The week started
off well when Marisa, Brian and I, received our Polish language test results.
We were pleasantly surprised when we received a decent mark, the equivalent of a
2:1, in our exam. Polish language is an extremely complicated language to
learn, especially as Polish has different ‘Cases’ which influence verbs and
nouns. The majority of the people in our Polish language class have already stopped attending
class, I assume for this reason. However, I feel that these language classes
are very important for our professional development, as last year I encountered
two Polish P.1 children who spoke no English in my class in Northern Ireland. As the teacher
did not know any Polish, it was very hard for her to communicate properly with
the children and furthermore, with their parents. I hope that, even if I can
only remember a little bit of Polish, it will help me with my future teaching
in Northern Ireland to avoid this communication problem.
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| Our Polish Language Class |
This week we also had an
interesting seminar in ‘Developing teacher’s critical thinking through the
educational designing’ on defining educational goals. We discussed the
different types of goals in teaching, such as learning intentions and aims, and
discussed how these are influenced. We began debating the cultural influence on
education and education’s influence on culture awareness.
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| Zane and I enjoying a glass of wine |
In Northern Ireland, even though
all schools share the same curriculum, the division between Maintained schools
and State schools could influence what children are being taught in a
massive way. I started to consider if being taught subjects like religion, geography
and history differently could affect a child’s attitude to culture and the
different communities in Northern Ireland’s society. This division within the
education system in Northern Ireland shows how interrelationships between
schools and the communities they are in are so vitally important (GTC 12, 2007).
This is also made me think about how the teacher's attitudes and opinions can affect how they teach children and the content they teach. It is very difficult to teach with a completely unbiased view, especially if the topic is something close to your heart. However, I feel that it is good for a collection of teachers in a school to collaborate with each other, especially if they have differing opinions, points of view and experiences about a topic, as this will ensure children are given a wide variety of view points to consider. This will also enable children to have the opportunity to develop their own opinion and appreciate other opinions, developing their 'Thinking Skills and Personal Capabilities' (CCEA,2007).
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| Poland for Beginners class |
In this class we also spoke
about different teaching styles and the lecturer encouraged us to teach in an
interactive way in which children learn how to live. He told us; “Non scholae, sed vitae discimus” which is
a Latin phrase meaning “we do not teach for school but for life”. I became very
proud of our Northern Ireland Curriculum, as all the strategies our lecturer
was encouraging were within our curriculum, such as the AFL strategies, KWL
boards, connected learning and the TS&PC (CCEA, 2007).
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| The Emergency Supplies Box I received from Home! |
Furthermore, I have realised how valuable the past
two years of Teaching Practice has been for my professional development as in
comparison with the other Erasmus students (who have not had the opportunity to
have teaching practice), Marisa, Brian and I are very knowledgeable about the
practicalities of teaching. Even though we may complain about the stressful
period of teaching practice, I can now see how it has helped us to build and
expand our capabilities as teachers.
References:
CCEA (2007) available at, http://www.nicurriculum.org.uk/ accessed 15/03/13
GTCNI(2007) available at, http://epublishbyus.com/ebook/ebook?id=10020354#/52 accessed on 15/03/13
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