Month: November 2019

For my community project, I volunteered within the Anchor Boy section of my local Boys Brigade (BB) unit. The BB’s are a Christian youth organisation that was founded nearly 130 years ago. The unit I volunteered in meet on a Friday night for an hour so I went along for a few weeks as it was such a short meeting and I was required to do at least a half days worth of work. On a normal night, the evening consists of a mixture of crafts and games.  My role was to work one-to-one with a young boy who was partially deaf, had additional support needs and who wasn’t in mainstream schooling. I didn’t have any previous experience working with children with disabilities so I looked forward to going out my comfort zone.

Something that surprised me about working there was the attitude of the other boys. I kind of expected some of the boys to be a little unkind and teasing but lots of the boys were actually very accepting of the young boy. The leaders explained to me that when he started, they had to explain to the some of the boys about his disability and how he might struggle with some things but all the boys were very accepting and always tried to make sure that he was playing the games and joining in. Something that I found challenging on the night was communicating with the young boy. Because of his partial deafness, his speech isn’t fully developed so it was very difficult to understand at points. Some words were easier to make out than others but he could get frustrated very easily if you couldn’t understand him. This lead to him getting violent and trying to hit you and run away. Trying to control his behaviour was also something that I struggled with over the weeks. However, the most enjoyable part of volunteering with the BB’s was just being there working with the kids.  The boys range from 5-7 years old and they were really fun to be around. They’re not every serious at that age, they’re just so excitable and enthusiastic. They just want to have fun and play games and it was really uplifting being in such relaxed environment where I could just focus on them.

The biggest thing I learned about community is how easy it is to create and become a part of one. Even though none of the other boys knew the boy that I was working with or went to school with him, they all played together and just had a nice night. They had created their own little community within those church halls. I also learned something really interesting about this community in particular. The boy I was helping wasn’t the only boy with additional support needs as there were a few other boys with things like autism, etc.  However, the leaders accept them all and don’t view it as a problem. They told me how their captain had advised them to turn away the boys, including the one I was working with, if it was going to be too much for them to handle but they didn’t want to.  They spoke to me about how these children will already be facing so many difficulties so why should they exclude them more? I, personally, found this really inspiring and think that everyone should have more of an attitude like this.

Volunteering with the Boys Brigade has allowed me to develop a number of skills, including being collaborative, organised and responsible.  This relates to teaching because these are skills or attributes that will be utilised in a teaching environment.  As a teacher you will have to work with other teachers or professionals who may have different opinions or perspectives to yourself, just like in the BB’s where you have to work with different leaders in your own or another section.  The activities for that week at the Boys Brigade need to be planned out and organised beforehand, the same way that teachers have to have lesson plans and make sure that they are suitable for everyone.  On a Friday night, once the parents have dropped their children off, you are responsible for them and need to make sure they are okay and nothing happens to them. Teachers are also responsible for their class and should try o provide them with the best possible education.

This weeks topic was energy.  Similar to our first topic, which was diversity, energy is such a wide topic and I was a little unsure of what to think of it. The only memories I have of the topic were using circuits in school and if I’m honest, I found it quite boring.

We initially looked at learning some information about energy, including a definition from the Cambridge Dictionary which says energy is “the power from something such as electricity or oil that can do work” (Cambridge Dictionary, ND).  We then moved on to look at how we have such a dependability on fossil fuels but we only have limited resources left.  Business Standards (2015) estimates that we only have 50 years of oil left, 54 of gas and 110 of coal. That is really scary to think about because oil and gas could possibly run out within my lifetime and we are still heavily reliant on fossil fuels. However, we then moved on to learn about Biofuels which could eventually be an alternative to petrol and diesel.

There are two different types of Biofuels, Bioethanol and Biodiesel.  Bioethanol is an alcohol based fuel made from fermenting sugar, maize or other cereals but only 5% of it can be added to petrol without adjustments. Engines also need to be altered to run at higher concentrations and to create it, large areas of farmland are needed which could be used for food production.  Biodiesel is made by reacting different oils with alcohol. It can be mixed with regular diesel, and unlike Bioethanol, it can be used on its own and car engines don’t need to be modified.

Reflecting back after the lecture using Brookefields (1995) autobiographical lens,  I found the information on biofuels really interesting as it was something I had never looked at before. I believe now that it should be a much bigger deal than it is and it should be more widely available.

I found this video and thought that this would be a really great resource to use in class to start the topic of energy.  I’ve seen the Dr. Bionics videos used whilst on placement before and the pupils responded really well to them. They use simple language and cartoons so they’re very straight forward and easy to understand.

We then moved on to a workshop where we debated about wind power. We stared off in small groups researching the pros’s and con’s and then came together with another group to combine our answers. The class was then split and we had a debate for/against wind power.

Debating is a really good tool to consider for my future practice. It can help to develop certain skills, such as being collaborative or supportive, and can also build a community within the classroom.  Debating allows an opportunity for children to work with others that they might not know that well but working with friends might also mean that they feel more comfortable and want to participate.

However, something that needs to be considered when debating is group size. As the groups got bigger, it meant more people could sit back and not participate. This happened to me on the day so I understand how easily it can happen. A way of trying to solve this problem is assigning everyone in the group a role so they have a job to do and can be held accountable to something.

Our task the following week was to create a car and make it move without touching it.  Our section had a clear set of instructions to follow to create the car and then had limited resources to try and make it move ( rubber bands, balloons, paper). The other group had no instructions, a wide variety of resources available to create their car and had freedom to make the car look and move how they wanted.

I really enjoyed the workshop but trying to find something to make it move on its own was really frustrating as that was the only part with no instructions.  Personally, I preferred working with instructions and having something to follow.  I’m not a very “outside of the box” thinker so I struggled with coming up with a creative method of moving the car.  However, I did find the environment very relaxed and found that if you encountered a problem, someone else in the room was able to help because we were all doing the same thing.

I do understand though that the structured method of following instructions won’t work well for everyone and that there are positives to allowing freedom and the opportunity to tinker with ideas and objects.

By relating to the UWS Graduate Attributes, I believe that this week’s input has helped me to become more knowledgable and influential. If I plan to teach the topic of energy, or any science topic, I need to be knowledgeable in the area and know what I’m talking about so that I can give the children the best possible education.  I believe that I have become more influential because as a teacher, you will be a main viewpoint for many children and influence what their thoughts and opinions. If we can teach them to be more eco-friendly, this may inspire them and could overtime help our planet.

References

• Brookfield, S. (1995). Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher. San-Francisco: Jossey-Bass
• https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/energy
• https://www.business-standard.com/article/punditry/how-long-will-fossil-fuels-last-115092201397_1.html
• University of the West of Scotland (2018) UWS Graduate Attributes [Online] Available: https://www.uws.ac.uk/current-students/your-graduate-attributes/[Accessed: 19 November 2019]

This week, we were learning about Natural Disasters. We firstly looked at what a natural disaster is and the International Federation of Red Cross defines it as  “a sudden, calamitous event that seriously disrupts the functioning of a community or society and causes human, material, and economic or environmental losses that exceed the community’s or society’s ability to cope using its own resources”.  Disasters can also be separated  into different categories which are Geographical, Hydrological, Climatological, Meteorological and Biological. I was surprised to find out that there is so many types of disasters.

We also looked at the political and social science side of natural disasters.  We started off by watching two videos comparing the impact of Hurricane Matthew in two different countries, Haiti and Florida. Whilst Haiti was destroyed, had no prior warning and relied on lots of foreign aid, Florida had had previous warning via a press announcement and the area was evacuated. I was really shocked to see how vastly different the countries responses were and some scenes were quite emotional to watch.  We also learned about the effect that humans have on natural disasters, such as urbanisation, global warming or land use, and the huge impact that governments can have also, in terms of things like funding priorities, preparation or lack of and corruption, etc.

We then discussed natural disasters from a teaching standpoint and how we can teach it to children without scaring them. We shouldn’t shy away from the topic because it can be intense and frightening. Disasters can help children to look further than their own communities and towards the outside world (Halocha, 2012) which is why we need to provide our pupils with both local and global viewpoints. Natural disasters also lends itself quite well to lots of cross-curricular opportunities. For example, you could write a creative story in a literacy lesson or use ICT to research other examples of disasters and create a presentation, fact-file, leaflet, etc.

We also had a workshop on different experiments and activities that linked to natural disasters. Some were more interactive than others, such as the baking soda volcano, but it would still be a really good resource to use in class because it shows natural disasters in a fun and engaging way rather than the scary side.

Another main focus of the natural disaster topic was our micro teaching task.  We were instructed to create a presentation about how we would teach a natural disaster to a class. We were given earthquakes as our disaster and I was a little unsure how to approach the topic as it can get quite technical. However, we decided to include a video that we found really explained the subject well because it talked through everything in simple language, had lots of images and provided examples to put it into context.

Using the Brookefield, S (1995) Model of Reflection, I looked back to before our lecture and how the topic of natural disasters seemed quite daunting. It can be a very emotional topic and the thought of teaching it freaked me out. However, after spending time researching and further increasing my own knowledge, the topic no longer frightens me.  As a pupil, I would think that natural disasters are really interesting and it could also inspire my charitable side to help people affected both at home and abroad.

I also read an article about how countries that are affected by natural disasters are more likely to be affected by civil conflict, especially low and middle income countries. This shows that academics are starting to reflect on the aftermath of disasters and considering how the political and social factors are becoming just as important as the disaster itself (Nel,P and Righart,M  2008).

Looking over the UWS Graduate attributes, I believe that this topic has helped to create and develop certain skills and attributes. In particular, being collaborative, knowledgable and digitally literate. These are all attributes that are vital in both the professional workplace and in my personal life.

References 

• Brookfield, S. (1995). Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher. San-Francisco: Jossey-Bass
• •Halocha. J (2012) The Primary Teacher’s Guide to Geography. Witney: Scholastic
• Nel, P. and Righarts, M. (2008) Natural Disasters and Risk of Violent Civil Conflict. International Studies Quarterly, Volume 52 (issue 1), pp. 159-185
• University of the West of Scotland (2018) UWS Graduate Attributes [Online] Available: https://www.uws.ac.uk/current-students/your-graduate-attributes/[Accessed: 15 November 2019
• www.ifrc.org, accessed october 2019