Fakebook

In class we recently used Fakebook. It is a version of facebook however you make up the character and you control the information. Mine was on Muhammad Ali and how he stood up for his rights and people in a time when It was tough to do so. This tool will be useful in the classroom for example if you are doing a history lesson, about World War 2 you could make a Winston Churchill profile and have his allies and enemies commenting on his wall. This way history is learnt in a modern context and something children use everyday. This is a very useful tool for teaching history and modern studies in particular.

Maths

The telegraph does a very interesting piece on maths and English.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/10953914/Children-do-not-have-innate-ability-in-English-or-maths.html

Maths was always something I did not enjoy. I never felt I was any good at it and in addition it was never really pushed as much as English I felt both in school and at home. But once I went to high school there was a teacher who really believed in my abilities and gave me confidence. I realise that many pupils just need some encouragement and they can do very well. Also there are some including people I know that say maths is for boys and English is for girls. However I know this to be false as myself and many of my friends were better at English than maths. I think that there is no difference between the two and that with the right support and encouragement children can be equally as good at maths as they are at English.

I think that no child should be put in a box. This is with regard to every subject, PE drama music science give the children the support so they can make their own choices as to if the subject is for them.

 

 

 

 

The Enquiring Practitioner

Practitioner enquiry is a ‘finding out’ or an investigation with a rationale and approach that can be explained or defended. For teachers this is useful as it can allow them to research areas with other teachers with other ideas and come out with a positive, better outcome than the one previous. An enquiring practitioner is someone who is always looking to learn more and benefit those they are teaching. It is important to be an enquiring practitioner as a student teacher and a teacher as it allows you to grow as a teacher and as a result benefit the pupils. It is shown also that teachers who engage in research have better knowledge of their area, this can only be positive for everyone involved.

If people work collaboratively it will bring other points of view to the table and in the long run will improve the curriculum as it will help others see different points of view and improve the pupils learning and that is what the ultimate goal is. However the problem is if one person does not pull their weight then the whole thing is ruined in addition there is a danger of one person taking over and only their point of view is put across and if that happens then once again the point is ruined.

Practitioner enquiry should challenge teachers to improve as it allows them to look at the way they teach more critically with the help of others. This gives them a deeper insight into who they can change and become better teachers.

Social Media – Positive or negative

Social Media -TDT

 

When on social media you need to exert caution with what you are sharing or expressing. Social media offers a great opportunity to educate pupils or help pupils online, for example using twitter as an educational tool as some of my teachers did at school. However caution needs to be shown with regards to your personal social media, whatever you share needs to be thought through as not only does it reflect badly on you but on your school and could cost you your job.

Social media as mentioned before can be a powerful tool for both good and bad. It is important to use social media and not be afraid to express personal views. However these should be expressed on personal private accounts and even then seriously think through what offence may be took before posting or sharing something. For any non-private accounts extreme caution needs to be shown. Technology and social media needs to be used in the classroom as results show that technology can aid the pupils learning. From personal experience I have felt the use of technology in my maths class with educational games was both fun and helped me learn.

In conclusion, social media if used correctly will be a positive input for parents, pupils and teachers, as it allows the pupil to look online and get extra support from teachers. However it is important that the pupils learn the risk of social media. If used appropriately social media is an opportunity to revolutionise education, to make the link between home and school much stronger. We should be positive about social media and use it to assist the learning of pupils.

Gender

My gender affected me when I was a child in many different ways. I felt that the teachers would punish the boys more than the girls. Also some teachers would give out tougher punishments to the boys than the girls for doing the same thing. I think this was down to the fact that even at my primary school there was a ‘lads culture’, where it wasn’t cool to be good in class. As a result a few of the teachers tarnished us with the same brush. Even though I was not a naughty child, some of my friends were and I remember one particular moment when the teacher apologised to the girls of the class for splitting them up because of all the boys behaviour. This really affected me as I had done nothing wrong but the teacher just thought we were all the same. Also the teacher embarrassed me and the other boys and remembering thinking at the time that this so unfair and that the teacher hated us. Looking back I could see that the teacher was probably just having a bad day however that is an example of how I feel my gender affected me when I was younger. There was other examples, not letting the girls play football with us, because it was a boys only sport. Even though some of the girls were better than a few of the boys, myself included!

Why teaching?

I wanted to become a teacher for a few different reasons. Both my primary school and high school had lots of children and teenagers with so much potential but for different reasons they did not achieve it. The majority who didn’t were children who just didn’t try hard enough as they couldn’t see the point in school. I think that if they had a teacher that could have captured their imagination they could have achieved much more. This is why I want to become a teacher, to help those who may not have that help a home, those who live in poverty, to educate them and give them a chance to break out of the circle of poverty. Education, I believe is the best way to do that. The teacher I want to become is someone who understands the different situations and needs of every child and still manages to teach them and lead them onto better lives. As I mentioned earlier there were people I knew who did not see the point in trying hard in school. I want to be the type of teacher that changes their attitude and try to show that education is the key for them doing well in the future.

My work experience was a major factor in me choosing teaching. For the first time I was teaching children and I really enjoyed it. I was teaching football to all different years and it gave me an insight into teaching and how to deal with all different types of kids. It was a very rewarding experience and it made me think seriously about teaching. During my sixth year, I volunteered in a school and once again was allowed to help in all different years. I watched how teachers took classes and inspired the children, it was at that point that I knew I wanted to do this as a job. The teachers I watched were so good at their jobs it showed me how much work you need to put in but having talked to all of them and witnessed it myself I realized that teaching is a fantastic job and worth all the hard work.