Friday, 21 March 2014

Task 6C Award title


Task 6C - Award Title

After looking at the award titles I think I am certain of the title I would like:
BA (Hons) Professional Practice:  Performing Arts

My Trinity Diploma is in Musical Theatre so I feel I should carry it on but I feel that musical theatre is just a part of performing arts and there are things you can do in performing arts that are not linked to musical theatre. I look at musical theatre to be a type of genre of performing arts. Also, I went to LCPA wanted to just be a dancer but if I just choose dance I am limiting myself, I have trained for many years in performing arts and not just dance so I feel that in the future, opportunities may come up that involve drama and singing. Therefore, if I just chose dance people looking at me to hire for drama or singing positions may think twice and chose someone who has a performing arts qualification and not just dance. They may feel that someone with a performing arts degree rather than a dance degree is a better all rounder. 

So I do not want to put these limitations in my way. I would also like to apply for positions that are not just dance but singing, acting and even music. My ideal job would be head of performing arts in a school because I am a dancer, actor, singer and a musician so a role of this title would link all in my skills. 

The titles I considered were:
BA (Hons) Professional Practice: Dance - I have explained my reasons for not choosing this title above. Basically I do not want to limit myself to only teaching dance.

BA (Hons) Professional Practice: Dance Teaching - The reason I have not chosen this title is pretty much the same as the dance degree because I do not just want to teach dance. I enjoy teaching drama and singing just as much. So do not want to limit myself.

BA (Hons) Professional Practice: Musical Theatre - The reason I have not chosen this degree is because I feel it can still have some limitation. I studied Musical Theatre at LCPA for 3 years and have my trinity diploma and London College of Music diploma in Musical Theatre but I feel that it the musical theatre is only a part of performing arts. 

BA (Hons) Professional Practice: Performing Arts - I feel this is the degree for me because although I wanted to originally just be a dancer, after studying musical theatre for 3 years I enjoyed it throughly. Performing Arts widens more doors than just dance or musical theatre and I do not want any limits on my career. I can sing, dance, act and play musical instruments so why not use these skills to get the best out of my career and work to my full potential. I am also currently working in a performing arts club and eventually would like to get into a school to teach any subject I can in the performing arts subjects. I could still specialise in dance but my degree would be performing arts on a whole allowing me to be a professional in all aspects of it. 

Sunday, 16 March 2014

5b

5b

The codes of practice which steer the ethical framework in the place of work are:

1. Conduct themselves at all times with integrity in the discharge of their duties according to law and this clause overrides all other, so that where there is conflict, this cause shall prevail;
2. Maintain high standards of personal behaviour at all times and to do nothing to bring themselves, The college or the profession into disrepute;
3. Take personal responsibility for the establishment and maintenance of good relations with other professional, public and private bodies;
4. Maintain the intercity of the profession in public and in the media;
5. Take no longer action which might injure or malign the reputation of other professionals;
6. Respect the rights of the individual;
7. Respect the wishes and aspirations of parents, guardians and carers of the pupils and students;
8. Maintain the strict confidentiality of personal information;
9. Ensure, as far as is possible, that individual pupils and students, and groups of pupils and students, achieve their full educational potential;
10. Exercise professional judgement in furthering the resolution of educational problems;
11. Refrain form any acts that may cause teachers and pupils harm;
12. Take no advantage of a position of authority with a pupil or student for personal, political or other purposes;
13. Further the development of professional skills, knowledge and attitudes in themselves and colleagues; and
14. Ensure positive collaboration with those in educational and other institutions, authorities, examination boards and other specialist bodies.

This code of professional practice promotes professional behaviour for members of the college. Central to the code are respect for the individuality of the learner, and recognition of the collaborative nature of the profession of learning and teaching.


These points above are pretty much what I thought of when I said what I thought the codes of practice was, except put into better words and a few more points have been added. They basically say follow the rules of your jobs and everything will run smoothly. They think about every part of the company and its operations and all of the people that are involved, whether they are working for the company or 'customers' (referring to the pupils and parents.)

I have learnt that ethics is a huge subject to learn about it and it is their to help us do things properly. Ethics deals with situations in profession, organisation and society. 

Friday, 14 March 2014

5a ethics

Ethics in class:
Organisation,
Constructive critiscm, respect, discipline, professional, feedback, decision making,
Responsibility

Ethics in the workplace:
Be organised,
Be respectful,
Disciplined,
Professional,
Give feedback,
Teamwork,
Decision making,
Cultivate an image,
Responsibility.

These ethics above are mostly the same because we need these in the workplace in general to create a good working vibe.

Some issues I could have in the workplace are:
Lying, bullying, bribery, harassment,
Plagiarism- pupils taking gcses need to submit their own submit for the qualification.
Permission- for photos and videos

Working with children is a job that you have to be very careful in, making sure you follow all the rules properly. You cannot single anyone out especially when I comes to race and religion. Everyone is equal!


Asking my inquiry questions to children would need permission and I may not get it. Also I she to take into consideration that the age of some of my pupils can be from as young as 3 years old so, my answers may not be as accurate as I would like. I think I would benefit more from asking colleagues, teachers and friends in the industry. This way I know they have had more years of experience and can give me more intelligent answers. Also getting permission and the ethics of asking my questions will be simpler than asking a child. 

Friday, 7 March 2014

Campus session 2!

At the beginning of the session Alan gave us a lecture on positionality ,where people are positioned.

Positionality is 'How we come to make sense of things depends on where we are coming from'
There are different accounts of knowledge.

Metaphysics - that existence can be explained through ideas separate from our everyday experiences

Rationalism - that knowledge can be derived from rational, logical thought based of deductive argument.

Empiricism - that knowledge derives from processing our sensory experiences.

Pragmatism- that we can understand the features of the world by what things do, rather than an imposed 'meaning'.

Embodied knowledge- we understand the world in all ways we experience it.

Didacticism / constructivism - questions... Can knowledge be transmitted? Or is it constructed?

This lecture made me reflect back to a conversation I had last week with a colleague at work. He is colourblind and we were talking about what colours he can see. To me something may be blue but to him it is dark black. We are learning for ourselves and gathering knowledge about what these are to us.

The knowledge landscape-
Theology(supernatural)
Humanities (analytical, critical, speculative)
Natural sciences (demonstrable truths)
Social sciences (demonstrable qualities)

The experiencing self and the remembering self - all our experiences pass away forever .... Only the memories that we make remain 'Daniel Kahnemen'

How does this relate to BAPP?
Inquiry is the making sense of something from a particular position;
Ethics is the account we give of our interactions with other people shaped by our Positionality;
Reflection is a process by which we make sense of our positionality.

Module 2 student hen went off with Alan and spoke about our module. We talked about our individual experiences within the module and also e module as a whole. We said that Task 4 is rehearsal process for this module.
Task c5:
5a- rules, what are the written and unwritten rules. (Piercings/tattoos)
5b- expectations for teaching generally - written and unwritten.
Culture- patterns of behaviours
C- is the reader similar to what I Found in 5a/b. Compare and contrast
5d.

Shaping the question
The practical things you do
1.Safeguarding (technical)
2. How it Informs my questions
(Use sig/blog)
Part 6- do with friends and ask them questions.
Assessment:
1. Proposal you are making about your inquiry (A plan) address who will benefit, what's already known (personal thoughts) who your going to interview and how you'll go about it.
Title- -what aRe you aiming to do - to find out- objectives- set up interviews/  conduct interviews / analyse interview/ read literature and compare them with the interviews.
Include task 5s ethical issues.
(Data or people)
2. Another piece of reflection (similar to module 1) what you've benefitted from. Say about the shift in my thinking and what it was.
3. Forms
1.Get the employer to fill one in
2. Choose title - 300 words why?
3. Ethical context statement - whether there is any issues to having ethical issues in your statement



This lecture was very interesting because we never actually think about our thinking we just do it. So putting them into these categories gave me more knowledge about what they are.
The session helped me re create my questions. I was given the idea that if I make a form of a closed question I am not opening the question up to other answers. I had the questions

What values and effects does the age of teachers have on students? This question is still in my questions because it is something that interests me and I am hoping it will link into another question.

What is more important a degree in the arts or a cv full of performing? Total opposites, you could have both. I have made a closed question here, creating an answer where people are going to think it is one or the other when like I have mentioned, it could be both. 
I have therefore transformed my question into a more open question as follows;

What creates respect?
 (Established teachers. Qualities,features, capabilities, qualifications? )

(Many times you can hear 'She's unqualified b can teach'. If you don't Have a degree for the position you not taken seriously?) 

What happens when an individual goes through The transition between a professional performer and teacher, and how do we prepare for this?  - I have decided I don't like this question and don't want to use it because I know the answer because I am doing it. Therefore, I don't feel this question will benefit me.

Monday, 3 March 2014

My favourite questions

What values and effect does the age of teachers have on students?

What is more important a degree in the arts or a cv full of performing?

These are the two questions that I have had the most interest in and two that I have more to talk about.
What are your views on these questions?

For me personally these questions interest me.  I have a mother who is older than most parents and I have older siblings, one is about 15 years older so to be honest I was probably not planned haha. My mother was a head teacher and specialised in English and maths. I know this is a little different to the arts but she is over 60 now and still teaches which I would love to do but obviously getting up and demonstrating dance at the age of 60 is something I can't guarantee I will be able to do. My mother still has the same respect from pupils that she always has had and people probably have greater respect for her now because in the last ten years she  has been diagnosed with multipleschlorosis. She is in a wheelchair now so I think people have more respect for her than they did when she was younger because of her motivation to not let her disease get hot he better of her.

As for having a degree and cv full of jobs, as my mother comes from this background of having her masters and getting  high up in the teaching ladder she wants the best for me. When I told her I wanted to do dance she was supportive but she thought I would still go to university. When I told her this was not my plan she didn't seem impressed. She didn't really approve because I wouldn't be getting a degree so we had a lot of disagreement between each other. I paid for myself to go to performing arts college after saving for 3 years and have done a few jobs but now I feel that without a degree it would be hard to get into teaching because I can't perform forever. I
think it depends on what you get into. For example, if I had gotten into the west end I think things could of been a lot different because I would have a good income and be able to stand on my own two feet abit more.

What do you guys think?

Friday, 21 February 2014

Module 2 - 4A

After reading the reader I thought of many different questions.
I had questions that I raised to myself covered many different topics including performing, teaching and qualifications.

Eventually I chose my questions:

1. Does age affect teaching?
2. In teaching which is more important: personality, experience, knowledge or respect?
3. How does a dancer change their career?
4. When do performers prepare themselves for a change in career?
5. Which is more important a degree in dance or a CV full of performing?

Hopefully over the next few weeks I can develop these questions further to help with my inquiry.

I have given a few of my friends in the industry these questions and asked them informally to answer them. The answers I got were:

I think age along with reputation is key. Say for example we used to mess about in ballet (taught by a 75 year old Ballet master from the Russian Ballet) but if it was commercial (taught by a 35 year old male who is big in the commercial industry) at his age we wouldn't but then it's not like we didn't respect the ballet master we just knew we would get away with it. We could have a similar laugh with the commercial teacher but we knew when it would go too far! Ya know? x

Not even reputation it's like a persons personality. Like for example when a particular boy in college would clean a number no one would dare speak out I turn but if it was a quieter/shyer girl to get up and do it we'd all take the piss! No offence to a shy/quiet person! Hahahaha x

A younger teacher would go for it more than an older teacher!

Asking people to help you with work I find is proving harder than I thought because a lot of people ignore you when it comes to things like this or don't say very helpful things.





Friday, 14 February 2014

Campus session for module 2

So I attended campus session 1 on Wednesday. I was the only one there on module 2 but it was good to see what the module 3s were doing and what I would be doing next time. I have started some stuff and shared with the group what I'd done. I feel a little more confident now that I know I am on the right lines. 

At the session we spoke about love and learning. I think these two together and separately are interesting subjects. I love learning and enjoy learning new things. We learn new things everyday even if we don't realise so without learning we would be repeating our actions day in, day out and not learning anything new. Some people say they hate learning but I'm sure they don't mean this. I think they mean they are learning about something they are not interested in. It is still useful to know though. 

In the group at campus session 1 we brain stormed the word love and came up with many options. Paula asked us to think about what we would like to look into further. I thought about dating sites because I know nothing about them but then Paula said I may never need to know about them so should possibly think of something that may be about my career.
So, I thought about love of my career and what I would do for my career and what kind of love could over power the love for what I do. Love for my partner as it gets stronger I think could over power the love for my career. For example, people who have children and are married that were dances choose their family over a cruise job because the love for their family is greater. 

I will now carry on with my module 2, battling any obstructions that get in my of learning!

See you at soon, possibly at module 2 campus session 2

Ruth