My BAPP Journey

Creating My Questionnaire survey... After blogging about creating a survey I thought to give it a trial run and see if this is a tool I would consider developing for my Inquiry in module 3. here is the link: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/WFHSWDJ  Please comment below on what you found good about it and what I should improve on?

Task 6B continued... Questionaires... After reading reader 6 and looking at other students blogs I come across that most people were using a source called survey monkey to help produce their questionnaires as an online survey and information is kept private. For my questionnaire it will be aimed at primary school teachers, dance teachers and people with a dance backgroud. The questions/statements will have a multiple choice section or chance to type their own opinion. I will intend to ask as many participants as possible to take part in my questionnaire but as it says in reader 6 to expect only 20% repossess rate. I am also planning on doing a paper questionnaire for students to participate in, but for this to happen I will need parent/guardian consent for students to take part and why they are taking part. Pros 1. easy to use an answer 2. can collect lots of data in a short period of time 3. if kept quantitative data they can be easily evaluated. Cons ...

6B - Inquiry tools This task asks us to critical reflect on the inquiry tools that will address my inquiry question. Interviews... Pros 1. rich source of information/opinions 2. Adaptable  3. can be easily repeated Cons 1. Time consuming 2. could intemperate the answers wrong 3. Interviewer could influence the answers. I am planning on interview dance teachers and school teachers for my inquiry. The teachers being from different areas, experience and different ages they teach. For example... 1. A new dance teacher 2. A more experience dance teacher 3. A Primary school teacher 4. A primary school teacher who teaches dance to. 5. Pre-school dance teacher  I feel this will cover my inquiry area in both dance and school environment. With covering the age ranges of students from 6 months - 20 years. I am planning on doing a face-to-face interview for my inquiry with at least one of these teacher, but if for some reason I am unab...

Task 6A: Planning informal trials. After reading reader 6 I started to think about different research inquiry tools and figure what will work best for my inquiry and be the most appropriate. I was thinking on the lines of... Interviews/questionnaires Observation Focus Groups Analising Literature I plan on using my SIG group as a informal pilot trial for a group interview. I will then collect the data into categories of the pros and cons. I will have the consider ethical considerations with my participants and that they know why and what they taking part in. Also that their personal information will be kept confidential. Another expect I will have to consider is peoples opinions might be swayed more by the more outspoken confident individuals of the group. I will also try and ask neutral questions, to avoid affecting the answers with bias questions. Another tool I would find interesting to pilot trial is an observation of a class. Although there will be  mor...

Reflecting on my development in my practice. Since starting module two I have become more aware of the role of a teacher in my practice as well as where I would like my career to go in the future. I have a better understanding of the impact they can make on a child's well being and how much of a influence you can be towards them. Some teachers do not understand fully what impact they can have on students with their attitude and approach to teaching. So I begun to question myself how I would handle myself and approach situation with students in my class, the content and methods used with in my class to achieve the most out of my students. Thinking about my inquiry being around children. I researched into ethics around children and found a very interesting read here is a link as I think it will be beneficial for others to.  www.ethicsdance.co.uk/resources/downloads/A-Dancer-is-A-Person.pdf

5B - Policies and Ethics in my Workplace. After speaking to my boss in my workplace she just had the genetic policies and ethics which i wrote down from my first thought to this in Task 5A. So when researching into it again I wanted to develop my knowledge even more. So I asked around some Facebook groups such as "dancers and dance teachers" "Dance Teachers Forum" (which I joined up to during module 1 whilst trying to develop my networking skills) asking questions such as what they expected from their teachers and what policies and ethics they expect to not just from their staff and teachers but from parent and students to. Some teachers even have contracts for their teachers for them to agree to their policies but for my work place I didn't have a contract but I already act in a professional way which obey to the policies and ethics in my work place. Here is a spider diagram showing what I found (Shock) That's whats is expected for being a dance...

Task 5A: My Professional work Place   As we all know from my previous blogs from module 1 I love a spider diagram and here it is making an appearance...  Here are my thoughts about what I think the ethics with my workplace are without any research in to it. 

4D - Important Literature After researching and researching into my inquiry and questions I have flying around my head. I finally came across some literature I find important to my inquiry and here they are... 1.   Teaching with the brain in mind 2nd Edition. by Eric Jensen.       Chapter 4: Movement and Learning Publisher: Association for supervision & Curriculum Development; 2nd ed. (30 May 2005) This first piece of literature I found rather and interesting read and relevant to my practice as it talks about links between movement and learning. Looking at scientific views of the brain and how physical activity and play helps improve behavior and performance in the classroom. It also talks about "simple biology supports an obvious link between movement and learning." As oxygen is essential for brain function and enhanced blood flow increases the amount of oxygen transported to the brain" and physical activity is a reliable key for this to happen. It...

4B: Developing my own SIG group. At first I wanted to really understand the meaning of special interest group. I immediately thought of networking we discussed in module one and what groups I am already involved in, such as; 1. Facebook Groups 2. past and present employers 3. other dance teachers 4. college friends 5. Bapp Blogs For the rest of my Bapp journey I am thinking of basing my research and inquiry around being a dance teacher  and dance educations in primary school.   If there is anyone else out there thinking along the same lines, hopefully we could join together in a SIG group I created to discuss and help each other to learn and develop as a practitioner in our practice.  Link to the SIG group: https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/113973209285569322898 Looking forward to hearing from you and discussing ideas.

Phone call with Adesola 18/10/17 A bit late in posting this as I've been busy researching my literature now I'm on the right tracks. During my phone call with Adesola she explained that we are not trying to prove a point in your inquiry but to look more in depth at it such as; 1. The history behind are inquiry or the science.  2. What other researchers have found out about the topic 3. what I want to gain and develop in my own practice from this. 4. look into the ethics around my inquiry such as children. 5. whats the funding like around my inquiry 6. is there a difference in different countries, such as America and England. This really help me to think forward and ahead but I really do think that I will be on the right tracks from now on as now I'm thinking my inquiry heading towards teaching and dance education in primary school as this is something I would like to gain and develop my own practice in.

HELLO Module 2.... So after a delayed starts to the module due to work commitments. I finally got stuck in and read the hand books. I'm excited to start researching for this module as well as developing as a practitioner. As this is the beginning of my journey into my inquiry I'm not expecting to find answers straight away, but hoping to gain more knowledge and experiences during my journey. Here are my questions and thoughts so far on what I find interesting... feel free to comment whether you have the same interests and questions and what your thoughts are on these inquiries.

Task 3B: Theories relating to networking and my profession Reader 3 is full of different theories within networking, I enjoyed reading into all these theories. I have picked two of those theories affiliation and cooperation that relate to my profession. Affiliation Definition: is the act of connecting or associating with a person or organization "Larson, Csikszentmihalyi and Graef (1982) found that adolescents spent about 75 per cent of their waking time with other people." working with adolescents is very interesting as I personally see how they thrive off each other when connected, especially when they haven't seen each other over the holidays. Affiliation is a social progress which gives us a "network of support that will help us when we are in need" I wouldn't say I struggle to make decisions for myself but i do like a re-assurance now and then from more experienced professionals as I am new to this industry.  I feel as a teacher for ...

Task 3a: Current Networks What are the current and different ways (tools) that you have, or do, engage your professional network? A main professional network I have been using is social media such as Facebook, Twitter and blogs. As its now a much stronger form of networking to connect with people as now they have group pages forming in certain professions. For example I am in a group called "Dancers & Dance Teachers" "ISTD Dance teachers" and others. This is where members of the group can ask each other questions relating to dance and also to share ideas, music, lesson plans, talk about experiences you have had and be connected with other dance teachers. Also Job vacancies often get posted if a dance school is looking for a new teacher or some company is looking for dancers. These groups are really beneficial as I am always connected with up coming events and opportunities for me and my students.  What are the established (and different) ways that...

Task 2D: Inquiry What in your daily practice gets you really enthusiastic to find out more about? Who do you admire who also works with what makes you enthusiastic? Children get me enthusiastic just by the way they are. I love there imagination, open minds and their own enthusiastic to life. When working with children there isn't one day the same and they are developing and learning each day with me by their side. This excites me as I want to develop my own skills and knowledge on how learning through play how does this help and how each child learns differently and what works best for them, as everybody is an individual. I admire psychologist like Jean Piaget and Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky towards there theory towards learning through play as they consider "play to be an important part of childhood as a path to the learning process." ( Cyrus, n.a)  Piaget sees that learning through play can be "movement through practise play, imaginative play, and con...

Updating my CV... After reviewing my last update and the comments I received on it about regarding my GCSE results and should i include them at my level. After researching across the web i found that the advise i was getting was; "You should also summarise your GCSE results eg 8 GCSEs grade A-C (including English and Maths) rather than go through each one" (graduate-jobs.com UK Ltd. n.a) "Just the main ones like Maths and English unless others will support your application strongly. Do indicate how many you have in total!" (University of Kent. n.a) "Summarise, don't list, your GCSEs." (Monster Worldwide inc. [US]. n.a) So with this information I decided to take out my GCSE and just list my maths and English qualifications. See below... References graduate-jobs.com UK Ltd. (n.a).  Graduate CV - what to include.  [online] Available: https://www.graduate-jobs.com/gco/Booklet/graduate-cv-include.jsp. Last acc...

Task 1c. At first I struggled with this as to how I can approach it, so leaving it until now was the best choice. As I feel more confident with it and myself. I found that when recording it as me talking I was always correcting it or didn't like a section so I decided that wasn't for me. I made my mind up to go with a spider diagram look as so far I've learnt about myself is that this is how I learn, understand and picture things better.  I hope you enjoy watching it.  

Task 2c: Reflective Theory This task is focusing on my relationship with reflective practice, looking at existing tools with the use of critical thinking. My first thoughts when reading this task was what exactly in critical thinking? what is the definition?  I researched and came across that in fact there is no right or wrong answer.  "Critical thinking is to challenge a theory or a idea"  "critical thinking is the analysis of a situation based on facts..."  "critical thinking is looking at one's work or situation with value judgement"  These are just a few definition that I hand-picked out from "Critical thinking: An Exploration of theory and practice by Jennifer Moon" (Moon, J 2007) As I feel these helped me out the most.  Also finding a diagram of a cycle about critical thinking skills (Boundless, 2016) really helped with my understanding (see picture to the right), because I am a visual learner. So having it there as a...

  Journal Writing Experience My experience so far with reflective writing in my journal has been a task in itself as I'm not normally one for writing down feelings or events what has happened, so it's all new for me. I felt like looking back now and reflecting on my first couple of journal entry's, I find my self rambling on and not actually fully reflecting on the events or planning for the future or if the problem I had arose again.  To help with my reflective writing I decided to follow "Gibbs reflective cycle" on some entries I feel like this really helped me as it had the consent questions such as what happened? What were you feeling? What was good and bad about the experience? and so on... This got me to think more in depth about the events what happened and how I actual felt about them and how I could react to it if it arose again. I found that even though it helped me reflect and evaluate my days better I still found myself rambling on. A...

2D Images... As a dance teacher posting images and videos on Web 2.0 platforms, help promote me and my work to future employees. Also lets my students parents/guardians keep updated and see whats happening in the classes as well as the progress of the students. I decided to recently set up a teacher Instagram account. so go ahead and follow... Instagram: miss_ronnia (https://www.instagram.com/miss_ronnia/) I personally believe when using images and audio-visuals in a class environment, helps to get the story or aspect across to the students. As everybody learns differently some students may need visuals but some might understand with just vocals. Also when posting on web 2.0 platforms, people will like and share my pictures, videos and posts so this will help my work get noticed by others and also my students get noticed to.

Is Web 2.0 making us anti-social? Going back in time when technology wasn't around and we had conversations and met up and was being social-able. Now a days how many of you have everything on electrical devises? I know I do!! I use my phone and Ipad for literally everything. My music for classes, Banking, my dairy etc. Even though technology makes everything so much easier, is it in fact making us anti-social?  With technology and Web 2.0 always developing making it easier for people to maintain consent connection with friends and family through social media, which people are doing. "The problem, they say, is that we spend so much time maintaining superficial connections online that we aren’t dedicating enough time or effort to cultivating deeper real-life relationships." (n.a. 2015) I have to admit I do use social networking a lot to keep in touch with friends and work colleges. It just makes it so much easier knowing that they are a instant message away when need...

Overview of 1b   After reading through Reader 1 and focusing  on the 3 main topics of it reading in more depth as I feel like this helps me to understand and retain information better. It really made me think about how often and usefully I use Web 2.0 professionally. I have had Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts for a few years but all for my own personal use... I have always been careful as to what I posted on these sites as I now realized  how beneficial but also harmful sites are. So recently I have set up a profession Facebook and Instagram account for my teaching to keep my professional and personal life away from each other. When posting on my teaching accounts, I have to think of ethical considerations whilst using the web. I have to consider “what I a say, participate in and discuss with others on the web it is important considerations for professionals.” (BAPP, Reader 1, 2016/2017) So when using Facebook and other web 2.0 sources that provide m...

1b. Harnessing Collective Intelligence What is collective intelligence? Collective intelligence is an active field of research that predates the web, when groups of individuals collaborate or compete with each other, intelligence or behavior that otherwise didn't exist suddenly emerges; this is commonly known as collective intelligence. Obviously methods of collective intelligence existed before the internet. By using the web now gives us the ability to collect information from thousands or even millions of people. So using the web has now opened up many new possibilities. As Feenberg and Bakardjieva (2004) "identified that Web 2.0 allowed communities to develop beyond their 'existing professional networks' and offer a 'social space for people, strangers and almost strangers with diverse backgrounds to come together as equals, as generators of ideas, to deliberate and act collectively" This made me think about how and what people use the web for...

1b. Remixable data and transformations "Originating in hip hop and rap music, the notion that materials can be reused and rearranged for a new purpose is central to Web 2.0, where we as users share photos, music, text, ideas and opinions and 'riff off' each other to maintain and nurture dialogues." This isn't new in our industry just that the Web 2.0 makes it so much easier and faster to see and be inspired by another artist without mentioning them. Also with just a click of a button you can access artists' work from all over the world. It is good to be inspired by other artists' work to help create your own, but I think you should credit them when they make an impact to you as a person and to your profession. This made me also think about recent news of well known artists such as Beyoncé "being accused of copying visual artist Pipilotti Rists 1997 project "Ever is all over" for the video" ( Sonis, R 2016)  of "Hold Up...