Thursday 5 October 2017

Importance of arts education

As i was driving to work yesterday morning i was listening to the news on radio 1 and the subject on arts education was been broadcast !

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/41418139/new-music-at-risk-through-music-education-neglect-in-england

it got me thinking about if music drama and dance isn't  taught and inspiring children  in schools the industry will be non existent in a few years time as new talent isn't coming through as its not been taught within schools if children are taught and enjoy the subject they will excell and continue on from it.

not every child will be lucky enough to go to dance,music or drama classes outside of school, so this i believe should be taught within the curriculum from reception. I know schools are on tight budgets but i believe that children will be inspired and excited by prospects of these subjects been taught on a weekly basis .

Not every child is going to be mastery in academic subjects such as English Maths and Science children need to be inspired in other subject as i believe this is important for children to gain an all round understanding of education .

children learn many key life skills in the arts

I hope some day there is change to national curriculum but i hope more about the arts in education  are broadcast on national radio to raise the awareness of what is happening to the industry of the performing arts.

Sunday 1 October 2017

Module 3 !!

It seems like a long time since I last blogged but many events have happened since module 2.

Summer term was a very busy time of year I choreographed the school production across the Trust which was a great success and the children loved the experience!

After a well earned break and lots of research on pieces of literature and articles which I found very interesting and many  related to my inquiry here are 2 which I think are very relevant to what's happening in the education sector with regards to the performing arts.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jul/08/harriet-harman-calls-for-arts-education-push



https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/30/science-classes-future-children-dance-schools


Week 1

first week back starting module 3 I have read through the hand book and wrote notes on certain areas of importance and also sent my feedback from module 2 to Helen.

Also my

I have started to do some interviews with performing arts professionals with regards to the their views on the performing arts in education and do they think its an important aspect of the national curriculum....

Week 2 is going to be more focused on literature



Thursday 9 March 2017

5b Ethics Within My Workplace

Safeguarding is most certainly an important aspect of the Education System. On a day to day basis i have to make sure i follow the polices regarding Safe Guarding. Next week i am going on further safeguarding training called PREVENT which is required for every member of staff within an education environment to attend.

After looking up online Safeguarding online i discovered the requirements that schools need to follow to ensure they are reaching the correct standard of  requirements to care for the children to their full potential while they are within the education setting. 

Ofsted adopts the definition of safeguarding used in the Children Act 2004 and in the Department for Education and Skills (now DfE) guidance document Working together to safeguard children, which focuses on safeguarding and promoting children’s and learners’ welfare.[1] This can be summarised as:
n  protecting children and learners from maltreatment
n  preventing impairment of children’s and learners’ health or development
n  ensuring that children and learners are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care
n  undertaking that role so as to enable those children and learners to have optimum life chances and to enter adulthood successfully.


[1]Working together to safeguard children, Department for Education and Skills, 2006; www.education.gov.uk/publications/standard/publicationDetail/Page1/WT2006.

When looking on the Gov website there are many links that appear with regarding safeguarding children. It puts into prospective how important safeguarding is, making sure that  every child  is cared for. 

website from my workplace has the policies accessible at anytime for parents ,teacher, local authorities and Ofsted  to view infomation regarding data protection, behaviour policies , child protection and also each subject policies ...  When I began my position as a Dance Teacher at the school I was given an induction booklet which contained all the key policies that I should follow to fulfil my position.

Would love to hear about policies that you follow in your education setting.










5a Ethics Within The Workplace

With the school that i work in there are many ethical considerations that i have to follow on a day to day basis. I have decided to do a little spider diagram of  the ethical considerations that i could think of within my workplace in education. I have also expanded on some aspects of ethical considerations these are linked but these are also important  aspects that i must respect and be aware of in my profession of teaching children.







  • Safeguarding
  • Data Protection
  • Staff/Placement CRB check
  • No physical contact with children
  • Appropriate Language
  • Wear suitable clothing/Be clean and presentable
  • Equal opportunity/No discrimination (for both teachers and pupils)
  • Confidentiality 
  • Health and safety policies
  •  Policies
  •  Social Media  Privacy Settings  

Monday 6 March 2017

My Thoughts Towards My Inquiry After Today

After teaching a class today of primary school children today it has made me think more deeply on my questions and after speaking to other professionals and teachers within the education sector.

It was very evident during today that children were no used to kinestetic learning as the children are used to sitting at a desk looking at the whiteboard and listening to the teacher  (visual and audio ) this happens on a day to day basis during in English and Maths.

I really want to further my inquiry on looking at how can different learning styles  and performing arts aspects could be incorporated into  other academic subjects as soon as children enter education. After speaking to teachers there seems to be very limited on the amount of  time to teach more vocational subjects for example the performing arts  . 

There are many benefits to performing arts in the education system when growing up but why are they not prioritised in the national curriculum? could  this improve the grades of children and allow the children to have a  greater attention span by incorporating more interactive(performing arts) aspects of the lessons ? As every child requires different needs but are schools currently meeting their learning needs to make sure they reach their full potential?

I am very passionate in raising standards of children's learning and i really do believe that performing arts aspects of teaching can help many children. 

I have came to the conclusion after speaking to teachers in my workplace and also dance teachers that i would like my inquiry to be based around creativity and performing arts in education how can this be included and also benefit children through education?

Would love to hear your views on my thoughts on today








Sunday 5 March 2017

EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE Literature 2

This evidence report is very interesting as it is evident that performing arts has benefits on children education outcomes.

Many class teachers i speak to are very uncertain how to teach the specialist subject such as the performing arts discipline so they do as little as they can in these subjects and decide to stick to the more educational subjects which they are more confident in .But if these subjects are not taught enough are these children missing out an aspect of their education  and could they achieve more ?

This article is based around Middle School and High School children  but i believe that this is beneficial for children younger aswell as there is evidence of learning outcomes for the children .

https://s3.amazonaws.com/ClubExpressClubFiles/893257/documents/Final_Evidence_Report.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIB6I23VLJX7E4J7Q&Expires=1488752908&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DFinal_Evidence_Report.pdf&Signature=wgJWk7YoQLyPZZtMD5bi4YVCKWc%3D

I have printed this document out and annotated parts that i believe are important aspects for my study

I would love to hear your opinions of the evidence  !

Standards for Dance in Early Childhood Literature 1

After researching on the web with regards to performing arts education i came across this website which is very meaningful within the article http://www.ndeo.org/content.aspx?page_id=22&club_id=893257&module_id=55419

Dance and performing arts  is certainly an important part of childhood certainly within school there is a constant aspect when talking to teachers that there isnt enough time to do creative activities with children as there is constant pressure of the national curriculum of making sure they gain grades to get children's standards of Maths and English up at the age of 4! how can this be changed ?

This article below i have printed out and annotated my thoughts and opinions to each section. During module 1 i focused very much on the aspects of To learn by “doing” (Dewey 1915) and at the young age of early childhood i believe this is the correct way that children learn the right from wrong by experimenting with different aspects of physical development.

I would love your hear your view on this article!

Standards for Dance in Early Childhood

Philosophy Underlying Early Childhood Standards

Dance embodies one of our most primal relationships to the universe. It is pre-verbal, beginning before words can be formed. It is innate in children before they possess command over language and is evoked when thoughts or emotions are too powerful for words to contain.

Children move naturally. They move to achieve mobility, they move to express a thought or feeling, and they move because it is joyful and feels wonderful. When their movement becomes consciously structured and is performed with awareness for its own sake, it becomes dance.

Dance is a natural method for learning and a basic form of cultural expression. Children learn movement patterns as readily as they learn language. Just as all societies create forms of visual representation or organize sounds into music, all cultures organize movement and rhythm into one or more forms of dance. Yet, while our educational systems for early childhood include drawing and singing, they often neglect to include dance. It is essential that education provide our children with the developmental benefits and unique learning opportunities that come from organizing movement into the aesthetic experience of dance.


The Benefits of Dance


Dance is a powerful ally for developing many of the attributes of a growing child. Dance helps children mature physically, emotionally, socially, and cognitively. The physical benefits of dance are widely accepted, but the emotional, social and cognitive attributes have only recently begun to be appreciated.


Physical Development: Dance involves a greater range of motion, coordination,
strength and endurance than most other physical activities. This is
accomplished through movement patterns that teach coordination and
kinesthetic memory. Dancing utilizes the entire body and is an excellent form of
exercise for total body fitness. Young children are naturally active, but dance
offers an avenue to expand movement possibilities and skills.

Emotional Maturity: Dance promotes psychological health and maturity. Children
enjoy the opportunity to express their emotions and become aware of
themselves and others through creative movement. A pre-school child enters a
dance class or classroom with a history of emotional experiences. Movement
within a class offers a structured outlet for physical release while gaining
awareness and appreciation of oneself and others.

Social Awareness: Dance fosters social encounter, interaction, and cooperation.
Children learn to communicate ideas to others through the real and immediate
mode of body movement. Children quickly learn to work within a group dynamic.
As the ongoing and sometimes challenging process of cooperation evolves,
children learn to understand themselves in relation to others.

Cognitive Development: Young children will create movement spontaneously
when presented with movement ideas or problems that can be solved with a
movement response. Movement provides the cognitive loop between the idea,
problem, or intent and the outcome or solution. This teaches an infant, child and,
ultimately, adult to function in and understand the world. The relationship of
movement to intellectual development and education is an embryonic field of
study that has only recently begun to be explored.


Educational Philosophy

Dance is basic to learning. Children learn most readily from experience. John Dewey understood this when he asserted, “Action is the test of comprehension” (Dewey, 1915). To learn by “doing” and to act on knowledge is the basis of kinesthetic learning. Kinesthetic learning is becoming more widely understood through the work of Jean Piaget (1896-1980), Howard Gardner (1944- ), and other cognitive theorists.

Dance, in particular, integrates kinesthetic learning with understanding. Preschool children do not conceptualize abstract processes (Piaget). They primarily learn through physical and sensory experiences. When children are provided with creative movement problems that involve the selection of movement choices, they learn to think in the concrete reality of movement. Thus, learning the art of dance helps young children develop knowledge, skill, and understanding about the world.

Dance helps children develop literacy. To the young child, verbal language and movement are entwined. Preverbal movement expression does not cease when a child develops language. The road to literacy involves the translation of movement expression and communication into words. Learning language and learning dance are not separate threads, but are woven together and incorporated into a fabric of communication and understanding.

Dance provides young children multiple perspectives. It is “a foundation of experience necessary for the future development of more advanced skills and a way to affirm an inner life and alternate realities” (Stinson, 1990). Through dance, children develop enhanced sensory awareness, cognition, and consciousness. It is this heightened state that creates the magic of movement that is dance.

Importance of Standards

The Standards for Dance in Early Childhood are important because they
Provide a scaffold outlining the breadth and scope of learning and teaching dance as an art upon which to design curricula and course syllabi.

Standards are a guide, not a directive nor a curriculum. They offer constructive support, suggesting areas of curriculum but not defining it. Standards allow each district or school to develop an approach most suited to local or individual values.

Serve as a springboard for creativity for the learning and teaching of dance making: improvisation, choreography, and composition.
Standards suggest avenues of creative exploration in the arts-making
processes of Performing, Creating, Responding to, and
Interconnecting dance learning to knowledge of other disciplines and life skills.
Define age-appropriate expectations and levels of achievement in the art of dance.

Standards inform individual schools of dance and school districts what students should know and be able to do in the art of dance at certain benchmark levels when taught by a highly qualified dance teacher in a graduated curriculum.

http://www.ndeo.org/content.aspx?page_id=22&club_id=893257&module_id=55419

What do you think ?

Behaviour is important aspect of school life these days and many  behaviour management methods are incorporated in a day to day basis .After a conversation I  had with a senior pastoral manager with regards to incorporating dance to help the behaviour at lunch times and also helping some children after lunch time making sure they go back to lessons in a  relaxed state.

After some research online thinking of ways this can be done to benefit the children, this week were going to try playing music on the playground and myself going out creating dance routines  to keep children focused and out of mischief during their lunch break, and after lunch  time going to incorporate selected children to go into the sensory room for 15 minutes before going to lesson trying some slow and gentle movements  and relax time. We are hoping that this will allow the children to become more focused during the afternoon of learning and be more productive instead of currently distracting other children in their learning.

the following link below i found very interesting as it shows the school in Baltimore changed the behaviour of the children around and this is where the idea has came from .

  http://edition.cnn.com/2016/11/04/health/meditation-in-schools-baltimore/

what do you think of this idea ?

Wednesday 22 February 2017

4b Special Interest Group

I have created a SIG regarding performing arts in education as this is the area of study i am looking at for my inquiry.

please feel free to join the group to enable to broaden ideas in the same sector.


https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/104349729225567242996

Task 4a: Developing Lines of Inquiry

I currently work in  the education sector  teaching dance in primary schools within an educational trust. The questions i have created  are based around performing arts in primary school education. As this is the route that i would like to take in my inquiry as i believe that there are many avenues that i can develop and education is changing all the time.

·         Does a Professional Dancer necessarily mean you are a good teacher?


·         Does Performing arts have an importance within the education system?



·         What makes an excellent performing arts teacher when teaching in primary schools?



·      Does Performing Arts help SEN, Lower Ability and Pupil Premium children achieve greater ? Should performing arts replace humanities within the curriculum with the selected children?




·         Does dance help with discipline of children?



·    Should more government budget  be put towards the performing arts within primary schools?



·   Should the performing arts be incorporated in Maths and English to make the subject more interesting for all children, and do you believe this would increase grades from all aspects of children’s backgrounds?



·    Children who are involved with the performing arts from a young age  are they more  mature  and confident when growing up?



·      Dance and Musical Theatre are fun and interesting way for children to exercise and stay fit and healthy could this be incorporated into pe lessons more ?


  •   How does my teaching style and lessons  compare to other performing arts teacher who are more experienced in the profession ?



Please feel free to comment and voice you opinion on the above questions 


Monday 6 February 2017

Back to Blogging !

Christmas flew by, back to work!

A lot has changed since Christmas i have started a new job as a Dance Teacher within an Educational Trust working in 2 different schools educating children in the arts is great, also inspiring children in the arts is what i hope to achieve !

I felt very apprehensive when i started on the 2nd of January as i was entering a new environment and new colleagues, following different policies and  starting building up alliance with staff and children .

I am thoroughly enjoying my new position working in 2 lovely schools, children achieving in the performing arts and lovely to see talented children come alive with opportunities that are available to them within the schools curriculum.


Sunday 1 January 2017

Task 3d Critical questions and issues that emerge

Do some very specific ideas emerge about your networking and sources?
 Networking is a very important tool for my Professional Practice as it enables me to build and gain  relationship with other industry professionals . By gaining an understanding during this unit i hope to use these theories and sources in the future to enable my professional network to grow.


Are your ideas, position or concerns shared by others within and/or beyond your professional area of work?
 Since starting BAPP i feel that i have been able to comment on other blogs regarding to the subjects and realise that i am not the only one who has the same thoughts for example when Alice wrote a blog regarding Harvard Referencing. this has enabled me to widening  my knowledge with regards to referencing. Each blog i read has something different and interesting for each others and it is sure broadening my knowledge.



Does sharing ideas and communicating with others shift your thinking, planning or practice?
Blogging sure has broadened my knowledge everyone has different view points and different main focuses in each blog. by reading and commenting on each others blogs sure helps me to think more deeply into the topic, sometimes it doubts what i have wrote but its how you use the theory or source in your professional practice is the main important thing as we all have different professional practices.


Does critical reflection help you decide what really matters and the actions to take?

I agree with this question totally by reflecting on my day has enabled me to think more deeply and reflect on how i can improve through the due course. if things haven't gone to plan i find that reflecting is the best way to discover what i can improve on for next time.

Are you left thinking differently prior to this part of the module? And if so, how?
Since completing module 1 it has sure made me think differently firstly through communication , thinking of the different ways to communicate with web 2.0 and also broadening my ways to advertise and show the work i am doing to a wider audience by completing this unit i wouldn't of used different ways to advertise my work .

In addition, reflective theories have also helped me in my professional practice by helping my teaching practices considering what works and what doesn't especially reflecting in Gibbs theory of reflection .

Finally Networking, this has enabled me to discover how to network better it has shown that i have a broad network in my professional practice and i have been able to understand how i can grow in the near future i believe this is an important factor to have a successful career.


3B Theories relating to networking

Task 3B in the BA Professional Practice helps you to develop an understanding about different concepts of professional network and how do these concept relate to my professional practice.

Co-operation 
  One of the most influential researchers behind the theory of Co Operation is Robert Axelrod. Axelrod highlights the importance of co operation with others. I really like the idea of what Axelrod has came up with  behind the Prisoners Dilemma because without co operation with each other you dont get anywhere

Pensioner Dilemma is based on decision analysis, the prisoners usually decide to protect their selves at the expense  from the other participant ! . This doesnt have a positive outcome As a result of following a purely logical thought process, both participants find themselves in a worse state than if they had cooperated with each other in the decision-making process.
 A good example of the prisoners theory that appears in the news quite frequently is Brexit between the EU and Britain trying to gain access to the EU Single market ! A the situation is taking a long to process as co operation is key between the 2 sectors to  make a final decision.

http://www.lawyersforbritain.org/eu-deal-single-market.shtml


Affiliation 

Affiliation is a concept  of social psychology that seeks to explain how humans enjoy and benefit from been with others and the reasons why humans ‘form close relationships with each other which begins from our brains. Everyone's level of interaction between each other  can be different some people maybe more private and some people might be more open with certain subjects. 

This relates to my networking in professional practice as i have to create interaction with children ,colleagues and clients that i work with on a day to day basis and without 'Affiliation' in my network is really important part of my career especially when teaching children in an education environment.


Social Constructionism 

I think this is an important part of professional networking,  social constructionism  the key principles for professional networking  is through  social interaction, humans ‘construct’ meanings of the world we live in  and their experiences.Social Constructionism is largely based around the emphases of larger social processes, in the performing arts world

 'This thing could not have existed had we not built it'


Connectivism

“Connectivism is a theory about learning influenced by ideas about the organisation of learning and information with special reference to the spread of the Internet”

Middlesex University (2012) BAPP (Arts) Reader 3, Institute of Work Based Learning, London: Middlesex University

This theory gives you the idea of learning and networking at the same time , it also relate to my professional practice when teaching giving my knowledge transfer to the students in an efficient way of teaching .



Community of Practice 

community of practice (CoP) is a group of people who share a craft and/or a profession. originally developed by Lave and Wenger in 1991.


Domain : A community of practice is not merely a club of friends or a network of connections between people. It has an identity defined by a shared domain of interest. Membership therefore implies a commitment to the domain, and therefore a shared competence that distinguishes members from other people. (You could belong to the same network as someone and never know it.) The domain is not necessarily something recognised as “expertise” outside the community. A youth gang may have developed all sorts of ways of dealing with their domain: surviving on the street and maintaining some kind of identity they can live with. They value their collective competence and learn from each other, even though few people outside the group may value or even recognise their expertise.

Community: In pursuing their interest in their domain, members engage in joint activities and discussions, help each other, and share information. They build relationships that enable them to learn from each other; they care about their standing with each other. A website in itself is not a community of practice. Having the same job or the same title does not make for a community of practice unless members interact and learn together. The claims processors in a large insurance company or students in American high schools may have much in common, yet unless they interact and learn together, they do not form a community of practice. But members of a community of practice do not necessarily work together on a daily basis. The Impressionists, for instance, used to meet in cafes and studios to discuss the style of painting they were inventing together. These interactions were essential to making them a community of practice even though they often painted alone.

Practice: A community of practice is not merely a community of interest–people who like certain kinds of movies, for instance. Members of a community of practice are practitioners. They develop a shared repertoire of resources: experiences, stories, tools, ways of addressing recurring problems—in short a shared practice. This takes time and sustained interaction. A good conversation with a stranger on an airplane may give you all sorts of interesting insights, but it does not in itself make for a community of practice. The development of a shared practice may be more or less self-conscious. The “windshield wipers” engineers at an auto manufacturer make a concerted effort to collect and document the tricks and lessons they have learned into a knowledge base. By contrast, nurses who meet regularly for lunch in a hospital cafeteria may not realize that their lunch discussions are one of their main sources of knowledge about how to care for patients. Still, in the course of all these conversations, they have developed a set of stories and cases that have become a shared repertoire for their practice.