On Wednesday (26/10/16) I attended a Breeze session. Hosted by Paula and attended by myself, Victoria, Taz, Kristina.
We spoke about how we were all getting on so far and the importance of being able to channel all the questions that and the scary thought that one of these questions will inevitably become our question of inquiry!
Anyway, the main reason for the session was to speak about the "ethics" of our inquiry. With the nature of our course and how we use our work situations to come up with a question of inquiry means that it can relate to society and can potentially affect it. The last thing we all want to do is cause anyone to become hurt upset or to be put in danger due to our research.
We then went on to discuss any policies that we may have in our place of work. I went on to speak about how as staff at the beginning of each year we are given a new hand book with all the do's and don'ts from safeguarding for the students to how we need to dress and respect other members of staff.
Taz then went on to speak about her rules with the Ballet company she is with - and actually had all her paper work with her by the sounds of it. She went on to speak about only a certain amount of allowed absences and when on tour having to be at the bus so many minutes before and making sure that you do take the correct route if you are injured or ill.
We then went on to discuss how when working with a touring company the standards of practice differ from country to country and is this right ethically and should it be the same whatever country we are in.
Ethic forms are going to be vital to ensure safety and protection for others. The term "Gate keepers" or people in charge, so for me the head master. It is vital to gain there permission depending on the situation you are going into i.e. going to observe classes
The session was really helpful and especially some of the images that Paula used on the slides. One is in reader 5 the other I think Paula will be putting up on the blogs, but to cut a long story short ethic's are going to be a vital part of are work and can get quite interesting to look into.
I look forward to hearing others thoughts and ideas on ethics and how it is going to affect you in your work/inquiry.
Friday 28 October 2016
Thursday 20 October 2016
Arts Award Day - Don't Loose Hope
I thought I would share with you all about the Arts Award day that was organised within my department to deliver to years 3 and 4 at school. Now I know that some of you will be a little frustrated with how "The Arts" appears to be forgotten withing education and general schooling, however I am extremely lucky to work in a school where the head is very for the arts and actively encourages students to get involved whether is be music, dance, art etc. So this is also just to say don't give up hope! there are people out there who love what we do and support us 100%
For those of you who haven't heard about the Arts Award program here is a little back ground information. I will also put the link to the website if anyone is interested in looking into this further. So it is run by Trinity College London and is an accredited qualification and can be started at the age of 6 and can continue until 25 with the highest qualification Gold earning students 35 UCAS points for university. More information can be found here - http://www.artsaward.org.uk/site/?id=64
Anyway with years 3 and 4 we ran the Discover day. Students were off their academic time table for the day to take part in a rang of activities: Dance, Drama, Photography and Collections. Students had an hour on each section. (30-40 mins activity time 10 - 20 mins reflection time) I could ramble for hours about the day, but just a brief out line of what we looked at;
Dance - National following outlines of the ISTD syllabus looking at Austrian dancing and also looking into the clothes they wear etc.
Drama - Freeze frames, making pictures and key drama words that they will need to know through school (Drama is a compulsory subject for the prep school)
Photography - Students met a photographer and asked her questions and looked at the best way of framing a picture to take a photo. This was done outside in the woods.
Collections - Walking around school and see what art work is in the building and see if they find any of it inspirational.
For the students to record their work, I made each of them a work book which I will post some pictures of a blank one below to give you an idea.
Each and every students came away from this day have enjoyed what they had done, yes some activities more than others, but they all said that they had a fun day taking part in the arts activities. I am also pleased to say that each students work passed the moderation which is amazing! - but it does make me unhappy that events like this are so few in schools.
Like I said, I am very lucky to have such a supportive head so please don't give up hope. If anyone wants any more information on how this works in my school then please do comment below or if anyone has their own experiences with this program I'd love to hear about them!
Hope you enjoy reading this post! :)
For those of you who haven't heard about the Arts Award program here is a little back ground information. I will also put the link to the website if anyone is interested in looking into this further. So it is run by Trinity College London and is an accredited qualification and can be started at the age of 6 and can continue until 25 with the highest qualification Gold earning students 35 UCAS points for university. More information can be found here - http://www.artsaward.org.uk/site/?id=64
Anyway with years 3 and 4 we ran the Discover day. Students were off their academic time table for the day to take part in a rang of activities: Dance, Drama, Photography and Collections. Students had an hour on each section. (30-40 mins activity time 10 - 20 mins reflection time) I could ramble for hours about the day, but just a brief out line of what we looked at;
Dance - National following outlines of the ISTD syllabus looking at Austrian dancing and also looking into the clothes they wear etc.
Drama - Freeze frames, making pictures and key drama words that they will need to know through school (Drama is a compulsory subject for the prep school)
Photography - Students met a photographer and asked her questions and looked at the best way of framing a picture to take a photo. This was done outside in the woods.
Collections - Walking around school and see what art work is in the building and see if they find any of it inspirational.
For the students to record their work, I made each of them a work book which I will post some pictures of a blank one below to give you an idea.
Each and every students came away from this day have enjoyed what they had done, yes some activities more than others, but they all said that they had a fun day taking part in the arts activities. I am also pleased to say that each students work passed the moderation which is amazing! - but it does make me unhappy that events like this are so few in schools.
Like I said, I am very lucky to have such a supportive head so please don't give up hope. If anyone wants any more information on how this works in my school then please do comment below or if anyone has their own experiences with this program I'd love to hear about them!
Sunday 16 October 2016
Where it all begins to get interesting - Research!
"Research shares much in common with dance making." (Penelope Hanstein Balancing the Systematic and the Serendipitous - 1999, 23)
As soon as I read this extract in the reader it made smile, just because it clicked and made sense. When I am choreographing dances for students it's a case of trail and error or "research" to see which steps feel nice to dance together and what link together nicely. I don't just stick with the first thing that comes into my head as I don't just have to think about what feels nice for me to dance, but also the ability of my students. I have to know and you could say "research" into my students to ensure that I give them the best possible experience in my class I can.
If for some reason it does not work, then you continue to develop your choreography and research to make it better and more enjoyable for your students the next time and you keep going until your students are satisfied and happy with the finished piece.
After reading this - I plan to take this approach with my research, and I am actually looking forward to the experience and the different ways of conducting i.e books, journals observations etc. Taking segments and pieces of information for different sources and keep going until I feel satisfied I have enough and I am happy with all that I have.
A year ago if someone had said to me "you have to go and research ...." I would have wanted to turn and run to the nearest exit. However after reading through the reader and especially being able to relate to Penelope Hanstein has re assured me that it can potentially be a new and exciting experience, and I am looking forward to discovering some information that will in time help me with my inquiry.
As soon as I read this extract in the reader it made smile, just because it clicked and made sense. When I am choreographing dances for students it's a case of trail and error or "research" to see which steps feel nice to dance together and what link together nicely. I don't just stick with the first thing that comes into my head as I don't just have to think about what feels nice for me to dance, but also the ability of my students. I have to know and you could say "research" into my students to ensure that I give them the best possible experience in my class I can.
If for some reason it does not work, then you continue to develop your choreography and research to make it better and more enjoyable for your students the next time and you keep going until your students are satisfied and happy with the finished piece.
After reading this - I plan to take this approach with my research, and I am actually looking forward to the experience and the different ways of conducting i.e books, journals observations etc. Taking segments and pieces of information for different sources and keep going until I feel satisfied I have enough and I am happy with all that I have.
A year ago if someone had said to me "you have to go and research ...." I would have wanted to turn and run to the nearest exit. However after reading through the reader and especially being able to relate to Penelope Hanstein has re assured me that it can potentially be a new and exciting experience, and I am looking forward to discovering some information that will in time help me with my inquiry.
Skills and Knowledge - What is it? and How do we know?
As I was reading through this section of the reader it was something that I really struggled to get my head around. I'm not sure if anyone else feels the same, but I really had to think about "What do I know?" and "How do I know it?"
Now I know some of you may think that it sounds a daft statement and that I must already know how I know what I know (takes a while to get your head around!) but the truth is that day to day life goes on I get on with doing my job and hopefully I think doing a good one.
This also steamed a couple of thoughts. Is this healthy to be just getting on with it and not really thinking about it? - I'm sure it's something that lots of us face from time to time but should we really just go about our jobs and professions like this - personally I don't think so. Is it something that comes in waves? or is it just natural? we have trained for many years in something that we are passionate about so is it now just second nature? would love to hear the thoughts of others.
It has also taken me a while to get my head around Trans disciplinary and disciplinary within the work place, but I think I have cracked it. Anyway to help me do this I had to sit and do some brain storming in my journal and actually see it on paper and this really helped.
Due to working in a school I feel that I am going to have to take a more transdiciplinary approach as I am hoping to look at how the arts help students across the board not just in their arts subjects so I am going to have to research look into and reflect on other areas of learning and knowledge. This is where I think "Gibbons et al" notion of "Mode 2" will be an interesting avenue to have a look at.
"2. Mode 2 knowledge production is transdisciplinary, which means it uses a range of theoretical perspectives and practical methodologies to solve problems" (Gibbons, 2008 online)
Below are some images of my scribbles from my journal for you to have a look at and hopefully I will start to identify things in the work place that will benefit my professional inquiry.
Now I know some of you may think that it sounds a daft statement and that I must already know how I know what I know (takes a while to get your head around!) but the truth is that day to day life goes on I get on with doing my job and hopefully I think doing a good one.
This also steamed a couple of thoughts. Is this healthy to be just getting on with it and not really thinking about it? - I'm sure it's something that lots of us face from time to time but should we really just go about our jobs and professions like this - personally I don't think so. Is it something that comes in waves? or is it just natural? we have trained for many years in something that we are passionate about so is it now just second nature? would love to hear the thoughts of others.
It has also taken me a while to get my head around Trans disciplinary and disciplinary within the work place, but I think I have cracked it. Anyway to help me do this I had to sit and do some brain storming in my journal and actually see it on paper and this really helped.
Due to working in a school I feel that I am going to have to take a more transdiciplinary approach as I am hoping to look at how the arts help students across the board not just in their arts subjects so I am going to have to research look into and reflect on other areas of learning and knowledge. This is where I think "Gibbons et al" notion of "Mode 2" will be an interesting avenue to have a look at.
"2. Mode 2 knowledge production is transdisciplinary, which means it uses a range of theoretical perspectives and practical methodologies to solve problems" (Gibbons, 2008 online)
Below are some images of my scribbles from my journal for you to have a look at and hopefully I will start to identify things in the work place that will benefit my professional inquiry.
Friday 14 October 2016
SIGS and more!!
I have been a little quiet on here lately - those of you who work with children will know what I mean when I say the half term germs are brewing!!!
Anyway I have been continuing to develop thoughts and ideas and ask questions. So I have set up a SIG group on my facebook to get thoughts and idea's on general questions and ideas that I have. The people who I have included in my group are general teachers both academic and within the arts, also people who have an interest within the arts, so that I can get a generalised of initial thoughts from others.
One question I asked in my group was: "Do you think the national curriculum allows students to be creative in all aspects of their learning?" now I found the response I had to this very interesting, the academic teachers that I had in my group all said "no" they think the curriculum is too restrictive creatively. So a question that has entered my mind from this response is: If this is the case and teachers feel like this then why is it so restrictive and why has nothing been done about it?
I don't know about anyone else, but I have found my SIG group really helpful and interesting and a great way of hearing others opinions. and ideas who may not necessarily have anything to do with the arts, but have an appreciation of how helpful they can be.
On 8/10/16 I had a facebook call with Lauren Hoskins. I think Lauren will agree with me that this was extremely helpful for both myself and her. It was really interesting how we started on one topic and the more we spoke the more questions. One idea that we discusses is the matter that we think the arts may not be purposely forgotten about and put to one side but this may however be a subconscious action that happens. This maybe for one of many reasons. One being that in the grand scheme of things the arts are relatively new in the curriculum therefore people are just not used to them being available as an option especially for things such as GCSE and A level.
Another idea we discussed is that in fact it maybe pressure from school governors etc as to why maybe students appear to be encouraged to avoid the arts as an examined subject we just don't know.
However what I do know is that our chat was really helpful and is something that we are going to try keep going on a regular basis and see where each of our ideas are developing and where they are becoming focused too.
How is everyone else finding SIG groups and talking - are you finding it helpful? please also feel free to comment and discuss ideas in this post.
Anyway I have been continuing to develop thoughts and ideas and ask questions. So I have set up a SIG group on my facebook to get thoughts and idea's on general questions and ideas that I have. The people who I have included in my group are general teachers both academic and within the arts, also people who have an interest within the arts, so that I can get a generalised of initial thoughts from others.
One question I asked in my group was: "Do you think the national curriculum allows students to be creative in all aspects of their learning?" now I found the response I had to this very interesting, the academic teachers that I had in my group all said "no" they think the curriculum is too restrictive creatively. So a question that has entered my mind from this response is: If this is the case and teachers feel like this then why is it so restrictive and why has nothing been done about it?
I don't know about anyone else, but I have found my SIG group really helpful and interesting and a great way of hearing others opinions. and ideas who may not necessarily have anything to do with the arts, but have an appreciation of how helpful they can be.
On 8/10/16 I had a facebook call with Lauren Hoskins. I think Lauren will agree with me that this was extremely helpful for both myself and her. It was really interesting how we started on one topic and the more we spoke the more questions. One idea that we discusses is the matter that we think the arts may not be purposely forgotten about and put to one side but this may however be a subconscious action that happens. This maybe for one of many reasons. One being that in the grand scheme of things the arts are relatively new in the curriculum therefore people are just not used to them being available as an option especially for things such as GCSE and A level.
Another idea we discussed is that in fact it maybe pressure from school governors etc as to why maybe students appear to be encouraged to avoid the arts as an examined subject we just don't know.
However what I do know is that our chat was really helpful and is something that we are going to try keep going on a regular basis and see where each of our ideas are developing and where they are becoming focused too.
How is everyone else finding SIG groups and talking - are you finding it helpful? please also feel free to comment and discuss ideas in this post.
Monday 3 October 2016
Thought for the day
I saw this article this morning and thought it maybe interesting to share and would love to hear others thoughts.
http://schoolsweek.co.uk/corbyn-labour-will-give-schools-160m-arts-pupil-premium/
Happy Monday!
http://schoolsweek.co.uk/corbyn-labour-will-give-schools-160m-arts-pupil-premium/
Happy Monday!
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