Summary of module 1 - Critical Reflection

Today I sat down and made notes of what I felt I should include in my Critical Reflection. Its something that has made me indecisive over the last few weeks. I have struggled on where to start, what to include, and how to get all the things I need to say into 1000 words.

I have decided to split up my essay into three sections as I feel I then have the chance to evaluate each reader on its own. As I did this I sat down and went to the beginning of my blog to where I am now. Already I feel what a journey we have been on in module 1. I made notes from my blog and questioned myself when reading them. Some of the questions I have asked myself throughout making my notes were:

How did I feel at the beginning of the reader to the end? 
What have I learnt from this reader? 
Have I put into practice the knowledge I have gained?
How was my experience? 
Has my prospective changed? 
What do I use now that before the reader I knew nothing about? 

From these questions I now have my planning of my essay and my notes to help me include as much detail I can in 1000 words.

Already I feel at ease knowing I now have the information I believe is most important to include in my essay. I am now letting my mind settle before going back tomorrow and beginning to put it into essay format with a fresh mind. 

3A Current Networks

After a skype last week with Paula, Jessica and Emily I now feel ready for reader 3. One of the main topics in the discussion was what we think our current networks are. If you'd like to read more about what we discussed have a look at the blog 'Skype with Paula.' Leading on to current networks from having the discussion I feel I am now fully aware of what my networks are. Below I am going to answer the questions from task 3A and explain what knowledge I have about my current networks.

What are the current and different ways (tools) that you have, or do,

engage your professional network? 

Currently as a dance teacher I am engaging with my professional network by discussing with people who are already in the industry my aims for my future career. My tools for all my professional networking is, 'word of mouth', emailing potential employers, updating my teaching CV and social networking with other people with the same intentions as me. 

What are the established (and different) ways that others use

their networks, especially if they are more established or experienced

practitioners that you admire?

I think that a more experienced practitioner can sometimes have more of an advantage when sharing their network as they will have had more experience with a wider range of employers. Also in terms of their CV with more experience I feel that people are more likely to take time in noticing you. I know it isn't always correct but some jobs require experience, but I feel everyone has to start somewhere to gain experience. At this current time I do not have the experience to know who I admire. As I begin to teach more I am sure that people will inspire me when I found out how they got to their current situation. It is something I am looking forward too, but currently I am focused on my networks and finding where I need to be in my career. 

Are there methods, approaches and technologies that you use socially

that might apply and help you develop your professional networking? 

Social media isn't something at the moment I am using in terms of my professional network. Teaching is something I have been using Web 2.0 to find more information on, I have found that online there is so many pages that will help you and guide you with any questions you need answering. Facebook is something I may use the odd time to share something I feel I want people to know about, or I may ask about how to find groups or pages I can join to find available teaching jobs. I feel as it is early days in my teaching profession, each day I am finding out more, and learning how to network myself in the best way possible. I am looking forward to gaining all this experience and then being able to reflect to see how far I have come. 

When you reflect upon current networks, can you think about the

motives of others to be in the network and what values and purpose

they have in mind?

Reflecting on why people want to be in their current network makes me excited. It is something that being new in the network makes me eager to get into teaching. I love to find out and ask people why they do things? What is the best bits to your job? And what are the difficult situations that happen on a daily basis? Already after teaching in a high school for a short amount of time I have felt some of the rewards. Everyone I have spoken to say it can be the most rewarding job ever helping a child succeed in their education. Some of the teachers and the students have amazing relationships and the teachers guide the students to get them where they need to be. I think most teachers are in that network because of their love for the topic and the love for helping others. My purpose is to share my knowledge and guide students the best I can so that they have the best chance in their careers.

What would your ideal network look like and why? 

My ideal network and aims to get there are:

- To be a teacher in a highschool

- Teach workshops at all ages in schools

- Gain as much knowledge as possible to share

- Attend the AQA Dance syllabus meetings and workshops

- The people needed know who I am, what I do, and want to work with me. 

What realistic things could you do to work towards developing your

ideal network?

Realistically I need to broaden my knowledge in the dancing industry and GCSE dance so that I can share all my knowledge with students. I need to provide a free work shop to a few schools as a one off so that they have a chance to see what you can offer and hopefully want you back to teach again. Lastly, I need to share with as many people as possible who I am, what I do, and what my aims are, so that the more people that know about this the more advice I receive and the more my name gets spread, hopefully in the correct ways. 

What tools and methods do you need to use? What do you know about

your current, and intended networks, and importantly, what do you not

know? 

My methods that I intend to use to get my ideal network is Web 2.0. I need to get a teaching showreel, I need to get references from people who I have taught, and I need to get a email together that can be sent to schools. All this can be done using Web 2.0. I have a plan to gather as much information as possible, so that once I have put this all together and I feel it is in the best way to email to people then I am able to take a step forward. What I know is that 'getting your foot through the door' has already worked for me and gained me a wide experience already. So, I know what I need to do to widen my knowledge. What I do not know is the all the knowledge to be teaching dance in a high school. But again, I know what I need to do to get this. I know I need to research and I also need to talk to the head of dance and get myself on courses to know about the dance syllabus in highschools. But as I know, each day you learn more, it is never possible to know to much. It is such a big network and is not possible to know everything. But the more I know, the more I can share. 

Critical Reflection

Reflection is something I have been doing for a few years in my profession without realising. Although I may not have gone into deep thought on my reflection at the end of the day, I have still come home and discussed my day with my family around the table, or rang a friend to chat about our days. Without realising this is reflection. Some days more than others I would talk about my day, if it was a good day I would think why was it a good day? And if it was a bad day I would think how can tomorrow be a better day?

Since starting reader 2 my relationship with reflective practice has become more bold. I am aware each day that the events that happen have reasons behind them, I am aware to improve them if all is not going well and I am also aware that you can improve on the go, for instance reflection-in-action which leads me into what I would like to talk about next.

David Schons theory written about reflection-in-action stood out to me straight away. It is something I realised I already do in my teaching practice but something I wanted to add more into everyday life. In the classroom I am now fully aware of reflection-in-action at all times, my way of doing this is taking a step back, looking at the class and thinking at this moment in time is this technique with my class working? Are all students fully engaged? Or do I need to change anything? Although before reading reader 2 I do believe that I already used this, I also think I did not use it to the best of my ability. 

I recently read Emily Richards blog and noticed that her critique on reflection in terms of David Schons theory is very similar to mine. I believe as teachers we are having to adapt daily in order to keep the students coming back to your lessons. Emily's blog matched up so well with what I wanted to write, it was nice to see that people can have similar opinions to theories. In Emily's blog I especially enjoyed reading her section on Kolbs learning cycle, at the end Emily wrote 'Never assume you know everything, reflection is a great way to grow.' This inspires me to keep growing as a person and it also proves to myself that reflecting daily on my professional practice is helping me grow into who I aim to be. 

Reflection in anticipation when reading Bouds theory made me sit back and think. Using teaching as my profession this is also something I have been using. Although it may not have been in thought in my professional practice it now is. As a teacher you use reflection in anticipation on a daily and weekly basis, especially with class planning. Before I go to teach on a Thursday I will spend Wednesday night planning what I want to do with my class in order to achieve what I want them to, or what techniques I will use to keep them interested in the whole lesson. Although reflection in anticipation is not just used as a teacher it can be used before an interview, before an audition, before you head out for the day. My thoughts on using it as a teacher in my professional practice is that it helps you be organised and ready for whats ahead of you, and if all fails you have reflection-in-action to fall back on and keep going. 

'One must understand what is being defined in order that one judge for oneself accuracy.' 

(Mcfee 1992)

The above quote I found on Jessica Dinmore's Blog, another blog I read to see whether we had similar critiques or not. First of all I loved her explanation to how each theory worked or didn't work for her. On Jessica's blog I noticed she connected really well with Moon's theory where as this is the theory I feel I least connected with. It is always interesting to read why something has worked for one person and not worked so well with somebody else. I think it all depends on your daily events to whether each theory will work for you. Although I am saying I did not fully connected with Moon's theories I also can say that some quotes of his left me inspired. 

'To enable learners to understand their own learning paces.' (Moon)

'To enhance the professional practice or the professional self in practice.' (Moon)

When researching some other theories about reflection I came across a quote that I really liked. 

Here it is below. 

Lambright (1995)

When reading this I believed this is something as a teacher you aim to do. You aim for you students to go from unclear to clear which gains them more knowledge. I believe that as a teacher you play a big part on a students future as education is there core. Reflection has played a big part in my professional practice without even realising, and now I am more aware, and keen on using some of the theories in my practice I hope I can only keep growing and also help the students grow and build too. 

References

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http://skillsforlearning.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/preview/content/models/02.shtml

https://www.ericdigests.org/2000-3/thought.htm

http://mdx.mrooms.net/pluginfile.php/729979/mod_resource/content/2/Reader%202%20WBS3730%20BAPP%20Arts%202016-17.pdf

2D - Inquiry

After looking at task 2D I decided to write about my teaching career as it is what I am hoping to progress into. I started my teaching at a high school about 6 weeks ago and I already feel that I have been on a massive learning curve. The amount of things I have come home and thought 'I didn't think that would work and it has' or 'today the students engaged really well, is there a reason why? what did I do differently'. Personally reflecting since beginning teaching has helped me realise the amount I feel I have learnt just in 6 weeks.
After reading Lauren Harpers blog I realised that it is nice to sometimes simply answer the question. Sometimes you gain more by being straight to the point. I found her blog really inspiring and it is something I am going to take note of for my future teaching.

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?The first thing that came to mind when reading this is my auntie, Adele. Watching her teach and being along side her makes me so enthusiastic. She taught me firstly when I was at school between year 7 and year 11. Already through them years I realised how much of a connection she makes with the students.
She still does this now and it makes me admire her. She gets the most out of every student that is
possible and she deals with each student differently depending on their needs. Speaking to some of the students that I now teach they have said to me that I am very similar. This is my intention anyway, I see how each day she is giving 100% and all the students admire her as I do. I believe that seeing an
enthusiastic teacher and seeing the students admire that is a massive inspiration. Finding a level with
the students so that they respect you and learn the best with you is something I have noticed teachers
can struggle with and yet my auntie makes it look easy. Each week I am learning from her and each
week I am growing with confidence
.
What gets you angry or sad? Who do you admire who shares your feelings or has found away to work around the sadness or anger? What gets me angry is some of the students family life. Although some people cannot help the type
home life they live I believe you can still give your child an upbringing so that they can make a
possible future for themselves. I admire the students that come to school everyday knowing that they
have to go home at the end of it and not have a nice time. Each child is different and have a different
up bringing but something my mum always taught me is 'manors don't cost anything'. I believe that
some parents do not handle there children in the correct way, they let the children disrespect them
and do what they want which then causes problems for teachers. If children don't have respect for
their parents then why will they have it for teachers? It gets me angry because as a teacher we always
try and get the best for every student and some of the students don't respect you and won't work for
you. Although this doesn't apply for every student that has had a less fortunate up bringing I do feel
that it is mostly them students that will cause the problem.

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?The one thing I love about what I do is sharing my love for dance with others. I love sharing everything I know with the students. I love explaining to them why I love dance, why I love teaching and why dancing can be such a rewarded and also challenging career. I think it is important to be honest with the students, some of the year 11 students want to take dance as a career and I am always honest with them. I will always say it is possibly the most difficult industry but it is also the most rewarding to be able to have a career in something you are so passionate about.
I had a teacher whilst I was completing my diploma who I admire so much. Each day she would just
share with me her love for dancing. I connected with her massively and now we are close friends.
I found that having a teacher who is so passionate and had experience in the dancing industry helps you remember what you love about dancing even in the most difficult times.
She was also always honest with me, she told me that dancing is never going to be easy, but she also
said when you reach your goal it will be the best feeling ever.
Honesty was a big thing that she taught me and its something I have already taken forward into
teaching.


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?What I don't understand is why doesn't a career always lead the way you expect it too. PersonallyI'm not sure anybody has the answer to that. All I know is when something worries me and I don'tunderstand it I turn to my best friend, Daisy. I think we both give each other the best advice when the other one needs it but fail to take our own good advice sometimes. Personally when ever I getworried about my career she reminds me of how far I have come and that if one career doesn't workout you are never to old to start again on your next career path. Ideally I wanted to be a dancer on a cruise ship and I went through a period of time not understanding why I wasn't where I intended to be? But getting advice from my friend always turns not understanding beautiful. Personally she always has the best words for me, she understands my every move and she supports me through it all. But, what I have found out even if I never will understand why my career hasn't lead the way I expected, is that as long as you are happy and moving forward that is all that matters. Daisy reminds me of this whenever I need it, she always finds the positive in me and always reminds me that if life was so simple it would be boring. So although there is no fully understanding of why things don't happen the way you expected it to, for me she turns it into a way that makes sense and a way that reminds you happiness isn't always what you think it is.


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?From being in the dance studio from about 10 I have noticed that the disciplinary in the studio is
completely different to in school, or at work. I think depending on the person depends on how they
are dealt with in a situation. For example, you wouldn't go in shouting at a student that has a reputation of kicking off. That will just trigger the situation. Other students who are more scared of being in trouble you could shout at them as it is a reminder that you are the teacher and in control and not them. I try to decide how I deal with a student by learning what they are like before hand and overlooking a situation before jumping in. As I know that is not always possible, where it is I will use that. I think being a dancer, a student in a school, interviews for work, auditions, meeting new people are all ways I have learnt that you need to be different and deal with things differently depending on the environment around you. Using the skills from that and now taking it forward is how I have got my responses in the situations I am in.

Although in the questions above I have used only personal experiences I feel that was the best way to
complete this. Whilst answering the questions I have realised that I am who I am today because of
the support I have around me and because of the things close people have shared with me. I think it
is safe to say that I will become the teacher that I want to be because of all surroundings I have and
from learning from my inspirations.

Skype with Adesola

Last night I had a group skype with Adesola and 7 other students. At first when I joined I realised that some of the students were module 3 and straight away I panicked and thought what if I have no idea what they are discussing, I am so far behind them surely this skype is going to confuse me. In fact I found the complete opposite. Although I wasn't as involved in all the discussions as I usually am, I found it so interesting to listen to the people on module 3 explaining about their current tasks and discussing what they are taking from the other modules to get where they are now.

The first topic that the Module 3 students talked about is their evidence to the task they are on now. The students also mentioned that keeping a reflective journal is a very important thing to do. As now they are reflecting over the three modules they wouldn't have the evidence they need, or be able to see how far they have come if they didn't keep writing the journal. Straight away I noted down I must keep doing this because at the end of this course I want to have the most information and knowledge as possible and also I want to be able to reflect and see the improvements I have made a long the way.
 
The reason I joined the skype initially was to discuss how you go about writing the essay at the end of module 1. This is how I found my answer:

PROCESS
We began a discussion about the process of things. I was just listening at first to peoples idea's and opinions before I realised the process is what gets me my theories to write my essay. I then began taking notes on what I thought would be useful to me.

- How we get to where we are now
- Why I believe what I believe
- Always give evidence
- How did I go about this task?
- What is my personal opinion now and what was it when I first began this task?
- Reflection
- What is my outlook now?

The points above were noted down because I realised using these questions and notes will create my essay. It is all things that I need the information on and put together in order to create the essay.

As Adesola said at the beginning, a skype is not to ask questions and get an answer because that will be to easy, but it is to discuss and find your ways and get your knowledge via that. So from most of the skype I found listening to others discussions made me realise that the process is what you use to gather all your information. After all the process for me so far has been how I started in Module 1 to where I am now, and that is what I intend to write about.

At the end of the skype we talked about what we learnt during that time and I explained how I noted down about the process of things and it has made my mind much clearer. I think joining a skype with students in different modules will be something that I will try and do more often. I believe sometimes it is good to sit back and listen rather that be fully involved all the time. I felt I learnt much more in this skype by listening than I would of if I tried to get to involved in the discussions.

Skype with Paula

Yet again after another skype call with Paula, Jess and Emily today I have come away with my brain full of ideas and feeling clear on where I am heading with module 1 so far. 
We begun by discussing where about's we are up to with module 1 and how we are feeling so far. So for me I explained that finally I feel like I have found my feet and I am happy with my progression so far. As I read through Reader 3 last night a few things stood out to me which I didn't fully understand so instead of worrying I've let it settle and I am going to have another read through tonight. After each person talked about where they are in module 1 and how they are feeling we moved on to discussing some of reader 3.

One of our topics of discussion was:
How do you define your professional network?
I started by talking about how I personally define mine, which is making people remember you. In the performing arts industry I find a lot of the time it is 'not what you know but who you know'. I went on talking about how being connected to people and being involved and getting to know people will help you in the future. So in terms of a dancing job, if you have had a contract with somebody, been a good worker and helped them the best you can then likely in the future they will want to employ you again or pass your name on. I believe the industry is more word of mouth than some may think. As the discussion widened we also discussed teachers, friends, social media, the hustle and more. What I enjoyed about this topic is what I enjoy mostly about this course. It is not about being right or wrong but about having an opinion and having back up behind your theory. As long as that works for you and your professional practice then it doesn't matter if a peer disagree's.

Our next topic leading on:

What is professional networking?

This was a discussion that stuck out to me personally. Jessica pointed out that with professional networking you only do what is relevant to you. So in terms of applying for a job or networking with and employer you wouldn't do this unless the job is suitable for you. Professional networking can be different for everybody depending on their needs and their aims. Some of the key words we focused on and discussed were,

- Cooperation

- Communication 

- Connectivity

- Affiliation

- Communities of practice

- Social constructionism

- Relevancy 

Personally to me, professional networking is connecting with the people around you within the area of your industry and letting them know your profession, show them your best self, and networking to spread information on you to lead you to the job you believe you can achieve in your profession. So for me, at this moment in time I am volunteering on Thursdays in a school that my auntie works at. I spoke to her, she spoke to her manager who spoke to the head teacher and then it allowed me to volunteer. Since being there I have spoke to various teachers and discussed my aims and my career choice that I am working towards and already I am taking after school clubs and discussing doing part of my PGCE there. In my eyes I feel that is professional networking, I feel there has been a cycle and a passage of people in the profession to help me get where I had aimed to be by networking with them.

Further on we looked at a slide that said BAPP Arts that had several questions on it. 

How is it a network?

How is it sustained? 

Is it social media? 

How is it relevant to you? 

Again, I thinkt with the blogs from the BAPP arts you take away from them what you personally feel you need, although you may look and read others blogs at the end of it you get involved and use the blogs that are relevant to you at that time. Blogging is a network because we all connect together, we all discuss topics and we all share our information. I believe it is sustained because the teachers and students blog daily or weekly to share their theories and then we all connect by commenting on them and discussing our thoughts.

 I also think blogging is a social media, my reasons behind this is that on facebook we usually write how we feel, which we can do in a daily blog, on twitter you can read other peoples thoughts and latest topics and news, which we can also do on blogging and skype, and Instagram people post pictures which various people do when blogging to show evidence. I feel all of these reasons show that blogging and the BAPP arts are a social media and also I think can be helpful for students who are up to date with social media as they can be advanced with their skills and for the people with less skills they have a chance to widen theirs, because after all each day the technology of social media is only getting better and better.

Summary on module 1

At the end of the skype we talked about coming to the end of module 1 and how we would go about writing our essay. Paula gave us a few tips and explained that we should try and get the best information into the essay as it is 1000 words we don't have the space to write everything. We all had a few questions we had to ask and between us I think we then came away feeling clearer and more confident about this. 

Leaving the skype I feel that all questions were answered and that any worries I had were cleared. Skype calls sometimes just settles your mind when you are worried about little things. It also for me helps me to broaden my ideas as sometimes I feel I  can play it safe. For me they make me feel much at ease and give me that motivation to get going with my next tasks.