Inquiry Task 2d

Inquiry 
Please click on the link

Within this topic, I will be considering some questions that are emerging for me, using the questions from the module handbook for inspiration. I have written the task in a google document as I would like to keep some of these questions private from the general public, due to professional discretion..

Why arts education is crucial

I am still in the process of writing up task 2d, inquiry, and through doing this, I have been reading as much information as I can about the importance of performing arts in education. This is something I am very passionate about. I am very concerned that too much emphasis is being put on academic subjects at the detriment of creative subjects.
This article explains perfectly why I feel it is so important not to let the arts slip between our fingers.

 Why arts education is crucial

So you want to be a teacher

This week I read a really interesting book called  'So you want to be a teacher' by Fred Sedgwick. I wanted to share with you all (especially those wanting to become teachers!) a fantastic quote, which I found really inspiring:

'Teaching isn't about getting our class into assembly on time, or about phonemes, or even about teaching historical, scientific and geographical facts. It's not about coming top of a list. It's about the state of the world and about making it more just, about making things through a search for the truth....It is the artist in us that shows us and our masters and mistresses that we are human beings and not hired hands existing to service the economy.'

Sedgwick explains how we are all teachers and how everyone continues to learn throughout their lives. I love learning and teaching so this book got me excited that I will (hopefully) be able to make a living, doing something I love, and in fact, everyone is already doing!

Journal Writing Experience

Having now tried out the nine suggested formats to write our journals (based on frameworks from Nola, Reid and Moon), I have now been able to reflect on them. Looking forward to sharing comments!

Journal writing experience

Task 2a Reflective practice

I have now been writing in my journal since Ocotober 18th 2011. Like Aicha, I bought myself a lovely notebook and have kept it very neat and tidy. I always feel much better in myself when thing are clean and tidy around me and that is even reflected in the way I organise and present my work.
I was enthusiastic to begin my journal having left the second campus session and immediately started writing about the day and my thoughts on it. However over the next week, I found it difficult to find anything to write about. My days are usually so fully packed but as it was half term, and I was also ill, I literally had nothing to comment on. I'm back on track and back at work now though and thankfully I am finding pleanty of things to comment on.
I have started using my journal in different ways this week and have just tried making graphs today. I'm really looking forward to continuing with this task and then taking on task 2b!

My personal reflection on Reflexivity

I have just read and commented on Liam Conman's blog titiled 'Reflexivity- an alternative form of introspection'. For those who have not read it, he speaks about the fact that if we adopt Jay Rothman's concept about delaying reactions, surely artists would not deliver the same creativity and passion through their work.
"Reflexivity involves delaying the instinctive and unexamined reactions to external stimulus, and analysing them before responding" (Rothman, 1997, 36)
Alicia Beck mentioned the great artists Van Gogh, Nureyev and Shakespeare as an example. I commented on Liam's blog that in my own professional practice, I have become very good at practising Rothman's concept as I permenatally delay instincitve reactions. For example, when  stroppy teenager rolls their eyes at you for the tenth time that day, mumbles something under her breath and then ignores your help, it is very difficult not to react. This is, however part of my job which I have become accustomed to.
Whilst thinking about this, I began to explore my past work as an actress and dancer and came to the understanding that this 'talent' that I now hold, of being able to reflect in action ( Donald Schons), was probably what hindered me as a performer. I think that I was probably not spontaneous enough and certainly reflected too much in situations. By thinking introspectively, I was preventing the artistic, spontaneous and creative me from fully functioning. I have always been told that I lack self confidence, and I would not disagree, however I can't help but wonder if what other's saw as a lack in confidence, was acutally me delaying instinctive reactions and perhaps, over anylising my own thoughts, rather than just 'letting go' and being creative.
In conclusion, I think that being able to practise Jay Rothman's concept of Reflexivity is a talent that can be very beneficial in a work place, however I would personally like to have had a little more of the instinctive reaction in me - a factor which, I believe can make an artist be such a creative being.

Task 1d

This week I got a e-printer/scanner/coppier. I've had a very technical evening involving setting up the e- printer, connecting it to my laptop, scanning photos, creating a photobucket account and at last, being able to do task 1d. I would still like to add some photos of me teaching dance and drama classes and will do as soon as I have taken some. I will also attempt to add photobucket as a link to one of the gadgets on my blog.

Pictures of me at work