Education: Harmony Programme for Teachers at the Princes' School of Traditional Arts.

Before I headed back to the U.K for my summer holidays, I was searching for an online CPD course that would be relevant to my educational practice. I am not sure how but I stumbled across the PSTA website and was drawn in to this programme they were offering.

The course was titled 'The Harmony Programme' and it was directed at educators who had an interest in nature, geometry and art. I was intrigued as it seemed quite interesting, so I delved further and read the course content and thought it would be a great addition to my professional development. I didn't hesitate to book my place and it was even better as I was eligible for the teacher bursary too. The course was over 4 days, across 2 weekends.

So, the course was designed as a result of the Prince of Wales's book titled 'Harmony' was written to embrace nature but also inspire UK schools to plan, deliver and create inspirational art. I never knew about the book and have had a glance through. It addresses some interesting information, views and ideas not just for educators but for everyone.

The was delivered by Lisa DeLong, Will and Leila. They were friendly, thorough with their delivery and extremely knowledgable about the topics covered. In total, there were about 7 of us of which only 2 including me were teachers. The others came from engineering, dance and administrative backgrounds. It was really great that different minds came together as we got on really well and learned from another too.

The first weekend, I looked at Autumn and Winter. We all got given books with all the literature, ideas and content to deliver sessions to children and young people. I found them quite useful to jot my notes next to the activity we were carrying out. It was handy that inside the book, they had noted the areas of the British curriculum and how they related to each season.

The second weekend, the group explored Spring and Summer where we focused on plants and flowers. Our learning and activities were centered around the construction of flowers and how they are related to the fibonacci theory. We made kites, looked at 3D shapes, nets as well as sound and vibrations too.

During the course we carried out a variety of activities which included mixing colours, investigating binders, constructing geometric patterns, making snowflakes, looking at natural dyes and marbling amongst others.

Dyeing fabrics with tumeric and red cabbage.

Dyeing cotton with indigo

Marbling on to paper

3D shapes made from cocktail sticks and chick peas.

Kite making

Overall, I found the course to be informative, fulfilling in terms of the content and ideas. I wish that they had perhaps scheduled a visit to Kew Gardens and maybe followed up with an activity or planning session. But saying that, I did enjoy the course, especially as I got to be all artistic again!

If you're interested in taking an traditional arts course at the PSTA, visit the website: https://www.psta.org.uk/.

I hope you enjoyed reading this blog post.

Love, Sara xx

Work News: I'm officially a ClassDojo Ambassador for Oman!!

For those of you, who may read my blog regularly you will know that I am a primary school teacher. I have been teaching for almost 5 years now and I am thoroughly enjoying it! In a few of the schools I have taught at, we've used an app called ClassDojo (www.classdojo.com) . I believe this was created in the USA and it has been a huge success in schools all around the world.

I actually remember in my first year of teaching, another NQT on a course told me about it. All I remember was ' my kids love the dojos!'. It was until my second year of teaching when I used it as I had an extremely challenging class of children. Once I had trialled it out, I found that they enjoyed the cute monster avatars and for some it really impacted positively on their behavioural choices.

Afterwards, I used it whilst teaching abroad in the Middle East and I am guessing because I used it quite actively, I was made a ClassDojo Mentor which was fantastic! I made sure that those colleagues who were using it were confident and updated them with any news that would benefit them and their classes.

Fast forward a year in the Middle East and due to the positive feedback from my parents and to a few teachers using ClassDojo in my school, the Director thought it a good idea to maintain consistency and roll it out across the whole school. Over the summer, I inputted all the students and their year groups so it would be easier for class teachers to add them once they returned. It was pretty easy for them to set up, print off the invited and ensure most parents were signed up. I delivered training along with a colleague to the rest of the school. Now, our primary aim was to use 'School Story' to celebrate the children's learning in the school. We also aimed to use 'Class Story' which enables teachers and children to celebrate their learning and strengthen communication between the parents too. 

The results: Since then I've held numerous mini workshops to groups of teachers who needed a refresher and they've been most grateful.  ClassDojo has been effective in our learning environment as the majority of parents I believe are signed up. The parents prefer to communicate via the app due to its accessibility and ease of use of the app on iOS and Android phones.

Thank you so much ClassDojo - you've made our lives much easier and fun too!

So how did I become a ClassDojo Ambassador?

Well late one evening I was scrolling down the ClassDojo page on Facebook and I saw a message about applying for the role of ClassDojo. So I thought why not? I was SO shocked when I received an email stating that I had been chosen. I was ectastic! I'm really passionate about ClassDojo and always spread the word whenever I am about so to be an ambassador for them is just AMAZING! They were so sweet and sent me some treats too which I will be donning at the training day this week. Along with the various other ClassDojo ambassadors, we do have responsibilities in terms of spreading the word, taking part in conferences, leading dojo chats and messageboards. So far, so good and I am sure it's about to get even better!

If you teach in the Middle East and use ClassDojo or are curious or would like some help, please feel free to message me on here.

Lots of love,

Sara xx