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 […] Continue reading
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 […] Continue reading
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 […] Continue reading
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 […] Continue reading
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 […] Continue reading
March 20, 2017
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Comments Off on Musical Madness at Moulsford
With over 75% of boys at Moulsford learning at least one musical instrument, 2 choirs (involving over 120 boys) and an orchestra it is needless to say that Moulsford Preparatory School is a fantastic place to go if you’re interested in music! Today was a fantastic (although slightly mad) day at the school as it […] Continue reading
March 19, 2017
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Comments Off on Failing our children?
I am perplexed. Perhaps slightly naïve/idealistic in my thinking but I believe the solutions to many “issues” in education can be solved quite simply. As a mother of two children, with varying degrees of ASN and also as an educator, the issues … Continue reading → Continue reading
March 18, 2017
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Comments Off on What a Week!
I can’t believe that’s my first week of placement over already! What a brilliant week it has been! Here are some of the experiences that I have been involved in: Kodaly During the Kodaly sessions, I saw p1 children learning about the foundation elements of music, including rhythm, pitch, and tempo. This learning happens in … Continue reading What a Week! → Continue reading
March 18, 2017
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Comments Off on Week 1 at Somerset
What a quick first week complete! Early reflection has already distinguished the differences in the classroom environment, schedules and overall ethos for the schools I have been to in Scotland prior to this placement. Australia’s IB perspective on schooling has showed me that one thing which is vital to the success in the classroom is […] Continue reading
March 17, 2017
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Comments Off on Reflecting on my first week…
My first week at Tracy Locke has been an absolute whirlwind of new knowledge and meeting so many new people who have made me feel extremely welcome. This has made working in an unfamiliar setting a lot easier. I have taken part in so many things that have been extremely beneficial in contributing to my […] Continue reading
March 16, 2017
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Comments Off on Cognita De Vita
Learning From Life… The title of this post is written in Latin as I am writing today about my first ever experience going into a Latin lesson. It was extremely interesting going into a classroom being totally unaware of what the children were learning about and saying. The teacher was extremely helpful by asking the […] Continue reading
March 16, 2017
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Comments Off on Can We Bring Virtual Reality Into the Classroom?
This was my view yesterday of downtown Dallas (featuring my reflection. Photography isn’t exactly my strong point). It’s so strange being in a city where almost every building is at least 30 floors up. As stated in previous posts Tracy Locke has a huge variety of clients who always need things advertised for them but […] Continue reading
March 15, 2017
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Comments Off on Day Two: 28 Floors Up
This morning I sat in on a a phone conference with members of the Franchisor/Equity team: Michael (account director), Pam (account supervisor) and Kim (account coordinator). The conference was with Cleveland Menus who print Pizza Hut’s counter menus and handheld menus. All staff members maintained a professional manner during the phone call. Afterwards, it was […] Continue reading
March 14, 2017
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Comments Off on The Moulsford Forest School Experience
I am so lucky to have today visited a forest school with the pre-prep year groups from Moulsford. It was a new experience entirely for me and having bought wellies in preparation, everyone knew how excited I was to be given this opportunity. Outdoor education is something I tend to miss out of teaching because […] Continue reading
March 14, 2017
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Comments Off on So Much Jargon!
(Written on 13/3/17) Placement officially started today, but because I arrived in Texas on Wednesday I was able to have a soft start kind of day on Friday. (Thursday was a recovery day but I still don’t think I’m over the jet lag yet!) On Friday I got to meet everyone on the team I […] Continue reading
March 14, 2017
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Comments Off on Going down under!
For the past few years, the idea of going off to Australia has been one which seemed highly desirable, yet extremely unlikely. It was only when given the opportunity of choosing the International Baccalaureate module at University that it appeared this could my opportunity – study abroad, gain experience in an international school and receive an insight […] Continue reading
March 13, 2017
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Comments Off on Day 1 at Somerset
Okay. So. Somerset is AMAZING! Arriving at the school this morning was incredible. The campus is so big there are separate gates for pre-prep, junior and high school. I am still overwhelmed at the size of this school and the amount of staff they have for everything. They even have a snake catcher! The beginning […] Continue reading
March 13, 2017
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Comments Off on Learning from Life – First Day Nerves
Needless to say this morning before my first day at Moulsford Boys Prep and Boarding School I was extremely nervous and could not wait to just get there and started. I’m extremely lucky and grateful to be living with family only 25 minutes away from the school itself and I have my car to travel […] Continue reading
March 12, 2017
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Comments Off on Music for Learning
As I prepare for the beginning of my Learning from Life placement (tomorrow!) I’ve been doing some reading about music education and the value and impact it can have on children. There have been many studies which have investigated the benefits of music education. Standley (2008) and Hallam (2010) report that well planned music activities … Continue reading Music for Learning → Continue reading
March 12, 2017
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Comments Off on Placement Jitters
Current mode: panic! No, not really. However, I am feeling very nervous about placement which begins TOMORROW. I say placement but is, in fact, a “prac”. I arrived in Australia Friday just passed and about to undertake a placement in Somerset College, an International Baccalaureate world school in Queensland! As well as all of the […] Continue reading
