Our finalised dance routine as a whole class and with the individual group’s routines:

We were then to use the list below to assess our drama and give ourselves 2 stars and 1 wish. Overall, I was very happy with our dance as I felt that we did well to remember it and we worked well as a team to make sure that everyone tried their hardest. the 2 stars that I gave myself and the routine were – we worked exceptionally well as a team, and we had a lot of energy. The wish that I chose was that our timing could have been much better. We were a bit out of sync with one another from the start, but I think that only time and practice could improve that.

Overall, I very much enjoyed the dance module. Being filmed and then watching it back is something that I have always disliked and found embarrassing and that has not changed. However, when watching it back I was impressed by the enthusiasm and skill shown by every member of the cohort. Although the dances were not perfect, they were fun and had lots of energy and I could see that people were enjoying it. I feel that I gained many new skills from this module that I will take on throughout my teaching career.

In music we had the opportunity to try the ukulele and practice some songs. It was good fun and I did not find it too difficult. The ukulele was a good size for me and I managed the chords. Switching between quickly was difficult at first but I eventually managed it and felt very proud of myself for doing so. We then, as a class, played ‘Last Christmas’ by Wham on the ukulele which was a fantastic experience. The video is linked below:

The ukulele I was using:

In his TED Talk on creativity in schools Ken Robinson states that the creative arts are at the bottom in terms of school systems hierarchy. Mathematics and language are always at the top with the arts being overlooked because our education system is so focused on “the idea of academic ability.” This then makes those whose abilities lie in the arts feel as though they were not good at school because their subjects were not seen as being on the same level as mathematics and language (Robinson, 2007). As teachers it is therefore crucial that we work to show children that creativity and the arts are just as important as other subjects and they get praise for doing well in art the same way they would if they excelled at mathematics. Csikszentmimihalyi (n.d.) states that school does not have a positive impact on creative minds. He argues that while certain teachers encourage creativity, many others do not. In order to be an effective teacher, we must recognise the potential in the children we teach and challenge them to do their best work (Csikszentmimihalyi, n.d.). Robinson, (2007) backs this up by saying that as children grow up, creativity is forced out of them so that they focus on more academic subjects.

References

Csikszentmimihalyi, M. (n.d.). Creativity: Flow and the psychology of discovery and invention. [Moodle Resource] Available: Integrated Arts in Education. [Accessed: 20 November 2018].

Robinson, K. (2007). TED Talk. Do schools kill creativity? [Online] Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY [Accessed: 20 November 2018].

 

For our final week in drama we were given the task of working in groups to come up with a drama lesson to teach our peers that we felt we could use in the classroom. Our group chose to base our drama around the book ‘The Gruffalo’ by Julia Donaldson. We chose this as we all loved the book and felt that it was appropriate for the first level age group. we had to include three drama conventions and so we decided on:

• Thought Tunnel – A double line of children who speak the thoughts and feelings of the character who is walking between the double lines.
• 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 and phrases that others think of the character.  On the inside of the body children write what the character is thinking and feeling.
• Hot Seating – A child or adult sits in the ‘Hot Seat’ becoming a character who is related to the drama. The rest of the class ask that character questions.   (Killen, n.d.).

We first read some of the story to the class, each of us took a character and read out their lines. We made sure to read the description of the Gruffalo and then stopped just before he appeared. Next, we split the class in two and had Samantha pretend to be the Gruffalo and walk between the two sets – Thought Tunnel – to give the class a chance to shout out some words describing their first impression of the Gruffalo. We then asked the class to draw a quick picture of what they though the Gruffalo looked like with some words describing him and their thoughts towards him on the outside – Role on the Wall. We then had Samantha Hot Seat as the Gruffalo and the class had the chance to ask questions to get to know the Gruffalo better. Finally, we had them return to their pictures and then write their revised opinions of the Gruffalo on the inside of the drawing.

Some photos of the Role on the Wall:

I found the micro-teaching to be a bit of a challenge as I was nervous at the prospect of talking in front of so many of my peers. When practicing with my group beforehand they said that I was fidgeting with my ring when talking, making me seem nervous. I took this feedback on board and so when we were presenting to the rest of the cohort I took my ring off. The feedback from the rest of the cohort was generally very positive. They said that we had clearly researched our topic and that they thought our ideas for activities with the children were very good. I feel that confidence is something I lack, but I also think that this task increased my confidence when presenting. Once I started speaking I felt less nervous and started to enjoy teaching my peers some new information. In my opinion I think that presenting to an audience of my peers is more daunting than teaching a class of children, and so because I managed to complete the micro-teaching without feeling too anxious, it has made me feel more prepared to teach my first class as I know I can do it.

In our penultimate dance input, we were mainly practicing our routines as we were to have them filmed the following week. At the beginning of the session we played a few warm up games of tig and stretched. We were then given ten minutes to practice our dances before the lecturer asked us each to draw a picture of something that made us think of Christmas and then make up a dance move based on it. Once this was completed we re-joined as a whole group and showed our dance moves. We then stood in a semi-circle and were shown some group dance moves to start off with, then we ran together as though we were reindeer into four rows and practiced the new Christmas dance moves. Once we were back in the semi-circle each individual group had their turn to come into the centre and perform their routine that we came up with back at the start. Although it was good fun, it was very tiring, and I was not looking forward to the following week when it would be filmed.

Below is a video I took of two member of my group practicing our dance routine.

 

References

Killen, A. (n.d.). Drama Conventions and Tools for Teaching. [Moodle Resource]. Available: Integrated Arts Module. [Accessed: 13 November 2018].

Information contained in the videos comes from the NDT Resource Centre, (n.d.).

The drums we saw in class to allow us to see vibration:

Materials for making the ukulele’s and harmonica’s.

Finished harmonica:

Finishes ukulele:

Art today was less practical than it has been in other weeks as we were watching a video about Tim Ingold and his ideas about line. His views were interesting as I had never given line much thought. He states in his video (Ingold, 2013) that people see drawing as a precursor to writing and as they get older they grow out of drawing. He states that this is interesting to note as most people would be embarrassed to admit that they could not write, but to admit you do not draw is laughed off- many do not see the point in drawing. He goes on to say that he thinks this is because many people’s drawings do not turn out as they imagined them in their heads. People usually try to draw for representation and when this does not work as well as they hoped they give up and say there is no point in drawing – it is easier to take photos for representation. He argues that this idea must be challenged so that people are encouraged to draw more frequently. I found his ideas interesting and they broadened my perspective and ideas which I think is always a positive. As a teacher we will be continually reassessing our knowledge and skills to ensure we have the best practice and so today’s session reaffirmed that I am willing and able to do so.

References

Ingold, T. (2013). Prof Tim Ingold’s keynote at the Thinking Dangerously in Teacher Education. [Vimeo Video]. [Online] Available: https://vimeo.com/77119799 [Accessed: 6 November 2018].

NDT Resource Centre. (n.d.). Frequency and Pitch. [Online] Available: https://www.nde-ed.org/EducationResources/HighSchool/Sound/frequencypitch.htm [Accessed: 6 November 2018].

This week in music we were working with the glockenspiel and using figure notes. Each note is a different shape and depending on the octave – a different colour. It also shows a longer note by having a line of colour after it and shorter notes are shown by ‘squashing’ the shape to fit as half the size it was. We had the chance to play some different tunes on the instrument and I chose ‘Twinkle, Twinkle’ and ‘Jingle Bells’. I had a lot of fun with this and I surprised myself by picking up this form of notation quite quickly. By having the music presented to me using figure notes, I found it less daunting and more straightforward than looking at a normal piece of sheet music. This increased my confidence when approaching learning a new instrument.

Below are the figure note sheets of music:

A video of me playing ‘Jingle Bells’ using figure notes:

Next, we had to do an improvisation to the beat of ‘Hit the Road Jack’ – 16 bars – while the rest of the class listened, and the lecturer accompanied us on the piano. I found this exercise daunting and I felt I had been put on the spot. I began to relax after I heard some of my peers playing as I realised that most of us had similar levels of experience and no one was an expert. When it came to my turn I was nervous but got through it and felt proud that I had achieved it. I think that it is important to remember this experience as I feel that many children would struggle when having to present a solo to their whole class. I do not think I would use this method with children, perhaps relying on volunteers who felt confident.

Teaching music to children is something that I feel is very important. According to the Arts Education Partnership (n.d.) learning music improves recall and retention of verbal information. By learning to play an instrument children are also developing the parts of the brain responsible for verbal memory, an important skill for remembering information in all academic subjects. Music students who were tested for verbal memory showed a higher recall for words compared to non-music students (Ho et al., 1998; 2003, cited in Arts Educations Partnership, n.d.).

Drama was very fun and engaging in today’s session. Despite being shy, I have always enjoyed drama and I studied it in high school, so I was looking forward to this input. The drama conventions that we were looking at in today’s session were:

• Freeze Frame – When the children stopped, not moving or speaking representing a critical moment in their drama.
• Thought Tunnel – A double line of children who speak the thoughts and feelings of the character who is walking between the double lines.
• Teacher in Role – When the teacher takes part in the drama alongside the children.
• Vox Pop – The teacher asks the children when they are, in role, a series of quick questions about the position their character finds themselves in. (Killen, n.d.).

We were villagers and there was a dragon who had been eating local livestock and everyone feared the dragon. We were to create a freeze frame of a typical day in the village when the dragon appears, and we can see the fear on everyone’s faces. Next, we used thought tunnel by having the ‘dragon’ (lecturer) walk between us while we said what the villagers felt about him. A town meeting was then held with the lecturer playing the part of the mayor (Teacher in Role) and we as villagers discussed what we should do about the dragon. Some people wanted to kill it, others wanted to capture it, but the overall view of the dragon was negative. The lecturer was then hot seated as the dragon and we found out that he was just lonely and wanted friends and so our initial assumptions had been wrong. At the end we used vox pop – in small groups we were to have it so that one person was a news anchor asking the villagers questions on their feelings towards the dragon. I feel this is a particularly useful drama as it can help deal with tougher subjects such as bullying and mental health, but in a way that the children can relate to and without it being too harsh to deal with or overtly personal.

Paige-Smith and Craft (2011) state that as teachers we must be able to differentiate between what they call “creative practice” and practice which “fosters creativity”. The former relates to the imaginative ideas we have on how to work with children. The latter is the one in which teachers need to use if they want true creativity within their classrooms. It is about ensuring that we, as teachers, encourage the children in our class to express their ideas and possibilities and that we do not stand in the way of this (Paige-Smith and Craft, 2011). We don’t want to be the kind of teachers who stand at the front of the class and tell the learners what to do, but more the kind of teachers who, through the creative arts, foster collaborative thinking and solution-focussed, creative learners who know how to transfer their skills into different contexts.

References

Arts Education Partnership. (n.d.). How Music Education Helps Students Learn, Achieve, and Succeed. [Online] Available: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED541070.pdf [Accessed: 23 October 2018].

Killen, A. (n.d.). Drama Conventions and Tools for Teaching. [Moodle Resource]. Available: Integrated Arts Module. [Accessed: 23 October 2018].

Paige-Smith, A., Craft, A. (2011) Developing Reflective Practice in the Early Years. [Online] Available: ProQuest Ebook Central. [Accessed: 23 October 2018].

Collard’s (2016) paper states that there is a strong link between a lack executive functions of the brain and poverty. Children from poorer backgrounds are more likely to have less developed executive functions and therefore they are less able to work creatively. However, the paper states that by teaching in a way that focuses on creativity, attainment for these children is raised (Collard, 2016). This is backed up by the Arts Education Partnership (n.d.) who state that music in education has many benefits including:

• Improves memory
• Advances achievement in other curricular areas – maths and English
• Encourages good self esteem
• Strengthens perseverance.

Some of the students cellos:

In dance we practiced our routines from the previous session. Based on Halloween we then came up with 10 additional moves that we were to incorporate into our routines. By solving some maths problems, we were then able to work out in which order we were to put these moves so that each dance was different.

Trying to remember the dance from the previous session was a bit of a challenge but luckily we had taken some photos and videos to help remind us of the moves. The biggest challenge was trying to remember the sequence of the moves, particularly when the 10 new moves were added. Overall, dance was very enjoyable this week and seeing how hard everyone was working and how well we all worked together was brilliant. By using these techniques in class it is sure to encourage positive team working skills, which are very important in all work places and so is a useful skill to teach children.

References

Arts Education Partnership, (n.d.). How Music Education Helps Students Learn, Achieve, and Succeed. [Online] Available: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED541070.pdf [Accessed: 9 October 2018].

Collard, P. Education Scotland. (2016). Creativity and Learning: What is the Connection? [Online] Available: https://education.gov.scot/improvement/documents/creativity/cre36-creativity-thought-piece-paul-collard-june-2016.pdf [Accessed: 9 October 2018].

Today was the first input of dance. I was not looking forward to this input and I know that many of my peers had similar feeling of apprehension. My only other experience with dance was when I was very young, and it was quite negative. After the input I decided to draw a picture to illustrate how I had felt during the input and then after.

For dance we started with some warm up games – even those I found daunting. In particular the Chinese whispers type game we played was one I was nervous about. We were in two rows and the person at the end was shown a set of dance moves that then had to be passed from person to person until it reached the front and we could see how accurate we had been. I was worried for a few reasons.

• Letting my peers down by not following the dance correctly.
• Looking stupid while doing the dance.
• Having someone watching me do these moves.

Despite this anxiety I actually enjoyed the game as it was fun and fairly easy. This relaxed me and made the rest of the workshop easier. We then were split up into groups to create human body maps. We drew around a member of our group and then labelled different bones and muscles in the body. This was an excellent activity that I can see myself using with children as it was fun, interactive and interesting. By giving children the opportunity to take the facts they have learned and turn them into a form of artistic expression it helps to synthesise the information and help them remember it (Collard, 2016).

We were then shown the 10 key dance moves that can be easily taught to children. By using these 10 in any order, a dance can be created. Below are a couple of videos and pictures from our dance.

Jump:

In case video does not work I have created a YouTube channel. Link below to this video:

Hop:

Balance:

Gesture:

In art we were looking at the work of Bob and Roberta Smith – an artist who uses print as a medium with bold slogans. I found the printing process fascinating and enjoyed the opportunity to try something new. My group came up with the slogan ‘believe her’ for our print. This is to do with the recent sexual abuse claims by many young actresses and the fact that often, they are shunned and not believed. We wrote the slogan in English, French and Spanish – each of us writing one and printing it. I enjoyed this medium as it was easier than I had initially thought and turned out very well.

The slogan:

Covered in paint- ready to print:

Final print:

Empowerment and freedom are the aspects that I took away from today’s sessions. Cone, (2009) states that dancing allows children to feel empowered and gives them the opportunity to express their fears and desires without judgement. Through my own experiences of dance, I would agree with this as the whole experience made me feel more confident and more able to express myself. It is important that the dance teacher allow the children to create their own dances and give them the freedom to do what they choose. As teachers we must be able to offer the pupils support without being prescriptive in order to have it fit in with our plans and ideas (Cone, 2009). As a teacher I may be asked to evaluate or assess the children’s ability and success to be creative or think creatively. This may be a challenge at first but I think that by allowing the children to come up with their own dramas, artwork and dances without too much input from me, this would show me how creative they are.

References

Collard, P. Education Scotland. (2016). Creativity and Learning: What is the Connection? [Online] Available: https://education.gov.scot/improvement/documents/creativity/cre36-creativity-thought-piece-paul-collard-june-2016.pdf [Accessed: 2 October 2018].

Cone, T. (2009). Following Their Lead: Supporting Children’s Ideas for Creating Dances. Journal of Dance Education. [Online]. Vol.9(3), pp.81-89. Available: http://moodle1819.uws.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/45655/mod_resource/content/1/Purcell%20Cone%20%282011%29.pdf [Accessed: 2 October 2018].

I particularly enjoyed music in this week’s session. To begin with we listened to clips of different types of music and we were to write down adjectives about how they made us feel. When we shared these with the class it was interesting to see the different ways in which the same piece of music affected people differently. One piece made some feel happy while it made others feel annoyed. We discussed how a certain piece of music can bring memories with it and that can influence how we feel. A study into music therapy for depression found that music greatly improved the symptoms of sufferers (NHS, 2011). Although the study was a small one, its results show that music can be a great influencer on how we feel.

We then listened to a piece of classical music three times and were to come up with a story based on it. The group I was in went with the story of some friends who are baking a cake realise they have run out of ingredients. They must run to the shops before they close, but as they get there they see the mean shop owner is not going to let them in. They then fight and take the ingredients back to the house and finish making the cake. It was all very simple, but we had fun doing it and it got us discussing the impact of music on our thoughts. It also is a good exercise for getting people to work collaboratively together and so I think that it would be an excellent activity to do with older pupils in the class.

In art we were given the opportunity to finish our paintings from last week, this time by using pastels on top of the paint to give it more depth of colour and texture. We were also looking at how to critically evaluate a piece of art using specific questions. Below I have done this on my completed landscape portrait from last week.

Creativity is a skill that is incredibly important and both art and music help to encourage its development. Collard’s (2016) paper on creativity within the classroom shows that creativity is very closely linked to the executive functions within the brain. Cognitive flexibility – being able to alter perspectives and problem solve where needed- is very similar to the creative skill of being able to identify and solve problems as well as that of being open minded. By providing a classroom that nurtures the physical, social, emotional and intellectual needs of children these executive functions improve and therefore so do children’s creative skills (Collard, 2016). This therefore proves that creativity is closely linked to how the brain functions and shows why it is so important to nurture creativity.

References

Collard, P. Education Scotland. (2016). Creativity and Learning: What is the Connection? [Online] Available: https://education.gov.scot/improvement/documents/creativity/cre36-creativity-thought-piece-paul-collard-june-2016.pdf [Accessed: 25 September 2018].

NHS, (2011). Music therapy ‘helps treat’ depression. [Online] Available: https://www.nhs.uk/news/mental-health/music-therapy-helps-treat-depression/#conclusion  [Accessed: 25 September 2018].

In music we had the chance to do some improvisation on the glockenspiel which everyone found very fun. I think that fun is extremely important in a lesson as it engages the learner and makes it easier to grasp a concept. We were also shown a website called Charanga which has lots of different teaching resources on it. It breaks down the lessons into manageable chunks which can be added to each week. I have since had the chance to look through Charanga myself and think that I will use this in future lessons. Below I have linked the website.

https://charanga.com/site/

Art today was an interesting experience for me. Normally I would say that I am not very ‘arty’. I find art difficult and frustrating as it never turns out quite like I had imagined. By creating our own paint brushes in any manner we wanted, I felt less anxious. I made my paintbrush shorter than an average one as I prefer to be close to the paper while I work. This then gave me better control and I enjoyed it far more.

Below is a photo of some of the paintbrushes the class made.

Also, by having the lecturer talk through a mountain scene with the class we were all able to take away our own view of what the scene should look like. There were common elements that had been described but everyone’s art at the end was unique – different use of colour or spacing made them all different.

This is something I very much enjoyed seeing as I feel that schools can sometimes take away this individuality by being overly prescriptive. Ken Robinson, (2007) states in his TED Talk that schools force the creativity out of children by making them focus on other more academic subjects. Therefore, it is important that we as teachers show children that creativity and the arts are just as important as other subjects.

The importance of creativity, self-expression and fun are what I took away from both of today’s sessions. By making our own paintbrushes in art we were able to free ourselves from the constraints of normal paintbrushes. I saw this at first as a bit of a challenge as I like order and rules. The idea of ‘mess’ or disorder in a classroom is something that many teachers do not like. They prefer order, obedience and keeping tidy as that is what many school experiences in the past have been (Gabora, 2017). However, after making my own brush I felt far freer to express myself and there was far less frustration when creating my art as the brush was exactly what I wanted it to be. There was no issue with it being too fine which normally makes me acutely aware when I make a mistake. When I went over the edges of the paper – something that would normally upset me- I did not focus on it too much and so I was far more relaxed.

The picture below is of my mixing palette. Very ‘messy’.

The completed painting is below. I was very happy with it and looking forward to seeing it once it dried.

References

Gabora, L. (2017). What creativity really is – and why schools need it. [Online] Available: http://theconversation.com/what-creativity-really-is-and-why-schools-need-it-81889?fbclid=IwAR1ViR3sIjDYGMk704xyGUC34unnuWgiAbAXSmeVmnTf82VFMDDlHor-164 [Accessed: 18 September 2018].

Robinson, K. (2007). TED Talk. Do schools kill creativity? [Online] Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY [Accessed: 18 September 2018].

Today was the first input of the Integrated Arts module. We had the opportunity to look at children’s artwork that our lecturer had kept during his years of teaching. The artwork was separated into three different sections – lower primary (P1-P3), middle primary (P3-P5) and then upper primary (P6 and P7). We had the chance to walk around and look at each of the three stages which allowed us to see the development of the children’s drawing abilities as they moved up the school. One thing that we noted was that as the children grew older, their artwork became less colourful and abstract. In the upper primary particularly we could clearly see that the children were less creative in their artwork. Although their drawing skills had improved, the creativity was lacking. They were mainly replicating other artists work rather than creating their own, which showed that they were most likely following the teacher’s instructions rather than having the freedom to express themselves as they chose.

The stage theory of artistic development that is most prominent in schools is that put forward by Lowenfeld and Brittain, (1987, cited in McAuliffe, 2007). They separate these stages into the four below:

Scribbling stage (2-4 years) – in which the child is making random marks on the paper. They are drawing for enjoyment and their drawings are not recognisable as anything (Kantner, 2002).

Pre-schematic stage (4-7) – at this stage the child’s drawings start to reflect what they see around them and become recognisable as objects or people. Colour matching is not of much importance (Kantner, 2002).

Schematic stage (7-9) – children begin to match objects colour to the ones they use when drawing. They are not copying an image but using their imaginations and memory to create the drawing (Kantner, 2002).

 

Gang stage (9-12) – children become more critical of their artwork and less confident in their abilities. Drawings at this stage are less creative as children are focused on making the drawing look real (Kantner, 2002).

In music we were focusing on rhythm and pulse. To illustrate this, we played some clapping games which I found harder than I had been expecting. Trying to keep the rhythm was a challenge for me as I found it hard to concentrate on doing more than one thing at a time. I think that this important to realise as it reminds me of how the children in a class may feel and so I think it will help with my teaching as I can be empathetic. Overall, I enjoyed both sessions today as I feel that they challenged me in some ways and also opened my eyes to how important creativity is in the classroom. Although I found the music lesson difficult at first I also found it to be very engaging and rewarding when I managed to do it correctly. I found looking at the children’s art from over the years fascinating. It clearly showed that as children move up through school their creativity is diminished as they are instructed more and more by teachers. One thing that I take away from today’s sessions is that it is very important to allow children to remain creative and not stunt this by being prescriptive as it stops them from growing.

References

Kantner, L. revised by Gregory, D. (2002). The Stages of Artistic Development. [Online]. Available: https://makingartwork.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/stages_of_art_development.pdf [Accessed: 11 September 2018].

McAuliffe, D. (2007). Foundation and Primary Settings. In: Cox, S., Watts, R., Grahame, J., Herne, S. and McAuliffe, D. (eds).  Teaching Art and Design 3-11.  pp. 26-29. [Moodle Resource]. Available: Integrated Arts in Education. [Accessed: 11 September 2018].

 

 

 

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