4.3

4.3 SHOWS RECOGNITION OF YOUR OWN POTENTIAL PREJUDICES & PROJECTIONS, NOTING WAYS YOU HOPE TO OVER COME THEM.

Tags: numeracy, clocks, literacy, reading, language, timetables, Roman Numerals.

HOW LITERATE AND NUMERATE AM I?

Since starting the literacy and numeracy topic – birth – four years, I have had a greater appreciation that letters and numbers surround our everyday lives.

Below is an account of a particularly eventful day where numeracy and literacy played a critical element.

Thursday 10^th of October I had to fly to Melbourne.  Below is an account of how my numeracy and literacy skills impacted on everything I did.

My day started the night before, I had to ensure I had packed everything I needed for a trip to Melbourne including logging on to the internet to check in for my flight and print off my boarding pass, as well as booking my ticket for the sky bus.  I set my alarm to go off at 6:00 am ensuring I have sufficient time to get ready, for an extraordinary busy day ahead.

I wear a watch, which has two unusual items on it, one is it has Roman numerals on it, so being able to read and understand roman numerals adds to my numeracy ability.  The second unusual item about my watch is that it has a sun that rises during the day and at nigh-time it also shows the sun setting and the-moon rising and stars.

Image source: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ladies-Lorus-Sun-and-Moon-Phases-Watch-/300895421995

Image source: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lorus-by-Seiko-Ladies-Sun-Moon-Watch-Very-rare-and-collectable-1990s-/290914854621

At 7:15 am I left home to catch 2 buses ensuring I arrived for my University lesson at 9:00 am.

Between 9:00 am and 11:00 am I attended my university class contributing to discussions and reading texts as required.

At 11:00 I left Uni, ensuring I had sufficient time to catch the bus back into the city, to meet mum, who was driving to the airport.

At 1:00 pm Mum and I arrived at the airport for check-in, for a flight at 2;00 pm, only to be told that the flight had been cancelled, and we were put on the following flight at 3:00 pm, I then used my literacy and numeracy skills to find the correct gate number, boarding the aircraft I had to ensure I sat in the correct row and seat (numeracy and literacy skills both noted).

Arriving in Melbourne and leaving the plane, I had to read the bag collection screens, ensuring I went to the correct baggage luggage carousel to collect our luggage.  I then had to use my literacy skills to read, locate and catch a Sky bus to the city of Melbourne, making sure I showed my ticket prior to boarding.

Once in Melbourne Mum and I then caught a TAXI to our hotel in South Yarra.  Here I had to know the name of the hotel and the address.  I used my numeracy skills to pay the taxi driver with the correct cash.  We then checked into the hotel, using literacy and numeracy skills we found the correct floor number and room number, to our room, which was located on the penthouse level.

The Olsen hotel, is a boutique Melbourne Hotel, where a different artist had decorated each room.  Once inside our hotel room, I found an amazing assortment of books by various artists.  On the table, I even found a dice, which was a very clever marketing idea advertising the selling of pillows, beds etc, see images left.    


My final use of literacy skills occurred when we had dinner at the Spoonbill restaurant, here I read the menu and chose to order a pumpkin and spinach linguini pasta, which was delicious.   Numeracy skills were used when paying the account and entering my pin number.

In summary letters and numbers surround my everyday life. This experience has highlighted to me the need to be able to plan, read (bus timetables) and pronounce street names, addresses and even items on a menu.  Time played a critical factor in everything I did during the day, in particular ensuring I arrived at the airport well before my scheduled flight departure. Without my literacy and numeracy my day would have been far more difficult to manage.

I am aware that my personal strengths are in the area of literacy and language.  When working as a future Early Childhood, Special Education Educator I need to be aware that I may have my own potential prejudices for literacy because that is the area I am most confident in. 

I need to be aware when choosing books to read to children that there is not just a literacy focus, but also a mathematical focus.  A good example is Uno’s Garden by Graeme Base provides a great experience as it involves the child in counting, both in ascending and descending order as well as literacy components for finding various objects as well.  Other literacy focus books I am aware of in the future are those that include rhyme and repetition.

Mathematics has always been an area that I have had difficulty with.  Throughout this subject I am aware that mathematics is not just limited to numbers and counting.  When teaching young children I need to ensure that I introduce them to mathematical concepts.  From the Melbourne example above, I am aware that Mathematics is not only limited to time, money, shapes.  I hope to overcome these mathematical areas in the future by incorporating fractions, measurement, area, mass, grouping and classification, directions such as in reading maps, division through out my teaching.  Having completed this subject I feel more confident in teaching young children about the above mathematical concepts and have the ability to source additional resources as required.