21st century curriculum

Well, my thoughts on a 21 st century curriculum are the following..I agree with Claire Grantham about teaching the more 'academic' subjects in the morning. I think school should start earlier to reflect this, I don't think 8 am is unreasonable and I think school should finish around 4 pm. I think English, Maths, Science and ICT should be taught in the morning. I also think ICT should be made a core subject as it is going to be crucial for the way we learn and conduct our lives in future. As for the idea of 'topic' teaching, I think it does have it's merits, and should be done as much as possible, but there will still be times when subjects do have to be split up and taught. My main thoughts are that the curriculum needs to be more practical, there should be a mixture of teachers teaching something, children doing the work on paper, then, if appropriate, there should be a practical exercise to reinforce children's understanding of the concept. For example, taking children shopping to reinforce their knowledge of money, adding, subtracting, and counting change. There need to be more 'real life experiences' within the curriculum. I will be back in a second with more thoughts on this....

Wow!

Hey everyone! The title refers to the fact i haven't written this since August! I can't beleive it! Well, as you all now know, I am transferring to Queens University in Belfast next year to do the rest of the course, it will be nerve wracking but exciting!! I will miss everyone though, we will have to keep in touch, thats one thing technology is a god send for, I am so glad to have it! I now have a work placement at St Mary's primary school in Hinckley on a Monday, I do enjoy it, year 1 and and 2 are lovely the staff are great too. I didnt get any work from the agency, the paperwork took too long to come through unfortunatley. Mum now has a kitten, 12 weeks old called Cat. She is a bundle of energy, a very friendly little thing. I am glad to be back to college, all the work we have to do sounds interesting, I will enjoy doing it. Year 2 seems to be more practical, though perhaps more work than last year. I am currently thinking of a curriculum model for the 21st century, I m not sure wether we have to talk about a particular model, or the subjects that we think should be included, or both, what does everyone else think? replies on a postcard please!!! (only kidding! replies on here will be fine!) . Anyway, must go, from Nicola x

Change

Hi everyone, well, the past month has been a real revelation, things have changed a lot in one area of my life, which is going to have a dramatic effect on the rest of my life, I will explain about this when I get back to college. Also, my room is done and looks good, the carpet has been cleaned and it is tidy (at the moment), I have nt yet done any observations on my target child, her mum and dad are getting married in a couple of weeks, which they are very stressed about, so I think i d better leave it till we are back at college if I can, I may just do a baseline assesment and a family history. I signed up with the childcare agency, but all the paperwork has taken ages to come through, so hopefully I will get a few weeks work out of them before we start back to college. Mum has yet another new dog, called Scamp, he seems very sweet, we will see how it goes....I will sign off for now, hope everyone is nt too bored, I will see you all on September the 29th, I miss everyone loads!! Love Nicola xxx

Hellooo!!

Hey everyone, well, it's well into the hols now, my room is nearly finished (Thank God), I have signed up with a childcare agency to find me work with children over the summer, which will be fab. I still have to start my child dev project, but have a child and permission from the child's parents, and I also need to do that research into dogs. Am very bored, on facebook far too much, so the sooner I find a job the better really! In college tomorrow to find oput exam results, oo er!! Hope we ve all passed, am sure we have! Will see evryone tomorrow, byee, love from Nicola :)

Catching up

Hi everyone, don't know if anyone is still reading these but I will write anyway. Well, exams are over, hurrah!!!, Max has been sent back to the dogs home (mum said he was too young for her, he kept trying to escape, and she has a dodgy knee, so she couldn't catch him if he did escape). I have to say she has a point. He did play with the pink ball in the end. Still interested in wether dogs can see in colour or not, if anyone has any info on this would be interested to hear it. I will have to do my own research. Well, not much to do except watch my room being redecorated, planning for Sundays (sunday school), looking for something to do over the summer (a job) and starting my child development project. I think thats enough, don't you? Well, I will see all first and probably some second years on the 9th of July for exam results day!! See you, love Nicola x

Doggie days

Hey everyone, my mum's new dog, which has had several different names since she got him, but is now called Max. made me think earlier. He is a 16 month old very sweet Jack russell. Mum had bought him a ball with a bell inside for him to play with. It is pink, and he played with it a little bit and then refused to play with it again. He prefers and old yellow tennis ball. I have heard dogs can only see in black and white, wether this is true or not I don' t know, but I wonder....is he not playing with it because it's pink, or some other reason? I will leave you with that, I have to revise Gender now, funnily enough!!! See you, love from Nicola xx

Revision, Revision, Revision!!

You can tell what I ve been doing by the title of this post can't you? (wry smile) . It's gone ok, is going ok, I can remember Maslow, Erikson, etc. Honestly, I feel sorry for Erikson, fancy calling a child Erik Erikson, it's cruel! lol. What you can't tell fromn the title is that I m finally on facebook!!! (Big cheer!!!) It's great, I can see why everyone is addicted to it! Well, it's midnight, I'd best be off to bed, I m childminding, dog sitting (yes, you did read correctly there), church going and revising tomorrow, so it's a busy day (Im not doing all these things at once, I hasten to add, that would be a bit much!!!) See you all after exams (groan!!), love Nicola xx