Tuesday, 28 February 2012
An emotion
In Suzie’s lesson we had to choose an emotion and go around uni capturing images to best describe it, also thinking about objects and colours. I chose to use 'happiness' as my emotion but found it a little hard at times to capture that as the day was very dark and dreary outside, and the uni corridors are very bare with plain white tones. I found that i was drawn to images and posters around the uni also using little objects and my friends.
Friday, 24 February 2012
What is education? Guest speaker 5
Mondays lecture was taken by Graham Allen who is the environmental manager of Swansea University. He spoke about 'education for sustainable development‘. Its role is to give a better quality of life and to meet the needs of today and for those to come. Environments, society and economy make up the three components of sustainable development as the end product shows the successful result.
The aims are as follows:
• To promote the students to think for themselves.
• Support the students when reflecting on issues so they create their own opinions.
• Encourage discovery that is relevant to life’s experiences.
A freedom of choice and the thought of the ‘correct actions’ are promoted, but it is the environment’s to teach and stimulate this that is relevant, and it lies in the social responsibility of schools and further education. In this environment delivering of objectives, decision making, sharing knowledge/learning, clear understanding of responsibilities and commitment has to be in place. From this there will be a lot of growth that will create employment, higher incomes, less poverty and improves the standard of living. Education is needed for prosperity as it enables you to get a good job which will lead you to a better life. The key point here is that education needs to change to include social, economic, cultural and environmental problems that everyone is going to face in the future. The children are the future and many problems will rise and solutions will have to be created. There is a lot to learn about the world and if you want to see a change make that change by becoming it.
The aims are as follows:
• To promote the students to think for themselves.
• Support the students when reflecting on issues so they create their own opinions.
• Encourage discovery that is relevant to life’s experiences.
A freedom of choice and the thought of the ‘correct actions’ are promoted, but it is the environment’s to teach and stimulate this that is relevant, and it lies in the social responsibility of schools and further education. In this environment delivering of objectives, decision making, sharing knowledge/learning, clear understanding of responsibilities and commitment has to be in place. From this there will be a lot of growth that will create employment, higher incomes, less poverty and improves the standard of living. Education is needed for prosperity as it enables you to get a good job which will lead you to a better life. The key point here is that education needs to change to include social, economic, cultural and environmental problems that everyone is going to face in the future. The children are the future and many problems will rise and solutions will have to be created. There is a lot to learn about the world and if you want to see a change make that change by becoming it.
Metaphors
On monday we continued with our photo montages and then presented it to the rest of the class, explaining the meanings behind the images. suzie then asked us what a metaphor is and to think of song titles. A few examples of what my group came up with is, 'baby your a fire work', 'heart skips a beat'etc. In our groups we then got given a variety of images that had meaning behind them and we had to sort them into groups. To finish the session we got shown the famous martin luther king speech 'i have a dream' our task was to take notes on the metaphors he used.
Thursday, 16 February 2012
What is education? Guest speaker 4
For this week’s lecture we had Olive Hopker, head of planning and development talk to us about how the Welsh Government is promoting collaboration.
The sections she spoke about were the following:
• Ministerial statements
• Employment and governance and structure in wales
• Collaboration and competition issues
• Regional planning and role of HEFCW
Olive Hopker went through current collaboration such as, library access, ICT etc and then explained about competition for example, student recruitment, league tables, reputation etc. The next part was about the benefits of collaboration and competition which are:
• Shared knowledge
• Greater efficiency
• Cost saving
• Additional services (library)
• Reputation enhanced
• Value of external eye
• Collaboration groupings flexible
Competition
• Promotes efforts
• Provides choice of alternative services
Benefits of small and large higher educational institutes were explained to us along with limitations. The second section was about ‘regional dimension to the planning and delivering of higher education’ and the three regions (centres for teaching) were talked about. Olive explained that HEFCW asked for details of course rationalisation and that they ‘bid for reward funding’. They are given a certain amount of time to improve but in that time money is taken from them, but then rewarded back to them if they reach their targets and get high enough marks. From this lecture I learnt more about benefits for small higher educational institutes and about the three regions where the centres for teaching are.
The sections she spoke about were the following:
• Ministerial statements
• Employment and governance and structure in wales
• Collaboration and competition issues
• Regional planning and role of HEFCW
Olive Hopker went through current collaboration such as, library access, ICT etc and then explained about competition for example, student recruitment, league tables, reputation etc. The next part was about the benefits of collaboration and competition which are:
• Shared knowledge
• Greater efficiency
• Cost saving
• Additional services (library)
• Reputation enhanced
• Value of external eye
• Collaboration groupings flexible
Competition
• Promotes efforts
• Provides choice of alternative services
Benefits of small and large higher educational institutes were explained to us along with limitations. The second section was about ‘regional dimension to the planning and delivering of higher education’ and the three regions (centres for teaching) were talked about. Olive explained that HEFCW asked for details of course rationalisation and that they ‘bid for reward funding’. They are given a certain amount of time to improve but in that time money is taken from them, but then rewarded back to them if they reach their targets and get high enough marks. From this lecture I learnt more about benefits for small higher educational institutes and about the three regions where the centres for teaching are.
Tuesday, 14 February 2012
What is education? Guest speaker 3
This lecture was taken by Steve Gullick, director for all of wales centres for training and research. The main point he started with was ‘should governors be experts, or parents and people who live near and care for the school?’ He then went onto explain the roles of the governors which are:
• To take responsibility of the school (how it should be run).
• Setting appropriate targets for key stage 2, 3 and 4.
• Managing the schools budget.
• Checking that the school’s curriculum is balanced, also including that religion is taught.
• Staff ratio and pay policy.
• Being present in the appointment of the head teacher, deputy and other members of staff, regulating conduct and discipline.
• Drawing up an action plan after an inspection.
We were also given information about who they are, how they get elected and what the meetings in tale. The next lecture we had with Steve was to hear about ‘comparison’ to other schools and how governors would have to alter and change things. For an example he said that girls always outperform boys but the question the school would have to ask is, by how much? He then asked us ‘should training be compulsory or should the governors be experts? There was a hand out given to us showing the contact between governors and teaching staff, these are:
• Job interviews
• Informal visits to schools
• Celebrations
• Presentations at governing body meetings
• Link governors and their visits
• Staff discipline committee meetings
Overall the governing body has a lot of responsibilities and it is their job to ensure that the school reaches its highest standards. Previously I had basic knowledge on governors so I have learnt a lot from Steve Gullick.
• To take responsibility of the school (how it should be run).
• Setting appropriate targets for key stage 2, 3 and 4.
• Managing the schools budget.
• Checking that the school’s curriculum is balanced, also including that religion is taught.
• Staff ratio and pay policy.
• Being present in the appointment of the head teacher, deputy and other members of staff, regulating conduct and discipline.
• Drawing up an action plan after an inspection.
We were also given information about who they are, how they get elected and what the meetings in tale. The next lecture we had with Steve was to hear about ‘comparison’ to other schools and how governors would have to alter and change things. For an example he said that girls always outperform boys but the question the school would have to ask is, by how much? He then asked us ‘should training be compulsory or should the governors be experts? There was a hand out given to us showing the contact between governors and teaching staff, these are:
• Job interviews
• Informal visits to schools
• Celebrations
• Presentations at governing body meetings
• Link governors and their visits
• Staff discipline committee meetings
Overall the governing body has a lot of responsibilities and it is their job to ensure that the school reaches its highest standards. Previously I had basic knowledge on governors so I have learnt a lot from Steve Gullick.
What is education? Guest speaker 2
The lecture was taken by Dr Russell Grigg and he spoke to us about ESTYN. He explained the main aspects and what it provides. Its job is to inspect the quality and standards in education. The sort of places it deals with is Nurseries, primary, secondary, independent, special schools and pupil referral units. It also covers further education, adult community learning and local authority education for children and young people. It has to inspect and monitor the teaching of education and the development of the training aspect. In the wider scope it covers work based learning, careers companies and offender learning. The lecturer then went onto explain that ESTYN offers advice to the Welsh Government on quality, standards and promotes the spread of good practice in education and training in wales.
Its three aims is the accountability for users and others through doing reports, improvements in education and training, and informing the development of national policy by the welsh government. There are three main questions that are asked:
• The level of standards
• Management and leadership
• Teaching and provision
They then judge on achievement and attainment by placing the setting in categories falling under the following:
• Excellent
• Good
• Adequate
• Unsatisfactory
Its three aims is the accountability for users and others through doing reports, improvements in education and training, and informing the development of national policy by the welsh government. There are three main questions that are asked:
• The level of standards
• Management and leadership
• Teaching and provision
They then judge on achievement and attainment by placing the setting in categories falling under the following:
• Excellent
• Good
• Adequate
• Unsatisfactory
What is Education? Guest speaker 1
The first guest speaker was Ken Jones and he spoke about the role of the authorities in education and the main effected issues. It started off by him asking if we knew who the current Minister for Education in Wales is, and that is Leighton Andrews and the Predecessor is Jane Davidson. Ken explained about the changes that have happened over time and from the reorganisation in 1999 there are now 22 unitary authorities when there used to be only 8, and from this change problems have occurred and schools have closed due to the number of LA’s.
He also spoke about the programme for international student’s assessment PISA. This is used to test students in English, Maths and Science. In 2006 70 countries were tested by OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) and I was very shocked to learn how low wales are in the ranking. The response to this was to set up the School Effective Framework, which is ‘Key Policy for Education Reform’ and this would aim to improve learning and wellbeing for children,
He also spoke about the programme for international student’s assessment PISA. This is used to test students in English, Maths and Science. In 2006 70 countries were tested by OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) and I was very shocked to learn how low wales are in the ranking. The response to this was to set up the School Effective Framework, which is ‘Key Policy for Education Reform’ and this would aim to improve learning and wellbeing for children,
Sunday, 12 February 2012
Personal objects
Last session we had to bring in 5 objects that mean something to us. In groups we spread ourselves out into the hallway and used tape to create a box each so that we could spread out our objects for everyone to see. In our groups we explained each object that we had and the meaning behind it. I really enjoyed this session because it was different and interesting. It was lovely to see what everyone else had brought in and to learn about the meanings behind them.
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