Integrated Arts: workshop – dance and music.
Dance: This week was the final week in Dance, which meant it was time to record our video. We joined both sections together as there was a absence of people, and formed a new dance to perform as a group. We used aspects from both section’s dances which worked well together. To start, we split into groups and created either a game, a cool down or stretches to warm up our bodies for dancing. We played games such as ‘Santa says..’, christmas tig and the number game. We then stretched our full body and also completed a cool down as we hadn’t done that before. We then discussed the importance of completing these activities. We recorded our dance then watched it back to complete a personal and peer feedback sheet. This would be a good idea to use in a classroom as pupils can watch back and see what went well and what can be improved (3 stars and a wish). This was an important task as pupils need not only teacher feedback, but to look at their work themselves and decide what went well and what needs worked on.
**I can analyse technical aspects of dance, make informed judgements and express personal opinions on my own and others’ work.
EXA 4-11a** (Scottish Government, 2004, p.64)

This is our class dance:
https://vimeo.com/244831329

Music: This weeks music lesson was a self taught lesson on the ukulele. On Moodle, there were YouTube videos to learn different songs from. The Ukulele would be a fun lesson for children to learn as it’s a different instrument rather than the instruments pupils traditionally learn such as the keyboard or recorder.
**I have the freedom to use my voice, musical instruments and music technology to discover and enjoy playing with sound and rhythm.
EXA 0-17a** (Scottish Government, 2004, p.67)

Reflection
Dance: This workshop showed that as a teacher, you always have to be prepared for the worst. Many people did not show up for the workshop, meaning we had to join two sections together and create a new dance. This was not an easy task, as both sections had completely different ideas. We had to teach each other our ideas, and make sure it was in time with the music. After recording the dance, we evaluated our own work. This is very important as a teacher, as giving feedback is helpful in learning. After a discussion with my peers, we all had similar ‘3 stars and a wish’ outcomes. You can use this form of evaluation with any subject, with both teachers and pupils taking part in it. This is also a good way for assessing dance as some teachers may find it difficult to find a way to do so. “Empowering children to create dances about what is personally meaningful presents them with the responsibility and commitment to bring their vision alive” (Cone, 2009). Teachers allowing children to create their own dance and reflect on it, gives them control and leadership of their work. Thus, keeping childrens’ creativity alive and allowing children to lead, is important in the Arts.

Music: Supplying children with resources to learn music from is very helpful for further learning. If pupils have an instrument at home, they can use online resources to get extra practise. Creativity is not about what is being taught, but how teachers teach it (Penny et al, 2003). Children do not necessarily need to be taught by someone physically being there, some children may engage more by watching an online tutorial. Although learning music notation can be fun and somewhat engaging, pupils tend to be more interested in learning through something that they can physically have and hold. When children get a few notes correct, or complete a song, they will have a sense of achievement, which is important in a young person’s educational experience. Sadly, not all pupils are able to have an instrument at home or even get the opportunity to learn an instrument, due to the lack of funding in schools. The government simply cannot afford to give every school large amounts of money to start music programmes, and some schools are not that interested in Music being a key subject for children to engage in. This is quite disappointing after learning about all the positive ways the Arts can help a child both socially and mentally. As a student teacher, I will most definitely be teaching the Arts in my classroom as I believe they are highly important for young people in modern day education.

Link
The link for these workshops would be to have confidence in yourself as a learner. In Dance, we completed a full dance, in one session and had the confidence to perform in small groups to each other. In Music, we had the confidence in our own ability to learn an instrument from watching an online video and working as a team.

References
Cone, Purcell, T. (2009). Following Their Lead: Supporting Children’s Ideas for Creating Dances. London: Rutledge.

Penny, S., Ford R., Price, L. & Young, S. (2003). Teaching Arts in Primary Schools. Exeter: Learning Matters Ltd

Scottish Government. (2004) Curriculum for Excellence [online] Available: https://www.education.gov.scot/Documents/all-experiences-and-outcomes.pdf [Accessed: 18 December 2017]

Integrated Arts: workshop – drama and dance.
Drama: This week in drama was the final micro-teaching lessons, in which other students in the class taught us a Drama lesson. We were given free range of what we could teach, as long as it was based on a book. The main content of each of the lessons taught were different drama techniques such as role on the wall and thought tunnel. Role on the wall is when you write in and around a character outline, words that others see the character as and as the character sees themselves, with words such as brave, frightening and small. Thought tunnel is when one person acts as a character and walks past everyone in the class, whilst they say a word to describe that character. We discussed that when teaching a primary class drama, we need to remind the children that we are acting, and the person playing the role, is not necessarily like the character. For example, if somebody is playing the antagonist, pupils may need reminded that it is all an act. Reflecting on the first drama workshop, I would feel much more confident now teaching my primary class Drama as a subject. Over the past few weeks in our workshops, I have learned different drama techniques and ways that drama can be used across the curriculum. We can use drama to teach lessons such as Literacy and Maths and even subjects like Science.
**I use drama to explore real and imaginary situations, helping me to understand my world.
EXA 0-14a** (Scottish Government, 2004, p.66)

Dance: In this weeks Dance workshop, we created a Christmas themed dance. Firstly, we split into groups and were given a task each. This task was either to create a warmup, 3 Christmas themed warm up games, visual moves or 10 moves to correspond with the 10 main dance moves which we learned on the first week, such as jump and slide. My group were given the task of creating the 10 main dance moves. We used Christmas themes to keep with the topic such as star jumps for jump and wrapping a present for roll. This task showed us how easy it would be to teach pupils Dance as they could come up with moves and connect them all together, then show the class. Next, we drew two christmas pictures for another group to create 2 moves. This showed everyones creative sides as we had to decide a dance move to go with pictures like a snowman or a cracker. We then went on to creating a routine which didn’t take too long as each group had already created 2 moves. We connected all the moves together for the main part of the dance. Afterwards, we split into our smaller groups to practise a routine we had created in a previous week, which would then be used in small sections of the new Christmas dance. Dance, at first, seemed like a difficult subject to teach a class, however, I feel more confident now as the 10 main dance moves are quite easy to adapt to go with any topic.
*I am becoming aware of different features of dance and can practise and perform steps, formations and short dance.
EXA 1-10a** (Scottish Government, 2004, p.63)

Reflection
Drama: Teaching children Drama has positive implications, however, when teaching younger children, there are a few things that need to be discussed. Teachers should remind the children that everybody is just playing a character, and that the person playing the character, is not meaning to be nasty. Our lecturer informed us of this due to experience of having children falling out over drama activities. After the workshop and micro-teaching tasks, I have learned how to create a successful Drama lesson which will engage children and most importantly, allow them to share their own ideas and experiences. One issue with teaching Drama would be not knowing how to keep children fully engaged. We discovered ways to do this through the micro-teaching activities. Asking the pupils questions to get ideas is an important part of Drama. Using techniques such as ‘teacher in role’ will ensure the pupils stay included as it will be a new experience for them. As teachers, we just need to be confident and throw ourselves at the task, and hope for the best.

Dance: Splitting into groups to create activities to warm up, was another great way for team building to be involved in our Dance lesson. Throughout the Dance inputs, it has been highlighted that as teachers, we must ensure that children are warming up properly before taking part in not only Dance, but any form of movement. “When children create dances using their ideas, they are empowered to explore their thoughts, feelings, and perspectives” (Cone, 2009, p.81). Allowing children to create their own dance, rather than to copy a dance, creates a sense of pride. Performing their own dance to an audience, would be much more fulfilling than a copied dance. This is due to their own dance showcasing their own ideas and their own creativity.

Link
The link for these workshops would be acceptance. As a teacher, we need to accept the ideas of a child during the Arts, and allow these ideas, in this case, to shape a drama performance and a dance routine. In Drama, we discussed that children will want to create their own characters, and in Dance, we discussed that children need to create their own dance moves to keep them motivated.

References
Cone, Purcell, T. (2009). Following Their Lead: Supporting Children’s Ideas for Creating Dances. London: Routledge.

Scottish Government. (2004) Curriculum for Excellence [online] Available: https://www.education.gov.scot/Documents/all-experiences-and-outcomes.pdf [Accessed: 18 December 2017]

Integrated Arts: workshop – music and art.
Music: This weeks music workshop was all about learning to keep a beat and read music. Everyone was given a pair of drumsticks to practise with. We discussed that when teaching children music, at first we use connotations. For example, we used ‘circle’ and ‘square’ to show the notes that were being played. A square was a one beat note (crochet) and a circle was a two beat note (quaver). This was due to syllables, circ-le having two, square having one. This made reading the music much easier for me as I used to find music reading difficult. We then practised different songs using the drum sticks to keep the beat. In the workshop, we managed to get through 3 terms of music work in an hour which was impressive. After a while of practising the music, we were given glockenspiels and xylophones to practise on. We worked in pairs to practise different songs, but this time, we learned to read music sheets. This was quite difficult and I still don’t think I would be able to teach pupils how to read music as I have not had much practise in doing so. This workshop was fun and gave me some ideas on how to teach pupils to count beats and to keep a rhythm.
**I enjoy singing and playing along to music of different styles and cultures.
EXA 0-16a** (Scottish Government, 2004, p.67)

Art: This workshop was fully discussion based. At first, we discussed in our groups what arts we had seen whilst out on placement whether that was Drama, Music, Art or Dance. We then shared our experiences with the class. Most of the answers varied from seeing art used in topic work or for assembly, with very few people seeing a drama lesson occur. I personally have only seen Music lesson’s and one Art lesson occur. A specialist comes in and teaches the class recorder. However, the class do have other Integrated Arts lessons on other days when I am not in class. We then discussed how people from other countries may complete Art lessons. We used the example of pupils from Lapland. They use their snowy weather to an advantage. Pupils and teachers go outside and create sculptures from the snow. This would be a fun activity to complete with a class if you were fortunate enough to have that weather. However, you could use any types of weather as a stimuli for your art lesson. For example, you could use leaves from Autumn to create textured art. My confidence in Art has developed throughout this module, and I know have a better understanding of not focusing on a set art lesson, but rather to just let art happen.
**Inspired by a range of stimuli, I can express and communicate my ideas, thoughts and feelings through activities within art and design.
EXA 0-05a / EXA 1-05a / EXA 2-05a** (Scottish Government, 2004, p.62)

Reflection
Music: Using drumsticks to teach children a Music lesson, shows that teachers don’t always need a large range of instruments for a Music lesson to be engaging. Teaching pupils to read music sheets is important as it’s giving children a basic background on music, rather than just learning from figure notes (which is extremely helpful for starting to learn). Teaching children music in stages, allows time for questions and one-on-one help, rather than rushing learning with the risk of the children not fully understanding which happens quite a lot in teaching Music in primary schools, from personal experience. Giving time for Music lessons can be a barrier in teaching, due to some schools believing the focus should be on Literacy and Numeracy.
The Arts are not as respected in Education as they should be. Schools need to focus and allow time for the Arts to occur.

Art: Reflecting on my own placement experience of the Arts, does show me that the Arts are barely ever experienced in schools compared to other subjects. The Arts provide creativity for children and allow children to express themselves in many ways. Creativity is important and applicable in all features of learning (Duffy, 2006). Using art across the curriculum allows for creativity in the classroom, which is an important part of Education. After a discussion, it was evident that not many people had witnessed the Arts fully, whilst being on placement. This was quite disappointing, as I have come to realise how important the Arts are after taking part in this module. Finally, we discussed, as teachers, the use of templates and how schools around the world use resources to create Art. For example, schools in Lapland, use their snowy weather to their advantage and make snow sculptures! I thought this was such a smart concept and I would have loved the chance to do this during my time in school!

Link
The link for the workshops would be the easiness of teaching an Integrated Arts lesson when you have the correct support and resources. In Music, we only needed sticks to keep the beat, and in Art, we discussed what Arts we had encountered on placement and the resources available.

References
Duffy, B. (2006) Supporting Creativity and Imagination in the Early Years. Maidenhead:Open University Press.

Scottish Government. (2004) Curriculum for Excellence [online] Available: https://www.education.gov.scot/Documents/all-experiences-and-outcomes.pdf [Accessed: 18 December 2017]

Integrated Arts: workshop – drama and music.

Drama: This week, we were given the opportunity to teach a drama lesson, in groups, to the class. My group based their lesson on ‘The Gruffalo’. We decided this as it’s a well known children’s book which we could use across the curriculum. We worked as a group to create a plan of what we could teach our class, then individually/in pairs, made up a quick interactive activity to learn the drama convention being taught. We used role in the wall, flashback, mime, flashforward, teacher in role and vox-pop. I was given the responsibility to teach ‘role in the wall’. I explained the task and gave out worksheets with the figure of the Gruffalo and the Mouse on it so all the groups had a mix, rather than all picking the Gruffalo. After explaining the task, I gave the class 2 minutes to complete the worksheet, then give feedback. This task didn’t make me as nervous as I thought it would, but I think this was down to working as a team. As our class may not have known the story of the Gruffalo, we had one person in the group as the reader which helped when doing the activities. I felt this workshop was very helpful and gave us a test trial on how we could teach a class drama. I learned that in teaching drama, you need to give the pupils freedom to create their own stories, and adapt their ideas. If I was to do this lesson differently, I would take one of the ideas from the pupils and go with that, rather than basing it fully on the book.
**Inspired by a range of stimuli, I can express and communicate my ideas, thoughts and
feelings through drama.
EXA 0-13a / EXA 1-13a / EXA 2-13a** (Scottish Government, 2004, p.65)

Music: This music workshop was interesting and engaging. Primary school pupils came in to teach us how to play their string instrument. We learned the different notes/strings, and spoke out loud different rhythms we could practise. We were given one primary pupil per 2 university students. Our pupil taught us how to hold the cello and the proper way to play it. He then taught us how to hold the bow which was actually quite a challenge. We played a short song as a class which was actually fun but hard to keep in time. During the workshop, we watched a video which explained the music program that the pupils were on, which sounded like it was very helpful and gave the pupil confidence. This workshop was fun and I enjoyed learning the cello, however, I wasn’t very good at it. The pupils played a little song for us which sounded great compared to my attempt. I think that pupils learning instruments is a great way to learn teamwork as the pupils were called ‘an orchestra’. There are also many other reasons such as “enhancing coordination” (Matthews, 2011) and “bettering your maths ability” (Matthews, 2011).
**I can use my voice, musical instruments and music technology to experiment with sounds, pitch, melody, rhythm, timbre and dynamics.
EXA 2-17a** (Scottish Government, 2004, p.67)

Reflection
Drama: Working in groups to teach a micro-lesson has been an important task in our Drama experience. This gave us the chance to try and teach a Drama lesson. Trying to decide on activities that would keep a class entertained during a lesson was actually quite a difficult task. As we worked in groups to create the lesson, we all had an opportunity to share ideas and give each other feedback. This showed to me the importance of collaborative working in Education. Teachers can work together to create lessons which they both can use, or they can even join classes together for a full stage lesson on subjects, such as the Arts. However, some pupils may only be confident in performing to their class. Teachers need to remember that they cannot force a child to perform if they do not want to, this will let the child’s confidence drop drastically. Allowing children to teach each other, like I completed in the workshop, is a fun and exciting way for children to learn. Learning from peers is a fun way to learn as it allows both the teacher and the learner to engage in a lesson.

Music: Learning an instrument from the pupils from a local school, was an exciting lesson and a great experience for a student teacher. This primary school has an amazing music programme which allows pupils to learn a string instrument and gives the opportunity for the pupils to perform in some amazing places around Scotland . I learned the cello which I had never thought of learning before! It was such an amazing experience to learn from a pupil and you could tell that the children were all very motivated and that the music programme has helped their confidence greatly. After a discussion with the pupil who helped me, he told me that he really enjoys learning music and that it was his favourite subject. The children seemed very grateful for the opportunity they had been given. Allowing children to teach others, again, gives a sense of pride and boosts self-esteem in the child.

Link
The link for these workshops would be learning from others. In Drama, we learned from our peers and in Music, we learned from pupils from a local primary school. These workshops showed the different environments which learning can occur, with both younger people and people of a similar age group.

References
Matthews, M. (2011). 18 Benefits of playing a musical intstrument [online] Available: http://www.effectivemusicteaching.com/articles/directors/18-benefits-of-playing-a-musical-instrument/ [Accessed: 7 November 2017]

Scottish Government. (2004) Curriculum for Excellence [online] Available: https://www.education.gov.scot/Documents/all-experiences-and-outcomes.pdf [Accessed: 18 December 2017]

Integrated Arts: workshop – drama and music.
Drama: This weeks drama class was halloween based. We began with the technique of ‘teacher in role’. The lecturer acted as a reporter type character. He began by telling us about house that we had the chance to visit. However, this house was haunted, and there were many stories about how this happened. The lecturer walked around the class asking us if we had heard about the house, and what we think happened. To get us all involved, there were many questions being asked. This was a good task as the pupils would have the opportunity to contribute to the story by deciding what actually happened to make it haunted. We then went in to groups and discussed ‘flashback’ and ‘flashforward’. A flashback is taking your drama back to a time in the past. A flashforward is taking your drama to a future time. In our flashback, we decided to tell the story of how the house was before it became ‘haunted’. When letting pupils decide what to perform, we, as teachers, should ensure that it is appropriate to show the drama to the class as some ideas that children could have could be too extreme. We discussed the technique of forum-theatre. This is the idea that a member of the audience can contribute an idea to change or enhance the performance. Members of the audience can also take over another actors part by tapping the actor on the shoulder to take their place.
**I can create, develop and sustain a realistic or stylised character through the use of voice, movement and language.
EXA 3-12a** (Scottish Government, 2004, p.65)

Music: This week in music, we started by discussing ways we could get pupils involved in music as not everyone wants to join in. We started by discussing a music company called ‘Choon-Baboon’. This was a very useful resource and I will definitely be using this in my class. This resource is videos which teach your pupils music for you. This may seem like a lazy way to teach, but it was highly engaging and thoroughly entertaining. We as a class learned a song about street dancing pirates which I have linked below. There were many songs for different topics such as dogs, the titanic and the eighties. We then practised our singing to ‘Dr Knickerbocker’. As not everybody was getting involved, we then had to sing the penguin song. This was getting us to sing and dance along. I found this quite fun and have linked both songs below. I will be using these videos in my classroom as I have found that the pupils in my placement class enjoy dancing and singing. To complete this workshop, we worked as a class then in groups and used instruments to count out beats. Firstly, I used bells to contribute to the class activity. We used the topic of fireworks to create sounds like bang and crackle. As a group, we decided to use the topic of animals with the likes of snakes, lions and ducks.  I would use this with an older age group as it can be quite confusing with the timing as nobody is conducting the task.
**I can use my voice, musical instruments or music technology to improvise or compose with melody, rhythm, harmony, timbre and structure.
EXA 3-17a** (Scottish Government, 2004, p.67)

Reflection
Drama: The ongoing learning of drama techniques ensures that the learning in Drama is continuous. Allowing everybody to have the chance to perform, is important in the teaching of Drama. I have become much more confident due to the Drama workshops as we get to share our ideas each session. When teaching Drama to young people, we need to be aware of the topics that may occur. We, as teachers, need to be sensitive to what ideas are being discussed as some ideas may be too extreme for pupils. In topic work, some wars or other harsh realities, should not be acted out, however, some teachers may see it effective as it might help pupils to understand the scenarios more. Drama isn’t always acting out a story, using a script. It is about discovering the unknown, creating new ideas and discovering new concepts (Winston, 1998, cited in Grainger, 2003, p.45). Allowing children to adapt stories and create their own dramas, will allow for creativity in the classroom, a key motivation for teaching the Arts in schools.

Music: Allowing Music to be taught in different ways can engage children, rather than allowing them to continue playing an instrument week after week. Teaching children to care for their voice whilst singing, is an important thing to discuss. On placement, my class have been singing, however, they don’t warm up their voices. As a teacher, that may not be the first thing that would come to mind, however, it is very important. Teachers can use online videos to allow pupils to warm up before beginning to sing. Using an online source, such as Choon-Baboon, allows the teacher to have a ‘new teacher’, which can be exciting for the pupils. However, if the teacher would prefer to teach the class, websites such as Charanga Scotland, supplies teachers with lesson plans and videos to teach the class with.

Link
This link for these workshops would be involvement. Both workshops ensured that everyone was involved with Drama allowing everybody the opportunity to perform and Music with the encouragement.

References
Scottish Government. (2004) Curriculum for Excellence [online] Available: https://www.education.gov.scot/Documents/all-experiences-and-outcomes.pdf [Accessed: 18 December 2017]

Winston, J. (1998) Drama, Narrative and Moral Education. In: Grainger, T. (2003) Creative teachers and the language arts: Possibilities and potential, Education 3-13: International Journal of Primary, Elementary and Early Years Education. 31:1, 43-47, DOI: 10.1080/03004270385200071

Integrated Arts: workshop – drama and dance.
Drama: This weeks Drama class was engaging and involved quite a bit of teamwork. This weeks lesson was all about using a stimuli to create different types of drama. This also showed me how I could use any type of story to create a drama stimulus. This weeks lesson showed me that Drama could be a fun lesson to teach and it was all up to the childs’ imagination with help from a teacher. Our stimuli for this session was a story called “The Tunnel” which was about a relationship between a brother and sister. After being read a few pages of the book, we worked in groups and used the drama technique of ‘role on the wall’ to decide not only how we seen the characters of the story, but how the characters see themselves. After this, we created a quick improvisation of what we thought was going to happen next in the story, and then each group gave a monologue from both sides (brother and sister). This lead us on to the discussion that any pupils can play any gender of characters which was perfectly acceptable. After this, we improvised a full group, what we think should happen now in the story. This was quite a daunting task as we had to stand up in front of everyone and create an ending to the story. Every group ended up with different ideas which was interesting as it showed me that a drama stimuli can end up creating so many different stories. I personally studied drama in high school so I knew a lot of the techniques being taught, however, it was a good lesson as a refresh as I had forgotten quite a bit. I definitely feel more confident in teaching a primary class drama as I have realised the freedom I have with this. I could easily connect my English lesson to drama by having pupils act out different parts of a story to keep the learning exciting and different. There is many ways drama can be incorporated across the curriculum and I think it’s an important subject as drama lets all pupils be creative and express themselves.
**I have developed confidence and skills in creating and presenting drama which explores real and imaginary situations, using improvisation and script.
EXA 1-14a** (Scottish Government, 2004, p.66)

Dance: This weeks dance input was highly engaging and fun for all. We began by warming up our bodies by stretching. I thought this was very helpful as it gave me ideas on how I could teach my pupils to warm up. When we do this, we also discuss what we are stretching and how this helps us. This helps us as student teachers as we can pass the information on to our pupils. This week we rehearsed our group dance routine that we created using the 10 main elements to dance: turn, balance, twist, reach, roll, slide, gesture, hop, jump and kick. We then came together as a class and created 10 (0-9) more dance moves, but this time they were halloween themed. After we decided our class moves, we went back into our groups and completed a maths worksheet which the answers gave us a sequence of numbers from 0 to 9. This was a good lesson idea as it incorporated maths into our lesson, which gave it an extra element. This also could make maths fun for pupils as at the end of their maths questions, they would have a dance to perform. It was like a sense of achievement. We were given a picture as a stimulus, and created a movement. As a class, we then added all our moves together to create a short sequence. This showed us that any dance moves could join to form a dance that could keep to a beat. Tshudy (n,d.) states that “Dance is a different learning experience for them. It’s physical, and it gives the students sort of a mental break.” I agree with this statement as children have the freedom of movement in dance. Pupils can be themselves in dance, rather than having to try and achieve the best grades and get the correct answers in other subjects. To complete our drama input, we worked as a full class to create a dance to ‘Thriller’. We incorporated every groups individual routines into the dance to showcase our ideas.
**I can explore and choose movements to create and present dance, developing my skills and techniques.
EXA 2-08a** (Scottish Government, 2004, p.63)

Reflection
Drama: During the Drama workshops, my confidence is developing each week. Being allowed to get up and perform to peers improves self-confidence and gives a sense of pride to young people. I have developed my teamwork skills in drama as when working in groups, everyone needs to listen to each other and take onboard all ideas. Allowing all off the pupils ideas to be voiced is very important in Drama. Allowing other subjects to reinforce Drama, is a great idea in schools. Drama can be used in Topic work to visually show pupils, for example, a historic event. Using books can be helpful too as pupils can change the story to create their own. Teachers getting involved in Drama lessons will help engage pupils. Using techniques such as ‘vox-pop’ and ‘teacher in role’, teachers can ensure all pupils are engaging by asking questions to do with the drama created. Drama can be used to allow children to experience problem solving and it helps with a child’s information processing abilities. “Representation has a central role in cognitive development and it is through symbolic representation that children require the facility for abstract thought” (Duffy, 2006, p.10).

Dance: This workshop was fully related to the theme of Halloween. Having a theme helps with different ideas and can help create new dance moves. Another task involved getting maths answers, to then get a number sequence. After getting the number sequence, we could use the 10 key movements created to create a dance sequence. Using dance across the curriculum can help engage pupils, as it would be an interactive way of learning. Dance can also help calm pupils down, as I have seen on placement. My class teacher uses a website called ‘Go Noodle’, which has different songs and dances on it relating to topics such as maths and human bones. Then, a calm down song plays and the pupils listen to that and join in. The energetic song lets the children have a fun, jump around and then the calming song lets pupils know that it’s time to get back to work. A barrier to both Drama and Dance would be finding a space large enough to complete activities. Usually the Gym hall is used in schools for this, however, when it’s not available, classrooms can still be used with less movement occurring.

Link
The link for the workshops would be that the Arts can be used throughout different subjects. Drama showed us this through the use of a story, and Dance showed this through the use of Maths questions to discover a sequence for a dance.

References
Duffy, B. (2006) Supporting Creativitity and Imagination in the Early Years. Open University Press. Chapter 1.

Tshudy, E. (n,d.) In: George, M. (n,d.) The importance of Dance Programs in schools [online] Available: http://www.danceinforma.com/2015/12/02/importance-dance-programs-schools/ [Accessed: 20 December 2017]

Scottish Government. (2004) Curriculum for Excellence [online] Available: https://www.education.gov.scot/Documents/all-experiences-and-outcomes.pdf [Accessed: 18 December 2017]

Integrated Arts: workshop – music and dance // creative.
Music: This weeks music workshop was theory based. We split into small groups and were given a different aspect from the International Journal of Music Education. My group were given the numeracy chapter to read and create a mind map from. We found out information on maths learning connected with music. What I found most interesting was that people who had many years of private lessons in music, or people that played a keyboard, scored higher in maths than people who didn’t learn an instrument or who played another instrument. Learning an instrument helps with memory and sequences, which is involved in maths. “Music involves creating patterns of sound. Mathematics can be described as the study of patterns.” (John, 2013). We then discussed as a class all the different subjects which could be connected to music. After this, we worked as a group to create a lesson plan that connected music with another subject. We decided to do ours on literacy and music. Our learning intention was to be able to translate ideas/emotions from a piece of music into written text in the form of a creative story. Our success criteria was : I can listen to a piece of music and form ideas, I can put my ideas together and create a story. We decided that we would do a question and answer as one form of assessment. We could also reflect on the experience as a class. The class lesson was that the pupils would listen to 3 pieces of music, and at the end, picked which piece they would want to write about. The pupils could then brainstorm their ideas and come up with their story. This would show that as a whole, everyone in the class would have different ideas and feelings towards a piece of music. To follow up, pupils could create a storyboard of their story, and then could act out their stories in groups. Although the class wasn’t practical this week, it was helpful to a student teacher as we were able to create our own lesson.
**I can respond to music by describing my thoughts and feelings about my own and others’ work.
EXA 0-19a** (Scottish Government, 2004, p.68)

Dance: At first, I was worried about going to this class as I wasn’t sure what we would actually be doing. Even though I went to dance classes from the age of 3, I still was anxious as it was a new environment. We started off by writing down a word that described how we felt about teaching dance to our own class. I wrote ‘nervous’ as I wouldn’t know where to start in teaching a class to dance. However, after this workshop, I definitely gained confidence and would know how to do so now. Firstly, we began by doing warm up games. We stood in two lines and the people at the back had to pass along the dance move, like a game of chinese whispers. Next, we stood in a line and walked around the hall. Different genres of music would play and the person at the front of the line would do a movement that they would connect with the song. This made me nervous as everybody was watching you and waiting for you to do a movement. However, we all calmed when we realised we were all in the same situation. We then discussed how you could warm up all the muscles in your body and which activities we could use for a class. This was helpful as we were given ideas that we could use when on placement. We then went onto labelling parts of the body. We labelled bones, muscles and organs. We used one person from the group and drew around their body on big pieces of paper. This would be a fun and educational lesson for children as it’s active learning. Before doing this activity with a class, I would make sure to teach them about the different muscles, bones and organs in the body so they could correctly identify which place each part goes as we found this quite difficult as adults. Finally, we worked in a group and went round stations with different dance moves such as ‘twist’, ‘hop’ and ‘balance’. We connected 10 different moves and performed it to the class. It was interesting that even though everybody was given the same words, all the dance routines were different.
**I can explore and choose movements to create and present dance, developing my skills and techniques.
EXA 2-08a** (Scottish Government, 2004, p.63)

Reflection
Music: Having a theory based Music lesson was a change, however, a positive change. Learning that Music helps children across the curriculum and with their own lives, was something I had never taken into consideration fully. Children who struggle with home or school life, can turn to music for an escape or to fully express themselves. Music not only helps with confidence but it also impacts other areas in Education such as Numeracy, Literacy, pupils concentration, self-confidence and general attainment (Hallam, 2010). During the workshop, we split into groups and looked at different sections of the Hallam paper, which was effective as I learned a lot from my peers, rather than having to read a full reading. Personally, I don’t think that young pupils need to learn the academic side of Music yet. However, as a student teacher, the academic reading was important as it taught me that Music allows all pupils a chance to prove themselves.

Dance: Creative dance is something that I never really learned in my time in school. I was quite nervous at the thought of teaching Dance, however, after the workshop, I have learned a lot. I learned the 10 key movements which everybody needs to dance. This gave me a starting point for lessons I could teach my pupils in the future. Teaching children these dance moves are important because without them, pupils could not adapt their dancing ability. When teaching Dance, teachers need to remember that the main ideas need to come from children. “The vision for the dance belongs to the children” (Cone, 2009). Teachers also need to ensure that children have warmed up properly, so that there are no injuries. Warm-ups can be done by completing games such as themed tig, or simon says games. Children tend to fully engage in these games which would make sure they have warmed up and are ready to dance. Children can be split into groups to create dance moves in relation to the 10 key movements. This would encourage teamwork and allow children to share their ideas. A main barrier to dance, is the teachers confidence in teaching it. Some teachers do not know where to start when teaching Dance which will make them very nervous and stressed. If teachers are given good support or the right training, the Arts could be much easier for teachers to teach.

Link
The link for the workshops is the positive impact the Arts have. The academic reading from Music showed that Music can positively impact a child’s life and can be used across the curriculum. Dance showed that the Arts can boost self-confidence and has health benefits also.

References
Cone, Purcell, T. (2009). Following Their Lead: Supporting Children’s Ideas for Creating Dances. London: Routledge.

Hallam, S. (2010) International Journal of Music Education. [Module Resource] Available: Integrated Arts in Education module on Moodle. [Accessed: 13 December 2017].

Scottish Government. (2004) Curriculum for Excellence [online] Available: https://www.education.gov.scot/Documents/all-experiences-and-outcomes.pdf [Accessed: 18 December 2017]

Integrated Arts: workshop – music and art // printing.
Music: This week we used an app called ‘Garage Band’ on the computers. This was easy to access and actually quite a fun activity. Firstly, we began by navigating our way around the app and checking out what we had to use . You could use instruments such as the guitar, piano and drums to create your own beat and song. There were also many sound effects which could be used to make a short film within the app, which we eventually did. We were then told to create our own 8 bar song by using the programmed clips. You would think this was easy but it was actually quite difficult trying to find different audio clips that sounded good together. As a class, there were many different sounds and genres played as a whole, which was interesting to me. Lastly, we were given a video clip with no audio. We were then told to add sound effects to the video which I found quite fun but frustrating to get the timing right. I would use this in my classroom but have the pupils work in pairs to help each other as it was quite confusing at first. It can be used to create a rhythm which you could then use to create your own song about anything. You could make a song to remember the 7 times tables! You could also let your pupils film a short clip of their own and add their own sound effects. The downfall of this app is that it’s only available on apple products, which might be difficult to access in certain schools as not all have iPads etc.
**I can use my voice, musical instruments and music technology to discover and enjoy playing with sound, rhythm, pitch and dynamics.
EXA 1-17a** (Scottish Government, 2004, p.67)

Art: As I missed last weeks Art class, I got to complete the printing activity this week. We were given a picture of a large house with many windows which was called ‘Windows in the West’ by Avril Paton. We were told to draw either the full picture or a certain part. However, we only had a pen and an a5 piece of polystyrene. We had to engrave our picture into it. This was quite a difficult task as you couldn’t lean too heavy or you would create holes and you couldn’t lean too light or the engravings wouldn’t show up. Once this part was done, we were given 4 coloured pieces of paper and very thick ink. We then used a roller and the ink, painted over our polystyrene and pressed it onto the paper. Once all four pieces of paper were done, we took our polystyrene and carved holes out of certain parts of it. I decided to cut out most windows from mine. We then went back and used a different colour of ink and pressed onto our paper again. This was interesting as we then had pictures which looked like it had shadows and dimension. Although my pictures didn’t turn out perfect, I enjoyed this task as it was messy and you had the freedom to do whatever you wanted! I would use this activity in my class in an art class to create cards for occasions such as Christmas or Easter.
**I can create and present work using the visual elements of line, shape, form, colour, tone, pattern and texture.
EXA 1-03a** (Scottish Government, 2004, p.61)

Reflection
Music: Using an online source to create music shows that, again, Music can be used in a variety of ways. Giving children a computer, always starts excitement, as it isn’t just sitting down and writing. Children would engage in Garage Band, like I did. However, I think that before allowing children to use an online app, they may need taught how to work it, because Garage Band was quite difficult to use at first. Allowing children to create their own songs causing excitement and involvement, which is great for a child’s learning and self-esteem. Children would feel a sense of pride as it’s their own song they have created which is an amazing concept. Pupils could create their own videos and add sound effects and music, which would then incorporate Drama and Literacy into a Music lesson, by writing scripts and acting. Teachers need to have faith in their pupils and allow them to be imaginative and lead their own learning (Cone, 2009). Allowing children to express themselves, is mainly what the Arts is about. Giving children the confidence and freedom allows a fun and engaging school experience. The barrier to using online apps is the lack of resources in schools. Not all schools have enough or any laptops/iPads for children to use. GarageBand is an app which can only be used on Apple products, which is a major downfall.

Art: As I was absent the previous week, I was allowed to complete the printing activity this week. Although I was copying a picture, it was given the freedom of any part of the picture and whichever paper and ink I preferred also. This still allowed creativity, even though I was given a starting point. Being allowed to complete the task from last week, showed to me that, as a teacher, we need to allow all children to complete work and be involved with previous lessons. Learning about Room 13 was interesting. Room 13, is a “global uprising of creative and entrepreneurial children who are responsible for a growing international network of student- organised art studios” (Gibb, 2012, p.237). A school in Fort William, allows children to attend Room 13, and develop their Art skills. This is amazing as young people are allowed to actively take part in Art, and create anything that comes to mind. I think that all schools should have a similar idea! Allowing children to have a doodle book for drawing in, could be an alternative for schools that cannot afford a lot of Art supplies. Also, continuing with previous Art lessons and eventually displaying them, would give children a sense of purpose and pride in their work.

Link
The link for the workshops would be discovering. Discovering different ways in which Music can be taught, whether that is with instruments present, or using an online source. Also, discovering different materials and resources to use in Art, such as ink and polystyrene, or even leaves, twigs and wood etc. Many resources can be used creatively.

References
Cone, Purcell, T. (2009). Following Their Lead: Supporting Children’s Ideas for Creating Dances. London: Routledge.

Gibb, C. (2012) Room 13: The Movement and International Network. Blackwell Publishing LTD.

Scottish Government. (2004) Curriculum for Excellence [online] Available: https://www.education.gov.scot/Documents/all-experiences-and-outcomes.pdf [Accessed: 18 December 2017]

Integrated Arts: workshop – music and art // painting.
Music:
We split into small groups this week, and were given a glockenspiel or xylophone. We were also given three sheets of music // Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Jingle Bells and Frère Jacques. They were written in a technique called figure notes. Each key had a shape with a different colour. The shape would change with each section, known as an octave. It was difficult at first as everyone was playing random songs at the same time, but I eventually got the hang of it and had a positive experience. I would definitely teach music like this in my classroom at first before moving onto music notation. We then played each song as a class which felt like a mini performance. We were then told that everyone individually had to play a 16 bar improvisation to ‘Hit the Road Jack’ which obviously caused nerves and dread in many of us. This gave everyone a good experience and all nerves were eliminated. I think this would be a good lesson to give to pupils as we all got to listen to each other and show off the skills we had learned in that day. We also had a look at a teaching website called ‘Charanga Scotland’. This website is based on teaching music in Scottish schools. The website gives lesson plans for various levels, or you could even plan lessons yourself using the website.
** I can sing and play music from a range of styles and cultures, showing skills and using performance directions and/or musical notation.
EXA 2-16a** (Scottish Government, 2004, p.67)

Art:
We spent the first half of the workshop making our own paintbrushes to show that even if your school has no resources, you could easily make them with the different objects found. We used willow branches and decorated them using string, ribbon, buttons and other things we could find. I used pink string to decorate the handle of my paint brush, while using a lot of cotton wool as the bristle part as it would be easy to cover a large space with. After we finished making our own brushes, we brought them all together to see the different ideas we came up with. I think that letting children create their own brushes is a great lesson idea as this allows them to be creative and lets the child decide what they want to use to paint. Next, we were given a description of a picture and told to paint what we think the picture looked like. However, we were only given yellow, blue, red and white paint. We were allowed to pick any colour of A3 paper and were allowed to begin painting. This was a good lesson as everyone was given the same instructions yet the pictures all looked different and we could use our own paintbrushes and see what worked well and what needed improved on. Below are pictures of the process of me creating my paintbrush and my actual painting.
**I have the freedom to discover and choose ways to create images and objects
using a variety of materials.
EXA 0-02a** (Scottish Government, 2004, p.61)

Reflection
Music: Using figure notes as an introduction to musical notation, is a great way to get children past the barrier of fear and unknown. I had no clue on how to read music, so the use of colours and shapes helped me a lot. The improvisation task was daunting, however, knowing that everybody was taking part settled my nerves. My reading and listening skills improved throughout the workshop. Working in pairs, we had to listen to each others music playing skills and help each other, which was a fun way of learning. Music and performing builds confidence in young people as they are showcasing their talents to an audience. Giving children constructive feedback is important so they can build in their confidence and improve their musical ability. Teaching children Music is important and engaging. Music is known to not only increase creativity levels in a classroom, but it also impacts other areas and aspects in Education such as Numeracy, Literacy, concentration, self-confidence and general attainment (Hallam, 2010). Children who struggle in subjects such as Maths, can prove themselves in Music and the Arts. All children have the capability to learn an instrument, they just need to focus and keep practising to become better each time. Teaching children, by using the likes of figure notes, is an effective way to learn the basics, like I did throughout the workshop. Using the improvisation task that I completed in the workshop, is a great way to get children past the initial stage of nerves. Giving pupils time to practise and learn will allow the children to have fun and learn music properly. Learning Music in schools can sometimes be difficult, due to the lack of resources. Not all schools have a large range of instruments for pupils to use, hence why, some authorities start up music projects, which allow children to be involved in music actively and even allow children to perform to large audiences, which would boost their confidence and pride in themselves.

Art: Creating my own paint brush, was a unique and fun experience. It took a lot of thinking from what materials would be helpful when painting to the decorating of it. It was interesting that, although everyone was given the same materials, all the paint brushes were different. This proved that allowing creativity in a teaching environment, allows all ideas to come to life, rather than producing many copies. Having a picture described and having to paint what you think it looks like was an engaging and fun task, and again, everybody had similar, yet different ideas. Using your own paintbrush to complete this task was effective, as you could see what worked from your plan, and what needed improved. My listening skills were put to the test during this workshop, as I had to listen to the description of a painting. Taking notes made this a bit easier, however, it was still quite difficult to decide what you thought the painting may have been. Being only given white, red, blue and yellow paint was also quite a difficult task, due to having specific colours in your mind for the painting. Mixing the colours with having very few resources was messy but fun. Teaching children Art is very important, and allowing them to take time to complete a task, is vital. After thinking, I discovered that my experience in taking part in Art in primary school, I never fully finished a piece of art as we were limited to time, and if I did complete it, that would be due to rushing my work. Teachers need to give time to children to fully engage in their work.

Link
The link for the workshops would be creating and developing. Creating your own resources and materials in Art, and creating your own songs with instruments in Music. Also, developing skills in Music through learning to read music, and developing in Art by creating your own resource and having to think about the different ways your resource would need to work.

References
Hallam, S. (2010) International Journal of Music Education. [Module Resource] Available: Integrated Arts in Education module on Moodle. [Accessed: 13 December 2017].

Scottish Government. (2004) Curriculum for Excellence [online] Available: https://www.education.gov.scot/Documents/all-experiences-and-outcomes.pdf [Accessed: 18 December 2017]

Integrated Arts: workshop – art development in children throughout the years.
Art: We started by doodling during our lecture. We were given readings and were told to highlight important parts, without actually highlighting. We were given the freedom to draw over the words, whatever came to our minds. As a class, we then discussed what we had drawn and where the ideas came from. In the workshop, there were 3 tables filled with children’s art work from over many years. This was really helpful as we could see the improvements from early years to Primary 6/7. Each piece of work had a different story and you could tell they were all from different eras.

There are 4 main stages in child development in art (Lowenfeld and Brittain’s (1987)):

– 2 to 4 years // Identified scribbling stage.
Pictures are just marks on the page. Done for own enjoyment. Freedom to do whatever they wish.

– 4 to 7 years // Pre-schematic stage.
The world around the child is starting to take form in their pictures. Art work begins to become clear and has evolved from memories.

– 7 to 9 years // Schematic stage.
Children have a better sense of space in their drawings. Children now begin to judge and improve their art work.

– 9 to 12 years // Gang stage.
This is when children begin to copy art work of others, rather than letting their own creative ideas flow. At this stage, children have a lack of faith in themselves and their art work.

When looking at the art work in this workshop, you could clearly see the stages present in the art. The younger years art work was colourful and messy. There was a lot of paint used and colourful paper. This is most likely due to high levels of creativity and the imagination being at its best. In the middle years, there was a variety of colours and tones used. At this stage, the pictures began looking less like an imagination and more like a copied work, maybe from a teachers idea. At the upper years, the art work was very detailed and all pictures were similar from buildings to landscapes. This showed the lack of imagination for themselves. However, you could clearly tell there was an awareness of detail and filling up space.

I believe the early years are highly important as children are using their own ideas and seeing that art is actually fun. It also shows that it’s okay to be messy in art! Children can use their own ideas, rather than producing a copy. Looking at this art achieve was a helpful task as I now know to allow older pupils more freedom in what they create in Art, rather than restricting the creativity which should be there.
** I have the freedom to discover and choose ways to create images and objects
using a variety of materials.
EXA 0-02a** (Scottish Government, 2004, p.61)

Reflection

Art: Looking at the different stages of children’s artwork proved that as children develop and grow older, their art work becomes less creative and more of a copy. Children go through 4 stages of artistic development which have been listed previously. These stages showed that even though children were maturing in their art, they were losing the main focus, which is creativity. Young children in their art, draw lines and squiggles but could tell you exactly what their art work is supposed to be/represent. Whereas, older children are focusing on details and most likely, trying to reproduce a copy of art work which has been previously shown to them. The older children most likely do this due to being less confident in their own abilities. In this workshop, I have developed my own analysis skills. Analysing children’s art work and trying to guess what it actually is, is quite difficult. Hence, teachers should take note of what the art work is of. “Creativity is a process which generates ideas that have value to the individual” (Education Scotland, 2013, p.3). Teachers need to allow children to express themselves in Art lessons, rather than producing something for children to copy. Looking at the art achieve from a teachers point of view, showed me to be interested in the art work pupils are producing. Question the pupils, and take a note on the back of the work, what it is, what age the pupil was and the pupils name. Being interested will influence the child’s contribution and involvement. Giving children the chances to be creative in the classroom will give them a better view of the Arts. Allowing Arts in the classroom will increase the confidence of pupils and allow them to engage in all activities.

References
Education Scotland (2013) Creativity Across Learning 3-18 [Module Resource] Available: Integrated Arts in Education module on Moodle. [Accessed: 11-12 December 2017].

Lowenfeld, V. and Brittain, L. (1987) Creative and Mental Growth. 8th ed. Upper Saddle River N.J.:Prentice Hall.

Scottish Government. (2004) Curriculum for Excellence [online] Available: https://www.education.gov.scot/Documents/all-experiences-and-outcomes.pdf [Accessed: 18 December 2017]