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Today’s lecture was about ‘Dance in Education’ discussing that dance should be fun, safe, meaningful and a child lead activity (Cone 2009). Within danced in education it is important to understand that everyone has a role to play in creative dance. Dance should help children build upon many things such as confidence and wellbeing (Cone 2009).

In today’s dance workshop we were given a new theme of Christmas. We were then split into groups and given different activities such as games, stretches, dances sequences and stimulus. In my group we were given games, the ideas we had for games was reindeer tig, Santa says, the number game related to Christmas objects such as presents, Christmas tree and Santa’s sleigh.

We then went into groups to work on our dances and change some parts to fit into our new theme of Christmas, before coming up with a full class dance before showcasing our group dance using the 10 step sequence.

In the drama workshop today it was my groups turn to do their micro teaching drama lesson to our fellow peers. The book my group had picked was ‘The Little Riding Hood’. Working as a group we to delegate the different roles each person would have in delivering our lesson. The different role each person has was reading the book, role on wall, hot seat, freeze frame and fast-forward. This allowed us the opportunity to experience teaching and performing in front of fellow peers.

Both Workshops linked to each other this allowed us to perform in front of peers to build confidence in teaching as well as performing. Picking a certain theme in dance and allowing pupils to lead their own learning using the 10 step dance sequence to create a dance to preform in front of others as a full class activity. In drama it was useful using a book for different levels within the school using the 10 drama conventions to allow pupils to think creatively and express themselves in a different way, which is not the written word.

Reference:

Cone (2009) Following Their Lead: Supporting Children’s Ideas for Creating Dances

 

Drama

This week’s drama session was very enjoyable. As previously stated myself and the group I was working with were able to create a lesson and micro teach this to our peers. This week we were participating in the opposite. We got to experience being in the learners seat and be taught by our peers.

Each group were very imaginative when planning their lessons. I acted out many different scenes while using many different conventions such as voice in the head, freeze frame, thought tracking and mime. Everyone In the class were beginning to take drama a lot more seriously. As a student teacher I think it is important that we take drama seriously as the children in our class will begin to take it seriously too. Drama can be very effective in letting children see different view points for example being in the shoes of a bully and this is why it must not be just a laugh.

I have really enjoyed the drama sessions in this module and I think it will really benefit me in my future career as a teacher.

Dance

It has been a while since we took part in dance in the university and this became a bit of a challenge! We were asked to think back and remember the moves that we had created in the previous class which was a bit of a struggle. As I feel confidence when it comes to choreography I managed to think of moves we could learn quickly and teach the rest of my group. We then came together as a class and again put all of our moves together

When dancing I really enjoy the shapes I can make with my body. I can express myself through movement and be imaginative with myself. I think dance is a type of creativity that is very important. As a student teacher, I am eager to teach dance in this years placement during my serial days. I think it is important that all children experience all of the creative arts for a chance to experience creativity.

Cross-Curricular

Both of these sessions linked today as in both sessions we were able to be imaginative and make up our own creativity such as our own dances and our own drama scenes.  During drama, we could have created up a completely random scene and then used this a stimulus for literacy and write a imaginative short story. This could also be applied to dance. We can complete a dance related to a theme such as remembrance day, and then link this to literacy by writing a story! These are all fun and creative way that the arts can be linked into the curriculum.

 

 

 

When I think back to primary school, I can slightly remember learning about the energy. When revisiting the topic, it brought many memetoies such as creating a circuit. I found this topic very enjoyable and as a student teacher I would feel fairly confident teaching this in the classroom.

Through out the lectures, study tasks and workshops I developed many new skills such as team working skills and communication skills. For many of the tasks we had to take part in, we had to work as a team and work in partnership. I sometimes find it challenging working in a team but as we have worked in teams a lot over this trimester I feel like my skill have developed well. I am now able to sit back and listen to everyone taking their thoughts into consideration, and I am also able to show my leadership skills in the team. I feel confident enough to report back to the class after having a class discussion. Another skill I think I have developed during this topic is my research skills. For one of the seminars we had to look through a number of academic sources that had information about wind turbines. We then had to sort this information using a table and work in teams to bring that information together. This was a really useful lesson to bring both team working and research together.

Mad a student teacher I would love to teach this topic in the classroom. There are lots of great activities to do with energy that the children would enjoy. As energy surrounds us in every day life, it is a relevant subject that must be taught.

Week 1 

This week in sustainable development we were looking at energy and how to implement teaching it in ways children can relate to. Our main concern is recognising how much energy sources (fossil fuels) our planet uses and how we will eventually run out of these sources if we do not make changes and use alternatives. Initially we looked at what everyday forms of energy are used tremendously in the Western world, such as heating and electricity to power households and the use of transport fuels. Looking at basic examples like boiling a kettle or leaving a light on can show children how they heavily rely on fossil fuels and by recognising this they can contribute to helping save energy. We later investigated what alternatives can used to find new ways to generate electricity, power vehicles and make materials.

Our first workshop consisted of going round six stations where there was an experiment set up based on electricity or magnetism. These experiments would be very useful to introduce specific terms to children such as circuits, voltage, series, amps, etc. Each experiment built on my science process skills, including observation and communication. Observing is fundamental in order to see changes, make sense of what has happened and identify why it happened. Communication, especially in groups, is also very important as others can share their observations and ideas, therefore having another perspective can lead a more accurate judgement of what happened in the experiment. Doing these experiments myself particularly informed my planning and practice as a teacher. It gave me the opportunity to judge which experiments would be the most engaging and stimulating for a young class.

The second workshop proved to be very informative to me as a student. We looked at the use of wind turbines as an alternative use of energy. Firstly, we were set out to individually research sources on the argument of wind turbines, i.e. are they a good idea for governments to use a main alternative energy source? We later were set into groups to share our own findings and summarise them into a list/mind map of for and against points of using wind turbines. This use of collaborative learning greatly developed on my overall knowledge of the subject matter, this is an area I have always wanted to learn more about as student. As well as developing my research skills, my critical literacy skills were expanded too as I judged what sources were the most informative and also as I was able to pick out relevant information from the source and apply it to my research. The last stage of our workshop was to debate with another group, with one group being allocated in favour of wind turbines and one group allocated against them. Despite the opinions of the debate teams, each were able to present arguments for their side very well. Debating highly builds on skills for persuasive speech, presenting, listening, critical thinking, and academic confidence. All of which I can use throughout my time as a student. However this experience of learning also provided a meaningful in sight to me as a teacher. I took from this that using debating and other memorable teaching methods is great way for children to use their own ideas and opinions to learn an important subject.

Week 2

We had the chance to listen to a teacher from Onthank Primary in which she spoke of how she incorporates STEM learning in the classroom. She is involved in a project that encourages teachers to get children to think like engineers.

She spoke of how all children should be involved in interdisciplinary learning where they can get involved and become creative, because it should be recognised by teachers that learning through traditional maths and literacy is not for everyone. Key ways to teach children to be STEM minded involved giving them a real-life context to the learning and use specific language that stimulates them to think as a problem-solvers. Also we as teacher should be modelling practice by encouraging children to see that making mistakes is good and reframe failure as necessary part of learning; show them teachers can also make mistakes and do not always have the right answers. I identified that in order to implement effective STEM learning in the classroom the teacher has be skilled in areas of creativity, collaboration and problem-solving. The talk was very informative to me, as a teacher, particularly when she spoke of how a school does not need to be from a wealthy area or have highly intelligent pupils for them to gain achievement in STEM learning. Having spent time in schools in deprived areas, and I most likely will spend more time in my future career as a teacher, I plan to take this knowledge on and implement these useful strategies.

In our only workshop of the day, we had to create an anemometer out of materials and after to create a lesson plan from the task including CfE experience and outcomes, learning intentions and success criteria. Thinking as a teacher, I had to use my organisational skills to clearly structure my objectives and what steps I would plan to take during the lesson. Although we were given the task that would take place in our lesson plan, we came up with other technology/engineering based tasks (such as structuring a paper bridge) this developed my creativity skills as a teacher as thinking of fresh and engaging lessons is a main component of the job. The collaboration of group members developed my group working skills, teacher will commonly share ideas and lesson plans in their career.

It is evident that the school are encouraging sustainable development education throughout the year groups from primary 1 to 7. The have two eco councils that run on a Thursday afternoon which are named the eco hero’s and the garden council. It is also evident that the children are engaging with the eco education as there are many displays up on the walls.

The Garden Area :

This school has put a lot of time and effort into their garden area and there are also a council which maintain the area. There is also a timetable of when the area gets used and when there are free slots allowing each class to rotate and have turns of outdoor learning. There are many resources that are in the garden area allowing the children to explore and get messy! Resources include plant beds, recycling bins, compost, water area, bug garden, huts, bird boxes, fruit and veg patches and a mud kitchen. These are all great resources which can all be linked with areas of the curriculum such as science and health and wellbeing.

Litter picking :

For one of the council sessions, the eco hero’s got to take part in a whole school litter pick. Sandy, the community safety officer, came into the school and equipped the children with litter pickers, hi-vis jackets, gloves and bin bags. The children had the opportunity to go around the school and pick up litter and discuss why this is an issue. A follow up task involved the children of creating posters informing children of the school and members of the public why not to drop litter in the school grounds. These posters got displayed around the school and on the school gates.

Recycling:

In each classroom, the children in the classroom and the teacher all have the chance to recyncle. There are recycle bins in each classroom and there are also recycle bins In the school canteen. When asked, most children were able to tell the difference between bins and also were able to answer the question “why do we recycle?”. Most children seemed fairly confident about the subject.

Play Area :

In this school, the space for play is very basic. They have a large concrete ground play area and one child mentioned that “there is not much to do but run around”. However, when I had the chance to look at the playground during lunch time, I found many children playing around the trees on the grass area. The children were breaking branches with the trees and also exploring for bugs. There was lots of opportunities for outdoor learning during free flow play. Here is a mapping of the school grounds :

Through out the school there is many posters of the eco code. This has been created by the children and when asked about it they were able to explain the poster and where confident enough to speak about how their school was an eco school.

http://Portal:Disasters/Selected picture – Wikipedia Before these inputs, I had limited knowledge about disasters. I understood the different types and how it affects the lands structure which I covered in Geography […]

In today’s music workshop it was all about rhythm, note names, not values and rest values.

Having looked at the drake music document I understand how figure notes would be easier to understand as the use of colour and shapes makes learning visible.

Throughout this workshop we worked on combining different note names, not values and rest values together to create music. When working on rhythm in the music we practiced using percussion sticks before we then practicing on the Glockenspiel.

Within the visual arts workshop we all had the opportunity to discuss the arts we have seen of the arts whilst being out on our serial day placements. This was good to the different type of art our peers have seen out on placement. Whilst being out on placement Thursday isn’t the day for art however the class and school halls are filled with displays of the arts done in class as the arts are about “showing rather than saying” (Fleming 2012 p9).

Throughout the workshop we also spoke about why the arts should be promoted within schools as it offers children many different opportunities to develop the arts in other curricular areas (Education Scotland nd).

Reference:

Education Scotland (nd) Curriculum for Excellence: Expressive Arts Principles and Practices. [Online] Available at: https://education.gov.scot/Documents/expressive-arts-pp.pdf [Accessed November 7, 2017].

Fleming, M. (2012) The Arts in Education: An Introduction to aesthetics, theory and pedagogy. London: Routledge

 

Integrated Arts – Music and Visual Arts (Week 10)