Placement 3

This week at my community placement, I was confronted with something that I never thought I would be in an schooling environment and have to act. One of the students for the first time got her period. This was confronting as I had to tell the head teacher about how the student reacted. Even though, I did not know how to help the student physically, I felt that I was some type of aid to her as I attempted to explain what this meant for her and how her body develops.

The student was fine after a half an hour but this was present on my mind as I felt that I was watching over this student like a hawk. I’m not sure if this was the correct thing to do as it made me less focused on some of the other students. So as a teacher, I need to learn how to balance issues within the classroom as well as being able to watch over a class without prioritising a particular student.

Peer Review 1

Hi Marija,

Your poem was enjoyable to read as I felt that you captured the essence of what William Wordsworth wanted to achieve. I liked your choice of adjectives as it was similar to the way that the Romantics were using and how they wanted to create an almost fantasy of their own reality.

The only negatives that I want to point out to you is your spacing of the poem and punctuation. I understand that you were trying to copy the style of Wordsworth but reading it on a computer, it almost comes across as overwhelming. Just work on your stanzas. With your punctuation, just focus on where capitals need to go and the use of question marks.

Apart from that, it was a delight to read your work and look forward to reading more of your blogs.
Riley

https://marijasimonovska.wordpress.com/2017/03/18/up-up-my-friend-and-quit-your-books/#comments

Week 4, Blog 2

It has been said about Jane Austen that she is basically trying to show her readers how they should live their lives. Do you agree with this statement?

Jane Austen has been considered one of the best writers from the 19th century as she is most recognised for her works such as Pride and Prejudice and Emma, she dwells into the idea of an individual only being free once they remove themselves from their own ego. I agree that Austen, does in fact try to portray the right manner of which a person should live. This notion of pride being the downfall of humanity is extremely interesting as I first heard about this is in our lecture from Michael when we were discussing the implications of Emma’s actions and theories of Harriet being in love with Frank Churchill are destroyed. With this, Emma’s identity and pride falls dramatically as she no longer sees herself as perfect and almost “God like”.

As if she has fallen from grace due to her misjudgment and fantasy, Emma’s ego begins to decline as the audience can see throughout the end of the novel. Particularly, I found this quote one of the important lines of the novel.

“Emma’s eyes were instantly withdrawn; and she sat silently meditating” (Austen, 396)

I believe this is Austen telling the audience that we should not portray ourselves as superior or higher in a spiritual and psychological way. Because this is when we begin to imagine the world incorrectly and lose our connection to reality.

Image from :http://historythings.com/jane-austen-a-woman-before-her-time/

Austen, Jane. Emma. London: Harper Collins, 2016

Placement 2

This week at placement I found it much more easier to get straight into the classroom. Though due to the children’s mental disabilities, they were unsure of who I was and why I was there. So I had to explain it to them again. On the positive one of the students, Nancy, remembered my name which made me feel extremely comfortable with working with her.

Unlike the week before, I was the only community placement student in the classroom as last week I had my fellow student Daniel in the same room as me. This was challenging initially as I was meant to look over more than 2 students. When the class did settle, it made it much easier. It did remind me of my EDFX tutorial with Rosemary; because we started the day with meditation. I feel in the future that I should use this technique in my teaching practice. I feel that on this placement, I will learn more skills in my own teaching practice.

Week 3, Blog 1

Using the language of the Romantics describe the impact of nature on your life. Try to describe a particular scene in nature that you know very well.

Sunshine blazing down upon the thick green meadow, the winds catching us at our heels. The children rushing from behind me, racing to get to their perfect spot. They scream from laughter and joy; I watch them as the light tickles their skin skipping down to the water’s edge. I follow slowly, absorbing the images that nature created from its heart. The birds from the trees singing to each other in a language I wish I could only understand as they flutter amongst themselves like my mother did with the children. The dirt and grass underneath my feet, crinkle crackle as I continue to follow my siblings down to the lake’s entry.

The boys waddling through the murky, dark water before I am able to stop them. The grins on their faces is larger and brighter than the sun beaming down upon us at this moment, this giving me peace knowing that they are able to become one with nature.

I dwell on the thought that they will become sick due to the dirt and rubbish that contaminate the water from our tasteless society but realise that I was once in their position. Before the wave of technology hit our society, we were children in Mother’s nature home. She let us to play in her arms and with her own other children, she forced us to use our imagination to explore and invent new ideas unlike the children in today’s society.

Photo above is from one of the days that I took of my brothers at Jamieson Park in Narrabeen.

Placement 1

My first experience with community placement was both exciting but extremely confronting at Cromehurst school. Before we could start our placement, we had to go to for induction. I hadn’t realised how much preparation we needed, a lot of the things we had discussed was the emotional reaction we may have.

At this school, we are helping within mixed disability classrooms. I did find it a little bit confronting as soon as I was inside the classroom but after the first ten minutes, I felt very calm inside as I realised that the kids that were in the classroom were just the same as the kids in mainstream schools but only slightly different in the way that they learn. Overall, I did enjoy my first day even though I was very nervous about entering this type of school