Module 3 findings so far

I am glad I have chosen this topic because it is very interesting and helping me a lot personally. I have done my observations and am finding out that the way you are and the way people behave seems to be dependant on their personality and the type of person they are. For example, whether you are strict or laid back, whether you are organised or unorganised etc.

The managers I have observed have been very different some working back of house and some working front of house. The managers that 'hide' in the office all day long and only come out when assistance is needed have less respect from their employees. This is because they feel that they are lazy and do not care. Where as, back of house managers that go that extra mile and check whether their staff are ok or need anything have more respect from their employees. This is because the employees can see that the manager is trying their best to help. Then there is the front of house manager, they can either be organised managers that have great knowledge or the opposite less organised managers that have less knowledge. If an employee knows more than the manager I think this is a bad thing because the manager is meant to be the 'top dog' and know everything about the business and be there to help their staff in times of need. This knowledge will have come from training, personal experience and work experience. If you now compare this to teaching your teacher is like your manager and if they do not have the knowledge then why are they at the front of the class teaching you?
They are meant to be leaders and have the knowledge and understanding to lead and teach. This can be compared also to other careers such as; a dancer. Most dance groups have a dance captain who is meant to be the best of the best and have great skills, knowledge and understanding to lead the group. If this dance captain is lacking these skills then the respect may not be present and the group will slowly start to get annoyed and loose their sense of team work. This can be the same for driving instructors, sports coaches and many more careers that are suppose to lead their followers/students upwards.

When observing teachers I have found that there are also the same factors involved as there were in my management observations. Organisation and knowledge. I think in teaching qualifications are also a high factor, this can be towards their knowledge or towards gaining respect of colleagues and pupils.
There seemed to be two different types of performing arts teachers; teachers that have danced since a young age in dance schools and done as much as they could performance wise without getting in the way of their studies and work. Then there is the performing arts teacher that possibly started to have interest in their teens took it as GCSE or A level then went onto study this at degree level. These teachers do not have as broad knowledge as the teachers that have been dancing for a while and can sometimes have conflicts with their pupils over knowledge in specialist areas such as ballet, tap where the pupil may know more. Dance is a very large subject as it has so many sub areas and I think if you are going to be an expert or teacher of dance you should have as much knowledge as possible.

Personally from doing my observations I have self reflected on my myself and feel that I have areas that I can improve on. Such as, my knowledge in my management role. This is mainly because I am fairly new and only had 7 days training when I was meant to have 4 weeks but, this was cut short due to the need for me to be in the store sooner than thought. As my training was cut short I feel that my knowledge is very limited and as a manager I feel as though I am letting my staff down sometimes by not having the answers for them. Also some of my employees have much better skills than I do in the work place. This may be due to practice as some have been there for years but I still feel like it is a personal goal for me to improve on these areas. I feel as though I am organised so I do not feel I let myself down by being unorganised. In the areas of teaching I feel like I am very organised because I always prepare things for class even if it takes me a long time. I do not mind taking time to prepare dances etc because I enjoy doing it a lot and it is also my hobby. Where as, if I have to prepare things for my management job I am not as keen because it is not a hobby for me and I feel as though I am there for my hours I work and that is it.

Now that I have done my observations I will be doing interviews with different people that I have not observed to answer further questions I have with them. I would like to know their experiences and if they have done management and teaching, how they thought it helped them?
By asking these questions I will hopefully get a better understanding.

Module 3 starter

Starting module 3 has been a challenge for me because I changed my inquiry topic. I have chosen something now that I think will benefit me more in my career and it is what I am doing now as a stepping stone and learning what I can take from this job and bring forward to my ending career path. I am in management at the moment and eventually want to become a performing arts teacher in a school. I teach part time evenings and weekends at the moment but would like teaching to be my full time job. I enjoy performing and want to perform as much as I can before I give up completely and start a teacher career. My inquiry has started off rocky but I feel like I am focused now and have chosen something more personal that I can relate to and use personally.

Campus session 2 Module 3

I attended the campus session on Monday with Gaby and we discussed our inquiries together. We gave each other feedback and help on what we thought we could improve on. Gaby explained her inquiry to me and I wrote down the key points that she was telling me. From this she could see if she was getting across to me the points she wanted to and vice versus.
My inquiry is how my management role can help me become a better performing arts teacher. I have started some observations and am at the point where I am analysing my data. I have already drafted my introduction and evaluation part of my inquiry essay.
I have found it very hard not to go off track with my inquiry because I seem to be finding different things but need to remember to pull back and focus on my title.