This week the cohort were focussing on dance and music.

During the lecture today, we were discussing creative partnerships within schools. Creative partnerships can have a great impact in integrating the arts into the classroom and education (Creative Culture Education, n.d.). This is something I had never thought about before. For instance, I knew that schools could ask a dance expert to come in and work with the children, but I never knew it was optional for teachers. Creative partnerships within education are important for the development of not only pupil’s creativity but for teacher’s too. I have also learned that creative partnerships within education can lead to enhancing pupil’s experience across all curricular areas as the arts can be incorporated into any area of the curriculum. This gives children the opportunity to explore different areas that they may not normally enjoy and can also promote positive learning within areas of the curriculum which children might find challenging. For example, using dance in maths or literacy as a different or additional way of learning about a book or topic instead of the normal method of writing or watching videos. This creative learning could be delivered by the class teacher but also through creative partnerships such as a dance/drama instructor, parents, specialists in areas such as STEM and health and wellbeing, as well as many more.

Dance – Workshop 1

Today in the workshop, we were focussing on recording and analysing the dance that we, as a class and as individual groups had created over the previous weeks. I found this week very fun but also quite stressful in the lead up to immediately before recording the dance. On analysing our dance, I feel that there could have been more team co-operation and partnership between the group. I think that there were too many views on what we should be doing in the dance as well as moments of tension due to disagreement. Due to this, I think that this affected our dance overall because we were slightly confused about what moves we were doing. We could have been more of a team. This could have been solved by having the group follow just one person who could have kept the timing of the dance. We could all have contributed our views one at a time but decided as a group what moves to implement into the dance instead of arguing over what moves to use.

Moving on, when performing the dance, I think that I as an individual did quite well. I think that I had good musicality and rhythm. I was good at following the dance and getting the moves right and in sequence. However, I feel that I could have improved on timing during the dance as I was out of time with the rest of the group a few times. Aside to this, I feel that I could have memorised the dance better as I was mainly following the people in front of me during the performance. I also think that I could have used facial features to my advantage a lot more throughout the performance as I didn’t really smile much or show that I was enjoying myself. Finally, I could have improved upon showing enthusiasm when performing. I was enjoying myself, so I feel that this was due to feeling nervous as we were being recorded and because I was trying to make sure I was getting all the moves right.
We were also asked to analyse a peer’s performance in the dance. The person I analysed had great enthusiasm during the dance and had great use of facial features. They were also very good at implementing the moves and had great musicality and rhythm but did have difficulty and could improve upon timing during the dance. They were following other people in the group and so hadn’t memorised the dance but with more practice this could be achieved easily. The group as a whole in which the person was working in had a great dance and implemented all of the ten steps of dance which was very creative and aesthetically pleasing to watch.

Performing the dance is something that I really enjoyed but I also found it rather challenging. Referring back to the Tallis Pedagogical Wheel (Thomas Tallis School, 2013), I found that I was persistent throughout the workshop as well as collaborative and co-operative with my peers.

Here is the link to the video of the cohort’s dance.

https://vimeo.com/244831329

I loved the final workshop because it was fun and gave great insight into improving dance within primary schools which is easy for teachers to implement. This is something I would definitely do with my class in the future as it would give them a chance to improve analytical skills as well as teamwork skills. I am also looking forward to giving children creative freedom to create dance and to analyse their own achievements and improvements within dance. On a personal level, I feel that I have also improved my own skills through dance as feel so much more confident when performing and when creating dance when I wasn’t before. I have loved the past few weeks of the dance sessions. This is something I never though I would enjoy but I am really looking forward to teaching dance now thanks to the sessions.

 

Workshop 2- Music- Ukulele

This week in the music session, we had the chance to have ago at using the ukulele. I really enjoyed using the ukulele as I had never played one before. I found it rather challenging and I think I would need a lot more practice. I had a look at the other resources on moodle too which were very useful for not only teaching a primary class but for myself too. These resources are quite easy to follow but could be confusing at first. Letting children use instruments like this is very good for their creativity and stimulation as it is rather challenging but fun at the same time. The ukulele is not something I have personally seen being used before in school and so children may not be used to this type of instrument and so I would be keen on giving children the opportunity to experience using something they are maybe not familiar with.

I couldn’t establish a clear link between the two workshops today. However, there is a common theme of confidence building and challenge.  In the first workshop, it was a challenge to perform in front of a large audience but it helped improve confidence within individuals. Also, in the second workshop, there could be a lack of understanding about the ukulele and so in order to gain confidence, learners would have to challenge themselves in playing the instrument which my be daunting at first.

 

References

Creative Culture Education (n.d.) Creative Partnerships. The National Foundation for creative learning. [Online] Available: http://www.creativitycultureeducation.org/creative-partnerships (ccessed: 22nd December 2017)

Tallis, T. (2013) Tallis Habits Pedagogy Wheel. [Online] Available: http://www.thomastallisschool.com/tallis-pedagogy-wheel-guide.html. [ Accessed on 6th October 2017]