I feel good about my ideas on task 2a and I'm confident I made the right choices, however as described in Task 2a - Reflective journal I struggled a little with writing my journal in the different styles. Being incredibly strong minded, I have to admit to, on occasion, not being very open to ideas which are not my own, or that I do not see as beneficial. Especially when not able to talk them through with someone who thinks they are a good idea! Nevertheless, I attempted to write my blog in the styles suggested.
Some of the styles were fairly straight forward, and not a long way from my own style, again described in Task 2a - Reflective journal
The first four styles: Description, Initial Reflection, List and Evaluation were just isolated version of parts of my own style. Graphs, charts and diagrams at least lead me to learn how to make a flow chart. I found these all useful in their own right and although I have not changed my style because of them I at least understand the way I choose to write.
"What if?" And "Another View" however, were less helpful. I don't have the time in the day to reflect on every situation that could have arisen. I understand that this is useful for some processes e.g Risk Assessments or when trying to puzzle through an event that has not yet happened for example, how best to run the whole school rehearsal of a show? "What if we tried...?" What about if...?" "What happens when...?" but in the instance of an everyday journal could be detrimental to my sanity... and time consuming (never-ending).
Another view is interesting, and I like the idea of looking at the day from the perspective of someone you have had a professional disagreement with, but teaching dance is an isolating job and I am rarely around other adults to have a professional disagreement - I also, on the whole look at most situations as a conversation arriving at a collaborative outcome, and not a disagreement. I know if I wrote from the perspective of the children they would sometimes wish I wasn't being so hard on them, or from the perspective of the parents they might wonder what exactly I was shouting about this time (often, but not always, I am just shouting over the music so the children can hear me). But I already know this, I've already reflected on it. In an update to Facebook before the summer I wrote:
"I'm always really hard on my kids; they might not always love me for it but it always pays off. Today the examiner said: "Their teacher deserves a medal, they really knew what they were doing" Well done guys, you survived me and I survived your exam"
and after an examination session a few weeks later:
"Another examiner congratulated me yesterday on the high standard of work at M.A.Dance..."
I have recently changed jobs, however the principal at my current school and I have very similar teaching methods. Maybe it's our level of training, or maybe it's our personalities. I often joke that here is the first place I have ever been considered 'the nice one'. We have standards to maintain, and a work ethic to uphold. The work ethic here is phenomenal - but if a member of the team falls below par the whole team is affected. Conversely, whilst enforcing these standards I always make sure the children know when they have succeeded, or exceeded my expectations and I congratulate where appropriate; a recent example being a child who missed her show rehearsal. The ethos of the school is about being a team, and understanding what that entails. We have a rule where if you miss class, you are not choreographed into that section. The child took it upon herself to get together with the other students outside of class time and learn the work she had missed in case there was the opportunity for her to be in the section. This is the kind of behaviour that is encouraged and rewarded. The parents and students are all looking at the long game, and they stand by us.
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