Monthly Archives: October 2017

Voice management

Leave a comment

As teachers our voice is our main teaching tool. It’s how we communicate with children throughout the day. It’s how we set rules and manage behave. Our tone and volume can tell children a lot about the message we are trying to portray (GRAD, 2017).

It is therefore important that we understand how to take care of our voice and other ways of communicating our message to children.

We should ease our voices into the day ahead this could be done by singing your favourite songs on the way to work.

Growing up I remember lots of teachers talking about having a sore throat and bot being able to talk. Being a student teacher I can now understand why this happens.

Classroom management and behaviour create a picture in my mind of an unruly class and a teacher shouting. Personally through experience of working in nurseries and after school groups I think there are better ways of managing behaviour than shouting.

One way of classroom management that helps our voice is:

Clap and clap back – this is were the teacher would clap a rythem to the class and they would have to clap back to show they are listening. This gets repeated until everyone is paying attention and listening.

Our voice is also important when teaching music as it is the one instrument that we all have.

Our breath acts as fuel for when we are singing and communicating.

Singing is something that I am not completely comfortable with but will give it a go with children. Resources such as ‘Choon Baboon’ and ‘Charanga’ are great for teachers. They help with lessons plans and act as a safety blanket for areas out with your comfort zone.

Using ‘Choon Baboon’ in our seminar showed me how to practice our breathing, warm up vocal chords and our facial muscles. All which are important for singing.

One song on ‘Choon Baboon’ was about dogs. It was catchy and taught the children exactly how to sing it.

Above is a shot clip of the song from ‘Choon Baboon’ about the dog.

We also learned a song about a penguin coming to tea. This song had actions and was a good game for a lesson starter.

A penguin came to tea.

Another part of music is learning to read a score sheet. This can be challenging for some children. Graphic scores is away of making it simpler. They are also visually stimulating.

A score is created with boxes, along the side is the sounds that have to be used and along the bottom is the time frame.

Graphic score with the theme of fireworks.

As a group of 6, during our seminar we created and performer our own graphic score using a variety of instruments.

Graphic score with the theme of Christmas.

My instrument was used to create Rudolfs foot steps.

Above is a shot clip of the sound created to symbolise Rudolfs foot steps.

As the sessions on music continue I find myself stepping out my comfort zone more and becoming more confident with various aspects of music.

References:

Charanga. (2017) Charanga musical school. [Online] Available: https://charanga.com/site/ [Accessed: 31 October 2017]

Choon Baboon. (2017) Choon Baboon. [Online] Available: http://choonbaboon.com/ [Accessed: 31 October 2017]

GTSC. (2017) Voice Management. [Online] Available: http://www.in2teaching.org.uk/hints-and-tips/View/952.aspx [Accessed: 31 October 2017]

 

 

 

Drama

Leave a comment

“Through drama, learners have rich opportunities to be creative and to experience inspiration and enjoyment” (Scottish Government, 2004).

Out of the various concepts we have learnt about in drama tutorials my favourite is ‘voice in the head’. This is where during a drama a specific character would step forward and speak about their thoughts, feelings and their side of the story.  I feel confident using this concept and I feel that learners could get really involved in it.

References:

Scottish Government. (2004) Curriculum for Excellence: Expressive Arts. [Online] Available: https://www.education.gov.scot/Documents/expressive-arts-eo.pdf [Accessed:23 October 2017].

 

 

 

 

Making your body move.

Leave a comment

“Dance – to move the feet and body rhythmically, esp in time to music” (Collins, 2017).

The word ‘dance’ is enough to overwhelm by body with the feeling of embarrassment and fear so when I realised that our fist tutorial of the day was dance I immediately wanted to head for the exit. Being creative, adventurous and outgoing with children is something I feel comfortable with but asking me to do a dance move in front of my peers is the opposite. Realising I was not the only one in my year group wanting to make a run for it made me feel a bit more at ease.

We played and discussed many games that could be used in an educational setting. A game I like to call ‘Copy Me’ was my favourite. This game involved everyone sitting in a circle, one person would start doing an action and the rest of the circle would copy, the person on the right of the person doing the action would start doing a new action and the circle would then copy the new action. This game continued until everyone had done an action. This game could be done with music in the background or without. I enjoyed this game as I felt that within a school setting some children will be less confident than others to participate in dance/movement lessons. This game was less frightening as you did not have to be the centre of attention or stand up. I feel this game would be a good starting point in building childrens confidence.

We then practiced and spoke about good ways to get children to participate in warm ups before taking part in a dance lesson. This was important because as teachers we are responsible for our pupils wellbeing. We discussed the various parts of our body and where our muscles and organs are found.

The area of the body that were to be labeled on to a body that we drew.

 

Our body. By being drawing a body and labelling it’s parts it has made it easier for me to remember the various parts of the body. This is a practical idea that can be done with many age ranges.

 

As a final activity we discussed the 10 movements/words that as educators are all we need to create a good dance lesson:

  • Gesture
  • Balance
  • Hop
  • Kick
  • Jump
  • Roll
  • Slide
  • Turn
  • Twist
  • Hop

These moves are enough to teach children a choreographed piece of work and if children know how to do these moves then they can make up their own dances. Children are all individuals and each word will inspire a movement that varies from their peers.

Although at the beginning of the tutorial I was fearful of what the 2 hours had ahead by the end of it I was more insightful of how simple and exciting it can be to incorporate dance into the school day. The Curriculum for Excellence (2004) states that dance is beneficial to learners and allows learners to have “have rich opportunities to be creative and to experience inspiration and enjoyment”.

As a student teacher I feel these inputs will help me be a successful educator and that I will be able to reflect on my practice to make it better.

References:

Collins. (2017) Definition of ‘dance’. [Online] Available: https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/dance [Accessed: 17 October 2017]

Scottish Government. (2004) Curriculum for Excellence: Social Studies. [Online] Available: https://www.education.gov.scot/Documents/social-studies-eo.pdf [Accessed:17 October 2017].

 

 

 

Print in the making

Leave a comment

The arts can be integrated into multiple areas of the curriculum and this was made evident during the seminars I attended on the 3rd of October 2017.

The visual arts section focused on the painting; Windows in the West (1993) by  Avril Paton.  This painting was created using watercolours and paper. Paton (2017) took inspiration from a personal memory that she had of snow and the feeling it gave her. This painting is owned by City of Glasgow Galleries which makes it relevant to my environment. Living in the North of Glasgow it is not uncommon to see tenement housing.

During the seminar we used visual analysis to discuss the form, process, content and mood of the painting (Taylor, 1999). This particular print was very visually appealing and relevant. Paton (2017) uses a winters day as her inspiration and theme for this painting. Paton (2017) started painting the picture on the floor and it was a six month project. The content of the painting included observations of a building across from Patons’ home and her personal memories. Paton (2017) uses lots of straight lines and block colours.

An A4 print out of ‘Windows in the West’ by Avril Paton.

After a discussion we spoke about how we can create stories from prints and use prints as visual stimulus during literacy or drama lessons.

We used Patons’ (1993) work to create prints of our own. By focusing on a particular area of the painting we had the opportunity to explore the vast amount of detail in the painting. We used dynamic colours to create our prints. We discussed colour theory and the affect that colours can have on our eyes.

Print making stage 1.

 

Print making stage 2.

 

Print making stage 3.

While creating these prints I thought of how children could create stories from the prints they had made.

Our next seminar focused on drama. Personally I always enjoyed drama as a child and was part of various drama projects as well as attending and participating in the Scottish Youth Theatre on a weekly basis. As I got older this changed and my confidence shrunk which made me slightly apprehensive about this seminar.

Drama is a way for children to express themselves and see other peoples points of view. I understand that drama can be used in various areas of the curriculum such as literacy and history.

After participating in a few drama activities such as; a freeze frame. I realised that drama was not as scary and embarrassing as I had built it up to be in my head.

As future teachers we need to develop the character we want to portray in our school lives and I feel that the integrated arts module will help me with this.

References:

Paton, A. (1993) Windows in the West. [Watercolours on paper 48” x 60”] Glasgow. [Online] Available: https://avrilpaton.co.uk/prints/windows-in-the-west [Accessed: 3 October 2017]

Paton, A. (2017) Windows in the West. [Online] Available: https://avrilpaton.co.uk/prints/windows-in-the-west [Accessed: 3 October 2017]

Taylor, R. (1999) Understanding & Investigating Art. United Kingdom: Hodder Education.