Kerry Graham UWS ITE ePDP

MICRO-TEACHING

MUSIC

This week’s music input was very interesting and fun. We had a fantastic opportunity on learning to play a string instrument which was taught to us by a group of primary 6&7 pupils from a school in Ayrshire. This school has a programme that allows all pupils from primary 4 to 7, to learn how to play a string instrument and is also the only school in Scotland that currently has this programme.

The workshop was led by the pupil’s teacher; however it was mainly down to the pupils to individually show us how to play the specific instrument. I chose the violin. The pupils showed us methods to correctly hold the instrument & the notes of the instrument. We also played a game to help us get to grips with the holding of the bow and practice before using it with our instruments. We were taught different fun ways about beats. By making the lessons fun by using props it engages all participants, as both pupils and students were enjoying taking part.

Overall, this input was so much fun and a great learning experience.  It was so interesting and enjoyable having pupils in to teach us and to be so positive to others who have had none or limited experience with musical instruments. It was an excellent opportunity to be able to be taught the basics of learning how to play the violin and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I think the string project should be introduced into many more schools around Scotland, as it’s a brilliant initiative that many children would benefit from as they are able learn and develop a range of skills for them to flourish into young individuals. This project allows children to develop a whole range of skills which links into the Curriculum for Excellence standards, in aiding children to become a successful learner, confident individual, responsible citizen and an effective contributor (Curriculum for Excellence, 2004).

DRAMA

This week’s drama input was also based on micro-teaching as we had to take responsibility for our fellow peers’ learning. We were to create a lesson to give to our peers about ways we could use drama in the classroom we were to focus on a story that involved the drama conventions we had been learning and then teach this to the class. Our group decided to create our own story as this would allow for more discussion and would therefore result in many different outcomes when the other groups create their drama pieces. From creating the lesson I developed a range of skills such as: time management, team working, organisational skills, creativity and research skills.

I was quite nervous for when it came to teaching the lesson and found the thought of it a bit scary, as when I present to my peers I usually get quite worried. I wanted to make sure that I didn’t come across as demeaning as they weren’t a primary class, they were a class of young adults. Whilst presenting I had a lot of fun, watching everyone’s different takes on the story and how they made it their own. We got some great feedback, one point that came up a few time our own story instead of taking an original storybook.  We were all very happy with this feedback as this was something that we were originally worried about as we were uncertain as to how people would take to a made up story, although, in the end, it was very effective and it meant that each group had their own idea of where the story could go and how it could end.

We also got the chance to take part in other groups micro teaching tasks. I am now becoming more confident in participating in drama and also by taking the lead of it, however I can still find it quite daunting but I am trying to overcome this fear as I want to be able to implement enjoyable lessons like this into the classroom and for the pupils to have fun in their lessons.

From doing a task like this, I have developed a range of skills and learnt a lot from the people around me.  This can be an important lesson for children as they can learn a lot from working with other children and can develop a variety of skills that might not always develop as greatly as they would if in a “normal” learning environment.

Over the last few drama workshops we have looked at numerous different drama techniques, there were a lot more than I previously thought. Through the teaching and identifying of these techniques my knowledge of drama has deepened. As part of these workshops we work in groups and take part of completing small drama pieces that are effective for the different techniques. By doing this I can see that my confidence is gradually building up in the curricular aspect, as I was once very afraid and apprehensive about drama. Through the support and encouragement of my peers I am more involved in the participation of our ideas and I am more willing to take a “lead” role. Week 1 I was very reluctant to take part and just shied away but by week 3, I was fully wanting to participate by taking on different roles.

MUSIC

“The voice of the teacher is of paramount importance in carrying out professional roles and responsibilities. It is essential that this asset is protected” (GTC, 2017).

In today’s seminar we focused on the importance of the voice. We started off by looking at the GTC and their explanation of why the voice was important. They have a whole document explaining why the voice is important and what we should do if our voice is affected. This was a useful tool as it allowed me to follow instructions on how to use my voice effectively and what to do if it gets damaged.

We then went on to look at the use of voice in music and how we can use singing in the primary school classroom. We were shown many resources that were very useful such as Choon Baboon. Choon Baboon is a brand new, modern way to get the children singing songs they will love in the classroom. Every song is on YouTube which is a quick and easy way to access. As I am not very confident in the Expressive Arts, I would use this resource in the classroom as it does not show to the children that you may lack confidence in this subject, just because you use a different method to teach.

We then went on to sing a few songs of our own such as “A penguin came for tea” and “Number 9”. These were fun and engaging and suitable for the primary classroom.

We were also shown Graphic Scores which was a way that children can draw their own music and follow it :

As the sessions on music continue I find myself stepping out my comfort zone more and becoming more confident with various aspects of music.

DANCE

“When children create dances using their ideas, they are empowered to explore their thoughts, feelings, and perspectives” (Cone, 2009, pg 81).

It is crucial that children have the opportunity to dance freely to express themselves. As a child I did not participate in an extra curricular activity which involved dance. I was very self-conscious in that aspect as I compared myself to many others. As a student teacher, I think it is important that we let children feel empowered by creativity letting them know that there is no right or wrong answer through dance, that the importance is expressing YOURSELF.

During today’s dance session, we had the opportunity to be the learner however, we also had the chance to create our own moves. We were split up into groups to create a move to fit in with this week’s theme of Halloween. The move we were to create was inspired by a printed out picture of a mummy. This gave us inspiration to create the dance move.

After creating a move, the whole class came together and we put all moves together creating a mini dance routine (using different images). I really enjoyed this workshop as it showed me how I can use easy strategies in the classroom to create a dance, even if I don’t feel so confident. It also helped me to understand that it is not just me that isn’t confident with dance but so are many others. The main point I learnt from this workshop was that dance routines are created by using smaller, simpler dance moves such as jumps, rolls and balances. By using visuals, it can really help to get the creative mind flowing and a visual can act as a stimulus to create a simple dance move.

DRAMA

This weeks drama session was based around a book named “The Tunnel” by Anthony Brown. The book allowed us to explore drama and learn new conventions such as voice in the head, mime, role on the wall, vox pop and thought tracking. I found the convention voice in the head a great tool as the children will be able to step out of the drama, while still in character and discuss how they are feeling through someone else’s shoes. It allows the children to think deeper into how others are feeling and not just themselves. As the weeks go on, I feel more confident at acting in front of my peers, and I am now beginning to enjoy the activities we do. It helps that most of us are in similar boats, that we do not have much drama background and we do not all feel fully comfortable in presenting ourselves so vocally in front of one another. As the result of this it is clear to see that everyone supports and respects each other during the drama activities. Overall, I think it is very important that we allow children to experience expressive arts, as it will allow the children to think about being someone else and forgot about negative personal experience and for other to respect they situations.

References

Cone, T. (2009). Following their Lead: Supporting Children’s Ideas in Creating Dances. Journal of Dance Education. London: Routledge.

Music is such a powerful subject as it can help us develop in other areas and skills such as literacy, numeracy, creativity, social and personal development and many more. Music can help us to become successful learners, effective contributors, responsible citizens, and confident individuals.

In this music seminar, we were introduced to a programme that can be used in the classroom to teach composition. This programme is called Garage Band. Through this programme, children are able to use either the recordings provided or create their own recordings to put together and make a piece of music. It is a useful tool for a teacher who maybe isn’t very confident with music. In class we used the recordings provided to create our own, unique pieces of music, and were able to, with the tools provided, change the speed and tone. This provides the children with the resources to use their creativity to write and create their own unique music. I personally found this tool easy to use and very fun. I think children will also enjoy using this. For teaching purposes I believe it would be a good idea to get the pupils to create backing track to play along side pre-recorded videos or to work coincide with drama pieces.

As I am not familiar with musical terms, or composing any sort of music, this was a creative, easy fun way to do so! This would be a great tool for the classroom and I would feel comfortable teaching and letting children in my class explore this app. Here is a video of the music I created:

VISUAL ARTS

The visual arts section focused on the painting; Windows in the West (1993) by  Avril Paton.  This painting was created using watercolours and paper. Paton (2017) took inspiration from a personal memory that she had of snow and the feeling it gave her. This painting is owned by City of Glasgow Galleries which makes it relevant to my environment. Living in the central belt of Scotland, not too far from Glasgow, it is very common to see tenement housing.

After a discussion we spoke about how we can create stories from prints and use prints as visual stimulus during literacy or drama lessons. While creating these prints I thought of how children could create stories from the prints they had made.

We used Patons’ (1993) work to create prints of our own. By focusing on a particular area of the painting we had the opportunity to explore the vast amount of detail in the painting. We used dynamic colours to create our prints. We discussed colour theory and the affect that colours can have on our eyes.

DRAMA

The second workshop focused on drama. Personally I didn’t enjoyed drama as a child and was always quite reluctant of participating within various drama projects. My confidence has never been anywhere near as strong as I would’ve liked, which made me slightly apprehensive about this workshop. However, our lecturer made it very clear that we weren’t here to be uncomfortable but for our skills in drama to develop over time; in matter of fact that drama wasn’t what I once thought it was, ACTING!

In this workshop we discovered ways to teach this topic in the classroom. We were introduced to five key activities that you can use in the classroom to teach drama. These were Teacher in Role, Improvisation, Thought Tunnel, Freeze Frame and Hot Seating. To help us understand these concepts the lecturer used a story about a dragon causing trouble in a village. In this case the pupils would be the villagers and the teacher could play the Mayor (or some other form of superiority) . It was suggested that the teacher always plays some form of leader so that they are still seen as the person in charge. In the story the Mayor (teacher) asked the Villagers (students) if they had any ideas to stop the dragon. In our class we gave a range of different ideas and one was to fight the dragon. Using this idea we were able to incorporate a freeze frame. This was where we were put into groups and created a freeze frame based on how we would fight the dragon. I found the freeze frame a fun and easy activity that would work well in classrooms when working on literacy or topics. All of these activities are fun and interesting which i believe will encourage children to take part in drama as it does not fall under the bracket of acting, which I once thought of.

Drama is a way for children to express themselves and see other peoples points of view. I understand that drama can be used in various areas of the curriculum such as literacy and history.

After participating in a few drama activities such as; a freeze frame. I realised that drama was not as scary and embarrassing as I had built it up to be in my head. There are many aspects of drama that I did not know was part of it, I thought drama was just about being up on stage presenting yourself as someone else.

As future teachers we need to develop the character we want to portray in our school lives and I feel that the integrated arts module will help me with this.

My skills have developed through the integrated arts workshops so far by confidence in the subject growing. My understanding of the subjects have deepened and I am now therefore more knowledgeable about the subjects and feel slightly more confident for when the time comes where I will teach these subjects. It’s important in all aspects of the curriculum that they all link and relate to each other.

References

Paton, A. (1993) Windows in the West. [Watercolours on paper 48” x 60”] Glasgow. [Online] Available: https://avrilpaton.co.uk/prints/windows-in-the-west [Accessed: 3 October 2017]

Paton, A. (2017) Windows in the West. [Online] Available: https://avrilpaton.co.uk/prints/windows-in-the-west [Accessed: 3 October 2017]