November 2017 – Page 9

Drama and Music 31/10/2017

This week’s integrated arts inputs and workshops where based on music and drama. Similar to every week I feel I have been able to take useful theory that I will be utilise in my teaching practise in the future.
During this week’s music input we explored voice in an array of ways for teaching purposes and voice in music. Teachers principle tool of communication is their voice, teachers use their voice constantly often over a loud classroom and school environment. Voice is important for teacher as it allows them to address their pupils, teach their pupil, manage the general classroom and behaviour management. It is therefore vital for teachers to maintain a heathy voice throughout their career, this is conveyed in a GTCS document (Voice and the Teaching Profession, n.d, p.6) that states “teachers are at particular risk of developing voice problems”. The GTCS likewise established that in recent years problems relating to voice have become increasingly prevailing within the profession. A growing number of teachers are seeking advice from speech therapist due to the “majority of (teachers) had problems arising for chronic abuse/ misuse of voice and stress” (GTCS, n.d, p.6). If a teacher develops a significant problem with their voice this could impact on their work leading to absence, stress and impacting on their pupils learning (GTCS, n.d). There are range of circumstances that can cause voice problems/ damage for instance hoarseness (caused by change in weather), the common cold or flu etc. However, in order to reduce strain in voice there is a variety of ways in which teacher can control and maintain their voice.
• Using a different method to get pupils attention in place of voice for example clapping/ singing a tune that pupils must repeat back, facial expressions, gesture (raising hand, hands on hip, give me five).
• Warm voice up, gradually eases into speaking, use a range of tones.
Also, this week in the music input we looked in-depth to singing and the enjoyment that children can get from this aspect of music. There are a range of resources out there for teachers to use, which I am glad, as I am not the most confident singer. The most interesting segment of the input was using music instruments to create and perform a short topic/theme. The lecture provided the class with a range of musical and in groups we created a short piece of music of 4 bars. I would definitely implement this approach to music in the classroom as it would allow children the freedom the choose a topic and use their creativity to express the topic. Bloomfield (2000, p.77) denotes the importance for children trying and testing musical instrument “providing children with access to a broad spectrum of instruments will extend their aural vocabulary and foster the thrill of sound, especially through sound combinations”

The focus of the drama workshop was Halloween, we were initially shown a picture of a large house, this was the bases of our drama. The lecture firstly demonstrated teacher in role and we were informed the house was up for sale, but there had been some circulating that the house was haunted, in groups we were given two minutes to create a drama of going and having a sleep over at the house. When them moved onto the techniques of flashforward/ flashbacks. Dickinson et al (2006) cite that these techniques can be used to help the children focus on outcomes of actions, (flashbacks/ flashforwards) “they encourage reflection and discussion” (p.44). Flashback/ flashforward allow children to think about past events that could lead to future events.
I found this week’s inputs to be insightful and the knowledge I have acquired can be transferred into my future practise.
References
Dickinson, R. Neelands, J. and Shenton Primary School. (2006) Improve Your Primary School Through Drama. Oxon: David Fulton
Bloomfield, A. (2000) Teaching Integrated Arts in the Primary School. Oxon: David Fulton
GTCS (n.d) Voice and the Teaching Profession [online] Available: http://www.gtcs.org.uk/web/FILES/FormUploads/voice-and-the-teaching-profession1652_214.pdf [Accessed: 5th November 2017]

Integrated Arts 7

Over the last few drama workshops we have looked at numerous different drama techniques, there were a lot more than I previously thought. Through the teaching and identifying of these techniques my knowledge of drama has deepened. … Continue reading →

Natural Disasters – Directed Study Task

For our natural disasters directed study task we were asked to create a presentation in groups about a natural disaster and present this in front of the class. Earthquakes updateAbove I have attached a link to the PowerPoint on Earthquakes which our group created. This micro-teaching method allowed me to improve my team building skills, … Continue reading Natural Disasters – Directed Study Task →

For our natural disasters directed study task we were asked to create a presentation in groups about a natural disaster and present this in front of the class.

Earthquakes updateAbove I have attached a link to the PowerPoint on Earthquakes which our group created.

This micro-teaching method allowed me to improve my team building skills, listening skills and communication skills. When doing group work I always try to take charge, however, this time I was able to share my skills and knowledge as well as work effectively as a team member. This task allowed me to work with people in my class who I would not usually work with. Therefore it allowed me to work with others and bounce ideas off of each other to create the best piece of work which we could.

My presentation skills also were worked on and improved during this task. I was able to speak clearly and pronounce my words correctly which allowed the audience to hear me correctly and the information which I was portraying. I was also able to use eye contact to communicate effectively with the audience. All of these skills are useful and important for the development of my skills as a teacher.

Integrated Arts- The importance of Voice

This weeks lecture and seminar focused on the importance of your voice in teaching. As a teacher, one of your most effective tools is your voice so it is therefore important to learn exactly how to use it in order for it to be a useful resource in teaching and communicating. Therefore, this weeks seminar focused on tips and tricks that we could use to help protect our voice and ways to use it to the best of our ability. One tip that I found very interesting and useful was that there is no need to shout in a classroom. Sometimes as a teacher, you forget that shouting to get the children’s attention isn’t always the best approach as its not always effective and can hurt our voice in the process. I think some teachers find this a good way of controlling behavior management but in my past experiences of being on placement in schools and nurseries i found that shouting didn’t ever really get anywhere with the pupils. A better technique I think would be to change the tone of your voice, use facial expressions or even sometimes clapping a rhythm to the pupils for them to clap back can be an extremely effective tool to use in the classroom.

I researched the importance of our voice as teachers and how being expressive with our voice by using different facial expressions. true emotion and our tone of voice when speaking can help the children learn to be expressive as well (School of Educators, 2011). I also learned that using the whisper technique can be extremely effective with young children as it seems to “signal intrigue, mystery, secrets and more”. These techniques are definitely going to be ones that i try whilst on placement and in my future career as a teacher.

We were also told that the General Teaching Council have a whole document outlining the importance of our voice and what to do if we feel like our voice has been effected. I think this is an excellent tool as it gives you lots of advice and information on how to use your voice effectively in a classroom but also what to do and different techniques to use if your voice gets damaged. Its a very useful resource to have whilst on placement and in years to come when we have our own class to teach.

Moving on from this, we looked at how we use our voice through music and how important singing is in a classroom setting. We were shown a resource called Choon Baboon that we can use with the children. This website is a brilliant, new and modern way to get children singing. There is a variety of songs available on YouTube with backing tracks and lyrics to help teach the children. It is a fantastic, fun resource to help build not only the children’s self esteem, confidence and expression but also the teachers. This is definetly a resource I would use as I lack a lot of confidence in teaching music and this tool would be a huge help in my development.

We also looked at a technique called Graphic Scores which is a visual tool that makes reading music a lot easier. It is created with boxes, along the side you have that sounds that have to be used and along the bottom is the time frame. We got split into groups, our group of 6 created a graphic score focusing on Christmas using a variety of instruments.

Our Graphic Score for our Christmas Song

Video (2)

Overall, this seminar was very fun, interesting and informative. I learned a lot of different techniques of how to manage my voice in teaching as well as fantastic resources to help teach singing in the classroom. I feel a lot more confident about teaching music after seeing some of the tools out there to help.

After this seminar, we had our drama workshop. We were following on from last week’s class where we were looking at different drama techniques that we can explore and use in the classroom. This week we focused on four particular conventions varying from flash forward, flash back, narration and slow motion. My favorite convention was the flash forward scene as it allows your group to be creative and create your own ending for the story. This week’s story was based on a haunted house which was very relevant as it was coming Halloween. It was a very fun and creative idea as because the story was quite vague it allowed for each group to have their own individual idea. For flash forward scenes, we had to create what was happening after the present situation and flash back was the opposite that involved showing what happened before the present situation. As a group, we decided to make our flash back scene from centuries ago and it was very different and enjoyable to create. For, slow motion we returned to the present where we were entering the haunted house to see what it was all about. We also got to create a scene were we used narration which was when someone in the group would describe what was happening in the scene.

From taking part in a seminar like this, it highlighted for me the importance of using a story that children don’ know what happens so that when they are creating the scene the children are able to be creative and use their imagination to create a different story from another group.

References:

School of Educators, (2011). How to use your voice as an effective teaching tool. [Available: http://schoolofeducators.com/2011/07/teacher-tips-how-to-use-your-voice-as-an-effective-teaching-tool/] [Accessed: 3rd November 2017]

Choon Baboon, (2017) Choon Baboon. [Available: http://choonbaboon.com/] [Accessed: 3rd November 2017]

Disasters Learning Log

Prior to the inputs on Disasters, my knowledge was limited. Although I was aware of different types of disaster and the effects they can have in terms of mortality rates […]

Prior to the inputs on Disasters, my knowledge was limited. Although I was aware of different types of disaster and the effects they can have in terms of mortality rates and mass destruction, I was unaware of the impact humans have on natural disasters and role of the government. However, from the classes I am now aware of the important roles government agencies and charities play before during and after a disaster.

By comparing the two case studies of earthquakes hitting Japan and Haiti I was able to develop my understanding of the political involvement in natural disasters. I was already aware that Japan was a better developed country than Haiti but many of the information from the case studies came a s a surprise to me. The level of preparation in Japan was significantly higher than that of Haiti, as well as the aid received from other countries because Japan are allied with more countries than Haiti. This left Haiti relying heavily on charities and volunteers. Before the case studies I simply believed that the Haiti earthquake was a bigger earthquake although having evaluated these case studies I was able to develop my critical analysis skills. In addition to this, the graphs used throughout the case studies encouraged me to develop my interpretation skills.

We then discussed how we might teach natural disasters. When educating children about natural disasters, it is important to be sensitive and aware of the material we show pupils. Rather than focusing on the death toll and the mass destruction, the focus would be on preventative measures, recovery and the disasters themselves. This could be done by inviting guest speakers from aid charities to speak to the class. In addition to this, the topic of disaster would best be covered at the second level as younger children might find the topic too upsetting.

The second week of learning about natural disasters required us to plan a microteaching lesson. From the presentation task I developed many skills, most noticeably, patience. For our microteaching task, I gave myself the task of creating a paper mache volcano in order to carry out an experiment of making the volcano ‘erupt’. However, during the group presentation the experiment did not work. Having the patience and understanding that not everything will go to plan all of the time, I attempted the experiment again and thankfully it was successful. When creating the volcano, I was also able to develop my art skills. The microteaching task also helped me develop critical analysis skills. I found that many of the articles I looked at were not academic and so I had to look through them in detail in order to understand what could be used in our presentation.

The successful Volcano ‘eruption’.

The microteaching session itself also enhanced a number of my skills. For example, my confidence when speaking in front of others. This is an important skill to develop as a learner and transfer to my teaching. Effective Communication is one of the four capacities of the Curriculum for Excellence (Scottish Executive, 2004), thus it is vital that pupils develop their confidence throughout their school career.

Reference List:

Scottish Executive (2004) A Curriculum for Excellence: The Curriculum Review Group. [Online] Available: http://www.gov.scot/Resource/Doc/26800/0023690.pdf [Accessed 1 November 2017].

Natural Disasters – Sustainable Development

This week for natural disasters we were put into groups and had to make a powerpoint presentation on different sub-topics relating to natural disasters. The sub-topic my group concentrated on for the micro teaching task was floods. Each member of the group had their own individual task to focus on for our presentation, my main … Continue reading Natural Disasters – Sustainable Development →

This week for natural disasters we were put into groups and had to make a powerpoint presentation on different sub-topics relating to natural disasters. The sub-topic my group concentrated on for the micro teaching task was floods. Each member of the group had their own individual task to focus on for our presentation, my main focus was on the definition of floods and how this could relate to a lesson plan for curriculum for excellence. I found this rather challenging as I did not realise the effects of floods were so sever and had great impact of the communities.

Having done this micro teaching activity it has helped me develop upon my research skills and presentation skills. Developing my research skills came from identifying what appropriate and relevant information, that came from academic readings. In doing this it helped me enhance my knowledge about floods. Presenting is something out of my confort zone, however, I did feel that I had great knowledge about floods to share with my fellow peers. In doing this I did have to come out of my comfort zone to challenge myself to present. However, after presenting I realise it wasn’t as bad as I had thought and I let nerves get the better of me.

All in I felt the Micro teaching task was very beneficial for myself as it challenged me but also let me build upon skills.

Week 12 – Dance and Music 28/11/17

Sustainable Development – Disasters

Middleton (2013, p.467) says “natural hazards should be defined and studied both in terms of the physical processes involved and the human factors affecting the vulnerability of certain groups of people to disasters.” Therefore, natural disasters can be defined as uncontrollable events which have devastating impacts on the lives and environment of the area in … Continue reading Sustainable Development – Disasters

Sustainable Development- Natural Disasters

This week was our time to present our natural disaster presentations to the rest of the class. Previous to this, we were split into groups and each group were given a natural disaster to research and then present to the class. Our group was given earthquakes. We wanted to make our presentation classroom friendly and … Continue reading “Sustainable Development- Natural Disasters”

Our group was given earthquakes. We wanted to make our presentation classroom friendly and one that supplied enough information and facts for our peers but could be used as a lesson plan. From taking part in a task like this I feel like I have developed numerous skills such as: communication, team working, time management, organisation, research as well as listening and computer skills.

Some parts of this task I did find challenging as I feel like time played a major problem for the group. This was because it was a struggle trying to find a time where every member in the group was free to rehearse, especially as we were only given a week to carry out the task. However, we did manage to pull it all together and deliver a good, well researched presentation to the rest of the class. I particularly liked that from watching everyone’s presentations we were able to get different information on the natural disasters as well as different ideas on how we can present and teach these disasters to children.

Additionally, from the previous weeks workshop on natural disasters, I gained some knowledge on the type of activities we could carry out in the classroom e.g. fossil making, tornado in a jar and a baking soda and vinegar volcano. I found this lesson fun and interesting as it gave me some ideas in implementing natural disasters in the classroom.

The skills and information that I have been able to gain from this lesson and topic can and will be a crucial role into my development as a teacher.

Below I have attached a copy of the presentation we created.

Earthquakes-update

Learning Log – Disasters!

Here is my groups PowerPoint on Earthquakes. Over the last two weeks we have focused on disasters within the Sustainable Development module. My skills have developed greatly. The skills which have developed over this topic are my research skills, presentation skills, … Continue reading →