During the last dance workshop, we combined with the other section (due to low attendance) . Together we learned new moves and put together our dance choreography which was then videoed.
After the video was recorded, we evaluated our dances. Evaluation is something which i feel is important in education. Providing children with the opportunity to evaluate themselves and get feedback from their peers is something which i think would be a valuable experience for them.
In the lecture today we spoke about the importance of delivering creative dances into our classrooms and the benefits it can bring. Providing children with an opportunity to create a dance which reflects their ideas can be a very powerful experience (Cone, 2009). Cone also states that creative dance should be fun, safe, meaningful wand a child led activity (2009)
Participating in creative dance can help children to develop confidence, physical and mental well being, communication skills and self esteem. Teachers should be embracing creative dance as it allows children’s self esteem to be improved which can be useful when teaching other curricular activities .
We also spoke about the role of the teacher when teaching creative dance. Some of the things we discussed about was believing in children’s ideas and valuing the process taken to learn the creative dance.
The workshop involved us planning a dance lesson. Each group was given a different task to teach to the rest of the class. We were split into 5 different groups and each group had one of the following lesson to plan:
our group was involved in coming with with a warm-up lesson for the bottom half of the body and teaching it to the rest of the class. Doing this has helped me to build up my confidence.
I found this workshop very useful as it allowed me to see how a lesson within a classroom should be planned and implemented.
The drama workshop involved 3 groups carrying out their micro-teaching task. Since my group presented our micro-teaching the previous week, I was able to look into how the other groups has planned their micro-teaching this week.
References:
Cone, P. (2009) Following Their Lead: Supporting Children’s Ideas for Creating Dances, Journal of Dance Education, 9:3, pp.81-89 [Online] Available at: http://moodle.uws.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/109357/mod_resource/content/1/Purcell%20Cone%20%282011%29.pdf[Accessed 21 November 2017]
In this week’s visual arts workshop, we focused on the arts practice we had seen during placement. Teaching arts in schools is important as “The inspiration and power of the arts play a vital role in enabling our children and young people to enhance their creative talent and develop their artistic skills.” (Education Scotland, nd). In my placement, I had observed very few art lessons being taught. Although some of the students had observed some good arts practices whilst in their placement, it is clear that arts is not given the same amount of importance as literacy and numeracy. It is the responsibility of the teacher to ensure that they are providing children with the experiences to become creative and this can be done by enabling them to take part in arts. Creativity is “a process which generates ideas that have value to the individual. It involves looking at familiar things with a fresh eye, examining problems with an open mind, making connections, learning from mistakes and using imagination to explore new possibilities” (Scottish government, 2013, p3).
We also spoke about teachers having high tolerance for mess and noise as children often tend to get messy and noisy when they taking part in arts.
In the music workshop, we looked at rhythm and beat. We used the drumsticks to tap the beat of the music. I found this activity very challenging as we through the different levels,
References:
Scottish Government (2013) Creativity Across Learning https://education.gov.scot/improvement/Documents/Creativity/CRE1_WhatAreCreativitySkills/Creativity3to18.pdf [ Accessed 10/12/2017]
Education Scotland (nd) https://education.gov.scot/scottish-education-system/policy-for-scottish-education/policy-drivers/cfe-(building-from-the-statement-appendix-incl-btc1-5)/curriculum-areas/Expressive%20arts [ Accessed: 11/12/2017)
In today’s lecture, Andrew spoke to us about the importance of being confident whilst teaching drama. Building our confidence can help us to teach drama effectively to the children as well as helping them build their confidence Doing this is important as confidence is once of the four capacities in the curriculum for excellence document. In addition, It is important that children enjoy what they are doing. if children enjoy their drama, they are more likely to participate.
We also watched a video which showed us an example of a drama lesson being carried out in a classroom.
A good drama lesson involves discovering the unknown, learning new things and creating meanings (Wilston, 1998). Classroom drama is all about children gaining experience rather than them performing (Neelands, 1990).
In the drama workshop, i was involved in carrying out a micro-teaching task which involved planning and presenting a drama lesson based on a book. We were split in groups to carry out this task and my group chose the book “peter rabbit”. Taking part in this activity has helped me to develop my confidence when teaching drama. i have also gained knowledge about how the different conventions can be used within a classroom.
For the music workshop, 30 students from Greenmill Primary School came to teach us about string instruments. It felt good to know how much children enjoyed being part of the string project. I learned some of the games that children played in school during their music lesson. I was also paired with one of the children who taught me how to play the cello. Being able to talk to children about their experience of music and how it benefited was good.
References:
Winston, J.(1998) Drama, Narrative and Moral Education. London:Falmer Press
(Neelands, J. (1990) Making Sense of Classroom Drama: A guide to classroom practice Heinemann Educational Books
We started today’s music workshop by talking about how important voice is to teachers. Teachers communicate and manage classroom by using their voices. Our career relies on us being able to use our voices effectively.
During the workshop, we discussed about how factors such as being ill, losing voice and shouting on a regular basis can have an impact on our voices. We spoke about about important it is for teachers to manage our voices as it is the most important teaching tool. shouting in the classroom can be avoided by finding other ways of getting the children’s attention. Example include clapping (and the children clap back), singing (and the children sing back), simply staring at the children and speaking in a quiet voice.
During placement, I have seen these methods being used (especially clapping which is seen to be very effective)
After the discussion, we looked at the resources provided by “Choonbaboon” which helped us to exercise our head, mouth and shoulders.
we then moved onto exercising our voices. We sang the songs “Doctor knickerbocker” and “Have you ever seen a penguin”. These songs can be used within the classroom to start off a music lesson. I enjoyed taking part in singing these songs and found it to be an extremely good method to start a lesson with.
In this week’s drama workshop, we looked at 4 conventions: flack back, flash forward, slow motion and narration
Andrew started the lesson by using the convention ‘Teacher in role’ and telling everyone the story about how he is a state agent who is wanting to sell a house where mysteries incidents had taken place. As a state agent, he is offering money to those who are willing to stay in the house to prove that there is nothing wrong happening in the house.
In groups, we were asked to recreate a scene of what we thought had happened previously in that house. We took part in various drama activities such as this, using the four new conventions.
We also discussed about the importance of giving children some input to decide what they would like to learn about and ask how they are doing with what they are learning. Children can use drama to be someone else and giving them the opportunity to put themselves in another people’s position is important.
Dancing is an Art which I have always enjoyed and teaching dancing to children in a primary school is something I am looking forward to.
Since I missed last week’s dance workshop, I had a lot to catch upon. From this week’s workshop, I learned that dance can be easily created and that teachers do not need to know how to dance as the children can create moves themselves. From my peers, I learned the different moves they had created from last week to the following words: Turn, Kick, Jump, Hop, Gesture, Slide, Roll, Reach and Twist. I found it hard to remember all the moves and felt that if I was involved in creating the moves, I would have remembered them more easily.
The theme for this week’s dance workshop was Halloween and we took part in lots of Halloween games as a warm up activity. I found this useful as it can be used within classroom. After that, everyone split into their own groups and practised their dance moves from last week. We then performed our dances to the rest of the group. Afterwards, we created different dance moves for number 0 to 9. We then went back into our groups, choose a phone number from one person in the group and used our different dance moves to dance to the numbers of the phone number. In school, dance can be Incorporated into mathematics. This can be done by asking children to create moves for number 0 to 9 and then giving them sums to carry out. They can then dance according to the maths questions they have (this can be used for addition, subtraction, division and multiplication).
Before the workshop finished, every group was given different Halloween pictures and had been asked to create a move for that specific picture. Each group were involved in teaching the class their new moves. Each group then put all their moves together and performed a dance to the whole class. The final dance we performed included the moves created for the different words, the phone number and moves created from different Halloween pictures.
I feel that from this week’s dance workshop, I have improvised a lot of dance moves. Carrying out similar activities with children would be a very valuable experience for them. They will not only be creating their own dance moves but will also be involved in working with their peers which will enable them to develop skills such as listening, speaking and group work.
In this week’s Drama workshop, we learned new conventions (Role on the wall, VoxPop, Mime, Thought tracking and Voice in head) and carried out different activities to strengthen our understanding of these conventions. We used the story from the book “The Tunnel” to carry out our drama workshop. The story was about a brother and a sister who were very different from each other. By carrying a drama lesson using a book like this, the children can talk about how they feel about the different characters within the book before and after doing the drama. From the workshop, I realised that carrying out a drama lesson using a book like this can be a very different experience for the children. It is more structured which can be useful when trying to achieve a certain learning outcome. However, it is important to consider that it is not always possible to predict how the lesson will turn out to be as the the structure of the lesson will all depend on how the learners engage with the drama.
Today’s first workshop was music in which we learned to create music using the “Garage band” application on Mac. 
Our first task was to compose our own backing track using the app.
The music i composed is shown in the video above.
After completing this task, we were given the opportunity to pick a animation and create a soundtrack for it.
This is how my animation turned out to be.
This was my first time using a musical application like this and found it very useful. I would consider using this application within a classroom as it was very easy to use.
The 2nd workshop was just a followup from last week’s visual art’s workshop where we made our own prints.
This week, we photocopied our best prints and continued our piece of art.
I did not add any colour as I wanted my print to stand out from the rest of the lines. I liked knowing that I did not have to follow a specific rule, I could continue my drawing the way I wanted to. During the workshop, we also spoke about how important it is to continue an art lesson.
In today’s lecture we spoke about how a painting should be discussed and explored within a classroom setting. We looked at artist Avril Paton’s “Windowns of the west” . The painting has a tenement building at the west end of Glasgow. The residents of the building can be seen carrying out various activities. During the lecture, we discussed about how a painting like this can be linked into other curricular areas. For example, children can be asked to write a story about the different people living inside this building and what may have happened during the time this painting was painted. The painting can also be linked to a drama activity; Children can act out the roles of different individuals staying in this building and have a discussion what different residents are doing.
In the first workshop we did print making. This involved me choosing a part of the “Windows of the west” painting and drawing it in a polystyrene tile.
The steps that i took to create this work of art is shown below:
From a range of different colours, I chose the above papers to make print. I folded each of the above papers to make it into a card. In a classroom setting, children should also get a variety of choices from which they can be creative.
To create our own unique art, we were firstly asked to choose a section of the building (as shown in the painting above) to draw in a polystyrene tile. I chose to draw right section of the painting.
We were given the option to either trace or copy part of the painting which we preferred. I chose to copy instead of tracing it as i felt copying could make my piece of art more unique.
I then coloured my tile in red paint and put the tile in top of my card to transfer the design from my tile into my card. i did this for all four of my cards.
To further develop our prints, we were given the opportunity to add another colour onto our tiles and also add or take out any parts of our drawing.
The end result of this activity is shown in the above picture. The first three prints were done with one paint whereas the last one was done with two.
Overall, I feel that from all the workshops I have been involved in the integrated Arts module, this activity has been the messiest. However. this was the first time i was doing print making and it has certainly been a good experience. Having taken part in this activity, I have now gained more experience, confidence and knowledge to carry out a print making experience within my own classroom. In schools, this activity can be done during a festive time and the cards can be sold to raise money for charities.
The second workshop was where we had our first input in drama. Taking part in drama allows children to be creative and be involved. Whilst in school, drama had never been a subject which i enjoyed and from the drama inputs we have in the integrated Arts module, I hope to gain more knowledge, interest and confidence to plan and implement a drama activity within a classroom.
During the workshop, We spoke about five drama conventions which are Freeze Frame,Teacher in Role, Hot seating,Thought Tunnel and Improvisation. We focused on a story about a lonely dragon who are creating problems to the villagers.The students were playing the role of the villagers and the lecturer was involved in carrying out the role of the dragon. As the activity proceeded, we found out that the dragon was not a bad person and that it just wanted to be friends with the villagers.
Whilst doing a activity like this in schools, children can be asked many questions such as “how would you describe the dragon”, “why do you think people are afraid of the dragon?”. Although the teacher does not always need to have the main role within the drama (in this case the role of the dragon) the teacher should still have some control of the lesson and be able to get the children’s attention when he/she needs to.
Room 13 is an art project which focuses on artwork created by children. This project was introduced in 1994 and involves child and adult artists working together to produce artwork. It has branches not only in Scotland but also in London, Los Angeles, Mumbai, South Africa, India and Nepal. “Room 13 provides a continuum that works across the academic spectrum, embracing learners of all ages and abilities and linking school, art, learning and life. It achieves this not by undermining or offering opposition to conventional teaching practice or existing curriculum, but by supplementing it in a way that
adds value.”(Gibb, 2012, page 244)
I found both of today’s workshops to be highly interactive and interesting. The first workshop I took part in was Visual arts. During this workshop, I was involved in creating a paintbrush using different materials such as a twig, feathers and wool.
The following pictures shows how my paintbrush turned out to be.
In my opinion, creating a paintbrush before making a painting was a very good idea. It was an exciting experience which I would definitely make use of in a classroom setting. Creating my own paintbrush enabled me to be more creative as the marks that I was making was very different to what it would have been with a regular paintbrush bought from the shop.
After creating the paintbrush, i made a paint pallet using white paper and used 4 different colours (red, white, yellow and blue) to create various colours which i might need for my painting.
The above is a picture of the pallet I used. Using only four different colours, I created many more.
The painting that I created was described verbally by the lecturer and therefore it was very different from what other people within the classroom had created. I feel this is mainly because we all think and view things differently.
The same verbal instruction was given to everyone in the class. although there were similarities between the paintings, they all looked very different.
Painting which I created.
Paintings created by different people within the class.
The 2nd workshop was music where I learned another way of playing and teaching glockenspiels : Using figure notes instead of conventional notation.
We got the opportunity to play three different musics: Jingle bells, twinke twinkle little star, and Frere jacques. The figure notes for all three of the musics is shown in the picture above. I found it easier to play with the figure notes compared to conventional notation and I feel that children at an early stage would also find playing music using figure notes much more easier and enjoyable than using conventional notation.
After this activity, we improvised our own music using the only 5 of the notes: C,D,E,G,A (represented by figurative notes). From doing this activity i learned that anyone can create music.
References
Gibb, C. (2012) Room 13: The Movement and International Network. International Journal of Art & Design Education, 31(3), pp.237-244.
Today’s lecture and workshop was mainly based on the development of children’s artwork. During the lecture we were given out an extract from the book “The arts in education: an introduction to aesthetics, theory and pedagogy”. Our task involved drawing the thoughts and ideas that came into our minds while reading the words. Although it was a very simple task, i found it challenging to put my thoughts into paper through drawing. From the lecture, I learned that I need to build up a tolerance for ambiguity when it comes to arts – the idea that there is more than one way of looking at things.
In the workshop, we were provided with the opportunity to look at some art archives. As identified by Lowenfeld and Brittain, there are four different stages children go through in arts education. These are: scribbling stage (2-4 years old); pre-schematic stage (4-7 years old); the schematic stage (7-9 years old);gang stage (9-12 years old) (McAuliffe, 2007)
Scribbling stage:
This is an example of a painting from the scribbling stage. At this stage, the marks made by children can be difficult to understand. An adult might consider the above drawing as a scribble but for a child it could be “a map of meaning making” (McAuliffe, 2007, page 27).
Pre-schematic stage:
At the pre-schematic stage, children’s drawing seem to make more sense. They start to connect the shapes that they draw to what they see around them.
Schematic stage:
The above piece of artwork is made using tissue papers and represents a child’s work from the schematic stage.
Gang stage:
When children reach this stage of artistic development, they tend to become less creative and imaginative . As they start seeing the artworks of others, they start doubting their own abilities. Artwork during this stage are liable to be more topic based. (McAuliffe, 2007)
“Stage theories are based on this culturally specific and traditional view of visual representation and thus may misrepresent children’s development. In any case, it is suggested that children conform only roughly to these stages and any apparent ‘stage’ of development is best considered without undue emphasis on chronological age” (McAuliffe, 2007, page 26)
While looking at the art archives, I realised that teachers play a huge role in supporting children to create artworks. Without appropriate materials, the above artworks would not have been the same. For example, the painting from the pre-schematic stage would need a thick brush whereas the painting shown in the gang stage would require a fine brush. Also, without the scrunched tissue papers, the Scottish flag would not have the same outcome.
In the last lecture, we had spoken about how arts can be Incorporated into different curricular areas. Viewing children’s art archives enabled me to see examples of this.
The above artwork caught my attention when looking through the archives. The child has integrated both arts and literacy in their artwork . They have made use of simile and metaphors and have not failed to be creative and imaginative with their drawing.
References:
McAuliffe, D (2007) Foundation and Primary Settings. in Teaching Art and Design 3-11 (Edited by Sue cox, Robert Watts, Judy Grahame, Steve Herne and Diarmuid McAufille) London: Continuum.
