Is it over?

It may be over but it feels like I have only just begun. This course has provided me with skills that I will continue to use in professional practice and I look forward to sharing my artefact with others in my field.

I hope all your presentations went well, I was lucky enough to be able to go to the university and present mine live. I throughly enjoyed watching everyones presentations via skype. It was very interesting to see how everyones inquiries unfolded and the discoveries that were made. 

I wish everyone the best of luck for results day! Fingers crossed! 

 

Skype 2.05.2017

Skype Session 

Another great, productive, session with Adesola and BAPP students, Amanda, Vicky and Megan.

Topics Discussed

Feedback 

Referencing documentaries - Cite it right website

Appendices

Oral Presentation

Questions for people's Inquiries

Artefact

Submitting work to the university

Many of these topics are going to be covered by students that were involved in the skype session. However,  I have chosen to blog about Oral Presentations as this is something I am now moving on to do. I  found the advice and discussion around this topic very helpful. 

Oral Presentation

As a group we discussed what our presentation is, and what we want it to be. Below are the words that were picked out to describe the oral presentation. I have used these words to create an idea for a title page. I feel it is a nice idea to collaborate the work we achieved in the skype through into my presentation.  It may change but its a starting point! 

Vicky went to see the presentations from the previous module 3 students and her insight to what they were like was incredibly informative and interesting. 

Q: "What was a good presentation? Why?"

- Structure

- Well thought out

- Flowed nicely

- Linked together

- Detailed explanation but not too long

Q: "What was a less effective presentation? Why?"

- Poor time keeping

- Being VERY nervous (nerves are expected but keeping it cool)

- Long winded explanations

This has really helped me to move forward with my presentation and has given me key points to stay away from and points I should include! It is interesting that Vicky mentioned that thorough explanations were good, but long winded explanations are bad. I guess there is a fine line between explaining it thoroughly and rambling on. Upon reflection I may record my voice when I am speaking through my presentation to perhaps spot where I may be rambling! 

Amanda is from an acting background and shared some advice on presenting. Amanda spoke about watching other presentations and specifically focusing on how they keep people's attention throughout. As a group we discussed that maybe these do not have to be ex BAPP students but any presentation, Ted Talks etc... 

This led us to talk about watching presentations that we have no interest in and seeing if it can hold our attention, if so why and how? By carrying out this exercise I believe that this will help me to be better prepared for my presentation. 

Thanks to Adesola and all the participants for all the great advice and interesting discussions! 

Alone.

I have spent sometime looking through peoples blogs and I cant help but feel very proud of the fellow bapp students. It seems to be all coming together as we push over this final hurdle.  

From Megan's blog she left Pauls blog explaining the presentations and showing examples and links to graduates work. This was incredibly helpful as I am now moving on to build my presentation, so I thought I would share it with you. 

https://paulanottingham.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/oral-presentations-reviewing-and-advice.html

One of the blogs from paula's blog, mentions about meeting the students on the course for the first time and how nice it was to meet everyone in person. This led me to reflect on my journey through this course at the very beginning I was the only student who did the ROL before entering module 1. I felt incredibly worried and nervous and for the first time alone during my studies. With no class mates to call and check things through, I discovered that I had to find my own way and push out of my comfort zone. 

 Module 1 began and I still felt rather alone clicking through peoples blogs trying to figure out who was module 1 and honestly, figuring out how to use blogger! 

During Module 2 regular names and faces were joining the skypes and I followed all the students blogs throughout the course. Module 2 also was the birth of the SIG Facebook group!

Now in module 3 I can say I do not feel alone in this final part. Even though I am; I'm working on my inquiry by myself and no one really truly knows what I have done, so I am really looking forward to sharing it at the presentations. The SIG group has been fantastic and I am really looking forward to meeting you all! 

Good Luck!! 

Coffee Shop Chat

Skype

I am pleased that I was able to join Adesola and a mix of module 1 and 3 BAPP students for a general catch up.

This skype was incredibly beneficial and it was nice to hear how other students are doing. There are three main things that I have taken away from the Skype, I have explained these below.

 

1. "How do I join my work together? How do I make it into one whole thing?"  Laurence and Ben helped me a lot when we spoke about my question. They suggested to create themes from my findings and then the literature matched up easier. Other suggestions were to look at it in a different angle and it is ok to do trials that don't work, just to keep going.

2. The Process- Adesola spoke about how you will be bias in your inquiry it is about being aware of it not pretending it isn't there.

3. "How do I stop story telling in my essay ?" It was great to be able to ask this question and really talk about academic writing style. The advise given was to discuss my inquiry within my essay. Add literature into the points that I am making so it isn't all just about what I did. How do my findings compare with literature?

A technique I have tried since the type chat was to generally discuss my inquiry with someone else. This was incredibly beneficial and I feel that I have made sense of what I need to put into my essay. I asked my participant to ask me questions on parts they didn't understand, this helped me as this highlighted where my weakness were in our discussion.

On reflection to the Skype I have thought about the module 1 students that joined in the Skype session, it made me realise what a journey I have been on since the beginning. I am excited to finish my work and graduate, but there is a part of me that is looking forward to the next part, but there isn't a next part! Feel like I have realised that its nearly over!


Short blog today but please to comment below if you have any thoughts or if you have tried discussing your inquiry with someone else.

Journal

I have typed up a extracts from my Journal. These specific moments are when I felt a teacher was 'good'. I have presented it in a table that states when? who? what? and why?

Key words
Passion
Enthusiasm
Understanding
Calm
Patient
Prepared
Student Teacher Relationship

Who?	When?	What?	Why?
Colleague at Non Stop Action	Before our PE session	A child had forgotten her PE kit. My colleague pulled them to one side and spoke in a soft voice. “where is your kit?” the child said “Mummy can’t buy me one yet” the child came to our lesson and worked on a non participant sheet.	My colleague pulled the child a side. This prevented the child from feeling embarrassed. Tone of voice was suitable to the situation as this child had ‘forgotten it’ for 3 weeks now. My colleague could have become agitated that this was the third week, but instead she remained calm and was very understanding.
Primary School Teacher	Before we took over the class. Very beginning of the day about 8:55am	The teacher has set out a morning activity for the children as they entered.	This helped the children to settle into the classroom and be prepared for a day of learning. It was engaging and calm. Prepared and planned for the day ahead.
Colleague Non Stop Action	During a Dance PE lesson	A child had removed themselves from the rest of the group and sat by the wall	My colleague went over to them and spoke to them about something that was nothing to do with PE. She asked how she was and whether she had schools dinners today. (lunch was after this lesson). This was an interesting tactic as she made a relationship with the child first before saying “Why are you over here?” It was more time consuming than just saying“WHY are you sitting out?” I have seen teachers before just shout over to the, "get up and join in now!" But this strategy was more rewarding in the end as the child explained the issue and then joined in. Showed patience and the importance of student teacher relationship.
Primary School Teacher	Observing as I was waiting for my next class	A teacher was introducing a new topic	The passion that the teacher had when they were describing the new topic was infectious. I wanted to learn I wanted to be involved and I’m not in that lesson. The enthusiasm oozed out and the children were incredibly motivated. Passion and enthusiasm.

Comparing my stories with my findings from my inquiry has been really interesting. My participants mentioned similar if not the same key words during their interview. 

Literature

I'm starting to build something that I am learning from and it is forming into something really exciting. I have spent the majority of my weekend at Middlesex university going through books. In module 2 I took similar trips however this trip felt different. For module 2 the way I used the library was different. I simply took down  books off the shelf that interested me to help me to build my inquiry. Creativity inspiration led me to different books, I picked up books that spoke of learning theories then I would jump to books with the titles " Primary Aged Teaching" and "Essential teaching skills".

Where as this time around I had analysed my data and I was looking for more information around my topic not completely different topics. Key words or sources I had previously found online was leading my search in the library. I felt like I had more of a purpose not just exploring freely. I continued to pull down books of practitioners. I sat and read through so many different books looking for chapters that matched key words that I have found through my interviewees answers.  Words such as ; Passion, Communication, Effective, Relationships and Planning. This lead me to chapters titled; Ethics, Character, Communication, Teaching Sills, Planning and Preparation, Expert Teacher and Passionate Teaching.

Since my trip I have combined my new literature with old literature my thoughts and my participants thoughts. I am aiming to find information about what is good teaching practise from different perspectives and I feel like I am starting to really build something my professional practice is going to benefit from.

 I am about to send my tutor my findings, it is tough because I have found so much information. I am hoping the feedback from my tutor will help me to finalise key findings and focus on a few key findings.

It is all a bit all over the place I need to still pull it all together but it is a big step forward! The biggest thing I am going to take away is from R. Turner- Bisset's  book ' Expert Teaching',  she talks about how you can not define good teaching, expert teaching or effective teaching. But OFSTED used the word outstanding teaching practise. So you can measure the teaching practise but it will never be finalised it will just be information gathered. This has helped me to remember that I am NOT finding answers only information!

R. TURNER-BISSET (2001) Expert Teaching- Knowledge and Pedagogy to Lead the Profession London: David Fulton Publishers