Skype Chat

Ive just had a Skype with Helen going through my feedback form and discussing where to go next with my inquiry. It was very insightful after feeling that my inquiry had hit a stand still it just shows that talking about it vocally can really be helpful. After speaking quite passionately about my new job and what I have been observing the past 7 weeks has made me realise that the lens I'm observing through on a daily basis is the key to my inquiry. I did not see it before but Helen has made me realise that my own observations are shifting my ideas for my proposal and its okay for my ideas to shift and change at this stage. Helen said talking to me on Skype about what my proposal is to me and where i want it to go is a lot more exciting than what i currently have on paper. The lens I'm analysing is behaviours and social skills with is a performers lens, Im interested to find out if other members of staff at my school see it the same as me or not. I also need to reconsider  my ethics as I work in a school so i already have permission to be there but it would be good for my research to be able to make a focus group at school and to not ask them any questions but to get them to choose which activity they would prefer to do and analyse why they chose certain ones. I would be able to start with year 1 and go up to year 6 to be able to study the differences in behaviour. Using my own journal i will look at a different idea each week so for example one week ill look at who is most vocal in class and the next week ill look at who moves around the most confidently i.e who wants to be the leader in a line up to the hall. With regards to my data collection Helen has told me that I do not need to try to include everything and spread myself to thinly that if i pick one or two and really focus and go in-depth with those it will be much more effective. With my literature I am going to focus on finding more sociology articles and research as it is more helpful with the road I am going down. I am so glad I had a Skype with Helen as it has got me excited again to research into something that Im truly interested in and has made me realise the path I want to go down and how to narrow it down to specifics instead of keeping it to vague and more work for myself. I feel I am heading in the right direction to get stuck in!  :)

Feedback Form

So the time has come to get stuck back into my Inquiry. I received a feedback form to fill in about what has changed and what I have learnt since module 2. It was more informative than I thought it would be because a lot has changed in my personal life and career. My current job now will make my research for my Inquiry a lot more easy and straight forward, because I now work in a school the resources and knowledge I am hoping to uncover is a lot more within my grasp. I look forward to getting back into the swing of things! Hope everyone is well :)

New adventures ahead

So after a busy few months since completing module 2 I have been working a lot and saving i have recently accepted a new job back in my home town of Worcester as a teaching assistant in a primary school. I am very excited but nervous at the same time! This will be really good for my career progression as I have the potential of doing a PGCE with that school in the future. It will also help me with my Professional Inquiry so everything is looking good!! Looking forward to starting back up again in September but in the mean time Im going to continue with some research so I'm not overwhelmed when September comes around! hope everyone is having a fab summer!

6D

I sent a first draft of my inquiry proposal to Paula and I have received it back with feedback which has given me a lot to work on!

 hope everyone is doing okay with their inquiries!!

Task 6C

After reading the award specialism title form I took a long time to decide which title was right for me career wise. After talking to a few of my SIGS i have come to the conclusion of choosing the 'Performing Arts' title. After doing some research the term 'performing arts' means" forms of creative activity that are performed in front of an audience, such as drama, music, and dance."  As i want to be a drama teacher I feel this definition sums up my career choice.

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/performing_arts

Task 6B

I know I have left it a while to post my thoughts of reader 6 but I've finally got round to it!
I really enjoyed reading reader 6 as i found it really insightful into the different tools and methods i could use for my inquiry. I think its important to not choose to many tools of research as it will be to time consuming. I have decided to use the following tools in my inquiry, I will discuss the merits and limits of these below:

Interview Merits

• Probe responses and investigate motives and feelings (Bell,2005,p.157)
• Being able to ask 'why' questions
• Interviewing the people with the right knowledge 
• Good source to collect data
• Use recognised data collection techniques
• qualitative method
• Allows me to have a more in-depth understanding 
• Allows me to gather appropriate research

Interview Limits

• Would be difficult to transcript the answers given
• Finding the time appropriate for me and the interviewee 
• Finding the space/area to conduct the interview
• Not gathering all the information i need in one sitting 
• My questions not being correct

Survey Merits

• An easy way to gain a lot of opinions
• Quick if the survey is online such as survey monkey
• A lot of online tools to record the research after surveys are completed

Survey Limits

• Not gaining enough response to record the answers
• The questions I ask could be to vague if they are hitting the general public
• Posting the survey on Facebook could not generate enough interest in my chosen topic

Questionnaire Merits

• Generally get a good response
• Could hand them out at work 
• data could be kept anonymous if the person wished to do so
• easy to record the data

Questionnaire Limits

• Can not garuntee everyone will participate
• answers could be limited to yes or no

Observation Merits

• Being able to record the session to look back on 
• a lot of data to analyse

Observation Limits

• As my inquiry is child related i don't think observing and recording a class would be permitted

Overall I will trial interview and survey with my SIG group.

https://www.campyatc.com/positive-impact-theatre-education-kids/

Tasks 6 & Written Inquiry

Im nearly done with my first draft of my proposal ready to send to Paula for some feedback, I have done tasks 6 but havent got round to posting my thoughts on my blog as of yet! Hopefully today i will complete my first draft! Good Luck everyone!!

Vygotsky’s Social Development Theory

https://www.learning-theories.com/vygotskys-social-learning-theory.html

Interesting read

http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.mdx.ac.uk/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=ac68e3c6-7904-41e6-832e-2b2507da6c40%40sessionmgr4009&vid=1&hid=4114

Busy busy!!

so I have recently moved house and that is why I have been abit quiet on my blog I have no data or wifi in my house at the moment so I am spending a lot of my time reading my different pieces of literature and getting my head around reader 6! More posts to follow about reader 6 when I finally get my wifi!!

Task 5b

"Code of practice is a set of written regulations issued by a professional association or an official body that explains how people working in a particular profession should behave. A code of practice helps workers in a particular profession to comply with ethical and health standards."

https://www.reference.com/business-finance/meaning-code-practice-785df7315aefb2df

After going onto the gov website i found this:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/statutory-policies-for-schools

The rules and regulations seem self explanatory, but what i find interesting is how much they compare to my current job now which isn't in the teaching field. The standard rules of punctuality,behaviour and healthy and safety all stand as the same which apply to me now. I found this an interesting read as i will be entering the world of teaching very soon!

1:1 with Paula

Ive just finished my tutorial with Paula and it was  really good to go over some loose ends.
I have developed my idea a lot since the start of this module, after reading some literature i have taken my original ideas abit deeper and i have expanded my thoughts. My original idea was child development in dance mainly looking at children ages 2-5 in baby ballet and tap classes but after doing some research i have decided to look at social and physical development. My new questions are:
How does dance develop children in education?
How does social and physical development connect?
how is social development viewed in the current curriculum?

Im now going to look into whether i should do primary and secondary and get 2 views from each or just stick with the one. Im going to do my ethics forms from a freelance prospective as i might not always be in a school for a long period of time. After talking to Paula about how i have maybe side tracked and am i taking on to much she said that the learner decides whats important to them which is what i am going to stick by. I am really getting into the topic of social development and i think that shows through all of my other ideas. Now back to my literature for the rest of the morning with a big cup of coffee!

Please feel free to comment!

Books Books Books!

The books i ordered off the MDX library arrived can't wait to start reading!

Skype session 14/3

Alice Chris and I had a Skype session yesterday lunchtime about reader 5 ethics and how to start to plan our proposal plan of action. We each spoke about our current ideas for our enquiry and gave each other pointers about where to take it next. We spoke about how the enquiry questions are for you and your own research and findings and how they differ from the interview questions. Chris made a great point about how in the past if we conduct our own interview we can sometimes word the questions in our favour so we get the answers that we want to hear to back up our research. I haven't started my interview questions yet as i will be having a tutorial with Paula to discuss mine further. As I'm not currently working in a school as of yet but when i start my enquiry i could be so this might mean i have to look at the freelance route of questions as i may be in more than one school during this study period. We also discussed going deeper with our data and information and speaking to the right people who have the knowledge you need. Ethics was a big part of this session as we spoke about how important it is to follow the universities guidelines whilst interviewing or talking to people, for instance if you are going to be interviewing staff do it in your own time so its not affecting anyone else who is working and asking suitable questions that aren't going to make anyone feel uncomfortable. My enquiry is going to be around child development in dance as i have taught a lot of baby ballet and tap classes but i have to be careful how i go about the ethical side. It was good to get those few loose wires sorted that i had in my mind and i now feel confident and ready to start my proposal which is due in on my birthday (NOOOOOOOO) but that just means i will have to be extra organised and make sure that i submit my work in advance! I have taken a lot away from yesterdays session and i am going to take a look at reader 6 today.

Literature Article

I have found an article on the MDX site which was a great read. 

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.ezproxy.mdx.ac.uk/doi/10.1111/cdev.12314/full

Why we think we can't dance: theory of mind and children desire to perform.

The experiment they do is two non performance tasks(colouring and choosing shapes) and two performer tasks(sing a song and do a dance)  they go to a summer camp in the US and have an age range of children between 3-12 and the results are interesting. As the children go up in age their self esteem decreases and the younger they are the more likely they are to choose the sing and dance options. The discussion behind this is that children as young as the age of 4 can start to develop embarrassment and self esteem issues which make them choose the non performer tasks. 

Here is the table of results taken from the article:

Age (years)	Theory of mind (SD)	Self-esteem (SD)	% Sing	% Dance	% Circle	% Color
3	0.25 (0.78)	4.77 (0.45)	75	50	38	38
4	0.56 (0.81)	4.82 (0.24)	63	50	38	50
5	0.89 (1.13)	4.61 (0.50)	56	56	39	50
6	2.08 (1.24)	4.44 (0.58)	42	42	58	58
7	2.24 (1.03)	4.16 (0.72)	24	24	71	82
8	2.47 (0.87)	4.24 (0.80)	41	29	59	71
9	2.69 (0.79)	4.27 (0.65)	31	25	69	75
10	2.60 (0.63)	4.38 (0.65)	33	27	60	80
11	2.80 (0.41)	4.13 (0.92)	20	13	80	87
12	2.76 (0.56)	3.76 (0.67)	6	12	82	100

This second graph also shows the same results but in a different format 

Im so glad i found this article as it has made me realise that i am going forward with the right enquiry in mind. I also want to research more into the theory of mind in children.

Task 5a Codes of practise in my work place

Ive been doing some research into the nandos culture of my restaurant and i have been comparing it to a teaching environment. I have discovered that considering they are so different their are actually a lot of similarities. I made a list and compared both job titles. A lot of skills i have learnt at my current job have really excelled me into the teaching world. I believe that the guidelines i have discovered since working at nandos do  apply to teaching also.

respectful: nandos we have to respect all staff,managers and especially customers. Teaching you want respect from all other members of staff and students.

family environment: Nandos is known for living to its family name of all staff being close and getting on. Teaching may not be completely the same but spending everyday with the same teachers can make you long life friends.

valued: Nandos live by family values and making sure everyone is pulling the same weight within working hours. Teachers like to feel valued by all colleagues.

team work: As i previously said nandos have a massive push towards us all getting along and working together, when we have really difficult shifts we all seem to pull together when it really counts. Teachers must work together to meet deadlines and all have the same ambition to get the best out of each student.

attendance: Obviously attendance is a crucial part of being respected by other employees and managers, same for teaching.

organisation: I have a lot of things to plan for my meetings at work and scheduling training plans can be time consuming but require a lot of organisation. As a teacher you have to do lesson plans ahead of time which require a lot of organisation.

Leadership skills: I have gained alot of leadership skills whilst working at nandos as i run shifts so a lot is depending on me to make sure the customers are receiving the best possible service. As a teacher you have to have enough leadership skills to confidently run a class and control it on your own.

Confidence: I have gained a lot of confidence since having a promotion at work. Teaching requires a lot of confidence also, this is something i am continuing to work on as I'm not fully at my peak of confidence whilst conducting a class.

please comment! :)

confessions of my workplace

a good read..its so true!
http://www.cosmopolitan.co.uk/worklife/careers/a34273/confessions-of-a-nandos-worker/

Task 4c- Literature

I have registered for the MDX library and i have requested a few books to be posted to me. The main one i am excited to read is Child development and learning through dance / James H. Humphrey ; foreword by Lynnette Y. Overby. It took me a while to find a book that was on child development but focused on learning through dance i hope this book gives me a good insight into what I'm looking for.

If its a good read i will let you all know for anyone else who is wanting to do an enquiry around a similar topic.

SIG Meet Up

The other day i met up with Lydia from BAPP course she is a very good friend of mine, we studied at the same drama school and live not to far away from each other so we decided to meet up grab a coffee and discuss our enquiries to pick each others brain! it was quite comforting that we both felt in the same mind space which is are we going down the right path with our choices so far? We discussed our ideas and started to brain storm the key words to see if they had any connections. I know that i want to do my enquiry around child development through dance but i don't want to make it to vague that it would turn out to be an endless enquiry with no answer. These are some of the notes i made under the branch of child development:

activeness
obsesity
life style choices
social skills
learning how to copy
middle class people?
initial reasons behind why parents send their children to dance classes so young
does it effect us in the later life
are people who danced from a young age still active now?
why do the dance teachers provide lessons for children so young?

I know that Lydia really found it useful with having my input into her ideas and once we started the swing of brain storming it just flowed naturally until we had a page full of notes and ideas!

I know there is a lot to work with and a lot to think about but in the mean time i am going to look at some literature about child development and maybe ill find a specific topic which interests me the most.

Any comments or feedback would be appreciated!

Expanding my career path

I have spent the afternoon exploring all my different options around my professional inquiry and re-reading through a booklet my teaching agency gave to me a few weeks ago at the time i didn't think i would have much time or money to take on any extra courses but after looking over them again maybe there are some courses on here that would be hugely beneficial for me not just for my studies but for my CV and future job options. I am really interested in working with children with special needs especially in the arts department but on paper i do not have the correct skills or qualifications to be considered for this yet. I am really looking into taking part in one or two of these courses some are online and some are just a day session. This course is really making me want to broaden my horizons and really get the most qualifications under my belt so my CV is as strong as it could be. Not 100% if any of these courses are right for me but i suppose you don't know until you try! I am so keen to develop my skills and having any extras is a massive bonus. If anyone is wanting to do any of these courses with me please get in touch! 

I am particularly interested in the following few:

Level 1 Autism awareness training

child protection in education-educare

supporting SEN

Task 4a

After our Skype session a few days ago I've had abit of time to think about my professional inquiry and what kind of topic I'm really interested in. In the Skype i mentioned that i have previously taught some baby ballet and tap classes ages 3-5, this came into my head straight away when we spoke about it has to be something that we are really interested in else we will not want to fully commit to it. I am intrigued into the minds of children in dance especially the ages of the classes i have taught, this for me could be a potential inquiry idea but it was mentioned that it its always advised to do topics around children unless you are fully working in a school environment, which for me is not the case at the moment. I do have my DBS check but i have not as of yet worked in a school with young children. I am really interested in working with children with behaviour problems or special needs this is something that i have looked into.i then thought to myself what is something that i could really get stuck into and really find out a lot about backed up with evidence? I know my avenue of choice is going towards teaching at the moment but as someone mentioned in the Skype session a previous student was training to be a teacher but because they picked a professional enquiry to do with the industry it really got them back into wanting to audition and be apart of that world again. Is that potentially an option for me? maybe it is, maybe that is the push i need to get the passion back for wanting to perform myself instead of teaching.

As it stands at the moment my professional enquiry is a bit up in the air with a lot of thoughts flying round my head but to narrow it down a bit i have made of list of topics of interest and from this list i will consider which will be the best topic for me, so far i have:

How does dance develop children in the early years?
Does performing arts help people with disablilties?
How serious is performing arts taken in a school environment?

These a just a vague first few ideas that i have if anyone knows how i could expand any of these thoughts i would love to hear from you!

Im looking for a SIG group to join or for anyone to join me who is also interested in doing their professional inquiry around teaching or a school based environment please comment if you are going down the same route as me :)

Skype Chat Module 2

Me and a few others had a Skype session last night and it was a great welcome back into the course. I did enjoy the previous skip chat but i felt this one was a lot more personal to beginning our professional inquiries. First thing we discussed was that Paula loves pies!! After reading the module 2 handbook and reader 4 i was excited to get a better insight into how to get the ball rolling with module 2! we discussed SIG groups and how important they will be for us to progress with our enquiries. It was interesting to hear everyones ideas for their enquiries so far, it has left me with a lot to think about within my own enquiry and where i want to take it. I feel like at the moment I'm going to play around with a few question ideas and see where they take me.

Coffee Shop Chat

So i have just finished a Skype session with a mix of module 2 and module 3 students. I enjoyed listening to what everyone in module 3 is up to and how they are planning to approach their final tasks. It comforting to hear that we are all in the same position at one point or another!
I think the biggest advice i have took away from this sessions is LITERATURE!! like so many people said my first go to is google and searching the web, it makes me think well if googled doesn't know the answer then I'm stuck, but really there are so many other resources at such an easy grasp which i need to take more advantage of. Im going to look on the middlesex uni library more often and maybe order some books. I am also going to try to get into a library more it seems silly that i have such easy access to all these sources but never think of looking any further than the internet. I also learnt that i need to stop searching for things that will have the same opinion as me, it is all part of the learning experience to not always write about something just because said person agrees with you. scheduling is another big thing for me, it was great to hear how module 3 students plan their time and how they fit the work in around such a busy life style. I took a lot away from this Skype session even if i wasn't as vocal it felt nice to just sit and really take in what everyone else said and what advice they had to give us before we enter the world of module 2!!
If anyone from the session has any comments please do and please follow me! would love to follow you all back to see your journey into module 3 good luck!!

la la land

so la la land is a new movie which has won so many golden globes i cannot wait to go watch it! if anyone goes this week please let me know I'm dying for a new musical movie to come out that is good!!!

Essay is done!!

Right so by the title you can probably guess that i have just submitted my essay! not sure how i feel.....
 i do feel bit relieved but also anxious to know how i have done!
on that note i am looking forward to getting stuck into module 2
p.s how quick has this first term gone? SO SCAAAARY!
hope you all had a fab christmas and happy new year :)