Tuesday 27th February Skype Session Module 3 at 12:30pm

Today was a Skype session that was very beneficial to the attendees in Module Three. 

We began by sharing what stage we were all at and I found myself discussing the fact that the Literature Review had helped me incredibly. This was extremely useful particularly for Emily to hear, as as she had many questions about how to progress with her inquiry. 

I talked about how literature had opened new doors for me and that I had already began creating and distributing a survey that current teaching and educational professionals could fill in. I explained that after receiving feedback from Adesola, I was thinking more about how I could 'reach out' more in terms of finding out about my topic in the world and what it shows for us within the UK. 

As a result, I feel as if I'm climbing over a hurdle that has been stopping me recently from progressing. I have found the literature freeing in the fact that I'm now wondering about things as a result of things that I have read and am now not trying to predict or preempt answers to questions. I have to remind myself to explore and not try to answer any questions. But to instead have the mindset that I want to look at everything and see what this could potentially say about my practice. 

I used an example of a book I had read about the Arts culturally within Greater China, sharing the fact that we are actually very lucky to have the Creative Arts that we have within the UK, because there are some rural areas in China who do not even teach Art. Adesola, elaborated on this, explaining that we should not just take this as 'fact' but instead use pieces of information like this to ask questions about our practice and see what they might inform us of.

Eleanor extended this conversation to talk about how she herself had looked at literature and in particular historical literature in order to inform her of attitudes and opinions of appearance within the acting industry. Henry also mentioned that he has done the same in order to give context to his inquiry. Eleanor made it clear that she wasn't trying to find literature that was just about her specific practice or topic of inquiry, but that it was more about finding what RELATES to her practice and to see if their were common themes or ideas coming through that could help her assess her practice. 

I then discussed things that I had noticed from my surveys already and how I had made sure that there were opportunities to answer freely in open boxes, rather than just 'tick the box' answers. I discussed how the open answers told me much more about my practice than the closed questions and answers did and this was interesting for the likes of Emily and Henry to hear, because they had reservations about analysing both quantitative and quantitative data. Jess mentioned that she had been looking into data techniques within inquiry making and these are things I want to look more into myself.

Just from looking at Henry's blog from the previous Skype session which I could not attend, I can see that they had discussed this type of data already together and had noted that qualitative data provided more of a deeper understanding about practices, which I can see very clearly from my own research already. It's almost as if I care about qualitative data more? Because the opinions of experienced professionals can assist me in practice methods!

Adesola said something along the lines of, "If you don't care about the data, then what's the point of it within your inquiry?!"

Helen also talked about this and the importance of trying to make things as open as possible. This led me to encourage Eleanor to go even further with being an absent interviewer where she only lets interviewees read the questions that she sets, answering them to a camera in a self-type style. I told her that instead of questions, she could think about writing open statements instead, like "Tell me your thoughts on Appearance in the Acting Industry."

This would leave the person open to discuss whatever they wanted to without 'questioning' with Eleanor not asking for specifics which could make the answers more closed. I guess it's seeing how far you can push the openness of the entire process?

Data methods are something that I haven't looked into as much as I would like to yet, so I am going to keep on researching the best ways to gather evidence that enables me to understand my practice.

Helen and I even talked about how allowing answers to be open gives you more of an insight and is incredibly creative in itself! I keep asking questions like 'how can I be more open?' and 'how can I let people have more of a say?' This means I'm being creative myself with survey making. 

Henry also asked about the Artefact and there was a clear response from the course leaders that this is not something we should be thinking about just yet! The Artefact is something that comes after you have made your inquiry and is influenced by your findings. In an essence, reflecting what you've found from your inquiry. Therefore, we should not be reflecting on this yet, because we have not yet explored all of our practice!

All in all, this was a very useful Skype. People could share and consolidate thoughts and make decisions of the next actions to take the inquiry forward. 

Successful Skype!

Literature Review Reflection and Beginning Data Collection

Today was the day in which Eleanor added me to the Special Interest Group that is the BAPP Arts Facebook Group. People had already begun sharing their thoughts about their inquires, as well as sharing the start of their data collection processes. I saw that Jess had created a survey that she started handing out, so I thought that I would begin questioning various teachers on their thoughts about the Creative Arts within mainstream Education.

I have recently been writing my Literature Review and I cannot believe how much this has helped me and enabled me to discover more about this field. I strongly believe that the reviewing process has actually enabled me to realise the questions I want to ask and find out exactly what I would really like to know. It amazes me how just reading other people's thoughts can open you up to more questions about your own practice!

As a result, I have used the questions that cropped up in my thought process to create a survey that teaching staff, whether in mainstream Education or in Performing Arts Education outside of the school setting can share their thoughts on Creativity and also share some Creative methods that I have not used before.

I am incredibly intrigued and excited to find out what teachers across the country and the world believe about Creative teaching!

The survey can be accessed here:

https://surveyhero.com/c/1487a33c

Inquiry Areas of Creative Interest - what are the things I am already curious about? What creative opportunities exist?

Following from our recent Skype I decided to simplify things (as there is so much you can explore!) I decided to start by coming up with 5 areas I want to look at within my school that are all opportunities for the use of Creativity. You talked about exploring what 'already exists' in mainstream Education, so I thought today, 'when are the moments that there are profound creative opportunities in school at the moment?'

These are all moments that I haven't yet analysed, particularly the creativity within teacher planning! (This would be a topic that would help me massively in developing as a teacher!) Maybe I could use some lesson plans as evidence and data to analyse?

Title: An exploration of the Creative Arts in mainstream Education

Main Areas to look at in my Inquiry that already exist

Creativity in English Lessons

·         When are the arts used in lessons?

·         How often are the creative arts used within lessons?

·         What dramatic and artistic techniques to teachers use in their lessons?

·         What effect does it have?

Using Creativity in Teacher Planning

·         Why do primary teachers feel the need to schedule in drama within their lessons?

·         Are creative techniques used sufficiently in teacher planning?

·         How do teachers create their lesson plans together in their teaching planning meetings? What works? How do they create something they all agree on?

Creativity Opportunities in Wider Curriculum Subjects

·         What are the opportunities for creative development within wider curriculum?

·         What are teacher’s viewpoints on the wider curriculum?

·         How do various teachers teach wider curriculum subjects? Such as Art? PE? Science? History?

Creativity in Assemblies

·         What different artistic stimuli are included within assemblies by teachers?

·         How do leaders and teachers of assemblies use the arts to their advantage throughout assemblies?

·         How do external educational companies, such as The Family Trust use dramatic and performance techniques effectively?

Creativity in Religious Education

·         How have I been using the arts in my religious education lessons?

·         How are the children responding to the use of arts in my lessons?

·         What are the ways I haven’t used the arts in my lessons yet?

·         In what ways have the children been able to be creative within religious education lessons so far?

·         How can I be more creative in my teaching methods? 


I sent these ideas to Adesola and she told me that these looked like some good ideas, however it's important to remember that I try not to tie ideas down. It is all a reflective process, not necessarily a structured one. She advised me to look into literature that follows up these questions and then collect the data from what I read. This looks like a good starting point - reading up on all current ideas and working out for myself what this tells me about my school, the UK, my practice, my topic etc. This is my next plan...better get reading!  

Skype Chat with Adesola - Refining and Looking into what already exists

I've just come off a Skype call with Adesola and there were some interesting points we discussed.

General thoughts and how I will explore what I do not already know...

After working out the things I would like to know, we discussed the fact that as much as it would be interesting to find these things out within a lesson, it's important to remember that the school is not there to accommodate my BA course.

I of course can use creative elements within my lessons, but to go as far as letting the children decide what they learn is not something that I will be able to do, due to the fact that I have to stick to the school curriculum structure and ethos. I myself know that the same form of work, although differentiated, still needs to be shown in their books as evidence. 

Adesola did, however, encourage me to look at other teachers and practitioners who had already attempted these inquires and have asked the same questions that I have recently asked and encouraged me to look at the things that are already happening around me. 

I also talked about my idea of getting the children writing and commenting on their learning throughout the process but wasn't sure what the point of it was. Adesola was of the opinion that what it would show me what the children thought they knew about their learning and what they would think I would perhaps want them to write or respond with, so it is now making me question whether or not this would be of much use.

Religious Education - the new topic I am teaching

I discussed with Adesola my new role from teaching music to teaching Religious Education and how the switch from the two topics itself is incredibly vast! 

I started off by talking about my idea of a lesson on a story such as The Good Samaritan, splitting the children into groups and getting them to create their own freeze frames of the story. 

However, Adesola mentioned the possibility of looking at some Religious dances, paintings and even portrayals of God through various artwork. 

This made me reflect on the current lesson I undertook with the Year 5 classes creating Islamic prayer mats and how the entire class worked as a team to produce their own Islamic Artwork, using Google images in order to assist them and inspire them with their creations. At the time, we made this a competition, which Adesola advised maybe isn't an element I should continue with, seeing as everyone's interpretation is creatively different and should be respected for what it is, but the ethos of these types of lessons can enable me to see how the creative arts is used within lessons to educate pupils. 

Organising my Thoughts...

There have been some useful points of discussion from this Skype and now it is set for me to start organising my thoughts and putting together what I feel will be of interest and use. I have created a draft schedule which I have sent to Adesola to look at, but after this Skype it's now making me ask questions like:

What is it I really want to know? What already exists that I can learn more about? What are people currently doing out there? 

"The Darkest Nights Produce the Brightest Stars" - My Revelation

Yesterday saw me in a complete and utter panic. I was in such a panic, in fact, that I ended up emailing Adesola to ask her to help me with my Inquiry and where I went from here.

This was, because, I had just received my Module Two feedback and in particular, feedback that suddenly made me rethink EVERYTHING. When looking at Adesola's feeback, I could see that she had advised me to completely disregard any idea of involving children in the interview process and instead focus on the creative teaching aspect. 

I looked at her feedback on my original ethics form and saw that every single time I had included the direct use of children in my study was NOT ALLOWED. 

So this got me thinking (and panicking,) HOW I am meant to carry out an inquiry without having contact with the children. Am I not allowed to mention them AT ALL in this entire process?!?!

Luckily, Adesola has replied to me today, stating that the feedback does not mean that I cannot use the experience of the children within my observational study, but that I should respect the wishes of the University NOT to directly interview the children or engage with them in any way OUTSIDE the usual school parameters. This was a relieving moment for me, seeing as I was aiming for my inquiry to be based around the impact of the children and to identify their responses to the creative elements. 

Pinnacle Moment

However, through the panic and uncertainty of my future inquiry came a light-bulb moment. It made me think OUTSIDE THE BOX. It made me question all of these doubts that I had been having, therefore making me completely rethink and consider the lasting line of Adesola's feedback.

Adesola's ending line in my feedback states, 'It is important you go into this inquiry wondering not just looking for proof of something you already believe. One of the best out comes you could have would be to be surprised by the inquiry.'

I really felt that I needed some inspiration, so I ended up going back and looking at Ken Robinson's seminar videos again, which I also did because Adesola reminded me of the fact that Creativity is still not yet defined and that it is an education in itself. And as I was watching his videos, it suddenly dawned on me. Ken Robinson talks about how EVERY child is DIFFERENT. So it got me thinking, 'what if I use Creativity in the classroom by finding out how different children respond to different types of lessons?'

I then thought, what are the things I HAVE NEVER DONE BEFORE in my lessons?

Here were my thoughts and findings that I sent to Adesola. 

What have I not done yet? What do I not know but would like to know?

I haven’t yet let the children choose what work they do

I haven’t assessed what type of learning they prefer

I haven’t yet seen what creative formats and methods teachers use

I have never let a child be a teacher or leader to the class on a subject

I haven’t let children in the lesson give feedback on their learning and what they liked and didn’t like, found hard or easy or what they learned.

Ideas to go about this

• Provide a book that children can leave comments and pictures in about the lesson
• Create a lesson where children choose what activity they do in order to learn about a particular subject.
• Observe lessons and interview teachers on how they go about creativity and how they use the arts to enhance their lessons.
• Give each child a fact on a piece of paper and they have only two minutes to tell as many people in their class what that fact is.
• Get the children to put parts of a story in order and then share the story to the class telling them what happened. 

These are all things that I truly wonder about and I hope I am going to be able to find out. I'm hoping that all these potential options will be ones in which Adesola will shed some light on before I begin making and shaping my inquiry. 

The Troublesome Tweed Twosome - My Coffee Catch Up with my Drama School and BAPP colleague, Matt.

First thing's first, I couldn't believe it. We had both attended the same Drama School at 19 years old, both embarked on the BA Hons Professional Practice in Arts degree and NOW we were both meeting up after years apart in similar Tweed outfits like we were farmers....

Talk about a connection!

I decided to meet with Matt a few days ago, because we had so much to discuss. Not just about University and what we were finding, but also about that thing that everyone never has the answers to...

LIFE.

Some might say that it's just a self indulgent thing, to meet up for a coffee and just chat rubbish. But I always believe that meeting up with someone to discuss your hopes, dreams, fears, problems etc, is all a therapeutic process where you actually discover so much more about yourself. It makes you sane again! (or insane, depending on the company you're with...)

What we both found hilarious was the fact that starting a new module is like starting all over again. You can often feel lost! The benefit, however, for Matt, is that he has me to guide him because I am one step ahead of it all, so he is really able to gain an insight into what to expect from me. I, however, can only go by what I have learned and gained so far and I have seen so far that this inquiry is becoming more and more real. It's one thing being reflective of a process that interests you, but it's another thing actually putting things 'into practice.' This is something that scares me. I have all these questions travelling through my head. How am I going to make this inquiry happen? What do I need from everyone I work with in order to make this happen? What questions should I be asking? 

Since I last wrote my blog and finished writing and submitting my Module Two Essay, I have been given the responsibility of teaching children Religious Education and despite wondering whether not teaching Music anymore may affect my inquiry into the Creative Arts slightly, I have now realised that Religious Education provides amazing scope for so many Creative Elements! 

This is something I discussed with Matt. A woman visited the school the other day from a University and wished to speak to myself and the leader of the school's Wider Curriculum. We honestly had no idea what for, we were just told that we had to meet her. It appeared after sitting down with her in the school meeting room that she was making her very own inquiry - to find out whether the Religion of Islam was still being taught and represented within schools. 

According to her, there are many Muslims who currently feel as if Islam is being phased out of Education and she wanted to see how I taught this within schools. There was only a few things I could tell her, seeing as I had only been acting as the RE teacher for two weeks! I informed her that I was currently teaching Year 2 and Year 5 about Islam and that I never give opinions, only facts. We also talked to her about the fact that when teaching Religion to young people, you also have to think about that commonly occurring word...ETHICS.

This made me realise that now more so than ever, I am now thinking about how I can show respect to everyone within my classroom, regardless of what religion the follow. It is about remembering everyone has their own decisions to make, which I feel is going to be incredibly useful when it comes to carrying out my professional inquiry. 

I would also like to add that since then, I have undertaken an extremely fun and creative lesson in regards to Islam, which involved the children creating their own actions to remind them of the Five Pillars, as well as creating their own Islamic prayer mats! 

These lessons were so successful that one Muslim boy in my class brought in his own prayer mat to show everyone what his looked like before they designed their own. He went the extra mile, because he appeared proud in the fact that everyone was willing to learn about what he believed in. He simply felt he was part of his classroom community. 

This is a perfect example of how the Creative Arts can bring people together, just like how first Drama School and then this University course has brought Matt and I together again. Establishing that common ground. Listening to each other after all this time apart. Communicating. 

Sipping lattes in our Green Tweed. 

Matt and Me, in our Tweed. (We got 22 likes and 4 comments on Facebook for this picture!)