Career Aspirtations

So far I am really enjoying my work placement and finding it very useful in determining a future career path. Having decided working with primary school children isn't something I would wish to pursue full time, I feel that working for a council could be an appealing career for me. My supervisors current job title for Preston Council is 'Community Nutrition Worker', this involved organising and running a number of different programmes not only with children but adults too. I have been asked to volunteer for other events in Preston by my supervisor and am considering continuing my volunteering work with Alison into the summer upon completion of my degree. I believe that networking with my supervisor and other employees of Preston City Council may aid me in the future with job application etc.

 

Currently coming to the end of my final year in Sports Science, I believe that the modules I have favoured have all been nutrition related, therefore perhaps maybe 'Nutrition and Exercise Sciences' may have been a more suitable degree choice. However as my work placement is with children, the breadth of knowledge required, I already have possess.

 

 

29/01/2014

Today was week three of the programme at St Andrews (lesson plan below):
 



 

This lesson involved me managing two groups (12 children) both baking soda bread, with them being a year four class they were slightly more difficult to control than previous weeks. During the second part of the session I was in charge of the digestive system station, I felt confident at this station due to my background in physiology. I really enjoyed assisting this session and felt that the students learnt quite a lot they didn't previously know about the functions of the digestive organs, which hopefully they left the session remembering.

Working Relationships

One of my aims for my work placement was to develop successful working relationships, with both my supervisor and other volunteers such as myself. I have previously struggled with this in the past, when working with a friend and fellow student at college teaching mult-skills. We were very good friends however had very different ideas for the session plan which often conflicted. With Alison leading this session and being the main authoritative figure to the class, this problem could not occur. Having travelled to and from the sessions with another volunteer for the council I built a good relationship, which reflected when we worked together in the classroom.

27/01/2014

Today was week two of the programme for Our Lady and St Edwards, again I thought it would be useful to include a session plan below to give an idea of what the session entailed:

During this session I was supervising of a group of 7 children whilst they grew their own cress seeds. Having not fully read over the briefing sheet, I instructed two of the children incorrectly. My supervisor and the other volunteer had led this session various times before therefore did not require the briefing sheet, not wanting to appear inexperienced I took the choice to not take me sheet to the table with me. To explain this mistake I will use Gibbs Reflective Model (1988) which involves six stages of reflection, these are: Description, Feelings, Evaluation, Analysis, Conclusion and Action Plan .

• Feelings- When the children realised that they had sowed their seeds differently to some of the other groups, they immediately knew that theirs was wrong. This made me feel instantly embarrassed as I tried to quickly gather other materials so the children could start again before their time ran out. When I told my supervisor I felt nervous, however she told me not to worry and made me feel comfortable, almost 'laughing it off'.
• Evaluation- I believe that I reacted to the situation well, by quickly getting the children more materials they did have time to complete another batch, ensuring they weren't missing out. As mentioned by supervisor reacted really well to the situation, observing that I was nervous about it she soon calmed me down. The children also reacted well and didn't make any comments towards me. By not referring back to my briefing sheet, this issue arose, therefore it is important for me to do this in future. Speaking to the other volunteer in the class she reassured me that her first few sessions were rather daunting and she forgot a few simple things herself. .....

• Analysis- I believe that speaking to my supervisor straight away was the best thing I could have done, it made me feel at ease and relaxed. If I was to 'put off'' this conversation it could have made things much by not dealing with a situation immediately and speaking to an authority figure the situation can be made worse.  
• Conclusion- I believe that the way in which I handled the situation was ideal, I'm happy that I informed my supervisor straight away. To avoid any similar situations in future it is important for me read the briefing sheet thoroughly and take it with me to the table if necessary.  
• Action Plan- Next time I am in a similar situation I will be sure to take my briefing sheet along to the table and not feel embarrassed to have to glance back at it. For if this was the case during today, this problem would not have occurred.

 

GIBBS, G. (1988) Learning by Doing: A Guide to Teaching and Learning Methods. Oxford: Further Educational Unit, Oxford Polytechnic.

22/01/2014

Week 1 at St Bernard's was very successful, this was a year 6 class, therefore a little more mature and attentive whilst being taught. The main focus of this session was to try and make fruit 'fun' and more appealing to them, emphasising the importance of 5 a day. My main duties were to supervise a group throughout the session, re-in forcing good hygiene and knife safety techniques. Below is an image of my groups finished product:
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


 
 
Upon reflection of this session I began thinking about my career aspirations and what I wish to achieve on completion of my degree. Only in the past year I have developed a great interest in nutrition after taking a related module in my second year, hence the choosing of my placement. Having worked with younger children before teaching multi-skills it was something I enjoyed, however found that taking the same sessions could be quite monotonous. I hope that through the course of my placement I will discover whether working with children and or nutrition is something I wish to pursue in the future.  

 

Key Skills

I believe that some of the key teaching skills and qualities I possess (from previous experience) are:

• good communication skills on a 1-1 basis, or in small groups
• flexibility in working hours
• organisational skills

 

 

However other skills and attributes which I hope to develop and better during my work placement include:

• managing difficult behaviour with children
• being constantly enthusiastic about the subject being taught  
• develop communication skills when speaking to the class as a whole
 

It is an important skill to effectively reflect and evaluate experiences throughout my work placement, in order to do this effectively I will be using four different models of reflection throughout my blog:

• Gibbs (1988) Reflective cycle
• Johns (2000) model for Structured Reflection
• Rolfe et al (2001) Framework for Reflective Practice
• Kolb's (1984) Experimental Learning Cycle

20/01/2014- First day of placement!

Today was the first day of my work placement! I was feeling rather nervous and not quite sure what to expect. This was the first time that Preston City Council had ever ran this programme, therefore it would be fair to say that Alison the leader of the programme was quite apprehensive too!

The first session was at - Our Lady and St Edwards on time for the session. I thought it would be useful to add in a copy of the session plan below, to give you an idea of what the session entailed:

 

 

This session was working with a year 5 class, during this session there was three volunteers (including myself) and then Alison, the other volunteers had worked with Alison before and it was apparent they already had a good working relationship. Having recognised the other volunteers from University I felt much more at ease and 'part of the team'. As the session began it worked out one volunteer to a table (groups of 5-6 childeren), I did feel a little 'thrown in at the deep side' for the first session as the class were learning about knife safety and it was vital for me to be extra vigilant and reamain in constant supervision of the group. I really enjoyed helping out with the session, it also re-introduced me to working with childeren, something I haven't done for 3-4 years.