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Today was our last dance and music workshops, our last integrated arts workshops for the year.

In dance, we rehearsed our whole section dance routine in preparation to have our dance filmed that same day. I believe this task went well but everybody in the section seemed to be quite nervous and, almost, embarrassed. Although I have a dance background, I don’t think I have been this nervous for a dance routine, especially one as simple as the one we are performing. With these nerves, I am able to understand how a young pupil might feel having to perform a dance. Performing a dance is part of the Scottish Curriculum, it usually is an enjoyable   subject to teach and learn but some pupils may experience a lot of nerves and as a future teacher, I need to be supportive and understanding of this. After performing and having our dance filmed, we were to evaluate our performance using three starts and a wish to identify things that had went well and anything that could be improved upon. This method of evaluation can be used in other subjects within the curriculum: literacy, drama, and social subjects just to name a few.

https://vimeo.com/376244950#embed

In music we focused on learning how to play the ukulele. Firstly, we learned the historic background of then instrument and then we had a chance to learn six chords on the instrument. With these six chords, we played along to a select few songs to get used to playing the ukulele. We then went onto use 4 chords to have the ability to play along to the famous Christmas song, ‘Last Christmas’. I found this experience very enjoyable, as did my peers. Personally, I have never played or even held a ukulele before so this was a new experience for me. Julie explained how ukulele’s are extremely accessible in schools and are fairly cheap if need to be bought. Knowing this information, I might introduce the fun instrument of the ukulele within my class.

Overall, this module has been extremely helpful, insightful and has changed my perspective of how important that expressive arts within the Scottish Curriculum. I believed that the expressive arts and the subjects associated with the expressive arts should be valued as just as important as subjects like numeracy and literacy. As a future educator, I will aim to ensure that  my pupils have a fair and valuable experience of the expressive arts. I will also allow my pupils to explore their creativity as much as I can.

 

This week we discussed creativity within dance. We discussed how important it is to let dance be child-led to embrace to benefits that dance can potentially bring. It was suggested to let a pupil who is experienced in dance, to teach the warm up. This might motivate children that might not participate in dance usually, to participate. We were also told to never discourage an idea a child may have, as this will limit their potential creativity. Dance in schools should be a fun subject and should promote creativity within each pupil involved. We also were introduced to the midway model for dance in schools (Smith-Auturd, 2002) which links professional dance with the creative educational approach. This is something I am sure that my year will continue to look at and make sure to reference during their time teaching dance to their primary classes.

We began to choreograph and create a full section dance routine to Scottish themed music. We were also to add in the group performances we had created to the full section dance to show our own learning.

In the music section we made use of the glockenspiel again and continued to build on our ability to read music. We played most of the notes on the glockenspiel today. I found playing the glockenspiel a lot harder this week than I did last week as I do not really have much musical instrument experience. In this case, practice makes perfect. The more opportunity I have to play the glockenspiel, the better I will get. The same can be said for pupils in a primary school participating in a music lesson. The more opportunities they have to play the instrument, the better they will get.

 

Today, we focused on creative partnerships and working with others to benefits the learning of our pupils. Creative partnerships help to bring the creative arts to be embedded throughout the ‘normal’ school day and enhance learning experiences. We were also introduced to Continuing Professional Development (CPD) courses which are linked with creative partnerships. These courses provide teachers with the opportunities to further their own teaching ability so that they are able provide their class with the best educational experience possible. Attending these workshops increases knowledge and awareness of the value of the expressive arts within schools.

In the music workshop today we got to experience playing ABBA and Christmas songs on the glockenspiel. As a future teacher, I was able to identify the simplicity of this activity and how the pupils would enjoy this music activity. It is easy to teach figure notes, and easy to understand.

In dance today, we, again, had a look at the ten movements. We were to create a piece of choreography using these ten basic movements. This task could easily be completed within a primary school setting and I am confident that they activity would be enjoyable for the pupils involved. We also discussed a range of warm up games that could be used in schools. We also looked at how to link dance with other subjects areas of school, for example, maths. We were to complete a sheet of ten equations which gave us answers of numbers between 1 and 10. Each answer had a movement to match the number. Therefore, this sheet gave us another piece of choreography.

We had our fist dance workshop with Zara today, it was a very practical lesson. In the music workshop today we were joined by Primary 7 pupils from a local primary who taught us how to play their string instruments.

In our dance workshop we discussed that role that dance has in primary schools and the important part of the curriculum that it really is. Dance in primary schools has a focus on improving the pupils physical fitness whilst also wanting the children to create and preform: “through dance, learners have rich opportunities to be creative and experience inspiration and enjoyment” (Education Scotland, 2019). We also discussed how dance can be incorporated into other topic areas. For example, if Scottish highland themed music is used, this could lead to a class topic of the history of Scotland and can allow the children to learn more about the Scottish heritage. Furthermore, we went on to discuss the 10 key components of movement in dance: balance, gesture, hop, jump, kick, reach, roll, slide, turn and twist. We then got into groups and created a sequence which included all ten of these movements.

In the music workshop, I experienced the chance to play a violin along with a primary 7 pupil. All the primary 7 pupils that came along were involved with an East Ayrshire program which includes 18 other primary schools. The program provides children with the chance to learn how to play an instrument from primary 4 until the end of primary 7. This gives the children a chance to learn an instrument, they simply might of not had a chance to learn how to play an instrument without this program. Not only does this opportunity provide the children with knowledge of music and playing a musical instrument but can provide the children with major mental and physical health benefits (Mandel, 2007). I feel that this opportunity also built the child’s confidence up as they were teaching an adult how to play an instrument. I observed how the pupil I was working alongside with really just seemed to be having fun.

 

Mandel S.E., Hanser S.B., Secic M., Davis, B.A. (2007) Effects of Music Therapy on Health-Related Outcomes in Cardiac Rehabilitation: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Journal of Music Therapy. [Abstract, Online] Vol.44(3), pp.176-197. Available: https://academic.oup.com/jmt/article-abstract/44/3/176/954996 [Accessed: 4 December 2019].

Education Scotland (2019) Curriculum for Excellence: expressive arts, experiences and outcomes [Online] Available: https://education.gov.scot/Documents/expressive-arts-eo.pdf [Accessed 4 December 2019]

In the lecture, we looked closely at the works of Csikszentmihalyi on creativity. We also discussed how creativity was once looked upon and how it seemed to be a factor of showing off rather than being a skill that everyone has the potential to embrace. It is encouraged by the Curriculum of Excellence to find their own creative ways of completing tasks (Education Scotland, 2019).

In our music workshop today, we looked at the online resource of Charanga. Charanga is an online database of resources which can be used within music lessons in school: lesson plans, instrument books and books of materials that can be used in school shows. We discussed on how we could use this resource in music lessons. This resource is really useful, especially for those who are not confident teaching music, They can simply go online and print out a lesson. As a future teacher, it is easy to see the beneficial impact this database will be having in schools today.

On Charanga, there is a section that actually shows you how to play a musical instrument. Whilst the children imagine the instrument, they can still learn how to play the instrument before they handle the real instrument. We attempted this in the workshop today in regards to the recorder. We played along to the song ‘Mamma Mia’, we learned to play the notes of A and G. We mimicked the fingers we would use to be able to play these notes.

I hope to use Charanga throughout my teaching.

 

Education Scotland (2019) What are creativity skills? [Online] Available: https://education.gov.scot/improvement/learning-resources/what-are-creativity-skills/ [Accessed 4 December 2019]

This week we were privileged to be joined by Norwegian students who are studying Primary Education. The spoke to us about how the school system works in Norway as well as the focus’ on their course at university. From what these students told us, it was made apparent that the arts are not taught as singular subjects in Norway but that the arts are integrated within other curricular areas if they are taught at all. They mentioned that drama has been used to teach social subjects or topics in health and well-being. The students also mentioned that if the teacher is not a creatively confident person, art lessons/lessons in the arts tend be be boring, simple and very uniformed. the Norwegian students also explained to us that art lessons are often taught outside amongst nature by making use of materials they find outside and for the purpose to be inspired by what they say around them.

Continuing on form what the Norwegian students were discussing with us, our art workshop was set outside. We were to go outside and create pieces of artwork with the materials we found outside. My group chose to use pebbles to create musical notes, linking art with music. 

Having the opportunity to create art in this way, making use of the materials outside and actually just taking the class out of the classroom could be very successful for a class within a primary school. Although the many great potentials this has, it could just be an opportunity for pupils to mess around and not actually complete a piece of art. This means that I would really need to know the class before I decided to have them complete an activity like this.

In the music workshop today we made use of an app called Garage band to create a track of our own using the sounds, instruments and editing that the app offers us. Garage band is a free app provided on apple products like iPads. We also made use of an online website named Dirpy which allows you to download songs from youtube videos and upload them to your garage band send. If children were to have the opportunity to complete a task like this, I am confident they would enjoy make a sound of their own. Although, as said previously, there is risk for children to be distracted, mess around and not focus on the task at hand.

Today, in our music workshop we experienced a planned music lesson aimed for early/first level and a second level lesson using drumsticks and beaters. We used our beaters to play along to different rhythms within pieces of music. This was an extremely enjoyable tasks although I experienced some challenges picking up the rhythm as I am not very musical. It was clear that this type of lesson could be used over several weeks to achieve a lot of learning as there is also background learning to be looked at. This background learning includes learning the notes and what each note represents: crochet = 1 beat, minim = 2 beats and quaver represents half of a beat. I would use lessons like these within a class as I felt they were easy to follow and were very successful for beginners like myself. The progression and the steps that could be made in weeks following were clear. These lessons could happen over the course of several weeks or even a whole term.

In art, we focused on how literacy can be linked in with expressive arts and other curricular areas. We focused on the style of Bob and Roberta Smith and created our own prints inspired by his work.

This would be an extremely useful and successful lesson to teach about current artists and also to integrate art with literacy as it would enhance knowledge in both subjects (Marshall, 2014).  The art of printing was also explored in this activity and this would show pupils how things may have be done before technological advances were made in society.  It was easy to imagine how you could complete this task within a school and even make it easier for the younger ones by making the brief easier by explaining more in detail or by completely the steps one by one with the class.

 

Marshall, J. (2014) Transdisciplinarity and Art Integration: Toward a NewUnderstanding of Art-Based Learning across the Curriculum, Studies in Art Education. London: Routledge. [Online] Available at: https://moodle.uws.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/36842/mod_resource/content/1/Transdisciplinarity%20And%20Art%20Integration%20highlighted.pdf [Accessed: 17 November 2019].

This week we started looking at music and the beneficial aspects of it within education. It was mentioned how some practitioners don’t see music as being an important part of the curriculum. It was also said that some teachers express that they are too scared to teach it because they see themselves as not good at it. They feel because they are not a musical person that they can not successfully teach a music lesson.As teachers, we should make sure that every child gets a fair experience of music. They might not be exposed to any kind of music at home and school is an opportunity to experience new things. Music and playing an instrument might be an exciting new activity for a child.The most basic music lesson is still a music lesson. Even if a teacher feels they are not musically minded, there is still wide range of music lessons they can teach without feeling uncomfortable. I feel that music as a lesson, can be created to be extremely fun for the pupils or can be intertwined within other aspects of the curriculum. You can use music within a literacy or art lesson quite easily.

In the music workshop we focused on how music can have an impact on feelings and emotions. We listened to a song and were to create in a story in story-board style which is inspired by the song. My group imagined the song as a chase and adventure between a bear and a family. This was an extremely creative task for all involved and could easily be completed within a primary school. This lesson made me realise the images that music can create in your head and the impact music can have on your imagination. This activity included music linking with writing and literacy, proving that is is easy for music to be linked with other curricular areas and how beneficial musical education can be (Safford and Barrs, 2005).

In drama we participated in our peers micro-teaching presentations and activities. Completing and participating in these micro-teaching activities was a great way to conclude everything that we have learned over the past few weeks. Micro-teaching was hugely beneficial as a learner and as a teacher as we were able to revise all the drama conventions, in different contexts, that we have been focusing on throughout the weeks. After the last micro-teaching presentation, we then learned one last convention: role on the wall. I have never experienced this drama convention before (or I can’t remember it) even though I have complete higher and advanced higher drama. Role on the wall involved drawing an outline of a figure and writing inside the drawing what the pupils imagine the character thinks of themselves. Around the edges of the future you are to write what other characters think of that certain character. We completed this exercise base on a children’s book.

Safford, K. and Barrs, M. (2005) Creativity and Literacy: Many Routes to Meaning [Online] Available: https://clpe.org.uk/sites/default/files/Many%20routes%20to%20meaning%20childrens%20language%20and%20literacy%20learning%20in%20creative%20arts%20work_0.pdf [Accessed: 08 October 2019].

Unfortunately, the cohort missed the lecture today due to a lack of communication within the cohort.

In the art workshop today we returned to the images of the Scottish highlands that we created last week and added words to it. We were to add words of what the image made us feel and think. I chose to use a black felt tip pen and just let my brain do the work. I felt my way of doing things was a lot more simple than fellow students as I do not see myself as very imaginative. One of my fellow pupils wrote poems around their art work, some wrote song lyrics, some wrote quotes from famous Scottish people and the list goes on. Although I possibly did not stretch my level of creativity I feel that this activity was successful in proving that art/the arts can be used as cross-curricular activities as this activity had benefits to literacy.

The drama workshop today consisted of my groups micro-teaching task. My group chose to focus our presentation on ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’. My group focused our presentation on four drama conventions: improvisation, hot-seating, monologue and flash forward. This was an interesting experience for all of my group as it was the first time we have had the opportunity to teach a class throughout our time in university. For me, teaching my first drama lesson was the first time I have experienced first-hand the feeling of teaching a topic within the expressive arts. I really enjoyed having the support of the group as it was slightly intimidating having to teach a presentation aimed at primary school children to a group of adults. I appreciated how well my peers participated with the activities my group prepared for this task. On reflection, I think that my group had correctly estimated how long each activity should be as we managed to complete our presentation in the time allotted to us. The class of my peers seemed to be really engaged with our presentation.

 

For me, this week really highlighted how uniformed art lessons were for me during my time at primary school. When the teacher taught an art lesson, the usually put an image by an artist up on the board and we were pretty much to copy it as best as we could. This ended up with everybody’s end product looking very much the same. No individuality. The entire class was to use the same utensils, the same techniques and the same colour palette. Although, some individuals work would look better than others, sheerly for the fact they were better at art.The advice from Diarmuid was to have art lessons pupil lead but as a teacher, keep it controlled. You want the children to express themselves via their interpretation of the art topic of that lesson. I do not want my class to have extremely similar looking art work. I want the children to have fun with what they are doing and not feel like they can only draw in a certain way or paint with a certain colour.You do not want to end up having a uniformed art lesson. Art is art. Art is not copying someone else’s work.

In the lecture we discussed Room 13 and its approach to art and creativity. Room 13 is a room within a Scottish school that has a specialised resident art teach who’s purpose is to be in the school to aid children on their creative journey. This project has been going on since 1994. Room 13 encourages ambition and aspiration at every stage and age. They have a proven record of keeping children engaged and have a reputation of addressing some of the problems facing young people in society today (Room 13, 2012).  I would love for this to be introduced and acted upon in as many schools as possible throughout Scotland as I feel as it is beneficial for all children involved. This approach encourages creativity within the school as a whole.

In the drama workshop we discussed how drama classes and improvisations can be used to teach difficult societal issues. Using drama to highlight current issues in society is a fun way for children to learn about serious issues. This was extremely helpful as it showed everyone that we can use drama as a tool to teach controversial topics. Drama is more likely to keep the pupils engaged and interested comparatively to a teacher standing in front of the pupils talking at them (Kokx, 2017).

In the art workshop we various used materials to create our own, unique, paintbrushes. We were to use our paintbrushes to paint our interpretation of an image of the Scottish Highlands which was described to us by Diarmuid. This was a successful activity in regards to every individuals painting and paintbrush being completely different. Every person in the room was given the same brief and set of instructions but ended up with a completely different finished product. This activity demonstrated how being given the opportunity to create our own paintbrush can lead to every person having a different creative journey. If this were to be done in a classroom of primary pupils, I am confident that they would enjoy this activity and that the array of creativity within each child would come to surface. Materials for this task would be easily accessible and inexpensive as they would most likely be available in the school and materials could also be found outside that could be used to create the paintbrush.

 

Room 13 (2012) About Room 13 [Online] Available: http://room13international.org/about/ [Accessed 28 October]

Kokx, K. (2017) Effects of Musical Theater Education on the Self Esteem of Middle School Students. Ed.D. Dissertations, Concordia University – Portland.

The first input was interesting. We were given part of a text and we were to draw over it. We were to draw what the words were saying.

I genuinely found this quite difficult. The article I was given was academically advanced which added to the difficulty, I have never been the type of person that was very good at drawing or even liked to draw. I always preferred colouring in.  As the article was an academic article I found it quite difficult to even think of what to draw. Looking back at how I was feeling during this lecture, I am under the impression I was thinking too much into what I was doing rather than just doing it. I eventually got some drawings down on the page, as did everyone else.

I am confident this exercise could be used in a classroom and could be quite successful within a lesson, obviously with an easier bit of text. Instead of an article, a book, song lyrics or poems could even be used. The pupils would be able to turn the words and information they see in front of them into visual images. For some individuals it  is easier to visualise something as an image rather than to just look at a bunch of words. It could also be a fun activity for the pupils to participate in, something different than usual. This activity showed me that art can be taught and experienced through literacy.

The art workshop today consisted of using black paint and black pens. This activity was heavily influenced by lesson number three of the ten lesson that the arts teach by Elliot Eisner (2002). Eisner says that children see and interpret the arts in different ways and that they can have multiple different perspectives on one single piece of art. In this activity, we were to put the black paint on our hands, make marks on the paper with our fingers and hands. We were then to focus on the shapes we had created with our hands/fingers and then we were to add details of what we imagined them to be. Every person seemed to have different interpretations of what even a thumb print looked like. This activity proved, even in adults, that every person will have different interpretations of similar things. This workshop made me realise how no two sheets of paper will look the same, even when given the same brief. This task could easily be completed within a primary school. As long as you, as a teacher, prepared for the possible mess it could create. Preparing for this activity could include have news paper pages placed on desks under the paper in which they were painting on, to avoid paint getting on the desks. Also, to make sure that all the pupils had aprons on so that they paint would not get onto their school uniform.

After the drama workshop, I noticed improvements confidence-wise in everyone. Everyone that participated seemed a lot more confident in performing. My desire is for the pupils in my class to grow in confidence day by day, activity by activity. Drama is a subject that helps to build confidence and self-esteem all the children have an opportunity to work in groups, speak independently by expressing opinions and ideas and present themselves in a play or by improvisation (Bytdrama, 2018).

 

Eisner, E. (2002) The Arts and the Creation of Mind. Conneticut: Yale University Press.

Bytdrama (2018) Benefits of Drama [Online] Available: https://www.bytdrama.com/benefits-of-drama/ [Accessed 28 October 2019]

Before my return to university for the year, I wondered what the module “integrated arts” would include. Would it purely be about art? Drawing and painting type of art that is. Will it include all of ‘the arts’? Drama, music and art.

10th of September came around very fast and this was my first day of the integrated arts module. The first day of the module was not unlike most other first days in a new class. We, as a cohort, were introduced to the module and what it would include. It would include all of the arts, like I hoped. Drama, music, dance and art.

Diarmuid explained that we would need to “build a tolerance for ambiguity” to be successful at teaching the arts. This essentially means we need to open to more than one interpretation of the same thing. This also means, as a future educator, I need to open to things not always going exactly to plan and that I should be prepared for things to be unpredictable within the arts. Tolerance is an essential skill to have as a teacher, to be constantly prepared for the unknown. You can never predict how a day will go in the classroom, you can never predict any interruptions that may happen throughout the day or the week.  Diarmuid also stated that we needed to develop a tolerance for mess. Developing both of these is essential. The arts its not as straight forward as maths or literacy. Maths and literacy usually include only one correct answer whereas the arts is down to an individuals interpretation of whats in front of them. You can improvise within the arts and every individual could have a different idea.

We had two workshops on this day: a drama workshop which was very practical and an art workshop in which we reflected upon works of art that children had created.

As a teacher, it is of paramount importance to make sure we value every pupil’s work and efforts by showing interest in their work to make sure there is no discouragement of their creativity (McAuliffe, 2007).  This was spoke about through both our drama and art inputs. Encouraging pupils not only proves creativity but has also been to aid attainment in other subjects. Encouragement within school has helped to improve literacy with advancing creative writing skills (Safford and Barrs, 2005). Pupils need encouragement to have self-confidence and belief in their own ability.

I am looking forward to learn more about how to teach the expressive arts in primary schools. I also look forward to observing the benefits that children will experience through the expressive arts. Personally, I was not exposed to the expressive arts in my primary school experience although this differed in high school.

 

McAuliffe, D. (2007) Foundation and Primary Settings. In Teaching Art and Design 3-11. London: Continuum.

Safford, K. and Barrs, M. (2005) Creativity and Literacy: Many Routes to Meaning. [Online] Available: https://clpe.org.uk/sites/default/files/Many%20routes%20to%20meaning%20childrens%20language%20and%20literacy%20learning%20in%20creative%20arts%20work_0.pdf [Accessed: 28 October 2019].