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