Pedagoo is about sharing good practice and great things which are happening in classrooms.

I’m happy to say that a great thing that has happened to me is that I have completed my B.Ed degree in Primary education and will be teaching in August, which I am really excited about!

Don’t get me wrong, I have really enjoyed university, but I feel that I’m ready to get out and have my own classroom, and finally put into place everything that I have been preparing for over 4 years. All those great ideas and resources which I’ve gathered for years but just never had time for can finally be used along with all the great things which I have observed and tried out whilst on placements.

One area which I am really looking forward to implementing is drama. Unfortunately its something I’ve not always had the opportunity to do often on placement, but every time I did manage to squeeze it in, I’ve always been impressed at how the children respond to it. In placement a few years ago I had a primary 7 class who were challenging for me as I had trouble managing their behaviour. When I introduced drama and went into role, behaviour management wasn’t an issue anymore. They were all engaged and eager to question my character and reason with them on decisions they were making.

In order to gain my degree, I had to do some action research out on placement, and my area of choice was to research how young children use drama for learning. I implemented a range of drama lessons with my primary 1 placement class about a toyshop which was magic, and through stories the pupils explored the feelings of different toys in the shop. At the end of the research I was impressed with how young children find drama so accessible. Even though my class hadn’t participated with much drama, they found it really easy to go into a role and pretend. The children in my class loved participating in drama, and I found that it gave them lots of opportunities to put skills such problem solving into meaningful situations. After 4 years of being taught at Jordanhill, I think my enthusiasm for teaching drama is what I will take with me into my probation year and I’m really looking forward to implementing it with my future class.

I’ll be talking more about my research and also methods and drama conventions which can be implemented in classroom at Teachmeet Jordanhill which takes place on Wednesday the 6th of June at the Jordanhill Campus of the University of Strathclyde. This is one of the last events to be held at the former Jordanhill college of Education before it closes in July.

If you fancy coming along to hear more about drama (or perhaps you want to present on some good practice of your own?!) Then you can find information on signing up to attend and/or presenting at http://teachmeet.pbworks.com/w/page/53423431/Teachmeet%20Jordanhill

Morven