I was absent this week and missed the lecture and workshops, however, in order to catch up I had a discussion with peers on what I missed, allowing me to use my communication skills. I was told that a main focus throughout the lecture and workshops was using creative thinking.
This week in music the workshop followed on from last weeks and involved playing the glockenspiel again. However, instead of reading music like last week they focused on improvisation using the pentatonic scale. Julie repeated a tune on the piano and everyone in the class had to improvise 16 bars to play. This was done by using a variety of notes on the scale. The ability to improvise within a group involves us to be attentive to each other and to listen carefully to see what others are doing (Heble and Laver, 2016). I think that improvisation in music can be a good activity to do with pupils as it allows for freedom and creativity, however, it can cause some pupils anxiety and stress due to not following a structured idea. According to Maisel (2011), often individuals have a fear of failure due to being afraid of letting ourselves down when work gets challenging. This can apply to pupils struggling with improvisation as it can be difficult to think on the spot of an idea, especially if you need to present it to the class, similar to what my peers did. Therefore, if I were to do a task like this with a class I would maybe put children in small groups instead of demonstrating their ideas to the full class as pupils are encouraged to learn from one another (Exley and Dennick, 2004). Working in smaller groups also makes it easier to support pupils who find large group interaction and demonstration daunting and stressful (Wasik, 2008).
It can be argued that dance is something that should be something to allow individuals to express their “dreams, fears, needs, and joys” (Cone, 2009). When teaching dance it is important to consider the SHANARRI wellbeing indicators, “safe, healthy, active, nurtured, respected, responsible, and independent” (Scottish Government, 2016). By looking at these wellbeing indicators, it is crucial to ensure that all pupils are all of the above factors during dance.
This week in dance was a continuation from the last 2 weeks as the class worked on their group dances. Last week I was beginning to feel more comfortable dancing and preforming, however, still felt uncomfortable and awkward when presenting as it is not something I particularly enjoy. However, due to being absent this week and missing the follow up session, I am worried about the next dance session due to having missed practising. In order to catch up and hopefully become more confident I will watch a video of my groups dance and try to learn it for next week. Continuing on from last week, the whole class came together to develop the full class dance. This was done by preforming the full class routine then sectioning off to preform individual group routines and then joining back together to finish the performance.
Groups also had the opportunity this week to be involved with the teaching of dance by creating a dance inspired game, presenting the idea to the class and then getting the class to participate in the game. This involved collaborative work as groups had to come up with an idea that would be successful for everyone to participate in. I think that this is a good idea as it lets people see how they feel teaching a part of the lesson and recognising their feelings when doing so, especially before teaching it in front of a class of children.
Overall, my peers highlighted to me that personal creativity was present in all aspects of learning today, especially when improvising in music and when working on the dance routines. This is important as creativity develops skills of problem solving, open-mindedness, and expressing imaginative thoughts (Education Scotland, 2013). This allowed me to consider how important creative teaching and lessons are as it provokes and develops skills and attributes within pupils. I also have recognised how important it is to be creative within all aspects of learning, and not just when looking at expressive arts.
References-
Cone, T.P. (2009) Following their lead: Supporting Children’s Ideas for Creating Dances. Journal of Dance Education. Vol9(3) pp81-89.
Education Scotland. (2013) Creativity Across Learning 3-18. [Online] Available: https://education.gov.scot/improvement/Documents/cre39-impact-report.pdf [Accessed: 19 November 2019].
Heble, A. and Laver, M. (2016) Improvisation and Music Education: Beyond the Classroom. New York: Routledge.
Maisel, E. (2011) Mastering Creative Anxiety: 24 lessons for writers, painters, musicians & actors. California: New World Library.
Wasik, B. (2008) When Fewer is More: Small Groups In Early Childhood Classrooms Early Childhood Education Journal. Vol 25(6) pp515-520 Available: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15290824.2009.10387390 [Accessed: 19 November 2019].
