Reflection - 500 - 700 words

My expectations of this unit were that it would be nice to be taught something instead of it being self-directed art. I didn’t pick this option to begin with so I was in the dark with what the unit entailed as I didn’t really look into it. It did sound interesting when I was in the talk about all the unit x options but I did just think that it was just creating workshops and delivering them to a verity of age groups.

I now know that it was to educate me in to the current educational system and to make me think of my opinions and maybe change them. Many individuals think that the education system is ‘out dated’ and is in need of change for example (This TED TALK

https://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare ) and many others have acted on the needed change and have created their own schools and adapted the curriculum to better suit what the children need, for example (This Kinder Garden 

https://www.ted.com/talks/takaharu_tezuka_the_best_kindergarten_you_ve_ever_seen ). There is also the film screening of ‘ Who’s Most Likely to Succeed’ that spoke about the disconnect between children and the learning but given a more creative subject they flourish. The time I spent in the primary school in particular 2 events was very rewarding,

                The first being I call it flower power. I was asked by a Year 5 boy how to make tissue paper flowers and I showed him how to do so, maybe 10 minutes after I caught the young boy teaching the rest of his table how to create the flowers. It just melted my heart the fact I had shown him how to make something and he was them showing others, it was just amazing to see. It showed that he had learnt a new skill and was willing to teach others.

                The second just made my day. At the start of the workshop the teacher asks one of the boys if he wants to join in and if he will behave, what looked like a quiet boy muttered yes. Teacher says your attitude is showing me otherwise you can go in the halls and do such and such with miss if you aren’t going to join in, the boys replies I want to join in. So what was made out to be a troublesome young boy joined in. This made me happy that he joined in but I wasn’t so keen on the tutors actions as I could see louder maybe more troublesome children. By the end of the 1 hour session this boy had created not only a brilliant 3D caterpillar but had created a 3D butterfly too, with little help from the group, just some encouragement. He was so pleased with what he made, he asked if he could take it home, then told me he wanted me to have it. To see someone who’s seen to be on the naughty side to the teacher, to then have got stuck in and create two 3D creatures was just so inspiring and it put the ‘Who’s most likely to succeed’ film into context.

These 2 events made me realise how important the change is needed to the curriculum. It proves that we don’t all learn in the same way.

There have been many things that I have learnt through this journey.  There has been how much I have grown within myself as an educator through the group work in the class and outside, I know what role I play within a group which is to given ideas but then take in everyone else’s. I understanding that every idea has its place within the development of a workshop or lesson and that barriers are only made by me and they stop the creativity of an idea before it has even blossomed. Any idea can be added to or tweaked by the group but they cannot do so if the idea isn’t given, in group work any idea is better than not giving one at all. I’ve learnt that I can create workshops for children that parents think are great and I can be a part of a team to create an event.

I am so pleased that i had to change options last minute because this has shown me so much more than what i would have imagined. It has given me more incentive to carry on with education and moving forward I know i definitely want to make a difference where I could, whether that is helping change a schools approach, going into a college and changing how students preserve things or going into a school that has an already modified curriculum. 

Lines of Enquiry - 500 - 700 words

Steam Co.

I have been in 2 groups during the mid-stage of this unit, 1 being a group of about 9 and we were to set up an event for steam co. (refure to Who’s most likely to succeed (WMLTS) : 05-04) and the second was a group of 4 and we were doing experience in a primary school (refure to Year 5 : 02:05).

As I mention in the WMLTS post this exorcise seemed very let’s say half sided with many members of the group of 9 not really contributing, there was 4 of us bouncing ideas and coming up with some good ones, however I did notice some members having ideas and not speaking up so often I tried to get the quieter half to talk and make sure their opinions were heard. I was doing this because it was group work and everyone should be given the chance to be heard, some people find it difficult to get a word in when the ideas are flowing in a smaller groups so I allowed for others to get involved as it’s important to get everyone to join and for them to feel accepted. I did take a step back when the conversation started to go towards having an end product, it was annoying to hear because it is what we have been learning not to have as it limits the creativity of the learner. By the end of the first day of ideas we had nothing concrete and everything was in the air because most ideas had been knocked but the tutors. This made me feel like what we had all contributed was just not good enough and even though I understood they know we can do better there were no out there ideas, I couldn’t think of any as I was thinking of the restrictions for example, the size of the room and the fact we couldn’t do this activity outside, even though I was trying not to. More frustration came when the group was not communicating over social media about the dates in which to meet.

I met with 3 member of the group to talk about this viewing and I decided that if we were to use most ideas that came up in the discussion and compile them together that the end idea involved everyone contribution and therefore no one feeling left out. With there only being myself and 3 others to talk to there were high amounts of stress and annoyance as it felt like we were the ones doing the bulk of the work.  I feel I worked well in the development of the ideas as I contributed and tried to engage the rest of the group. I could have not jumped in and spoke over some people’s ideas even though at the time the ideas were end goal specific and not necessarily contributing the right information. I wouldn’t say I was the leader as there were other strong voices as well but I’m glad I was heard within the group.

Primary School

For the primary school, I was in a group of 4, we were given the opportunity to create a 1 hour workshop with the Year 5 class that I have previously been in. I feel like I didn't play such a big part in this which I'm disappointed with, also I don't feel like I contributed enough with the ideas as I want too busy with the other project that I was helping to create and organise and put on. I did however, when I had the chance to read the idea which was all 2D biased and about butterflies and caterpillars, I suggested that the children should be given the choice to use 3D objects as well as they don't seem to get much chance to be that creative. During the set up one member who had over powered us all already had got all the materials without us knowing or without us knowing, she had bought butterfly foam pieces and placed them on the tables for the children to use. Even with us 3 saying it wouldn’t be a good idea they stayed and what was annoying and sad to see was the children using these shapes and not their imagination. Some children did decide to create them out of bottles or cardboard tubes which I'm happy about, they just needed some encouragement. I feel that the children being given a butterfly shape limits the child's creativity and learning because it is giving them an easy way out if they cannot think of how to create the animal in another way. It also doesn't allow them to make mistakes and to learn from them.

Event

Working in the collaborative group in which there where 3 of us, was rather interesting, fun and at times very annoying. It was a brilliant experience because it is very rare for students to be given a chance to create an event and be given the space to display our creations and make it happen. The event gave us an opportunity to start us a collaborative group, I was able to create workshops with a wide age range and we were able to get into the community and make something people who love to come to again. It also fell on at a time that I could use what I was learning from unit x to influence/change my approaches towards the workshops and the event itself, for example I changed from having a big messy workshop to manageable, quick 10 minute workshops and used the children’s art in the event. Annoyingly when it can to making of all the props and signs for the event it was left to myself and another girl. We got everything done to a good standard and in good time, bouncing off of one another with ideas and the end results were great. The annoyance was when it felt like it was just the 2 of us creating everything and putting in all the hours for a project that was the 3^rd persons main idea, little communication towards the end and timing issues for the final touches, along with the possibility of myself and the second person having to put up and do the hole event without aid from the 3^rd member. I’ve learnt to just get on with my task as it is important to have it finished regardless of whether others have done theirs. It also means less stress on my behalf and I can lend a hand for anyone behind. I also learnt that rolls should be determined at the beginning of any project and that I need to find likeminded people to work with. The event was a huge success and the family’s feedback was amazing. 

Year 5 Workshop

The lead up to today was very slow as many of us had deadlines for other areas of the course full stop I hadn't really thought of anything as I wasn't sure how I would be able to make a workshop interesting four children and I wanted to make it quite a big thing for example throwing paint everywhere as the children seem to be confided to the classroom so I wanted to see if we could get them outside but I wasn't sure how I would be able to do something like that or even be able to bring something like Messi into a classroom and keep it quite controlled. Gina had mentioned that the year 5 tutor wanted us to do something around insects. No one seemed to have many ideas other than Gina who had said about caterpillars and butterflies which everyone seem to like the idea of however I thought it was very two dimensional which the children seem to do a lot of so I'd mention the fact that what about bringing a 3D aspect into this for example loo rolls bottles which were welcomed to the idea as well.

When it came to us delivering the exercise for the children they all seemed very excited we did A Very Short Introduction got the children to answer questions about what they already knew about the process between caterpillars to butterflies which they knew quite a bit of. As the exercise went on myself and the three other girls were just going round explaining what the children could do. Gina had bought a butterfly foam thing that the children were using as an outline or as the butterfly instead of using the round imagination which is what was intended for them to do but this gave them a easy way out and didn't make them use their imagination and creativity as much as we had hoped so moving forward if we ask them to do something which is object based we do not take in anything that resembles that object so that the children can be as creative as they can. With the Caterpillar as there was no stencil photo or anything the children did struggle and ask some questions as to how they could do this caterpillar with a little nudge for one of the members Jodie she basically just asked what do you think a caterpillar looks like and this child has created something very colourful and he was very pleased with what he had made.

I feel this exercise went very well despite the fact that the children were using the butterfly phone things as the butterflies but many children did decide to create the amount of bottles or the loo roll cardboard tubes which I'm happy about. As I mentioned I wouldn't bring anything in that that resembles the final product as I feel that that limits the child's creativity regardless of what it is even if you just need that tiny bit of encouragement it's still their decision you just there to facilitate their learning so if they wanted to create a butterfly with two wings that would just send me circles either side then they learnt something from that and they can compare with what everyone else is done see where they've gone wrong. I feel even though I would say I'm a strong team member that this exercise I did step quite back from I should have got more involved with it which I am disappointed in myself about however I know that next time this was to happen I need to come up with ideas or whether they're humongous and I can't see that they're going to be done easily because someone else in the group might have similar ideas or would be able to down scale it to fit the room.

Here are the photos from today

Year 5

Today we were in the Year 5 class still observing but today the children were doing art. They were making rivers in stages. A lot of the children drew a river then cut out the exact shape out of blue paper. After going round talking to some of the children i was trying to get them to do more collage and explaining its like a mosaic where you have little bits of colour and stick them down because the children knew what mosaics where. Some children picked it up but others needed more talking to untill they understood it.
The one this that made my day was one child, he asked me how to make a flower so i showed him and soon after he was then teaching other pupils in his class how to make them. It showed that i did a good job and that he understood it so much he felt that he could pass the information on. Someone later on tweeked the technique to make some trees which was amazing, it just shows how much creativity children have if you show them one technique.
Here are the images from the day:

Most likely to succeed

Lead up to today .
A couple of weeks ago we had a meeting and sorted ourselves into groups of what we wanted to do and a hand full of us wanted to do the steam co. day. As ideas went on people who were late joined the group and were looking clueless, just listening and having little or no input. This was annoying as we needed ideas and everyone should have contributed.  The odd person was coming up with good ideas but they were all final object driven which is something we don’t need! The learner needs to create their final product and they need to learn something. This is what ideas were lacking. 
Next meeting.
Only 4 of us met. More annoying! And frustrating that others in the group were not bothered but I could see this in the previous meeting so we came up with an idea that incorporated everything from the first meeting with learning objectives and not outcome driven! It was good just needed tweaking. I layer told 2 other members of the group who didn’t turn up to the meeting and 1 member who turned up late lacked anything to what id just said and the other had different opinions but as we met because it was decided. 
Today.
There was a bit of confusion about the activity as not everyone was at the last meeting and social media, not everyone was checking it. Not my fault but its group work everyone should be involved. We had the majority of materials we wanted which was good. However too many opinions just added to the confusion and the idea changed back to having an original outcome. I was very annoyed because i tried my best to take this aspect out of the event and it was brought in by people who had not contributed as much as the rest. After setting up the tables (i was trying to make each table different, so that people didnt have an overwhelming amount of things in front of them) one member decided to put everything on everything untill i explained that overwhelming children with many items does not work, they dont know where to start. The tables then changed, however annoyingly the same person wanted to put up questions for example, what does education mean to you, describe education. These lead the learners to a more structured outcome which we do not want. I suggested having the word 'education?' to give an idea of what the learners would create but enough space for them to do what they want. This person went over me and asked a tutor not the group, and did it anyway. 
Over all the event was a success with some peoples minds being changed after they watched the film. Here are the photos with the post it notes being the reflections.

Film.
Machines can replace our muscles, brain and process power. When is the human obsolete?
100 years ago a committee of 10 all dictated what children should learn. It has not changed.
Larry rosenstock - people learn in different ways. He built high tech high. It was different. Help them do it on their own some kids can some kids cant. Public school but get less money per pupil and teacher. No bell. Subjects are combined.  What, how and how much they teach is up to the teacher.  Higher teachers who are interested in the subjects. Students encouraged to work individually and in groups

Vonuntering

I have done 3 days work experience in a nursery working with ages 2 to 4. I thought that it would be difficult to wake up at 8 and do a full day when my scheduled is not the best, however, i managed perfectly.
While i was there i was told not to take photos or have my phone on me as it is against policy and to keep the children safe. I was told not to answer the phone or the door as i was not a full member of staff. I could devise any art activity and do it in small groups as there were a lot of children. Lastly i  was not going to be left alone with any children for they protection and safety too.
One member of staff later told me that we are there to facilitate their learning, so they (the staff) set up areas and allow the children to play freely as long as they are not silly. They also told me about their 'free flow' play. This is when on a good day the doors to the garden are opened and the children are allowed to come and go as they please with staff both inside and out. To me this sounded like such a good place for children to start out their life, they are allowed and encouraged to learn through play.
Inside the nursery they have a messy art section and often they place a tray with different objects in for the children to but there hands in, for example, rice, glitter, pipe cleaners ect. There is a water after with many to plunge into it, tables for play doe, dress up area and a reading area. Outside there is a mud kitchen where the children can make all sorts or concoctions, a place to ride bikes, sesores and some soft play which is spongy, waterproof blocks the children can climb on.
It was such a good experience and they asked me back the week after and say i could be paid and if i get an enhanced DBS i can work there over summer and i have jumped to the opportunity i enjoyed it so much. It may not be the age range i want to work with but it has given me an incite into how younger children are and how they learn along with the environment. 

Second workshop

The second workshop started quietly but eventually people started to come through the door. Another student who was helping me out was telling the families at the park about the art and craft workshop. The parents were saying they didn’t hear about it before coming to the park so I do need to rethink the distribution of information. However I had over 15 children and some adults join in the 2 exorcises. At one point of the workshop every seat was full around the tables and some parents were stood, this felt like so much to handle at a point as i want on my own in the barn where the workshop was being held, and that I couldn’t cope but parents were understanding and it was a breeze in the end. A 2 year old who had never seen paint before got stuck in and didn’t want to leave which i thought was brilliant as it shows i'm doing a good job, along with multiple parents saying it was such a good idea and we have followers on our Facebook page now. The 3rd workshop however is going to have to be cancelled because no one can do it for me and I have a family commitment, it’s disappointing but I can’t do anything about it.