Group+5

‍‍‍Discuss your group activity here.
===‍‍‍__** Each participant must use a different text colour to identify themselves. **__===

**8/11/11** **This week I have been going through the readings and trying to get my head around the assignments. I look forward to brain storming some ideas for our presentation with you on Wed afternoon. I was thinking, as the images we are examining are still, we could bring them to life by giving the child(ren) in the images a voice. What message is being portrayed in the image and what message is being heard by the viewer. How does this influence them in their view of children etc. It would be good to look at the images from different perspectives. Then see how this can cause challenges in the classroom. For example does an image is of a child who looks innocent and vulnerable mean educators see themselves as protectors? If so how will this influence their teaching. This could be demonstrated through freeze frames, actual images and role play. Anyway just some initial thoughts. Can't wait to hear what you guys are thinking! Hannah**

**8/11/11** **Iv just had a read of the assignments as well, I like what you have said Hannah. It would definitely be good to do role play or freeze frames as this would be more interesting. After sitting at uni for so long, the last thing everyone wants to do is watch another powerpoint I guess. I guess one of the main points of the assignments is to interpret the photos in a different way to how they are supposed to be viewed as such. Or 'interrupt common assumptions' as the assignment outline says, which ties in with what you have said Hannah about different perspectives. The way teachers see children and images of children will really effect their teaching I guess and encourage the challenges to occur. If the teachers are seeing themselves as protectors, then behaviour management might slip up and if teachers portray kids as naughty and are strict then children might not be happy and so on. Ok well I guess i'll keep trying to have a read and get my head around it more.** **Katrina.**

10/11/2011 Hey Girls, Our challenge as per group meeting yesterday: "Play based learning is an educational experience for leaners, but how do alter the image that parents have of play?" Are we still doing the interviews do you think if the pres. is only 5 minutes long? I have already done one but won't do anymore until we have agreed they are still needed. So now that we have decided on our challenge we need to start looking for some images, I like what you said Katrina about how different perceptions and images can alter behaviiours of LMs and Ls. I think we have a good starting point and we have got the foundation for our presentation and rationale. Let's keep our eyes out for anything that might fit in with our challenge, images, newspaper articles etc. See you all soon! Madi

11/11/11 Hey Madi, I am still planning on doing interviews because I think it would be a really interesting perspective. We can work out time etc. later but it's better to have too much information than not enough I think. I was planning on asking the parents the following questions: "When you see your child playing how much learning do you think is taking place?" "Do you believe play is an important part of early education?" "Do you believe there should be more structure and formal learning in early education?". I'll keep my eyes out for images etc. I have forgotten but are we meeting on Tue at 4pm? sorry I should of written it down.

12/11/11

Hey just to clarify, are we still definitely going to go with challenge we decided on at the meeting? I still think to go forward with the interviews too and if time doesn't

permit us to show the interviews in our presentation we may be able to come up with another way of showing the information gathered. Perhaps just through text or a

graph or something.

I will go away today and do some research so we can begin to form a bit of basis and will either upload the links to the wiki or bring them along to our next meeting on tuesday. I think we should still focus on Vygostky and Piaget's theory and how they allign with our challenge so I will try and find some good readings! Lillie 12/11/11  I think that we should still go with that challenge but I think the image of children that we think parents (of children) have should be clearer. At the moment we are advocating for play but I think we need to show why we think this will be a challenge. Is it because adults see children as adults in training rather than simply children? As well as the theories Lillie mentioned we should probably discuss Malaguzzi. Im hoping that the interviews will show a clear image that some adults have of children. The questions that I mentioned above (11/11/11) might not clearly show this so perhaps I need to ask something like, "how do you view children?" or "what does childhood mean to you?" ** 13/11/11 ** ** Hey girls, Yep Hannah I think we are still on for Tuesday at 4pm? ** ** I have printed a few journal articles and will go through those before then. I think you are right about the challenge needing to be a little clearer maybe? But we can discuss this on Tuesday and fine tune it exactly, as that doesn't alter our researching we are doing just yet. So if we all aim to come to the meeting with some points to contribute towards the essay as this is the main part now! See you guys Tuesday! ** **Katrina.** **13/11/11**  **Sounds good Katrina! See you all Tuesday** **Good communication ladies! Just to be sure that you know - the presentations will be 5 mins per group. You have started to formulate a good basis for your presentation.**  **Kathy 14/11/11** 17/11/11  Just an update from yesterdays lecture. We areon the right track with our topic and ideas but wrong track on how we are going to present them and formulate them. The presentation is still 5 minutes and must include some sort of exciting display/art work etc. A powerpoint is still allowed but not necessarily recommended. We then have to write a rationale on our presentation, it is not an essay! Hannah and I have an idea for our presentation in that instead of having the filmed interviews playing we could act out a parent teacher interview with the parent asking the teacher 'why is my son just playing all day?'. The teacher can then explain all the benefits of play and show through examples of the boys work (this will formulate our display). This could be through work examples, photos or videos of the boy playing and what he is learning through play. This is a rushed explanation as I'm late for uni but hopefully we can get together soon to discuss further. Madi you smell  Lillie 17/11 Hey girls, Sorry just got home from school! I think that idea is great Lillie! We could do a wall display sought of like the one you did for a previous assignment (teddy bear)? Make it colourful and engaging and also outline what the learner has done around play etc. When can everyone meet again? Madi

Hey girls, Just wanted to write on the wiki what we talked about in todays lecture. Kathy suggested we perhaps do the role play (or at least some of the role play) from the childs point of view. So one of us could dress as a child and the teacher could ask the child questions and the child will answer them as their parents have drilled into their head (ie, No i'm going to be a doctor when i grow up so i dont need to paint). We could maybe do the whole role play like that or half could be like that and half could be how we were originally going to do it, as the parent teacher interviews and each parent has a problem with some type of activity that has occurred during the week. The parent teacher interview setting would perhaps take more advantage of the documentation on the board behind us. Madi as it stood before Kathy spoke to us, we were all going to go and research the answer to a question a parent would ask the teacher in the interview, and how this answer supported play in the classroom.
 * 17//11/11 **

Madi-Artwork (So your child came home with all these paintings and as the mum you are wondering what value this has to their learning) Kat-Problem Solving Hannah- Music Lillie-Blocks.

What do you guys reckon about still doing this??? I think im getting confused now!! Basically, our main value of the presentation doesn't change, which is they are simply kids and you need to let them be kids!! So until I hear from you guys, ill keep researching for good quotes like we found today in the lecture. Sorry if this doesnt make sense, i think im just really tired. haha! Next week I have work 7-5 monday, could meet tuesday afternnon again at 4? or am free before and after uni both wednesday and thursday!! Katrina =)

18/11/11 Thanks so much girls for writing all that out! It sounds really good, I think this will work well. I will start studying my topic and bring it to our next meeting. I will explain the social/emotional benefits of music (and other benefits found in research). I have some evidence using Vygotsky's theory on the benefits of play as well that I can add to the documentation wall. Tuesday at 4pm works for me as well Katrina, does this work for everyone else? I think we should probably try and meet in a lunch break or after lectures as well. Hannah

20/11/2011

Hey Girls,

Thanks so much for that Katrina! Cleared things up :) Sorry couldn't come to the lecture last week, have finished prac now though so see you all Wednesday. I am looking at benefits of art in lower schooling, finding scholarly articles is proving difficult! Can anyone help me out I think I should be putting different keywords in the search? I am using EBSCOHOST. I did find a good conference paper highlighting the importance of art in schools.

Also, I think the ideas of the parent teacher interview are great! I am a little bit fuzzy on the suggestion of the child being interviewed? I think I just struggle with the concept but I am sure it will all be cleared up when we meet. Tomorrow afternoon is fine for me.

Madi

21/11/11 Hey Madi I have a text book that I can bring you about art. Also we had a brief run through of 'discover it' and how to search effectively last Wed or Tue (can't quite remember) so we can all help you out on Tuesday. See you there!

22/11/11 Hey guys maybe we should meet at 4:30 today just so Lillie doesn't miss out on too much?

22/11/2011 Hey, Yeah I think 4:30 is better I told her I would pick her up from work so 4:30 is good :). I have some articles and pictures for my part, because I wasn't there last week I am not 100% sure on what I am doing so I will bring what I have and we'll go from there? Looking forward to clearing it all up! Madi

22/11/11 Okay great! See you then


 * How are you going with your group rationale ladies? I didn't notice any conversation about that but I assume that you are on to it?**
 * Kathy 25/11/11**

**28/11/11** **It's going well, we have met quite a few times and written it together we are just editing it now.**