My BA Education Journey

Today was our final Integrated Arts input. It was also the day that we performed our Christmas dance! We were all dressed up in our festive outfits and ready to show off what we had learned.

The whole cohort were fantastic. We all embraced the opportunity to show our new dance skills and give Zara the performance she deserved. In todays input there was no teachings as such but we did go over what should be evaluated when delivering a dance lesson to children. It is important that we consider the enjoyment factor for children. As I mentioned in a previous blog my memories from dancing at school are not pleasant ones. Not being allowed to have any creative input made me resent doing dance at PE and I would often make up excuses as to why I didn’t participate.

Having had the opportunity to learn of the benefits of allowing children to have a creative input to their dance lessons, it has made me excited about the potential lessons I can plan to promote my students creative freedom.

I have thoroughly enjoyed this module, particularly the visual arts aspect, which surprised me as I’ve never considered myself artistic. Dairmuid made it clear from the offset that everyone has the capability of being artistic and creative. It is learning not to put those labels and limitations on yourself that will enable you to truly have creative freedom.

In today’s dance session we got to practice our dance routines in our groups. I was lucky to have such a supportive group as I am very uncoordinated! We decided on our final choreography for our dance and everyone was happy.

During today’s session we learnt the significance of supporting children’s ideas for creating dances. “One of the most powerful experiences dance educators can offer children is the opportunity to create a dance that reflects their ideas”(Cone, 2015) This quote by Cone highlights the importance of allowing children to be free to create. Encouraging children to use their creativity freely promotes confidence and self assurance.

Cone also states that creative dance should be fun, safe, meaningful and a child led activity. Giving children the opportunity to take ownership of their creations helps to build their confidence.

Dance can act as a form of expression for some children. According to Pinter (1999) children who struggle academically, especially those children with English as their second language often respond positively to the creative nature of dance. This can also be used as an example of how powerful dance can be in allowing children to express themselves.

Today’s session made me consider how I would teach dance to children when I am a teacher. This initially worried me but Zara reassured us that there are opportunities to outsource professionals to help with the process. It obviously depends on budgets and time management but local authorities have many independent dance schools who work closely with their local schools.

 

Today’s workshop was about ‘creative partnerships’. The workshop focused on the importance of creative partnerships within education. Creating partnerships helps to enhance pupils learning experiences, support creativity across all curriculum areas and also develop our skills as educators.

An example of a creative partnership would be a specialist music teacher ie a violin teacher and a school. Having a specialist come to the school to offer lessons in instruments that may not usually be available offers opportunities to children to be able to explore their creativity in music.

The workshop also highlighted the importance of engaging with parents. Having parents involved in all aspects of a child’s learning can help them understand their child’s academic work and also their creative needs. Having sessions where parents can come in and partake in music lessons can help with children’s confidence and self-esteem.

Before today’s session I hadn’t know of all the outside agencies that are available for teachers to engage with. Julie and Zara were very informative of the resources available for us when we are out in schools.

 

This week we were introduced to dance! I must admit when I first heard we were going to be doing dance I was filled with anticipation. I hadn’t done choreographed dance since I was in high school, almost 15 years ago.

Zara was very reassuring and made us all feel very at ease. In this session we learned about how dance can fun and encourages children to use their creativity. It is often a children led activity and is inclusive for all children. We also looked at the E’s and O’s for dance and the benchmarks. Zara discussed the various warm up activities that we can do with children and also the games that can be used.

Another important aspect of today’s session was learning the basic and fundamental skills of dance. These are balance, gesture, hop, jump, kick, reach, roll, slide, turn and twist. These skills can be made age appropriate and also adapted to the child’s ability.

Today’s session made me reflect on my own experiences with dance when I was at school. All I remember was being forced into partners and told we are doing Scottish dancing. After today’s workshop with Zara I am pleased to learn that dance is a much more creative process within schools now. Children have the creative freedom to make up their own dances and are encouraged to try new styles of dancing.

This week was for reading and studying.

This weeks visual arts lecture was a pre-recorded lecture by Dairmuid. The lesson involved us creating a landscape painting. We had to make our paintbrushes using items we found in our garden. The only colours we could use were red, yellow, blue and white. The concept of making your own paintbrushes is from design maker Helen Carnac.

Relating this back to the classroom allows for opportunity for learning. Encouraging children to be a part of the whole process from making the paintbrush to mixing the paints to eventually creating their own masterpiece promotes creativity and pride in their work. Not using stereotypical paintbrushes in the classroom and encouraging resourcing natural products or recycled materials gives children the opportunity to use their imagination.

I loved this lesson and enjoyed sharing my new knowledge with my children. We all had a go at creating the landscape with materials we found in the garden. I opted for a broken clothes peg, a beautiful old leaf, a stone and a rough twig with lots of little arms. I am quit pleased with how the painting turned out considering the tools I had. I will definitely need some more practice though!

This week was an assessment drop in with Julie. We were able to ask any questions we had regarding the assessment and clear up any confusion we might have. Julie reassured us and put our mind at ease.

Unfortunately I missed the Music & ICT workshop with Julie today as I had a hospital appointment with my son. I struggled to find the recording on Moodle to go over.

This week we got to take part in a drama workshop – drama puppets. We were split into breakout rooms and given the task of creating a story using shadow puppets we had created at home. We had 20 minutes to work together to decide on a beginning, middle and end to our story. Although this was initially daunting as we didn’t know which groups we would be put into it quickly became an enjoyable experience. We were able to share ideas and incorporate all of our shadow puppets into the story by creating a storyboard. This required each person to contribute in making the story and also delivering it back in the open forum. Unfortunately I don’t have photo of my shadow puppet but I do have an image of a quick story board from when we were deciding on our story. 

When considering a task like this being used in the classroom it could be an effective way of encouraging children to work together but also take responsibility for their own role within the task. “Through drama, children are encouraged to take responsible roles and make choices- to participate in and guide their own learning” (Farmer, 2011). According to Farmer (2011) drama gives children the opportunity to think and act creatively which in turn helps to develop their critical thinking and problem solving skills. As discussed earlier these skills  can be applied across all areas of their learning.

 

 

Farmer, D. (2011) Learning through drama in the primary years. Drama Resource.

This weeks lecture was with Dairmuid and we looked at “How to avoid killing creativity”. We watched a TED talk by Sir Ken Robinson were he discussed “Do schools kill creativity”. Robinson talks about how innovative children are in his TED talk and that all children have tremendous talent but we must treat their creativity with the same importance as literacy and maths. Although the expressive arts are practiced within schools are they held with the same importance as maths and English? According to Robinson they are not. Why if children love to dance and can create beautiful choreography is it seen as an added exercise. Encouraging children to use their creativity in the classroom can have positive developments across all areas of their learning. 

Throughout this lecture I had my own realisation that I haven’t considered the arts to be as important as other academic subjects like maths. I think that is a reflection on how it was when I was at school. It was considered “Uncool” to have taken part in the singing groups or art classes when I was younger. Now that I am a mother, I would hate to think of my children not feeling they were able to take part in such activities without being picked on.

As a future educator I want to encourage children to embrace their talents in the arts and become more confident in expressing themselves through art or dance or music. Incorporating opportunities for creativity across all curriculum areas will promote inclusion. I hope that over the years it is far more common for children to be talented in the arts and it be championed instead of frowned upon.

Today’s session “why music matters” really opened my eyes to the importance of music within the curriculum. The TED talk with Anita Collins was very thought provoking. Music is more than just instruments and songs, it helps children to “acquire and understand language”(Collins, 2018). Anita lists the benefits of playing a musical instrument in her TED talk and how on average someone who has played an instrument for at least 2 years has on average a higher IQ of 7.5 points in comparison to someone who hasn’t. 7.5 points is such a substantial difference when 1o0 IQ points constitutes an average IQ and 130 is genius. This made me consider how implementing music more regularly within every area of the curriculum would benefit children’s academic abilities and potentially have a positive impact on the futures.

Unfortunately while I was on placement last year I didn’t get the opportunity to partake in any music lessons. It would have be beneficial for me to see how the children responded to the music exercises and if they could link any those learnings to other areas of the curriculum. I hope when I go on placement in BA2 I can use todays teaching to help me build connections with the children in the class and try and incorporate music into other subjects.