Definitely back into the swing of studying with Uni (perhaps even more so than I was during the majority of my undergrad...?). We've got our plans underway for teaching a lesson at a primary school next week to celebrate the International Day of Languages and, for the MFL team, we're all learning more tips and tricks to teach some interesting lessons, including the dos and don'ts of Interactive Whiteboards.
Our first "school observation" day came this week, too. I had the opportunity to work with a wonderful set of MFL teachers in an academy that, despite not holding any kind of status for languages officially, really pulled it out of the bag when it came to making languages fun (e.g. effective use of AfL, engaging activities interspersed within potentially tough/dry topics, and the wider school aspect of language clubs and how their actions from a meeting can affect school performance). It also stretched me outside of my comfort zone as all lessons I observed/participated in were not my strongest language. Pile that on top of the fact that I will be returning there next week to perform parts of lessons... well let's say that I'm throwing myself in at the deep end...
...but I'd be lying if I said that I'm not loving it so far!
Aside from dipping our toes into the practical side of things, we also got stuck into two topics this week, the realm of Special Educational Needs (SEN) and the concept of 'Intelligence'.
When I was in school, I had no need for learning assistance, thus I never really got the chance to explore much around the aspect of SEN. I never made much of a sound at all, to be honest, so whether I was just unnoticed or otherwise is a matter of debate, nevertheless that fact remains that the SEN area of the school was just a door into a big colourful room that I never got to see the inside of.
Our session with an incredibly knowledgeable SENCO (who also just happens to be my mentor for the year; what luck!) led us to finding out more about just what SEN encompasses, who is responsible for SEN in schools and why these myriad of needs are important to know about and take into account every day. To expand upon those points somewhat briefly:
- SEN involves a multitude of aspects, from developmental issues, to cognitive assistance, to just having someone to talk to if your home life is less than ideal and working is the last thing on your mind. Of course, there are a tonne of acronyms to go along with this, such as CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services), NSSEN (Non-Statemented Special Educational Needs) and SEAL (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning). I'm sure we won't need to know these by heart, but as I said, there's a lot that can be encompassed within this realm!
- SEN doesn't begin and end with the SENCO; it is the responsibility of all members of the school faculty to get involved. If a child is known to have issues, the teacher and SENCO must collaborate in order to ensure appropriate teaching and differentiation (something exemplified to me this week in an observation of a Spanish class, where a teacher set the class up with an independent learning task and then spent that time helping a child who has extreme dyslexia to ensure he could access the learning)
- As teachers, it is important (and a part of the Teaching Standards) to be able to teach to all children, no matter what their level. If we are not able to appropriately and thoughtfully differentiate our lessons to cater for a wide range of abilities, yet still challenge our students to be the best they can be, then we're doing something wrong...
I was surprised by the difficulty encountered by students who require SEN and assistance. In my naïveté (en français, bien sûr!) I thought that equal time was allocated to each student by a team of teaching and learning assistants. Of course, you need money for that, and many establishments don't have that kind of money to spend... neither do the government want to give out that much money, either. Ergo, it could be that some people who do need the most help may not have access to these fantastic resources, and that's pretty sad. But as my second bullet point indicates, it's just as much the teachers' responsibility to help all children as much as any support they have in the class and school.
Now, moving on to the other big topic mentioned in bold above...
I typed 'Intelligence' in inverted commas as this weeks' readings and studies have made it really, really tough for me to define what it is. Many people may think of things such as IQ to begin with, but then you must consider that any IQ test will only examine a finite number of aspects in any one persons' range of capabilities. For instance, some may call Beethoven a musical genius, yet any modern IQ test would not examine his flair for composition.*
There seems to be a common issue with an agreed upon definition the world over. With the UK and USA, we seem to be fixated on this idea of IQ, it seems. However, in some areas of the world you are deemed to be more intelligent when you can appreciate others' point of view, or indeed show benevolence towards others. It even goes to the extreme where, in some parts of the world, you are only 'eligible' to be intelligent if you form a part of the higher social classes! Now, I'm saying that this is totally false, but I've seen some pretty well off people do some pretty poorly planned actions in the past...
Within education systems, it seems as though theories are called upon to shape the way in which learning occurs. For example, the stages that a child goes through within the UK system (school years, Key Stages, etc.) seem to more or less mimic the structure behind Piaget's Cognitive Development model. This has been in place for decades, perhaps to the point where it's just part of our culture.
The weird thing is, before this week, I had never really questioned why the UK has a Primary/Secondary system that is so different to, say, Finland's methods. Now that I am more conscious of these theories on learning, such as Gardner's Multiple Intelligences, especially when coupled with Bloom's Taxonomy, it throws all sorts of questions into the air: Are we really following the best method? Are we doing the children of the country a disservice in following a method that could be perhaps too prescriptive? Do we have the money, logistics and trust to change our system into one such as Finlands', who underwent an enormous shake up of their education system 40 years ago to develop into one of the top countries for education today?
Maybe not right now. But who knows what the future will bring...?
I refer to one of my favourite quotes (found in the quotes section of my site, surprisingly enough!) to end this post:
Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid (Einstein)- - - - - - - - - -
My goals for last week were:
- To keep up with note-taking and summarisation of lectures - achieved!
- To think more critically/at Masters level - getting there... I'm questioning EVERYTHING!
- To watch more Educating Yorkshire - haven't had the time!
- Creating a Japanese lesson, including resources and visuals, for next week
- Receiving some incredibly positive feedback from the team I worked with during observations
- Having a general feeling of preparedness before going into seminars and feeling able to access the work involved
For this time next week, I hope that:
- The two lessons I will take will go well and that my confidence is therefore boosted
- I can get more involved within seminar discussions around CPD (this will come with more critical thinking, I'm sure!)
- I can improve my levels of Spanish to a point where I am happy to take a lesson or a "micro teaching session"
*Hypothetically, if he were able to take the test, there may be increased scores within pattern-spotting or mathematical prowess, as these are required in some manner by composers to create a piece of music. Nevertheless, just because you can wield a calculator doesn't mean you can write a symphony...
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