Emerging Lines of Inquiry
I have taken the time to read through previous Journal entries and blog comments in order to help me answer the following questions....
What in your daily practice gets you really enthusiastic? Is there anybody in particular that you admire for their enthusiasm or who instills enthusiasm within you?
My daily practice at the moment revolves mainly around teaching, as I am in between Performing contracts, so I have to focus on my Teaching Practice.
I always get a sudden surge of enthusiasm when I know the children have really responded to a lesson, even more so when it is a child who rarely engages. I had a child who never joined in or even spoke throughout the whole session, then he started to join in and even came up to me, said my name and wanted to tell me how he was going on holiday. This may seem like a very simple thing but to me it was a huge event; he had placed his trust in me and had clearly started to enjoy the lesson. I am also extremely enthusiastic when I see how children with disabilities respond so well to the sessions. I have always believed that music is a great outlet for children with disabilities and the more time I spend teaching children with disabilities the more I realise this is so true!
I am also very enthusiastic about effective time management; utilising my time well and trying my hardest not to waste valuable time. My enthusiasm towards the day is always greater when it has been productive and I have used time management effectively.
Within my current day to day practice there isn't an individual in particular that inspires me because of their enthusiasm, however whilst training I had the most wonderful Acting Tutor called Andy Smith. Every lesson he would radiate with enthusiasm and this would be passed on to the members of his class, especially myself. I loved the energy he brought to every lesson and he never let personal issues get in the way of this, as so many teachers do!
I do admire the Nursery staff who really get involved with the children and are enthusiastic about the sessions I teach. The way the children behave is really reflected in the quality of the staff and in general I find the most enthusiastic children are found in the nurseries with the most enthusiastic staff!
What gets you angry or makes you sad?
What really makes me sad is rude children and seeing children who clearly have not been taught how to behave. I teach so many children who have clearly been given everything and never have been told NO! Even at the age of 3 and 4 children should have been taught basic manners, after all manners do not cost. I am surprised when a child thanks me for passing them an instrument and this should not be the case. There are so many children who turn on the water works when they cannot get their own way and even the nursery staff let them behave in this way. Children need to be taught manners from an early age, as it will have an affect on the people they grow up to be! Many children don't know how to share or just simply how to be nice to each other and this makes me really sad :(
It also makes me sad when the children are not responsive to a lesson. I have experienced lessons that really have not worked and none of the children have really engaged fully throughout. It makes me doubt my teaching ability, something which upsets me a great deal. I need to analyse the lesson, find out what didn't work and how it can be adapted in order for this not to happen in the future.
What do you love about what you do? Who do you admire who also seems to love this?
I love making children happy through the mediums of Music and Dance. At a young age it is a vehicle for learning and development and I love nothing more than seeing a child develop over a period of time. Seeing children engage with music and dance is so rewarding; I have always believed that Music and Dance should be introduced at an early age and with teaching young children, I get to see the benefits of this.
Relating this to my Performing Career; I love entertaining the audience and transporting them to another place for those couple of hours. When I was younger I loved going to theatre and feeling the magic and buzz whenever the cast were on stage. I love nothing more than the idea that I am bringing that magic and buzz to audience members every evening. I want to give them an experience that they will always remember and it is a joy to be able to do this.
A couple of years ago I went to watch 'Sister Act' the Musical in London and an actress called Patina Miller was playing the lead role. She was absolutely phenomenal!! She had the most amazing presence and energy on stage that I could not take my eyes off her. Yes, her voice was incredible and her Acting was great, but it was that buzz and energy she created throughout the audience that I remembered most of all from her performance. She instilled joy within me and it reminded me of the exact reason why I chose to pursue this career.
This is a clip of Patina and the cast of Sister Act singing at the Tony Awards....see if you get goosebumps like I do every time :)
What do you feel you don't understand? Who do you admire who seems to understand this or who has found a way of making not understanding it interesting or beautiful?
I am not entirely sure I know what I want out of my Professional Future. I know I want to teach, ideally Musical Theatre/Performing Arts to 16-18yr olds, but is this going to be sufficient. I am hoping to do a couple more Performing contracts but my plan then is to fully concentrate on my teaching career. I don't know whether this will satisfy me or will I always long to perform? Will I be more happy to focus on my personal life rather than my professional life? Most importantly will I have enough knowledge and life experience to be a good teacher?
I personally feel that to be a good teacher you have to have had experiences yourself. In teaching you pass on the knowledge that you have learnt from these experiences and therefore am I cutting my Performing career too short? This is a common dilemma within my Journal and I don't think I will know the answer to this until I try it out and see what happens.
I admire my best friend so much, she has taught me that no decision is for life and you cannot be expected to know what you will want in a year's time, never mind 10 years time. This is one of my problems, I try to plan too far in advance and this is so unrealistic, as life is constantly changing and we have to adapt and change with it. She has taught me that you have to go with what seems right at the time. If it turns out to be the wrong decision then you deal with it then; you learn from every experience whether good or bad!
She was training to be a Professional Dancer, having danced since the age of 4. She then decided that it was not the career for her and completely changed her career path. She survived and is actually happier than ever. I am obviously not completely changing careers but it gives me reassurance that change is good and although can be scary, can be extremely rewarding!
Emerging Lines of Inquiry
- How can Music and Dance be made more accessible to children from a young age?
- Ways in which I can still perform whilst holding down a teaching career?
- Finding creative and fun ways to teach children manners - would this change their behaviour within the lesson? Would be good to experiment with this!
- Studying in more detail the benefits of Music and Dance to children with disabilities.
I would be really interested to know if anyone agrees or disagrees with the comments I have made or just simply if you related to them in anyway.
Take care, Jo : )
Hi Jo,
ReplyDeleteI agree and relate with so much of this! It was really easy to read for me and I completely followed your train of thought. I too am teaching at present - whilst auditioning for performing jobs - and I am focusing a lot of the tasks of my teaching practice.
I know the feeling of the small things the children do, that make be so significant to you as a teacher. Seeing the children progress and improve fills me with enthusiasm too and a sense of purpose.
I also feel the same about making decisions about when is the right time to completly devote my time to teaching? Will I regret giving up performing? As i have only left college this summer I hope that I will go on to perform for a good few years yet - but like you I always seem to plan way too far ahead!!!
Really nice to read you blog - I feel we have very similar thoughts and plans!
Lizzie x
Hi Jo,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment. I have my first pre primary ballet today and have planned my lesson including the use of fairy wands and drawing chalk flowers, I am hoping so very much they enjoy their class! I was reading through your inquiry and came across your view on children not being able to share, I agree with this and some children have never learnt how to share. This makes our job harder as we want to make the class interesting for them with props but sometimes, they don't like to share them but hey ho, that is what teachers are for!
Good luck x
Hi Jo, don't feel disheartened if a class does not go according to plan now and again because of tears or tantrums from young child. You probably corrected the child and each child in that class had learnt something that day. Probably not you objectives but about sharing/listening/behaving in class etc. We all have these moments of doubt about our teaching abilities and choices, but it is all an experience of life in teaching dance and ways of captivating our children’s attention and imagination. You may have a group of immature children or that one or two children and the ‘ring leaders’ so to speak. It is most probably that these young children are experiencing dance for the very first time, they may be afraid and insecure. It’s about understanding your class, believe me not all are like that…I certainly learn from children and take my cue from them.
ReplyDeleteYour lines of inquiry.
• Make dance and music fun, imaginative themes and clear simple objectives or lower your expectations or add implements for example, bean bags, ribbons on sticks, tambourins, hoops on the ground rather than hula – hopping. Experience has taught me that it’s always more rewarding to teach children that want to be there and want to earn to dance. Children still need to learn dance etiquette in a class environment and this is what you are teaching them. Always be in control of the class not the other way round.
• Performing whilst teaching can be difficult. Organise a local professional performing group of young people/adults and work towards a show and get a student to choreograph a piece for you. Start social dancing and learn a new style, Salsa, Middle Eastern, Jive, Lindy Hop, Ciroc etc. There are bound to be performances you could join in.
• Your last line of inquiry is a very strong one. Volunteering is a good way of experiencing teaching children with disabilities in a local special school. I had experience with special needs such as Down syndrome, deaf, wheel chair bound and an adult with prosthetic limb, quite a broad range and levels of disabilities. It was the most rewarding experience of my teaching.
Please don’t give anything up just yet! Hope some of these ideas help with your inquiry
A good start to thinking about the issues that are 'close to home' and good feedback form your peers. As our time on BAPP actually goes very quickly - trying to choose something that you think you can accomplish in the time we have and will challenge something about the way you do things. For example - if it is about performance - what about the experience would you like to capture for the short or medium future? How could you use that in your teaching. If it is teaching - what are the theories behind early childhood behaviour? How do children think? How do the parents of these children think? How does this relate with the social world that we live in and the stories we tell through musical theatre? Challenge yourself and challenge us.
ReplyDeleteThank you for all the comments!
ReplyDeletePaula - I understand, so I need to make my aims/enquiries more realistically achievable within the time period of the course. I will try to look at each aim and see how I can make each one more specific, perhaps breaking it down into smaller parts and focusing on just one of the strands of inquiry.
Thanks for your help :)