Today in our last dance session we explored the ‘appreciate’ stage of dance.

https://vimeo.com/376244950

We performed the whole dance and had it videoed so we could watch it back and evaluate ourselves. We did this by using three stars and one wish. It is important that children understand why they need to evaluate their work, so they can improve it. “They evaluate themselves on what they know about dance, how well they learned or created dance, and how they feel about dance.” (Cone and Cone, 2005) They can do this in relation to their skills gained, their use of a choreographic device, their thoughts and feelings and rhythm, timing, precision, quality etc. Adding a choreographic device to the dance makes it more exciting than dancing in one position. It also gives everyone the chance to be at the front and perform the dance they have worked together to create. I evaluated myself when watching our dance video back.

• Remembering the dance moves.
• Dancing in time to the music.
• Energy and enjoyment when dancing.
• Work on the precision of the dance moves.

I can now look at what needs improvement and correct it. Children would do this before their big performance. We have developed many skills over the last few weeks and the children in our future classrooms will develop them too. Working collaboratively to create a piece of music and getting that sense of achievement when it is successful.

In music we learned how to play a ukulele and performed Last Christmas.

The ukulele is unique as the two outer strings are pitched higher and the two inner strings are pitched lower, compared to other string instruments which go low to high. Therefore, the ukulele has a unique way of tuning, but there are many videos and resources out there that can help.

For example, the song ‘My Dog Has Fleas’ can be used. The online resource ‘Ukulele in the Classroom’ can be used to help you get started on learning how to play the instrument. It has been used on CPD courses to teach teachers how to play it and be able to teach it in their own classrooms. Coloured stickers can be put on the neck of the ukulele to show children where their fingers should be when learning the chords. Ukulele’s are cheap to buy which makes them a good instrument to use in the classroom. They also do not have to be sterilised and can be used left handed without having to be restrung. An online resource called UkuChords.com can be used to show and teach children how to play the chords.

We took each chord at a time and played along to a piece of music that worked with that chord. You would work a lot slower with children, making it a series of lessons rather than one lesson. We also introduced strumming techniques such as shuffle strum and the country strum, which made the music a bit more interesting. It was quite hard to move between the chords so to help the children overcome this we must teach them to hold the instrument properly and where their fingers should be – first finger, first fret; second finger, second fret. Ukulele’s also consist of four of the notes from the Pentatonic Scale, therefore, it is hard to make it sound bad. 95% of pop songs use the same four chords, this can be shown in this Youtube video, so if we learn these four chords and teach them to the children, they will be able to play along to most pop songs, which they will enjoy because it is music they will know.

We then played the song Last Christmas, which was good as it was the same four chords repeated every eight bars, so it was easy to play.

IMG_6989

This would be relatable for children on the lead up to Christmas, which they could perform, building up their confidence and self-esteem.

References

Cone, T.P. and Cone, S.L. (2005) Teaching Children Dance Human Kinetics Publishers.

The Ukulele Teacher (2011) How to Tune a Ukulele [online] Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dl7uzySXUSw [Accessed on: 18^th December 2019].

The Axis of Awesome (2011) 4 Chords, Music Videos, The Axis of Awesome [online] Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOlDewpCfZQ [Accessed on: 18^th December 2019].

According to Cone, creative dance leaves the vision of the dance to the young people. Giving children the opportunity to create their own piece of dance and perform it to their peers will help to build their confidence and self-esteem.

“One of the most powerful experiences dance educators can offer children is the opportunity to create a dance that reflects their ideas.” (Cone, 2005)

The lesson should be fun and meaningful to the children. You can make it meaningful by relating it to something they are doing or learning about in class or relate it to the season. For example, at Christmas time they could make up a dance to do with Winter and integrate some Christmassy, wintery dance moves along to Christmas music. It is important that we as educators can integrate creative dance into children’s learning as it increases their confidence, physical and mental well-being and the ability to communicate and work in groups. Teachers have to be “dedicated to deliver quality physical education and dance programs and view dance as essential to a student’s education.” (Cone and Cone, 2005) Children get the opportunity and freedom to create their own dance which gives them sense of achievement when they are successful. My role as a future teacher would be to support and assist the children when required in a safe environment. If I see that they may be struggling I can guide them by providing them with structure and stimulus to encourage creativity, for example, giving them a picture and asking them to come up with a dance move based on that picture. I can also attend CPD’s to build my confidence teaching it by getting advice from people who know what to do.

“Children should be able to compose, perform and appreciate dance.” (Smith-Autard, 2002)

They will be able to achieve this if we make it meaningful to them and they are provided with the resources required to create a dance.

In the dance workshop we finalised our dance ready to film next week. Again, it was entirely choreographed by us as we would do with children to allow them the opportunity to create and perform their own dance, building their confidence and self-esteem. Children will be proud that they have created a full dance by themselves and be able to perform the finished product. They are also able to develop their imagination and express themselves through creative dance. (Cone and Cone, 2005) As teachers we could step in and give children some guidance if they are struggling to come up with ideas. To enhance our dance, we added a start and end position, a change of position and a choreographic device. The children will work together to create something meaningful just as we have in class and develop skills such as collaboration, listening and being creative. Each group also came up with their own warm-up game we could play with children. We came up with Mirror dance tag, Reindeer tag, Christmas tree tag and Magic Rocks, and we got the chance to try them out and show how we would teach it to children.

We continued learning to play the glockenspiel in the music workshop. We should teach children how to hold their beaters properly, so they get the best sound out of the instrument. I learned that children find it easier to get their head around music with four beats in a bar, so it would be best to start with that. When there are less than four beats it is harder on the glockenspiel as children want to carry the note on, the way you can on the piano. Children can come up with acronyms to help remember the names and order of the notes. We practiced pieces of music taking each line at a time, asking the children how they are getting on throughout. We moved through it quite quickly but with children you would take it much slower: say, clap, play. The class was split in half and while one half played the normal melody, the other half added harmony. Again, building the layers of a cake and adding the top layer – pitch. Posters could put up around the class to show how music is structured using the cake as an example or a sandwich. In music, phrases will answer each other, so like an answer to a question, it should end on a lower note. Therefore, you will know when a piece of music has come to an end based on this. The Pentatonic Scale consists of five notes and is a good place to start with children as the notes sound nice and fit together. We tried some improvisation using the Pentatonic Scale (CDEGA). We can help make it easier for children by taking the notes off that we are not using, F and B, so that we do not accidentally play it. This again gives them the chance to be creative and the freedom to create their own music. It will sound good; therefore, they will feel like they have been successful, helping to build their confidence. (https://nafme.org/20-important-benefits-of-music-in-our-schools/)

References

Cone, T.P. and Cone, S.L. (2005) Teaching Children Dance Human Kinetics Publishers.

Smith-Autard, J. (2002) The Art of Dance in Education Methuen Drama.

National Association for Music Education (2014) [online] 20 Important Benefits of Music in our Schools Available: https://nafme.org/20-important-benefits-of-music-in-our-schools/ [Accessed on: 14^th December 2019].

Today’s workshops were based around creative partnerships. Working in partnerships enhance learning for children as they get the opportunity to work with specialists, making the lesson more real for them. We as teachers should think outside the box when collaborating with people inside and outside school to make learning more enjoyable and relatable. By pulling together all their skills they will be able to create better lessons. (Oskin, 2009)  For example, bringing in parents who specialise in certain subjects such as art or music. Teachers can also attend ‘Creative Learning Networks’ to upskill in the arts subjects so we can integrate better lessons into the classroom and feel confident in doing so.  We can also get ideas from one another. Organisations like these also offer funding opportunities so that you can take your classes on trips to enhance their learning and give them a real-life experience. Specialised artists can also be brought into school to work with children, passing on skills to the teachers and children. “When individuals find their creative strengths, it can have an enormous impact on self-esteem and on overall achievement.” (http://sirkenrobinson.com/pdf/allourfutures.pdf, p.6) Expressive arts can really improve a child’s mental health and wellbeing, for example, the Parkour programme seemed to be an enjoyable experience that these children will never forget. It gave them a reason to come to school which would be my main goal as a future teacher, that my children want to come to school and enjoy what they are doing.

We continued the Scottish theme in our dance workshop this week adding in some Scottish music from the Red-Hot Chilli Pipers.

We started with a cardio warm up and stretch incorporating some Scottish dance moves such as the highland fling. We played some more warm up games which we could use in school such as the Splat Game, Bean Game and People to People Game. The People to People Game allows children to communicate through touch, building their confidence to be comfortable with one another so they can dance more freely and not feel embarrassed in front of their peers. This will give them the chance to share in the experiences of creating and learning together. (Cone and Cone, 2005) We returned to our groups from last week to finalise our ten basic dance moves and perform to the class. Although we were all given the same instructions, everyone’s routines were entirely different, highlighting the uniqueness of individuals. The teachers only role is to show the ten basic dance skills and leave the creation of choreography to the children. We played another game where we made up a dance move for numbers 0-9, we then incorporated maths where two answers to equations we completed were added to our routine.

This could help to bring number to life for those who may struggle with maths making it more inclusive and links to the lecture of bringing together creative partnerships of maths and dance. After that we were given two pictures taken from around Scotland and made up a dance move based on the picture and put them all together to create the start of our routine.

You would follow these same steps with your class and end up with a full routine which has been entirely made up by your children. They work in partnerships in their group to come up with ideas and decide which is best. Everyone’s ideas are being incorporated and valued which means no one is being left out, so building their confidence and self-esteem.

In today’s music workshop we were introduced to Figure Notes, which is a visual learning tool for playing music. It breaks the learning down into different stages and everyone can be learning at their own pace and stage at the same time. It does not use conventional notation as this is not a musical requirement until you are in fifth year. Research has found that autistic learners struggle to read notation and find it confusing, so figure notes helps to make music learning more inclusive by allowing everyone to play together, regardless of their stage of reading. (https://www.figurenotes.org/asnsend/) Figure Notes also makes reading music easier as the bars are the same length.

It also uses coloured stickers which you can match on the notes of your instrument which will make it easier than learning conventional notation. We were given the opportunity to experiment with the program and I did find it a lot easier using the stickers instead of the notes.

We practiced it ourselves and then played along with the teacher, which would be a good incentive for children to learn and participate if they know they are going to be heard.

References

Cone, T.P. and Cone, S.L. (2005) Teaching Children Dance Human Kinetics Publishers.

Oskin, B (2009) reported the work of Professor Scott Page in The New Statesman Bringing it all together.

National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education (1999) All Our Futures: Creativity, Culture and Education [online] Available: http://sirkenrobinson.com/pdf/allourfutures.pdf [Accessed on: 10^th December 2019].

Red Hot Chilli Pipers (2014) Wake Me Up [online] Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOwJJb2l2bw [Accessed on: 18^th December 2019].

Figure Notes (n.d.) ASN/SEND [online] Available: https://www.figurenotes.org/asnsend/ [Accessed on: 18^th December 2019].

Dance is another form of expressive arts which should be used in the classroom. Over the next few weeks we will be exploring dance and lesson plans that we could use in the future. It is important that we feel confident facilitating dance in schools so that we deliver better lessons that children will enjoy. We will only gain this confidence by learning and taking part in our dance workshops. You should always do a cardio warm up and stretch before starting the dance lesson, so the children do not hurt themselves. We should make the children aware of why they are doing this and what muscles they are using. In class we drew a figure and labelled where the muscles, bones and anatomy of the body were.

You could do this with children to see what they know and then help them fill in the rest, they could keep these and revisit it each week. The theme of our dance workshops is Scotland, so these activities could be used on St Andrews Day. We played a series of warm up games related to Scotland, for example, Highland Tig, if you were ‘tug’ you had to highland dance until someone set you free. Thus, making a normal game of ‘tig’ a little more exciting and incorporating dance. We also played a game where a number represented something related to Scotland, e.g. a castle, the river, the Loch Ness Monster. The number also represented the number of people you could use to make these things. This encourages children to communicate, work together and be creative as they can use nothing but their bodies. “Dance teaches another avenue of expression and communication in addition to writing, speaking, the visual arts, music and theater (literacy in all these areas is important to provide options for increasing the quality of interaction with others). (Cone and Cone, 2005, p.9) There are ten basic dance skills which children must learn when doing dance.

They will use these dance skills to create, perform and appreciate a piece of dance, which we will also practice over the next few weeks.  Dance also “provides opportunities for children to share in the experience of creating and learning together.” (Cone and Cone, 2005, p.9) You can make dance cross-curricular by integrating literacy or maths games which could make these subjects more enjoyable for some children and build their confidence.

In music we were visited by some primary school pupils who taught us how to play some string instruments. The children enjoyed this as it allowed them to feel empowered and confident as they were able to teach someone who is older than them, and we are putting ourselves in the position of a learner, which was eye opening as we were able to remind ourselves how hard it can it can be. It has been said that music improves your health and well-being  as it builds confidence, gives a sense of achievement and allows a bit of escapism from the usual school routine. “It can help energise our mood and provide an outlet for us to take control of our feelings.” (https://www.livingwell.org.au/well-being/mental-health/how-music-can-support-our-well-being/) The Strings Project has been introduced to schools in Ayrshire to give children the opportunity to engage with music as it is such an important part of the curriculum. It teaches them discipline and respect and builds their self-esteem and most said they would like to carry it on into high school. Visiting the university and taking part in today’s activities inspired many of the children to want to go to university or become teachers in the future. We should not underestimate how much can be done with music; playing classical music can help calm the children while doing their work, addition of music notes could be used for maths, it could be used in P.E. to develop a sense of rhythm and you could use some musical words such as crescendo, diminuendo etc. to practice and learn about syllables in literacy. It is surprising how many ways music can be used when you think about it and I will always strive to bring it in to my classroom too. Teachers are not always confident in teaching music because they do not have much experience, however, it is not about them performing to the pupils; it is about children learning. Even if the teacher does not know how to play every instrument, they can still learn to teach it and ensure the children are learning. (Mills, 2009) I have always enjoyed music and did it in school myself so this may give me more of an advantage because I may be more confident teaching it.

References

Cone, T.P. and Cone, S.L. (2005) Teaching Children Dance Human Kinetics Publishers.

Living Well (n.d.) How Music can support your well-being [online] Available: https://www.livingwell.org.au/well-being/mental-health/how-music-can-support-our-well-being/ [Accessed on: 18^th December 2019].

Mills, J. (2009) Music in the Primary School Oxford: University Press.

In today’s lecture we explored creativity. Csikszentmihalyi said that the first step towards a more creative life is the cultivation of curiosity and interest. Creative individuals do not have to be dragged out of bed; they are eager to start the day, go out and explore the world and see what they can discover. (Csikszentmihalyi, 1996)  Piaget said, “the principle goal of education is to create men who are capable of doing new things, not simply of repeating what other generations have done – men who are creative, inventive and discoverers.” (Piaget, 1953) We as future teachers must help shape individuals in our class this way by giving them opportunities to use their imagination and be creative, from even quite constrained circumstances and resources. Curriculum for Excellence takes a creative approach to getting children to solve problems along pathways that the teachers know. It is like going on a journey with no limits to learning. All children are different and learn in different ways, some are more creative than others and all have different ways of being creative whether it be through art, music, drama, IT or music. “A team of individuals with different backgrounds find faster and better ways of solving a problem than a team in which everyone has similar training and, thus, similar modes of thinking.” (Oskin, 2009)

We explored another music resource which we could use in the classroom called ‘Charanga.’ It is an online resource which is good because most schools have access to an ICT suite so they will all get the opportunity to use it.

“Many class teachers lack confidence in their ability to teach music”, but this online resource gives you step-by-step guidance on how to use it. (Mills, 2009, p.5) There are set lessons and resources from Primary 1-7 which are all downloadable and printable.

This is good because IT in schools may not always work, so if this happens the lesson does not have to be changed. This resource allows children the opportunity to be creative by making up their own rhythms and singing along to songs. There is also a freestyle section where you can experiment with different instruments and music. Improving the confidence of future teachers is important to ensure children are given every opportunity to be creative with music.

In our visual arts workshop, we explored Emotional Learning Cards using Taylor’s Model of Assessment. These allow you the opportunity to use your imagination and figure out what you think may be happening in the picture. Children enjoy being imaginative and making up stories, therefore this would be a good resource to use in the classroom. They could open so many discussions about feelings, future, their opinions on certain issues etc. We as future teachers must have a tolerance for ambiguity, the deepest learning comes from trying to figure out what is going on rather than just being told, thus allowing them to be creative and evoke a higher level of thinking. “This child’s interests and curiosity will motivate him to communicate and so he will use language to generate his own ideas and then to express them. He will begin to take an active part in promoting his own skill of thinking.” (Tough, 1980:4)  We worked in pairs examining an emotional learning card and answering some questions from Taylor’s Model of Assessment.

A lot of learning comes from these images and there are lots of hidden messages behind them. If children are struggling to come up with an answer, ask questions in different ways until they can, do not just give it away. Allow them the opportunity to think and be creative.

References

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996) Creativity – Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention, New York: Harper Collins

Mills, J. (2009) Music in the Primary School Oxford: University Press.

Oskin, B (2009) reported the work of Professor Scott Page in The New Statesman Bringing it all together.

Piaget, J. (1953) The Origins of Intelligence in Children, International Universities Press.

Tough, 1980 in Griffiths, F. (2010) Supporting Children’s Creativity Through Music, Dance, Drama and Art, Creative Conversations in the Early Years, London: Routledge

Today we focused again on Norwegian aesthetics. We had visitors from Norway telling us about their country and education system. We explored the contrast between Scotland and Norway which I found to be quite similar in many ways, for example, they do standardised tests like we do to make sure everyone is working at the correct, average level for their age and stage. They also have the same school structure, Monday to Friday 9-3. However, their classes are much smaller than ours, which has sometimes been disputed to impact learning, but this argument has been made redundant and it is the quality of the teacher which has an impact. The classroom teaching is not as interactive, but more outdoor learning which we are also trying to do more of. I think outdoor learning is good to get children out working in and learning about their environment. It can also help to enhance their physical and mental health and well-being. (https://www.englishoutdoorcouncil.org/benefits.of.outdoor.learning.html)

We explored artists during our visual arts workshop and worked in their style. Andy Goldsworthy was an artist who used the environment as his canvas, sculpting the land itself or making structures in the landscape using natural resources.

He is current so introducing contemporary art to the classroom which will make it more interesting for children rather than learning about an out of date artist. Intervention, like all art, must have a problem at the centre of it. We did this and tried to link it to ‘breaking down barriers.’ This is a good activity to do with children to get them working with their environment, seeing how they can be creative and use their imagination to make an impact on the landscape around them. (https://www.learningliftoff.com/10-reasons-arts-in-education-important-kids/) Outdoor learning is prominent in Norway, so we tried to bring this into our learning today. Pupils get tired and do not function well in the afternoon, so if we implement outdoor learning through art, we can motivate and inspire children to think deeper. We could adopt seasonal pedagogy, in this case autumn and use the natural resources outside to make an impact on the landscape.

Nature provides an abundance of materials which can be used for creative purpose and they are free! We must also remember that not everything has to link to literacy and maths, it can just be sheer expression which is a good way to delve into children’s emotions. The lecturer also asked us to explain what we created and why. We should do this with children to give them the opportunity to express themselves and to give meaning to what they have done. We should “make the effort to listen to the children more and talk less, trying to understand their thinking and to encourage the development of their thoughts and ideas.” (Griffiths, 2010)

We used Garageband in the music workshop and created an autumnal piece of music linking to our outdoor learning experience.

This app is a good way of using composition in your class and relates to experiences and outcomes, exploring and experimenting with sound. (https://education.gov.scot/Documents/expressive-arts-eo.pdf) It will also develop children’s digital skills and my own as I had never used this app before. I did find it quite hard and would need to explore it much more before trying to use it in the classroom. It is important that we make the effort to learn how to teach music to the children in our future classroom. It is a subject which is quite often ignored and teachers chose not to teach it. (Mills, 2009) I think children would need a lot more guidance to be able to use this app properly. When using it in the classroom I would ensure each child had headphones to us as it was quite noisy and distracting. Another app we were introduced to was ‘Incredibox’, which you can use to compose music, but no notation knowledge is required. Children could use this during wet plays if they have access to a computer. It is a fun and modern way to explore music.

References

[online] What are the Benefits of Outdoor Learning? Available: https://www.englishoutdoorcouncil.org/benefits.of.outdoor.learning.html [Accessed on: 16^th December 2019].

Martin, L. (2014) [online] 10 Reasons Why Arts in Education Is so Important for Kids Available: https://www.learningliftoff.com/10-reasons-arts-in-education-important-kids/ [Accessed on: 14^th December 2019].

Griffiths, F. (2010) Supporting Children’s Creativity Through Music, Dance, Drama and Art, Creative Conversations in the Early Years, London: Routledge

[online] Curriculum for Excellence: Expressive Arts Experiences and Outcomes Available: https://education.gov.scot/Documents/expressive-arts-eo.pdf Accessed on: 14^th December 2019].

Mills, J. (2009) Music in the Primary School Oxford: University Press.

“Music is often thought of as a specialism which is accessible only to a few people who are born with a specific musical talent.” (Pound and Harrison, 2003) However, this is not the case, everyone has the ability to do music if they are provided with effective teaching. In today’s workshop we explored rhythm. The lecturer described the different layers of music being like a cake. This would be a good way to teach it to children to help them remember each layer. The bottom layer of the cake is the pulse, the beat that goes on in the background piece of music. Like your heartbeat, it is a steady pulse. The next layer of the cake is the ‘good bit’, the jam and cream, which represents the rhythm, short and long sounds which create the music. We started off with a quick warm up activity to awaken us and get ready for the lesson, which would be good to use in class as the kids may be doing music at the end of the day so may be tired. We then used drumsticks to explore rhythm patterns. When doing this activity with children you may choose not to give them drumsticks in the first lesson as they tend to get over excited, so starting with clapping may be best. It is not necessary at this stage to use correct notation, e.g. quaver, crotchet, instead you could use syllables to introduce rhythm patterns e.g. square = 1 syllable = 1 beat, circle = 2 syllables = 2 beats. We worked through some simple rhythm patterns and the lecturer checked throughout how we were feeling. It is important to do this with children to ensure they are grasping it and feeling comfortable before moving on. By the end we were playing along to a full piece of music. These would be a series of lessons and activities that you would build up with the pupils, to hopefully by the end be playing on instruments. Music helps to boost children’s confidence and allows them to express themselves and their feelings. Teachers must have the confidence to teach music to children by taking part in training days or seeking help from colleagues, to ensure they can provide rich music lessons that children will enjoy. (Mills, 2009)

We looked at Norwegian artists in our visual arts workshop such as Edvard Munch who created the Scream painting. We discussed how this made us feel and what message may be behind it. We thought the painting may be linked to Munch’s experience with mental health. There is usually meaning behind a piece of artwork and it would be good to explore this with children and discuss how pieces of artwork make them feel. We should try to teach about artists who are still living so the artwork is more contemporary and meaningful to the children. We should teach about printing as it made thinking visible through literacy, and teaching literacy through art. A printing lesson would allow teachers to break the routine of repetitiveness that they may be used to, e.g. exploring literacy through art may be more enjoyable. We created a print based on a world problem we feel strongly about. We chose to focus on mental health which stated, “There is strength in your softness.”

This lesson would allow children the chance to express themselves and gives them a voice on how they feel about world problems. It is important that we get involved in art with pupils and are seen to be interested in it so that our pupils will to.

References

Mills, J. (2009) Music in the Primary School, 3^rd ed. Oxford: University Press.

Pound, L. and Harrison, C. (2003) Supporting Musical Development in the Early Years, Open University Press: Buckingham.

Week 5

Today we were introduced to music and why it is important to use it in the classroom. “All pupils have an equal right to an appropriate music education.” (Mills, 2009, p.2) There are simple things you can do with music in class such as playing quiet music in class while children do their work. I found this worked well in a previous school I worked in. We used classical music to relax the children. Studies show that music helps the wider achievements such as literacy, numeracy, creativity etc.

“Music helps you think by activating and synchronizing neural firing patterns that connect multiple brain sites.” (Jensen, 2001)

We should try to give children plenty of musical experience in school in order to tap into this side of the brain and allow the children to be creative and build up confidence. “Introducing music in the early childhood years can help foster a positive attitude toward learning and curiosity. Artistic education develops the whole brain and develops a child’s imagination.” (https://nafme.org/20-important-benefits-of-music-in-our-schools/) They can also discover music by going to concerts, watching videos on YouTube etc. “Music expresses feelings that cannot be said.” (Hugo, 2007) In our workshop, we listened to different pieces of music and described using one word how it made us feel. This would be beneficial to open up discussion about how children are feeling. Music is also good as there is no right or wrong answer, it is totally based on thoughts and feelings and children will have different opinions on how it makes them feel. We as teachers must not pass our musical experiences on to our pupils if they are negative by choosing not to teach it. Children should be given the opportunity to explore it for themselves, the more they listen, the more they will discover new things and be able to be more creative with it. We completed an activity where we listened to a piece of music and created a story from it. When the music got louder or faster it suggested a change in the story, that maybe something scary had happened or someone was being chased. Attached below is the story board my group created.

My team-working skills were developed when doing this activity discussing what would happen in our story. This activity would be good for children to be creative and bring literacy and music together. Depending on the age group I may use a shorter or longer piece of music.

In today’s drama workshop the remaining groups did their micro-teaching. Each group chose to explore different conventions, so we got the chance to work with them all. I particularly liked the lesson using the film ‘Inside Out’ as it explores emotions which I think would be good to teach to children as they are familiar with it and it will allow them to explore their own feelings and emotions. “Pretend play and drama games allow students to express a range of emotions.” (http://www.wearecca.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Benefits-of-Drama-Education.pdf) We also started story ‘The Tunnel’ and learned about drama convention ‘Role on the Wall’. A simple outline of a character is drawn on a large sheet of paper, around the outside of the body the children write words or phrases that others think of the character. On the inside of the body children write what the character may be thinking or feeling about themselves.

This again gives children the opportunity to explore their emotions and how things make them feel.

References

Drama Education Network (2005) [online] The Benefits of Drama Education Available: http://www.wearecca.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Benefits-of-Drama-Education.pdf [Accessed on: 14^th December 2019].

Hugo, V. (2007) Hugo’s Works: William Shakespeare, Wildside Press.

Jensen, E. (2001) Arts with the Brain in Mind, United States of America: ASCD.

Mills, J. (2009) Music in the Primary School, 3^rd ed. Oxford: University Press.

National Association for Music Education (2014) [online] 20 Important Benefits of Music in our Schools Available: https://nafme.org/20-important-benefits-of-music-in-our-schools/ [Accessed on: 14^th December 2019].

In today’s visual arts workshop we returned to the Scottish Highlands. We wrote freely into our painting, depicting our stream of consciousness in the form of the image. We were also able to work in the style of ‘Room 13’ again as we were able to use our own voice and style in our painting. The Highlands are the poetry of Scotland, so I chose Burn’s poem “My Heart’s in the Highlands” to interpret into my highland scene. It is a poem/song that I connect with as I sung it when competing in Burn’s singing competitions in school. The words were to flow and have meaning in your picture, so I drew a ‘heart in the highlands’ between the mountains. I also wrote the lyrics ‘my heart is not here’ into the lower lands of the picture. We used pastels to make out artwork multi-modal and turn the picture from 2D to 3D.

However, we had to think about the materials we used, if we were able to see the writing through the pastels and paint. You could not in my picture, so I tried using different colours, but the pastels were hard to write with, so I tried charcoal which worked well. This activity would be good to use in the classroom as it is cross-curricular, advancing literacy with an arts-based approach. It also encourages pupil voice and imagination. Children are not given enough opportunity to engage with arts in school, so this will give them the chance to do so. Higher order colouring books would also be a good activity for the children get creative in class, they are demanding and require the children to think more.

Everyone’s work was very different, highlighting individual voice. Although we all had the same task, we took a different approach and had a different interpretation of depicting our ‘stream of consciousness’. “As children improve and see their own progress, their self-confidence will continue to grow.” (https://www.learningliftoff.com/10-reasons-arts-in-education-important-kids/)

We did ‘Micro-teaching’ in the drama workshop. Each group created their own drama lesson that could be used in the classroom. We were given the freedom to choose whatever topic we wanted, giving us the opportunity to be creative.  The groups who taught today chose to base their lesson on a children’s story. I think this is a good idea because the children will have something to base their drama on which may make them feel more comfortable when participating. Different drama conventions were explored by each group which meant every lesson was unique. My self-confidence was improved as we created our own lessons to teach our peers. “Taking risks in class and performing for an audience teach students to trust their ideas and abilities.” (http://www.wearecca.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Benefits-of-Drama-Education.pdf) My group was worried at first because another group had chosen the same book as us, ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt”, but the lessons ended up being very different. This was a good activity as teaching a class in a group gave us the chance to experience teaching, but not starting it on our own. We planned and implemented it well together and the class participated. We were conscious of being condescending towards our class mates as we had based the lesson on early level. But as we were all doing the same thing our class mates were very understanding and respectful. We set clear learning intentions and success criteria, so the class knew what was expected of them. We allowed them the opportunity to be creative by asking them to decide on and act out their own obstacle in the story. It is important to give children a voice and this would give them the opportunity to make the story their own. We also implemented a form of assessment (using thumbs to say whether they achieved all the success criteria or not). When doing this with children we would take it a step further and ask why or why not they think they met the success criteria.

Each workshop allowed us the opportunity to be creative and bring things to life. We brought a highland scene to life in our visual arts workshop by making our painting look 3D and brought characters to life from a children’s story by acting as different characters.

References

Drama Education Network (2005) [online] The Benefits of Drama Education Available: http://www.wearecca.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Benefits-of-Drama-Education.pdf [Accessed on: 14^th December 2019].

Martin, L. (2014) [online] 10 Reasons Why Arts in Education Is so Important for Kids Available: https://www.learningliftoff.com/10-reasons-arts-in-education-important-kids/ [Accessed on: 14^th December 2019].

In today’s lecture we learned about Room 13, “a social enterprise model of art education embedded in a number of primary and secondary schools in Scotland. Learner’s manage their own learning and have creative autonomy in determining the subject, media and direction of their work.” (Adams et al, 2008, p11) Children are often denied the chance of being individual. Whole classes are given the same artwork to do but they all end up looking the exact same and people think they have been successful. This is not success and it is not what Curriculum for Excellence is about. “What education should therefore be aspiring towards is what Atkinson and Dash (2005) have called ‘a critical based arts practice’ which consists of a ‘fusion of the practical with the critical whereby art practice is critical practice’ where critical ideas are given visual form’.” (McAuliffe, 2013) A school who uses Room 13 raised money by taking their own school photos instead of getting a company in. This meant that all the money was kept in the school and could be put in to creating Room 13.

We watched a film that was produced for Channel 4 that showed a schools ‘Room 13’. The children were working all over the floor, it looked messy, but it was an organised mess, they knew exactly where everything was kept. The children were free, having fun and being creative.

Our visual arts workshop was linked to Room 13 in that we were free to be as creative as we liked, and everyone’s artwork was different. If you give children choice you will get difference. We discussed why we paint with small brushes and thought it may be because they are like pencils, they are easy to handle and create less mess. However, a lot of pressure comes with using a paintbrush to do art, it is too formal, and children feel less confident in what they are creating. Therefore, we used a range of materials to create our own paintbrushes which would be good to do with children to remove the pressure that surrounds them.

We then created a Scottish Highland scene which was described to us in text by the lecturer. We took notes on what the lecturer was telling us about the scene and then painted what we thought it would look like.

Everyone had a different perception of what the picture would look like and everyone’s paintings looked original. This activity would give children the freedom and opportunity to use their imagination and create a unique painting instead of mimicking what the teacher has done. Through art and design, learners have rich opportunities to be creative and to experience inspiration and enjoyment. (https://education.gov.scot/Documents/expressive-arts-eo.pdf, p.3)

We used history and events from the past in our drama workshop while exploring new drama conventions. “Through drama, learners have rich opportunities to be creative and to experience inspiration and enjoyment.” (https://education.gov.scot/Documents/expressive-arts-eo.pdf, p.7) We were shown a picture of happy German soldiers in Auschwitz during World War 2, we discussed the history around this time and the events that took place e.g. the Holocaust.

During our first role play we used mime and monologue. Mime is acting with no speaking, you must have good body language and facial expressions so that it can de understood what you are trying to portray in your drama. We acted out a Jewish mother and child trying to go shopping and being asked to leave. You could see the shopkeeper was angry and that the mother was feeling defeated and upset from their body language and facial expressions. We then used monologue where one person spoke within the drama explaining how they were feeling. The mother in our drama wished that she could shop where she wanted and worried for her daughter’s future. After that we acted out a drama using voices in the head around the Grenfell Tower incident. Voices in the head is where two people within a drama step out and give conflicting opinions. My group were a family who had survived the accident, the parents were relieved to finally be living somewhere safe, but their children just wanted to be back in their own room. Einstein said “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” (http://www.wearecca.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Benefits-of-Drama-Education.pdf) We used our imagination in today’s workshop, creating our own role play. The concept of Room 13 related to our drama workshop as we were able to take charge of the scenarios we created and use our imagination as far as possible.

References

[online] Curriculum for Excellence: Expressive Arts Experiences and Outcomes Available: https://education.gov.scot/Documents/expressive-arts-eo.pdf Accessed on: 14^th December 2019].

Drama Education Network (2005) [online] The Benefits of Drama Education Available: http://www.wearecca.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Benefits-of-Drama-Education.pdf [Accessed on: 14^th December 2019].

McAuliffe, D (2013) Art and Design Education. In T. Bryce and W. Humes (et al eds.) Scottish Education (4th Edition): Referendum, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.