how behavior and actions could be controlled by their consequences. He believed that positive reinforcement was successful within children’s education as it encouraged them to try their best and complete work to their best potential. Reinforcement can be positive or negative, whether it be praise with a sticker or threatened with punishment such as detention, it can help children choose their actions and behavior correctly. Within his early stages of experimenting with this theory, Skinner studied animals such as rats and pigeons. During his experiments, he created the ‘Skinner Box’ which was a simple cage like box which the animal was placed within. This box allowed Skinner to prove the success of positive reinforcement as the animal learned that they would receive food with the press of a button within the box. Later, this method was proven to work on humans, especially children. It has become obvious that the use of positive reinforcement, such as praise, with children, encourages them to learn and develop. Skinner believed this was effective with prompting a baby during the process of learning to talk. He believed that when a parent praises the child when a random babble sounds close to an English word, it encourages them to repeat the sounds. On the other hand, when irrelevant sounds of a baby are ignored, it’s extinguished and forgotten about.

Noam Chomsky, however, disagrees with Skinner’s theory relating to children’s learning and development as he believes that humans are born with a basic knowledge of language and don’t have to learn it from fresh. Chomsky believes that language is biologically inherited whereas Skinner’s theory is based on how a child learns how to talk through the use of positive reinforcement from adults who already speak a language fluently. This also goes against Skinner’s belief of how the use of praise and reward with children in fact does not help them learn. Chomsky’s theory disagrees with Skinner’s method of positive reinforcement as Chomsky believes that the use of praise and rewards doesn’t assist a child’s development nor encourage them to learn. He, however, considers that each child is born with a language template which is developed throughout their education. This goes against Skinner’s theory as he believes that a baby’s random babbles don’t have any links to a language until they are encouraged through positive reinforcement by adults to form noises which sound like proper words.

In my opinion I believe that both theories have different aspects which are true. I believe that Skinner could have been correct in saying that if children are praised for making babbling noises that sound like words, it definitely encourages the child to making the sound again. Through the child repeating the sound it will develop until it becomes a recognisable word. On the other hand, I also believe that what Chomsky’s theory says about a human being born with the capacity in the brain for language to also be a good thought, however, I’m not sure whether I think this is true. I do believe that if a child isn’t exposed to language before a certain age that they will no longer be able to learn how to talk. This is due to my research on Genie, the feral child, which I spoke about in a previous post which you can read here.

 

Bowlby’s Theory of Attatchment

Bowlby’s theory was based on his beliefs and examinations on the attachment between mothers and their babies. He believed that if the attachment between the mother and her baby didn’t happen at early stages, it would negatively affect the child’s behavior and learning. Bowlby researched and experimented in order to support his theory. While he worked for a mental health clinic for troubled youths, he conducted an experiment with 44 of the children who had emotional problems and 44 who had been convicted of theft. Within the 44 young people who had emotional problems he found that only two of them had been separated from the mother before the age of five. However, within the 44 thieves he found that 17 of them had been separated from their mother before they were aged 5. Bowlby’s research using the lives of the young people within the clinic helped support his theory of how the mother and babies attachment is an important relationship and if it’s non-existent, it can disturb the child’s behaviour . Bowlby also believed that the absence of this attachment also effected the child’s cognitive and emotional development. He believed that the distress from being separated from the mother can decrease intelligence and can cause depression and aggression. However, Bowlby’s research can be criticised through his choice of a small group of young people as his findings may have been different through the study of a larger group. His theory can also be incorrect as the troubled young people’s behaviour may not have been caused by the separation from the mother, but something else that may have disturbed them within their lives. Bowlby also looked at secondary research which involved animals. Within Lorenz study of goslings, he accomplished that they imprinted on the first thing they seen when they hatched. This usually being the mother, they would stay close to her and follow her in order to be protected and learn how to survive. Lorenz study proved that it was necessary for the goslings to imprint on their mother in order to survive. If they didn’t imprint within a few hours after hatching, the imprint wouldn’t occur at all. This study obviously influenced Bowlby’s theory as he too believed that if the attachment didn’t happen between a baby and its mother, the baby will live with the consequences just like the gosling would.

Rudolph Shaffer and Peggy Emerson, however, disagree with Bowlby’s theory of attachment as they believed multiple attachments were possible and didn’t only include the mother. The pair studied 60 babies monthly for 18 months within the environment of their own homes. It was established that babies up to an including 4 months, have the same response to anyone who will show the love and care. It isn’t until 7 months that the baby will have the attachment to a single person and show fear of strangers. Also at this age, the baby will also find comfort and safety within the figure and show anxiety when separated. However, as the baby continues to develop, they start to become independent and show the signs of multiple attachments at 9 months of age. By 10 months old, the babies had numerous attachments including the attachment to parents, grandparent, siblings and family friends. Overall, Shaffer and Emerson’s studied was evidence against Bowlby’s theory and proved that a baby has multiple attachments and is more likely to become attached to the people who show them the correct affection rather than who they spent the most time with.

What it means to be an enquiring practitioner.

An enquiring practitioner is someone who works collaboratively with others. This includes them bringing their own thoughts and ideas to the table to achieve a goal they share with the other group members. As a student teacher, co-operative working can include working alongside other teachers, support teachers or even parents in order to improve education. This can be done through team teaching, staff meetings, parent’s evenings, school events etc.

Benefits of being an enquiring practitioner

An important benefit of collaborative working includes the fact that everyone’s knowledge varies and what individuals could bring into group discussions may be something others aren’t aware of. This is helpful as the group members are learning from one another. As for being a student teacher, this is a great benefit as it will help me learn interesting ways of teaching different subjects or even different behaviour management methods. Another advantage of being an enquiring practitioner is that the more knowledgeable members can help fill in the gaps of others understanding. If someone is struggling with an area, someone who has a better understanding will be able to step in and help explain it to them. As a student, having a peer explain can sometimes be more effective than the explanation giving by a lecturer. I personally feel more comfortable being able to discuss areas I don’t understand with other class members as it’s comforting knowing when others are in the same position as me.

Disadvantages of being an enquiring practitioner

There are many disadvantages to co-operative working. One of these disadvantages is if members are not contributing to the work load. This can be very frustrating and will impact on the group as whole including falling behind on work load. Another big issue within groups can also be know-all behaviour from different members. This can lead to the individual not listening to others opinions or making others feel like they do not have a value within the group. This attitude can lead to the individual dominating the group as they believe they know better than everyone else and therefor might scare others from speaking up against them.

Changing Education

While listening to a podcast titled ‘Changing Education Paradigms’ by Sir Ken Robinson, I found his views on today’s education to be very interesting and thought provoking. During his talk he expresses his opinion on the drugs children are given for ADHD. He believes that these drugs to be an anaesthetic which shuts the children’s senses off and deadens them to what is going on around them. The world is full of amazing things, i.e. computers and game consoles, and they are now being penalised for being distracted from boring subjects. Robinson believes that instead of leading children through education anaesthetised, we should be doing the complete opposite and waking the children up to what is inside them. I find this opinion very interesting as I’ve never really thought of what the drugs are truly doing to the child. Although the drugs are said to be ‘calming the child down’ they are really making the child into a zombie. Children should be encouraged to be themselves and act like children. Children are supposed to run around outside and climb things, we should not be coming to the conclusion that they have a disorder just because they have a lot of energy. If children were running around and exercising more often at school, the excess energy will burn out.

Sir Ken Robinson then goes on to compare schools to working factories. He talks about how they have bells signalling break times, separate facilities and even having areas of the school for individual subjects. I believe this a great point and is very important. Children go to school in uniforms just like workers in a factory and even have different ties to indicate what year group they belong to. The bells that ring for break time emphasise how there is designated time slots for the children to take a break from class or eat their lunch – just like in a factory they can’t take a break when they individually choose to. Robinson questions why children are educated in age groups and states that schools find a child’s manufacture date to be the most important thing about them. I believe that this is a great point that needs to be addressed. Why are children assigned to classes with their own age group? All children have different abilities and it can often be found that many work at higher or lower levels for their age group. Shouldn’t schools be assigning them into classes where the children can be working on the same level as one another? I believe this to be a good idea as it would be effective for the children because teachers often focus their attention on children who struggle rather than those who work on higher levelled work or even the other way around. However, would this cause the children who are ‘less capable’ to be left behind? I think not. As long as the system was thought about and worked with correctly.

Within the podcast, Robinson talks about divergent thinking – when people see multiple answers rather than one or different ways to interpret the question. He gives the example of asking people how many uses there are for a paper clip. A divergent thinker would question the size the paper clip could be or even the material it’s made of – It’s still a paperclip but not as we know it. He goes on to talk about how a test was given to 1500 kindergarten children and that if they scored above a certain level, they were seen as a genius at divergent thinking. Robinson revealed that 98% of the children scored genius level. However, these children were tested over the years between different age groups. The results of the test showed that the older the children were getting, their scores deteriorated. Robinson believes this to because the children have been getting educated. I can understand Sir Ken Robinson’s theory as at school, children are taught for there to be only one correct answer rather than multiple. For an example, during math lessons, you’re taught to complete an equation and that it only has one correct answer. If you don’t have the answer that’s in the back of the text book, you’re automatically told you’re wrong and must fix it.

I believe Sir Ken Robinson has some excellent views on today’s education. Is it time for a change in our education system and how we are teaching children? As Robinson states, we are no longer living in the time that the current education system was designed and structured for.

Genie – The Feral Child

Genie is the nickname given to a 13 year old girl who was discovered in November 1970 after spending her life abused and neglected by her parents. Genie spent her whole life locked in a small dark room which had its windows covered apart from 3 inches at the top – this was the only natural light the girl ever experienced. She spent her days strapped to a child’s potty by a homemade restrain and her nights tied into a caged bed with her arms and legs completely immobilised. Genie spent 13 years in almost total isolation as her father forbade her mother and brother from communicating with her. It was even said that close neighbours were oblivious to the child’s existence completely.

When Genie was found by services, she was the size of a six year old child and had no sense of language as she was never taught how to speak. The 13 year old girl was also found to be still wearing nappies and could barely walk.

Genie’s mother and father were both arrested for abuse, however, her father committed suicide a day before he was due to appear in court. He left a note behind stating “the world will never understand”.

When Psychologist’s heard about Genie, they seen it as a perfect opportunity in order to research into the theory of how it was believed that if children didn’t develop a language by a certain age, they miss the chance of developing it completely. The psychologists found Genie to not be mentally deficient, however, her traumatic past was haunting her. Today’s brain science studies show Genie’s left side of the brain, which is responsible for speech and language, to have become smaller and smaller due to being starved of stimulation. This process continued until her brain physically changed. As Genie’s brain was unstimulated, it was unable to develop the capacity for language. This means that, once Genie was found when beginning her teenage years, it was now impossible for her to develop language. These studies proved the theory to be correct.

Overall, I believe Genie’s story is a great example of how brain development is affected by the environment. As she was isolated in a dark room with no interaction from anyone, it affected her ability to learn how to speak as over the years, her brain had no capacity for a language to be learnt.

History of Brain Development Timeline

1905 – Alfred Binet introduced new test for measuring intelligence called the Binet – Simon scale.

1949 – Walter Rudolf Hess research showed that the interbrain is responsible for coordinating the activities of the body’s internal organs.

1950 – Karl Spenser Lashley found that there is no single site for memory in the brain through experimenting on rats.

1953 – Nathaniel Kleitman and Eugene Aserinsky discovered there to be rapid eye movement while a child was a sleep. This led researcher into believing that sleeping involves some sort of learning process.

1963 – John Carew Eccles, Alan Lloyd Hodgkin and Andrew Fielding Huxley awarded for their work on the mechanisms of the neuron cell membranes as they discovered the chemical means by which impulses are communicated or repressed by the nervous system.

1967 – Ragnar Granit, Haldan Keffer Hartline and George Wald research details how the eye passes images to the brain.

1977 – Roger Guillenim and Andrew Schally honoured for discoveries concerning the production of peptide hormones in the brain. Their discoveries helped to increase the understanding of glandular disease.

1981 – Wiesel and Hubel’s research how visual information is transmitted from the retina to the brain. Sperry’s work concerns the specialization of functions within the cerebral hemispheres of the brain.

1987 – Anti-depressant drug discovered.

1991 – Erwin Neher and Bert Sakmann discover function for single ion channels which increase understanding of how cells communicate with one another.

1994 – Alfred Gilman and Martin Rodbell discover G-protein coupled receptors.

1997 – Stanely Prusiner discovers new gene of infectious agents known as prions.

2000 – Arvid Carlsson, Paul Greengard and Eric Kandel discover signal transduction in the nervous system.

The Platonic Notion of Learning

If I’m understanding correctly, the Platonic Notion of Learning is a theory formulated by an ancient philosopher, Plato by writing and narrating his teacher, Socrates, dialogues.

The Greeks believed the soul to have existed long before the body was born and for there to have been nothing it didn’t know about this world and the underworld. Once the soul entered the body, it forgot everything it knew – The immortal soul was believed to be very knowledgably, however, the mortal body was forgetful. Through the use of these beliefs, Plato formed ideas education based that were not thought of before. Plato expressed that as the soul knew everything before entering the body, perhaps the brain was now to try remember what the soul forgot. As the soul was part of the ideal world, we as humans were now to recollect the truth of the knowledge it maintained.

When a teacher is educating a child within school, the child is not learning new things but is remembering what their soul knew before. Plato argues that learning is a form of anamnesis or recollection which is a difficult process and cannot happen without assistance. Plato believes that for the child to remember what their soul has forgotten by entering their body, the teacher must put the child in situations where they will question their assumptions. We also build on the basics of what the child already knows until they have a greater understanding of the subject.

Overall, I found this area I learned through attending philosophy lectures interesting and I hope that my understanding of the Platonic Notion of Learning is correct and clear to understand.

How did my gender affect me as a child?

Growing up, I was always out climbing trees or playing football with the boys. I loved rolling in mud and going home filthy – although my mum didn’t see the fun of it. Growing up with boys, I was never really ‘girlie’ and would rather be outside running around. Looking back, I feel the only times I can think of being treated unfairly by them was when I was never allowed to be part of their football team. As I was a girl they believed that I wasn’t any good at football as it was seen as a boys sport. Instead, I was always given the boring job of being the referee. I always moaned about this, however, they insisted that it was a very important job and I should feel lucky to have been given it. This continued into high school when girls would pick football to do during PE, however, would never be picked by any of the boys and the teacher would have to assign us to teams.

Overall, I don’t believe that gender affected my childhood majorly, apart from small things I can remember. I do believe that gender inequality is a big problem within schools and therefore, should be dealt with.

 

Benefits of Active Learning and Co-operative Working

Active Learning

I believe active learning is a learning style which has you take notes during a lecture rather than sitting listening and watching the power point. Re-writing notes you take during lectures is a great way to study and understand the new information. This particular method is what I use when revising and I believe it is extremely effective, especially when using different colours to make it more appealing. Another benefit of this learning style is that most students find it more encouraging to be active while learning rather than being passive. Active learning can also make learning more interesting and fun. I’ve observed from experience that primary school children take in information easier if the task is fun and interesting for them. ‘Bums on seats’, as my college tutor would say, is not always effective and teachers should get the children up and learning through different methods other than working from the board or text book. Using this method can also change the children’s attitudes towards certain subjects, such as maths, as it’s made more interesting for them.

Co-operative Working

Working co-operatively makes me think of different people coming together to form a team working towards the same goal. Whether this be people in different professions, i.e. teachers, social workers and CLD workers, they all join together in order to achieve the same objective – make sure a child is kept safe and achieving their full potential. The benefits of working co-operatively, continuing with the idea of these specific professions working together, is that as each profession would have different information from the others, they can share it with each other and gather it all together to make the situation of the child more clearer. Also working together with others can bring a variety of different skills and abilities into one group which would make achieving the final goal easier. Working with others can also relieve stress and make the task more enjoyable. Overall, I believe successful collaborative working can be very important and makes the end goal easier to achieve effectively.

Why Do I Want to Become a Teacher?

Why teaching? Well, if i’m being completely honest, i left school undecided about what i wanted to do in the future. I was never the person who knew exactly what job they wanted as a career from a very young age. I always changed my mind. It wasn’t until i went to college after leaving school that i finally made up my mind and knew i wanted to become a primary teacher. I have always been told that i had a good nature with children and i always found myself enjoying being within their company but it wasn’t until i attended placement in a primary school for two days a week that i knew that teaching was for me. I want to become a primary teacher because i look forward to seeing the children develop cognitively knowing that i had an input to this and help them learn new things to help them move successfully through their primary education. I also look forward to being able to support children with different needs and abilities along with learning about each individuals personality.

I want and hope to become a teacher who the children feel comfortable with in order to tell me when things are bothering them – whether it’s issues at home or at school. I want to be able to support the children in anyway i can and keep them safe. I also want to be able to use my creative skills within art lessons and decorate my classroom depending on a topic the class are learning about. I also want to become a teacher who makes the lessons a little more fun for the children to enjoy. I want the children to enjoy being in my class, however, i will be firm with them when they are breaking school rules. Overall, i want to be a teacher who is successful with educating her pupils the things they need for future education and will help children with different abilities to develop to their full potential.

Welcome to your WordPress eportfolio

Welcome to your eportfolio. This is where you will document and share your professional thoughts and experiences over the course of your study at the University of Dundee and beyond that when you begin teaching. You have the control over what you want to make public and what you would rather keep on a password protected page.

The eportfolio in the form of this WordPress blog allows you to pull in material from other digital sources:

You can pull in a YouTube video:

You can pull in a Soundcloud audio track:

You can pull in a Flickr page

Teacher, Lorraine Lapthorne conducts her class in the Grade Two room at the Drouin State School, Drouin, Victoria

You can just about pull in anything that you think will add substance and depth to your writing.