Month: October 2020

In the music lecture, we looked at where children have musical experiences and where to discover music. This allowed me to think of possible musical experiences I had when I was in primary school and where I’ve seen music being used whilst on placement. Reflecting back on my experience in primary school I remember ever year having a ‘Scottish week’ which culminated in each class performing a Scottish song for the rest of the school and parents to see. I can now see that music was used to link different curriculum area’s and when I am student/teacher I will be able to link music with other curriculum areas to link in the topic, maths literacy etc. my thoughts on how to participate in music are now changing from singing and playing an instrument to learning to use music in ICT, learning to perform and learning to listen.

Drama workshop Developing Drama Using a Stimulus

Process Drama. I have learned what process drama is and the benefits of process drama. I feel reassured and at ease knowing that the learning can still be achieved without having to have an end result such as a play or a big performance. Bowell, P., Heap, B, S. (2013). I can now see the link between process drama and active learning. “Active learning is learning which engage and challenge children’s thinking using real-life and imaginary situations” (Scottish Executive 2007).

I found the Teacher in role section of the workshop very interesting and within my group we discussed how we could this in a classroom.  In my group, we discussed the teacher in the role of a trainee cashier who has a hard time working out the change that is due and needs help from the other members of staff that work in the shop (the children). This would link to mathematics experience and outcome MNU 1-09a – I can use money to pay for items and can work out how much change I should receive Education Scotland (2009).

Another curriculum area that we discussed that could use the teacher in role could be history. We used the example of the teacher playing the role of a soldier who has just woken up from a coma and wants to know what happened in the rest of the war. The children would then play the role of the soldiers explaining what happened during the war.  This could link to experience and outcome SOC 0-04a – “I have explored how people lived in the past and have used imaginative play to show how their lives were different from my own and the people around me Education Scotland “(2009).

With both of these linking to drama experience and outcome, EXA 1-14a “I have developed confidence and skills in creating and presenting drama which explores real and imaginary situations, using improvisation and script” Education Scotland (2009). This shows the value of the arts in the curriculum as it is a cross-curricular area that can be used to develop skills in literacy, maths and social sciences.

Pulse and rhythm

Today I really enjoyed the Pulse and Rhythm workshop. Within this workshop, I was able to learn a lot about music. After not reading or playing music properly for at least 8 years it felt like a breath of fresh air. I had totally forgotten all of the names of the notes so the slide with the name, value and symbol on it was very beneficial to me. Find the picture of the slide below.

The workshop was fun but challenging as well, as we progressed through the PowerPoint the pieces of music got harder and more complex. Here is a video of me playing along with the music.

I think this PowerPoint will be a great teaching resource when out in placement as it was very easy to follow along with and required no prior knowledge beforehand.  It also required very little equipment and pupils could even use pencils instead of wooden spoons. The PowerPoint can be used with all age ranges and depending on the stage can be used from EXA 0-16a to EXA 4-16a. With my new knowledge of notation, I was able to annotate Scotland the Brave notes, giving their name and value.

Throughout all of today’s learning my confidence in teaching using drama conventions and my confidence to teach music has increased and I would now feel less anxious towards this subject area.

 

References

Education Scotland (2009) Curriculum for excellence: Social Studies: Experience and Outcomes Available at: https://education.gov.scot/Documents/social-studies-eo.pdf (Accessed 20 October 2020)

Education Scotland (2009) Curriculum for excellence: Expressive Arts: Experience and Outcomes  Available at: https://education.gov.scot/Documents/expressive-arts-eo.pdf (Accessed 20 October 2020)

Education Scotland (2009) Curriculum for excellence: Numeracy and mathematics: Experience and Outcomes. Available at: https://education.gov.scot/Documents/numeracy-maths-eo.pdf (Accessed 20 October 2020).

Scottish Executive (2007) Building the Curriculum 2: Active learning in the early years. Available at: https://www.education.gov.scot/Documents/btc2.pdf (Accessed 20 October 2020)

Bowell, P., Heap, B.S. (2013) Planning Process Drama: Enriching teaching and learning. London: Routledge (Accessed 20 October 2020)

How to avoid killing creativity

I found the pre-reading tasks this week very interesting. Listening to Ken Robinsons ‘Do schools kill creativity?” (2006) gave me a new perspective on creativity. To me growing up and going through school creativity meant if you could draw and if you couldn’t you weren’t creative. Just as black and white as that and I had convinced myself that I had fallen into the second category. However, after listening to Sir Ken speaking, I realise that it is not the case. Sir ken speaks of children not being frightened of being wrong but as they grow up that is no longer the case. I feel that happened to me through secondary school as I was not prepared to be wrong leaving me with little creative capacity.

For my development, I need to get a better understanding of what creativity is. My plan of action is to use my ‘art wall’ so far I have gathered resources from lectures to help expand my knowledge.

Reading through ‘What are creativity skills’ (2020) has helped me to understand what it takes to be creative. Open-mindedness, problem-solving, curiosity and imagination are 4 key skills pointed out that promote creativity.  When planning lessons in the future I will make sure the tasks allow for the children to incorporate these skills

Drama

Working through the Drama workshop helped give me a better understanding of Freeze frames. After last week I felt overwhelmed by all of the different drama conventions and how do implement them. I feel I have gained a better understanding of how to use freeze frames within the classrooms, such as what questions to ask children when using them and how to get other children involved whilst children are in a freeze-frame.

Charanga

I found this very useful as Julie said it is great for those who wouldn’t be confident enough to take a music lesson on their own. Knowing that I would have access to lesson plans through the scheme makes me feel a lot more confident in my ability to lead a music lesson. Being a total beginner with the music I learned a lot about the actual content on Charanga as well as how to work the site. Going forward I feel it would be beneficial to play around more and get more familiar with the site so come placement time I will be ready to use it.

 

References

TED (2007) Do Schools kill Creativity? Sir Ken Robinson. 6 January Available at: https://youtu.be/iG9CE55wbtY (Accessed 13 October 2020)

Education Scotland (2020) What are Creativity Skills? Available at:https://education.gov.scot/media/ciaevgez/whatarecreativityskills.pdf (Accessed 13 October 2020)

 

Today we had our first session for integrated arts. My understanding of the arts is very little. During primary school, I used to a variety of dance; ballet, tap, jazz and street. As well as playing the double bass for a number of years, playing as part of the North Ayrshire schools orchestra. However by the time I had left primary school I had stopped all of these and was not an avid artist/ drawer. My only current connection to the arts would be music as I listen every day. Starting this module I feel a bit anxious but excited to improve on an area that I would class as a weakness.

Today we had inputs about drama and music. I found the Drama input very useful and thought-provoking. We learned about different Drama Conventions and ‘Tools of the Trade’ in regard to teaching. As the session progressed, I was able to push my self out of my comfort zone and get involved with the different techniques. A drama convention that I found particularly interesting was the ‘Thought Tunnel’ not only can this be used for drama but can be used to spark conversation and debate around topics, I feel this would be very good for discussing controversial topics as it would allow for both perspectives to be seen.

The music input started with the role of music in the curriculum. I must admit that prior to today’s session I would have had a closed mind towards the place music held and now can see that the benefits are much wider and that it is not just singing and playing instruments.  We explored one of the main areas of music, Listening. When listening to music we looked at what implicit responses the music gave us. I found it interesting to hear how the same music provoked such different responses from others. To end the session we listened to a piece of music and when it came time to discuss I was surprised at how we all had the same idea just by the music that was played. After today’s session, I am feeling more confident and I’m looking forward to next week.