Today, we had Dance Class. After working on our routine we have now collaborated with other groups to make a larger dance with each group’s individual routines blending into the next group’s. What I’ve taken away from this is that children can slowly build up confidence and understand group work skills can be collaborated, like a network of ‘skill’ blocks, which (when everyone engages and contributes) results in a well-earned end goal. Children may then have a further understanding of individual departments (a group) contributing to one ideal(a larger group, a company), which is an intrinsic skill for later life. This was also useful for me as a learner because I got to learn how dances can be put together, from simple steps. This helped give me ideas as a teacher on how to create a dance with a class that was made of the children’s ideas and contributions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsE5p8LgHs8

Our group’s stimulus: 

The finished routine for the whole class: 

Later in our Art class, we learned to be resourceful as teachers (which should trickle down to the children and teach them to be resourceful). We learned about making paint brushes with unusual material. This not only saves resources and money, but also challenges us as teachers to be imaginative (a skill that is prevalent in the Arts). Diarmuid described a scene and we were to paint it without seeing any images. This gets us in the mind-frame of the child and lets us express our creativity through imagination. This also stops merit being given to children who are gifted at copying, and instead merit is given to effort and creativity, as there are no correct or wrong answers.

I documented my progression with the picture as it is good for development to see a beginning, a middle and an end. I also documented my ‘paint palette’, as it’s good to see the tools someone has available to them to really appreciate the outcome of the work. That is to say, if someone made a fantastic piece of art from very few materials, it shows resourcefulness and adaptability.

For next week: 

I have purchased this book to have a read over and hopefully become more acquainted with Drama, as this isn’t something I ever took in school. We have another Drama input next week so I plan to read some portions of this as ‘homework’ to be better prepared and possibly have questions.

Ackroyd, J. and Boulton, J. Drama Lessons for Five to Eleven-Year-Olds. (2008) 6th ed. New York: Routledge

WHAT WAS LEARNED: We had our first experience of drama this week, discussing “The Lonely Dragon”. We discovered that, even when only given a title, children can make a story by themselves. This ties in to the fact that the Arts (especially drama) are best delivered by a teacher who is mediating, not dictating. This means that there are less rules to follow for the children, and therefore more room for self expression.

During our dance section of this week’s class, we learned about the cross-curricular availability of dance and integrated the current Hallowe’en theme. This brings relevance and fun for children and may make them less embarrassed because of the less serious nature.

IMPACT ON MY VIEWS:

I haven’t had any drama or dance experience, apart from two mandatory drama classes during S1 in Secondary School. I had negative views about both dance and drama, but I now feel that if i had had inputs (not including extra-curricular roles for the school plays) in Primary School, my views may be different. I can see the benefit (confidence and co-ordination) from starting drama and dance lessons from an early age and I wish that my Primary School could have offered these.

FURTHER ACTION:

Having last week read the Cone article, I feel that I could benefit from attempting mock dance and drama lesson plans. I would then bounce my ideas off of my colleagues in University and then, later on Serial Days, perhaps ask the teacher I’m shadowing for his/her opinion. Collecting feedback from peers is something I understand as very important so that I can obtain a rounded vision and understand different approaches and methodologies.

Image found at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Childrens_Nativity_Play_2007.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MsZQ-cDbfg

Cone, P. (2011) Following Their Lead: Supporting Children’s Ideas for Creating Dances.  Journal of Dance Education. [Online] Vol. 11(4) pp. 111-151. Available: Taylor & Francis. [Accessed: 28 September 2016].

Image found at: https://pixabay.com/en/book-hands-reflecting-bella-1421097/

WHAT WAS LEARNED:

This week we learned about the ‘domain of aesthetics’, that writing is a form of drawing – but once writing is grasped, we shouldn’t discourage drawing as this is still an integral form of expression. We also learned that the arts were brought into the curriculum during the industrial revolution (as a hand-aye-coordination aid for future work in shipyards).

After the morning lecture, we had a music session where we created a group-work storyboard to accompany a tumultuous piece of instrumental music.

IMPACT ON MY VIEWS:

I already had a respect for the Arts, but this respect has grown into an understanding of both the importance of implementation within the curriculum and also the importance of each individual art form (as children may chose to express themselves in different ways, i.e. drawing, dancing, performance (musically)).

FURTHER ACTION:

I will read “Fleming (2012) The Arts in Education (an Introduction)” from the Moodle further reading and draw upon any further uses for the Arts that I can think of.

Fleming, M.(2012) The Arts in Education (an Introduction). [Online] Available: http://moodle.uws.ac.uk/mod/resource/view.php?id=686678 [Accessed: 20 September 2016].