19-26th March

19/03/2014

 

Week 3 of the programme was adapted slightly for this school, they wanted to focus it more around the importance of eating a healthy breakfast. My role in the session was leading a debate with half of the class, this was around the subject of 'Why Breakfast is/isn't Important?' I enjoyed leading the debate, the class were very well behaved. A strategy employed to ensure only one student spoke at once was the use of a cuddly toy, only the person in possession of the cuddly toy was aloud to speak.

 

 

 

Use examples of reflection with Kolb's learning cycle

 

 

 

26/03/2014

Today we taught the same session at two different primary schools, it was week 4 of the programme and the healthy lunch box challenge. This session doesn't require much involvement for the teachers, encouraging the student to use their initiative. I was required to instruct/supervise the students on making cous cous and also popcorn. I found that the children had learnt a lot from week one of the programme and felt a certain sense of achievement.

 

12/03/2014

This week we did the 'healthy lunch box challenge' with a Year 5 class, the purpose of the session was to emphasise the importance of eating a healthy lunch and giving the students hands on experience at preparing their own lunch. Below are some of the finished products:

 

 

 

 

 

Johns (2000) model for structured reflection is a very indepth framework to look at reflection in an academic context. Johns supports the need for an individual to work closely with a supervisor throughout their learning expereience. Johns uses Carper's (1978) four patterns of knowing aesthetics, personal, ethics and empirics, adding a fith pattern: 'reflexivity'.

 

Carper, B. A. (1978). Fundamental Patterns of Knowing in Nursing. Advances in Nursing Science, 1(1), 13-24.

Johns, C. (2000). Becoming a Reflective Practitioner. Oxford: Blackwell Science .

11/03/2014

Today was week 2 at Lea Community Primary School. Today proved to be one of the most challenging classes to control, to date. With the permanent teacher being off work, a supply teacher was minding the class, which many of them so as an opportunity to 'act up'. During the session I spoke to the class for a short while regarding portion size's and different food groups, during this time the children were very disruptive and talkative. With the supply teacher being very little help managing the class, I asked them repeatedly to listen, along with the help of my supervisor, however it wasn't much use so I continued over the noise. I am now going to use The Framework for Reflective Practice (Rolf et al., 2001) to explain this issue I found myself in:

1. Descriptive level of Reflection (What):

The issue was my lack of authority in the classroom, the teacher at the time should really have controlled the class and reinforced my instructions for them to listen, however this was not the case. The consequence for me was feeling slightly embarrassed and for the students perhaps missing out on vital information intended to be learnt throughout the programme.

 

2. Theory and Knowledge Building (So What?):

This implies that I was not seen as an authoritative figure in this classroom. I carried on talking over the children as I didn't see it as 'my duty' to control the class, mainly because there was a fully qualified teacher in the class room. Looking back at the incident I could have stopped talking all together and tried that strategy for gaining the students attention.

 

 3. Action Orientated Level of Reflection (Now What?):

Upon reflection of this incident, I believe that I could have suggested to my supervisor having a word with the supply teacher and asking him to help control the class. For future reference it would be beneficial for me to research some other methods of catching the class’ attention. However it should be noted that this was only the ninth hour of twelve I had helped teach this particular class. I found it is very difficult to distinguish myself as an authoritative figure in the class, with such a short space of time to gain a rapport etc.

Rolfe, G., Freshwater, D., & Jasper, M. (2001). Critical Reflection for Nursing and the Helping Professions: A User's Guide . Palgrave Macmillan.