Learning Diary Five Saturday 24th April

It always helps when you lose all your work when your computer crashes, especially when you haven't backed it up. Thankfully I have been lent another computer and my work has been revived, but the computer itself has gone to the computer hospital.

Plus with the set back of typing up all my work again I am going on holiday the week before the dead line ( a much needed holiday, as I have lost my voice from teaching too much) volcanic ash permitting.

So, things are all on the go and I am working hard everyday on my module of work, which I am quite enjoying seeing as it is something that I am interested in. I am currently critiquing my own pilot survey for activity seven (I hope this is feasible for activity seven, but I did receive some good feedback about improving it and I thought it would be much more relevant to my own research to evaluate my own data collection design. If it isn't; someone please let me know!)

On reflection and thinking about re drafting my current research proposal, I feel I need to go back into my resources on methodology and data collection and improve my writing about this section. I also need to look more specifically about when and what I am planning to do with my experiments, what I am going to inform parents about and what I shall explain to the participants.

Learning Diary Three 14/3/10

Monday 14th March 2010

So, I was thinking more about my topic and thought I was in on an idea of processes of teaching dance/choreography. I spoke to the Principal of one of the schools I teach at and she said she thought I had a very good method of teaching my dances. As complimentary as this was, it wasn't constructive. Yet, it made me doubt my idea as I wanted it to be useful. After reading a blog where they had asked "outsider" opinions, i.e. family members what they thought. I gave this a try as it would give a different and objective view of the situation.

One idea put across to me was to look at forms of communication in terms of teaching. They also said my first idea was fine and that no one's perfect; there are always areas in which one can improve. I agreed with this and since no one has ever taught me to choreograph and I've never thoroughly researched it; there is bound to be much more I can improve on in the area. I argued it had to be of use and beneficial to someone or something.

I spoke to another impartial family member, who suggested collecting different styles of choreography from different countries and try to replicate their way of teaching dance. Obviously this would require a budget if I were to research this in the flesh.

After all this, again I felt somewhat overwhelmed by all the different directions I could take. So I took a step back and made some points clear of what I wanted to take from this research.

1. something that interests and excites me.

2. something to benefit my career

Answers

1. I love choreographing but I need this to be education related to go on to a PGCE

Teaching

-inspiration

-communication

-accuracy

-performance

-tools

-efficiency

-processes

-choreography

-styles

-techniques

Out of these the ones that interest me are performance, styles, accuracy and efficiency

To find the best methods for teaching and teaching choreography I could look at

-talking to and researching different choreographers

-finding how students think they learn best

-finding out how professionals learn a routine best

-their opinions

-trying different techniques and methods on classes I teach

It would benefit

-myself as a choreographer/teacher

-the success rate of students I teach

-the school if the students succeed/improve

I am looking forward to exploring some of these ideas further and narrowing it down to just a couple to concentrate on.

The 100 Words (ish) Topic Idea, Comments Please!

I know that I enjoy and feel passionately about CHOREOGRAPHY and TEACHING DANCE, so this is problem number one solved of not getting bored during this project. I also know that I want this degree to continue with a PGCE later on in my career, therefore my topic should be education related.

If I were to do a project on "the most effective methods of teaching a class a choreography/dance routine" then this could potentially benefit myself as a teacher/choreographer, the classes I teach, the schools I teach for and also other teacher/choreographers. (Note; this title will need redrafting so it is accurate to what I research)

I would use an age group that I regularly teach, though this will bring ethical and parental permission issues. I teach students over 16, but not as many.

There is already lots of information about how to teach dance, but not specific to choreographers, which is where my research might strike.

• I could look at successful past/present choreographers and find out details of how they worked to achieve results.

• I could take surveys/interviews of dancers on how they believe they learn best with choreography.

• I could experiment with different processes and observe which works best.

• I could observe other teachers and how they work with their classes.

• I could interview choreographers and teachers.

So many options! Too many? Useful? Pointless? Does this interest anyone else or just me? Comments if you would please.....

Learning Diary Two 3/3/10

My initial mind-mapped thoughts

The 3rd March 2010

I've been deliberating what my project might be since the campus session last month. I started with two words in my head, which have been in my head since the start of September. These two words are areas which I currently work part-time in, but eventually would like to pursue towards the end of my career. Reflecting on my blog, I would say it's quite clear that I have an interest in teaching and choreographing.

In my opinion I don't think you can have one without the other in this industry. If you choreograph you're going to have to teach the choreography to someone, even if you're teaching yourself. Furthermore, teaching jobs tend to require a "dance for this show", or "something to show the parents". This means consequently choreography is a common denominator even if you didn't want it to be. But I do! I love it, and I have so many projects going on right now for different shows, competitions in different styles of dance and theatre and yet I still can't wait until I finish these and am able to begin some more. So in conclusion, my project will hopefully be about these fields.

Luckily, I have access to students, children, schools in which to work with and conduct research on. I have created a mind map around these two ideas and thus formulated numerous titles/hypotheses. After being left with around ten different titles, I narrowed them down by considering the literature and information out there to help me, plus if an idea already began to become boring I swiftly discarded it. I was subsequently left with an idea around short term memory in association with "picking up" choreography (note the blog previous to this!) and methods or processes in which to teach choreography.

Now, I hope tomorrow will bring light on these two proposals to be either utterly ridiculous in which case I shall have to rethink, or for them to be acceptable and need more insight.....we shall find out.

Learning Diary One Wednesday 17th February

A whole new module begins. Choosing my project should be the fun part, but after talking to a friend at another university, she explained how she loved her topic at the start too, now love has been replaced with loathing.....

So after the campus session on 16th February not long after my Birthday, I was pretty clued up on where to begin. This session was extremely helpful. My Bell book arrived and I was able to start reading up on all the different theories and research methods. I was told that "Doing your Research Project" was an easy read and once I started to get my head around the idea it was.

I think I will begin my planning on reflecting upon the work already published on my blog and see what I enjoy in my professional practice. I will also note what I have access to currently in terms of work and who/what companies I can work with at this moment in time.

I already have many projects, which are about to embark in my career right now, but I am uncertain where I may be by the time this project needs to take place. Hopefully, my situation will remain steady and similar to now. Much work and research needs to be done, so I'd better start now!

Teaching Diary 19/02/10

Friday 19th February 2010

I have been teaching ballet now for five months and it's been hard but much better than dancing it myself. One of my older students recently suggested or rather requested a ballet technique class for in the half term, which I agreed might be beneficial for them. Though ballet and especially technique is not my forte; I always knew what I was supposed to be doing technique-wise, just my body would have a hard time doing it. With my limitations and injuries I decided to concentrate my career on musical theatre and dance styles I could do. So I organised this class through the school for which I already teach the ballet classes, but I would pay the hall hire and be paid from those who attended. This would be my first taste of running my own class.

I looked at a few different sources to help me create a lesson plan that focused purely on technique, strengthening and conditioning. My initial idea was to start with a floor barre, which I've known students have done at my college. I looked on youtube for any exercises, inspiration and ideas. I drew on relevant pilates and yoga exercises I knew that may be useful for a dancer's body. I followed this up by researching related websites. I recently purchased "Ballet For Dummies" on Amazon, and looked for "back to basics" ideas for adults. I chose more relaxing music so they would be able to concentrate on their bodies working rather than the exercise and timing. So I used iTunes to pick my playlist. Basically most of the girls I expected to attend I already teach ballet to, so I wanted to give them a completely different ballet class to what they are used to. As online social networking is the way forward I used Facebook to set up an event and to invite dancers to attend. I put all information on the site including cost, venue, what they need to bring and what they'll be doing during the class. I also added that it would only go ahead if I have enough people attending. Six people said they would attend.

The hardest part I found was the reliability of everyone. The class took place yesterday evening. I had five girls, four of which said they were coming originally, so two didn't attend). Both explained why. The Principal of the school said they should pay anyway, as in terms of expenses covered I made a loss. I haven't asked either to pay and won't do as I think I'll be clearer about attendance. This is all practise though for when I attempt to organise an Easter School in April. I hope this will be more successful. I'm going to send a facebook message out now to see who might be interested initially. We'll see how this goes.

This is one of the videos I watched to gather ideas to improve ballet technique.

References and Bibliography

Ballet For Dummies

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ballet-Dummies-Scott-Speck/dp/0764525689/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266691666&sr=8-1 available at Amazon.co.uk

Pilates Foundation

http://www.pilatesfoundation.com/newsite/what-is-pilates.php (date unknown) Uses of pilates (Online) (Accessed 15th February 2010)

Yoga

(Date unknown) http://yoga.about.com/ Uses (Online) (Accessed 15th February 2010)

The Finis Jhung Ballet Technique

(30th December 2009) Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPSKFJjbscU (Online) (Accessed 15th February 2010)

iTunes http://www.apple.com/itunes/