Fantastic Mr. Fox movie review

Fantastic Mr Fox is the great and interesting folktale story written by Roald Dahl. It is a children’s story about a devious fox called Mr Fox who survives by steeling. He was once caught but survived, after that he promised his wife that he will find an honest job and bring to a standstill the stealing life. Mr Fox and Mrs Fox live a peaceful home life with their son Ash and the visiting nephew Kristopherson. Few years later, the rustic existence reveals too much for Mr Fox wild animal impulse. He gets back into his life of stealing and hides it from his wife.  He steals food and cider from his neighbouring evil farmers-Boggis, Buce and Bean who one day decided that the thieving fox must die but the trickster Mr Fox always outsmart his pursuers. 

The movie is very much different from the book. The major difference is the character of Kristopherson, that appears in the movie as Mr Fox nephew who is very athletic and Mr Fox would invite him to his nasty plans of hunting but is not mentioned in the book. Though the movie contains the same characters and several lines from the book, it makes the entire scene of Mr Fox stealing completely different compared to the book. In the book Mr Fox steals from Boggis, Bunce and Bean with the support and approval of his wife, while in the movie his wife is totally in no support to his theft. He appears as a rehabilitated thief who writes articles for the local news paper.

The movie is enjoyable, it emphasis that animals are wild animals by nature. Even when they can behave as humans hunting lies within them and stealing is the easy way to hunt. My favourite part of the movie is where Mr Fox and all the animals that were trapped underground burrowed their way to snatch farmer’s livestock, while the three farmers kept waiting for Mr Fox to starve and emerge from his hole. The part that is least effective in the story is when the narrator explains the daily meal consumptions of Boggis and Beans whilst in the story there is nowhere the knowledge of the reader about the meals is required. I would recommend the movie for the foundation phase learners. The language used is limited to the child understanding. Though there is much of violence, stealing and scheming in the movie, it is not scary and does not provoke the emotions of fear to children.

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ICT barriers in SA schools

The main factors that prohibit the successful integrations of ICT in SA schools are as follows:

Lack of resources discourages teachers from integrating new technologies into education because ICT materials are not enough to accommodate all learners at the same time or during one lesson. Learners have to take shifts to access those materials.

Again it is of serious concern about lack of technical support that happens, ICT materials fails to connect to the internet or the system is very slow preventing the class activity or lesson delivery  to go smoothly.

Feather more ,lack of training for educators makes educators to be comfortable teaching in the traditional way. They become unwilling to try new strategies in teaching as they do not know how these technologies function.

During my school years we had no access to any technological material. The computers and printers were for the administrations and the principal to use. Even the educators were not allowed to use them. The admin officer was helping them with typing their work and making copies of the question papers.

It is important to intergarate ICT in South African school as it improves quality of learning and teaching in the classroom. It also increase effective communication between learners and their educators. The use of technology can help students to become knowledgeable and reduces the amount of direct instructions given to them.

My final school year.

My final school year at Malebo Secondary school

I did my final school year at a rural school called Malebo Secondary in Makometsane village, Mpumalanga province. The school is situated next to Moutse Primary Schoool, Rhenosterkop dam and Mkhombo nature reserve. I matriculated in the year 2012. The subjects that I passed include Sepedi home language, English first additional language, Life Orientation, Economics, Accounting, Maths literacy and Business Studies.

The location of my school Source taken from Google map

There was no educational technology used.  Only my Grade 12 Economics educator would use his personal laptop to make research about certain lessons we did not understand in class and download previous question papers and distribute them amongst us. He was always encouraging our parents to buy laptops for us because he believed that it is important to have access to a computer in your final year at school. Luckily my parents could afford to buy a laptop for me. I was able to access information easily and that helped me become the best learner in economics. Neither than that we were writing on black boards and submitting hand written assignments.  Only the school administration officer and the principal had computers.

My friends did not want to complete their metric at Malebo because the school produces less than 80% metric pass rate. It also has no laboratory and computer lab. But I used to tell them that the overall performance of the school does not determine your metric results, what matters is you should strive to achieve better grades individually. The metric pass rate of 2012 was 85% which is currently a new record for the school. The following year the school produced a leaner who got 5 A`s and 2 B`s. It was fun and interesting to be part of the class of 2012. If there were educational technologies we could have achieved a better percentage.

                             

REFLECTION ON A SERVICE LEARNING EVENT

I strongly agree that Service learning is a valuable pedagology to  include in a teacher education program because of the following two reasons:

-.It helps an educator to introduce learning in a form of games

·          - Service learning help educators to be creative and think of different ways of making a child understand what they are taught (come with different styles of learning)

(Peters 1991) Describes Data-process as a four-step reflection phases made up of description, analysis, theorizing and action

The planning of the event took many weeks of preparation. The groups started by coming up with games that will entertain the children and identified how the game is played and what the children will be learning and what developmental skills the children will gain after playing that particular game. Each group was required to come up with little things to give to the children as a token of appreciation for joining them and playing their game. After all the preparations the groups made a presentation to show whether they are ready or not for the event.

On 5 May 2016, 09:30 am -11:30 am. The first years of the Mpumalanga University hosted the school carnival day for the pupils of Mareleng Teaching School. The event was planned in such a way that students are grouped into 18 groups and each group come up with a game that the children will play during the carnival celebration. On the day of the service learning event children from Mareleng primary were amazed by the games they had to play and enjoy.

Pupils chose the groups that they want to be with and the games they want to play. But for some groups it was impossible to wait for the learners to come to them, they gaped the pupils by hands on their arrival. Some went with them and some denied because they do not know their faces. They wanted to be with their assigned teachers. What I experienced is that children are really good at enjoying the moment, they are energetic and love bright colors and loud things. In this experience I learned that children have easy attraction to sounds. They love noise and running around.

The event aimed at entertaining children and at have same time develop  their skills for example, gross and fine motor skills when they run around jumping and holding balls, communication skills such as oral(critical listening) and nonverbal communication like body language. The children loved the gifts they were awarded after playing each game. In my group we rewarded educational gifts. We gave all the learners that played our games crayons and pencils. These resources introduced a different skill to learners than any group did. With pencils learners’ started practicing handwriting and invented spelling. They were writing their names on their hands and on the stems of the trees. Crayons will help them to be able to differentiate colors and develop their drawing skills.

It was a euphoric event where children danced, played different games, sang and had an overdose of fun. Children had an opportunity to allow their true hearts to come out and have as much fun as possible. I have experienced that children are always hungry to learn and they need their educator’s demonstration in order to understand what they are told. I noticed that foundation phase learners need an educator that is energetic and focused. A teacher who is able to come with different games at all times so that children do not become bored playing one game over and over again. In our group we experienced children who would run to other groups because other groups were having fun and we were tired. I think most groups have experienced this issue.  Children need to stay entertained all the time.

  

Personally, I feel that I benefited the most from making sure that the children do not run away from our group. You have to treat a child with respect and make sure that they trust you. Always smile to the child and make sure that the child is free, safe and open around you. This helped me to be humble and patient all the time throughout the carnival celebration.

        THE TEACHER THAT IS WITHIN ME

I believe that a teacher is a mentor to students and contributes to their intellectual growth. It is essential to be an effective role model and teacher to help shape our wolds future as students are the future of our society. My objective is to facilitate the acquisition of lifelong learning skills or rather impact the lessons that will last a lifetime. I am aware that learners in my class are from a diverse group and I will make sure that together we become one in the classroom. I will give full motivation and support to all learners without discriminating them.

I believe that the most effective theory to incorporate in the classroom setting would be the constructivism approach. Constructivism is an active, contextualized process of acquiring it. Every individual has a different approach and interpretation of the knowledge process. Knowledge has came into formation from an individuals personal experiences and interpreting them in your own environment.

The learner is not just a blank sponge ready to observe information .Instead students bring past experience and cultural factors into their learning experience.I believe this is an essential theory to keep into consideration and bring into the classroom environment. Every learner in the class is different, it is my duty as an educator to cater for the needs of each and every student in my class.

Allow each learner to learn at a pace of  his or her natural development. It is also my role as an educator to ensure that all the learners understand what they were taught before moving on to the next content or topic when teaching. Every learner has his or her own way of understanding things in the classroom, as a teacher I should teach in all teaching styles to accommodate all learners with different styles of  learning

The role that I plan to play in the education of a learners’life is that I want to set a good example to the learners. I want to build, develop and produce the best learners the country and the world has ever had. As educators we are building in the prior knowledge. All the knowledge the students are acquiring in the classroom is constructed and built around the learners previous knowledge.

This also incorporates a different approach to learning in education keeping in mind how important to incorporate a differentiated idea is. This allow teachers the necessary content for developing materials, assessment and measure so that all students within a classroom can learn differently, regardless of differences in their ability.  I will inspire students to strive for greatness, and teach them through experience and commitment how to realize their full potential to become the best that they can be.

I will always maintain the confidentiality of the child, and respect their privacy. As a teacher you should understand that children cannot differentiate between good and bad behavior, you should encourage moral principles and discourage immoral behavior of the child. A good teacher should always be honest to the child. Discrimination and oppression should be opposed at all times and the rights of the child should be preserved.

The role of the learners in the teaching and learning is to be engaged in the activities provided by the teacher. They should be assessed as part of the daily learning through a range of activities including dialogue and interactions with peers and teachers, practical investigations, performances, oral presentations and discussions. Learners are assessed on written work and on products such as artwork, reports or projects.

Learners should demonstrate their  knowledge and understanding skills, attributes and capabilities through a wide range of evidence including specific assessment tasks, activities, test and examination. Learners should express their abilities to shape and review their learning by reflection. Every learner must set his or her own learning goals and next step including trough personal learning planning.

They should review their own learning through self assessment. Every learner must belong to a specific group and collaborate in peer assessment. All learners should contribute to moderation activities.

I will ensure that content remain optimal by making sure that I impact information to my students and work with them to ensure that they understand, not only the concepts, but practical implication as well. I will engage, motivate and inspire students to learn. A good educator understand motivation and the effects of peer interactions on learning. I want my learners to achieve at high levels, so I avoid sorting them and setting them up to compete with each other. A good teacher always examine his or her teaching methods and always find new one's.

I have several goals as a foundation phase teacher.My personal value as a foundation phase teacher is to become the best teacher that I can be. I am fully aware that teaching is a lifelong learning experience. I plan to have a found of technological knowledge. I also plan to maintain the awareness of the multicultural and diverse group in my classroom.

Building a strong relationship with learners and preserving their rights in the classroom will help learners to feel free and express their full multiple intelligence in the classroom.  An educator is capable of changing a students life in so many ways. Being a student teacher at TEC Siyabuswa has broaden my teaching experience. I am now able to distinguish whether students have grasped what they have been taught in class.