oral presentation.

well tomorrow is the day for me, and nerves are setting in, iv been practising my speach tonight and im just not sure its detailed or 'smart enough' i feel its clear and concise and basically just explains my journey throughout this course what i have learnt from my inquiry, the highs and lows and where im going next. iv never really made a formal speach before so this again is a new challange!

I decided to go with a powerpoint presentation as i had used it before and felt the most comfortable with that. i have attached the link to the googledoc of it below. Iv kept it very simple! mainly just with fun pictures or words, that trigger a certain topic for me. As i myself feel i learn better when i am not overloaded with information to read. I wanted this to be portrayed in my presentation.

powerpoint

Where im at at the moment..........crisis!

Ok so as you can see i havnt blogged for a while, iv had a busy few days ( though i know that is not an excuse) 

Iv moved house which has been more hassle than i expected and now currently live with the worst phone signal and no internet until moday waaaaaaa, so i currently have my head glued to my window tryin to get signal to write this blog on my phone.

Its strange how havin internet taken away from you can make you feel so disconnected from the world!

I feel so out of the loop and behind as i havnt had access to a computer with internet for ten days waaaa and i see people blogging and commenting i cant help having the feelig of being bogged down.

But then i felt its time to shake myself! Worse things can happen! And get on with it! Taking it all one step at a time!

SO MY PLAN FOR THE FINAL DAYS!! 

I have been given my feedbck from paula and i can see i have got a bit confused with what of my reserch i need to show and how to put my inquiry down onto the paper, when i first read her notes my mind literally went OMG what hve i actually been doing!

Then i took a step back and began writtig my own notes about paulas notes! I can see my inquiry is jumbled in there somewhere i just need to tear it apart and tick it back together in a more creative way so to speak! I have decided to do this simple in sections so i dont come to bogged down with startig a section then movin onto another! I want to begin with my intro, tidy up my appendixes as i seem to have ended up wih a lot more than i need, and work on ot section by section! 

MY ARTIFACT

again i have took togood old fashione scribbles on paper with my artifact! This i feel less stressed about as i feel i havr the shell in my head and then once t gets goig i will go into a flow....i hope! 

I have decided to do it in two parts as its aimed at teachers and parents.

An a4 bullet point for the parents

And a short booklet for the teachers.

Wanted to get my thoughts out in the open to help settle my mind.

So this is where im at and i hope everyone else is ploughing on and not panking to much as i am waaa

Putting my findings to Practice.

I have currently took over some teaching classes for a friend of mine as she is on maternity leave. There are three classes which I teach, which are free based classes all of the young age group two to five years old. From my research there are some teaching points that stood out to me that I felt I would like to incorporate into my classes to see how the outcome develops.

 

The first point I wanted to add into my lesson was ‘encouraging the children to think for themselves’ this had came up in my interviews as they stated they liked to encourage creativity and also if the children had an idea themselves to peruse it as it was something the children where interested in and would focus on. In my classes I tend to do a  miming game with the children where I suggest we go to the beach or the forest. So with this exercise I decided to let the children develop this and see where there imaginations wanted to take them. I allowed them to pick the location, This time we went to a magical fairy land. Then let each child add a description about the land as we ‘walked through it’ This exercised worked out well, the children were really engaged and excited about the exercise and wanted to continue it on for much longer. This is something that I will now continue to develop in my future lessons as I feel it is helping stimulate the children’s minds as well as there body’s

 

The next teaching method I used in my classes but felt I could use it in more productive ways. This is the use of props. I use musical instruments in my lessons to tap along to rhythms but from my research I feel I could take this further. Two of my interviewees suggested props to grab the children’s attention when the class was becoming tired or distracted or to better explain something. I chose to put both of these together by using some scarves as props. They were a new addition to the class and brightly colored so immediately the children were interested and I had there attention. I then used the scarves so they would help the children over exaggerate the movement and fully stretch it out. For example I suggested waving them from side to side, making big circles with the scarfs. We even did some throwing and catching of the scarves so children could work on there coordination skills, and we even did a fun ‘cleaning of the room’ activity which aloud the children to use there imaginations also.

 

The final point I wanted to add to my lessons was the parental involvement. I had to think about this as these classes are not my own so I did not want to come in change everything and disrupt the balance within the classroom. I spoke to the teacher I had took over from and made a suggestions. As it is the run up to Christmas I would like to invite the parents to come into the classroom during the last lesson so that they can watch the class and see what the children have learnt. Another way I decided to bring the parents more involved with my lessons is linked with the point above. Props. I gave a suggestion at the end of the lesson this week of a Christmas tree prop as we are beginning the run up to Christmas I have decided to make my lessons Christmas themed with mimes and little dances and decided to bring a bare Christmas tree to the lesson so the children can hang there Christmas tree prop on it at the end. The prop could be something the parents have made with the children or bought, but I thought adding this helps the lesson carry on outside of the classroom and makes the parents feel more involved. I hope!

 I will blog the outcome of this next week.

 

Update

Today i have spent the morning catching up on peoples blogs and taking inspiration from them. The first one i have taken inspiration from is Sarahs Blog

As you can see. I enjoy the way she documents ‘where she currently is and what she has achieved and what she has left to do. I find this useful as it gives you a visual on what you have overcome, the achievements you have made and where you need to go next.

So here is my update.

-i have compleated and wrote up all my interviews.

-Some interviews because of time restrains i was not able to take place so i would like to dcument some thoughts on this and how it affected my artifact.

-i have gathered my literature and information from there.

-i feel further expansion could be done on my literatures.

-my artifact ideas are starting to come forward, as you can see in my Artifact Blog

-i need to break this down to start to develop the idea. 

–will it be photos or pictures involved, how to make it accessible to both parents and teachers. Ect.

-

Another blog i took inspiration from was Emilys blog

Here i like the way she stated that instead of using the feedback she has had now and re-edit her inquiry, to keep side notes and to edit her inquiry later on as it is an ongoing process. I want to take this information and use it myself. I have flew out to italy to be with my partner for a few days so i really wanted to get the basis, (very basic ) draft down onto paper, before i left so i felt i had achieved something, and compleated a chapter so to speak. Now having done this from reading blogs and continuing into my research whilst i am here i ama ready seeing things that i want to add in and edit or explain and develop things further.So i have decided to keep a seperate document of the things i want to change, add into my inquiry or expand upong, so when i go back to editing and finalising my work i have easy access to the information i want to change.  A first edition of my development doc can be seen here;

Additions, Edits, Explanations

So thanks for the inspiration guys and keep blogging J.

Continuing on

I finally feel as if things are commingle together, my interviews are competed with my notes wrote up providing me with the information I need to co-inside with my literature findings and I am beginning to piece together my written frame work.

However I have had a mind blank of how to quote and reference my interviewees any help n this would be much appreciated.

Thoughts about my artifact seem to be forming now also.

Being a teacher myself i thought of ways of how i would like the information easily presented and accesible to me. My first thought was with all the technology and social networking i would like to make my artifact an app, a sort of how too app, offering useful tips and sharing ideas with people. (however i then remembered i am not that technical so had a rethink and maybe one day.) so instead i decided i would like to make my artifact a two parter a hardcopy and a virtual copy. For the hard copy i would like it to be a booklet offering ten key tips and teaching methods i have came across the most in my research and that i feel are valued the most. The current working title would be something like......ten tips for teaching tots. I would then like to make the virtual copy as a similar set up, in slide format prehaps that can be downloaded and easily accessed on phones for people on move and so they can have access to it atany point and anywhere.

I hope to continue on with this progress.

Further Reading

After continuing my literature reviews I decided to expand my knowledge base further by looking into articles to do with educating the early years in general. I found some articles offering tips and suggestions on teaching this age group in general education. I noted a few common approaches cropping up in all of these literatures and also over lapping with the movement literatures I have read. (I feel I can now see my inquiry taking shape.)

The points that most cropped up are;

• Having a routine in place,
• Parental co-operation and involvement.
• Planning

Links to my reviews are below.

literature review f
literature review G
literature review H
literature review I
literature review j
literature review k

Back Home and Back to it.

Well iv landed back in the u.k and finally over the jet lag, and now intend to take full advantage of unlimited wifi once again woooo. To continue and get back connected with my BAPPS program.
I feel I am still on the right path I just need to finalize some things that I struggled to do without internet whilst being away. I have sorted out my google docs now (thanks to sarah) so my blog on literatures is now fully accessible so please feel free to have a read and comment on any thoughts.

I have continued with further literatures whilst I have been afew and so intend to put an updated findings blog up in the next few days.

Plans for today and the next few days;

• Sit in front of my laptop enjoying being able to research easily once again (and with lots of cups of tea)
• Finalize the analysis of the two interviews I have carried out so far.
• Contact the people I intend to interview to arrange interviews for this week.
• Find more literatures expanding to areas not just based on dance but still focused on teaching a young age group.
• Categorize my research so far
• Enhance my use of social media.
• Get back connected and comment with people on the bapps program.

So hopefully I will be up to date and fully communicational once again within the next few days.

look forward to collaborating with you all once again.