Literature & opinions

From the literature I have looked at over the last few months it seems that people agree on the fact that "The Arts" are important but that not enough is done to make them survive. From my own knowledge of working in theatres the last 15 years has seen a decrease of school children attending theatre trips and more companies going into schools. Whilst they are still seeing live theatre I feel they lose some of the magic, culture and engagement. The general consensus from articles and websites is that the cuts to the arts affect the poorest areas most. Listening to a podcast of Sir Peter Bazelgette a key phrase stuck with me "a shared experience that moves us to laughter or tears". I personally feel from conversations I have engaged in that people don't get this any more. Either due to television/computers/smart phones etc and lack of 'live' experiences in the arts.
Most articles mentioned the fact that arts should be in all schools and that many didn't have enough arts subjects which led me to looking at our local schools curriculum. I found it interesting how arts can vary so much from school to school on both a curricular bases and co-curricular.

I think that arts mark really brings together arts and academia in this quote on their website "bringing arts and culture to life in every classroom". Not every arts classroom but every classroom. I asked some friends what they thought of this and these where the following responses:
1.
I personally think that schools should be primarily focused on the core subjects ie maths, English, science, history and geography but have arts incorporated too as not all people are artistic or need artistic talent for future jobs. I agree they should have 'arts' classes however this can be a follow on if chosen after school age or around school hours.

2.
I think you need both, especially as there are many children who struggle with the core subjects and express themselves through arts. I also think there isn't enough PE time in school, but that's a different story! Arts can be incorporated directly into the the core subjects such as literacy and history anyway. Just as ICT has to be. 

3.
A child who struggles to write English for example, can express themselves in art form or make a boring maths class colourful by using Art etc. For me, incorporating art into core subjects is vital.

4.
 I think the recent craze in adult mindfulness colouring books shows that there is real benefit from the arts across the spectrum of the curriculum. I perceive their to be a plague of mental illness in our country. If children and young people can de stress, vent or rationalise emotions by drawing, dancing, acting, singing, playing instruments etc then I perceive it as a positive thing that can only have a good impact on learning across the whole curriculum. As for whether that arts time should be stand alone or integrated... I'm not fully sure? I wish I'd had more arts time alongside all my science and maths! I do think it could have helped me manage my anxiety at school. Though I did dance outside of school 3-4 days a week. I think the arts stuff could well be after school or lunch time or holiday clubs.

I'm not sure if these opinions help anyone else but I thought I would share! 

Key Words

Arts in Education

Creativity

Improved academic performance

Motor skills

Confidence

Visual learning

Decision making 

Perseverance   
   
Focus

Collaboration
   
These are all words that have cropped up when looking at arts in education so I thought I would jot them in my journal - now its time to share :) Has anyone come across other key words?? 

6b - Merits and Limits

My initial thoughts I jotted down about the tools mentioned in reader 6:

Observations

Merits - real life situations, opinions, experiences.

Limits - teachers and students are not always natural when being observed.
.
Interviews

Merits - can adapt to the answers given.

Limits - hard to have questions that aren't influenced by your thinking.


Focus Groups

Merits - a good way to discuss opinions and questions freely

Limits - people may not wish to speak up in a group.

Questionnaires 

Merits - hard data/facts.

Limits - very black and white - no room for opinion.

6 - Mock Interview

I decided to try a mock interview with a close friend whom I have worked with in the past professionally when performing and workshop leading:

I explained what I was doing and that I was writing out her answers and she was more than happy to answer my questions -

1. What is your role at work?

Acting Course leader for  - BTEC Performing Arts Subsidiary Diploma Acting

2. How do you feel about the arts in education?

Great way for students to build key transferable skills to help them to achieve in other areas - for example employability skills; communication, customer service, presentation etc..

As I teach BTEC Performing Arts - I see a role for Drama as an academic subject in the curriculum.

3. Do you feel students that under achieve academically can flourish more in arts subjects?

I believe it can help build confidence and self-esteem to help students to believe in themselves and voice their own opinions.

4. Do you think "the arts" should be compulsory in all education settings from pre school up to 6th form?

I think it should be compulsory up to secondary.

5. How do you feel creative thinking helps students?

Helps them to think around a subject, see it from different points of view.

6. Why do you feel some students gain more than others from creative learning?

Confidence, if the student doesn't have confidence to explore/experiment - they will find it hard to think creatively.

7. Do you think the arts award programme or something similar where you document your arts learning journey should be rolled out to all education settings as an option?

Yes I think it would be useful as an option.

8. Are the arts seen as a dumping ground for students that want an easy subject?!

Not in my sector.

9. How have times changed for the way in which the arts are taught?! Has discipline change or societies way of learning?

In my 6th form discipline within the arts space isn't really an issue - it's more getting them to hand work in on time and attendance which I feel is not a new problem. This was the same 15 years ago.
Sometimes my students come in with poor literacy/time management skills - but this is something I embed into my course to help students address these areas.

I feel that the attention span of students has changed over the last 10 years due to the internet. Teaching used to be more lecture based in 6th form where as I deliver short, sharp, active tasks to keep my students engaged!

10. How do you feel about experienced practitioners teaching without "teacher status". Should this matter if they have the knowledge?

I think if it delivered as an extra-curricular subject and not exam based (GCE/GCSE/BTEC) experienced practitioners are more than able to deliver the material - Experience within the industry is more important, but teachers have skills with regards to lesson planning, assessment for learning etc... which is needed for examined courses.

 
Doing a mock interview was very interesting - I kept wanting to interject and add more unplanned questions but decided against it for this mock however I may do another to see if the flow is the same. When reflecting back I found that some of my questions could be looked at as leading - looking for a certain answer so in future I need to be more careful in my wording/phrasing. I enjoyed doing a face to face interview and liked the personal touch.

5b Ethics

After my initial thoughts I went on to look through the documentation in the staff handbook at school. Most of the things I had initially thought of were more appropriate to my own dance school and not the full time boarding school so I hadn't considered the long list of policies and procedures that are in place there.

• Safeguarding policy - focussing on prevention, protection, support, operation of safer recruitment and maintaining a safer environment in which children can develop and learn.
• Duty of care - a moral or legal obligation to ensure the safety or well-being of others
• Every child matters - there are five key principles to the policy: To be healthy, to stay safe, to enjoy and achieve, to make a positive contribution, to achieve economic well-being.
• Professional behaviour - keeping up the professionalism expected of the school.
• Online safety - asking students to work online and use blogs and making sure they are safe in doing so.
• 121 situations -  this happens frequently as we teach 121 classes. The dance studio has an open door policy so people can freely access the space during these sessions.
• Emails with students/ co workers - 99% of communication happens via email. These should remain professional at all times.
• CPD - it is important to keep developing as a teacher as students are like sponges who feed off you.
• Appraisal system - how can we as teachers improve unless we have feedback and set goals to work towards.
• Eating issues - making sure the students are taking care of their bodies and encouraging a healthy lifestyle.
• Self harm - report any issue to the health centre and house mistresses/playroom master.
• Students behaviour - this must be kept at the level expected of the school.
• Students dress code - these standards must be maintained.

Some of the list things I haven't had to deal with and others I have. For instance we have had students in the past that have had eating issues which have had to be dealt with in a sensitive manner informing the correct people.
I feel CPD and appraisals are an important way of keeping teachers up to date and in the no how of what they should be teaching.
I think most of the policies are there to protect not only students but staff and the school as well.

A couple of other things that keep coming back to me are the issues of not being qualified to teach but having years of experience in that field - is this ethical?! Could this do more harm than good to students?
I have also met several teachers over the years who have set up classes but have no affiliation to professional bodies...should this be allowed?  Should you have to be associated with others to be a good teacher?

5a Ethics - Initial thoughts

Looking back over my journal I am now posting my first list I made in relation to Ethics in the work place:

• DBS check - it is important to have your clearance to put parents minds at ease although this is not compulsory in all teaching private dance/drama class settings.
• Insurance - to cover both your students and yourself against accidents/injuries.
• Up to date qualifications - times changes/ideas change - teaching should keep up to date!
• Confidentiality - it is important not to discuss other students personal/private information.
• Age appropriate lessons - the work you teach must be correct for the students (physically, mentally,emotionally).
• Appropriate costumes for shows - teachers should be aware of how students dress in their shows as this can reflect on the teacher and how self concious the students are.
• Rehearsal/study/fee time balance - in the busy school I work at it is very easy for us to get caught up in rehearsals but we have to remind ourselves that the students need relaxation time and of course study time in the evenings.
• First aid consent - I make all of my dance school parents sign to say I can administer first aid and they sign to say if their child has allergies.
• Photo/Video consent - Again my schools parents sign for this and if I am posting anything on the web I ask their permission before doing so.
• Personal/medical information - when doing physical activity and being in my care I need to know certain details about students but of course this is only shared with other teachers and medical staff.
• Appropriate dress for the environment - if attending a school function I would not turn up in my jazz pants and ballet shoes. On the other hand I need to be dressed so I can move correctly  in class.
• Strict no smoking/drugs/alcohol policy - non of these are allowed!!!
• Physical contact with students - in my personal opinion you cannot teach dance and drama without a mutual agreement that there will be appropriate contact between students and teachers. There needs to be a trust that parents or children can openly say if they dont feel comfortable but I feel some contact if necessary in order to correct students and improve their skills for the better.

Responses from a newly qualified teacher

1.      How do you feel discipline has changed since you were a child?

I feel that despite being young myself that discipline has changed since I was young. I feel that children now do not have as much respect for their teachers as they used too. Children do not think twice about answering back or questioning a correction or what a teacher is saying to them. I feel that the development of social media over the past couple years, and also that the perception that children appear a lot older than there years, which again is I feel is down to social media. I don’t necessarily think its a lack of respect, I just think that its a complete different generation and a different way to the way I was brought up. We also now have so many rules and regulations as teachers of what we can and can’t do which does make it difficult for us to teach/give corrections and all it takes is for one child to say something to their parents and it could be blown all out of proportion, and I also think that children today are aware of this which affects their discipline.

2. Do you think experience is just as valuable as qualifications?

I do think that experience is just as valuable as the qualifications. You can’t teach experience and we do learn from our experiences which ulitimately makes us better. However I do think that the qualifications are important to have as well so that we do have a clear understanding of what we as teachers are passing onto our pupils

3. Should having dance/drama qualifications mean you should be able to transfer them to any dance/drama board?

I think it should. No matter what bored you train with the grounding and the technique is exactly the same, its just a case of learning different settings of exercises and sometimes difference in vocabulary. If you know how to correct a pirouette, its the same whether it is RAD ISTD IDTA – I believe that it is important that you do have a qualification with an exam bored but I do think that it should be transferable. If you are good at what you do, it shouldn’t make a difference as to what bored it is you should still be able to get the message across

4. Should acting experience give you the opportunity to teach LAMDA or Trinity performance exams?

I think that experience should be a factor, however I don’t think experience should allow you to be able to teach straight away. You may have all the acting experience of different genres but if you don’t have any experience in LAMDA or TRINITY how are you going to understand what's involved with them.

5. Should private dance/drama schools have an ofsted type inspection?

I feel that there should be some kind of system – There are so many dance and drama schools around at the moment how do you know which ones are better than the other, what each schools offer. If I was a parent I would want to make sure that my child was being taught safely and correctly in a safe environment and with no formal paperwork how as a parent are you able to define between a good school and an excellent school.

6. How do you feel about mixed level classes ie Grade 3 & 4 or bronze/silver together etc? Do you feel students can still progress?

I don’t think its ideal, as you have to average the level of the class and can not work with individual level specific exercises. If you need to work on specific exercises for exams etc then a mixed level class does make it difficult to achieve this as personally I am concerned with spending enough time with each group of student. Of course mixed level classes are okay on occations but not ideal on a regular basis

7. How valuable do you feel 'The Arts' are in an education setting?

I feel that its extremely valuable. I think that it gives students who may not be as strongly academic the chance to shine in something that they are passionate about. I also feel that it gives children confidence and is good for learning life skills. Like getting up and speaking infront of a large group of people confidently and clearly and giving them the confidence to do so. I also think its valuable to have a rounded education which means including the Arts as well, whether that be dance drama or music

8. Do you feel parents/students appreciate all that is involved in running dance/drama classes?

I feel that there are some parents who really appreciate what you do and are always willing to help anyway that they can to help and always say thank you. However I do feel that there are those parents who don’t have a clue what's involved! – They think that you just turn up and teach and then go home again. They don’t know the time you spend choreographing finding music doing the accounts extra time at exams late nights away from family and loved ones.

9. Should exams in dance/drama be compulsory or optional. Do students work as hard without a goal?

I feel that they should be optional – Some students come dancing to just get some weekly exercise which is fine. If students are focussed enough and  want to do it then they will work hard towards the exam but I think you shouldn’t pressure any child into taking an exam.

10. How valuable are the arts to under achieving students?

I feel that its extremely valuable! – The arts is somewhere that students who are under achieveing to shine and gain confidence, maybe even let off some steam and some frustration that they have when they are struggling with there academic studies.