The Scream & Ich Habe Angst

On our first session of Visual communication, the whole class took a look at two different
art images. We then had a class discussion about what we think the meaning behind each picture was and why do we think the artist has specifically chosen to create these images.

The first image we looked at was The Scream,

The Scream is a famous piece of art created by Edvard Munch on 1893. We spoke about the colours used, the idea behind the picture and we analysed all the details as a group.



We then looked at a piece of art by a german artist called Rosemarie Trockel which was called Ich Habe Angst.

The words ' Ich Habe Angst' means something like ' I have fear '. We also discussed this picture and analysed each word used and why the artist has chosen to use these words and in a church.

I personally prefer The Scream as I think it has a deeper meaning, it looks more artistic and the use of different colours really expressed the artists emotions. However Ich Habe Angst looks plain and not interesting at all. It is very simple yet expresses something. I don't think I am able to relate to the piece of art therefore I didn't like it much.

Steve Gullick - roles of governors and school policy

On the 23^rd of January 2012 we had a guest speaker called Steve Gullick. He spoke to us about the role of governors and school policy.

Who and what is the role of a governing body? 

Welsh assembly Govt (2010)

“ A governor is a volunteer who cares about teaching, learning and children. They represent those people with a key interest in the school, including parents, staff, the local community and the local authority.” 

As the quote stated above, governors are people who decide to volunteer  to be part of the governing team. These people have a huge impact on schools and teachers. 

Governors conduct a legal requirement by conducting the school with a vie to promoting high standards of the educational achievement. They are in charge of the whole setting.

They help set appropriate school targets for pupil achievement for key stage 2,3 and 4. They must ensure that these targets are set and it is the teachers/schools responsibility to do so. 

Governors decide whether to permanently exclude someone or not with reference from the teacher, they look at the pros and cons of the action to be taken. This is how the governors have a big impact in affecting a school if the  inspection didn’t go well. 

Governors take general responsibly for the conduct of the school, they decide basic school rules such as if the school must have uniform or not and the schools start/finish times etc. They also determine the staff complement and pay for all the staff in the school setting including teachers, assistance, one to one support staff etc.

After an inspection has taken place in a school, the governors draw up a plan and they are responsible that this plan has been planned and taken into consideration.

England and Wales have governors body whereas Scotland doesn’t. The governor’s body is made up out of 9-20 different governors.  Governors must meet up at least once a term to discuss general topics and make improvements.

Governors are also responsible for staff disciplinary. They look at the incident and decide on what the punishments will be. A lot of caution and fair judgment must be made to ensure everyone is equally treated. 

Some debates have been going on, on whether school governors should be paid for doing this job or not. If not then why shouldn’t they? A lot of people believe that if this becomes a paid job, governors might not take their jobs as well as they do without getting paid as they will be working for money rather than their interest. I personally agree with this statement however I believe that they should get a reward for their hard work.

A governor can hold their place for up to four years and then they must leave their chair unless they are elected again.

References:

Gullick S, (2012) ‘Roles of the governing body’. What is Education? Policy and practice BA (hons), faculty of Humanities. Unpublished.

Welsh Assembly Government (2010) School governors. Retrieved 28^th January 2010 from http://wales.gov.uk/topics/educationandskills/schoolshome/schoolfundingandplanning/schoolgov/?lang=en

Graffiti creator

For this type of text, I used graffiti creator. It was a simple website to use and you are able to customize the colours and different effects.

Using text image

Here is another example of using words to create a picture. For this one I downloaded an image from the internet and used the word 'Fashion' to get the outcome.

I decided to use fashion as it is the topic I want to look at in my ICT and visual communication assignment. This is just an idea to get me started.

Using Tagxedo

Here is a sample of me using the website Tagxedo and creating an image from using different words;
The topic is about how technology is used in primary schools

Dr Russel Grigg - Estyn

Due to Andy not feeling well we have been given the opportunity to have various guest speakers give us lectures in many different aspects of education. In todays lecture we had a guest speaker Dr Russel Grigg who is the head of the south Wales centre of teacher education. 

Estyn (2005) “Our mission is to achieve excellence for all learners in Wales… through providing an independent, high quality inspection and advice service.”

What is Estyn?

Here are some key points and a brief introduction on what Estyn does ;

* Estyn inspects quality & standards in education and training providers in Wales. It is responsible for inspecting different educational settings such as nurseries, primary and secondary schools, special needs school, independent schools, further education, pupil referral units, work based learning, adult community learning, career companies and offender learning.

Estyn provides advice to the Welsh Assembly Government on quality and standards in education and training in Wales. It also promotes the spread of good practice in education and training.

They are funded by, the National Assembly for Wales under Section 104 of the Government of Wales Act 1998.

Estyn has 3 fold purposes:

* It provides accountability to the users of services and other stakeholders through our public reporting in providers
* It helps promote improvement in education & training
* Inform the development of national policy by the Welsh Government

There are two different types of inspections. Estyn is responsible for writing reports on schools, prisons and colleges and state of the nation reports. These documents are important for people such as parents, government and the public.
The second type of inspection is called the Thematic reports which are vital to the rest of Wales and the learning settings. 

In order to help with these reports, Estyn can send out questionnaires to parents for example to help make the final judgment of the school. Parents are able to give an honest review about their thoughts and opinions with the school and if they would like to see any improvements. These are taken into consideration when writing the final report. 

Estyn must make an overall judgment of the school including the good working teachers and the not so good working teachers. Inspections must be taken with caution in order to ensure it is a fair judgment overall.

IMPORTANCE OF USING DATA TO RECORD INFORMATION:

*Recording data can help gather huge data of information for the Welsh Government and helps set trends and targets. It also makes research informed practice and enables others to record data easily. Recording data also makes it simple for others to read and work with, this is essential as it could save a lot of time.

Changes can also be adapted easily and are able to be identified in a simple and clear way.

References:

 Estyn (2005), Retrieved 17^th January 2012 from http://www.estyn.gov.uk/

Techonology in placement - My work experience

During my time in placement I have been able to observe how
the setting uses technology to help enhance children's learning development.

Children used the ICT room to draw pictures of themselves using the software Paint on the computer. Children enjoyed this task and were able to develop their fine motor skills and ICT skills alongside other areas of development such as language, cognitive and social skills.

In the setting, children also used Cameras to take pictures of the outdoor learning area. Children had fun using this type of technology as it was a new experience for some of them and they were introduced on how to use a camera.

Another type of technology children used in placement was the interactive whiteboard. This was the most used technology device in the setting during my time there as it was used for many different activities such as watching videos, christmas movies, playing games as a class and listening to interactive online stories. Children also had the opportunity to use the interactive whiteboard during certain activities such as maths sessions.

Multiple intelligences

There are many different types of intelligences.
These are as follows:

* Verbal/linguistic
* Logical/mathematical
* Visual/spatial
* Musical/Rhythmic
* Bodily/Kinesthetic
* Naturalist
* Intrapersonal
* Interpersonal
* Existential


Every individual has their own intelligence and achieve their best when they are taught in a way that mostly suits them.
Some learning styles have a huge impact on a persons achievement and helps boosts their self-esteem in order to help them achieve their goals and identify which intelligences they have.
This is why it is vital to teach and be taught using all different learning styles such as visual, auditory and kinesthetic.

My glogster

Today I have attempted to make an online poster using Glogster.com