What's your opinion? (Task 3d)

 

I found this quote on an early years blog called 'Early years for excellence' (https://plus.google.com/u/0/104954910556550648620/posts) I often look at their blog for teaching ideas and reading their articles on early years education. What are your thoughts on the quote? When I read it, it made me think about topics raised in Reader 2 about how we learn from our experiences within our professional practice. Do you think there is too much pressure on pupils to deliver in exams? Following a national curriculum does it benefit the pupil? or does it restrict their learning, imagination and knowledge?

Task 3C Sources of Information

After writing task 3a about current networks it helped me realise sources of information I use on a regular basis to network with other people on a social and professional level.  I found it difficult to choose 5 most important sources as I use various sources of information which are all important in one way or another in networking with other people. However, I decided to list the sources of information that benefit my professional practice the most and ones I use on a daily basis.

 

Work Colleagues (Face to face communication)

Communicating with my fellow teachers and colleagues provides one of the most important sources of networking for my professional practice. Every day I discuss lesson plan ideas and effective timetables. We can ask each other advice on topics we are unsure of and pass on expertise of elements we are confident on. Through networking face to face we can share ideas and bounce off each other to plan for future learning activities e.g. recently in school we brain stormed ideas for Christmas cards and calendars for the children to make for the Christmas holiday. As a foundation team we always have regular meetings every morning to discuss what the schedule is for the day and make sure we all understand what our individual tasks are and what needs to be prepared. My school St. John Vianney has its own community and network by having school policies and regulations all staff follow. A good network communicates well and shares thoughts and ideas in order to progress as a whole, from a personal level I feel our school demonstrates this and as an employee enjoys where I work as a have a feeling of belonging, importance and appreciation within my early years role. Another key concept of colleagues as sources of information is the wide variety of ages and experiences you can interact with; this allows a diverse opinion and allows me to access an overall opinion on a particular subject I want to find out more.

 

Facebook

For me Facebook is a powerful source when networking. I use it to socialise socially and professionally. I can access it on the go via my IPhone which helps me to continuously network.  I can network with people who live all over the world. Facebook is a great source to promote events. The company I teach singing for, ‘Starmaker’ use Facebook to advertise for their school and put regular updates up about school events and information. Facebook allows me to upload photos and videos to promote my professional practice an example of this I used within task 1d, when I uploaded a video of my class singing I put this video on Starmaker’s Facebook page to show parents what we do within our classes. However, the difficulty with large sites like Facebook is security and privacy issues. Working with children you need to make sure you have permission from parents to upload an image or video of their child. You also have the dangers of people hacking your page and uploaded posts which you have no control over, which can jeopardise your professional practice.

 

Google

I use Google every day, if it be to research ideas for teaching or generally researching something I want to find out. With society being more technology based it’s far easier and quicker to type into Google to find an answer than researching through books and asking someone. It is seen as the lazy approach but competent at completing the task. With Google being so vast sometimes searches don’t give me the information I’m looking for so I need to keep my search title direct and use key words. Below are a few examples of sources I use through Google that benefit my professional practice;

·         You Tube

I use You Tube to give me new ideas for drama/singing exercises and games. Having a visual source is really helpful to trigger ideas and make my lessons more fun and fresh evolving new ideas to keep the pupils engaged. I also use You Tube to watch video’s about how to do something, this came in useful when researching how to complete task 1c I could view various BAPP students video’s to get ideas.

·         Find Song lyrics

·         Wikipedia

·         Search for songs for Lamda exams

·         Searching websites for information.

 

BAPP

Since being on the Professional practice course It’s opened my eyes to new ways of networking one of these sources being ‘Blogging’. Having the network of other BAPP students is so beneficial to help progress my professional practice. By blogging I have discovered similarities with other student’s e.g;

·         Beth Bullman http://bethanybullman.blogspot.com/  

·         Amy D’Arcy http://amydarcybappfirstblog.blogspot.co.uk/

·         Geri Masucci http://gerimasucci.blogspot.co.uk/

I can benefit and learn from these student blogs as they are all involved with education and involved with teaching. I can share experiences and reflect on my own professional practice by reading their blogs and relate to their experiences. We can discuss similar topics and turn to each other for advice. Campus sessions are also very important source of information, on these days I can gain from talking to other students and find out their thoughts on current tasks and ask how they approached them. Having contact with tutors gives me that sense of reassurance and encouragement.

 

E-mail

I check my e-mails every day. Through e-mail I network with people on a professional and social level. For singing teaching I e-mail my lesson plans weekly to my Employer so she can comment and advise or generally know what I will be teaching that week. E-mail allows me to send documents, photos and music to people I network with. I have various e-mails e.g. Hotmail account; for social everyday interaction, G-mail account; for Work & BAPP and I also have a Middlesex e-mail account to receive information from University. I prefer to use e-mail as a use of contact than ringing someone as I can get my thoughts and ideas across far better in words than talking on the phone.

 

 

 

Task 3b Theories relating to networking

For this task I adopted a method Amy D’Arcy (fellow BAPP student) brought to my attention on her task 3a. Finding the definitions of words to trigger thought and develop ideas. This method allowed me to look at the theories from a more reflective point of view and look inward more critically.

I started this off by researching ‘Networked Professional’ using Oxford Dictionary online the results were:

 

Networked; Interact with others to exchange information and develop professional or social contacts.

Professional; Relating to or belonging to a profession.

 

This made me think about; how do my networks to help me professionally? And who do I network with on a daily basis? Reader 3 explains how your professional networks can benefit you personally by impacting your success through promotional development giving you a sense of worth, fulfilment and enjoyment within your working life. Professional networks give you a formal identity and allow you to network with other practitioners. An example of one of my professional networks is with colleagues I interact with in school, as there is a wide range of different roles/status’ within the school structure and we share an affiliation of work interests and needs. We form an educational community where we can share ideas and give constructive criticism to benefit each other professionally. Also working together produces positive results.

 

This leads me on to the concept of ‘Cooperation’; the action or process of working together to the same end. (Oxford Dictionary, online definition).

 

Robert Axelrod points out using his game theory; ‘The Prisoner’s Dilemma’ that the “importance of cooperating fully with others until you reach a point of maximum benefit and then to defect”.  (Axelrod, R. 1984 pages xi-xiv) He explains the strategy of the game is to make the decision to cooperate or not. In my opinion cooperation is very important within professional networks for example within my school I use the following ways to cooperate:

·         Share and give ideas on teaching methods.

·         Work as a team to plan and carry out effective learning activities for pupils.

·         Organisation, follow a timetable.

·         Get Children to cooperate, you gain better results within learning, development and  behaviour e.g. getting children to follow instructions follow classroom rules and listen.

·         Follow school policies on health and safety, child protection and behaviour.

 

Robert Axelrod points out that cooperation creates patterns and proves the ‘Tit for tat’ method is the most effective. I can relate to this method more than Robert Axelrod other view that cooperation allows people to; “take advantage of networks for our own benefit and that of the wider network”. (Axelrod, R. 1984 pages xi-xiv)

 

However, within my use of student BAPP blogs we cooperate with fellow BAPP students to trigger thoughts, ideas and help each other out by blogging on posts, but our main purpose of blogging is to benefit from the process and gain personally to develop our own professional practice.

 

Affiliation; to receive into close connection or association (group/organisation) adopt as a member. (Oxford Dictionary online definition)

 

Crisp and Turner point out how we use affiliation to help us network professionally;
 

“Tendency to seek out others and form close relationships is an inherited trait that helps us to survive and reproduce by providing us with a network of support that will help us when we are in need” (Crisp & Turner,2007 p266-268)

 

Affiliation allows you to connect socially e.g. using Web 2.0 tools or face to face. Successful careers require professional networking as Reader 3 points out;

“Networks form an important part of our need to affiliate”

(Reader 3 2013/14 BAPP Arts)

 

As a teacher I decide how much I want to affiliate with other people on social media websites, e.g.  I won’t accept students as friends and conscious of comments I post to maintain my professional duty as a teacher. O’Connor and Rosenblood (1996, p267) suggest the theory of ‘homeostasis’;

 

“Our need for affiliation with each one of us may differ, but we each seek to balance our interactions with others to a preferred level of social stimulation (introvert-extrovert)”

 

I could argue within my professional practices I act introvert and extrovert depending on the work environment/setting for example, when teaching singing I’m extrovert but when participating in staff team meetings  in school I’m introvert.

 

This idea leads into the psychological perspective, e.g. using social media sites. On my Facebook page I keep some social events private rather than sharing with the wider network, I choose what to share and what to keep private.

 

Looking at my professional practice, affiliation is important in order for me to progress within my profession.  By cooperating with management/ hierarchy of the work place you will benefit in your future. However, some people form too close relationships which may develop and demonstrate unfair treatment, by other employers gaining from other employer’s expense.  So, from an ethical point of view it is important for those who hold a hierarchy position to treat every employer the same and fair, no matter your status/position within the setting.

 

As a teacher it is important to get the support from your teaching body and have the reassurance of trust. As I mentioned earlier working as a team and have the feeling of belonging to an organisation boosts moral and produces results.    

 

Connectivity; the state of being connected or interconnected

Social; relating to society or organism, rank and status in society.

(Oxford Dictionary online definitions)

 

Through Social constructionism people construct meanings of the world and their experience of it as, Crotty explains;
 

“Meanings are constructed by human beings as they engage with the world they are interpreting.”

 

“Objectivity and subjectivity need to be brought together”

 (Crotty M.2005 p42-44)

 

The concept of ‘Social Constructionism’ according to Reader 3 is that we understand the world ‘objectively’ by construction or creation of our own making. Looking at the growth of internet online communications e.g. e-mail, Skype social media sites etc.  This is very evident. Within my professional practice I use a wide variety of social processes that help me understand professional networks and networking. Having social interactions with other BAPP students on the BAPP blog site enables me to make meanings of my networks and look at my values and attributes on preferred ways of engaging, I can choose to be objective (reading blogs) or subjective (commenting on blogs). Both methods help my thinking process and raise questions for further inquiry.

Connectivism; A theory of learning which emphasizes the role of social and cultural context.

(Oxford Dictionary online definition)

Connectivism is a process in which networks both learn and provide the means for individuals to connect and learn. Connectivism suggests we learn from the information we see around us and those we interact with. Working in an educational setting the children are surrounded by information to trigger their learning and stimulate thought process’. However, I believe children can’t just learn from information alone they need social interaction with other people e.g. teachers, other pupils to concrete their knowledge. Having a teacher to encourage thinking and questioning benefits the child’s learning process. I agree with the Connectivist perspective that;

 

“professional network is a system with which we can interact to learn”

(Reader 3,BAPP course)

 

Siemens raises some valuable points that;

 

“Learning and knowledge rests in diversity of opinions.”

 

“Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual learning.”

 

“Decision making itself is a learning process.”

(Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age - George Siemens 2004-12-12)

 

Community: A group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common. Attitudes, social values, society, responsibilities, interests, together.

Oxford Dictionary, online definition)

 

Communities of practice is a concept I use every day in my professional practice. I engage in various social communities, but I find if I have common interests/ shared visions with people I gain from networking far better, for example being a singing teacher I can relate to the other Starmaker staff easily as we all share a passion for the performing arts. This same process can be used within the school community where I work as a teaching assistant; all teachers share the same ethos of helping and improving a child’s education by putting their best interests at heart, looking out for their welfare and progress development. Being engaged in a number of communities of practice I find my character and nature of our engagement may vary considerably and change over time. Reader 3 raises the thought that:

 

“Members of a community of practice whether work place, special interests, virtual or any other form, come together because of mutual interest and generate a shared experience of engagement in the community of practice”

(Reader 3, BAPP Arts 2013/14)

Lave and Wenger make us think about how communities are based on three dimensions:

·         What it is about? -it’s joint enterprise as understood and continually renegotiated by its members;

·         How it functions?- mutual engagement that bind members together into a social entity;

·         What capabilities it has produced? - the shared repertoire of communal resources.

(Lave, J. & Wenger, E. (1991) Situated Learning. Legitimate peripheral participation,

Cambridge: University of Cambridge Press)

 

Thinking of Lave and Wagner’s 3 dimensions, a community can be created socially or digitally. People in today’s society communicate far more using technology and web 2.0. This brings me to ethical considerations when networking. Communicating online you need to understand what can be shared? And what’s appropriate for the community? For example; I would post more personal comments on my Facebook profile page and post more formal/promotional/professional comments on Starmaker’s Facebook page. You also have to consider your privacy settings when communicating on the internet e.g. e-mail, social media sites as people can access your account and jeopardise your professional position, being a teacher this is very important for this reason I think carefully about who I accept as a friend and who can access my private information.

On the positive side, the ever growing professional networks online allows individuals to be able to access scholarly practice e.g. BAPP course.  Having this freedom and accessibility allows people from all backgrounds/communities an opportunity to study and access courses via long distant without actually communicating face to face. This demonstrates the ever evolving communication technologies and how important concepts of  networking can be to gain information to better oneself professionally.

 

Task 3a Current Networks

My current networks are varied working within the educational setting as a teaching assistant and working within the performing arts industry as a singing teacher. However they both have a similar approach to keeping networked, and emphasise the importance of using networks to benefit your professional practice.

 

What are the current and different ways I engage with my professional networks?

To help me with this, I brain stormed ideas of who and what tools I use to network with others this allowed me to develop thoughts and discover how I use networks to benefit my professional practice. Please see examples of my brain storming from my journal:

 

 

The following processes of networking kept occurring through the brain storming experience:

·         Facebook

I use Facebook to stay connected with friends, family and colleagues. Facebook allows you to create groups and follow individuals/pages. Facebook is a powerful tool to find out information or ask questions and get comments back. Facebook allows me as an individual to promote my singing teaching and advertise events I’m involved in with e.g. Starmaker Performing Arts shows/ events this process attracts interest from the public and brings people together. However, using Facebook from a teacher perspective you have to be very careful what you post and who is looking at your page. From a personal point of view I don’t accept students as friends and keep my settings on my page set to private so public have restricted view, this protects my position as a teacher and keeps information confidential, and prevents people posting inappropriate media e.g. photos, videos on my page.  

 

·         School/Work

I network with other teachers/teaching assistants on a daily basis at my school St John Vianney Catholic Primary School through conversation and modern technologies. Having this network allows me to share teaching ideas/methods on learning activities. We can share effective processes and feedback to each other in order to learn from our experiences and progress as teachers. We hold regular foundation team meetings to discuss weekly events and what we need to do in the forthcoming week e.g. plan resources etc. The school have a communicational network within the school community this includes regular text messages and e-mails to parents and teachers. The school also have a twitter account and website, please see the following link: http://www.st-john-vianney.blackpool.sch.uk/

 

·         BAPP

Campus sessions help me network with fellow students in person to talk through tasks and develop each other’s professional practice.

 

·         Blogging

This again allows me to connect with fellow students and helps me understand how I need to approach tasks by viewing other student’s blogs for ideas. Blogging also allows you to comment and question other people’s blogs within BAPP or other networks related to your professional practice from these comments you will learn something new and develop your learning. Many people use blogging as a means of promoting events or reporting on topics/articles.

 

·         Starmaker

Teaching for a performing arts school we have our own small network of teachers. This close knit of teachers allows us to discuss ideas at regular group meetings and work as a team to produce productions. We can swop ideas of singing exercises, games, songs etc. to help each other out. Co-operating as a group creates a strong and efficient teaching body.

 

·         Internet

Web 2.0 tools Help me network easily with friends and colleagues to benefit my professional practice below are sites I use on a regular basis:

-          You Tube

-          E-mail (Hotmail and Gmail accounts)

-          Skype

-          Facebook

-          Twitter

-          Google

-          Pin interest

-          What’s App

 

Established ways that others use their networks

Starmaker use social media as a source of networking in order to promote their Performing Arts school they do this by uploading regular posts on Facebook, and involve funding raising as part of their shows for particular sentimental charities, this creates more exposure for the school as well as raising money for a good cause. http://www.starmakerperformingartsacademy.com/#
https://www.facebook.com/starmakerpaa

 

 

Motives, Values and Purpose

Looking at current networks, people join them in order to benefit from the experience e.g. to get advice, information or learn something new. Networking keeps people connected, Facebook demonstrates this on a social benefit, by being a member you can re kindle friendships and re-connect with family members in the UK and different countries. People can do this via the internet or on the go via mobile. Skype allows you to network visually, which again can be used personally or professionally e.g. many companies use Skype as a way of conducting meetings for employees who work in different parts of the country. Networking allows people to discuss subjects of interest e.g. Musical reviews. Networking can promote/advertise events and encourage word of mouth or public to spread the word to create interest.  Networking can be a effective and helpful process if it be using modern technologies or good old fashioned vocal communication. Reflecting back on my work history many of my jobs I have achieved through word of mouth or via friends recommendation, For example my current job I gained by doing supply T.A. work, I made an impression on the teachers who have then told management resulting in them asking me if I would like a full time position within the school. In my opinion making a lasting first impression is very important to get on within professional practice to be successful in life as the saying goes, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know”.

 

My Ideal network would be:

• Organised
• Co-operative
• Team work
• Share thoughts and ideas
• Self-promotion
• Helpful
• Resourceful
• Communication
• Efficient

What do I know about my current networks and how can I improve them?

My current networks allow me to develop my professional practice and open doors to future experiences by keeping networked with people, media, associations and companies. However,  I feel I don’t use my networks to my full advantage and there is lots more I can gain from my professional practice for future career opportunities e.g. singing teaching networks, Early years networks. As teaching is a career path I would like to develop I need to work on specific teaching networks and discover avenues I can proceed to benefit my future teaching career, this may involve keeping up to date with current teaching techniques/methods and curriculum criteria’s and get myself noticed as a teacher.  I can develop my networks by seeking advice from experienced practitioners and communicating more via educational forums and blogs.  Within my professional practice I need to discover my path as a teacher and what I want to specialise in to maximise my opportunities for future work.

Task 2d Inquiry Task

Having completed the tasks in part 2 many thoughts and ideas have surfaced which relate to my professional practice and intrigue me to develop further. Within my journal writing and critical reflection task, I've noticed ideas that link my singing teaching and early years teaching assistant work together e.g. teaching phonics. Below are some questions that I've been playing with;

"What relevance does singing have on early years development?"

 

"Do reception aged children benefit from singing games/rhymes?"

 

Answers I got from my own personal experience relating to these questions are;

• Singing helps children to be able to count in sequence.
• Nursery rhymes help language development.
• Break language barriers for non English speaking children, give them confidence to join in.
• Help social interaction between children.
• Encourage learning sounds phonetically.
• Bring fun and enjoyment to learning.
• Assist numeracy and literacy learning activities.

This led me on to think about actions and learning;

 

"Do children benefit from physical actions and sounds to help their learning?"

 

 

I use actions when teaching phonics to help children remember the letter and its sound e.g. 'm' we use 'Maisie, Mountain, Mountain' and get pupils to repeat the words and sound writing the letter with their finger to help their learning and memory ability.

 







 

(Read, Write, Ink Phonic Sounds. Author Ruth Miskin, Published by Oxford University Press.)

 

 

Having a visual aid, sound and action encourages learning, giving children an opportunity to learn through concrete experiences (action-in-action). This aspect of visual aids got me thinking about how often within the classroom setting we use visual aids e.g. timetables, behavioural charts etc. This posed the question;

 

"Do visual aids help children's development and learning?"

 

 

Using my own experiences from working with early years and SEN (Special Educational Needs) children visual aids are very important to assist a childs learning to access the curriculum.  It can be used as a method of communication e.g. when working within an ARP unit (Additionally Resourced Provision unit), the children who had autism used PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System). This allowed the pupil's to communicate through imagery and gave them a voice. 



 

 

Source: www.littlecottonrabbits.co.uk

 

 

Teaching children singing and running an afterschool 'Glee Club' I use lots of music and movement within my lesson plans. Also running an Attention, Balance and Co-ordination group last year with SEN children I discovered benefits from using music and movement to encourage improvement on gross and fine motor skills. This thought process brought me to the question;

 

"Do children, especially SEN children gain from music and movement focused activities?" 

 

 

With this idea you can include musical instruments, dance, movement, ribbon dancing etc.

 

Please comment and raise ideas about how I can improve or develop these questions for my professional practice. Does anyone have any similar experiences working with children? Do you use music or visual aids to assist your professional practice? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 







Campus session 3

We began the campus session with a debate based on the question posed by Lizzy Rowden;

“What, if any, relevance does the performing arts have in society?”

 

Paula also added the sub question;

 

“Who supports the arts in today’s England?”

 

Everyone brought some very interesting points to the fore front for example;

·         T.V. reality talent shows encourage people to pursue a career in performing arts but give a false image of the industry, short fix solution.

·         Performing arts helps children develop confidence overcome bullying/ self-confidence issues.

·         Keeps people active.

·         Gives people escapism from the stresses of life, e.g. theatre, cinema, concerts etc.

Then Leon raised a valuable point about what does relevance mean? How do we differentiate society? This made us look at the question critically and break down the words:

REVEVANCE:

·         Information

·         Value; who? How?

·         How is it important?

·         Social issues

·         Increase likelihood of a goal.

·         Significance

·         Why it matters?

·         Importance

·         A voice through theatre

·         Retrieve data appropriate to user’s needs.

 

SOCIETY:

·         Social circle

·         Country

·         Community

·         Up bringing

·         Audience

·         Status/class

·         Beliefs

·         Where we live

·         Cultural background

·         Public

·         Who’s saying what? Why they are saying it?

 

This process was very interesting in discovering our critical thinking skills. We thought about the sub question and came up with many  ideas of who supports the arts in today’s England here is a few;

·         Public (Theatre, art galleries etc)

·         National Lottery

·         Arts councils

·         Foundations

·         Parents (shows, musical concerts)

 

We moved on to discuss why some subjects i.e. maths, English are seen more important than others like art, music etc. Geri brought up a point that was relevant to my professional practice how schools want children to take particular subjects to benefit the schools exam league tables, but these changes don’t help the children develop their learning for future careers. (please see Geri Masucci blog for more details.)

 

Second part of the Lecture we broke up into 3 groups and were given a sheet of words that encourage critical thinking skills. Within our groups we had to choose 4 words and create a definition for each one. My group had Georgie, Ruth and Chiara the words we brain stormed were:

·         Argument

·         Rehearsal

·         Deconstruction

·         Communication.

(Please see Paula’s video on campus session 3 for descriptions)

 

The final part of the session we broke into module groups, so we could discuss any concerns about the module’s tasks. Alan answered our questions and gave us some advice about approaching the critical reflection. He emphasized about keeping your critical reflection focussed and direct, write about a section that’s relevant to your personal professional practice and sections you learnt the most from during the tasks. Particular points he brought up were;

·         Raise questions from previous experiences.

·         Think of processes we apply to our experiences/professional practice to move forward.

·         Think of tools we use for critical reflection.

·         Craft an explanation on significant insights on the 3 themes.

 

Alan also pointed out that the best time to submit a Draft of your critical reflection to your advisor is around the 9^th December. 16^th December is the end of any feedback from advisors, just to warn you other advisors dates may vary. I really enjoy attending the campus sessions as it helps me talk through the tasks with fellow students and brain storm ideas and get some confirmation that I'm on the right lines