Task 3a Current networks

Before starting this task i never realised how many different networks that i was part of so I have created a bit of a spider diagram showing all my different networks in my professional practice.

In my professional practice i use a lot of face to face networking through going to schools and through my teacher training course.In addition I  also use the use of online communication as well as Linkedn , google+, Facebook... Without the development of 2.0 the use of networking online would be no existent.

Its important for myself that i keep developing my professional practice through face to face  conversations and also online connections  to broaden my network as its important to professional network and build a good reputation and business relationship for myself with clients.

In the near future i would like to develop my ISTD teaching  network into a larger scale once qualified ,the ISTD have an online website which enables companies that  are looking for a dance teacher in the local area search their details and qualifications and contact them if they are interested in their skill base to become a teacher at the school. I think this is an excellent online network platform for employment. http://www.dance-teachers.org/

I believe that its important to keep professional and personal networks separate as its never a good idea to mix these 2 thoughts together .Both of these networks are very important in life and they are just as important as each other.

Task 2D: Inquiry

What in your daily practice gets you really enthusiastic to find out more about? Who do you admire who also works with what makes you enthusiastic? 

There are many things in my daily practice that gets me enthusiastic, I am currently studying ISTD Teaching course  and I am loving  looking at the anatomy of the body  and how does brain develop through the years from learning dance and  in addition how does the fundamental movement  development differ from children taking dance lessons to the children who dont. I would love to find out more about these topic as it intrigues me.

I admire many people through my life so far including teachers who have taught me dance, family and friends they give me inspiration to achieve in life and never give up on my dreams.  

What gets you angry or makes you sad?  Who do you admire who shares your feelings or has found away to work around the sadness or anger?

I admit i am a bit of a thinker i think about somethings into too much detail and i always doubt myself! By thinking into too much detail about something does make me feel sad as i doubt my thoughts.
Some of the schools i work in children suffer with anger and emotional difficulties and have so many thoughts going through their minds where they are worrying about something. It puts doubting myself and thinking into too much detail  in a different level as these children are only in school and are young and shouldn't have to worry about anything. I try to help these children express themselves and put positive thoughts through their mind. I know if i do need to express myself in any way i know i have got my family here to support me.

What do you love about what you do? Who do you admire who also seems to love this or is an example of what you love?

What i love doing in my Professional Practice is giving children an insight into dance and i am able to show and deliver passion into this subject. I love to see every child having a go! I would love to develop dance further into primary school as i believe that also it helps SEN children develop and able to be creative.

What do you feel you don’t understand?  Who do you admire who does seem to understand it or who has found a way of making not understanding it interesting or beautiful, or has asked the same questions as you? 

I dont understand many aspects of life and the current world we live in including gun crime , violence, Education changes every year, is it always for the better and why ? Whats going to happen to Brexit ? I think no one could answer all the question and give a fully detailed explanation to these questions, and some aspects  will never stop like gun crime and violence.Imagine the world without these aspects, what a different world we would live in !

How do you decide the appropriate ethical response in a given situation? To what extent are disciplinary responses different to that you might expect more generally in society? For example, what level of physical contact would you deem appropriate (and not) from another professional that you would find unacceptable more generally? Why? 

Ethical response is a difficult area to apply yourself to and it would also depend on what environment i was in my, if i was with young children my response would be different compared to if i was surrounded by my friends and family.

I think the word physical contact in a dance environment is a normal aspect of dancing and learning  as your teacher adjusts your movement/placement to make it right . but i think if you had an office job i dont think this would be appropriate.

2c:- Reflective Theory

Every bodies idea of reflection is different as everybody reflects differently. I reflect best when I have been through a certain experience once the experience is complete I think about the outcomes of the experience and think mindfully about  the following :- 

Was it a good or a bad experience?

What could I do to make the experience better?

Has the experience made me a better person overall?

Most of the time I keep my thoughts to myself and dont express my emotions, but sometimes everyone needs to express their emotions, emotions are a big indicator to how we can show if an experience went according to plan or not.

When researching about the word 'Reflection' there are many meanings to this work the phrase by using the 'Free Dictionary Online' .http://www.thefreedictionary.com/reflection

 '3b. A thought or an opinion resulting from such thinking or consideration'

This Phrase relates to reflection the best for me because once I have reflected on the experience I have a final thoughts and opinions on how I believed the experience went by analysing and reflecting on my teaching.



Views Of Dewey  

Referring to the quote above it is clear that Dewey believes that we learn best once we have completed the task and then to  reflect on the experience. I use this  technique at the end of my lessons once completed the lesson in school , I ask the children to reflect on their learning ,what have they gained from today's lesson ? what can they improve on next time ?...


http://study.com/academy/lesson/john-dewey-on-education-impact-theory.html

I found the above  website really useful when researching into Dewey it explained some really important facts relating to Dewey including  :-

'Dewey Had a Child Centred approach to education and emphasised the learning needs and interests of the children'

He also liked the use Interdisciplinary- connecting multiple subjects together, I use this technique with regards to topics within Dance. Today I was teaching a year 5 class and they have been reading/ studying  the Roal Dahl book of Matilda in English so I decide to cross curricular the 2 subjects of Dance and English together and  as a class they learnt a section of  the Royal Shakespeare Company dance of  'Revolting Children'.    

http://www.wilderdom.com/experiential/SummaryJohnDeweyExperienceEducation.html

'experience arises from the interaction of two principles -- continuity and interaction.  Continuity is that each experience a person has will influence his/her future, for better or for worse.  Interaction refers to the situational influence on one's experience.  In other words, one's present experience is a function of the interaction between one's past experiences and the present situation.  For example, my experience of a lesson, will depend on how the teacher arranges and facilitates the lesson, as well my past experience of similar lessons and teachers.'

Overall evaluating on Deweys Theory- I believe the more experiences we experience through our lives, and the more we evaluate on the finding from the experience, we will be able to guide ourselves through life in our chosen direction. Through experience we face we are still learning , learning and evaluating  never stop through our lives. 


Views of Kolb 

As a Dance teacher in primary schools I always plan my lessons what I  am going to deliver through the half term in a certain topic. I always set aims and expectations for the Higher, Middle and lower ability  (All, Most ,Some)  this enables me to have an understanding on what is going to be achieved by the children at  the end of  each lesson and end of the half term. I can refer at Kolbs learning cycle as I always start at 'Active Experimentation.'  

Each Lesson I teach I believe that I go through each stage of Kolbs Learning Cycle. I think the most important section out of this theory is 'Abstract Conceptualisation' because I wont reach the learning outcomes at the end of the term if this isn't followed through.This enables me to edit the next lesson if we haven't  achieved a certain area from the lesson.


I can see how Kolbs theory is a great way to reflect on 'experience'


Views Of Moon

Jenny Moon is best known for her contribution to Journal Writing. Through my Education at Hammond we used the use of Journal writing to reflect on our week/lesson I liked how I could  put thoughts  to paper and reflect on my week/ lesson in a thoughtful mindful way reflecting in peace. When writing my journal through section 2b I used Moons techniques to create a detailed Reflective Journal.


Views of Schon

Schon theory relating to Reflecting In Action and Refection On Action, I can relate sometimes to this when  teaching a lesson. Sometimes things dont go to plan so I  have to change the aspect of the lesson on the spot incorporating different learning methods for example Gardeners techniques. This shows I  am thinking ahead and not wasting children's learning time. Once finished the lesson I will then reflect on why my planned lesson didn't work. Sometimes it  can relate to the learning methods i used as each child is different and everyone learns using different methods, or sometimes the children need more help of understanding the topic or  learning outcomes of the lesson so the lessons are slowed down to make sure  learning outcomes are achieved which may relate to another lesson on the same topic/ technique of dance.


I have have loved reading into the different practitioners and their reflective methods hope you enjoy reading my blog!

Task 2B: Reflective Writing

Task 2B of Module 1 of the BAPP Course helps you develop your knowledge and understanding of the Reid and Moon reflection framework.So I  have began using a journal to reflect on my day to day Professional Practice. I have made sure when writing my journal that there is no confidential matters included.

When reading through my journal I can see that I have used the following techniques :-

Description-whats event/events happened throughout my day including where and when.

Initial Reflection-How did i feel about the event?, What was i thinking? What was my mood?

Evaluation- What did i think went well? worked well? did you learn or discover anything?

These techniques I believe help me to  reflect my best when trying to express myself. I feel that using Another view, Graphs /Charts and What If wouldnt benefit or help me to reflect any better and wouldn't come naturally to me.

Here is an extract from my Journal:

"... Today we couldn't do dance in the school hall as it is been resurfaced so we ended up having a dance lesson in the classroom.Reception love the website Go Noodle which is a Physical  Active Website for children it  has many activities like Zumba Kids and Relaxation on there...

Reception get that excited that they all push right to the front of the screen to the point where there isn't even enough room for them to do the activities.I think this lesson was successful even if we were in the classroom but  all the children all had smiles on there faces and were all joining in ,in an active  way ,even if we did have a  limited amount of space. If the children are happy and enjoying themselves then  I am happy.

I believe I chose activities for the children that were  age related, have messages to the activities ' Be Kind' which all helps the development of children understanding whats right and wrong. From today lesson I learnt that the children love the activities that were animated such as the Trolls where they could dance with the trolls on the screen, this is defiantly popular as its in the cinemas at the moment..."

What kind of learner am I ?

As a child i couldn't sit still in lesson, i always wanted to be active, makes sense why i was engaged in dance lessons, i enjoyed learning in a physical active way. instead of sitting in a classroom lessons which were never taught in a physical way. 

Since teaching in primary schools i have learnt so much about learning styles for children  just by observing lessons, for example maths isn't always taught in the classroom for example maths is taught on the playground with number ladders painted on the playground this  allows the children to learn their times tables in a active way. Times Tables are an important part of primary school maths and  it is nice to see different learning methods been used as every child learns in a different way!

In each school i go to there is varied abilities and i use as many different teaching methods i possibly can and also cross curricular the topics with what they are studying in certain lessons for example The Romans in history. 

The teaching  methods i use in lessons are :

Kinesthetic - children learn by doing the movement 

Visual - watch the movement and then able to perform the move 

Auditory - listening to what i am describing about a movement and transfer the words into the correct movement .

Reflection- children reflect on what they have learnt throughout the lesson and also reflect on a performance that they might of just watched.

I decided to a have a go at a  Honey and Mumford learning type quiz as i was intrigued to see what kind of learner i have grown up to be.

I am a a mix between an activist and a theorist. 
hppts://resources.eln.io/honey-mumford-learner-types-1986-questionnaire-online/

I think the questionnaire is pretty correct i do learn better in a more physical way such as dance, role play ,brainstorming ideas and group work. In addition, i do believe i have the learning qualities of a theorist because i like to have a lot of background informationin a subject , Furthermore i think mentally in logical manner when learning new information or when creating suitable lesson plans for the children. 

Comments on this topic would be mostly appreciated if you have any other ideas regarding learning methods would be appreciated for children !

Task 2a: Reflective Practice

Task 2a of Module 1 of the Professional Practice course begins to make me explore my own thoughts in the content of a journal. I have decided to do a day to day diary entry on my thoughts in  my Professional Practice as I believe that  this is the best way for me to gather my thoughts together as no day is the same for me. Also  from seeing my  thoughts written down in front of me will help me to reflect on my day.Was i happy with what i have delivered ? Did the children understand the aims of the lesson ?...

I have never considered  a diary entry to write down my thoughts and feeling before,  throughout my time at The  Hammond, i used a weekly reflection sheet to explain what we have done throughout the week including corrections and focus areas of  dance i have worked on.I found writing down corrections made me think about the specific correction in more detail and i could go back  and reflect on my learning.

There is an assumption for many people that thinking and writing are linked: “Writing is a means of puzzling through what is happening in our work and our personal lives…” Boud (2001). I  believe that this is realistic quote referring to my day to day dairy entry in which my thoughts and feelings are expressed through my work and personal life.

Throughout section 2 of module 1  i am going too look further into reflective practice and also look at different practitioners on how they relate to me.