Unfortunately I was on holiday during Week 9 and 10 so i have missed blog posts for these two weeks. I was also sick during Week 12 so there are not any blogs for that week either.

During the drama workshop, we were contenting to watch groups present their lessons. My group had already presented while I was on holiday so I participated in other groups activities.

This input was pretty interesting as it allowed us to watch our peers teaching methods and the ways in which things such as body language and voice control can have such an impact on the engagement of the lesson. It also gave us the chance to be critical with each other in order to determine what parts of the activity could be changed for the lesson to be responded to in the most effective way possible.

In dance we were focusing on creating a dance to perform and video in next week’s workshop.

Cone (2009) p.81 made a statement that I feel really relates to the learning of this week’s dance workshop :

“One of the most powerful experiences dance educators can offer children is the opportunity to create a dance that reflects their ideas. Empowering children to create dances about what is personally meaningful presents them with the responsibility and commitment to bring their vision alive.”

By creating our own dance by scratch as separate groups and coming together as a full class unit I found to be a really empowering experience. If children get the chance to feel this with the facilitation and carrying out of dance lessons where they can express what is meaningful to them would be a great opportunity. This would also allow them to really feel that their individuality is being respected and nurtured.

The difference between the start of the module and now are immense. I feel that I have really improved my confidence and become more comfortable when inputting every area of the integrated arts topic. I have also developed a new found appreciation for the arts and how powerful and encouraging they can be for children. I hope that I can contribute to the raising of children’s self-esteem and self-expression through the integrated arts subjects that we have been studying for the past semester.

References: Cone, T (2009). Following Their Lead: Supporting Children’s Ideas for Creating Dances. Journal of Dance Education Vol 9(3) p.81

During this weeks drama lesson we were to find out about the story of Holmwood House. The technique of Teacher in Role was used in order to inform us of the story and then in groups we had to come up with an idea of what happens next in the sequence. We then had to perform our predictions in front of the class. Before doing this Andrew told us that one group was going to have to perform once, then receive feedback from peers and perform again. Through the middle of my groups performance, I automatically knew that he was going to choose us. while preforming I find it really hard to keep a straight face and end up laughing throughout my piece, therefore diminishing the effect of the drama. I know that this is something I will have to improve on and is also something that will have to be disapproved while teaching drama to children throughout placements and in my later career.

During our music workshop we were focusing on the voice and everything it has to offer. The voice is our main form of communication and expression. This extract from Sounds Right conveys the importance of voice :

“As soon as we open our mouths to speak we are judged – assumptions can be made about us, our intelligence, determination, confidence and power. We are ‘placed’ by our listeners and sometimes we do this to others too.” 

This shows that the voice is extremely attached to our self worth and value and is something in which people can also judge us for. It also highlights that the way we speak and make use of our voice can have an effect on what people think and expect from us.

In the primary school years, singing is something that is used to its full potential. During our music workshop this week we got introduced to many beneficial resources that we could make use of when delivering singing activities such as ‘Charanga’ and ‘Choon Baboon’. In class, we used Choon Baboon in order to warm up our voices, and I thought that this was a resource that I would make use of in my own classroom to the enthusiastic nature of the presenter and the upbeat songs used.

We then created ‘Graphic Stories’ which is a simplified version of musical notation. Due it being very visual, I feel that children would really engage with it. They are created by using as many boxes as needed and along the bottom is the timescale and along the side is the desired noise to be created. We were then split up into groups and had to create our own ‘Graphic Story’.

This was a very enjoyable and engaging workshop and I feel that children would really respond to all the resources and techniques that we made use of. Due to being quite musically minded I feel that will the help of resources such as ‘Choon Baboon’ and ‘Charanga’ would make me feel very confident in teaching a musical lesson.

References: Sounds-right.com. (2017). The Importance of the Voice.[online] Available at: http://www.sounds-right.com/voice-tips.pdf [Accessed 2 Nov. 2017]

This week, we were involved in two very active classes, which got us moving and allowed us to discover activities where the children could blow off some energy and not be sitting around all day.

To start off our dance workshop, we played a game known as ‘Zombie Tig’. This was just a modified version of the game tig in order to fit the theme of Halloween. This was a good way to warm up and would allow the children to be in the mood for dancing and getting some exercise.

We then got into the same groups as we were in for our 10 skills dance from the previous week and practiced the movements a bit more. After this, we were given 6 more dance moves to incorporate and to do this we had to use our imaginations to create a movement based on six certain words that were handed out to us.

After adding these moves, we then had to create a starting position, finishing position, change in position and a statement change. After discussing these concepts with my group, we came up with a move to incorporate all of these new components.

The routines were then performed to the class. I still found this to be slightly embarrassing and still don’t feel 100% confident with things such as my body and co-ordination, which are things I know that I have to focus on changing.

We then came together as a class once again and came up with different dance moves to correspond with the numbers 0-9 and these were to be Halloween related, therefore sticking to the theme.  After we had finished this, we got broken down into smaller groups once again and had to write down somebody’s phone number and use the correspondings numbers dance moves in order to create a new dance. These were then performed to the class also.

During the drama workshop we got the chance to learn about some more techniques to make us of while delivering drama inputs.

Firstly, we made use of mime which consisted of us acting out a scenario and not being able to talk through it, only demonstrating what was happening through body movements.

Vox Pop was then demonstrated and this is where one person is interviewed in order to gain different views.

Then, we looked at role on the wall, where a character is outlined on a piece of paper and around it children will write down there opinions of the character at the start of the story. Then at the end of the lesson the children will put their newfound or any differing opinions they had by the end of the story inside of the character outline.

We then made use of voice in the head, and this is where a story is taking place, then one character will step out and give their thoughts and feelings about the events taking place.

Lastly, we looked at thought tracking, where one characters thoughts are tracked throughout the duration of the drama.

Drama is still a subject I struggle with and I know that I have to build my confidence to stop being so shy when asked to step up to the front and perform. In order to deliver the best drama lessons that I can, these are some skills that I really have to enhance and work on.

During the music workshop, we looked at all of the valuable components that music has to offer and how it aids and supports other subjects. We were then split up into separate groups and we each had a different subject to look at. My group was given literacy, then we had to read a passage and create a mind map noting the key advantages of music in relation to literacy. This is the mind map that was produced by group.

After this, every group had to read out and discuss their findings with the rest of the class in order to consolidate learning and make sure that everyone had some knowledge of every area.

Leading off of this, we were looking at how to make and fill in a lesson plan for a certain music activity. I found this highly beneficial as it something that all of us students will hopefully have to fill out in the future, and having more of an idea the layout and format of what a lesson plan looked like, as I had never seen one before. Also, being taught a lesson plan at this stage will be highly beneficial for our five  week placement in semester 2 as we are going to have to make use of them on the daily. It also allows us time to get accustomed to the layout and gives us a chance to complete more practice in writing an effective one.

As it was our first dance class of the semester I was very apprehensive and scared to enter the class as I am not co-ordinated in the slightest and always hated when we had to dance throughout primary and secondary school.

Firstly, we were introduced to the 10 key skills to master in order to deliver an effective dance lesson. These are; hop, jump, reach, twist, turn, gesture, slide, roll, kick and balance. When given these skills, we had to create our own dance incorporating all of these skills. I was really scared to get started as I really did not want to make a fool out of myself.

Even when practicing the dance in the small group that I was in, I felt embarrassed, uncomfortable and to hide this I feel that I just laughed a lot and shrugged it off. I know that I will really need to work on this in future workshops in order to become more confident and gain the skills in order to teach the subject in the future without being too shy or apprehensive.

During our visual arts workshop we were looking st ‘windows in the west’ once again. Due to absences the week before and pieces needing to be finished, I helped some of my fellow students by explaining step by step what we had done the previous week. Giving them time to complete the steps was crucial as well and allowed me to remember that with children, especially during placement we should be explaining steps but also giving them sufficient time to complete it successfully.

In the music workshop, we were making use of an app called ‘GarageBand’ on the Macs. This is an app where you can create music, sounds and record audio. We were tasked with coming up with a eight bar piece of music while making use of some of the effects included on the app. This included things such as Fade In/Fade Out and changing the pitch. After this we had to pick an animation and create a sound which best suited it.

I found this app really easy to use and think it would be a beneficial tool to use when introducing children to sound and music making as it is very user friendly. It can also be made use of to deliver a cross-curricular lesson as it is also making use of ICT skills while developing their understanding and knowledge of music.

Due to taking higher music and always being part of a choir or orchestra growing up, I found this music lesson beneficial as I feel it is a subject in which I would be confident teaching. Learning and gathering more knowledge about tools I could use when delivering music is something I am very thankful for. This workshop also showed me how to keep music a very beneficial lesson while also making use of apps as an exciting way to keep the children interested and excited about music.

During the expressive arts workshop we were looking at a very famous art print called “Windows in the West” by Avril Paton. This was the fastest selling print in Scotland. It is now hanging in the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum where it is hanging in the ‘Looking for Art’ section on the ground floor. (Avril Paton, 2017). This is a very relatable print due to living in the West of Scotland and seeing buildings like this very often.

This print makes use of line and shading while keeping to a monochromatic shade range which adds a certain amount of depth and realistically portrays what these types of houses look like in places such as Glasgow. During the workshop we looked more closely at this print and then had to take a part of the picture and draw it into a piece of polystyrene, ensuring that we were making effective marks that would come out when it can time to paint. After this, we rolled paint over the polystyrene and then printed it onto a coloured piece of paper. We then done this another 3 times which gave us a total of 4 copies, all with differing effects.

Activities like this, allow me the chance to observe many learning tasks that I could carry out with my own class in the future and I found this task quite a fun one too.

This is some of the process that I went through in order to get my finished result.

When thinking about starting Drama, I was pretty apprehensive. I am a very shy person and when thinking about making a fool out of myself in front of everyone really did not sound appealing to me. However, I was hoping that throughout the module I would become a little more confident and comfortable with teaching drama to a classroom.

To start off our workshop, we looked at a story called The Lonely Dragon. This involved a village in where there was a Dragon flying over it each night and the villagers being really scared of it. During this exercise we learned about some different drama techniques.

The first was teacher in role and this was demonstrated by our lecturer taking off his lanyard and becoming the mayor of this village. Essentially teacher in role is when the teacher makes a significant change in their appearance, for example: putting on a hat or taking off a jacket. And this shows the children that the teacher is playing a character and is not their teacher any more.

Next, we looked at Hot Seating where is when one person will sit in a chair and the surrounding people have to ask them questions, and as it’s a part of drama all the children will be playing a specific character during this technique.

We then found out about the Thought Tunnel, and this is when the children would stand in two parallel lines, where one would walk through the middle and the other children have to tell them what they think about the person in the middle. Again, every child will be in character while carrying out this technique.

During this workshop, the students were acting as the children and our lecturer Andrew was taking on the role of the teacher in order to demonstrate each one of these techniques. I liked this as it allowed us to feel how the children would if we were to make use of these techniques in the future. Also, these techniques showed us that there are many different methods that can be made use of while delivering drama lessons and these will help offer a bit of variety and  allow the children to take control of their own learning.

References: Avrilpaton.co.uk. (2017). Available at: https://avrilpaton.co.uk [Accessed 9 Oct. 2017].

This week in the Visual Arts seminar we got the the chance to make our own paintbrushes with a range of different materials. I found this activity to be very beneficial and it is something I feel like I would make use of in my own class due to the creative nature of the lesson. I feel that it allowed us to show and develop our imaginative ideas and it also was able to make everyone show their individuality as no two brushes were the same. After we had completed the making of our brushes we were described a mountain scene by the lecturer and then by memory we had to recreate this by using our paintbrushes, the three primary colours and a white paint. I at first found this quite a difficult feat due to the uncertainty and trying to make my picture perfect. However after letting my imagination take over and trying not to overthink everything I found this to be a very valuble lesson which opened my eyes about the way we teach the Arts in schools. Here I have attached some pictures of the processes that we went through during this seminar. 

For our music seminar we were looking at figurenotes which is a system to identify musical notes making use of shapes and colours. For example the note C would be identified by a red circle. I found this system to be quite a good method of teaching younger children how to read musical notation in a very simple and easy to understand way.  We tested out this system in class by trying to play simple songs on a glockenspiel such as Twinkle Twinkle, Jingle Bells and Frere Jacques. Due to having quite a musical background I found this activity to be really fun and using the figurenotes system made it even easier as each note had a clear and distinct colour and shape. Also during this seminar we had the chance to show off some of our musical skills by making our own 16 bar melody to the backing track of the song Hit the road Jack. I really enjoyed this seminar as it took me back to being in primary school and having fun while learning music.

For our first lecture in Visual Arts we had to connect the Arts and Literacy together as they are both very important components to the Curriculum. We were given out an extract from a passage and firstly we had to read it and then we had to draw over the writing as to what we thought the words meant but just in a more creative way.  I found this task pretty difficult to start off with as I couldn’t really think of what I wanted to draw but once we looked at some examples from children and seeing how good and creative theirs were I really tried hard to at least get something drawn on the page. Once I put my pen to the page and just tried to not think so much about it I think it was a really effective and important lesson to get children to look at literacy in a more creative and interesting way.

During the Visual Arts seminar we got the chance to look through art work created by primary school children from the different levels of the curriculum: early, middle and upper. I thought it was really interesting how we could see the visible differences between the ages that made the work. While the early years were much more creative, the older years work was very structured and thought out and it looked like some of the imagination had been taken out of it throughout the years. This gave me an interesting look at how the arts are taught in school and how teachers limit creativity by trying to stick to the curriculum and try to cram in as many outcomes as they can.

Due to this input I feel that I have gotten more insight in how to teach the arts to children and that I have to be very encouraging and try to not limit their creativity.