Unit X | Educator Key Blog Post 2

During micro teaching by tutors, this helped me get an idea on how to plan a session even if it was for just 10 mins. My micro teaching experience was daunting at first but as I kept going I felt more comfortable discussing my cultural background with my peers. I feel like the planning form helped a lot because I use this method already in my practice and outside studying. This skill is something that I will carry out in the future. The way I carried out my session was by communicating with my peers while we were learning/ making things, this is also something I feel like my teaching styles may be like.

During my time at Darwin Aldridge Community Academy 'DACA' for placement, a teacher told me that a student ‘X’ felt uncomfortable talking about her learning difficulty which was dyslexia, so she advised me not to bring it up inappropriately. Because I have a learning disability, I felt that I could help or relate to her in some way. So how I approached her was by asking X about her studies. We had a conversation about my decision between wanting to be a paramedic and doing art. I mentioned that I did not know I had dyslexia which explained my ability in reading and writing. I shared a bit of my personal experience relating to what I knew about her by the teacher. X eventually felt comfortable enough to declare that she too had dyslexia. I comforted her and supported her to what she wanted to become; a drama teacher.

At the time of the moth workshop, I feel like I lacked I participation. So from this, I in putted my ideas and thoughts when it came to planning the workshops in the fourth week at DACA. As a team, we managed to cooperate and gather everyone’s ideas together and came up with something educational as well as fun for the year 7’s. This workshop looks like it will be successful as my group have great contact with each other. We are all from different practices; knit, embroidery and art history. So we all have something we can bring to the table and have a great outcome.

During placement in one lesson there was one particular group of girls that were not participating in the lesson and disrupting other student learning. In the room you could feel the frustration the female teacher had felt. However she remained cool, calm and collected. The teacher gave out several warnings which lead to students being sent out to cool down but students continued to mistreat her teaching. So the last resort for the teacher was to take their breaks away. The tutor explained their expectations and how it will affect their future during break. If I was in the teacher’s situation, I would have done the same thing. But how miss managed to compose herself while he girls were laughing continuously is beyond me. This is something that I will defiantly need to work on. From experience, girls would tend to misbehave around female teachers maybe because of jealousy but in front of male teachers, they would concentrate. I would be wrong but this is from a personal view.

Technology is becoming more and more demanding in most jobs these days. I feel like I lack in knowledge in this department. I can easily work with machinery, but when it comes to Photoshop or illustrator it doesn’t click with me. During placement, students were expected to work with technology in lessons, not only with Photoshop but with other technical features such as; cd, mug, 3d printers. So if I want to be an art teacher I would need this knowledge to improve my practice further.

The educator programme has so far given me the best in knowledge of how to approach people with different abilities in education and how to express any ideas or thoughts that I may have. From the child protection session,  I feel like I have a basic understanding on how to communicate with students from different background as my placement in DACA, has allowed me to interact with students that have; learning disabilities or poor background.

Unit X | Week Five 26/04/16

Placement Week 2:

This week’s placement I was observing year 11 in photography. This group was made up of mature students getting on with their work while the teacher ran some errands while being in the classroom. The classroom had a very comfortable vibe as students were able to have conversations relating to the subject in the classroom, the teacher also participated in most of the conversation. Because I have a learning disability, I requested to sit in on a student’s support group that involves different types of learning difficulties.

For the workshop commencing on week 4 of placement, my group planned making masks with a underwater theme. We came up with this theme by combining all the ideas we had come up with individually. Our group is year 7 so we are to prep for their age range and abilities. Artists that we are planning to use as reference are: Jason DeCaires Taylor an underwater sculpture artist and Fiona Banner a Textiles artist.

Fiona Banner

Jason DeCaires Taylor 

Theme:

Unit X | Week Four 19/04/16

Placement Week 1

The first week of placement at Darwin Aldridge Community Academy (DACA) was an interesting experience. With a mixed group of year 7, 8 and 9’s in a day, you could see the abilities and communication teachers and students had with each other. With the year 9’s, the teacher had planned out a seating plan for the 4 groups of year 9’s in the morning before the students arrived so that they could focus on the lesson. The teacher had also laid out the table in a way the group can see each other and communicate.

 

There was one group of year 9’s that were a disruptive than previous groups. The teacher composed herself in a way that the laughter in the classroom died down eventually. Warnings were given to the selected individual and breaks were eventually taken away as a last resort. What I took away from this was that even though teachers are set to work within time limits, not everything will go to plan as things will get in the way and teaching could be delayed. 

Micro teaching

In my micro teaching session, I chose to teach my peers and tutors my mother tongue language, culture, history. I feel like I went about on my timing really well as I didn't include a lot of information as the session was only for 10 mins! However, I feel like I provided enough content so that my peers learnt at least three things from me. What I included was, my language, Bangladeshi history, the meaning behind the flags design/ colours, Bengali writing etc.

My secondary school art teacher used to talk to GCSE students in a manner where we all felt comfortable and that he was one of us. He would gather us around a big table and show examples of how to do the work while talking about things that related to the work and a bit of banter. This made us feel like adults and we felt respected.

So form this experience, I used the method in the micro teaching and I feel like it worked for me, I felt more and more comfortable as the session went on. I also sensed a connection with my peers as they wanted to know more about my cultural background. This then led to me telling personal stories about back home, which I didn't mind sharing!

Unit X | Week Three 15/04/16

This week was about body language and the different types of feedback. Therefore, after watching a presentation by Amy Cuddy | Ted | YouTube | Moodle about body language. We were first set out to do was act out four scenes: teacher with extremely higher control, students with higher roles, equality and reality all within a classroom setting. What I took away from this was that even when we are discussing our stories of body language that our teachers used in school, you could see how people were feeling just by looking at the way they were communicating and listening in the group.

I feel like that body language does not necessarily express ones emotions. For example, I would usually sit down with my arms cross because most of the time I am feeling cold. However, when I give presentations to a group of my peers that I know and to a crowd of strangers, I will tend to stand in one place and not make eye contact to my audience. I feel like these are just some things that I need to work on.

Types of feedback...

Constructive feedback:

Where you guide/tell someone how well or where he/ she could improve on his/ her work. Suggestions could be provided to improve their skills for better results.

One to one:

I feel like this is the best method to use for feedback. It gives both student and teacher to communicate with each other and give the student a chance to ask s questions. It also give them both the opportunity to discuss any hardship outside the subject that they may be facing and what there is out there to help them.

Feedback from peers| good or bad?

From experience, peer group feedback can be useful as you see these people mostly every day and they know more about your work than tutors do because they have seen you making them and your intentions behind it.

Critical feedback:

From experience, this is one of the feedback techniques that I have sworn by not to use myself. I feel like this method degrades a person and their work when they have work hard.

Let them ask questions:

This practise allows not only the students to ask question but also the person giving feedback. This is the most comfortable way to give feedback I think.

Being anonymous:

Personally, I find this method a bit weird even after I have tried it. The person that is receiving the feedback doesn’t really get to say anything whether it be harsh, constructive or kind comment

Do not be direct:

Instead of saying, ‘you did not use any artists for inspiration’. In other words, ‘I would recommend artists research for further findings.’

Written feedback:

This method is more of a one-way system as you get a written report on your work. Sometimes students cannot respond because there are many notes noted down. These are either handed to them on a sheet or through email. This does not give the students a chance to explain themselves or ask what they can do to improve.