Teaching Assistant Diploma Course Essay Example for Free

Teaching Assistant Diploma Course Essay Questions On Assignment One 1.Describe how you might contribute to a lesson given to a group of seven year old children learning to play percussion instruments. I would contribute to the lesson by firstly conversing with the teacher for guidance in which areas that they would like me to assist them. By working together we could make the whole learning process a fun and educational experience. With me being there to help, it would take the pressure off the teacher and enable them to have more free quality time for teaching. I would make sure the environment was safe hazard free in advance so that when the children came for their lesson all health safety measures would be in place and adhered to. The instruments would be ready for the children to use and I would be there for any additional assistance that was required by the teacher or the children. I would also prepare posters or handouts of the instruments that the children were going to be using so that they would know the names of the instruments, the groups that they belonged to and any other additional information that suited that age group about the lesson. My role overall in the lesson would be to contribute by assisting, maintaining the classroom, supporting both the teacher and children, encouraging the children in their activities, making sure the environment was safe and secure, ensuring any work that the children produced was mounted and displayed and that the classroom was clean and tidy before and after the lesson. 2.What might your role be in organising, using and maintaining the learning resources, material and equipment for this percussion lesson? My job is to make sure that the resources, materials and equipment that is needed for the lesson is ready and available. I would ensure this by firstly liaising with the teacher to check the materials, resources and equipment that would be required for the lesson. This would be done in advance, at least a few days before the lesson to ensure sufficient time to acquire them if they were not available at that time. I would then check to see if we had everything we needed and that it was in good working order, not broken, ripped, pages missing or parts missing. The classroom would also be checked to see that it reached health and safety standards. I would count and check all the resources so that at the end of the lesson I could account for any missing or damaged. Also, so that it would make it easier if I needed to report any losses or breakages to the teacher. Once I had checked through it all, the learning resources would then be ready for the children to use in their lesson. I would set them out or distribute them in accordance with the teachers instructions. I would be on hand to assist the children in their activities and to help them with their instruments should they not be sure of how they were played or used. This would be in accordance with the manufacturers instructions. The children would be made aware of the health and safety guidelines for their own sake and the schools when using the instruments. When the lesson was finished, the children would then be encouraged to return the instruments and any additional learning resources that they needed to a set point in the class or myself. Once this had been completed, I would then count and check each individual resource for damage and cleanliness. When that had been done, they would then be placed back where they had been stored along with the inventory for them and secured. My last job would be to ensure the classroom was clean and hazard free ready for use again. 3.Describe how you act in class in order to be an effective role model for the standards of behaviour expected in pupils? I would ensure that my behaviour and demeanour reflected the policies set by the school at all times to show the pupils consistency. Both me and the teacher should work together on how to interpret the rules, so that we both had clear guidelines on how to deal with all situations that may arise. All the staff would be expected to set a certain standard of behaviour which we all should be made aware of. This should help to promote positivity and a feeling of security. I would always make clear to the pupils what was expected of them from the school and myself as an individual. For good behaviour that they would receive rewards and for bad behaviour sanctions. The school policies would be in a prominent position so that all pupils had a constant reminder of the manner in which they are expected to conduct themselves. This gives boundaries, which I believe is a very important and effective practice, not only at school but in all areas of life. These rules would continually be repeated to the pupils so that they didnt forget and that would in turn reinforce our expectations of them. By making high quality relationships with the pupils, showing positivity and achieving successful learning, this should all lead to my ability to help any pupil gain their full potential in all areas of their school lives. Also by giving respect and listening to one another, would help develop a good rapport between the teacher and pupils. Children learn behaviour from those around them and being a child the majority of your time is spent between school and home. Therefore the greatest influences on a childs life lays between those two areas. So generally, but not always if the child has a good balance between both, then the behavioural outcome would be good. So to sum up my actions on how I would be an effective role model, I would be fair, polite, attentive, respectful, helpful, consistent, follow all rules given by the school in all areas and enforce them where necessary. 4.What strategies might you employ to encourage pupils to behave appropriately? Describe how you might react to incidents of bullying and violence. Any strategies that I may use would be in line with school policies and would be to teach and promote positive behaviour. Â ·Praise and encouragement at relevant times. Â ·Ensuring the schools behaviour policy is followed by enforcing the schools guidelines on expected behaviour. Â ·Encouraging concentration and attention in class on school work tasks. Â ·Helping and supporting the pupils to follow instructions and routines given by the school. Â ·Encouraging pupils behaviour to be of a good standard at all times. Â ·Showing respect and listening to one another. Again alongside these, the school behaviour policy that would be displayed in the classroom would be consistently referred to, to encourage the correct behaviour. Any strategies that I may use would be discussed first with the teacher/teaching staff in school to ensure that we all followed the same procedure and intrepretation of the policies. That way all pupils would expect the same approach towards behaviour from all members of staff. Bullying is an awful form of behaviour and can have a lasting effect on some people when the cases are severe. Firstly, I would liase with the teacher about how the matter should be dealt with. There are policies in every school about bullying and there should be a zero tolerance programme designed to deal with matters that may arise concerning this. It would be made clear to the party involved that this form of behaviour would not be tolerated in any way, shape or form. They would be informed that due to their actions consequences would ensue. Bullying is a serious matter and should be treated as such. The situaton would be dealt with age appropriately and according to the particular pupils understanding. I would do the following; Â ·Each incident would be dealt with indivdually and the pupils involved assessed separately. Â ·There would be made available to the pupils a safe place where they could discuss any incidents privately. Â ·Make sure all pupils were aware that bullying is always a serious matter. Â ·Respond to all incidents in the same consistent, calm manner. Â ·Inform the pupils that the individuals involved would be safe and supported by the school whilst the matter was looked into trying to be resolved. Â ·Provide programmes to help deal with underlying issues or problems that the individuals may have. Â ·Make sure all incidents are recorded and dealt with quickly and efficiently to help lessen the stress of the matter. Violence again is another damaging behaviour but more importantly a learned one. The school would have plans and strategies in place for all staff to use should violence occur so that the matter could be dealt with quickly and calmly. Â ·I should try to calm the situation between the parties involved and immediately get help to assist should it be required. Â ·I should remain calm and composed as not to aggrevate the situation further. Low voice, direct eye contact and distance between you and them. Â ·Direct any other students to leave the area for their safety and to not cause any more aggrevation to the people involved. If required for them to fetch help to assist the situation. Â ·I should talk to the party involved and inform them that their actions were unacceptable and that they needed to calm themselves. I should then suggest to continue the conversation in somewhere more private such as the Head Masters office. Â ·Once assistance had arrived, I should keep trying to diffuse the situation and motion them towards the Head Masters office to discuss matters further. These type of situations must be handled carefully and brought to a conclusion in the fastest way possible. Reports and notes should be made for future reference and to bring things to a satisfactory conclusion. Any witnesses must be spoken to so that their account of the incident may be reported and held as additional evidence. 5. Describe how you might appropriately observe the physical abilities and skills of a nine year old boy. To begin with I should discuss with the teacher which format that they would suggest would be more suitable to the task in hand and we could come to the best solution. In order to do this, firstly I would plan how I wished to perform the observations, such as times that are best and in the best circumstances that would answer the question. I would do my best to ensure that the pupil being observed wasnt directly aware of being observed, as this may cause him to behave in an unnatural manner, which would deem the observation void. My personal choice of observations to complete the task would be a combination of Time Sampling and Participative observation. The reasons I would choose these two in particular are because of the following. Time sampling because I could choose particular times to concentrate on the physical abilities and skills the boy had by observing him at break time or in a physical education lesson. My notes would consist of what the boy was doing/trying to do and any help they seemed to need. Participative observation because I could do a task along side the boy or watch him do a task such as playing a game, reading a story or joining in role play. Obviously playing a game and joining in role play would give me more of an insight into the boys physical ablities and skills. I would need to make notes consisting of what the boy was doing or achieving, what he could almost do or needed help with, what he was saying and how he interacted with the other pupils or myself. I believe these would be the best observational methods to carry out to assess this boys physical abilities and skills.

Decriminalization and Legalizing Marijuana in America Essay -- Illicit

Marijuana prohibition in the American criminal laws is quite exceptional. There are no other laws that are both enforced so widely and severely across the country, but yet considered unnecessary by such an overwhelming portion of the country’s populace. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, â€Å"Marijuana is the most commonly abused illicit drug in the United States.† The advocacy group National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws claims that marijuana is the third-most popular recreational drug in America, behind only alcohol and tobacco. In the early 1900’s, marijuana was viewed by prohibitionists to be the worst narcotic known to man and the effects of use created insanity, murder, and death. And without any public debate, scientific inquiries, or political objection the Marijuana Tax Act was signed by then President Roosevelt in 1937. But after numerous years of research, scientists have proven repeatedly that marijuana is not the same as the harsher drugs such as heroin and cocaine and should not be classified as a dangerous, evil, killer narcotic. The Institute of Medicine and other bodies of research have concluded that there is no evidence supporting marijuana is a â€Å"gate-way† drug, certainly no more than either tobacco or alcohol is. Although, some people use marijuana in excess, most who smoke marijuana never become dependent. No one has ever died from an overdose of marijuana, unlike alcohol, and marijuana has not been associated with violent behavior either. People who have used marijuana describe the effects of the drug to be calming, enhancing their creativeness, increasing their appetite and making them sleepy. Dr. Daniele Piomelli at the University of California, Irvine is at the forefront ... ... the use and possession of marijuana has been ever-increasing over the past several years, rising to over 50% today – that is an all time record high. If the current trend continues, the pressure will definitely encourage the nation’s laws into compliance with the people’s desires. Works Cited (1) Drum, Kevin. â€Å"The Patriot’s Guide to Legalization.† Mother Jones Vol. 34, No. 4 31 Jul 2009: pg. 49. SIRS issues Researcher. Web. 27 Oct 2011. (2) Nadleman and Piper. â€Å"Should the U.S. Decriminalize Marijuana?† The Washington Times. Sunday read. 26 April 2009. LexisNexis News. Researcher. Web 27 Oct 2011 (3) Newport, Frank. â€Å"Record –High 50% of Americans Favor Legalizing Marijuana Use.† Princeton, NJ. 17 Oct 2011: pg. 1-3. Gallup. Researcher. Web. 27 Oct 2011 (4) NGC. â€Å"Drugged: High on Marijuana.† Documentary 2011 Vesta, Solomon. â€Å"Grass.† Documentary 1999.

Journal Article Critique of ‘an Empirical Analysis of Trends in Psychology’ Essay

I.Research Question or Problem The journal article question is clearly stated. The question asks whether the behaviourist, the psychoanalytic, the cognitive, or the neuroscientific perspective is most intellectually significant and most prominent in psychology today (Robins, Goling, & Craik, 1999, p. 117). II. Introduction The introduction presents differing contentions regarding which school of psychology is most prominent. Five references have been cited in the introduction. It is believed by some that the cognitive perspective reigns over psychoanalysis and behaviourism (Baars, 1986; Gardner, 1985; Hunt, 1993; Sperry, 1988, as cited in Robins, Gosling, & Craik, 1999, p. 117). An opposing conviction, however, states that this belief is merely a representation of cognitive psychologists’ opinion of their own field rather than an accurate statement based on facts (Friman, Allen, Kerwin, & Larzelere, 1993, p. 662, as cited in Robins, Gosling, & Craik, 1999, p. 117). Furthermore, it is argued that the belief in a â€Å"cognitive perspective revolution† is simply a method for scientists to justify their practice (Leahey, 1991, p.362, as cited in Robins, Gosling, & Craik, 1999, p. 117). Other theories have indicated, without empirical evidence however, that behaviourism continues to flourish despite the loss of â€Å"mentor B.F Skinner† (Salzinger, 1994, p. 816; p. 461, as cited in Robins, Gosling, & Craik, 1999, p. 117). Lastly, it is contented by some that the neuroscientific perspective continues to prosper (Churchland, 1998, as cited in Robins, Gosling, & Craik, 1999, p. 117), and that the entire field of psychology will eventually become a subfield of neuroscience (Bechtel, 1988, as cited in Robins, Gosling, & Craik, 1999, p. 117). III.Methods The authors employed three indexes to conduct their study; the subject-matter index of psychology’s Flagship publications, the subject-matter index of psychology dissertations and the citation index of Flagship publications. For the psychology’s Flagship publications, authors selected several word stems in a database called psychINFO, including: psychoanal#, cognit#, neurosci#, reinforce#, and conditioning#. At that time, they calculated the percentage of articles published in the Flagship publications between 1950 to 1997 and charted their findings over time (Robins, Gosling, & Craik, 1999, p. 118). For the psychology dissertations, authors once again employed psychINFO, this time, to analyze the topics presented in doctoral dissertations between 1967 to 1994. Then, they calculated the percentage of dissertations for each of the four psychological perspectives (Robins, Gosling, & Craik, 1999, p. 119). Finally, for the citation index of Flagship publications, authors su rveyed trends regarding the number of citations found concerning each perspective in the Flagship publications. Then, they selected the top four journals in each perspective using a rating system operated by prominent neuroscientists (Robins, Gosling, & Craik, 1999, p. 119). Applying these findings, authors calculated the â€Å"total number of times per year the flagship publications cited articles published in each sub-disciplinary journal† (Robins, Gosling, & Craik, 1999, p. 119). IV. Results The results undoubtedly provided answers to the question/hypothesis. The findings indicated that articles regarding the cognitive perspective appeared most frequently in all three indexes, followed by the behavioural perspective. Articles regarding the psychoanalytic and neuroscientific perspective, however, were essentially non-existent throughout the studied period. Authors provided graphs and tables in order to demonstrate their findings over time for each index (Robins, Gosling, & Craik, 1999, p.121-126). V.Discussion/Conclusions Due to their compelling findings, the authors were able to construct several conclusions. Firstly, psychoanalytic journals, dissertations, and flagship articles have not been in the spotlight of mainstream psychology for the past several decades (Robins, Gosling, & Craik, 1999, p.123, 124). Secondly, with the focus currently on cognitive psychology, behavioural psychology has and continues to subside in scientific psychology (Robins, Gosling, & Craik, 1999, p.124). Moreover, the authors’ state that one reason cognitive psychology is transcending behavioural psychology is due to the immeasurable role of computers in modern society. For example, thanks to computers, considerable changes have taken place in regards to scientists’ understanding of memory, information processing, etc (Robins, Gosling, & Craik, 1999, p.124). Lastly, mainstream psychology does not yet recognize neuropsychology; however, there is an obvious increase in popularity that is underway. Authors recom mend further research to explore the growing prominence of neuropsychology (Robins, Gosling, & Craik, 1999, p.125). VI.References Authors used a clear and consistent citation format, and each of the references was properly cited within the article. The authors used a variety of sources ranging from the 1930’s to the year prior to the study. The older references were used to demonstrate variations of theories over time. VII.Personal Reaction I consider this article to be rather thought-provoking. From the beginning, I agreed with the theorists who believed that cognitive psychology was the leading school of psychology. Although this article was written fourteen years ago, I believe it continues to be true today. I was not aware of the serious decline of the behavioural perspective; however, after reading about the impact computers have had on science and scientists, it became clear (Robins, Gosling, & Craik, 1999, p.124). One limitation that I feel could have affected the results was the manner in which they selected the top four journals. I wonder if the results would have varied had different journals been chosen. In my opinion, the sample size of four journals seems somewhat confining to the research. Even so, this was a very interesting article. I would be rather intrigued to read a current study of the same topic and see if the results are equivalent.

Workplace Violence And The Workplace - 1145 Words

Workplace violence definition OSHA Fact Sheet (2012) states â€Å" workplace violence is a violence or the threat of violence against workers† (p.1). Workplace violence causes serious harm to employees or homicide that can lead to deaths. Act in any kind of shapes and forms such as: physical threat, threatening behavior, intention of assault and battery, verbal abuse, beating, stabbing, rape, shooting, being followed, psychological trauma, suicide, treat or obscene phone call/text, intimidation. Workplace violence can happen to anyone, anywhere at or outside the workplace location either during from/to work or from/to client’s traveling temporary or permanent where any work-related duty performances. It is not limited to just employees, but also customers, clients, and invitees. Workplace violence is one of the most concerns for not just employers, but worldwide workers. Who is at risk? Nearly 2 million records of American workers have been victims of workplace violation each year. However, many more cases go unreported. The truth is, workplace violence can strike anytime, anywhere, and no one is immune. Workplace violence categories are violence by strangers, co-workers, personal relations, and by customers or clients. Some workers, notwithstanding, are at increased risk at certain worksites. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries that there are a total of 4,405 fatal work injuries in 2013, 4,628 fatal work injuries in 2012.Show MoreRelatedWorkplace Violence And The Workplace1396 Words   |  6 PagesWorkplace violence Workplace violence can be any act of physical violence, threats of physical violence, harassment, intimidation, or other threatening, disruptive behavior that occurs at the work site. Workplace violence can affect or involve employees, visitors, contractors, and other non-Federal employees. A number of different actions in the work environment can trigger or cause workplace violence. 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Workplace violence occurs in all types of healthcare settings such as hospitals and nursing homes and includes violence from patients, visitors, invaders, and coworkers. Although many states, including California, have laws preventing workplace violence, there is no federalRead MoreThe Effects Of Workplace Violence On The Workplace1154 Words   |  5 Pages Introduction Workplace violence is defined in the OHSA as the exercise or attempted exercise of physical force by a person against a worker, in a workplace, that causes or could cause physical injury to the worker, or a statement or behavior that it is reasonable for a worker to interpret as a threat to exercise physical force against the worker, in a workplace, that could cause physical injury to the worker(ecentennial reading). ). It can happen at or outside the working environment