My Over Critical reflection...

Wow, who would of thought that we had covered so much ground already on the short time we have been on this course.

I've just about finished going over all my blogs, notes and general scribblings and I have to say I'm pleased with what I have read. But not only what is written down...I can see a lot of what I have learnt already coming into play in my professional and personal lives.

I'm going to use my notes from the writing workshop earlier this term and spend the next few days going over a few drafts, hopefully having the finished product in my hand by Christmas.

Hope your all getting on well with it and looking forward to a great Christmas :)

Tomorrow is Today Already!!!

Was just thinking to myself that I will start the first notes for my critical reflection tomorrow, only to look down at the clock and see that it is tomorrow already!!!

How time flies when your blogging.

How is everyone getting on with there critical reflection? Any tips? I'm feeling rather daunted!!!

A little pic to help cheer me up and remind me there is more to life than just work :)

My Daughter on our trip to winter wonderland at the weekend. We had an amazing time :)

Sources of Information 3c

My 5 most important sources of information...

     1.    My students

2.    Apple

3.    Affiliations

4.    Facebook / utube

5.    Blogs

1.    My Students, they are right up there at the top of my list because without them I would have no job. It is there eagerness to return week after week that keeps me in work. Listening to what they want, how they want to learn and what interests them enables me along side my own skill set to prepare and plan lessons that are engaging and successful.

 

 Sarah Robinson writes in her blog, “In my role as dance Teacher I deal with people on a daily basis. My students aren’t quantities to be processed, or robots to be programmed, but are unique entities that come with there own agenda and that provide me with a wealth of knowledge.”

 

I couldn’t agree more, I’ve learnt more valuable lessons for my career through the children that I teach than I ever did when I was the classroom myself. Finding a balance is of course important because not always is what the children want necessarily what’s best for them and it can be easy to not always know where to draw the line. Knowledge most certainly does come with experience.

 

2.    Apple, My iphone, ipod and itunes, where would I be without them! My phone enables me instant communication through calls, texts and emails, access to so much stored information...song lyrics, scripts, information about my pupils, copies of my qualifications, certificates and insurance. My phone also provides constant access to the internet and tools provided by web 2.0. My ipad is just a back up and more user friendly version of my phone. I bring it into class with me sometimes using it with the children. But my favourite has to be itunes. As a dance teacher you can never have too much music. And there it is every piece you could ever want just one click away. It was nice to read in Melanie Browns Blog that I’m not the only one that relies on my phone, although it did get me thinking that what if this source was taken away how would I cope? Have I become too dependent on it?

3.    Affiliations, There are several groups of people that I rely upon for information.

 

Karen Stephenson say’s, “since we cannot experience everything, other people’s experiences, and hence other people, become the surrogate of knowledge.”

 

The parents of my pupils are a very important source of knowledge for the children’s and my own safety and well being. The information they pass on to me can make or break a class and make a huge difference to how well there child and other children settle. As a teacher it is invaluable to learn about each pupil as individuals.

 

My Family and friends, poor them!!! I am forever running stuff by them for there Joe public reactions. As a dancer it is very easy to get carried away and go over the tip when putting numbers together for my class. I often sit my friends and families sit down a get them to be guinea pigs to my latest creative master piece. The odds are if they enjoy it an audience full of novice parents will gain the same appreciation and enjoyment.

 

It has been really reassuring reading Clare Orlandi blog post on this to see that I am not the only one that likes to involve the parents and use them as sources of information.

  

4.    Facebook and utube, Although mostly social many of my fellow dancers and teachers only hold the role as friends now as I work mostly by myself so face book is a great medium of staying in touch and being able to reach each other when we have ideas and opinions we want to share or need advice. Looking through all the Bapp blogs I can see it is a source of information a lot of us share in common. Utube I use mostly for research, so much about dance and performance is visual it is much better tool than reading a book. I often use it to show the children examples of particular styles and examples and ideas that run along side our own projects. I personally and I sure many others do need to be conscious of checking the validity of information sourced this way. One person’s idea of something can be very different to someone else’s. Likewise someone’s own interests could out weigh the help they may offer you. It’s a competitive world out there, let’s not forget that.

 

5.    Blogs, I think we are all in the same boat here. A very useful new source of information. I just need to learn to find the time to put more information in, in order to gain more back. Its tit for tat and its only fair we all do our own bit.

 

Whilst writing this I have realised that I have a great set of sources for information for my current professional life style. But I’m at a stage in my life where hopefully my career is moving on and developing, perhaps my sources should too.

 

 

Theories Relating to Networking 3b

Concept of the Professional Network...

 My professional life has many angles to it at the moment, teaching is key and with my long term goal of gaining Qualified Teacher Status in mind I’m going to look closely at how Professional networking and its concepts affect this part of my life.

Co-operation, Affiliation, Social Constructionism, Connectivism and Communities of Practice. After lots of reading, thinking and research I can see that they all already play a part in my professional life. The thing to do now I have a better understanding of them and how they work is to better implement them in to my day to day working life.

 

Co-operation, Alexrod (1984) identified the importance of the notion of co-operation, and in particular, the benefits of co-operating fully with others, until you reach a point of maximum benefit, and then to defect. We all understand this notion and I’m sure at times have used it in our professional and private lives.

Recently I have been working in various schools in a voluntary capacity in order to gain experience and knowledge to set my in good stead for my developing career. I’ve noticed that teachers are more than a little busy and spare time is like gold dust. From talking to several teachers they do all see themselves as being part of several professional networks but all admit that they very rarely have time to interact amongst them let alone contribute to them.

I’d like to try some forced co-operation. Where teachers are given time during there working hours to fully use and gain the benefits of there professional networks. This would not only mean that individual teachers and schools would benefit from a greater knowledge and skill set. But that those amongst us (I’m sure that there are many) that work on a purely altruistic basis would be encouraged in some way to share valuable information that they probably never would have previously.

Affiliation, I’m a great advertisement for the saying you can never have to many friends. I’m definitely the sort of person that seeks out affiliation and is happy to turn to those I need in any given situation and in turn am happy and willing to be there for others. Although there is certainly room for improvement in my skills when coming to implementing this concept its another aspect it that has got me intrigued.

This section taken from the reader has really got me thinking... ‘Differences in affiliative desires may be reflected in the central nervous system. Brain imaging studies conducted by Johnson and Colleagues (1999) show that introverts are higher in arousability, the degree to which stimulation typically produces arousal of the central nervous system, than extroverts.’

One of the main things that make me good at my job is being able to read the children, taking time to get to know them and catering to their individual needs. This information is of great value when looking to extend my knowledge and approaches to teaching. I aim to be teaching secondary age children. Networks are going to be of great importance to them in their learning also. With information like this I will be able to help not only steer them in the right direction but also help them create their own networks that are a great tool for every child involved.

Social Constructivism, Crotty, M (2005) “According to constructionism, we do not create meaning. We construct meaning. We have something to work with. What we have to work with is the world and objects in the world.

I can readily agree with this. Bringing up my daughter showed me how true this can be. As she grew and learned she most certainly had her own grasp and opinion of what this world contained and had to offer. She made up her own names for things and at times believed that the purpose of things was something very different to the one that all have come to accept.

She is very strong willed and I still sometimes struggle to get her to accept my explanation of things unless I can support it with fact. This brings me to the next quote...

Crotty, M (2005) “Meaning is not discovered but constructed. Meaning does not inhere in the object, merely waiting for someone to come upon it.”

I don’t completely agree with this, the example of a tree. Of course the word tree is just a name that someone decided to give to the thing they saw before them. But to quote Shakespeare “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Lets say we decided to start calling a tree something else. Whatever it may be called there are still facts that we know about a tree. We didn’t just decide that trees should do the job or absorbing carbon dioxide and producing oxygen. That is a scientific fact that has been happening from the appearance of the very first tree.

For me social constructivism will make me open my eyes more to what’s out there and not just take everything at face value. It’s great to learn new ideas and you can always then go on to back them up with fact. A valuable tool when it comes to teaching.

 

Connectivism, for me this as a concept of being able to learn through the extension of a personal or professional network. Are we not all prime examples to this here on the Bapp course!

As knowledge is growing at such a fast rate (the facts and figures amaze me!) and changing so rapidly we really do have to change with the times. This course has opened a whole new world of learning for me. I can openly admit to being a bit of a technophobe but I’m slowly but steadily being dragged into the modern day. 

The reader quotes Siemens, G. (2004) “The starting point of connectivism is the individual. Personal knowledge is comprised of a network, which feeds into organisations and institutions, which in turn feed back into the network, and then continue to provide learning to the individual. This cycle of knowledge development allows learners to stay current in their field through the connections they have formed.”

This is something I am going to have to remember long after this course is over. The use of modern technologies that is available to us today and the doors that it opens need not to be ignored. I’m sure competition is going to be fierce in the professional world and I want to set myself in the best position to gout there fighting. I plan to use this concept to help me become a life long learner and stay up to date with what I need to know in my professional world.

Communities of Practice, The reader says... “A community of practice places emphasis on participation over acquisition of specific bodies of knowledge, and relies on shared interpretations of the community of practice over more hierarchical formations of knowledge.”

I think a great example of this is our campus sessions. Although led by tutors we are not talked at or particularly instructed. It is more of a chance for us to thrash around ideas and share opinions on a current topic. The tutor is there more in a roll of sharing their knowledge with us and equally interested in hearing ours. I found this really odd at first and wondered how I was going to learn anything. That was my first very valuable lesson in itself, we need the ability to teach ourselves throughout our lives to achieve the best that we can be.

Taking this idea on with me into my professional life I can imagine having more informal staff meetings and staff nights out sat round a dinner table chatting over our experiences, hopes and fears for our careers. This I’m sure will be just a valuable as all the other aspects of my future career.

So now its time for me to get our there, expand and make better use of my professional networks.

5 Rules For Professional Networking Success

A nice little page I came accross.

Check it out...         5 Rules for Professional Networking Success

Current Networks 3a

My initial scribblings on my Professional Networks

 

Above is a first look at my professional networks, each one probably holds alot more strings to it's bow than at first I gave them credit, lets take a look...


My professional life takes on many forms, one part for me is the Extras work that I do within the Tv and Film Industry, this is something I have done for many years. Whilst being a mum it gave me some flexible extra income and a chance to socialise and experience different things. My main network for this revolves around my agent consisting of telephone communication. Although as colleagues we also keep up to date through several other means, the agents website, a facebook page, and additional job sites such as extrafriends. This networking although at first seems more social on many occasions has lead to completing jobs very successfully. We pass on information and advice that helps each other be prepared and do a good job. So I guess ultimately we do gain more work through this practise as once your known to do a good job your more likely to be asked back again.


Next in my professional life is my Theatre School, Starry Eyed. I run local extra-curricular activities for children aged 4-11yrs. My networks for this are harder to pinpoint as its just myself and one other member of staff most of the day to day stuff is done face to face. I use the Internet alot to do research for productions. Id say I have a work experience network, people I have worked with over the years who I have gained knowledge from and who I sometimes thrash out ideas with. Its not a regular event or a close group just contacts that I access as and when I need them. My biggest network would be with the Parents and children themselves. I'm constantly having one form of communication or another with the parents via telephone, text, email, facebook and face to face. I hold open classes so that as teacher, students and parents we can all get together, experience the class and talk about any issues.

Now for my voluntary teaching work, as part of my goal to achieve QTS I am offering my time to local schools in exchange for there knowledge and tutoring. I use websites such as teachinherts to see what schools are looking for so i can approach them with an offer that is attractive to them and useful to me (I don't wanna go in and just end up making the tea!!!) I'm beginning to build a professional network here as I meet and work with various teaching staff. I have also started to use chat rooms to talk out ideas and theory's with other teachers and wanna be teachers.

Last but not least is my Bapp Course. Although still relatively new to my life this probably makes up the majority of my professional networks. My new found use of web 2.0 has opened up a whole new world of professional networks. Blogging being the main form. I feel I have a network of tutors and advisers that I can now access, a network made up of all the students on the course that provides a great source of information, opinions and critique. Another network I feel quite strongly affiliated to now is Knowledge. This comes in many forms and is made up of many smaller networks for example...books, library's, chat rooms, blogs, peers, professionals and e resourses.

As I progress through this course I am seeing more and more doors in front of me that I have the ability to access. Looking at how other professionals network is inspiring. I really feel that I am not selling myself enough in my networks. I could definitely promote myself more, advertise my business more and gain more useful contacts. Giving more time to networking is something I need to add into my work life to achieve this. I need to take advice form others in my existing networks on how to move forward. There is a big wide world out there and not all of it relevant. Learning how to access the right networks and use them to my advantage is key.

Its a dog eat dog world out there and ultimately each is out for there own. I can be very trusting and not always see the bigger picture. Thinking of other peoples motives and what they have to gain is going to be really important for me and my future success in networking.

One last thing I would like to touch on are my social and family networks. I find them as equally important as my professional ones in contributing to my professional life. They are the building blocks of us all. somewhere we can speak our minds and get opinions and advice before we put ourselves out there in our more formal networks, there also great for a good rant and rave about those in our professional lives!!!




Up's and Down's and Life in General!!!

I haven't blogged in ages!!! Life has thrown alot at me over the last few weeks and has kept me rather busy. Although I may not have been with you all in text I've certainly been giving our current topic a lot of thought.

Good news... I have a new teaching placement which is just the experience I need to help me with my long term goal of qualified teacher status :) they have captured me at the busiest time of year...the school play. So although lots of fun it's proved quite time consuming!!!

It's Christmas :) A very exciting time in my house with a 4 year old but again very busy and extremely costly.

One a sadder note I lost my grandmother. she was the absolute glue that holds my family together and it is gonna take a long time to get used to not having her. I find this current topic about professional networks particularly hard at the moment as she was a constant source of advice and support. She lived a very successful professional life and was always happy to share her knowledge. She really will be sadly missed :(

I'm also moving house, looking for somewhere new and thinking about packing...I'm dreading it!!!

Just wanted to let you all know where I have been, I've set some time aside now to catch up with all your blogs and get mine up to date.

Thanks for listening :)