Journal Writing Experience - Task B

Task B - Reflective Writing Task

Today I have been writing some journals for the week (Wednesday to Friday) almost at an end. 

This week I mainly just went to work, went to University, went to the gym and taught a class last Saturday. I also went to a job interview and was phoned today and offered the job. Reflecting back on these events work was the same and I didn't really learn anything new there but I was put in a few situations where I had to think on my feet in face to face confrontations with customers. I had to be confident and speak informative to give the best customer service I could. I think doing these face to face talks with customers in complaint situations helped me grow as a person giving me more confidence knowing that in these situations I can act as needed. 

Going to the gym was what feels like a normal gym session but when reflecting back I did not run for my usual amount of time and this was because I was not wearing the right clothing which made my legs rub together and gave me a rash. So next time I will wear the appropriate clothing because I do not want my fitness levels to deteriorate because of a simple clothing error. I also did a spinning class and was aching a lot from the weights class I did the night before so it was probably better for me to give my body a rest that day because I couldn't commit to my class fully because my muscles ached. Next week my gym are putting on a Cardio Christmas Challenge, which is completing a certain amount of miles etc on different cardio machines including the stepper, rower, treadmill, crosstrainer and bike. It has to be completed before christmas eve but there is a competition for the first female and male to finish. I am having thoughts about trying to complete it first but not 100% sure whether I am going to yet. 

When I was teaching last Saturday I had the usual age groups I teach but then covered a class for a girl who was on holiday. This class was a younger class starting at 3 years old. For the first 45 minutes of the class I really enjoyed teaching them because they seemed really interested and were paying attention. Slowly their behaviour deteriorated and they just wanted to play games. I felt like if I just played games with them then they were not learning anything and didn't feel like I was doing my job. The principal of the school then reminded me that they are young and need to be kept happy and interested so games was a popular thing to do with them. This week their normal teacher is back from holiday but I am still going to go and help out in the class so I can see how other teachers are their pupils and to learn things from them and see what they do with the younger age groups. I think this will then help me more with ideas of what to do with that age group. I reflect back on this situation and think what could I have done better and I think I did okay but maybe I could of gone to a lesson before to observe how the teacher is with this age group and the things they do. I did ask friends who teach children of this age and they gave me some ideas of things and tips of what they do so I incorporated these but time seemed to go so slow and I had finished the ideas I was given way before my time which, I suppose is a good thing because then I was made to think on the spot. In teaching I think that it is good to think on the spot because when things change you can always produce something from the change.

I also attended a job interview earlier this week and was phoned today and offered the job which I was obviously pleased about. The interview process was a group interview which is not something i have taken part in before. We had to write down a word which best describes us, I said positive and we had to write down and share with the group which animal best describes us. I wrote down dog (haha) because they are said to be mans best friend and I think I am happy and friendly. Also they help people such as blind people they are their helpers and I class myself as someone who will do anything for anyone. I think group interviews are not as good as individual interviews because you do not get to know the person on a personal level and only find out things about them from their cv or from random tasks that they take part in in the group interview. In my interview there was many different people there and different ages so when I go for my induction it will be interesting to see who got the job. There were quite a few people in there that didn't have very much experience but in the job world you never know what they are looking for. It is like x factor, different people like different things.

Have you ever had a group interview?

If yes,

What was it like? and what did you have to do?

These events that I have spoken about above are the events that I have wrote about in my journal. I have to be careful when posting on my blog what I write because when speaking about events I could name companies, names of people but I should not do this because of ethical issues. I do not have permission from these people to write personally about them so shouldn't. In some companies that you work for posting about them online can be a sackable offence. In one of my jobs I had to sign a form to say that I would not post about them naming them personally online and I would not use Facebook to write status' about them that can make the company look bad.

Task 2a - reflective journal task

Task 2a - reflective journal task  

Since starting on the BAPP course I have been following and completing the tasks as best as I can, one of these tasks was to start a journal. This journal is my personal thoughts about the module. The journal does not have to be shown to anyone else but I may be asked to show extracts of it later on in an assessment and I am choosing to blog about it today. My personal journal is a way to record my thoughts and the events that happen in my life. So at the end of the day or at the end of a busy week I reflect back on what has happened previously and reflect on the situations and thoughts I had. 

Again appears the word reflection, which has been spoken about a lot on this course because it is helping me to understand things that happen in life and to give more meaning to what is happening. 

Before starting BAPP The main way I shared my thoughts would have been by text to other people or a status on Facebook but now I have my personal journal and my blogs I am tending to vary the way I share my thoughts more.

I do find it fairly easy to write down my thoughts in a word related method such as, writing a letter, text, blog but I also like to exercise and think to myself this is something I do frequently to reflect on life activities that engage in. Running is said to help you de stress and I believe this is true. 

When writing my journals I haven't set a certain time or day to do them because each day in my life is different some day I could have the whole day free others I am out all day and not home until 10pm at night so I write them where and when I can. Writing a journal is not something that is new to me because when I was at college we had to write one daily and talk about what lessons we did that day, what we learnt, what we can improve on and what we have improved on. We also reflected on the last time we wrote about this lessons and how we feel since then and if we have noticed anything has changed. So, reflective writing is something I have done before. 

When getting started you may feel mind blanked but if this is the case write about what you have eaten and why you had it or literally anything that you did. I quite enjoy writing my journal because its helps me reflect on my day and think about whether I can do something better the next time.  

Recently I have been doing a lot of exercise and also looking into personal training. I have been relating a lot of the things i have read about exercise and training to things that I am learning on the BAPP course. This is because a lot of it is reflective thinking and thinking about what you have done in the past and how you can change it such. People set goals such as weight loss, gaining more muscle mass and trying to complete exercise in certain times. Such as, people trying to get into the armed forces have to complete cardio in a certain time limit. They have to en reflect on how they have been previously living and make a change then after this change reflect on whether it has worked. 

I wrote about some terms of personal training and have put some extracts below at I wrote about because I feel that they link into reflective thinking and can be relevant to my learning. 

Classical conditioning is creating an unnatural occurrence  in our behaviour. It was discovered by Ivan Pavlov (1936). Pavlov would ring a bell and then give meat to dogs that salivated because of the food being presented. He repeated this for some time, until one day he rang the bell, but didn't show any meat. The dogs still salivated.  This discovery supports the theory that we show responses to stimuli that are not naturally occurring, such as in exercise, a daily morning jog before work or attending a weekly Tuesday and Thursday exercise class. To create a reliable stimuli for a ourselves we should try our best to prevent duplicating or clash exercise with other competing cues, for example, exercising when a favourite tv programme is being aired or anything else that could cause resentment and disruption to home life. 

Operant conditioning refers to how someone responds to what is presented to them in the environment they live in and is about cueing action to reinforcing good behaviour. When people make mistakes they may change their actions next time to achieve better results but when something has gone right the actions are more likely to be repeated the next time because  they worked well. To reinforce good behaviour rewards could be given such as a free session after a number of visits from the gym themselves to help the client find an incentive to exercise and therefore increase their chances of achieving success. Or rewards we could give ourselves could be a bad meal after so many pounds lost or so many gym sessions. 

We could also find our own rewards with a positive outcome from a negative situation for example, the removal of lower back pain after a core stability class this would give the client a positive response to exercise. 

After reading about Classical conditioning it makes me reflect on my work its BAPP. The time I set to do my work I should make sure does not clash with something else I want to do because I may not be able to concentrate because I am thinking about that activity or if the tv is on I may become sidetracked by watching it. 

Operant conditioning makes reflect and think that I should reward myself after completing tasks, not with anything major but something small. Like have some sweets every time I have finished a task to treat myself. Or even go to watch a musical each time I have attended a campus session because I will be in London anyway and have attended the session so am one step closer to the finishing point and gaining my degree. 

What do you think?

Campus session número dos!!

Campus session 2. 22/10/2013

Today was he second campus session for our course. There were people present from all 3 modules. Alan gave us a sheet which was linked to a method of thinking. The sheet was to do with mapping professional domains. It had three sections: the outside world, my inner world and finally tools, techniques and methods. Alan gave us different words and we had to write what That word meant to us for each section. 

An example of one that I wrote was for the word Knowledge. In reference to the outside world. I can gain knowledge from others in the outside world by not stealing their knowledge but learning from them and gaining things from them that they know. In reference to my inner world I have knowledge of my own that is mine and doesn't belong to anybody else so it is mine. I can then put my knowledge to use to benefit me and use it constructively to make the most out of it. As for tools, technologies and methods I wrote that the technologies in the world can be used to help me gain knowledge by me reading and researching to improve my knowledge. 

Module 3 students then went off with Paula to do some work on their module and modules 1 and 2 stayed together with Alan. We spoke to the 2 people from module 2 who told us about their plans for their module 2. It was very interesting to hear from them their ideas and plans and also great to know that they like the course but feel the same as us which Alan  Says is a good  feeling because if you know everything then you aren't learning. A few of us from module 1 then spoke to about things we were doing and concentrating on and whether there was any doubts or problems. The campus session today was great to attend not only to make sure I am on track but also to see where other people are at. The next campus session is thursday 21st of November so hope to see you all there!!! 

Task 1c - YouTube clip

Hey!
Here is the link to my YouTube clip.
I had to record these clip about 6 times and when I thought I had got it perfect I realised that the tv was playing in the background so had to redo it again. I tried my best not to look at script so had some cue cards near me. Looking at it after is cringy but I'm sure I'm not the only person that thinks this.
To make my video clip I used the video app on the iPad and used the camera on the front. I then tried my best to memorise my script and tried to keep looking at the camera.
I then had to download th YouTube sharing app to be able to upload my videos to YouTube then went onto the YouTube app to find my upload and copy and paste the link.
These are methods of using Web 2.0.

Below is starting on BAPP link

http://youtu.be/60Nophi0acE

Ruth

Social networking (web2)

I've been watched several programmes recently all related to social networking. It was showing me how things can get out of hand just from posting a simple comment. 

In the first programme there were a few stories that shocked me on how they made the individuals feel and what happened to them as an effect of the comment etc. The main two that shocked me were both of people in England. The first was a man who was travelling to Ireland in a week but the airport was currently closed because of I think snow so he tweeted something on the lines of :

"Robin Hood airport closed. You best be open in a week or I'm blowing you sky high"

This comment then resulted in the man being sacked from his job, being arrested and then spending the next two years of his life fighting court battles and proving to people that he wasn't a terrorist. The second story was a mother that took her baby to watch her older daughters band play. The baby was wearing sound deployment headphones and was asleep for most of the gig. Someone at the gig took a photo of the baby and posted it up onto the Internet. The mother then received hate messages saying she was a bad mother and should have her children taken off of her. In my opinion she had protected her babies ears from being damaged by the sound and she was supporting her daughter. 

Stories like this we hear about all the time and there is a lot of negative effects of social networking such as bullying and suicides but there are also a lot of positives such as, connecting old friends, creating events to invite people to and then for people to comment to each other about what to wear etc. 

What are the most shocking stories you have heard of and what do you use social networking for?

Task 1d - Posting images of my work!

For task 1D we have been asked to post a set of images of our work, I have used Flickr to do this and have chosen a selection photos of my professional work, headshot and a few from teaching and photos at my dance school.

Each photo to me makes up events in my life and each photo is a mile stone of my life. Photos from my dance school were photos from where I began my training then I moved onto college then professional work then teaching.

I think in todays society images are important and they are things that are looked at a lot. Web 2 links are used a lot for images such as, I would post images on Facebook to keep and look at in the future and to share with my friends about my experiences. I also used programmes such as Instagram and Twitter to post images but I primarily use Facebook. The images I post up  do not only show my experiences but they can be used to show my interests, personality and family and friends. Some people recommend that if you are a performer you should have a professional social network profile in case employers look at your profile. Impressive images and writing can be a great advantage for an individual to be recognised by an employer.

I think in dance we can be judged on our photos because if someone is doing something good it can be recognised on a photo but we can also be doing something good but if the photo is taken a second after it can make the action look bad.

Most of my images are of myself or of friends and colleagues that I have permission to use but I would like to have more images of my teaching but then this presents me with the issue of ethical reasons because nowadays you have to have written consent from the parents of the children to use images of them. In the future I may create a letter for parents and ask for their permission to use images of my pupils in class but I will only do this if it is needed. For example, in the future in my degree I could choose to focus on something that needs photographical evidence so in this case I would get permission from the parents to use images.

I created my photostream on Flickr and looking through all my photos it brought back a lot of memories and made me realise how much I want to progress in a teaching career.
Last week I covered a class for a friend who was ill and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I taught three classes Juniors, Intermediates and Seniors. I was most nervous about teaching the seniors but in the end they were the group that I enjoyed the most and the feedback I got back from both the principal and the students was great. My photos on Flickr were originally on my facebook profile and then I just transferred them to Flickr, after creating an account which was very quick and easy. This process was yet another example of using Web 2.0 in my daily everyday life. When all my photos were uploaded I was able to give them captions which can tell the people viewing the photos more about them and what they mean to me.

One thing that I have been stuck on with my blogging is following other people. I have worked out how to follow two people but they are the only people I have found have the follow me option. Does anyone know how to do this easily?
If I can follow people and easily find them on my profile I can read and comment on blogs a lot easier and quicker!!

The link to my Flickr :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/104828335@N04/

First campus session

Hey,
Well I'm finally on the coach home from my day in London, where I attended the first campus session . Since the induction last week I've done my best to
Start up the tasks and hoped I'd done them correctly because, I was a little confused when we left the university last week. I was handed some work books, went away and read them and felt overloaded in my head  but after today I feel less confused and more confident to what I have done so far and what I am going to create in the next few weeks.  I am glad I attended the campus session because it helped me learn from others and their experiences from the course. By asking other students currently doing modules 2 and 3 I learnt that they felt exactly the same as me when they were doing module 1 and that if I feel confused it is good because it means I do know everything. This therefore means that I am learning, which is the purpose of the course, to learn new things. I did however think the attendance to the session today would be a lot bigger than it was, so I recommend to other students on the course that they attend them because they are helpful and students on modules 2 and 3 strongly advised attending them aswell. 

I liked the discussions we were having and thought that Phil's comment was very appropriate. He quoted "we are like balloons, once they are blown up or stretched they never go back down to their original size", which in our case means we are blown up with knowledge and may forget some of that knowledge but not all of it. 

We also spoke about the technologies that are involved in our lives and we spoke about how they can help us. My blog is one example because it can be read publicly by any online individual and they can comment and read what I have put. People who want to hire me for a job can search me in google and possibly read this blog,  which could determine whether I get the job or not. They could also check my Facebook and look at my pictures and posts to see what kind of person I am. At college, we as performers were advised to have 2 accounts on Facebook a professional one that is open and can be viewed by all and a personal account that is closed and only able to be viewed by close friends and family. An employer who uses your profile to view you is obviously looking for someone responsible and professional and photos of you drunk or doing stupid things is not what they are hoping to see. 

That's my blog done for the day, time to sit and read some of my handbook now for the rest of my coach journey and think of some content for my YouTube clip and maybe ideas for my next blog.