My BAPP Journey

Integrating  arts at an early stage. Even though my inquiry is looking at dance in primary school ages and how dance is incorporated in to the classroom and teaches experiences with this. The Washington Post wrote an article about a kindergarten teacher "using theater and dance to teach math and it's working..." very interesting. Melissa Richardson a drama teacher was sent from the wolf trap institute to collaborate with kindergarten teacher, Carol Hunt to encourage students in her class using arts integration. The article talks and gives an  about how they incorporated arts into the classroom and the statistics of doing so compare to other students not having the experience from the wolf trap program.  For more information go to :  https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/teachers-are-using-theater-and-dance-to-teach-math--and-its-working/2016/02/22/61f8dc0c-d68b-11e5-b195-2e29a4e13425_story.html?utm_term=.c9a5c246457a I wanted to find out mor...

How integrating arts int other subjects make learning come alive. This piece of literature talks about how art had been recognized as an important part of a well-rounded education, but when it comes down to setting budgets priorities, arts rarely rise to the top. Some schools cut dance and arts out but some are weaving arts into everything they do. This article talk a lot about the " Integrated Arts Academy (IAA)" which is a school and association purely concentrating on arts not being a second thought " Instead, artistic learning goals are held up as equals to academic standards and teachers work hard to design lessons that highlight content through art."  Here is a link to a blog of IAA with a video posted on September 9th 2015 showing thier students talking about learning through arts. Blog link:   https://integratedartsacademy.wordpress.com/ Elizabeth  Paterson a fourth-grade teacher at  Cashman Elementary School in Amesbury, Massachusetts s...

ARTICLE: Importance of music & movement in education of young children Another article but this information is more on how music and movement benefits a young child. As it can help a child with "development, social interaction and language growth in early childhood education." Brain Development: According to early childhood music and movement association , 85% of brain development occurs by the time a child reaches 3 years. Language: Speaking a language fluently involves regular pauses, stops and starts, use accents and even increase or decrease the speed of speech, therefore language has its own tempo. This relates to music as it "has a tempo and teaching young children songs that have rhythm and beats or learning to march in time with music can help development and improve their communication skills and learn the rhythm of speaking." The article then goes on to describing different types of songs and activities to help benefit young children...

The deeper I look the more interesting this inquiry gets... Another piece of literature which really opened my eyes to how dance can really be integrated to any lessons such as in this case mathematics. I came across a website called "Dance Equations - Teach Math through Dance" - It is a website offering teaching resources just as books and music with lesson plans in to help teachers teach math in a fun active way.  It also explains how math and dance are similar in ways such as angles and symmetry etc.  Here is a video about Dance Equations:  https://videopress.com/v/QFx12DGU and the Link for the website if your interested in having a look: https://danceequations.com/ Dance Equations are also on the web 2.0 platform such as you tube and Facebook. Expanding and passing on ideas and knowledge to people all over the world.

New Literature.... After days and days of more researching I came across a professor Marilyn Berrett and ex-student of BYU, Erika Cravath.  Erika Cravath researched about integrating dance into the classroom for her honors thesis project with Marilyn Berrett being one of her mentors on this journey. Erika has also published a book in 2011 the title being "Creative Dance Integration Lesson Plans by Erika Cravath" It's a guide for teachers to help integrate dance into their lessons also giving example lesson plans at the end of the book.  To find this book here is the link:  https://education.byu.edu/sites/default/files/ARTS/documents/educational_movement.pdf   Also here is a video of Marilyn Berrett and Erika Cravath conducting a workshop to teachers on how they can incorporate dance into the classroom environment.   Link:  https://vimeo.com/20476307

Module 3... we are a couple of week now into module 3... honestly I'm can't wait to get stuck into it. From my feedback I have decided to find more research of literature to help develop my professional practice and how I can make a difference. I will be blogging findings I find on the way of a way to keep track of literature and information. Look out for them in the next following days.

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...