Sunday 13 November 2011
School Reports
Just thought i would have a little blog about school reports. One of the schools I teach at does school reports at the end of term. After finding out I had over 100 reports to do, I was then told that we are not aloud to write anything negative or constructive it has to all be positive. This is something that i completely disagree with and im finding it very hard to do because of this. How can a child learn if they are told that they are perfect all the time. I know that going to dance/drama/singing is meant to be fun, but surely they all come because they want to learn these subjects, so if they are coming to learn and to improve then how can you help someone to improve without giving them constructive feedback. I know as a child I was always told no thats wrong do it again again again. So is this me asking to much of them? I dont know, but I do think if you are told your perfect all the time, why would that make you want to learn/ improve within a class, beacuse if your perfect whats the point in coming at all?
A change of my inquiry!
Right its been a while since ive been able to blog, so here it all goes again.
After the first campus session i realised that i wanted to focus more on "differentiation" within a dance class. I also want to look into teaching children with special needs and and how to plan for this within a dance class.
To summarise Petty (2004) It wasn't till a few years a go that people began to realise that it was not just ability that could be mixed. Teachers are having to cope with a plethora of differences; learning styles age, motivation, prior learning and experience, gender, specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia etc. Consequently the term 'mixed ability' began to replaced by the less vivid term ' differentiation.
This is something I am hope to look into in great detail.
After the first campus session i realised that i wanted to focus more on "differentiation" within a dance class. I also want to look into teaching children with special needs and and how to plan for this within a dance class.
To summarise Petty (2004) It wasn't till a few years a go that people began to realise that it was not just ability that could be mixed. Teachers are having to cope with a plethora of differences; learning styles age, motivation, prior learning and experience, gender, specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia etc. Consequently the term 'mixed ability' began to replaced by the less vivid term ' differentiation.
This is something I am hope to look into in great detail.
Wednesday 4 May 2011
Critical Reflection and Summary: Online Portfolio
Developing my professional questions was a hard way to start this module for me. After the first campus session, I had a better understanding of this. Once I started thinking of questions within my profession, it all got scrambled in my head so I needed a way of getting this down so I could sort the relevant questions from the irrelevant questions. After reading Stacy Wilsons blog on her lines of inquiry I took a leaf out of Stacy’s book and decided to do a brainstorm of all the questions in my head. (Appendix A). After reading Rosemary McGuiness’s comment on prioritising these questions and deciding which ones are or will be relevant to my professional development, I was able to select 6 questions (Appendix B) which I then took into a meeting I had with Rosemary McGuiness my learning advisor. After looking at my questions rosemary asked what are my career aspirations. So I said I want to go into teaching full time in secondary schools or higher education, from this most of my inquiry questions seemed irrelevant to my career aspirations but more to what it relevant within my career now. There was one question that kept popping into my head (Appendix C). Although again this seemed like a brilliant question for me at that moment in time after researching there wasn’t much literature to help me on this question. I then knew for my inquiry that my question was going to have to be more specific and relevant to my future career aspirations. I then thought that “What are the roles and responsibilities of a dance teacher?” was the question I had been looking for. (Appendix D).
There is plenty of literature and theories on this inquiry so I though I was sorted. Lesson planning seemed to have caught my attention, and really seemed to have great interest to me. (Appendix E). Most of my research seemed to be going into education, teaching theories and learning styles and after long deliberation I decided I would like Award Title to be in Dance Education. (Appendix F). I then looked into ethics within my career (Appendix G) at that time I hadn’t done any research on ethics I just blogged how I feel ethics come into dance education. I then later read about a link that Mark Illes had posted on his blog. I found this link very insightful and made me feel very narrowed minded to what I had blogged about ethics previously. (Appendix H). I wrote “Before looking into ethics I didn’t really realise how important they are and how often I actually come across ethical situations. I have never really thought about what’s happens after I have taught the student. The consequences of every situation should be well thought about. Its not always about the teacher and the students, there is a lot more to think about in ethics, the community, your colleagues, the parents, the company, other students. Professionalism seems to be vital in teaching.” This was a turning point for me and really opened my mind to ethics within dance education. Piloting various inquiry tools such as, Survey’s, Interviews, Observations and focus groups gave me a experience is the questions right, there is no point holding an interview if the questions you are asking aren’t going to help with your inquiry. After piloting these inquiry tools I assessed the merits and limitations of each tool. (Appendix I), J, K, L, M). In my blog I have written this as Advantages and Disadvantages. From my pilot survey I got some excellent results but after evaluating my questions they were not all specific to my inquiry. From reading back over my blogs and research that I have been doing I realised that my line of inquiry could be more specific (Appendix N). I was still going to keep the research that I had been doing as it still plays a part into my inquiry. Reviewing literature is going to play a big part of my inquiry as I will be using these teaching theories and ideas that I find to help me improve as a teacher. The literature that I reviewed on Geoff Petty’s- Teaching today (Appendix O ) made me understand how important it is to plan for differentiation within the lesson. This is something that I hoping to be able to inquire into so that all of my students can benefit from their dance lesson.
Appendix D: http://nikkilouisemcgowan.blogspot.com/2011/04/what-are-roles-and-responsibilities-of.html
Tuesday 3 May 2011
Literature review Motivation
The second piece of literature which I have chosen to review is "Knowing Dance- A guide for creative teaching- Motivation- Marion Gough"
After reading this book, I have decided to review the section on Motivation, because I also want to look into what makes a great dance teacher great. Motivation is a key aspect of teaching, getting the students interested in what you are teaching is very important. In this chapter of the book Gough states that people learn best when "they are well motivated, the work is relevant and meets their needs, they are actively involved, the atmosphere is conductive to learning and when they feel respected" These are all true but are hard to put into practice I find. For example If you are working a a dance piece over a long period of time with a class, its hard to keep them motivated every class. Where as my lessons that I teach where I change what are doing from week to week always seem more open to ideas and more excited about the choreography. One point which I found interesting that Gough talks about is peoples motivation for joining in that specific class. I had never though about someone joining in, to "meet others" or to "gain confidence". I know that within my lesson I am always trying to get my students to be more confident with their dancing but had never thought about someone actually joining to gain confidence out of the lesson. Gough then goes on to write about "Motivating Factors" and how factors like space, ammount of students, temperature of the room can affect the students motivation. I feel that yes these could effect the motivation of the students at the beginging of the lesson but its should be your responsibilitiy as the tecaher to change their way of thinking and get them motivated and get on with the class so they can forget about all these factors. "Individuals bringing negative attitudes" is something that got me thinking as this often happens at one of the dance schools that I teach at where one child might of had a bad day or isnt feeling well and I always feel that the other students bounce off this and I find it hard to get the others to snap out of it. I always say to my students "leave your troubles at the door, we are here to dance and be creative, if you come in with a negative attitude everything you do will become negative." Gough then says "they are more likely yo respond to a teacher who demonstrates positive motivatig factors- such as their commitment, enthusiasm and passion for the subject." I completely agree with the statement I feel it sums up what I was trying to state above. The last thing that Gough talks about is how students feel motivated, the one point that Gough makes about the students having "some measure of responsibility, of decision making." This is a great point I know that when I used to be taught and we got asked questions and asked for chreographic ideas I loved it. It made you feel part of the class and feel needed. I know that when I teach the students sometimes ask if they can put in some chreography and I always say maybe we'll see how it goes, and dont normally get round to it. After readig this section of the book I now know the students like to feel needed and have their own personal stamp in the class. They bounce of "realsitic challenges and goals" and love to feel part of the process.
Brilliant book would reccomned it to dance teachers.
After reading this book, I have decided to review the section on Motivation, because I also want to look into what makes a great dance teacher great. Motivation is a key aspect of teaching, getting the students interested in what you are teaching is very important. In this chapter of the book Gough states that people learn best when "they are well motivated, the work is relevant and meets their needs, they are actively involved, the atmosphere is conductive to learning and when they feel respected" These are all true but are hard to put into practice I find. For example If you are working a a dance piece over a long period of time with a class, its hard to keep them motivated every class. Where as my lessons that I teach where I change what are doing from week to week always seem more open to ideas and more excited about the choreography. One point which I found interesting that Gough talks about is peoples motivation for joining in that specific class. I had never though about someone joining in, to "meet others" or to "gain confidence". I know that within my lesson I am always trying to get my students to be more confident with their dancing but had never thought about someone actually joining to gain confidence out of the lesson. Gough then goes on to write about "Motivating Factors" and how factors like space, ammount of students, temperature of the room can affect the students motivation. I feel that yes these could effect the motivation of the students at the beginging of the lesson but its should be your responsibilitiy as the tecaher to change their way of thinking and get them motivated and get on with the class so they can forget about all these factors. "Individuals bringing negative attitudes" is something that got me thinking as this often happens at one of the dance schools that I teach at where one child might of had a bad day or isnt feeling well and I always feel that the other students bounce off this and I find it hard to get the others to snap out of it. I always say to my students "leave your troubles at the door, we are here to dance and be creative, if you come in with a negative attitude everything you do will become negative." Gough then says "they are more likely yo respond to a teacher who demonstrates positive motivatig factors- such as their commitment, enthusiasm and passion for the subject." I completely agree with the statement I feel it sums up what I was trying to state above. The last thing that Gough talks about is how students feel motivated, the one point that Gough makes about the students having "some measure of responsibility, of decision making." This is a great point I know that when I used to be taught and we got asked questions and asked for chreographic ideas I loved it. It made you feel part of the class and feel needed. I know that when I teach the students sometimes ask if they can put in some chreography and I always say maybe we'll see how it goes, and dont normally get round to it. After readig this section of the book I now know the students like to feel needed and have their own personal stamp in the class. They bounce of "realsitic challenges and goals" and love to feel part of the process.
Brilliant book would reccomned it to dance teachers.
Literature review 1
The first piece I have chosen to review is Geoff Petty- Teaching Today- Differentiation. I feel this article is really relevenat with my inquiry even though it is not specific to dance, I feel Petty has written it in a way so every style of teacher can understand and take something away from the article.
http://www.geoffpetty.com/differentiation.html
Petty states that "Differentiation is the process by which differences between learners are accommodated so that all students in a group have the best possible chance of learning. We used to teach subjects and classes - now we teach students."
I found this statement very intresting because this is very similar to what I wrote when I posted a blog about lesson planning. I put "For every student the outcome of the lesson should be the same, however, its the way students have learnt this outcome that might be different." http://nikkilouisemcgowan.blogspot.com/2011_04_01_archive.html
This has made me feel like I am on the right track and am pleased that there is some literature to back me up. The article then goes on to say that differentitaion is no longer the forerunner its now "mixed ablilty teaching". It then goes on to say that teachers now have to cope with a plethora or differeneces such as: "style, age, motivation, prior learning and experieience, gender, specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia and so on."
I feel this is very true, you cant just plan a dance routine you have to plan how your going to teach the routine and how everyone can get invovled. "Differentiation is an approach to teaching to ensure that all students learm well, despite thier mnay differeneces." Petty is very keen on the idea of everyone learning and "sucess for all". As a teacher I feel it is your responsibility to help evreyone learn as much as possible within the lesson. In the next paragraph Petty says "differntitaion is not new". He goes on to say that good teachers have always done it. He says teachers used to teach a subject but now they are teaching indiviuals. It says "once eductaion was a sieve. The weaker students were sieved out." In this day and age its all about equal oppurtunjities, which I think is fair. But what if someone really just doesnt get the subject that is being taught. should they be pushed into trying to learn it or should they be given the oppurtunity to try another subject? I am in two minds about this and is something that I want to keep looking into. Petty has written "experts on the brain and learning now stress that everyone can learn more, if they taught appropitaely." I disagree with this. If someone decided to put me back into school and tried to teach me algebra again I still woulndt have a clue, even if they danced around whilst teaching I still dont think I wold understnad it. But is this because the way in which I was taught it, made it seem boring and complicated in the first place. In the last paragraph Petty goes on to say " Teachers can make much greater differences than themselves realise." I completeley agree with this statement I really do believe if a tecahers loves what they are teaching then the students will see this passion and look up to them.
Overall I agree with alot of Petty's findings. Pettys work is relevant to my inquiry so will be looking into his findings more.
http://www.geoffpetty.com/differentiation.html
Petty states that "Differentiation is the process by which differences between learners are accommodated so that all students in a group have the best possible chance of learning. We used to teach subjects and classes - now we teach students."
I found this statement very intresting because this is very similar to what I wrote when I posted a blog about lesson planning. I put "For every student the outcome of the lesson should be the same, however, its the way students have learnt this outcome that might be different." http://nikkilouisemcgowan.blogspot.com/2011_04_01_archive.html
This has made me feel like I am on the right track and am pleased that there is some literature to back me up. The article then goes on to say that differentitaion is no longer the forerunner its now "mixed ablilty teaching". It then goes on to say that teachers now have to cope with a plethora or differeneces such as: "style, age, motivation, prior learning and experieience, gender, specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia and so on."
I feel this is very true, you cant just plan a dance routine you have to plan how your going to teach the routine and how everyone can get invovled. "Differentiation is an approach to teaching to ensure that all students learm well, despite thier mnay differeneces." Petty is very keen on the idea of everyone learning and "sucess for all". As a teacher I feel it is your responsibility to help evreyone learn as much as possible within the lesson. In the next paragraph Petty says "differntitaion is not new". He goes on to say that good teachers have always done it. He says teachers used to teach a subject but now they are teaching indiviuals. It says "once eductaion was a sieve. The weaker students were sieved out." In this day and age its all about equal oppurtunjities, which I think is fair. But what if someone really just doesnt get the subject that is being taught. should they be pushed into trying to learn it or should they be given the oppurtunity to try another subject? I am in two minds about this and is something that I want to keep looking into. Petty has written "experts on the brain and learning now stress that everyone can learn more, if they taught appropitaely." I disagree with this. If someone decided to put me back into school and tried to teach me algebra again I still woulndt have a clue, even if they danced around whilst teaching I still dont think I wold understnad it. But is this because the way in which I was taught it, made it seem boring and complicated in the first place. In the last paragraph Petty goes on to say " Teachers can make much greater differences than themselves realise." I completeley agree with this statement I really do believe if a tecahers loves what they are teaching then the students will see this passion and look up to them.
Overall I agree with alot of Petty's findings. Pettys work is relevant to my inquiry so will be looking into his findings more.
Monday 2 May 2011
Online Portfolio
Here's the link to my online portfolio. https://sites.google.com/site/nikkilouisemcgowan/home
Crtical reflection on my survey
At the time I felt like my survey was really relevant but now im unsure. The first 4 questions aren't really any help to me and my inquiry, they just helped me get an idea of who was taking my survey. Because I was limited to 10 questions I felt like I had to put a bit of everything in the survey. Where as if I had actually been more specific then I might of been able to have got more information out of my results. I like the idea of a survey as I feel you you get a real honest answers as it is annoymous.
Advantages
Advantages
- Survey monkey is quick and easy to use. You can use different types of question and answer systems so you can get the right sort of information that you need. You can also have a setting where they cant skip the question they have to answer it.
- Has a brilliant way of recording the results
- Its anonymous,
- You get true answers
- Its easy just to post it on Facebook or on your blog etc. So you can target the right sort of audience to answer you survey.
- Your questions have to be very specific, so you get the answers that you require.
- People didnt always give detailed answers in the comment box.
- People can lie.
- Not enough people could fill it out. There is only so many times you can ask someone to fill out your survey.
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