This is the subject in which I initially thought; "Networks!! Arghhh I don't think I have a lot of those" when actually looking up on the different articles from the reading lists and the Reader itself, I began to realise: "Oh, so networks aren't just associated with technology". (I'm sure I wasn't the only one who thought this..) If I was, well, what a 'numpty'.
What are the current and different ways (tools) that you have, or do, engage your professional network?
I have my technology tools such as my phone and computer for networks such as; Facebook, Email and WhatsApp. I tend to use WhatsApp mainly with my teaching colleague of whom I work alongside directly, and we discuss our plans for our next class and such. We also, unintentionally, learn about each others' different experiences and use them in some way in our ways of teaching, approaches and ideas. On page 8 of Reader 3, it suggests reading an extract from George Siemens on connectivism. The thing that really stood out to me in this article was a quote by Karen Stephenson. It rings very true to myself and I'm sure to everyone. She said "Since we cannot experience everything, other people's experiences, and hence other people, become the surrogate for knowledge." We can all refer to this with not only our professional networks but our social networks too. I believe that it's more critical in professional networking. Via email I connect with my boss, employer and potential employers, and of course some of my old acquaintances, with whom I have some corresponding work interests. Through all of my colleagues, friends and acquaintances there is potential in finding new contacts and knowledge of which I believe to be very favorable. By facebook I have contacts of all professional and social. I don't contact via facebook so much on the professional side, but I have had a few useful contacts emerge from family, friends and friends-of-friends. Within more face-to-face ways to engage my professional network, I have of course my two jobs and not so common social activities. My job in retail has lead me to a few people, such as customers and work colleagues who are in the performing business in some way, and we often discuss our past experiences and future career plans. Even though I haven't gotten any contacts from these people, or learned anything that constructive tome, it is still good to have people that I can affiliate with on similar career passions. However, there is still potential for these people to be useful on a career basis. Of course, within my teaching position, I have many other teachers around me with the same or similar interests. The students and parents of the students can also be of use for me on a professional level, but for now it's more of a slight social connection with me being the informative one. A lot of the parents drop their children off and when it comes to collecting their child at the end of the day, it's purely a 'question and answer' basis on how their child is doing, with perhaps a few jokes on the side. However, I do have a few parents who tell me in advance how their child has been acting or feeling recently, which in turn, will help me on how I am to deal with that child on that particular day.
Probably my most valuable people within my professional network are my family. Both my Mum and Dad and my two siblings are teachers and have a real passion for performing in some way. There is always face-to-face communication, emailing, texting and talking over the phone with my family when it comes to talking about work and even speaking of it, somehow, indirectly.
I do find that I am very weak at my networking abilities and skills, especially when it comes to the people I know who have more distant, but related interests. This is something I need to work on and understand better for me to benefit from my network communities. I know how important various different skills are of which I've gotten from Siemens 2004 extract. (George Siemens, WBS3730 in Bapp arts, reading lists).
What are the established (and different) ways that others use their networks, especially if they are more established or experienced practitioners that you admire?
My sister who is seven years older than me, is a very organized person, and she seems to get different types of opportunities from all sorts of networks. She is a Primary School supply teacher, but also does singing gigs in many different venues via a few different resources (agents, friends, fellow teachers and audience members via email,phone etc). I know for a fact that she uses Facebook, especially to build up her possible convenient contacts for the future. She has kept in contact with so many of her past collage and university friends and associates. She has sparingly referred me to a few people on facebook in the past, but sadly no benefits came from it. Some of the audience members (the guaranteed part of her networking) have also been beneficial in getting her other gigs and opportunities and giving information that influences her approaches to different aspects of her working life. She makes special efforts to try and talk to as many people as she can, keeping in mind that some people are extroverts and some introverts, so using her ability to sense a shy person from a confident one. In her supply teaching, she uses the benefits of the different school policies and behaviour's to adapt her teaching skills in many ways such as; experimenting. She is always accepting advice and criticism from all of her superiors. Because my sister cares about her job, and really shows it by cooperating and being initiative, the schools recommend her and always want her back. Her husband also works with children, but not as a teacher. So both of them profit off each other to build up there skills and ways to work with certain children. They also know people that are very likely to be useful for each other in some way. My other half is a manager in retail, and he has many different ways to use his networks. Firstly he speaks to other managers one to one, about how they cope in certain situations and how they've been hitting targets etc. He gains quite a bit of knowledge by doing this and tries it out for himself, almost like a Tit for Tat method, which is mentioned by Axelrod in The Prisoners' Dilemma. (Robert Axelrod, WBS3730 in Bapp arts, reading lists) There is a lot of competition in his work, so it really is like a game. He also has many meetings which he uses to gain understanding on products and it's uses, and therefore debating what he can actually do with this knowledge to better himself and to be top of the region. In the meetings, his superiors will talk about what standards they expect and what approaches they want them to use, and give information on good practice that they have seen from other managers. He speaks with his manager one on one via email and phone quite often to find out more information that can benefit his work, and asks for advice. The customers also play a big role in his networking as they give feedback about their service that they received etc, hence he learns from anything positive and builds on it, and learns anything negative and corrects it. He keeps in contact with a few of his past colleagues, and use them to get information on other potential job positions going, of which are better paid or closer to home.
Are there methods, approaches and technologies that you use socially that might apply and help you develop your professional networking?
Facebook is definitely a technology tool that I can use to help build up my professional networking. I do have plenty of people on there that could be of use in professional ways other than social communicating, such as people who are stage directors, stage technicians, sound and lighting people etc. They may know things that come about that will be useful for my career in performing arts teaching. They may have hearsay or assured knowledge about events of which they are looking for children to perform in a show. Through them, I have one foot in the door so to speak on giving my students an opportunity to perform in front of a possible large audience. I often speak with my best friend on beauty products and routines. What hair products we use, or what hair dye we use, and make up etc. We always practice with something that the other has used to see for ourselves whether it's right thing to use for us individually. My best friend also works with children but of a very young age, and she has been doing this for many years now. So there is some use of my best friend in a professional manner, as I can learn from her experiences with children. Trial and error, the same as with the beauty products. When I'm with a bunch of people, I tend to be quite inquisitive about how their lives are going, for example; their love life. I find out all sorts of information on their relationships and how they deal with certain situations and arguments. Some of it is rather typical, but sometimes it's rather unique and it makes me think about my own relationship and how I deal with situations. Sometimes I gather up some of their unintentional advice, and see how it works within my relationship. This is advice on my own reactions to things within the relationships and to perhaps stop and think before I do or say anything. I can use this method in asking about how their working life is going, and seeing where it leads.
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?
I actually have an acquaintance, of whom I met at an audition once, who always contacts me on facebook to find out about closed auditions. She doesn'thave an agent and sometimes just sneaks in to a closed audition with me. I'm not close to her really, but we have the connection of dance. Her motive is clear, and her value and purpose is to get noticed and to get a job. There aren't as many people in closed auditions so this is a great, rather sneaky opportunity to her. I'm sure she isn't the only one of course. I also work side a girl who as not long graduated from stage school. She just wants a job, either teaching or performing. Naturally she always asks me questions and asks for advice, particularly on the performing side. I give her contacts and websites to visit that can give her more of a chance of getting auditions and interviews. Generally, people are in it for themselves in a professional network, but are also there as a guide to others. In social networking, it's about sharing experiences and asking advice in more usual everyday things. Affiliation is more for the social in most people's lives. I believe that people who are more introvert benefit from the technology form of networking a lot more than extroverts, purely because extroverts want to get out there and be noticed and want to learn this way.
What would your ideal network look like and why?
I have the similar views as Laura-May Houghton on this. My ideal network would have people working as a team. Building each other up by the help of advice and constructive criticism. Sharing knowledge that may be very beneficial for other people in the same business or similar. Being competitive, but in a non-conniving way so that you keep shaping and piecing together things that you are learning, 'Tit for Tat' but with an equal amount of selfishness and selflessness. All of this helps each other to grow and also figure out goals that you want to achieve.
What realistic things could you do to work towards developing your ideal network?
Perhaps I can create a page on Facebook that can bring all sorts of people together with similar interests and careers. In a way this can promote yourself and get noticed and can bring really beneficial contacts together to work together in a non immediate way. Sometimes not meeting people face to face can be an easier way to make a team as you don't have the possible issues of not getting along with people, character wise.
I can also ask around for advice from people who may have done a similar thing or plan to. Maybe I can team up with somebody to create the ideal network.
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?
I could really do with using the Tit for Tat method in a bigger and much broader way. I only tend to take advice from people or take on something they've said in small dosages. Perhaps I have little determination and definitely not a lot of nerve to try new things in full. I really need to.
I need to use my inquisitiveness in my professional networks and ask into peoples careers and people they may know.
There is definitely more that I don't know in my current and intended networks. For example, I don't know how many potential connections are out there for me. I don't believe I have many connections, but it's probably all hidden from me, just because I haven't gotten myself out there to try and find them.
I want to teach. I know that there must be some connections to other teachers or people associated with schools or dance schools.
I will start by considering the following things to find my themes/inquiry.
Music is my motivation in choreography and creativity in general. It inspires a lot of people, but for different things and in different ways.
Music is what makes me enthusiastic and the way it makes me feel to which I then go on to using it for my art=choreography. Whenever I hear a song that I really like, on the radio or in a shop or a website, I use the application; Shazam on my phone to find out what the song is and whom it is by. I then go on to researching more songs by this person to see if the song was just a fluke or one of many great songs that can influence my choreography. I found an album by Emmy Rossum a few years ago from hearing a clip of one of her songs called Slow me down on a random website (see YouTube clip). The song hit me instantly and I knew I wanted to choreograph to it. I went on to YouTube to find out whether the album was worth buying or whether it was the only good song on the album, and luckily it wasn't. Here is the link on Amazon where you can hear the clips of the songs, they are very unique: http://www.amazon.com/Inside-Out-Emmy-Rossum/dp/B000W7Y1LK Let me know what you think as I'm quite curious of other peoples' view of this rather fascinating album. I know that we are all different and have different incentives.
I admire my family very much. My mother and brother both have the same ways of thinking as I do. I often watch my mother searching for a piece of music she can use with her orchestra that is either unique, touching or dramatic. It is harder for her as classical music isn't played everywhere you go in society, so she really has to work hard to find something that strikes her attention, but when she finds one, it really is a good piece. Her orchestra stands out in the concerts. She loves her job even if most of the time it stresses her out. My brother, who is also a music and performing arts teacher, uses music as an influence for his school performances. I've been to his shows and they truly are unforgettable, and I promise that I'm not being biased. I hear parents' comment on how clever the performances were and how it'll be hard to beat the next year.
The things that make me sad and angry are how the performing arts business can be incredibly artificial. I think the thing that is very relevant to this is auditions. We have all been there. We walk into an audition and we notice the fake atmosphere all around. We also notice that the casting director has already pointed out who they want before the audition even begins. It's incredibly annoying and heartbreaking at the same time. We walk into an audition expecting to be judged on our performance and technique, yet even though this is what is stated by the casting director, we know deep down that it's all about image. The performing arts can be an incredibly harsh environment, but I think it's what makes most performers so strong when it comes to accepting criticism. These kind of auditions we can live with as we know that it is all about image, and it's obvious that they know exactly what they are looking for, and on that day, we just don't have the image that they want. As well as auditions, the artificial aura is everywhere from Television to Magazines. It's such a shame how 'mirage like' auditions are and how people get famous through lies and just knowing certain people. I am not a fan of shows that have terrible actors/actresses and are improvised. They just come across as very unbelievable. I admire Zooey Deschanel from New Girl. She said; "..If it doesn't feel true, I don't want to do it. Things that
are too dramatic scare me. I think that's why I don't always fit into
the world of Performing arts."http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/z/zooeydesch418384.html
From that quote I get the impression that she is a realistic person, and I'm very sure she wouldn't do any show that wasn't comfortable such as these unrealistic, improvised TV shows. She inspires me because she is so normal and seems to take the fake performing arts world in her stride and carries on. I too don't always fit in to the performing arts world which is another reason why I greatly esteem her. I think it's why I strayed away from the performing side and have gone towards teaching. Teaching in schools and clubs is a lot more unpretentious and I want to inspire children to perform in a different way by being more down to earth. I've always wanted to teach anyway, but I always expected to teach dance with a more professional group of people rather than near beginners. It's the false atmosphere of stereotypical professionals that changed my mind on whom I wanted to teach. Deschanel stays clear of the stuff that is too dramatic and that makes her unhappy, and so do I.
Within teaching and choreography I can express my tacit knowledgeand I can watch my efforts come to a remarkable achievement. I love these things in what I do, expressing my imagination through dance and teaching it, then seeing how it ends. I love to see the children improve and start realizing their own goals. Teaching is fulfilling (which is a lot more than I can say for my job in retail). I want to be an inspiration in dance choreography and how I go about it through music. I do believe that to perform or choreograph well, you must love every aspect of it; the music, how it makes you feel, how the movements flow, the expression, how it can captivate the viewers etc. Michael Jackson has been my inspiration since I was five years old. His music is captivating to me and his dancing is wonderful. It's not hard to see how much he enjoyed his dancing and his music. His choreography was brilliant, how every movement was like a side-kick to the different parts of the music and how the movements linked together so well. Check out his routine at the MTV Awards. This wouldn't have worked half as well without music.
His expression was so moving and you can feel the passion that he has for his work. So many people would have loved to work along side him, performing his genius work. I for one would have exulted in it! Just like he did, I want to share my passion. He will continue to be my inspiration even though his journey in this life came to an end.
There are many things that I don't understand like how choreographers can choreograph without music as inspiration. I'd love to swap minds with another choreographer for the day to see how they get inspired without music. To be honest, it isn't only music that can inspire me, it can be films too or books that I've read or even a painting which can spark an idea. But at the end of it all, I still turn to music as my top motivation. Perhaps I can try choreographing without music and just go with my initial idea? I know that I will find it incredibly hard to do so, but it could surprise me on how much I might enjoy it. Without giving it a go, I guess I would carry on being quite small minded on the matter. Both my Brother and I love to be creative, and we both share the same views on this. He says that our way of choreography can captivate most people whereas some other ways of choreography can only attract the odd number of people. I think if you have a very visual mind, and enjoy art (as in paintings or structures) the type of choreography that employs mainly shapes and designs will attract you the most. Whereas if you enjoy sounds and visual at the same time, the way in which I and many others choreograph will attract you more. It's so hard to say this with real assurance because I'm only going on what I believe. Perhaps I've got it right? Below is a video of some choreography without music.
When I'm deciding an appropriate response, I've always gone with approaches that have worked best for me in the past. With dance colleagues there's a lot more physical contact than there is in for example an office job or retail. It's weird to think that in different professions there are different, so-called appropriate ways to act with fellow colleagues. I couldn't say for sure if having innocent physical contact in the performing arts is right or wrong, it just seems okay. I've never been told or heard anybody else be told that it is weird or wrong, I think it's just generally a more comfortable environment for most in the performing arts profession.
Of course in the world of teaching, things are a lot more strict when it comes to responses and especially physical contact with students. This is something that has obviously changed dramatically over the years in education due to terrible events that have occurred. Employment in the teaching world has naturally become more strict too. Here is an example of why discipline in schools has changed. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-13292351
When it comes to disciplinary responses, in society I expect a high percentage of people that 'kick off' over some very unnecessary things. My approach in any situation is to stay calm. Every time that I've kept calm in any situation, the outcome is always a decent one. If I feel somebody is trying to give me a bad day just because they are, I keep smiling, and their efforts to try and put me down seem to decline.
I am very new to world of teaching, and I only teach on Saturdays but
there will be so many questions that will occur, and I will learn the
answers for the questions as I go along. My Mother has been a Primary
school teacher and has been teaching the Violin to four to sixteen year
old's for many years now. She has told me many times that 'Learning
to be a good teacher comes in time. Some methods work for others in the
way they teach a subject and how they discipline the students. By all
means try out these methods for yourself, but in the end you'll figure
out the best methods for you and most of them will just come from
experience.'
So after considering all of these things for my inquiry there are naturally many questions that occur such as:
How do bad choreographers seem to succeed?
Why does the performing arts industry urge professionals to be pretentious?
What other things are there that inspire choreography?
What websites are there that could give more music ideas that suit my approach to choreography?
What events have occurred that makes the act of discipline so weak nowadays in schools?
Why is physical contact not as disciplined in the performing arts?
I'm definitely skeptical about my personal sense of appropriate behaviour. How I handle my students? My fellow teachers? Customers in retail? If I were to reflect back on my lessons, I do not touch the students in any way, but I do have more contact with my co-worker such as; a pat on the back or a tap on the shoulder. Is this okay? With customers in retail, I do not touch them, but some of them seem to think that it's fine to pat me on the back as a thank you. I think this is definitely inappropriate but there is not a lot you can do. Luckily retail isn't something I want to succeed in.
I seem to talk about music, teaching and choreography the most. My ideas definitely come from these themes. I think about using illusions as a part of choreography. I can research different illusion objects and gadgets or even magicians and try to merge them into my way of choreography. I also think about Rock music. I haven't seen many dances that are performed to rock music. I love soft rock and some classic rock hits and they seem to get me up on my feet more than some pop songs. I have many friends who love dance and are into rock music and I'd love to attempt a dance routine to a song by Nickelback; When we stand together. It has quite a funky beat and I can visualize a powerful troupe dance to it.
I know that the deeper I go into this course the more ideas will emerge.
This is something I will reflect back on later in the course.
This task has been very profound and I've spent a lot of time preparing. I've benefited greatly from doing so, and now I have a lot more understanding on Reflective Practice.
Firstly I like how Donald Schön describes Reflective Practice as; "..a dialogue of thinking and doing through which I become more skillful" (Schön, 1983 The Reflective Practitioner, p31). It narrates remarkably how I think and see reflection as in distinction to my uses of reflective practice in my work. I have many times watched videos of myself dancing and singing, and have been really struck on how awful parts of my voice sounded and have been extra critical on my dance technique and performance, hence, I go on to making myself look and sound better, improving on everything that I've seen and heard. I then video myself again, and go on to noticing different things that I weren't so aware of before, therefore rising the fact that I've fixed the parts that I noticed originally. My 'doing' and 'thinking'; reflecting back with a visual tool, has made me become more skillful in my dance technique, singing technique, performance and constructive critical thinking. In my possible future career in classroom teaching I will have to use 'Lesson planning'. This will be a tool for reflective practice. I believe that keeping a journal will be incredibly useful for any type of teaching, including my teaching position now, which I am now getting into.
Being a beginner in teaching, reflective practice is very necessary to building up my skills through mistakes and successes: "The successive portions of the reflective thought grow out of one another and support one another...each phase is a step from something to something.." (John Dewey, What is thought? 1910) Dewey sees reflective thought as a stream or flow. This applies to all of my reflective thinking and practice in my career. I experience a mistake; I correct it. I experience a success; I build on it. I build onto the success too far of which turns into a mistake; I correct it. I see a mistake; I correct it. It goes on and on. "Until the artist is satisfied in perception with what he is doing, he continues shaping and reshaping" (Dewey, Art as experience, 1934 p51) I cannot rest until I get my performance right, my singing right, my dancing technique up to standards or my skills in being a successful teacher. "..Do something, think about what you did, come to conclusions about what you did and plan to try again." (Kolb, 1984) Referring to this, David Kolb came up with; Kolb's learning cycle.
I always enter the cycle at Doing/Having an experience. The learning cycle is what I use as kind of a template in my journal. It's become integrated in my mind now and I no longer need to look at it as my guide, although I have it there just in case my mind goes astray. The cycle will be a very constructive tool to refer to in my career in teaching. With lesson planning, I can use Kolb's cycle to be at my aide, and it will also be useful in my thoughts and actions during teaching which will be a form of reflection-in-action introduced by Schön in 1987. (refer to Reader 2, p7) Even in my performing, Kolb's learning cycle has been existent; when I worked in Israel, I had to perform in a very long skirt, and during the first lot of performances it would always make me trip up. I knew that I had to do something about it, so I firstly reflected on in, concluded from it and planned out what I'd learned or thought of doing. Therefore the result was me grabbing my skirt at certain points in the dance of which I remember my skirt being the most troublesome, and it worked well. I also added to this by tightening the skirt around my waist so that it wouldn't decline downwards so much. It is incredible how Kolb has made sense of a lot of things when it comes to learning. I've always just use the phrase 'you learn from your mistakes'. Well now I can use 'you learn from your mistakes and successes'. This knowledge has always been there subconsciously, somewhat, but it's become a fully conscious matter in my mind.
As a dance and music teacher I have had to use many tools, such as Cubase to cut and crop music and Itunes and Youtube to get music ideas. I think when using Cubase there isn't a lot of reflection going on as I know exactly how to use it, although, I remember there had been a bit of reflection at the start to remember where I got certain effects from and where I get different tools. Having a very musical family, thus having a very musical ear, cutting the music into the best places is very easy for me and the cuts always sound smooth.This relates to the psychologist Howard Gardners' belief in Multiple intelligences: Verbal linguistic, Logical-mathematical, Bodily-kinaesthetic, Musical, Interpersonal etc (refer to Reader 2, p6). I believe to be mainly Musical. I think I hold a few of the other intelligences too such as Bodily-kinaesthetic, Logical and Interpersonal, but I'm strongest in Musicality.
I believe that Gardner's theory is true to me and I'm sure to most people, but there are people who disagree with Gardner's theory such as Nathan Brody. He says that Gardners' "..list of intelligences is arbitrary," but I personally find it, as a non-psychologist, true, and even if Gardners theory is somewhat arbitruary to other psychologists, it makes sense to a lot of non-psychometric people like me. It's far from just being a belief such as religion, of which you relate to in more of an emotional way, this theory just makes sense. I'm definitely not linguistic. My intelligence is within my head. I am very much a person of 'tacit knowledge'. I am a very deep thinker, which I think in turn plays a part in why I am quite logical. I do try to use Jenifer Moon and Karen Osterman's views on the importance of turning tacit knowledge into verbal in some way. I try using metaphors a lot to try to get the right image to a person I may be trying to explain my tacit knowledge to. But even with that, there's a sort of resistance between the verbal and tacit knowledge and it becomes so difficult to attempt a swap over. "..we can know more than we can tell." (Polanyi, The tacit dimension, 1966 p4)
Twyla Tharp in The creative habit by Tharp and Reiter (refer to Reader 2, p11) talked about muscle memory and how it wouldn't be exactly impossible to turn movements into verbal, but once you start to learn something within your muscle memory (tacit knowledge) and then you are told the movements verbally, you'd start being very skeptical of your own knowledge of the dance. Like I've said about having a kinaesthetic and musical intelligence, as well as being a deep thinker and being non-linguistic, being told my dance routine step by step I would forget the whole thing, because then I'd be thinking too much about the dance instead of relying on what I've always relied on; the music, that helps me to remember certain steps, direction and flow. I can't verbally tell you how, it's partly an emotion, and it then becomes just muscle memory linked to the sounds that I know tacitly.
I can remember dances from when I was seven years old. If a piece of music comes onto the radio or pops into my head, my body just connects and remembers. I had to learn eight shows in two months for my job with P&O Cruises. I went home every night and listened to the music once over and then tried to remember the steps. When I went to bed I would go over the songs in my head and connect as many steps as possible. Then, the next day, I knew nearly the whole thing and better than some of the others who did the same thing as me. This also proves what Gardner says about having multiple intelligences. I was definitely more musical than my other dancing colleagues, therefore they relied more on muscle memory and what they had written down. We all possess different multiple intelligences and my colleagues all possessed some different ones to me. "Noticing is about being aware of what is happening around us." (David Boud, Reflection in anticipation of events, 2001) Being aware of what is happening around me is something I am quite good at. I can notice when I've said or done something that urges a series of events around me. Sometimes it's bad and sometimes it's good. I learn from all the things that conclude in a bad event and I stop and think before I speak and I try to make things right. That is something I have learned through reflection. It also refers to when I've been in a dance troupe routine and I've regrettably ended up heading the wrong direction. If I hadn't noticed the other dancers going the other direction, I would have completely messed up the routine. I had to think quickly to make it less noticeable that I had made a mistake. This relates strongly to Reflection-in-action: "Reflection-in-action describes the process of working with noticing and intervening to interpret events and the effects of one's interventions."(Boud, Reflection in anticipation of events, 2001) I have had to use this method a lot and it's become quite natural, particularly in performing. Many times has my mind gone blank whilst performing and I've had to intervene by thinking up some other steps until my mind snaps back into action. As a dancer and choreographer, improvisation is something that's been improved over time, due to these mistakes. Like I mentioned earlier, reflection-in-action will be used in my future teaching career. If something isn't working to my lesson plan or if a type of discipline isn't effective, I would have to quickly notice these things and adapt accordingly to rectify the situation and therefore improve on my teaching skills. Reflection-on-action will be just as effective in my teaching career with the use of a journal; like I quoted earlier. I think that I'm stronger in reflection-in-action right now, but I know that in time my journal writing will improve, by keeping in mind of all the people that I've mentioned and what they've said. My offline reflection, resembling reflection-on-action by Robert Kottcamp (refer to Reader 2, p8) needs much development but I'm definitely progressing already.
After trying out all of the suggestions given on different writing styles and ways of thinking and reflecting, I have only adopted one more into what I originally did which was just using the Kolb's learning cycle as a base to write out my thoughts. I do believe that I enter on the 'having a concrete experience', so what I believe is the beginning of the cycle.
So, which one did I adopt? I adopted 'Another view'. I really enjoyed writing this way as it made me think as another person looking at me in my day. It made me more critical about myself (which already I am my own best teacher,) so this style advances my skills on this. It really helped me reflect better and made me point out parts of my day which I probably wouldn't have wanted to write down, mainly because I wouldn't have thought of them quite as important as perhaps another person would. It gives more depth in my reflective writing and definitely helps me a lot more.
In my original way of writing my journal I use a bit of 'Description', 'Evaluation' and 'What if?' anyway, so I don't feel comfortable just using these methods by themselves, I always merge them all, as it benefits me and my reflection greater than by themselves. This is how my mind works within my journal:
I write about what I did in as much detail as I can.
I then write down what I think went wrong and what went right and what if?
I then merge in from another point of view to be that extra bit critical on myself.
I think of the things that might have worked better and would be better for the future.
I then write down what I should try.
'Graphs, charts and diagrams' definitely didn't work for me but I'm glad I gave it a go thanks to some advice. I went along the lines of the chart ranking graph for Chronicle. See link below.
This has definitely been an experience and a successful one too. I'll probably be "journal-ing" about it tonight.
So I've been having a think about which suggestions to try in this section, and I've decided on all except 'Description' and 'Graphs, charts and diagrams'.
I know that I've mentioned about being a visual learner, so you'd think that the diagrams options would appeal to me, but it doesn't. I think when it comes to my thoughts, I'd rather be pretty thorough about my day with my own writing and I can easily look up on this. I'm a real deep thinker. It's different from trying to learn something written down by somebody else, I mean with my journal; I wrote it, It was my idea to write it and it's my mind, therefore it's not hard to just sit down, read and recap on my own thoughts as it would be to read somebody else's. I might try the 'diagrams' option just out of curiosity. I may very well surprise myself. It's all about developing and learning after all.
Being a deep thinker and having quite a logic to my thinking, the 'description' suggestion didn't appeal to me either. It's just; this is it, this is where and this is when. It isn't profound enough for me to get on making improvements.
Emma Prices' blog helped me to think of something else to try. I will try using different coloured pens for different parts of my thinking. I think it could make it even easier to sum things up.
Will update in a week or so on how I got on and what my desired way of writing is.
Well here is my YouTube clip. I decided on a different approach to others on this task with the use of images and music etc. I find myself to be quite a creative person so I didn't want to neglect my creativity. :)
Do take a peek:
So I started this task yesterday and read through Reader 2 quite thoroughly. It's definitely a lot to try and sink in.
I know that I am both a visual and kinaesthetic learner. When I was at school my reports would always say things such as; 'Kim is always in her own world' or 'Kimberley is often away with the fairies'. It's true that if I am just talked at or just reading something (no images or diagrams) I really find it difficult to take anything in, and my mind will then regularly wander off into the world of 'Kimmy.'... I need to be hands on to learn anything or see things as diagrams, photos or images.
Initially I thought this task would be very difficult for me, but, I can be very quick to think on the negatives before I move onto the positives. Being a 'deep thinker', this task should actually be a breeze for me. I can be quite logical and try to think things out on the spot, a.k.a Reflection IN Action, which I have learned is probably the most difficult way to reflect for most. But as a dancer it's something that has grown in me, from quickly thinking up an alternative movement when I've forgotten the original one, to using this skill in every day life. I know that as a teacher I have had to think of things on the spot when I have lost the children's attention or enthusiasm, so have had to quickly change from my original lesson plan to something a bit more spontaneous. Reflection ON action is something new but I know will be very beneficial as a teacher, and writing out a journal will be a great way to start.
I imagine it can be quite difficult to reflect on something that perhaps happened at the beginning of the day to then reflect on in the evening. Therefore whenever something happens that I think I will find useful to reflect on I will jot down in my notes on my phone. It will be strange to be writing out my thoughts rather than just keeping them in my mind or talking about them.
Boud's phrase; "Writing is a means of puzzling through", made me think that I've often found that I'm OK at puzzling through my thoughts just in my head, but, I believe that writing these thoughts down will be ten times more powerful than just hoping for the best in my head. I trust in Boud's wise words.
The other thing that is a little scary is what Polanyi said; 'We can know more than we can tell'.
As a choreographer I find it easier to just lie down and listen to the music I want to choreograph to. I close my eyes and can see what movements I can use and what would be effective. I could never express why these movements work, it's just a case of knowing more than we can tell. It just works!
Gardner mentions about different intelligences, and I believe that my strongest is definitely Musical. When either learning a routine or teaching it, it's always easier to listen to the song or piece of music first.
I too believe that I'm interpersonal, intrapersonal, bodily-kinaesthetic and a little bit logical-mathematical. I may write about parts in my day where I've used one or two of these intelligences and see how I can use them more for my own gain.
So with my journal I will start by referring to Kolb's cycle (pictured below) to help me on my way to reflecting accurately.
I will begin task 2B when I've gotten a little bit more used to writing my thoughts each evening.
This is something I definitely do not want to rush as I know how useful this will be in my professional life.
