This week’s input where based on the visual arts and music. Once again, this week I was able to consider the importance of the Expressive Arts within education and the vitalness that I continue to develop theological and performance knowledge.
During the visual arts input we explored primary education and the arts in Lapland. It was rather insightful as Lapland a significant amount of outdoor learning takes place all year round, in spite of having extremely bad weather during winter months. Within the Scottish education system outdoor learning is increasing emerging due to the wealth of learning opportunities the outdoors can provide in relation to children academic and social development. Using outdoor space can be a great way of engaging the children in their learning, there are many Expressive Arts Activities that can be taught outdoors for example;
• Opportunity to explore different types of art media such as chalk.
• Provide space for large-scale painting projects
• Engaging children with nature and seasons, this can be used as stimuli for art work, such as using leaves to create an image.
• Using outdoor space as a setting for drama.
• Children will be able to use their sense to discover new knowledge
• The outdoors can be used to teach music the different sounds and rhythms for nature.
(Thornton and Brunton, 2013)
Also during this week’s visual arts input all student had the opportunity to discuss their placement experience in regards to the Expressive Arts and what form of the arts are being taught. I am fortunate within the school I am currently placed I see a significant amount of the arts being excellently taught. So far, I have seen every form of the Expressive Arts being taught, it is great to see all children are fully engaged, get excited and seem to enjoy the arts. The class teacher is proficient utilising inter-disciplinary learning, for instance in the visual arts the children had to design a house using only three shapes (square, triangles and rectangles). I believe the main aim of this lesson was to develop children creative skills and process in particularly problem solving. Placement tasks will be posted later and will looking in-depth as the expressive arts I have fortunate enough to observe.
Moreover, the central point of this week’s music input was to develop sound, rhythm and notations. Initially I did not have understanding of notations and what each individual note value was, but over the course of the session I was able to acquire a greater understand and increased confidence. During the input was used drum sticks to mick playing drums and what hand movement would be required. We were giving a notation and had to play in rhythm with the backing track, which aided myself in following along with the notations. I found this input to rather enjoyable and was able to take a lot of learning experience with me. Over the music inputs I have most certainly become more self-assured in my ability to teach music skills to children in the future, it is important that I believe in my abilities and do not get nervous when to teach music, as this will most definitely impact on children learning within the arts (Jaap, 2009). It is imperative that I seek advice from arts specialist and engaged with career development within the art, when I am qualified teacher in order to support my skill development and increase the effectiveness of my teaching within the arts (Wilson et.al, 2008).
Connecting both input together there is a clear coloration that using the visual arts as a source for outdoor learning can complement music likewise as children can engaged with the nature scenery and related sounds.
References
Thornton, L and Brunton, P. (2013) Making the most of Outdoor Learning. 1st ed. London: Bloomsbury Publications.
Wilson, G, MacDonald, R, Byrne, C, Ewing, S, and Sheridan, M. (2008) Dread and Passion: primary and secondary teachers’ views on teaching the arts’. curriculum journal. [Abstract Online] Vol 19 (1) pp. 37-53. Available: http://www.research.ed.ac.uk/portal/files/16586710/Wilson_et_al_Curr_Journal_revised_submission.pdf [Accessed 20 November 2017]
Jaap, A. (2009) A Little Music Class. [Online] Available: https://www.gla.ac.uk/media/media_434179_en.pdf [Accessed 20 November 2017].
Tallis, T. (2013) Tallis Habits Pedagogy Wheel. [Online] Available: http://www.thomastallisschool.com/tallis-pedagogy-wheel-guide.html. [ Accessed on 20 November 2017]
