Our lecture today was based around creative dance and the role we as teachers play in it.  As Zara explained, Curriculum for Excellence has stated that our role is to teach children to create perform and appreciate dance.Children tend to be more proud of something that they have created themselves.

Our role as teachers  is to provide children with the 10 basic dance skills as these are needed for them to be able to progress. By allowing children to explore different movements, this will in turn them to build confidence within their own talents.

We were asked to create a game based on a dance we had created like the example shown on the lecture slides.

Our dance workshop started off with the warm up games we created during the lecture including Christmas tree tig, reindeer tig and magic rocks.  We then stretched our muscles to heads will roll music and incorporated dance moves from thriller. It is important to include cardio exercises and stretches into warm-ups especially when working with children.

However, Zara stated “There is nothing wrong with putting on a just dance dvd if you are struggling to come up with your own warm ups.”

We then moved onto the dances that were created last week using the 10 basic steps. We were asked to incorporate a beginning position, changing of position at least once, a choreographic device such as a cannon and an end position.  This relates to the experiences and outcome: I am becoming aware of different features of dance and can practise and perform steps, formations and short dance.  EXA 1-10 (Education Scotland, 2017).

The majority of the session was to practice the combination we had put together in the previous session and then we moved onto working out further details of the dance. This included how we would enter and return from the semi circle after performing our own dances and how we would get into lines to perform the routine as a whole class.  The last 15 minutes of the session were spent practising the routine as a whole ready for next week.

The music session was spent exploring tuned percussion instruments and playing the glockenspiel. We worked through a powerpoint on tuned percussion donated by a colleague our lecturer previously worked with. This powerpoint focused on learning to play the different notes in a c scale.  The end of the session was spent doing improvising on the glockenspiel (as shown below) using a pentatonic scale so whatever tune was played it could not sound bad.

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During the workshop, we also looked at building up to using conventional notation. One of the core benefits of teaching music in the classroom is ability to develop the skill of reading music which in turn enables children to develop their concentration skills (Rimmer Music, 2017).

There are endless reasons for incorporating expressive arts into everyday teaching within the classroom!

Reference List

Education Scotland (2017) Benchmarks: Expressive Arts [Online] Available: https://education.gov.scot/improvement/Documents/ExpressiveArtsBenchmarksPDF.pdf [Accessed: 19^th November 2019].

Rimmers Music (2017) The Benefits of Tuned Percussion [Online] Available: https://www.rimmersmusic.co.uk/blog/2017/12/the-benefits-of-tuned-percussion/ [Accessed: 19th November 2019].

Due to an issue with my child I was not able to attend the inputs for today, however having engaged with my peers I have been able to understand what took place within each session.

We need to think outside the box when collaborating with other professionals both in and out of school. Curriculum for Excellence looks at how we communicate with others and partnership working to be able to provide better learning for children.

Created Scottish theme by adding music from Red Hot Chilli Pipers. Warm ups were completed and incorporated Scottish actions for example the highland fling. Using games to help warmup allows children to engage and develop different skills. Games such as people to people that communicate though touch, building up confidence to be comfortable.

Working in the groups formed last week a picture was shown and each group was asked to create a movement based on it. This highlighted how everyone is unique but were all given the same instructions.

Within the music workshop, Figurenotes was the focus of the lesson. This resource helps to introduce notation in a less conventional way.  “Figurenotes is a simple system designed to demystify the first steps in learning to read music. Each musical note has a corresponding coloured symbol.  With the help of stickers on the instruments, learners play what they see” (Drake Music Scotland, n.d, n.p). It can also aid the incorporation of Additional Support Needs and is recommended by music teachers and music therapists.

Figure notes are a valuable resource in teaching the first steps to reading music, or perhaps as an alternative for learners who may have learning difficulties and are unable to read musical notation at all.

Reference List

Drake Music Scotland (n.d) Figure Notes [Online] Available at: http://www.drakemusicscotland.org/figurenotes/ [Accessed 19th November 2019].

Children must create, perform and appreciate dance as a requirement within Curriculum for Excellence. Dance can be a useful way to engage pupils that may have difficulty learning through other forms of learning.  Children can convey what they may need, want or hope for through dance (Cone, 2009).

The warm up games such as follow the leader, showed us how dance can be fun and creative, as we had to form a conga line and when the song changed the person at the front of the line performed a dance move and the class followed.

Some of the warm up games I participated in today were able to display this, with every time the music stopped we had to form groups and make the shape of the answer of the numeracy question that was given. Another game exercise that fulfilled the performance aspect of the criteria was the name game, every person had to go in to the centre of the circle, make a pose and state their name. A task as simple as this may be difficult for some children as they may feel fear or anxiety, but participating means that they have successfully performed in front of their peers.

The aim by the end of this block of inputs is to for us to be able to feel confident enough and not being afraid to teach dance. Zara explained that we do not have to dedicate a 4-6 week block on it, but integrate it into IDL topic work. Once we know the 10 basic steps of dance (shown below), we will be able to successfully teach dance to our own classes.

Our music workshop had a similar theme of not being afraid or forgetting about the subject as we had the pupils from Bellsbank Primary School in teaching us about what they learn as part of the String Project. Their teacher told us not to forget about music as it can be integrated into nearly every subject and although the focus is on attainment, we need to be aware that music can help with this challenge.

The String Project starts in primary 4 and carries on up to primary 7. The children learn to play the instruments as whole class for 45 – 60 minutes a week, this means they do not get to take the instruments home with them.

The project teaches a range of different skills including collaborative skills, as the children work together helping one another in practices. The project also teaches the children about discipline. Teachers participate alongside the pupils, which is great for their own Continuous Professional Development.

The children got to be the teachers for the session and taught us how to hold the instruments properly building up to learning and playing the different chords.

The pupils enjoyed being the teachers as they got to put beanie babies on our heads if we did not have the correct posture and teaching us the rhymes they use when learning about the chords.

I really enjoyed both inputs today and feel more confident about teaching these subjects. I am eager to learn and build my knowledge around these subjects, as I would not want to place my own fears onto the children I am teaching.

Reference List

Cone, T.P. (2009) Following Their Lead: Supporting Children’s Ideas for Creating Dances Journal of Dance Education [Online] Vol.9(3) pp. 81-89 Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15290824.2009.10387390

Charanga is an online resource that can be utilised for teaching music in the primary setting. A positive of it being an online resource is that it can be altered without the need for reprinting costs. It is an outstanding resource for primary non-music specialists.

Within the resource there are many different tabs, one of which is called This Day In Music. This can be a good way of introducing music to the class and catching the pupils interest. After exploring Charanga within our music workshop today, I now feel I would be more confident in teaching music. I believe it is a resource that children will enjoy and engage well with, as it is regularly updated with new songs and it is a different way of learning about music whilst still achieving the experiences and outcomes.

There are programmes for each primary level and combines playing instruments such as the recorder and glockenspiel, along with vocals. Each song is broken down into 6 steps, which is essentially 6 weeks worth of music lessons. It builds upon the different layers of music, similar to what we have been learning in previous workshops in a way that is fun and engaging for pupils. Building up the layers from discovering the pulse and then adding rhythm.

The first part of the lessons involves the pupils listening to the song and being able to ask questions like, what instruments can you hear? and,  do you like the song? By using questions like these enables pupils to use their thinking skills and reflect upon how they feel about the song.

Music helps cultivate thinking skills, such as abstract reasoning, that are an essential part of children’s learning and give them the capacity to be able to solve problems (Rauscher, 2000). This part of the resource provides evidence that music can help enhance thinking skills that Rauscher describes.

Higher order thinking skills were the focus of our visual arts workshop. Each emotional learning card had an image with a series of questions on the back of them. These images were meant to deliberately test our tolerance of ambiguity, which is essential within the arts. I felt I was able to decipher the meaning of the image I was given, along with accepting the possibility that someone else may have had a differing opinion to me.

This task allowed us to prove that without prior knowledge of the resource and materials that we could develop our higher order thinking skills. Tasks like these could be effective in the classroom to promote the development of thinking skills, which can then be transferred into other curricular areas, for example, visible thinking within literacy.  A successful outcome of the expressive arts is the attainment of rewards in other curricular areas (Scottish Executive, 2006).

Taylors model of assessment was the rubric that was used to analyse the pictures. Taking one or two questions from each category of process, form, content and mood, in pairs we were able to explore the range of possibilities of what the image was telling us.

Developing my own higher order thinking skills has been valuable to my own learning this week. It is a skill I had not really given much thought to, however the workshops have allowed me to realise how integral they are to be able to enhance other life skills, like problem solving.

A single image can evoke a rich conversation. With art needing a problem at the centre, having the skill set to be able to contribute to the rich conversation is crucial.

Reference List

Raucher (2000) cited in Arts Education Partnership (2011) Music Matters: How Music Education Helps Students Learn, Achieve, and Succeed [Online] Available: https://moodle.uws.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/36855/mod_folder/content/0/Music%20Matters%20Final.pdf?forcedownload=1 [Accessed: 29^th October 2019].

Scottish Executive (2006) A Curriculum for Excellence- Building the Curriculum 1: The Contribution of Curricular Areas [Online] Available: https://education.gov.scot/Documents/btc1.pdf [Accessed:  29th October 2019].

Norwegian students were visiting campus this week and so the focus of this week was Norwegian aesthetics.

The school system in Norway differs to a great degree to our school system in Scotland.  Norwegians stay in nursery till age 6, a year later than we do here and then spend 10 years at primary school. To complete high school only takes 3 years and the Norwegian government fund higher education for a further 8 years.

A massive reform in 2017 has meant that every teacher in Norway must have a masters degree. There is also much more focus on physical and outdoor learning – you CAN learn maths outside! The University of Oslo has made a variety of changes for the teacher training that focus more on the practicality of teaching such as how to manage the classroom and making assessments in the classroom (International Ed News, 2013). Comparing this with the Scottish education system which puts emphasis on attainment within numeracy and literacy.

Art is a compulsory subject from the start of schooling and as they move further up the school turn to crafts like wood carving. Dance and drama are combined with dance being a major part of school.

Our music workshop took place within the Mac Lab looking at the app Garage band.

We created an autumn soundscape composing our music, as well as trying out different loops and sound effects to get the sound we wanted.

This is a good resource that can be used within the classroom as it gets children thinking about different sounds and also enhances digital skills whilst exploring many experiences and outcomes. Children could record themselves telling a story and add their own sound effects, or make their own animation and add music.

It is an app that the Norwegian students could use within their own teaching and could take some of the ideas learned in the workshop today and apply them in their own lessons.

We adopted the Norwegian focus of outdoor learning in our visual art workshop and were asked to create an intervention using natural materials. Art always has to have a problem to solve and by doing so equips pupils with the life they will need. “Years of research show that it’s closely linked to almost everything that we as a nation say we want for our children and demand from our schools: academic achievement, social and emotional development, civic engagement, and equitable opportunity ” (Smith, 2009, n.p).  Due to this  our group created a barrier out of stones and then broke it down to create and solve the problem of breaking down barriers, promoting resilience.

We focused on land artists  during our visual art workshop and when creating our intervention were inspired by Richard Long. He is a famous land art artist, whose main focus was creating sculptures out of stones.

Reference List

International Ed News (2013) [Online] Available: https://internationalednews.com/2013/07/11/teacher-education-in-norway/ [Accessed: 22nd October 2019].

Smith, F. (2009) Why Arts Education is Crucial and Who’s Doing it Best Edutopia [Online] 28 January, non-paginated Available: https://www.edutopia.org/arts-music-curriculum-child-development [Accessed: 22nd October 2019].