May 1, 2017
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Comments Off on Moulsford. History. Common Entrance.
Its no news to anyone back home, at university or even here at Moulsford that I love my history and its definitely an area I am really interested in teaching. Mouslford are about to go through a whole curriculum change which will happen in the next few months, but for the next few weeks I […]
April 28, 2017
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Comments Off on Science Lesson – Year 3 – Week 4
Today’s lesson was with Year 3 and I did a science experiment of sorts, with them all and some teaching about different parts of the plants and the functions of the roots. I was pleased that the lesson went well and that the children engaged with the activities and this seemed to show when I […]
April 27, 2017
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Comments Off on Mathematics Lesson – Year 4 – Week 4
Today’s lesson for me was a maths lesson with Year 4. Overall, I am really pleased with how the lesson went and how much the children took away from this lesson. The children are learning about subtraction from decomposition and I chose to teach this in a way of telling a story and then doing […]
April 26, 2017
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Comments Off on Humanities Lesson Year 3
Todays lesson was my first proper lesson here at Moulsford so I was a little nervous to say the least! The boys are lovely and I am getting to know them really well as I am with this class often and the class teacher is really supportive. My lesson was on rivers, the planning is […]
April 24, 2017
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Comments Off on Week 3 – Reflection
Week 3 has been a 4 day week due to Easter Monday being a bank holiday. I’m so used to being in Scotland where most people work and most things are open on a bank holiday but down here in England everyone closes up shop and takes the day as a proper holiday for family […]
April 20, 2017
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Comments Off on Religious Instruction
Moulsford, as with many other schools across England prides itself in being a Church of England school. This means that during assembly the boys are expected to pray, sing religious hymns and uphold christian values. I have myself observed this in practice and remember prayers and assembly singing, well from my own school days in […]
April 20, 2017
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Comments Off on Inset Day – Purple Pens and Labelling Lads
Yesterday’s inset day was a lovely relaxing first day back for the teachers before the madness of the children arriving! Moulsford had booked a local teacher to talk to us from a private school in Oxford who are changing their curriculum, like Moulsford, to a more skills based curriculum. As he started I already liked […]
April 18, 2017
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Comments Off on Week 2 – Reflection
Each week on this placement, I must right a short reflection on my time at Moulsford and link it to the GTCS Scottish Standards for Provisional Registration. It was the last week of the Spring term before they boys go off on their Easter break and there was a lot of random days and lessons […]
April 17, 2017
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Comments Off on Bringing Scotland to Dallas
It’s Monday again… but it’s my last Monday with Tracy Locke! I seriously cannot believe I only have a matter of days left here. Today I did a presentation about my life in Scotland which it seemed like everyone really enjoyed! It was so good to be able to tell them about my life in […]
April 17, 2017
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Comments Off on Week 1 – Reflection
Each week on my placement I will be writing some short weekly reflections about what I have been up to and what I have learned whilst linking it up to the GTCS (2012) Standards for Registration. My week started out rather nervously on Monday with my first day and I honestly don’t think I have […]
April 9, 2017
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Comments Off on Wild food foraging and a little more PLANT-ing
The weather has been getting better this last few weeks and this has encouraged me to get out and about. I’ve done a bit in my own garden, and spent a couple of afternoons at the Tayport Community Garden which is a great local community project. And I’m also quite pleased that I’ve been able to […]
April 5, 2017
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Comments Off on I want to be part of it. New York, New York.
Today I have been lucky enough to have been given the opportunity to go to New York City and visit the Tracy Locke office there on Madison Avenue (as previously stated this is known as TLNY). This have given me a good opportunity to, yet again, to meet more new people and tell them a […]
March 31, 2017
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Comments Off on We’re half way there! (Weekly Reflection 3)
Happy Friday! It’s pretty scary to think that I have just finished my third week with Tracy Locke for my Learning from Life placement. I continually say it but I am so happy I chose to undertake my placement here and in an industry which three weeks ago I was completely clueless on. This week has […]
March 28, 2017
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Comments Off on Life in General
This blog isn’t an educational blog post, but it’s more of just my life, and how I have found first year and what will be happening for me over summer. I currently live in Dundee (which I feel has been a waste of money, as I work at home), but after first year I will be getting …
March 27, 2017
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Comments Off on Back to Work!
This weekend I went down to Austin, TX with my Uncle Hugh and Auntie Mary to celebrate their friends’ son’s first birthday. Austin is 217 miles away and it took us 3 and a half hours to get there and a little longer to get back. I’d heard the saying “100 years is not long […]
March 23, 2017
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Comments Off on Learning for Support and Support for Learning
I want to learn about schools from all aspects from the kitchen to the classroom If you are keeping up to date with my blog and reading it daily, you will be familiar with my third goal for this placement quoted above. Today’s main learning focus for myself was Learning Support in my fantastic placement […]
March 21, 2017
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Comments Off on How is Advertising Affecting Our Children?
One of my main aims from this placement was to see how advertising affects us in our everyday lives and, more importantly, how this advertising affects school pupils. Since starting on the Pizza Hut team over a week ago I’ve been been shown a variety of ways many companies choose to advertise their goods and […]
March 21, 2017
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Comments Off on First Time at Phonics
Phonics at Moulsford has become part of the curriculum from pre-prep up to Year 5 over the past couple of years. For those of you reading this who are unsure of what phonics are, they are the first strategy that children should be taught to help them learn to read by using words that are […]
March 21, 2017
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Comments Off on Implicit learning, twitter, blogging & essays
Today the PGDE students at Dundee University finished working on IDL projects. One of the things we wanted to focus on was the process of learning, and less about the outputs. This is hard for people trained in our ‘schooled society’ and Ivan Illich suggested schools reflect society, and society reflects schools, so ended up proposing we deschool society. I like this idea but I also like, no love, learning. I’ve posted about twitter and blogging before and tonight, lying on the sofa, a student tweeted a reply to my last blog post, while they were on a break from writing their essay (very much a product or output). This resulted in a short twitter chat which revealed we had both learnt something from the interaction. This could be the sort of thing that Reber termed implicit learning, although whether it is or not I think this informal, fortuitous learning opportunity certainly has value.
In between replying, and thinking, I spotted tweets from a formal professional learning session being run by Fife Council. They were asking staff for things that would help them engage with PL. The common reply was time. And the staff featured seemed to be suggesting that PL of CPD has to be away from school, or needs to be organised. I am not criticising formal PL or CPD, and Fife Council deliver very good quality provision (so please take advantage if you get the chance!) but perhaps teachers views of what learning is could be reconsidered. Any chat about resources in the staff room while the kettle boils (or a pint after work where teachers debate the latest educational initiative, or the teacher thinking on the bus about the way a lesson just went) presenta a chance to learn. So taking this chance, by tweeting then writing this blog post, and thinking and learning as I go, I am trying to de-educate, and re-educate, myself about the very nature of education and learning. How about you?
March 20, 2017
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Comments Off on Brexit fallout and the future of Scottish education
I’ve not posted anything about Brexit as I’ve nothing to add to the wall-to-wall coverage of this ‘interesting’ situation. I’d become disillusioned with politics some time before the vote to leave Europe, mainly due to politicians (including ones I voted for) and their self serving nature. And nothing has happened over the last few months to change this view. However this week someone mentioned something, that could happen in Scotland as an indirect result of Brexit, that stopped me in my tracks.
Scottish Education – Proudly independent from England
Some people reading this might not be aware that education in Scotland is a completely devolved issue. This means there is a different approach to running and administering schools, the curriculum and the inspection system. But recently Theresa May gave a speech suggesting that everyone in the U.K. deserves a good education, and she name checked a few cities, including Dundee. The friend who pointed this out, with an active interest in politics, said it might be the first sign of a Tory government plan to take back control of devolved issues, including education. This might seem dangerous as many of those involved in education in Scotland are proud of the system. Recently the SNP have been under pressure on this topic with poor performance in international league tables and unpopular policies such as reintroduction of primary testing. So the Tories may be pushing at an open door on this subject.
Will Education in Scotland become a political football?
Returning the point about self serving politicians, this is something the Tory party excel at, and they also like to drive home any advantage they have. So this desire to reclaim powers, including education, might be more about winning the battle for Britain, post Brexit, and preserve all the associated power and privileges. It is a fairly low risk strategy too, as there isn’t much for the Tories to lose in Scotland, but plenty to gain. With no real Westminster opposition right now the SNP are the main threat and it could be that Theresa May has just blown the whistle kicking off an almighty game of political football, with education sitting in the centre circle. If so this could be a rather unpleasant game, with a less than entertaining outcome.
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