The advantages of using Imagery when teaching

Going back to my journal writing and reflective practice I wanted to write a blog about a few things I have learnt whilst teaching.

Since starting teaching properly in July this year I feel in a short amount of time my classes have improved because of my increased understanding of the use of Imagery.  The words that are cropping up in my journal regularly are 'images', 'imagination' and 'creativity'.

A small experiment

In one of my classes called 'Tricks and Tumbles' which is a combination of Gymnastics and Dance, I decided in this session I would be teaching 'Split leaps' or 'Split Jetes' across the floor.  The children I teach in this class range from 6-9 years and are mostly beginners.  At first, I explained the move and showed them how it should look.  I asked them to give it their best shot and do the move across the floor.  After this, I used the image of a big puddle in the middle of the floor and they had to jump over this puddle from one foot onto the other foot.  Immediately, I noticed a huge improvement in the leaps and I could see a lot more excitement in the children's faces.  I developed this idea with the children and added in a fence in front of the puddle.  Again, the height in the children's leaps improved greatly.  Since this lesson, I have used images in most of the moves that I teach.

This brings me to Ken Robinsons quote as shown below:

I have realised the importance of imagination so much in the past few months and think it is something that all teachers should use in their classes.

Affiliation and my Professional Network

I looked a bit more into Affiliation today and was not surprised when I read the extract from Crisp, J and Turner stating that Affiliation is an 'inherited trait'.  It also said that 'some people are more inclined than others to seek out affiliation.'  I can relate this back to myself.  For example, my partner works for a building company where he has little need to expand his professional network to improve his job.  On the other side of the scale is myself.  I need a support network of other professionals to help me grow as a professional.  Most of the jobs I am getting is through good word of an employee or someone seeing what I am up to on social media.  This provides my income and therefore helps me survive.  When I think of affiliating and networking as a survival mechanism it makes me determined to spend more time on expanding my network.

So, I wanted to try and expand by Professional Network by reaching out to the rest of you on the course.  I have recently been offered three classes at the Theatre in my town.  One for 6-18months, one for 18m-3years and one for 3-5years.  This is exciting, but I also want to go in as best prepared as I can.  If anyone has had any experience with these age groups, I'd love to swap ideas on class layout, games, rhymes and themes that you may have, even if it was something that didn't work out.  As I pointed out in my last blog there is something to learn from everyones experiences!

Theories relating to networking - Connection

On reading 'Connectivism - A learning theory for a digital age' this quote came up:

“nodes always compete for connections because links represent survival in an interconnected world” Albert - Laszlo Barabasi

If we change the words around to suit our industry it might look a bit like this:

'Performers always compete for connections because having these links means getting a job in this industry'

Connection is so powerful, especially in the arts industry.  Reading this research made me think about 'The Six Degrees of Separation' which I found to be a very interesting theory.

The theory was first proposed by Frigyes Karinthy who wrote a story called 'Chains' which kickstarted the theory. Then Stanley Milgram found a way to prove the theory.  In short, the theory means we are all connected to anyone else in the world by just 6 stages.  To help you understand and see Milgrams experiment explained I have posted two links that helped me.

http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/six-degrees-of-separation

http://www.sciencealert.com/are-we-all-really-connected-by-just-six-degrees-of-separation (A good video explaining the theory)

So, what I am trying to say is that if there is six degrees of separation in the world, then think about how many there will be in our small arts industry.  The more people you can connect with in this industry then the more likely your network is going to expand.  

Equally, it is important to not dismiss someone from your network, as you have potentially just cut off another 20 people!

My Current Professional Network

I have just read Reader 3 and also just had a great chat with Paula on Skype.

The concept of 'The Networked Professional' makes perfect sense to me as it is something I have thought about since my final year in college.  Before I graduated, I sent my CV to numerous kids clubs around my area (both dance and non dance) so that I could network with professionals in my area and asses the need for Dance and Gymnastics classes.  This benefitted me hugely as I have now managed to build strong working relationships with them and means I am often offered work as an outside Dance Teacher to come in and teach.  I know that I eventually want to open my own classes and a number of working professionals in my area have said they will support me with this.

A great quote that came to mind when I was talking to Paula about this was:

'Every man I meet is my superior in some way.  In that, I learn of him.'

I got this from the book 'How to make friends and Influence People.' by Dale Carnegie.  I read this before I graduated and have always kept it in my mind.  Every has different experiences in life and it is good to try and learn something off everybody.

Carnegie also has a chapter dedicated to 'Cooperation' and how to get it.  He uses the example of an Artist who struggles to sell his paintings to a leading stylist in New York.  Once a week, for three years he would go and visit the stylist and every time his paintings were rejected.  The artist then took on a new approach and went to the stylist and said 'Here are some uncompleted sketches.  Won't you please tell me how we could finish them up in such a way that you could use them?'  In the end, the stylist gave suggestions and the artist finished them up accordingly.  All paintings were bought from then on.

This example made me understand cooperation and its importance.  We need to be able to take on other peoples ideas and combine them with our own.  I can relate this back to myself to when I was offered to take my own classes for a company.  I had the knowledge and they had the target audience and trusted name. We worked together and made a successful class reach out to many young children in my area.  They had something I needed and I had something they needed.  It just worked.

I would really recommend reading Carnegies book as some of the quotes still ring in my head now in my Professional Practice.

As I get more experienced in networking I find that I really enjoy it now.  If I see someone at an event that I know works in the same area as me, I make a point of going up and introducing myself.  I'm not trying to be nosey or intimidating, I just think it is important to be aware of Professionals around you and I am genuinely interested in this line of work so it's great to share ideas.

I have recently been offered a dance class for 18 months - 2 year olds. I found this quite daunting, however, once I had reached out to my network who had experience in this area I felt inspired and interested to learn more.

 I feel in a good place with my current network, but am always looking for ways to build it.  How does everyone else feel about their professional network and how do you go about building it? Would love to hear thoughts.

Journal Writing Experience

After reading through the different ways of writing a journal I instantly knew what could work for me and what would not.  I immediately scrapped the idea of writing a journal from the view of somebody else, however, on deeper thought, I realised that I often imagine a parent or another teacher in the room when I am teaching, and this helps me to remain completely professional and 100% enthusiastic at all times.

For the past week, I have written journal entries and I now think I have come up with a format that best suits me

I want to be able to refer back to these so I want them to look simple and colourful so I can easily remember them.  The use of lists really works for me but I don't want my journal entries to simply be a list of words.  I aim to do a mind map for each event and then write a list of aims for improvement so they are clear in my head.

I did a bit of research into mind maps and found the creator 'Tony Buzan' to be very interesting.  In his clip that I watched he says 'the mind map is a reflection of the way the brain thinks'  You have a central idea/event and then it branches out into other ideas.  This way, I still feel like I am being creative with my reflection and letting my ideas just flow.  I think this ties in well with the Ken Robinson video I watched about the importance of creativity when learning.  I want my classes to be creative and allow my pupils to be creative, so I think I should reflect creatively too!

Here is a link to Buzan talking about the importance of mind maps and creative thinking:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlabrWv25qQ 

What I found was inhibiting my journal writing was the fact that I would get home from my classes or auditions and I had forgotten to either write the journal, or I had forgotten what I had learnt from class that morning.  Therefore, I like to carry my journal around with me so if an idea pops into my head it can go straight to paper!

Questions to ask yourself when writing a journal

I was unsure what to actually write about when starting my journal.  After reading 'Reflection on Practice' by Patricia Mclare it became a lot clearer. When taking time out to reflect on events I will ask myself:

1. What was I aiming for?
2. What exactly did I do?
3. Why did I choose this action?
4. What was I trying to achieve?
5. How successful was it?
6. Could I have dealt with the situation better?
7. How would I do it differently?
8. Did the Kids/Adults enjoy it?
9. How do I know that?
10. Will I now change future classes?

I think this has shown me how detailed my reflection is to be if I want it to help me learn and improve future experiences.  I may not answer all these question every time but this is a good framework to work with.  

Reader 2 Skype Session 26th October

Last nights Skype session was a really great chance to hear other peoples opinions on Reflective Practice and has led me to a lot of great research this morning!

We all realised that in this industry we engage in different forms of learning for different tasks.  For example,  when learning a dance routine we are engaging in Bodily-Kinaesthetic and Spatial Intelligences, where as if we are learning a song to sing, we are engaging our musical intelligence.

I read through David Boud 'Using Journal Writing to enhance Reflective Practice' and found it useful when he talked about 'focusing our thoughts'.  Often I come out of a class I have been teaching or an audition and have a million thoughts in my head of how I could improve for next time or what I should be practising, but then when I arrive home I have forgotten completely about it.  I am hoping that by starting a journal and taking fifteen minutes out of my day to write comments I will focus my thoughts and make sense of my experiences.

Paula put a link to Ken Robinson on her blog and I have watched a few of his videos and ideas and I have to say it has really clicked with me.  I think I agree with his thoughts so much because I can relate it back to myself.  He emphasises the need to teach children into creativity and not teach them out of it.  I remember when I suddenly wanted to change my career path from Physiotherapy to Dance.  I can still see my teachers faces when I told them.  It was sort of confused and bewildered that I would take up this 'unstable' career as I'd worked so hard to get the grades I needed.  But now, I have jobs that I love and been given so many opportunities that a university would not have given me.

He says:

'Human communities depend upon a diversity of talent.'

This is so true.  We should be encouraging young people to study their passions.  Not just something that will get you a job.

Another quote that I had to write down:

Everyday, everywhere, our children spread their dreams beneath our feet and we should tread softly.'

All teachers should have this up on their walls in my opinion.

Heres the link to his talk if you haven't seen it!

https://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I want to keep Ken Robinson's ideas in my mind when I teach and reflect to make sure no one I teach feels like I did when I decided to do what I love.