Final Design

For my final design I decided to use design 2.  I am going to write the word 'Family' and have the lock and key at either side of it and the design will be in black and white.  I decided to use this design I think that even though its simple it still shows a lot about family and what it means.  I will recreate this design onto a canvas, I wasn't sure whether I should do the design in paint or pencil, but I thought that doing it in pencil it will have texture coming through like a tattoo would on a persons skin. 

Design 4 and 5

For my fourth design I used the website http://www.tagxedo.com/.  I created a design of a heart and then used the 'family' and they used words which that thought related to family and out of those words create a heart shape.  I liked the concept of this design, however, for the tattoo part I don't think that the design is a design that would be able to have a tattoo out of.  This design was again, in black and white, with the words being black and the background white.  For my fifth design I used the website http://www.wordle.net/.  I created a design out of words which I thought related to family which I used in my mind map.  Again, this design was in black and white, black words with a white back ground, however, I don't think that this design would be suited to a tattoo. 

ICT Project - Design 2 and 3

For my second design I decided that from the mind map I created about my family in my sketchbook, one of the phrases I used was lock and key for trust, I decided that I should try and incorporate a lock and key into my design.  I started with writing 'Family' in the middle and then had a key one side of it and the lock the other.  The lock and key were both heart shaped to represent love.  This design was done in black and white as I prefer tattoos that are black and white, however for my third design I created the same design but instead of it being black and white I added colour.  I kept the word 'Family' black and then used a gold for the key and outline of the locket and then red for the heart. 

ICT Project - Design 1

For my final piece I am going to create a canvas with an image of a tattoo that I have created.  The tattoo is going be related to m family.  My first design idea was the word 'Family' spelt out of words which I thought related to my family.  There would be a different colour for each word, however, even though each word would be a different colour I still didn't think that you can really understand what the word says.  This image would then be recreated on to a canvas for my final piece. 

ICT Project

When we were first told about our ICT project I knew exactly what my topic was going to be.  I had chosen do a project on tattoos, however when we were then told that we had to relate it to a sense of place, I thought that it would be difficult to try and incorporate tattoos into that.  After thinking about it I realised that I could firstly discuss tattoos and then then show images of tattoos and then so images of certain family members tattoos and incorporate my sense of place; family, in to my project that way.
I am going to create a sketchbook which will discuss and show different types and images of tattoos and then go on to discuss my family. 

Susie's Lesson; 19th March

In todays lesson we spoke about the reading which had be given 2 weeks previous.  One reading was just on humour in advertsing and the other was on humour and violence in advertising.  We discussed are findings and opinions from the readings. 
Then Susie gave us a page of images, however you couldn't see all off the image in each picture.  We then had to guess what the images were of and they were of didn't logos for advertising company's, for example; Google, Tesco and Mars. 
We were then given a sheet with different company's, foundations etc on, for example Asda, Marks and Spencers food and Stella.  There was a list of words on the side of the paper and we had to link what words we thought represented the company's, foundations etc. 

Guest Lecture; 6th Feb

In this lecture we had Nick Benett.  If gave us an overview of FE (Further Education) in Wales. 
What is it for? - Underpin social justice; second chances, financial support.
Support the economy - Employed engagement, work based learning, vocational experiences, entrepreneurship. 
FE shows; Teaching and learning equal opportunity, innovation, progression, its flexible, tailored and local. 
The Welsh Gov Programme September 2011;
Improving FE and Higher Education.  It encourages; further merges of FE colleges where these provide learning opportunities and enable closer collaboration between FE and HE providers and reform governance of FE in Wales. 

Guest Lecture; 28th Feb

For this lecture we had Mike Day, he is the Cabinet Member of Education. His aims of the lecture were to talk about; What is education policy?, Who should develop it? Where is it developed?
What is education policy? - It is based upon political options, tradition and values and socio-economic objectives.
Why is it needed? - To guide operational decisions and actions, structure in the classroom.
Who should develop it? - Politicians; elected to represent people, but aren’t subject experts and practitioners; know how it works, see things from a different perspective, however are unable to take a wider view.
Where is it developed? - UK level- eg; compulsory school ages, teachers’ pay. Welsh Gov - Welsh medium, foundation phase, no academies/free schools. Local authority - Improve standards, advice and guidance to schools. School and Governing body level - Uniforms, start and finish times.

He the spoke about QED 2020. Hoping to raise standards of achievement and attainment, improve learning environment.

Suzie's Lesson; 5th March

In this lesson we spoke about adverts and how they grab your attention.  First of all Suzie started by showing us a series of different adverts, for example; car adverts, department stores and the drink Fanta.  We then went into groups and had to find to different adverts and explain a part in the advert where that was a close up shot, far away shot, very far away shot, very close up shot, What we enjoyed about the advert and Briefly describe what happens in the advert.  We chose the Cadbury advert with the gorilla and the drums.  We then had to show our findings back to the class. 
This is the advert that we chose;

I really enjoyed this lesson.  It was good to pick out the different aspects of the advert with you wouldn't even think about when watching it.

Guest Lecture; 21st Feb

For this lecture we had Graham Allen.  He is the Environmental Manager for Swansea Met Uni.  He spoke to use about Education for Sustainable Development.  He spoke about; learners having the ability to think for themselves, encouraging learners to reflect on topics, which enable them to then hav their own opinion on the topic and learning through discovery and learing that is relevant the the learners experiences.
I think that we should of had more time on this topic as it was a lot of information to take in all at once.

Suzie's Class; 20th Feb

I this session we finished off the pictures we started last lesson.  They we cut outs of magazines and they had to be related to a sense of place.  We had a corner for; bedroom, home, Wales, money and holidays.  Then we spoke back to the class about what our picture meant.  We then went on to talk about metaphors and metaphors in relation to songs.  We had to think of songs that had the use of metaphors.  Once I thought about it there are a lot of songs that have them used in.  We then finished we the famous Martin Luther King speech ' I had a dream'.  We had to write down all the metaphors that we noticed that he used throughout the speech.  I really enjoyed this lesson.

Suzie's Class; 13th Feb

In this lesson we went over the assignment for Visual Communication.  Suzie explained what we expected from us and gave us some ideas in which we could use or think about.  We now have to relate our chosen topic to a sense of place.  Originally my topic was going to be tattoos, however I couldnt think how I could relate it to a sense of place.  Now I think that I have figured it out and will to tattoos in relation to my family. 

Susies Class; 6th Feb

In this lesson we had to bring in 5 objects that meant something to us.  I decided to bring in, a dvd that I love, a star bracelet as I love it, a concert ticket, a signed album and my keys.  I brought those items in as the represented me, if somebody saw those items they'd be able to know that they were mine.  With the items we went outside the class and had to arrange them on the floor and take a photo of them.  Once we'd done that we then spoke about one specific item to the rest of the class.  I really enjoyed that lesson.   

Images For Visual Commuication

In today's seminar we learnt how emotions can be portrayed in images and pictures.  We had to think of an emotion and then go around the uni and take pictures of different objects that could portray that emotion.  I chose the emotion; confusion.  So we went around the uni taking pictures that we thought could portray that emotion, I took about 25 pictures overall and that had to narrow it down to just six.  The pictures above are the ones I thought the portrayed the emotion; confusion, the best.  



What is Education? Lecture 3

Last week the What is Education? module was taken by Steve Gullick.  Steve spoke to us about the governing body and what their role are.  Some roles of goverors are;
- Conduct the school with a view to promoting high standards of educational achievement
- Set appropriate school targets for pupil achievement at Key Stage 2, 3 and 4
- Take general responsibility for the conduct of the school
- Manage the schools budget
- Ensure that the curriculum for the school is balanced and broadly based and in particular that the National Curriculum (NC) and RE is taught.  Also report on NC assessments and examination results
- Determine staff complement and pay policy for the school
- Participate in the appointment of the head and deputy hear teacher and other staff
- Create an action plan after an inspection.

The governing body consists of;
- Parents - Must have children in school.
- LEA - Council picks them.
- Teachers
- Staff - TA'S, caretakers.
- Community - Live near school.
- Head - Only if wants to.
And they have to stay for 4 years even if their child leaves the school.

An agenda for a governing body meeting;
- Apologies for absence
- Minutes of previous meeting - Clark does this
- Matters arising - Attendance etc
- Head teachers report
- Report finance committee - Selection of people look at it, not everyone
- Progress of School Development Plan
- Changes to school uniform
- Report on Governor'  Conference
- Other business
- Date and time of next meeting.
They would have this meeting at least once a term.

What is Education? Lecture 2

The lecturer we had for What is Education this time was; Russell Grigg.  Russell spoke about Estyn.  He spoke about what Estyn does, where it does it and why it does it.  Estyn inspects quality and standards within education and training providers in Wales.  It used on nursery, primary, secondary, independent and special schools. Within those establishments it also looks at; pupil referral units, further education, adult community learning, local authority education services for children and young people, teacher and education training, work based learning, careers companies and offender learning. 

Estyn also provides advice to the Welsh Assembly Government on quality and standards in education and training in Wales.  It also promotes the spread of good practise in education and training. 
Within Estyn there are three fold purposes, these are;
- Provide accountability to the users of the services
- Provide improvement in education and training and
- Inform the development of national policyby the Welsh Government.

Estyn produces reports on institutions and thematic reports. 
The judgements in the reports are based on 4 different categories.  They are;
- Excellent - Establishment has many strengths.
- Good - Many strengths.
-  Adequate - Has a few strengths.
- Unsatisfactory - No strengths.
Each organisation is the reported on and put into one of the four categories.

What is Education? Lecture 1

The first guest lecturer we had for the module What is Education? was Ken Jones. Ken spoke about the local authority’s role in education and issues that effected them. He started by asking is anyone knew who the minster for education in Wales is and how is predecessor is, no one really answered him so he informed us that the minster is Leighton Andrew and predecessor is Jane Davidson. He then went onto speak about their previously being 8 local authorities but the following reorganisation in 1999 there are now 22 unitary authorities. The issue was is the size and capacity of local authorities and the response was move reorganisations into 4 consortia.

Then Ken Jones went to speak about PISA. The in 2006 the PISA (Programme for international students assessment) testing which is set by OECD (Organisation for economic co-operation and development) compared how 70 countries were doing in relation to reading, maths and science. Wales weren’t high in the ranking of the 70 countries, so Wales response was to up the SEF (School effective framework). SEF was Wales' key policy for education reform and its main aim was to improve better learning outcomes and wellbeing for children.

First Lesson!

Last week we had our first lesson of visual communication with Suzie.  We looked at aspects of different logos and how by just seeing a certain logo, for example; when we see a yellow M, we know straight away that its for McDonald's.  We also looked at how an image can portray a certain feeling and we can try and understand what the artist was trying to portray when the picture was being created.  An example of this is;

We said that this picture is trying portray that the person has agony, deep thought and may anxiety issues.  We then watched a video called;  'The Big Shave' by Martin Scorcese.  Before watching the video Suzie hadnt told us the meaning behind it and to be honest whilst watching the video I was a bit shocked about what the man was doing.  However, once Suzie had explained the meaning of the video, which is; the man was shaving and kept on shaving and shaving until he was bleeding and it represent men at war.  So once Suzie explained that I thought it was a good way to explain it, even though it was shocking.



Creative Writing

In today lesson we learnt about creative writing.  We went on to four different websites; Wordle, Graffiti Creator, Tagxedo and Text-Image.  On each website we created different pictures which were made our of words.   On Wordle, I used my blog url and it created a shape out of the words I have used within my blog.  On Graffiti Creator I used my name and edited the graffiti, then on Tagexdo I used my blog again and this time instead of it being a random shape, I used a swallow and from the words on my blog it created the swallow shape out of them.  Finally, Text-Image, I uploaded a picture of a star and wrote the word star and again it made the image out of the word star. 

Tagxedo

Wordle

The Graffiti Creator

Text Image

Movie Maker

Last week we created a video of our university.  We were put into groups and each group had a category and ours was, our university; the place.  We had to film with the flip camera ares of the university.  We filmed areas which we attend the most, for example; certain rooms we were taught in and the main lecture theatre.  We then uploaded the video to the computer and using windows movie maker we edited the video and sped up the video x3.  Then we added the Benny Hill theme tune into the background of the video. 

Placement Week!

During placement week I went to Hafod Primary.  I was in a year two class and had a really good week with the children.  I wasn't able to see any work that the children did as the whole week was dedicated to the Christmas concert and rehearsals and the children watching dvds and playing games.  It was still really nice to be able to interact with the children and see how much they were enjoying Christmas and having fun with the concert. 

The Nativity

The lesson before the end of time of term we were given activities to do, to find different ways of presenting an activity, which was The Nativity.   Me and Cara found a paragraph about The Nativity and our friend spoke into a microphone and we played around with different sounds and the outcome that we chose was that the paragraph would be in a chipmunk voice.