October 29, 2018
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Comments Off on Can we touch the moon?
Education is one of the first places that allow children to build a realistic foundation of knowledge. It wasn’t until my first school placement that I began to understand the importance of putting fact into visual representation that all children understand. Therefore, if this is inaccurate it will result in a generation (or even generations) …
October 27, 2018
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Comments Off on Stick or Twist
Gambling – the activity or practice of playing at a game of chance for money (Dictionary.com). But are we really playing by chance? Let’s find out. First let’s discover what chance is; Chance is the possibility of something happening (oxford dictionary). It can also be described more mathematically as probability.Say you have a coin. It […] Continue reading
October 26, 2018
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Comments Off on Thinking Fast & Thinking Slow
According to Kahneman (2011), our thought process is determined by two different systems – impulsive/automatic and thoughtful/deliberate – also considered as system 1 and system 2. He makes apparent that for the majority of the time we should be using our system 2, however, this is not what happens. In fact, the reason we don’t […] Continue reading
October 25, 2018
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Comments Off on Space is big, really REALLY big
One of the ways that teachers across Scotland are trying to encourage positive affective domains within children in their maths is by making it more relevant. By applying mathematical concepts to everyday real life concepts, we can encourage children to appreciate the application of maths in society. For example, as teachers we cover a range […] Continue reading
October 22, 2018
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Comments Off on Do we ‘Place Value’ on our understanding of Mathematics?
During my time on placement, the aim of one of my group lessons was to teach the children who were ‘struggling’ all they needed to know about place value in one 30-minute slot. Simple right?… Armed with white boards and place value blocks we headed to the group study area where I could begin my […] Continue reading
October 22, 2018
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Comments Off on Me and My Maths Anxiety
Throughout my journey to being where I am right now, training to be a primary school teacher, I have had to persevere and overcome some hurdles on the way. The biggest and baddest of them all is MATHS. I tried to ignore it and avoid it but when the choice came up for me to […] Continue reading
October 18, 2018
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Comments Off on Chance of Me Gaining an Appreciation for Maths – Extremely Likely
Probability – the next (and successful) leap in convincing me of how relevant mathematics actually is. This module has been effective in changing previously negative perceptions of maths, one of which in particular is that the terms ‘maths’ and ‘complex’ go together like bread and butter – this is not the case. Granted, parts of it […] Continue reading
October 18, 2018
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Comments Off on Vita Brevis – Exploring the usage of Artefacts and Sources within Social Studies
Pickford, Garner and Jackson (2013, p.62) define artefacts as being valuable man-made or man-influenced objects that can encapsulate particular locations or sections of time within the world, which explains why they can serve as being strong backbones to particular contexts for establishing social studies learning. They can also vary greatly in their appearance and purpose. […] Continue reading
October 17, 2018
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Comments Off on Interest and Empathy Towards the Children During the War.
In this blog post, I am going to talk about the learning experience of using artefacts to teach about the child evacuees during the war. I am going to be writing this from the learners point of view as well as making reference to ideas for teaching from a teacher’s perspective. Although this workshop was […] Continue reading
October 17, 2018
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Comments Off on The Fibonacci Sequence
After watching a TED Talk by Arthur Benjamin concerning Fibonacci numbers, I was intrigued, to say the least. I have never really heard much about different number sequences and haven’t ever thought about looking into them, until now. Benjamin talks about how there is a focus on children having to learn calculations that they will […] Continue reading
October 17, 2018
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Comments Off on Are Artefacts Worth Their Weight in History Lessons?
Turner-Bisset (2005), speaks about the use of artefacts in the teaching of history in the primary classroom. It is stated that artefacts are a multi-sensory resource, making them useful in an early years classroom as a starting point for enquiry based learning. Using common objects as an artefact can allow pupils to see immediate relevance […] Continue reading
October 17, 2018
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Comments Off on Maths and Art
An input i found very interesting, and thoroughly enjoyed, from the Discovering Maths module, was about how maths can be creative. I have to admit, this thought had never really crossed my mind. We spent time talking about, and looking at, tessellation’s and different forms of islamic art. Although I have seen both of these […] Continue reading
October 11, 2018
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Comments Off on Bringing Mindfulness and Poetry Together
I smell the rain appearing in the damp air I see the drear grey clouds with the winter sun peering through I see red, orange, yellow Crunch! I can hear my exaggerated footsteps I feel confused as to how a form of death can be so beautiful, yet often go unnoticed. This poem was created using a combination […] Continue reading
October 10, 2018
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Comments Off on Doctor Who?
Time Travel – a Doctor Who-esque phenomenon that has been a fantasy to many for thousands of years. But it turns out that we have been doing it all along. How? You might ask. The answer is simply light, the five-letter word that we all take for granted. Light has been enabling us to see […] Continue reading
October 9, 2018
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Comments Off on Teaching New Phrases – French
French was never my strong point at school. I felt that I didn’t have the underlining and basic skills to forward my development and therefore the subject broke down for me. In Scotland, we are now introducing a second language in Primary 1. This is a positive means of having the underlining basis of a […] Continue reading
October 9, 2018
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Comments Off on Makey Makey🕹
On the 26th of September we had a lecture with Derek. No one knew this lecture would lead to us being Derek’s most successful ‘Makey Makey’ class throughout his time teaching this module. Derek firstly spoke to us about using technology in the classroom, its benefits and purposes for real learning. He then introduced the […] Continue reading
October 8, 2018
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Comments Off on What do you mean numbers don’t exist?!
Yes, you did see it right. Apparently, numbers do not exist. My mind is still trying to process how such a concept could even be possible after believing all my life that numbers are the fundamental basis of mathematics. After much time pondering and challenging this, it appears to be true… We use numbers everyday, […] Continue reading
October 8, 2018
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Comments Off on Storytelling in Music🎼
Today we had a music workshop with Sharon. The workshop started with Sharon showing us how to introduce music to children through using your body and vocals for making sound. The advantage of this is that there is less mess and disruption than if you were to get musical instruments out in the classroom. This […] Continue reading
October 7, 2018
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Comments Off on What is a Number?
We come into contact with numbers every day. Time, working out how many portions of dinner we’ll need to make or simply “hey what’s your number?”. But have we ever taken the time to think, what is a number and why do we even use them? My first question is, why does the number three […] Continue reading
October 7, 2018
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Comments Off on Bringing International Games in to the Classroom
During a lecture, we were considering the games we played as a child and how they related to our country, the innate parts of being human and the impacts that some games had on our futures. It was interesting to see that the most prominent games played were schools (where we were all the teacher) […] Continue reading
