Molly Doull UWS IA

This week’s inputs were the last for this module. During this week’s dance session, we brought together everything that we have learnt. This week the whole class dance that we created was being recorded.

Through our 5 weeks of dance I have learnt many valuable skills and knowledge that will help me to teach dance in the future. Through our dance sessions I have picked up many different warm up and stretching activities that can be done with my future classes. I have also learnt the ten basic dance skills which will allow me to teach children these skills so they can be creative when choreographing their own routines. This week’s session in particular help to show me ways in which we can appreciate and improve our dancing. We used the 3 stars and a wish method to evaluate and appreciate the dance that we created to allow us to see what we did well and ways in which we could improve. This is an important part of the dance curriculum as the benchmarks states that children “can respond to the work of artists and designers by discussing my thoughts and feelings. I can give and accept constructive comment on my own and others’ work. EXA 1-07a” (Scottish Government, 2017). This exercise I found very helpful as it allowed me to see my strengths and weakness in dance and gave me something to improve and work on for next time. This is a valuable lesson and is one that I think children would find helpful as it gives them a chance to appreciate and be proud of the dance that they have created while also giving them the opportunity to improve it for future performances. It is clear that Smith-Autard (2002) also believes that children should be able to appreciate, compose and perform dance. Using the stars and a wish method helps us to analyse different aspects of our dance that we otherwise may not have noticed. I can also see as a teacher how this can be adapted and used with different dances to help the children analyse different styles that they can use to help them improve and upgrade their own dances.

While in music we looked at another musical instruments that can be taught in school, the ukulele. Learning to play a musical instrument can help children play different music styles and songs which is a huge part of teaching music as the curriculum states children should be able to “sing and play music from a range of styles and cultures, showing skill and using performance directions, and/or musical notation. EXA 2-16a” (Scottish Government, 2017). I had never played a ukulele before today. However, after a shot one hour thirty-minute session I was able to play 5 different chords and play along to different music pieces such as Last Christmas.

To begin with, I found this really challenging as I was finding it hard to position my fingers and change chords in time with the music. However, towards the end of the session I was beginning to find it much easier. This highlighted the progress a child could make when learning the ukulele. I personally found this session to be very rewarding and can understand that this is the same way that children would feel. There are many resources available to help teachers to teach children how to play the ukulele. I think that children would love learning the ukulele because it easy to pick up with a little practice and the children would be able to see the improvements that they are making week by week which would help to increase their self-esteem and sense of identity (Hallam, 2010). Throughout all our music sessions we have been provided with many different music resources that can be used to help teachers to teach their classes music. Overall, from these inputs I feel that I have not only developed my confidence and skills within  music but I have also develop confidence surrounding my ability to teach music.  I feel that I now have a range of resource to help me if I ever feel unsure of what I am doing when teaching music in the future.

References

Hallam, S. (2010) The power of music: Its impact on the intellectual, social and personal development of children and young people. International journal of music education. [Online] Vol.28(3) pp.269-289 Available: file:///C:/Users/Molly/Downloads/International%20Journal%20of%20Music%20Education-2010-Hallam-269-89.pdf [Accessed: 20 November 2019].

Scottish Government (2017) Benchmarks Expressive Arts. [Online] Available: https://education.gov.scot/improvement/Documents/ExpressiveArtsBenchmar ksPDF.pdf [Accessed: 26 November 2019].

Smith-Autard, J. (2002) The Art of Dance in Education. 2^nd ed. London: A & C Black Publishers Limited.

During this week’s music input, we continued playing the glockenspiel. However, instead of using Figure Notes to help us play we moved onto using conventional notation. We worked through a PowerPoint at a relatively quick pace to ensure that we covered it all. Although, if we were doing this with a class it is clear that you would take this at a much slower pace to ensure that everyone understood the notes being used. As the musician myself in this cases I found it difficult to keep up with some of the music pieces, this was because I find it hard to sight read and need slightly more time to work out the notes before I play them. Clearly though this will not be the same for the children as they would be given much more time.

We then moved on to improvisation where Julie played a section of ‘Hit the road Jack’ on the piano and then we had to play 16 bars continuing on from her.

When she first told us that we would be doing this I was very nervous because I was aware, I am not great at playing the glockenspiel and I didn’t want to mess it up especially because it was in front of the whole class. This highlighted the way children may feel when they are asked to do this task. As a future teacher I feel that it may be a good idea to allow children to do this kind of activity in smaller groups as this would encourage all children to take part and be creative preventing them from worrying about playing to the whole class. Although, because Julie only told us that we would be improvising right as we did it, I was less nervous because I had less to worry about it and instead just had to throw myself into it. Overall, even though I was originally apprehensive about improvising once I had done it I realised that it wasn’t as bad as I was expecting and that actually I quite enjoyed it. This shows me that improvisation in music is so important because it allows children to express themselves and be creative when making music pieces. Hallam (2010) agrees with this as she says that playing and being involved with music increases confidence and provides children with another way to communicate their feelings.

While in dance we continued our work from last week. During this week’s dance lecture, we were asked to create a dance concept and a short game that could be used as a warmup with a class. We then in our groups shared these games. This was a worthwhile experience because it allowed us to expand our library of warm up activities to use with classes in the future. It is so important that we have different warm up activities that we can use with children as it is key part of dancing safely.

We then continued with our dance from last week. First, we practiced the whole class sections of the dance. I really enjoyed this part of the session because although we were doing it as a whole class, we had all had a say in the moves that were used. This I think for children would make it very fun because they will be proud of the dance that they have created together rather than it being a teacher lead lesson. Cone (2009) states that “one of the most powerful experiences dance educators can offer children is the opportunity to create dance that reflects their ideas.” We then moved on to incorporating our individual group dances within the bigger whole class routine.

This made me feel nervous and uncomfortable as I prefer not to dance in front of the whole class. I felt slightly out of my comfort zone. However, after doing our dance I realised that everyone was being very supportive of each other and that performance is one of the most important part of creative dance. As this is the part the helps to boost your confidence when everyone loves the dance that you have created. I therefore think that most children would really get involved with this activity. As a teacher I think that this is key part of creative dance as this is a key part of the dance curriculum “I am becoming aware of different features of dance and can practise and perform steps, formations and short dance” (Scottish Government, 2017).

Overall, I feel that the lessons taught in todays inputs have been very valuable within music we learnt how to progress on from figure notes and through the teaching of conventional notation. While in dance I began to understand the role of the teacher in creative dance and also understand the importance of performance and the confidence that this can help children to develop.

References

Cone, T. (2011) Following Their Lead: Supporting Children’s Ideas for Creating Dances. Journal of Dance Education. [Online] Vol. 9(3) pp. 81-89. Available: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15290824.2009.10387390 [Accessed:4 December 2019].

Hallam, S. (2010) The power of music: Its impact on the intellectual, social and personal development of children and young people. International journal of music education. [Online] Vol.28(3) pp.269-289 Available: file:///C:/Users/Molly/Downloads/International%20Journal%20of%20Music%20Education-2010-Hallam-269-89.pdf [Accessed: 20 November 2019].

Scottish government (2017) Benchmarks Expressive Arts. [Online] Available: https://education.gov.scot/improvement/Documents/ExpressiveArtsBenchmarksPDF.pdf [Accessed: 20 November 2019].

 

During this weeks dance workshop we continued our work from last week creating a dance using the ten key dance skills. This highlighted to me how easy it is to for children to create a dance routine once they have the ten basic dance skills.

This is definitely a lesson that I would do with children as it is very much a child lead lesson with only a little input from the teacher to bring all the groups together. We then performed the pieces that we had choreographed this allowed me to see how children might feel when as I teacher I ask them to perform the piece they have created. As I felt a little uncomfortable about dancing in for all my peers unlike others in my group who take part in dance out with university. However, once I actually started to dance, I wasn’t aware of my peers watching me and just had fun performing our dance. I think that as future teacher this will be something that I will consider when asking children to perform to the class.  If I have a child in my class that is scared to perform allowing that child to perform to a small group to make them feel more comfortable when taking part. This activity not only allows children to lead the lesson but also to become “aware of different features of dance and can practise and perform steps, formations and short dance. EXA 1-10a” (Scottish Government, 2017). This is an important part of the dance curriculum. Another activity that we took part in had us using a picture as stimulus to creates a dance move in groups that represented the photo we had been given.

This showed me as a teacher how we can link dance with another expressive arts lesson such as art. As we would be able to get the children to draw the picture that they would then have to use to create their dance move. I think that this is an activity that children would enjoys as they would like that their dance move is used to create a whole class dance while also covering another curriculum outcome “Inspired by a range of stimuli, I can express my ideas, thoughts and feelings through creative work in dance.” (Scottish Government, 2017).

While in music we looked at Figure Notes which are a great way to allow children of all abilities to take part in music. Using Figure Notes music sheets we play simple songs on the glockenspiel.

Jingle-bells-pdf

I found these music sheets to be extremely helpful when learning to play the songs because they broke down complex pieces of music into easy to understand shape and colour coordinated section making it much easier form me to read and play. This meant that although I had never played the glockenspiel before I was able to quickly play a song which felt like a huge achievement.

I think that the children would have the same response to this activity as they would feel that they have a achieved a large amount in very little time. This would make children see the rewards of working hard to play an instrument which Csikszentmihalyi (2013) says helps their creativity to blossom. Which in turn encourage children to keep playing and try learning new pieces. As a teacher I think this is a fantastic resource as it helps us to differentiate for all the children in our class easily. The fact this organisation has partnered with the BBC ten pieces means that children can now have access to a resource that allows them to play classical music using Figure Notes as well which allows children that can not play without using Figure Notes to be exposed to many different genres of music. While giving teachers the option to do a whole topic integrating other curriculars areas on one of these pieces. Overall, I think this is a fantastic resource for teachers and is definitely something I would use with a future class.

References .

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2013). Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. [Moodle Resource] Available: Integrated Arts in Education module on moodle. [Accessed: 12 November 2019].

Scottish Government (2017). Benchmarks Expressive Arts. [Online]  Available:https://education.gov.scot/improvement/Documents/ExpressiveArtsBenchmarksPDF.pdf [Accessed: 12 November 2019].

 

This week we took part in two workshops. This week was our first week of dance. We began by taking part in some warm up activities that we can use with our future classes. We took part in exercises such as standing in a circle and holding hands with different people and having to untangle ourselves without unlocking hands to make a larger circle. This is an exercise I would do with children as it is a great way for children to develop their problem solving and teamwork skills. These skills are vital for children as the curriculum for excellence states that children should be able to work in teams and problem solve in order to be an effective contributor (Scottish Government, 2009). Then we moved on to look at the different way that dance can be used through out the curriculum and how easy it is to create a dance game that can be used to teach maths or social studies for example.  I have become aware of just how easy it is to incorporate dance into an everyday lesson. All of these activities are things I think would use with class as I think that children would love these activities as they are different to an everyday lesson and allow the children to be active. I also think that for children that find it hard to thrive in more academic area of the curriculum this may be a great way to help them learn these subjects in different more visual way.

We learnt about how to stretch and do this with a class as well. Before stretching we were given a piece of paper and we drew around a group member and wrote on the different muscles, bones and organs.

This was great task to do with children before stretching as it would make them aware of the different parts of their bodies that they use when dancing and the different muscles that they will be stretching.  We then began looking  at the 10 key skills that are needed for dancing and made up our own move for each which can be seen below.

These skills surprised me as I thought they would be much more complex than they actually were.  It is also really easy subject to facilitate as there is really no equipment needed which can sometimes acts as a barrier to teaching the expressive arts (Edwards, 2013).  I was very apprehensive about this workshop because I do not enjoy dance . However, after taking art in this workshop I have realised that dance does not have to be something that we are scared to take part in as I actually really enjoyed this session once I got started. Although, as a teacher I will be aware that many children feel he way I initially felt about dance.

During our music workshop this week we were joined by a class of primary 7 pupils. These children have taken part in a music programme that teaches the whole class how to play and instrument from primary 4 on wards. They were there to teach us about playing ether the violin, viola or the cello. This was a child lead lesson which allows children to explore their ideas while nurturing creativity and providing them with a great sense of achievement (Gibb, 2012).  I found this to be an interesting lesson because of this as it showed me how a child lead lesson could be implemented when doing music. During this workshop the children taught us how to hold the instrument, the bow and how to play short little tunes on the instrument. The instrument that I was learning to play was the violin. Going into this workshop I thought that the playing of the violin would be harder than holding the instrument however this was the other way around. I found it extremely hard to hold the violin in the correct position and have the bow in the correct place as well.  However, the primary 7 that I was paired with was extremely patient and willing to help me until I was able to play the instrument.

Throughout this session we were also shown how music can be linked to many curricular areas such as spelling, maths and even P.E. as seen with the sheet below.

Clearly, this session not only developed my music skills but the children taking part were also developing their communication skills and developing their partnership works which is an important part of the curriculum (Scottish Government , 2009)

References

Edwards, J. (2013) Teaching Primary Art. [Online] Available:https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Bb63AwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=teaching+art+in+primary+schools&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjbn8mhrp7mAhUHQ8AKHTicDIcQ6AEIKTAA#v=onepage&q=teaching%20art%20in%20primary%20schools&f=false [Accessed: 4 December 2019].

Gibb, C. (2012) Room 13: The Movement and International Network. [Moodle Resource] Available: Integrated Arts in Education module on moodle. [Accessed: 2 December 2019].

Scottish Government (2009) curriculum for excellence building the curriculum 4 skills for learning, skills for life and skills for work. [Online] Available: https://education.gov.scot/Documents/btc4.pdf [Accessed: 5 November 2019]

 

 

 

 

This week we took part in music and visual arts workshop. Within our art workshop we looked at higher order and visual thinking using emotional learning cards. These cards can be seen in the images below.

We used Tayler’s assessment model of form, content, mood and process to critically analyse the above image. This task made me understand the importance of taking a closer look at an image rather than just making assumptions at a glance. Especially in today’s age as we communicate massively through only the use of pictures, so it clear that we need to equip our young people with the skills to understand these images (Sowerby, 2013). We used the questions to prompt us to think about different aspects of the picture to help use to evaluate and analyse the image. I think that children would find this activity challenging because even I found it challenging.  However, with the information on the back of the cards and Tayler’s model questions it made understanding these tricky pictures easier. Clearly it is important that as teachers we question children’s opinions and give them a chance to share these views while also finding out what makes them think this.  As this allows them to form opinions and express there ideas and feelings which is an important part of the expressive arts (HMIe, 2006).

While in music we were given a tutorial about Charanga a website with many resources to help teacher when teaching music. After having look at this website, I think that I will be an extremely useful resource when teaching music. This is the kind of resource that I feel will encourage lots of teachers to teach music as it provides you with everything you need. It includes lesson plan for each term for each level of the curriculum not only does it provide you with all the resource and lesson plans that you may need it also allows you to make your own lesson plans up to use with children. This website also covers all the E’s and O’s within the curriculum such as “I enjoy singing and playing along to music of different styles and cultures. EXA 0-16a.  and I have the freedom to use my voice, musical instruments and music technology to discover and enjoy playing with sound and rhythm. EXA- 017a ” (Scottish Government, 2017). I think that the activities on Charanga would be engaging and exciting for children and  they would benefit from them. This resource also includes lessons aimed at every stage this means that they would not need to be adapted to meet the Children’s developmental needs.  The video below shows my peers taking part in some of the activities.

 

I think that even after today’s tutorial there are still many areas of Charanga to explore. To deepen my knowledge on this subject I think that I will have to spend more time having a look around the website to ensure that I am able to get the most out of this resource.

References

HMIe (2006) Emerging Good Practices in Promoting Creativity. [Online] Available: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED544590.pdf [Accessed: 3 December 2019].

Matthew Sowerby (2013) Developing Visual Literacy through Participatory Photography. 34.28 mins. [Online] Available: https://vimeo.com/channels/uwsartistteacherliteracy  [Accessed:29 October 2019]

Scottish Government (2017) Benchmarks Expressive Arts. [Online] Available: https://education.gov.scot/…/Documents/ExpressiveArtsBenchmar… [Accessed : 29 October 2019].

This week we had 4 Norwegian students visiting our university, so within our arts workshop our work was inspired by Norway’s landscapes. After the lecture given to us this morning by the Norwegian students it was clear that a lot of their learning is done outdoors. So today we took part in outdoor learning where we channelled landscape artists such as Richard Long and Andy Goldsworthy who both create thought provoking work to inspired us to create a piece of our own.

My group took inspiration from Andy Goldsworthy’s work as he used lots of spiral shapes and gradients to make an impact with his art. We used his use of spirals and gradient to create a circular clock which can be seen below.

This piece was based on climate change. We felt that by using a spiral shape to make our clock it would represent our planet while the clock hands represented the idea that time is running out to save it. We decided to use the gradient of different leave colours to represent the lifecycle of a leave which symbolise the death of the planet as just like a leave it stared out healthy and green it will eventually become dead and brown the same way our planet will be if we don’t make changes soon. We decided based our image on this topic because it is such a relevant topic that is all over the news today and is something that is on our minds due to our sustainable development module. This coupled with the fact that we were using natural resources to make this picture made us think that it would be impactful and really get our message across. After taking part in this activity I feel that I have much better appreciation for natural resources and how these can be incorporated with outdoor learning to successfully teach an art lesson. This lesson also highlighted the ways in which art can be used to express ourselves and our opinion on different topics much better than words often can which is one of the 10 lessons that the arts teach (Eisner,2002). I would use this lesson with a class because not only does it require no resource but those found outside, I think there are many opportunities to make this a cross curricular lesson. As a lack of resources is one of the biggest challenges when teaching the arts this would alleviate this problem (Edwards, 2013). If I was doing this lesson with a class, I would maybe give them a problem to focus on, as by giving the children complete freedom some many find it difficult to choose or even think of a problem to focus on. However, if I only provided them with a problem then it would allow them to still be creative and all come up with different images. This is one of the reasons that I feel children would really engage with this lesson, as it allows them to be autonomous as well as learning in an outdoor environment which is clearly important as within the CFE outdoor learning document implies outdoor environments and surroundings act as a rich stimulus for creative thinking and learning. This affords opportunities for challenge, enquiry, critical thinking and reflection  (Scottish Government, n.d.). It is clear that “Outdoor learning offers many opportunities for learners to deepen and contextualise their understanding within curriculum area” (Scottish Government, p.9).

Within our music session today we began looking at different software that can be used to allow children to compose different music pieces. Garage Band is a software that is very versatile and allows you to add your own voice, instrumental pieces and upload different sound affects to create different pieces of music. Our session today was all about us getting used to using this software and learning about the different ways that it can be used.  To do this we created out own piece that was to sound like a autumn walk I used different piano pieces and layered it with sound effects.

After using this software, I think that it is easy to use once you get the hang of it and that there would be many different ways to use this within the classroom not only just in a music lesson. This would be great follow on from last week’s lesson using beats and rhythms. It would allow them to compose and play with their own pieces of music using different beats, pitches and rhythms which is one of the CFE Learning outcomes (Scottish Government, 2017). One of the most interesting ways to use garage band is for bringing a story to life. Personally, I feel that this is a great way to bring both literacy and music into one lesson. This would be a great way to depend children’s understanding of a book while also teaching music. This software would allow children to make a book interactive and add sound effects while you could have the teacher voice reading the story. Using this for a book such as are going on a bear hunt would be effective and engage children in the story. Garage band is different a resource that I would use with a class as I would allow children to express themselves and really become interactive in a lesson.

References

Edwards, J. (2013) Teaching Primary Art. [Online] Available:https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Bb63AwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=teaching+art+in+primary+schools&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjbn8mhrp7mAhUHQ8AKHTicDIcQ6AEIKTAA#v=onepage&q=teaching%20art%20in%20primary%20schools&f=false [Accessed: 22 October 2019].

Scottish Government (2017). Benchmarks Expressive Arts. [Online] Available:https://education.gov.scot/improvement/Documents/ExpressiveArtsBenchmarksPDF.pdf [Accessed: 22 October 2019].

Scottish Government (n.d) [Online] curriculum for excellence
through outdoor learning. Available: https://education.gov.scot/Documents/cfe-through-outdoor-learning.pdf [Accessed: 22 October 2019].

 

 

During today’s art inputs we took part in a music and art workshop. During both of our workshops looked at aspects of literacy and how it is intertwined within the arts. Our music input, looked at teaching of rhythm and how we could teach this to both early, first and second level. We were introduced to two different PowerPoints that provided a comprehensive lesson plan for teaching rhythm. This resource used shapes to help children learn the difference between a crotchet and Quavers. The number of syllables in a shapes name was the number of beats that we taped out. This is demonstrated in the diagram below.

This was extremely effective and made it much easier to tap the beat with the drumsticks or beater shown below.

Using these strategies rather than introducing rhythm and notation at the same time made it much easier for me to understand and I can also see how this would make it much simpler for children. Using these strategies, we also played along to music this really help to motivate me as you could see that you were doing it right. This is something that I feel that the children would really engage in as they are really accomplishing something. Although we jumped straight into playing the music and rhythm with children, I would implement the say, clap, play method that although the children to develop there understanding of rhythm before they begin playing.

As a teacher I think this will be a great resource as it provides teachers with everything, they would need to teach children about rhythm while also beginning to teach them about notation.  Personally, I think that these PowerPoint’s would also really help teachers to get over their hesitation and negative opinions of music a they make teaching music easier. Gregerson et al (2013) implies that if a teacher holds a negative opinion of expressive arts then this will be transfer on to their pupils, this shows the importance of being positive when teaching music.

During our art session we looked at print making with a focus on how we can use prints to get a written message across effectively. During this session we took inspiration from Bob and Roberta Smith a famous print maker that uses bold colours and fonts. This showed that when print is used effectively it can have a huge impact. As the maker in this situation I found print making to be a great way to almost create a poster but with more impact. As you must come up with a short and sweet slogan that really coveys the point you are trying to make. These are the prints that we made.

I think that print making is an art lesson that I would do with a future class as there are many ways to tie it in with other curricular areas such as literacy. This activity also highlights the way that the arts can allow children to show their full cognition without being limited by their language skills (Eisner, 2002). As you could relate it to a book that your class is reading or even a history lesson. I think that with a history lesson you could make very bold print with eye catching statements on the topic of war for example. I feel that this is a lesson that I would be more likely to do with a first or second level class rather than with early level. This is an activity that children would get involved in as it allows literacy to become more interactive and engaging. While also allowing them to develop their creativity. This is such an important skill for children as it allows them to develop confidence that their own points of view are valid, to interpret and respond to different trends and issues in society such as politics and different technological advances and it even allows children to apply their creativity within subjects other than art. (Scottish Government, 2013).

Overall, both workshops today looked at the way literacy can be used to enhance and be taught through the arts. Within music, this week we were using the syllables within the name of shapes to help children learn and understand rhythm and beats. This clearly shows a link between music and literacy and how the two subjects are intertwined. Baker, 2011; Catterall, 1998 cited in Arts Education Partnerships (2011) clearly agree saying “Students who study music surpass non-music students in assessments of writing, using information resources, reading and responding, and proofreading.” While in art we looked at the way literacy and art can be combined to create a powerful eye catching and thought-provoking prints. These prints deal with hard hitting subjects and topics to say things that words alone cannot say.

References

Arts Education Partnerships (2011) Music Matters: How Music Education
Helps Students Learn, Achieve, and Succeed. [Moodle Resource] Available: Integrated Arts in Education module on moodle. [Accessed: 2 December 2019].

Eisner, E. (2002) The Arts and the Creation of Mind. Yale University Press.

Gregerson, M. et al (eds.) (2013) Teaching Creatively and Teaching Creativity. [Online] Available: SpringerLink. [Accessed: 3 December 2019].

Scottish Government (2013) Creativity Across Learning 3-18. [Online] Available:https://education.gov.scot/improvement/Documents/Creativity/CRE1_WhatAreCreativitySkills/Creativity3to18.pdf . [Accessed:16 October 2019].

 

 

 

 

 

During this week’s session we took part in a drama and music workshop, this week being our first music session. We began by discussing the importance of music education and the benefits that it can have. For me, music is never a subject that I have really loved, although it is a talent and subject that I appreciate the importance of. I was aware of some of the benefits that music education can have however, I did not realise the broad range of skills that music education helps children to learn. For example, music helps our pupils develop their thinking skills through the activation and synchronisation of the neutral brain firing patterns which allows us to increases our brain efficiency and effectiveness (Paul Reeves, 2009). Music education also helps us to become sustained self directed learners (ibid). This highlights the importance of music education. As a future teacher I now realise it is imperative that I provide children with music education.

While in the music workshop we looked at the way in which different music affects our moods as well as the way in which everyone perceives a piece of music and how this can be different. This lesson taught me the important of music and how it can be used to inspire us to think creatively in other mediums such as literacy and art as  and how they can apply their creativity skills within other curricular areas (Education Scotland, 2013).

We started by listening to a piece of music while taking notes on how the piece made us feel or any thought we had on it. We then got into group and created a story board based on the music piece we had just listened to. What shocked me the most about this was that every single person in my group had pictured a different story although we all listened to the same music piece.

This has highlighted the importance of allowing children to be creative and the also tied in with the concept of child based learning in room 13. As it allowed children to be creative, decide how they felt about the piece of music and what it made them think of. This task allowed us to be creative and although we all started with the same music we came up with very different stories. This task is something that I would try in a class of my own, as it think it is a great way to get children thinking about music, how it makes them feel while allowing them to develop their creatively and collaborative working skills. However, depending on the stage that I was teaching this lesson to I may have to chose a more appropriate piece of music. As the piece we listened to was seven minutes long this would work for a primary 6 or 7 class but maybe not a primary 2 or 3 class. So in order to make it appropriate to their stage I could chose a shorter piece to base the lesson on.

While in drama this week we took part in different groups micro teaching tasks. After taking part in the other groups micro teaching tasks I found that I preferred teaching to taking part, as I did not feel as confident when performing our drama to the rest of the class. This allowed me to empathise with how some children may feel when asked to perform so this is something I would consider when doing a lesson like this maybe allowing them to perform to a smaller group of people.  However, I feel that after taking part and watching the other groups teaching I have picked up some lesson ideas and skill that I would implement in a drama lesson in the future. Especially the group that based their micro teaching task on the movie Inside Out. I feel that this would be a great lesson to help children understand their emotions and those of others. This lesson could potentially tie in nicely with a health and wellbeing lesson. I think that most children would enjoy this lesson as they would be quite familiar with the film. At the end of all three groups micro-teaching tasks they did a quick assessment of how the class felt it went for example using fist to five to see if the class understood what they were trying to teach. This would be something that I would include in my future lesson plans.

Overall, this week in both our drama and music workshops we looked at the ways in which interpret what is being presented. In music this was the way that the music piece made us feel and the story that we created based on the music. While in drama was the way we interpreted the different tasks in the different groups micro-teaching lessons and came up with different drama pieces although we all had the same tasks.

References

Education Scotland (2013) Creativity Across Learning 3-18. [Online] Available:https://education.gov.scot/improvement/Documents/Creativity/CRE1_WhatAreCreativitySkills/Creativity3to18.pdf [Accessed: 10 October 2019].

Paul Reeves (2009) Music Advocacy Presentation. 4.37 mins. [Online] Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1njTXx47vHs [Accessed: 10 October 2019].

 

In today’s art workshop we continued on from our work last week with a very child centred approach being used again. We used the picture that we created last week and were asked to add ether a poem, song lyric or just words that you felt described your highland picture. It was emphasised that we should try to follow the shapes and curves of our picture when writing on it.

This task highlighted the importance of words and visuals and how they are connected as well as the way that we can use words to bring images to life and vise versa (Eisner, 2002). This also shows the was that creativity can be taught through all curricular areas and the was that can be used to enhance another lesson (HMIe, 2006). This could be as task that some children will struggle with while others might love. So, I feel that being able to use a poem rather than having to come up with a idea on your own would make children feel much more comfortable and less daunted by the task. If I was ever do this sort of task with a class this is an option I would give them. Overall, I feel that the purpose of this task was not as clear to me as it had been in previous weeks. However, after taking part in the activity I began to see that everyone sees something different within a piece of art and the way we perceive it can be completely different although we all are looking at the same picture. Although there are many different ways to do this we used words to help highlight the key points of our paintings by giving it personal characteristics such to help convey the emotions different parts of our picture uncovered.

During today’s drama workshop we took part in a micro-teaching exercise. This involved us in groups teaching a mini drama lesson to the rest of our peers. We decided to base our lesson on the storybook ‘Were Going on a Bear Hunt’ to teach the class about 3 different drama conventions: Flash back, Still image and Monologue.

Personally, I found this task really worthwhile and helpful because it was the first time we have had the chance to plan and deliver a short lesson. This task also helped me to feel more confident in planning a proper lesson in the future and to more gain experience. Although this task was worthwhile I think that because we were delivering our lesson to our peers we were very conscious of not patronising them by treating them like primary school children that this lesson was originally aimed at. For this reason we altered our lesson to make it more age appropriate.

If I was to deliver the exact same lesson to a class as to my peers I feel that the children may be disinterested and engaged because they may not have known the story and therefore not really want to get involved. So, if I was actually delivering this lesson to children I think that I would start by actually reading the story to the children rather than just describe what happens within the book. I would also get them to act out all the different action’s within the book because this would engage children in the lesson. As the QCA (2004) that using a stimulus such as a story helps children to develop creativity and  understand the subject. Even though these are small changes I think that it would make the lesson much more effective.

Overall, it is apparent that both classes looked at ways in which different mediums of art can be brought to life in the sense of adding words to our drawings in art and using a storybook during our microteaching in drama to bring the story and its characters to life. It is clear that is it an import part of a art as in (Eisner, 2002) 10 lessons the arts teach that he sees art as a way for children to say what cannot be said. While he also believes that when a child is asked to show a piece that makes them feels some sort of emotion they have to use their poetic capabilities to help them find the words that describe how they feel.

References

Eisner, E. (2002) The Arts and Creation of Mind. Yale University Press.

HMIe (2006) Emerging Good Practices in Promoting Creativity. [Online] Available: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED544590.pdf [Accessed: 2 October 2019].

Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (2004) Creativity: find it, promote it. [Online] Available:http://archive.teachfind.com/qcda/www.qcda.gov.uk/resources/publication560a.html [Accessed: 2 December 2019].

 

During this week’s session we began discussing the idea of taking a child centred approach to art and how this gives children a creative freedom to choose the subject, media and direction of their work.This was not a approach that I was aware of before this workshop. It is clear that giving children this kind of freedom allows socially engaged and enquiry based pedagogical practices to flourish ( McAuliffe, 2013).

Within our art session this week we took on the role of the artist which is something that I was very nervous to do. However, it turned out to be something to that I not only enjoyed but gained a lot of knowledge from. We began by making our own paint brush, which at first I thought was a strange concept. However, after taking part in the task I realised not only how easy it was to do but that you feel a huge sense of pride  you feel. This also gave me an insight into the creative process as it required critical thinking and use of evaluation skills. We had a clear goal which Csikszentmihalyi (1996) states is one of the qualities that are required for creativity to flow.

After making our paint brushes, we got ready to paint our picture. We were all given a piece of A3 paper and asked to draw a window, we were then informed this was to reduce the mess caused by painting. The idea being that this would stop children from painting right to the edge of the paper and potentially getting paint on the table. This is definitely an approach that I would adopt in my classroom. Before starting this module i knew that the enviable mess that sometimes can come as a result of an art lesson made me nervous to teach it. Then a highland scene was describe to us without us being show the picture, while we took notes. We were then left to use our notes and create the highland scene that had been describe to us. Personally, I found this task really educational because I don’t feel very confident when it come to drawing or painting however, I felt that this strategy helped me feel confident in my abilities. While, it helped highlighting the importance of allowing creativity and child lead activities within the classroom and surprising results that this can lead to. It is obvious that children would love this exercise as they would feel that they are being allowed to direct their own learning and the idea of making their own paintbrush will make it a much greater achievement when they finish their painting. After this session, I feel that I will be much more comfortable teaching an art lesson.

Overall, I feel that the lesson that we took part in today is definitely something that I would use in my own classroom. It is a great way to move past the style of template learning that is still very much present in art in schools today (Gibb, 2012). It is clear that although the same picture was describe to all of us we all came up with very different highland scenes. I think that this will therefore be a fantastic way to keep children on the same topic and idea without restricting them so much that there aren’t allowed to be creative and ultimately end up with 30 of the same pictures.

In this week’s drama sessions we looked at the final 4 conventions mime, voices in the head, monologue and slow motion. Of all the convention that we have covered so far in drama this was the set that I found the hardest to understand. For me, this week really help to reinforce the point that Andrew has been making throughout all our drama inputs, which is that when teaching drama everybody is a student . We also began to look at the ways in which we can use drama as a tool to open a discussion or deal with sensitive subjects such as social justice for example WW2. Using drama can a be beneficial way to allowing children to get into the mindset of a Jew or a Nazi. This would help children to deepen their understanding of the emotions and feelings that these people had during the war. This is shown in the expressive arts experiences and outcomes as drama allows children to experience real and imaginary situations which helps to understand and share their world and others. It helps to highlight why it is so important for all teachers and educators look for opportunities within their own teaching approaches for interdisciplinary learning (Scottish Executive, 2006). This is a lesson idea that I think could be used and change to use with children at every curricular level.

It is clear that for pupils drama is so important in helping children to develop their creative and artistic skills(ibid). As a teacher I feel that there will be lots of benefits for pupils taking part in drama as it can allow them to view information from different points of view and really get into the mind of the character that they are playing which ultimately helps to further their understanding of the wider world. As well as allowing them to communicate their ideas, thoughts and feelings which is an important part  developing creativity and the expressive arts (HMIe, 2006) .

 

References

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996). Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. [Moodle Resource] Available: Integrated Arts in Education module on moodle. [Accessed: 25 September 2019].

Gibb, C. (2012) Room 13: The Movement and International Network. [Moodle Resource] Available: Integrated Arts in Education module on moodle. [Accessed: 25 September 2019].

McAuliffe, D (2013) Art and Design Education. In:Bryce, T. and Humes, W. et al. (eds.) Scottish Education. (4th Edition) Referendum, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

HMIe (2006) Emerging Good Practices in Promoting Creativity. [Online] Available: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED544590.pdf [Accessed: 25 September 2019].

Scottish Executive (2006) A Curriculum for Excellence Building the Curriculum 1. [Online] Available: https://education.gov.scot/Documents/btc1.pdf [Accessed: 25 September 2019].