Tag: Music

This focus of the integrated arts inputs this week was music and drama. During these inputs I believe my confidence and ability within the integrated arts curriculum is developing, the skills that I am acquiring are valuable and relevant, which I would implement within my future practice.
This week the music input was vastly dynamic, as 30 primary school pupils from an East Ayrshire school came into the university, the children were teaching us. The children are part of the string project, the fundamental aim of the project is children from primary 4-7 have the opportunity to learn a string based musical instrument along with their class teacher. Being part of this initiative enables children to thrive within the four capacities (success learner, responsible citizen, confident individual and effective contributor) of the Curriculum Excellence. This was evident to myself when the children taught the university student how to the play their musical instruments. The children were very motivated, engaged, resilient, confident and were a credit to their school. The music instrument I was assigned to was the cello, the children were very helpful at showing the university students to different skills required to play the musical instrument. Initially, I felt rather apprehensive as this was the first I have ever attempted to play a string instrument, but I become more assured as the input progressed. Reflecting on this learning experience using the Tallis Habits Pedagogy Wheel I believe I was within the persisting segment of the wheel whilst learning the skills required, to begin with I felt challenge, but I remain focused and sustained the task, kept repeating the skills and at the end input I reviewed and reflect upon what I achieved during the input. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed and found the input to be insightful, it was a great experience for the children to be ‘teachers’ and I learnt a significant amount in regards to string instruments. The String Project (which is unique to this school) is an excellent project that provides children from all backgrounds the opportunity to play and acquire the skills and understanding necessary to play a string instruments. There are strong collations that music improves children’s behaviour and attainment within education this is heighten by research carried out by the University College London (n.d) that discovered “it (music) has led to curriculum innovation, increased participation and investment, benefiting millions”. Similarly, Nick Gibb (former school minister) (University College London, n.d) denoted that “quality music education improves behaviour, attention and concentration and has a hugely positive effect on numeracy and language skills”. Therefore, this input conveyed the importance of music within primary education and immense empowerment and opportunities children can gain by playing a musical instrument or using voice.
Likewise, this week’s drama input was divergent from the usual, this was due to having the opportunity to micro-teach and participating in students group lessons too. Throughout second year of this degree we are becoming increasingly accustomed to this element of practising teaching. Kalaimathi et.al (p.4, ) defines micro-teaching as “an excellent way to build up skills and confidence, to experience a range of lecturing/ tutoring styles and to learn and practise giving constructive feedback”, likewise adding (p.3, ) “teachers also need appropriate opportunities to practise what they have learnt through stimulated or workshop experience”. During the session it was absorbing to see a range of ways students used to teach their drama lesson one group used a video clip, while another group read from a storybook and likewise a third group created their own story. This allowed the rest of the class to consider the variety of opportunities there are when it comes to teaching drama. In a couple of weeks, the remaining groups will create their own micro-teaching lesson.
Interconnecting both inputs I feel I have been able to develop my confidence and pushed out my comfort zone in array of ways, at particular junctures throughout the day especially when being taught how to play a string instrument and during drama being in a small group propelled myself to take in a larger role when performing. Relating both learning experiences to the Tallis Habit Pedagogy Wheel I would consider that the segments “collaborative and persistent”. As a class we worked collaboratively during drama as we shared our ideas, discussed and explained why those ideas surfaced and received feedback. Likewise, during the music, we worked collaboratively with the primary schools’ pupils as they shared their musical skills with us, similarly explaining and showing us how to play their musical instruments. From my standpoint I believe that my learning experience was “persistent” before the music input I was unsure and apprehensive due to limited knowledge, but I endured the unknowing and continued with the difficulty and remained focused throughout. Overall this week I have been able to develop my understanding and esteem within the integrated arts in particularly music and drama teaching.
References
UCL (2014) Music in Schools: Boosting Achievement, enthusiasm and participation. [Online] Available: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/impact/case-study-repository/music-in-schools [Accessed 12 November 2017]
Kalaimathi, D. and Julius, R. (2015) Micro-Teaching – a way of building up skills. [Online] Available: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=mPtDCwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=microteaching&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjCrpTqiMnXAhXCHxoKHbp1AMMQ6wEILzAB#v=onepage&q=microteaching&f=false. [Accessed 12 November 2017].
Tallis, T. (2013) Tallis Habits Pedagogy Wheel. [Online] Available: http://www.thomastallisschool.com/tallis-pedagogy-wheel-guide.html. [ Accessed on 12 November 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]