Task 2D Inquiry

What in your daily practise gets you really enthusiastic to find out more about? Who do you admire who also works with what makes you enthusiastic?

I find that I am very enthusiastic about using imagination and role play within my drama classes. I prefer this as a starting point to encourage young children into drama rather than working purely on scripts. For example, often in my private lessons I encourage students to create their own characters. This way the words are not there on the page for them. They have to create a back story for that character and grow to understand why someone is the way they are. I think it’s important not to stifle young people’s imagination. To me that’s what acting is. If you can’t imagine a situation or put yourself in someone else’s shoes, you can’t act. In nursery and infants classes we go on ‘adventure’s’ every week. It’s amazing how into it they get and they really believe they are where we say we are, they come up with ideas I never would have thought of because they haven’t developed some of the inhibitions that we as adults do. I also do school workshops where our drama classes are relevant to whatever the students are studying at that time – this helps those who may not learn so easily in a sitting down classroom environment.

         When I realised that this was one of the main things that I was enthusiastic about I decided to have a look online to see what resources and ideas are already out there about imagination in education. I found a fantastic website (http://ierg.ca/ ) which takes you through the work of Kieran Egan and his team of researchers. Egan’s team aims to help teachers reflect on their current practises and find new ways of bring stimulating educational exercises to the classroom. As I looked further into his work I found a whole section on his website that would help me with one of my current projects with a year 2 class. Their topic for the term was journeys. I found some great ideas on his website along the topic of transportation. I was able to download PDFs sharing ideas for free simply by sharing what I planned to do with the information I was downloading. The ideas helped me to find new exercises and refresh new ones, stopping my current lesson plans from becoming stale. I think here I have found an excellent resource and someone who has taken something that I am passionate about and studied it in depth.

 From this I could consider researching further how do students feel imaginative techniques help or hinder their education? I have my point of view but at the end of the day it’s the students who do or do not benefit from the classes.

 What gets you angry or makes you sad? Who do you admire who shares your feeling or has found a way to work around the sadness or anger?

Anything that puts people in a box or puts limitations on them make me feel sad. For example, children who have been classed as ‘naughty’ and then aren’t even given a chance. When young people put themselves or others down because that’s clearly what they have learned from those around them. When young people put limitations on themselves because of gender. I know it’s small but it even annoys me when young girls tell me they can’t have a blue sticker because they are a girl!
      In my primary school I had two stand out teachers, Gill Friel and Elaine Wyllie, I remember who didn’t accept any teacher’s negative views of children. I was always very engaged at school anyway and loved their lessons. Even as a child I was able to see the impact they were having on other members of my class. My class was quite split down the middle; those that were very good and those that were always naughty – that didn’t give themselves a chance. I remember when these two teachers started at school at first we all hated their new techniques. Shock, horror, they changed the way our classroom was set out we didn’t sit next to those we had for the past 5 years. They refused to give up on those other teachers had written off a while ago. It took us a while to understand how positive their influence was on our class. They use creative writing a lot to encourage us to learn and I remember turning our whole classroom into Hogwarts at one point. They kept going until those who would never read had read the whole Harry Potter series and were genuinely excited about it. They found ways to engage children who otherwise would have fallen by the wayside. Unfortunately, I don’t know what happened to some of those children, they may not have continued to have such positive influences later in life but I know those women made a difference to me. I remember seeing them years later when I went back to my old primary school as a teenager to do my work experience. I could see how their work had spread throughout the whole school and also influenced other teachers. I decided to look them up online to see if I could find anything about them now. I did find that they have some creative writing books available to buy which I thought was great. I also found this article from 2008 talking about Gill Friel (https://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6003072) amazing to see the changes she made in my primary school.

“English language attainment from 48 per cent in 1999 to an anticipated 90 per cent in 2008” (Blane, 2008). Lovely for me to read as in 1999 we were the first class she taught when coming to our school. The school is also described in the article as one of the best in scotland. (Blane, 2008)

 From this I would consider looking into how much we should be willing to bend our curriculum/set teaching ideas to cater to the children we have in our classes?

 

What do I love about what I do? Who do you admire who also seems to love this or is an example of what you love?
I love when young people have a breakthrough or sudden burst of confidence. For example, one of the nursery sessions I teach recently had a big breakthrough. The class is children from 2-4 years old of all mixed language abilities. Most of them are not native English speakers. Slowly but surely I am seeing a huge improvement in their English and in their behaviour. The majority of them are now able to recite a poem which is a couple of verses long. This was learned through call and repeat and using actions. When these breakthroughs occur it encourages me to push the students further. I admire the woman who is one of the founders of the children’s theatre school I work for. She has a great way with the children of getting the best out of them, she has a great patience with those children whose native language is not English and always makes them feel included.

 I could maybe consider what impact doing drama has on young children’s speaking skills – especially if they are not native English speakers.

 

What do you feel you don’t understand? Who do you admire who does seem to understand it or who has found a way of making not understanding it interesting or beautiful, or has asked the same questions as you?
I struggle to understand how teachers/tutors deal with their own emotions when students they teach don’t achieve the grades, or high standard in a show, that they think that student is capable of. For example, I have had students I’ve taught in the past that I have been convinced that they know everything in the show, but they freeze on the day. Also students have who have just missed out higher grades in exams. I really let that get to me, and don’t want it to reflect negatively on myself. I always try my best with the students and care a lot about them achieving the goal they set for themselves. However, I find it difficult when parents put unrealistic goals on their children. I spoke with a colleague about this recently and they made me feel a bit better about it. They said of course you feel that way because you care. We must always strive to get the best out of students. The nature of performing is that it’s subjective so what I think is great someone else might not like. We also have to remember that these children are young, some not very experienced in performing. They will get nervous and that will affect the end result. She said that she had learned to be supportive and also to keep a dialogue with the parents letting them know exactly where their children were at, positively but realistically. Some parents can expect too much too soon. Within a children’s theatre school environment we do need to show results and keep children and parents happy so that the business can continue to run. Parents want to see shows and exams results which I feel can sometimes be rushed, the children don’t get time to learn the techniques they need to make the shows to a high standard.

This has made consider some questions such as; How much of an impact do nerves have on young people’s performance? How much should teachers be influenced by what parents say? How can the demands of customers – the parents – affect your business?

 

How do you decide the appropriate ethical response in a given situation? To what extent are disciplinary responses different to that you might expect more generally in society?
In any workplace ethics are extremely important, and especially when teaching. We must have the safety and best interests of the children at the forefront of our minds. I must adhere to any specific rules and regulations set out by the different schools I work in. I have also worked with children in other environments eg. Babysitting, in this setting I often develop a more personal relationship with the children. The children if they are sad or hurt would often come seeking a cuddle for comfort, this is more relaxed because I also know those children’s parents personally and know that they feel happy for me to comfort their children and give them advice on questions they may ask. Whereas when teaching a class of children that kind of physical comfort is not deemed as appropriate. Also when children ask personal questions or advice you have to be careful what you say because you don’t know what their parents have told them or what their views are.
       When disciplining children you can generally be more structured in a school environment. I find that aspect of the class more difficult in the Saturday schools. Again it comes back to wanting to keep the children happy and wanting to come to class. You don’t want to make them feel like they are at school on the weekend however, you don’t want to let the children get away with whatever they want. They still need to treat you and other children in the class with respect. I think if there is anything that happens that you feel uncomfortable about or are unsure on what to do it is important to ask advice to a colleague or speak quietly to a child’s parent.

 Maybe how important are parent/teacher relationships? How personal should your relationships be with children/young people you are teaching?  How much of yourself do you reveal to them if they ask questions about you?

 

References

 

Blane, D. (2008). When taking a risk makes all the difference - News - TES. [online] Tes.co.uk. Available at: https://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6003072 [Accessed 4 Apr. 2015].

 

Ormell, C. and Hagen, P. (2015). IERG | Imaginative Education. [online] Ierg.ca. Available at: http://ierg.ca/ [Accessed 4 Apr. 2015].