Month: January 2021

Create 

We created this dance based on the theme Christmas. A number of people drew pictures of Christmas, it was up to them what they wanted to draw, and the results varied. We then took the drawings and used them as a visual stimulus. we turned the drawings into dance moves, for example, a drawing of a Christmas present inspired the opening section of the dance. We then split into groups of 6-8 and create our won dance. We used the 10 basic skills of dance (Add picture of these moves) and were given a random order in which these moves were to be performed. As a group, we discussed moves that everyone felt comfortable with and were happy to perform.

Perform

Here is a video of me doing the dance. https://youtu.be/szPIXR9MvuE

Appreciate 

When doing the dance I appreciate that most of the group dressed up in Christmas themed outfits, turned their camera’s on and tried their best! I appreciate that as using Brookfield’s model of reflection and looking through my colleague’s lenses, I see how this may have been taunting for some people in the group and that they had worked really hard to practice the dance.

Evaluate

 

Skills I’ve developed through this process

Creativity, when creating the dance I felt as if I was in the flow state and was able to be very creative. I felt that I was able to lead a group discussion and give thought-out suggestions and ideas to what we could do. Ambitious, although we choose moves that everyone was comfortable in we also made sure that our routine was challenging so we would push ourselves and create a better quality dance. Confidence, I feel I was able to develop this through practising the dance and performing it with my team. I now have more confidence to take part in dance and to facilitate dance as a teacher.

References 

Brookfield, S. (1998) ‘Critically Reflective Practice’, Journal of Continuing Education In the Health Professions, 18(4), pp.197-205. doi: 10.1002/chp.1340180402 (Accessed: 16 December  2020)

I enjoyed today’s session as we were active through dancing and we were able to work with our groups. Using the dance we had created previously we added in choreographic devices and practised with the rest of the cohort.

We were looking at creative dance today when I was made aware of Theresa Purcell Cone. The Author of Following Their Lead: Supporting Children’s Ideas for Creating Dances. In the Dance Education Journal. According to Cone (2009), Dance should be fun, safe, meaningful and should be a child-led activity. Child-led learning is a reoccurring theme throughout the arts module and across different areas of the curricular. Add in evidence of child-led learning positive. Cone (2009) states “One of the most powerful experiences dance educators can offer children is the opportunity to create a dance that reflects their ideas”

I have learned more in-depth about what my role will be within creative dance as a teacher. This is to be a facilitator.  This means that I should be able to relay the 10 basic dance moves.

It is also important to believe in the validity of the children’s creativity and ideas no matter how out there they are.  As always it is my role to provide a safe place for learning to occur, in regard to dance this means having a suitable amount of room and ensuring children are warmed up and ready to learn.

There is an argument that can be made on the process of dance that was raised by Zara. The argument states that although the process is important to dance. Dance is an aesthetically pleasing art form and if the process is the main focus when developing a dance it may result in the final product not being aesthetically pleasing. This in turn could impact on children’s confidence and emotional wellbeing if they don’t receive good feedback from their peers resulting in children being reluctant to dance and view dance in a negative way.

However the process is still important, and dance should be a child-led activity. As my role as a facilitator of dance, I would help provide structure and encourage choreographic devices such as repetition of dance moves,  Cannon (performing moves one after another, like a Mexican wave) and retrograde (performing a movement backwards, like rewinding a film) this will make the dance more aesthetically pleasing whilst keeping the dancing child-led.

I also learned how to dance in the Curriculum for Excellence was thought out.  Jacqueline M. Smith-Autard, the author of The Art of dance in Education states “Children should be able to compose, perform and appreciate dance (Smith-Autard, 2002). These ideas were clearly taken on board and now the Curriculum for Excellence says, “Children should have the opportunity to create, present, appreciate and evaluate dance” (CFE,2009).

When teaching dance you are able to Bring to life and provides means for topics. A great example of using dance with meaningful topics is Diversity’s Dance on Britain’s Got Talent. I have provided the link to the dance here. This shows how dance can be used to address and raise awareness of important and current topics.

Visual arts

In today’s second input we were looking at learning through arts and design. The visual elements begin in the nursery and stay with you forever. When teaching arts you should try to use a few of the visual elements. I have also gained knowledge of the different types of Visual elements. Line, Shape, Colour, Texture, Pattern and Tone

This is some of the notes I have taken in order to develop my knowledge and my future practice

https://youtu.be/UbEL_GJuWWA

 

Presenting for Audiences

A point that was spoken about today was about display children’s work. This is something I hadn’t given much thought to but what Diarmuid said was very interesting and will be something I take with me when I am a teacher. Diarmuid said that if you can’t display all of the work don’t display any. This is a very interesting point but the reasoning behind it is simple. How would the children feel if others work was displayed and theirs wasn’t? How would this affect their confidence and their relationships with art? This would clearly have a negative impact on children. Furthermore how we make the display and lay them out should be child-led. In order for the children to be more involved, the children’s art should be set out on the floor with children having a discussion about how it looks and feel ascetically.

We then looked at how digital technology can be used to create art. This is something that I have recently taken an interest in and have purchased my own piece of art after learning more about art in this module. The artist uses an iPad to recreate pictures and then prints the final drawing.

Using technology encourages children to become digital natives (Prensky, 2001). A reason that this might not be seen is that teachers don’t feel comfortable using the technology themselves.

An important point that I will take forward with me is to promote the female history of art and female artists. The majority of the history of art is by white males and women’s perspective and history is lost. This provides an inclusive practice and empowers the girls in the class.

What I have taken away from this input is to use a variety of resources in order to ‘capture everyone’ so you can GET IT RIGHT FOR EVERY CHILD.  Another take away I have is to try to use artists who are still alive. This is because these artists are more likely to tackle current events.

When researching I found this contemporary artist Nello Petrucci from Pompei, Italy. Who created this street art.

 

And this from Dutch artists Fake

References

Cone, T. (2009). Following Their Lead: Supporting Children’s Ideas for Creating Dances. Journal of Dance Education, 9(3), pp.91-89

Scottish Government, (2009) Curriculum for Excellence. Glasgow: Learning and Teaching Scotland, pp.1-317.

Smith-Autard, J.M. (2002). The Art of dance in Education. London: A. & C. Black

Prensky, M. (2001) Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants Available at: https://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf

Dance

Today’s dance session again looked at warmups. I was happy to see some of the examples used were ones that I had seen well out on placement. This is a massive help as I now get the understanding of ‘WHY’ these certain warmups have been used prior to certain activities.  I feel that this has developed my confidence and creativity when it comes to creating my own warmups and that I will be able to link these to topics and towards the main learning.  The People to People warm-up was one that I was not familiar with and to further my development in this area ill be sure to use it whilst on placement as it gets children working together and thinking about their bodies.

I found the section about different stimuli such as pictures being used to inspire dance very thought-provoking. To start with I couldn’t see how this would work and thought that music would be the stimuli for dance. However, seeing Zara’s excellent demonstration it makes sense. Especially with the Christmas tree and the dance idea’s that came with it. I think that children would enjoy this and that it could be part of a sequence of lessons that start of with children creating their drawing followed on by children then creating a dance and finally adding music to it to make a choreographed.

Creative partnerships develop collaborations and exchanges through bilateral relationships. Once again reinforces the value of arts in the curriculum as with creative partnerships you can tap into all curriculum areas. Creative partnerships can involve parents, staff, noon classroom-based staff, visiting specialists (music or dance teacher). Creative partnerships with parents build strong relationships, which in turn increases the likelihood of engagement with parents in their child’s learning. Creative partnerships also allow staff to learn through continued professional development. As I develop as a student teacher, I will be sure to take full advantage of creative partnerships as not only do they benefit the children I will also benefit as I continue to learn new skills and develop my knowledge in regards to the arts. A positive of creative partnerships is that it gives children an incentive and allows children to have experiences that will stay with them and experiences they would not have a chance to experience before. After this input, I have identified communication as a huge skill that is needed to create and develop creative partnerships with other agencies and that is needed throughout teaching.

In today’s Visual Arts in Primary Education session we looked at Rod Taylor Model of Assessment in the Visual Arts. Find below the questions asked in this model.

As some teachers struggle with what questions to ask children and some children will struggle to articulate their thoughts. This allows for teachers to ask the right questions allowing the children to do the talking.  Using this form I asked and answered these questions:

PROCESS

What materials, tools, processes and techniques did the artist use?

FORM

Does one colour predominate or do two or more have equal significance?

CONTENT

What is the subject matter of the work, what is it about?

MOOD

Does it capture a mood, feeling or emotion which you have already experienced?

I answered these question in this video: https://youtu.be/q5LFozfohNk

Finally when Diarmuid showed us the video of his son’s artwork something that struck me was that it all seemed to focus on the end result and that there was no consideration of the process. To expand further the reason for the painting of the Scotland Flag was because it was St Andrews day and was probably used in a display, not because the children were learning about different painting techniques. The point I am making is that art seemed to be a way to do the learning but was never the learning. Obviously, I was not present during these lessons, but I just felt that was the reoccurring theme throughout the video.

Blog

 

Today’s music and assessment input looked at Lessoning planning. This session has developed my confidence in lesson planning especially when planning music lessons. Having last planned lesson in February it was great to get a refresher on planning lessons and how to link experience and outcomes (Education Scotland 2009). In order to develop my lessoning planning, I will need to continue to practice and take on board any feedback given in order to improve. My group looked at how we would plan a music lesson

Our learning intention was:

• We are discovering to use Rhythm
• We are exploring how to use our body as an instrument

Success criteria

• I can use my body to make different sounds
• I can identify the Rhythm of Jingle Bells

Experience and outcome Exa 1-17a

We planned to use the body percussion in this video to teach the children how to play jingle bells https://youtu.be/E8uuvNLkh-M

Anybody Can Dance

I found this session really enjoyable and informative. When I was in primary school, I used to go to a dance club where I learned ballet, tap and jazz so I have some knowledge of dance but not a lot. Prior to starting this module, I thought that dance would be considered as part of Health and well being and not art but I can now see how closely it links with both.

A key concept that I learned today was that when teaching dance it should be child-led. Children creating their own dance movements allowing for children to discuss moves and how they feel about them. It also gives children a chance to explore rhythm and different types of music.

When dancing children’s safety is paramount. Getting it right for every child it is emphasised through the Shannari indicators that children need to be safe in order to learn and this is no different from dance. Dancing should take place in a safe environment such as a gym hall with any equipment having undergone a risk assessment.

Just like drama I have learned that dancing is meaningful and can be used as a cross-curricular activity to link with other areas. For example, if the children’s topic was World War 2 you could look at VE and have the children dance as if they were at a street party.

I have increased my knowledge on different types of warmups and how they get children ready. The example that was used getting children to line up in order of height was very interesting to me.  I can now see that this improves children’s nonverbal communication as well as getting children more familiar with their bodies. I also liked the idea of Chinese dance whispers as a warm up as children would be engaged and would again further develop their communication skills. Prior to this input, I would have been lost if I was to teach dance but after Zara’s input about “The ten key moves”

I now feel more confident in where to start teaching dance. Using Brookfield, S. (1995) second lenses and thinking about the children I feel that they would enjoy this as it gives them the creative freedom to express themselves and that it is fun. When creating my dance with my group we spoke about how complex we would make the dance and how we could differentiate it for children with different abilities.

References

Brookfield, S. (1995). Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher. San Francisco: Josette-Bass

Education Scotland (2009) Curriculum for excellence: Expressive Arts: Experience and Outcomes  Available at: https://education.gov.scot/Documents/expressive-arts-eo.pdf (Accessed 29 November 2020)

Singingsharon (2020) Jingle Bells Body Percussion. 19 November. Available at: https://youtu.be/E8uuvNLkh-M (Accessed 29 November 2020)

I found today’s session enjoyable and interesting. Today I was able to develop my digital technology skills as I became more aware of Garage band. Previously when using garage band I would have just messed about with it however after today’s session I now have a better understanding of how to navigate and use the app. I still need to explore the app more and research the app further as I am a complete beginner and I find some of the features complex. I believe that children would enjoy using this app and find it as fun as I did. Using the app I was able to make this: https://youtu.be/Ktj9EC_enuA

Garage band allows for children to experiment and exploring with sound using a variety of different instruments. However it is not the end product of creating a piece of music that is paramount, what is important that children are given the chance to explore their creative side by exploring different sounds and finding sounds that right for them. Reinforcing to me that the creative process is more important than the product. This can be done collaboratively in groups with children working together with different instruments and combing what they have worked on.  It can also be used with the whole class working to make music together. This, however, is dependent on the school having iPads /iMacs and then having them available to you when you want to use them. In recent years Children have been given a free iPad in order to “help pupils embrace the digital age, improve learning and help close the attainment gap”.(BBC 2019) It may also be difficult for children from areas of deprivation to access these resources as they may not be able to afford an iPad/iMac and can’t access the app.

References

Vygotsky, L. (2004) ‘Imagination and Creativity in Childhood’, Journal of Russian and East European Psychology, 42(1), pp. 7–97. Available at: https://www.marxists.org/archive/vygotsky/works/1927/imagination.pdf (Accessed 3 November 2020)

BBC (2019) ‘Free iPads for nearly 50,000 school pupils in Glasgow’, BBC, 26 August. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-49475108 (Accessed 3 November 2020)

Music

During the music workshop, we looked at different types of notation. Looking at shapes, Figurenotes and graphic scores. This workshop has increased my knowledge of notation and confidence in teaching this area. Given the different types of notation, I feel I could modify them to meet different children’s needs.

I found the Figurenotes section very interesting as I thought it was a simple concept that would allow for more children to get into music. I feel that this would be a much easier way to get children started in music. I believe that as Figurenotes has three stages – Match, Rhythm, Process – with varying difficulty meaning it could be tailored to suit different children’s needs and provided a challenge to the child. In order to further develop my knowledge and skills, I have had a look at https://drakemusicscotland.org/resources/ to see what different resources they have and to look at the training videos.

I am now interested in looking into this area for piano resources as this is an instrument that I have always wanted to learn how to play. Julie raised an interesting point that children would need a basic understanding of basic fractions such as halves and quarters in order to explain a quaver and semiquaver. This is something I had not thought of and demonstrates how linked the curriculum is. Here are the Rhythm Grid and Graphic Score Grid that my team completed.

Puppets and Drama

At the start of the workshop, we were asked what age would we use puppets? I answered saying from primary 1 – 3. I believed that puppets would only engage young children and that older children would not be interested or engaged with puppets. I am glad to say I was proved wrong. After today’s input, I can see how puppets can be a great teaching tool across the curriculum.

Last week we were asked how confident we would feel using drama and I answered not very confident. After reviewing the drama lectures and workshops I can now say going into placement this year I feel confident in my ability to use drama as a teaching method, in particular, the decision alley, teacher in role and puppets. These tools can be used across the curriculum, we saw how puppets can be used to teach chemistry, decision alley can be used to discuss and debate important issues such as climate change or bullying and teacher in role can be used in maths with the teacher playing the role of a cashier or in history playing the role of a time traveller. Overall I view of drama and its value in the curriculum has changed completely and I now value drama highly. In order to develop my knowledge and experience in this area, I feel I must use these when out on placement and reflect on how well the lesson went and what I can do to improve the lesson for next time. As well as this I plan on reading Sharon Peck and Aubre Virkler’s (2006)‘Reading in the shadows: Extending literacy skills through shadow-puppet theatre’.

An important concept that I have taken away from today’s workshop is process not product. As a teacher, I would have been focused on the end result e.g. finished artwork, complete story. The workshop has shown that the process is where children are creative and that we can spot creativity during the process.  I feel Vygotsky sums it up well by saying

A skill I developed today was my communication skills. My communication skills were put to the test by creating both Graphic score and Rhythm grids with my team where we had to discuss as a team what notes we felt were right for the music we wanted to make. My communication skills were also developed when creating the story with puppets. We all listened to each other’s ideas, questioned and challenged each other to think deeply about their character.

Finally after seeing how the puppets were used it reminded me of Britain’s Got Talent group who used shadow when dancing to tell stories. I think it would be great to experiment with this with children as it incorporates drama, dance and music all into the one area.

Link for the dance group – https://youtu.be/a4Fv98jttYA

 

References

Vygotsky, L. (2004) ‘Imagination and Creativity in Childhood’, Journal of Russian and East European Psychology, 42(1), pp. 7–97. Available at: https://www.marxists.org/archive/vygotsky/works/1927/imagination.pdf (Accessed 27 October 2020)

Peck, S, M., Virkler, J. (2006) ‘In the shadows: Extending literacy skills through shadow-puppet theater’, The Reading Teacher 59(8), pp. 786–795. Available at: http://kateboucher.weebly.com/uploads/2/4/7/9/24791042/reading_in_the_shadows.pdf (Accessed 27 October 2020)