Today in music we focussed on the need for a pulse/beat when we are creating a piece of music. We started off by being given a set of beaters and were instructed to play certain beats on the floor or chair in front of us. Each musical note was expressed as a shape at first; a square represented a crotchet because the word square has one syllable, while a circle represented two quavers because the word circle has two syllables.  We then progressed, looking at music with the conventional notation within the shapes before removing the shapes all together. The number of different notes in the music we were playing increased as the series of lessons progressed and by the time we were looking at second level work we were exploring the different note pitches and trying to think of ways to remember them such as ‘Every Good Boy Deserves Football’ and ‘FACE’. We played the beats of the music along with backing tracks and there was a sense of pride in the room; I think there were many of us who would never have believed we’d have learned to do this in one session. This shows how powerful teaching music in this way could be for children as they would receive inputs over a long period of time to build up their skills and understanding of music gradually; possibly inspiring them to continue learning to play a percussion instrument or to go on to learn another instrument with their new skill of reading notation. As Sir Ken Robinson (2006) says: “All children have tremendous talents”. It is extremely important that we allow and encourage children to find these talents and to explore the possibilities within them. By helping them to build confidence in the arts through methods such as scaffolding like this, we are removing notation as a barrier to learning and introducing it as an enabler. I love the idea of exploring beats of the music in the classroom as I think that it could be used in numerous ways without the need for expensive materials and I would be interested to see whether or not it would be an effective method of getting the children’s attention; similarly to the way teachers clap beats and ask the children to clap them back. Throughout this input I was inspired to consider how I could use this in the classroom to learn about other things, as well as how to play and hear the beat of music. I noticed that in order for us to understand the difference between a full count and a half count, we need to understand fractions. Doing a lesson in which children explore the different meanings of a full beat and a half beat will help them to make the connection that 2 halves make one whole – as 2 half beats are the same as one whole beat. This could be explained by asking half of the class to clap a steady beat of one while the other half clap 2 fast beats. This would help to contextualise and develop connections within the experience and outcome of: I have extended the range of whole numbers I can work with and having explored how decimal fractions are constructed, can explain the link between a digit, its place and its value. MNU 2-02a

In the visual art input today we were reflecting on placement so far and discussing our experiences of the arts. There was a varied response with some of the group having experienced many integrated art lessons and with some having experienced none. Reflection is an extremely important part of the arts as it is this process in which we consider the successes and challenges of a situation and determine how we are going to move forward (Burnard, 2006). It could be said therefore, that it is through reflection on our experiences that we will shape our practice and impact on the lives of our future pupils. It was very interesting to hear the responses of others and I took away some interesting ideas which I would like to try in a classroom. These included making displays with different materials and exploring the use of colours to represent natural occurrences. We considered the impact of myth within the arts and discussed how this can be a much more powerful stimulus than fact, as fact forces us to work in one direction towards the truth. Myth has a greater sense of freedom and mystery and can arguably be infinitely explored.

“Uncertainty and mystery are energies of life. Don’t let them scare you unduly, for they keep boredom at bay and spark creativity.” – R.I. Fitzhenry

I was also inspired by our explorations of art lessons in Finland. They use natural resources to build and design. This sustainable way of learning is one which I think could be exciting and memorable for everyone involved, without wasting materials. The idea that the materials used (whether they be sticks, snow, or even sand) can be replaced by an almost unlimited supply removes the potential barrier of cost of materials to arts lessons in which trial and error should be encouraged. I feel that when we design things and go on to make them, we should be using trial and error as a means of learning about what works and what doesn’t – this is so much more beneficial than being told that something is not going to work. Csikszentmihalyi (1996) argued that creative environments are those which encourage communication and promote the generation of ideas and engagement. I would therefore argue that the outdoors and our natural environments are exceptionally creative environments and have such vast stimuli for creativity. Outdoor spaces are often bigger than indoor spaces and offer numerous opportunities for the exposition of a topic and for it to be contextualised. On placement, my class are currently studying ‘This Morning I Met a Whale’ by Michael Morpurgo. This novel has a strong focus on pollution and how human activity is negatively impacting the natural environment and our planet. It also provides opportunities for the students to consider the different types of birds mentioned in the novel and to consider the water and the whale. The whale in the story becomes beached and from looking at the models created by the children in Finland, I was inspired to consider how the children in my class could take a trip to the beach and make a whale out of sand – essentially creating their own beached whale. This would be an activity which would come after careful research about the different types of whales and about why, when whales become beached, they cannot return to sea. This could be an interesting topic which could lead to the children learning about the human body and considering the physical differences between humans and sea animals. I also like the idea of  all of the different sensory experiences a trip to the beach provides, such as the smell, movements, taste, and sounds of the sea and the texture of the sand and visual details of different shells. All of these things could be explored and captured through the arts and would help the children to develop an understanding of what it would be like to live under the sea. Samples of sea water could be taken back to the classroom and the sounds of the waves could be recorded using digital devices. They could then be replicated using musical instruments, while the movements of the sea could be captured through dance. The different fish, sea birds, and the sea itself could be recreated using various different materials to capture the texture of them.

Although most of the ideas which I have generated today would require some materials, I have come to the realisation that materials cannot replace experiences. In music, the barrier of a lack of understanding of conventional notation and a lack of musical instruments in schools cannot and should not hinder musical opportunities. Traditional methods can be changed to aid development of understanding and the use of clapping or hitting beaters off a table can be less intimidating than being handed a musical instrument; providing a more relaxed and confidence building experience. Getting out of the classroom and exploring the natural environment is a fantastic way to enhance creative thinking and to promote collaboration, trial and error with design ideas, and problem solving. It can also inspire expression and give children the opportunity to focus on nothing else other than their senses. Overall, we shouldn’t feel hindered by a lack of expensive materials as there are so many within the natural environment that come completely free.

References

Burnard, P. (2006) Rethinking the Imperatives for Reflective Practices in Arts Education. In: Burnard, P. and Hennessy, S. (eds.) Reflective Practices in the Arts Series: Landscapes: The Arts, Aesthetics and Education. Dordrecht: Springer, pp.3-12.

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996) Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of discovery and invention. New York: Harper Collins.

Robinson, K. (2006) Do schools kill creativity? [Online] Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY [Accessed: 26 September 2017].