This weeks lecture looked at creative partnerships within the arts. We learned that it can help to provide a higher quality of education for the pupils because its experts providing the children with their expert knowledge. We also looked at some examples of creative partnerships and one was the Creative Minds Learning Network. They hold whole day events where teachers have the opportunity to gain knowledge in the art areas. The events involve local artists and experts to talk to the teachers and help them to provide themselves and the pupils with a quality learning experience. The day is not only open to teachers but also lots of other people, including parents or other school staff. We looked at another successful example of a creative partnership which was the parkour project. This was started because the boys didn’t feel comfortable dancing so they brought in a parkour instructor to teach the children and help them to express themselves through movement. The project worked really well and it helped to improve more than just their physical movement. The project helped to raise attainment, attendance and confidence and also improved the pupils ability to follow instructions and be safe.
Our music input focussed on a concept called figure-notes. It’s a form of notation that allows everyone to play together using either traditional or non-conventional notation. It uses shapes and colours instead of notes and you just hit the key that matches the sheet. It’s really beneficial for autistic children because conventional notation can be difficult to understand (different length bars, etc). We all had a shot at using figure notes on the glockenspiels and got to play a couple of songs, jingle bells and Frère Jacques. Everyone picked it up really quickly and done really well. I’ve mentioned before that music was never my favourite subject but I actually had a really fun day and enjoyed myself because I didn’t feel stupid for not being able to read music.
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Our dance workshop started off with us performing our dance routines to the rest of the section. I was really nervous because my dancing skills aren’t great. However, after the performance, I felt more connected to my group because we all worked together and none of us really felt that confident about it. This is backed up by Ken Robinson who mentioned in a blog of his that there was “demonstrable improvement in students’ abilities to cooperate and collaborate” after they worked in groups for a dance project. A lot of work in schools now is group based so this is a really important point to consider for my future practice. We then came together as a section and started to create a whole class dance. We used different stimulus’, pictures of different Scottish landmarks, to come up with a Scottish themed dance move. each group came up with a different move and then we combined them all to create the beginning of our dance. Cone (2009) says that allowing the pupils to choreograph their own dances allows them to explore their own thoughts and feelings.
References
Cone, Theresa. (2009). Following Their Lead: Supporting Children’s Ideas for Creating Dances. Journal of Dance Education. Vol. 9, pp 81-89. Available: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233223027_Following_Their_Lead_Supporting_Children’s_Ideas_for_Creating_Dances [Accessed: 14th of `November 2019].
TED-ED (2018) Why Dance is Just as Important as Maths in School [Online] Available: https://blog.ed.ted.com/2018/04/02/why-dance-is-just-as-important-as-math-in-school/ [Accessed: 14th of November 2019].
