This week we are presenting our research into certain subjects and the group I worked with had the subject Visual Literacy. Until we were given this subject to create a presentation on, I had not come across this phrase at all and wondered what was meant by it.
We are all used to literacy meaning the ability read and write but it had not occurred to me to consider images. You would have thought that as I am a Volunteer Steward that I would have been aware of the meaning in paintings so it should have been something that I knew about, also I am a creative industries student so I should have understood what this involved.
It has been quite a journey which started with me looking at the Department for Education website to see what was included in the National Curriculum but I could not find any mention of this topic, however, I found it included in websites linked to Australia. This started me thinking about it in more detail as I can understand that some would think this is just a trendy theory rather than something that could be relevant in the twenty-first century. I can understand the need to teach students so that they can use images and film appropriately so I concluded that that this is not something that we do need to spend time teaching but I must ensure that I study this a bit more.
We had to watch all the other groups presentation and then write a peer review. I found this rather difficult as it is not easy to evaluate the work of my fellow peers. I need to work on analysing and evaluating work or I will not be able to write my dissertation in a few months time.
At present some of us are struggling to get enough teaching hours as we are supposed to have between 100 and 150 hours. I only have four hours a week with my mentor but, hopefully, once we are back in College I will be able to find other tutors to work with so that I can have a few more. I am not the only one hoping that the University allows us to pass with fewer teaching hours.
I have three more lessons that I need to be observed teaching and two of them are already in my diary. I am working on the first of these and have almost finished writing my rationale. Now all I need to do is finish the presentation. I started it and then decided it was all wrong so, in effect, I started it again. This is something that I have to finish once I can get into College.
We have been informed that this will happen from next week, as far as I am concerned that is not a moment too soon. It will be good to get into the library to work rather than working form home on a laptop. There is no substitute for getting out of my home and travelling into College to work. This separates home from studying and makes this much easier.
Kathryn Best 