Tag Archives: Education

Voice management

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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]

 

 

 

Making Marks Make Sense

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Children from an early age enjoy making marks (Matthews, 2003). Many theories have been comprised on children’s development however when talking about the arts eduction one theory is closely linked (McAuliffe, 2007). Work by Lowenfeld and Bittain (1987) describes 4 stages that can help educational practitioners engage and understand more about a child’s work. Although with times changing and children coming from various backgrounds and environments it is not as easy to simply put a child in a specific stage (McAuliffe, 2007). As we grow many of us loose touch with our imaginative and creative abilities however to a child a simple line on a piece of paper could be an intrepretation of their whole world, thoughts and feelings. That scribble that we may see as a mess could be a monster flying on a rocket ship to planet Mars.

Mark making in the early years (The scribble stage) . This drawing shows that the child has made rotational marks and that the pencil stays in contact throughout. The child is developing his fine and gross motor skills through art. The child is expressing something that comes naturally to him.

Being a creative person myself I find it upsetting that as adults many of us feel that drawings and creative pieces of work need to be “perfect” or represent something that we as adults understand and see in our lives.

As children develop they begin to focus on features and many have a fear of not being accurate (McAuliffe, 2007).

The gang stage. This child has focused on the many features and specific details on a fish. There is evidence of spatial perspective.

We also need to understand that as teachers we can incorporate the arts into various areas of the curriculum. Literacy and numeracy often take priority in educational environments however enabling children to engage in these subjects can be done by incorporating the arts into these areas. Giving children a story to read or a short passage from a piece of literature that they are studying and allowing them to doodle or draw both on or around that piece of writing allows children to interact with the document and express what they understand and feel without giving words the priority.

Interlinking literacy and art. This child has been multi modal and created a visual piece of work that has a short passage on it. Children can often express a theme related to literature through a drawing.

In most classrooms a child is asked to write a sentence and draw a picture about their sentence however what if as educators we allow children to express their understanding of literature through art.

A piece of literature that I annotated earlier in today’s lecture (19.09.17). Through doing this I understood how this could be beneficial in the classroom. Children can draw from the text feelings and themes and by literally drawing on the text they are more likely to engage and remember that piece of literature.

It is clear that the arts allow children to develop in all areas of the curriculum and no matter what sage of development a child is at there ‘mark making’ matters.

References:

Matthews, J. (2003) Drawing and Painting: Children and Visual Representation. 1st ed. London: SAGE publications.

McAuliffe, D. (2007) Fondation and Primary Settings. In Teaching Art and Design 3-11. (Edited by Sue Cox, Robert Watts, Judy Grahame, Steve Herne and Diarmuid McAuliffe) London: Continuum.

 

The Unknown

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Art is a way in which we can all express ourselves. We can express emotions, life events, circumstances and identity but it can also act as an outlet that allows us to explore who we really are.

The Tallis Habits Peadagogy Wheel (Thomas Tallis School, 2017) is a tool created by Thomas Tallis School. Previous to the integrated arts module I had never came across or heard of this tool. This tool enables educators to explore the arts across the curriculum and intertwine many of the curriculum areas. For me the tool provided me with confidence that I do not need to be afraid of the arts within an educational setting. That within the arts it is okay to not always know the outcome or the answer but to have an open mind towards uncertainty.

It is important that as educators we understand the importance of drawing and what it allows a child to do. Not only does drawing develop a childs fine motor skills but the marks they make are an interpretation of their world (Eisner, 2002). We must encourage mark making in the classroom just as much as we encourage handwriting.

References:

Eisner, E. (2002) The Arts and the Creation of Mind. 1st ed. USA: Yale University Press

Thomas Tallis School. (2017) The TALLIS Habits Pedagogy Wheel. [Online] Available: http://www.thomastallisschool.com/tallis-pedagogy-wheel-guide.html [Accessed: 13 September 2017]