This week was our final week of inputs for Integrated Arts. We learned about and explored the use of the ukulele in the classroom. Before learning more about this instrument I was sceptical about how I (with no previous experience with a ukelele or with anything like it) could possibly use it in a classroom of children. However, learning that many songs can be played using only C, F and G has made me a lot more confident that I could teach children how to use it effectively. To me, this makes the ukelele seem like an instrument which could effectively build the confidence of children who are not initially enthused by music, as it is not much to learn before success is reachable. This feeling of success is fundamental for building resilience as it will inevitably come before or after feelings of failure, especially when children are constantly trying new things. To encourage them to persist and to pursue their interests, even when challenges arise, is a key for their development and for the development of creativity (Lehrer, 2012). Resilience is vital for life within and out with education and some children may struggle more than others to develop it, so I aim to provide as many opportunities for its development as possible. Confidence is a key concept within the arts and it should be developed in children whenever possible (McAullife, 2007). When learning about the ukelele and its place in the classroom today, I considered how the end product – the performance, or the celebration as referred to by Woods (1994), can be used to both expose and improve the confidence, or lack of, in pupils. Woods describes this as the celebration as it should be the time when we feel proud of what we have achieved in the creation process.
Within dance today, we experienced this process of performance and celebration. After working collaboratively to create dances which fitted a Christmas theme last week, today we worked to bring the groups’ dances together one after the other and to add some moves in which all of the groups did at the beginning and end of the routine. We also came up with some ways that each group could move from their dance routine in the middle of the floor, to the side while another group moved in. We filmed the routine and performed it as a celebration of our work. Although some of us felt embarrassed or nervous about filming the dance, it allowed us to watch it back afterwards and to see that the finished product was more impressive than we had first thought! This helped me to feel more confident dancing alongside my colleagues and I will now be more confident dancing in front of and with my future students. We had worked together with our tutor guiding, not dictating, us, and there was a strong sense of ownership between my colleagues. This sense of ownership not only expresses pride, but encourages people to take responsibility for and to strive to further develop any skills and knowledge gained throughout an experience (Craft, 2007). This experience also helped me to consider that sometimes, once we have the product to hand, we forget about the value of the learning and development of skills which have taken place throughout the process. As a teacher I will be more conscious of making sure that I evaluate and ask the pupils to reflect on the process once the product has been created, so as not to devalue it, but to celebrate it. For the children, their reflection may allow them to revisit ideas which they had to put on a shelf along the way for one reason or another. It may also allow them to consider how their perceptions and views about different things have changed and how they can now use movement to express their feelings and ideas in different ways.
Overall, within the contexts of both music and dance today, I considered and experienced the end of the process – the product. I developed a new level of appreciation for its value and for how it can be used not to overshadow the process, but rather as a conclusion of its discoveries.
Furthermore, in music, the four chords concept, shown in the video below, inspired me to create something like this with a class of primary school children one day to show them the transferability of their skill in the use of the ukelele:
Although this particular video would not be suitable for use in a primary school classroom (due to the nature of some of the language used) the concept of it could be developed through teaching of the 4 chords principle and then researching and experimenting with different songs to see which ones fit. A mash-up could then be created of a similar nature to this one and performed with pride and, hopefully, a new found confidence within music! Exploring the concept of the 4 chords lead me to make a natural connection between music and maths: patterns and sequencing. Marshall (2014) discusses the importance of making connections where they come naturally, rather than forcing them, as this allows us to make the inter-disciplinary learning meaningful and to truly integrate subjects. This is evidenced in various aspects of music; the beat is a pattern of short sounds, and the melody often repeats itself in a pattern during the chorus and verses, but this particular sequence adds another opportunity for IDL – Roman Numerals. The principle means that whatever key you are playing in, the four chords you use go in a sequence of 1, 5, 6, 4. Upper case Roman Numerals are used to represent a major chord, and lower case Roman Numerals to represent a minor chord. If, for example, we were playing in the D key, the chords would be D, G, A, B, played in the sequence of D, A, B, G. 
This form of sequencing and patterns could be experimented with using various different keys to create various different letter patterns and to represent them using sound. This could be an activity used to reach the following outcome: I can continue and devise more involved repeating patterns or designs, using a variety of media. MTH 1-13a. Also, it could be used to aim towards this outcome: I can use my voice, musical instruments and music technology to discover and enjoy playing with sound, rhythm, pitch and dynamics. EXA 1-17a. The Roman Numerals also provide opportunities for exploration of this type of musical sequence to include lessons on number systems; comparing the Roman Numeral System to the Hindu Arabic system, and learning about the history and cultural impacts of the number systems we use today. I have discussed the important part that numbers play in the world and explored a variety of systems that have been used by civilisations throughout history to record numbers. MTH 1-12a.
Similarly to this, in the dance workshop today, my group and I were considering patterns and sequences of a different sort. Dance routines are often referred to as sequences as, essentially, they are a sequence of moves. We considered the different ways in which we can take a dance to the next level of aesthetic value. My group and I thought about ways in which some of us could do a sequence of moves in a different order to the others in our group. I was inspired to consider that this concept highlights the use of patterns in dance and could be used to further explore patterns and sequences in the classroom. These patterns could be represented using symbols of the children’s choice – numbers, doodles, shapes, or objects such as shells or coloured crayons. 
Once the patterns are recorded, the children could assign different moves to the different symbols and represent their patterns using movement. This would highlight the flow of some patterns and the abrupt change of others, and this could in fact be how the children choose to represent their feelings within the dance – is it a soft and easy flowing sequence of moves, or a bold and sharp sequence of moves? Encouraging children to consider their moves first in isolation and then to combine them within a sequence, would hopefully allow them to more easily edit and adapt their sequences to whatever pattern of moves they like best. Editing is very important and should be encouraged within creative processes such as this (Kear and Callaway, 2000).
A move or a single sound in isolation can have a very limited impact. It is the sequence of moves and sounds which create the art forms of dance and music: making sequences a vital aspect, of these two art forms in particular, to consider.
References
Craft, A. (2007) Creativity and possibility thinking in the Early Years. [Online] Available: www.tactyc.org.uk/pdfs/reflection-craft.pdf [Accessed: 1 October 2017].
Kear, M. and Callaway, G. (eds.) (2000) Improving teaching and learning in the arts. London: Falmer Press.
Lehrer, J. (2012) Imagine: How Creativity Works. [Online] Available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ufnp89NOrel&feature=youtu.be [Accessed: 2 October 2017].
Marshall, J. (2014) Transdisciplinarity And Art Integration: Toward a New Understanding of Art-Based Learning Across The Curriculum. Studies in Art Education. [Online] Vol.55(2), pp.104-127. Available: Taylor & Francis. [Accessed: 17 November 2017].
McAuliffe, D. (2007) Foundation and Primary Settings. In: Cox, S., Watts, R. Grahame, J. Herne, S. and McAuliffe, D. (eds.) Teaching Art and Design 3-11. London: Continuum.
Woods, P. (1994) ‘Chances of a lifetime: exceptional educational events’. In: Bourne, J. (ed.) Thinking Through Primary Practice. London: Routledge.
In a previous post I discussed how I was feeling before we delivered our lesson and today, after we delivered it, I was feeling pleasantly surprised. The engagement and active participation of our colleagues made it an enjoyable experience. As this was a micro-teaching exercise, I developed my communication skills and practised projecting my voice. I also made sure that I was aware of my position in the room and my colleagues and I practised giving set times to the participants. It was overall a very valuable experience in which we were able to practise general teaching skills along with drama conventions. We focussed mostly on the character of Prince Cinders, who was lonely and had low self-esteem at the beginning of the story, but by the end his horrible brothers were punished and he was rewarded. Looking closely at characters allowed us to use the process of this drama to tell the story in a more meaningful way, and the participants were able to relate to at least one of the characters and to develop justified feelings, whether positive or negative, towards them. As discussed by Jackson and Leahy (2006) drama allows children to be present within and out with a fictional story. This is a very powerful component of drama as it provides children with the opportunity to view things from two different perspectives – their own and that of a character. This allows them to compare the two and to make connections between them, using higher order thinking skills, such as evaluation, to justify both their own feelings and the feelings of the characters in question. This is a particularly sophisticated skill and is related to developing empathy for others. This is just one of the reasons that the process of drama is important.
On the outside of the outline we wrote words to describe the character and on the inside we wrote words to describe how the character feels about themselves. This helped me to put myself into the shoes of the characters and to consider how my views of them may differ from their views of themselves. We then listened to the story of the brother and sister. Half way through the story we stopped and acted out using voice in head (another of the conventions). This was useful as it allowed us to consider the contrasting views of the two characters. This convention will also show children that there can be many different explanations and reasons for actions and it will allow them to consider a variety of them. It may also give me, as the teacher, clues about some issues which children may currently be dealing with – such as lack of attention at home or the pressures of fitting in to social groups. Voice in head essentially gives children the opportunity to relate any feelings they may have to those of the character in order to explain their actions, or to consider why the character may have different feelings to what they do. It is very similar to thought tracking, however voice in head calls for the opposing view to be heard, which in many cases is useful for showing that there are two sides to every story. We then used mime which was a good way to make the story visual. I found this useful as it helped me to get into character and to internalise the experience of being part of the story. Finally, after finishing listening to the story, we revisited our role on the wall sheets and considered how our views had changed on the characters and wrote new words on the paper.
This would be very beneficial for helping the children to think about how and why their views had changed and to consider whether at first, they were too quick to judge before they knew enough about the characters. In our groups we then acted out, using a variety of conventions, a part of the story which had not been heard – this could have been after the story had ended or a part during the story which was not covered by the writer. In the classroom this would be a good opportunity for the children to make the most of the freedom they are being given and to consider, without being directly told by the teacher, the consequences of different risks taken by the characters. This, along with creating future plans, is a very important part of drama (Heath and Gilbert, 2015).
such as Zombie Tig. We also revisited the dances which we created in our groups last week. We used different stimuli for creating a whole class dance, which had very little teacher input. We stood in a circle and came up with moves for the numbers 0 to 9. We then went back into our groups and answered a number of mathematical calculations. The answers to these determined the order of the moves we had came up with. This would be a good way to integrate dance into maths as a means of practicing different types of calculations in a memorable way. 
We were also given a symbol each in our groups and asked to come up with a move which represented that symbol. These symbols were related to Halloween since this was our topic, but could be related to any topic. These moves were then added all together and because the symbols related to the topic, the moves fitted in perfectly with the music genre. This was a clever way of allowing us as the learners to make up the moves to the dance and to feel a sense of accomplishment in doing so as the moves looked aesthetically pleasing and professional as they fitted with the music. It also provided us with the opportunity to think creatively and this has been argued to increase self-esteem (QCA, 2004), which I think is a very important aspect of dance. When we revisited the dances which we created last week we added in starting and finishing positions as well as cannon and a change in position. This gave the opportunity for everyone to be at the front and to show off their contribution to the group. Finally we combined all of the different parts of the dance together and performed it as a class. This made me feel proud to be a member of the group and it would have the same effect on many children if the techniques were used in the classroom.
The main factors we considered were musical experience, participation, discovery of music, musical repertoire and awareness. I learned that beats are the foundation of music, then the long and short sounds of the rhythm, then the notes which make the melody, then the timbre, then the dynamics and finally the pitch. Julie spoke of the importance of learning how to experiment with music across various different platforms such as instruments, technology, voice, and listening. We also considered the importance of experiencing music in different environments, learning how to compose a piece of music and considering the meaning and thoughts behind the music. As well as being a way of expressing emotions and thoughts, music is a way for many learners to find themselves and it can allow for children to channel their emotions into something other than aggressive speech or actions. In addition, Anna Craft (2007) argues that encouraging creativity in schools can challenge teachers as our approaches are often typically Western and this may make parents and/or children with different cultural backgrounds feel uncomfortable. However, music provides us with ideal opportunities to explore and celebrate different cultures – helping to ensure that more Eastern views are not forgotten about during expressive arts activities.
My group looked at literacy and we found that much research has been undertaken to prove that musical training improves phonological awareness and so early reading skills. This means that if music is taught to children in schools from a very young age, their phonological abilities will be of a higher standard. The paper also shows that learning the piano in particular is linked to better vocabulary and stronger verbal sequencing, and instrumental training makes people better at remembering verbal information. This makes music a fantastic way to develop the skills of those with reading disabilities such as Dyslexia as it helps to improve language, timing and verbal memory. In addition, by using the beats of music by clapping, stamping or using instruments, it can help learners to sound out words and to identify phonological and graphic patterns in words. The abilities to sound out words, remember verbal language and to picture sequencing are all things which people with Dyslexia struggle with, so if music can help them to develop these then that is reason enough to dedicate time to music lessons.
enjoy, as I remember enjoying the few experiences of expressive dance which I got as a pupil at school. We then moved on to playing games such as follow the leader; when the person at the front of the line did a dance move which they thought of when they heard different pieces of music being played, the rest of us copied. We also played Tig and movement team games which related to the topic of the day – which in our case was Scotland. This is a good way to contextualise the dance activity and to make it relevant to the learning of the children in the classroom. It also allows learners to consider the topic in a different way and in more depth, which, for many children, can help to promote understanding in a memorable way. We were exploring aspects of Scottish culture and of Scotland as a geographical location. Different places and points in time could be explored in the same way through dance. Once we were warmed up, we stretched. Before stretching we considered the places and names of our different muscles, bones and organs by drawing around one person in our team’s body. This again, helped to contextualise learning and allowed us to see why we were doing these stretches and what was happening to our bodies when we did. 
Finally, in our groups we moved round different stations of movement, namely: reach, twist, balance, turn, kick, jump, hop, gesture, slide, and roll. At each station we had to come up with a movement of this description. At the end we combined all of the movements to create a dance which we performed to the rest of the class.
hinder creativity and can prevent learners from identifying and dealing with problems in their own ways and it may also steal opportunities for the building of confidence and resilience. However, she also discusses that too much freedom can lead to challenges such as children taking inspiration from video games and wanting to incorporate fighting into their dances. She suggests that we should take these challenges as opportunities to discuss that violence is wrong but it sadly happens, and help children to consider ways of overcoming conflict in a peaceful way. Dance can therefore be used to teach and explore valuable life lessons, as well as to develop understanding and knowledge of other topics across the curriculum such as geography, history, and biology.