Week 6 – Professional Development

Welkom op week 6 - Professional Development.

(Welcome to week 6 - Professional Development).

The beginning of week six for us was spent preparing our short lessons to be taught within a ‘Steinerschool’, which caters for pupils from the age of 5 years old until the age of 16 years old. The schools vision is ‘Create judge, think and act.’ We were told there is a big emphasis on art which they believe in learning through art, which attracts many aspiring young artists to attend this school.

As we were informed of this we wanted to incorporate art in our 15 minute lessons about our country. So we decided to have information cards, including many pictures, on the table of Irish culture, Belgium culture, History of Ireland and History of Belgium. We discussed through each card and got the pupils to decorate a page each and in the end they were put together to make a large poster featuring a shamrock in the middle. We had 5-8 pupils for every 15 minute lesson and 8 groups all together, the lessons were a great insight professionally to see the individuals’ views on the topics in which we were learning about. One little boy, Peter, was really interested in Ireland and when asked to draw on his page he knew a lot of Irish symbols and when quizzed about it he then told us his father was actually Irish and from Cork, he developed by saying he has been to Ireland more than 10 times and many other countries even though he is only 8 years old.

During a discussion on Ireland with the Principle of the ‘Steinerschool’, I was inquiring the differences between this school and schooling in Northern Ireland from a professional view. There were a lot of interesting differences such as the pupils’ start school at the age of 5 years old and stay with the same class group in same classroom. The pupils are taught in 8 week blocks meaning they will be taught a topic for the whole 8 weeks, be assessed with an exam, then not have to cover that topic again.

Professionally for me I was shocked at this and questioned the reasons and the principal’s thoughts. She developed saying that both the teachers and the pupils’ appreciate this way in teaching as they think it is easier, which personally I think is good that they are happy and that they are achieving good grades every 8 weeks. Although I cannot help thinking about the children being prepared for further education, if they are taught like this from the age of 5 years old surely they will not be prepared for GCSE or A level exams where it is necessary to revise many topics for many different topics at the same time. For this point solely I would be against this type of teaching within Northern Ireland.

As CCEA (2007), explains it is important for pupils to have, “an awareness of themselves and their place in the world, as well as of other places, cultures and the environment”, so I think our lessons tied in well with this aspect from the Northern Ireland curriculum and professionally it was clear it worked with the pupils and that they thoroughly enjoyed it.

Adam, Stewart and I with one of the groups of pupils.

Group 3 holding up their poster they made.

Group 8, including Peter in the shamrock hat, showing their lovely art work.

Also this week we were able to visit a Jewish school which personally and professionally I have benefited greatly from. I was aware of the Jewish culture before this visit but did not think it was as extreme. Firstly our passports where taken before we entered and background checks where done on everyone individually, bags, phones and cameras were taken off us and there was a strict dress code which we were all warned about prior to the trip. Basically no flesh was allowed to be seen; no skirts, no bare arms etc.

Wright (1834, p.101) states “I am  neither Jew nor Gentile, Mahomedan  nor Theist; I am but a member of the human family.” Here Wright means that it does not matter what religion anyone is we are all humans and have equal rights to each other.

During a talk on the Jewish culture, Principal Rabbi Tomek explained they must obey 631 laws. A few being they must pray at least 3 hours a day, boys and girls never see each other unless it is a brother or sister, they are not allowed to do work on Shabbat and have to rest on the Shabbat. When explaining these points Rabbi Tomek informed us it is even against the Law for any Jewish person to do anything at all on a Sunday – they are not even allowed to turn on a light switch! Although these Jewish people do not know any different as they are born into this lifestyle - I am glad my religion is not as strict!

A typical Jewish Synagogue.

References

·         CCEA (2007), The Northern Ireland Curriculum Primary, available at www.nicurriculum.org.uk (accessed 15/03/13).

·         Wright, F. (1864)  Life, Letters and Lectures, available at www.positiveatheism.org (accessed 15/03/13).