Do some specific ideas emerge about your networking and sources?
Networking is a huge tool that builds our relationships with those in the industry, I need to find those networks that have already been through what I want to go through, the transition of two totally different careers. It is vital I develop my networking skills using the tools I have learnt to build more networks for my future employment.
Does your engagement to date seem appropriate?
I feel as part 3 of the module my focus was less on this than the other two parts, I think this may be because I saw 'Networking' and thought 'well I already know how to do that' turns out when looking into the theories and understanding them more I was far from where I thought I was... I am very much a planner and I think the planning can sometimes overtake the actual task, What I should be doing is focusing on the work rather than focusing on the perfect plan. Networking is a very similar concept to the engagement I should have on tasks, forget the planning of networking- just go out and do it!
Are your ideas or concerns shared by others within and/or beyond your professional area of work?
Blogging is the biggest answer to this question, it is nice to see that others feel the same concerns you have and aren't afraid to share them...being able to use Web 2.0 and view the blog as well as create the information (sharing comments) is so useful to add extra bits of knowledge and concepts you many have missed. Reading beyond the BAPP blogs and into blogs created by others studying similar concepts within our course has massively opened up my mind to new concepts missed by myself when researching.
Does sharing ideas and communicating with others shift your thinking, planning or practice?
Before the module I never thought blogging could help me learn even more, but by reading others blogs I sometimes question my own blog, which then creates a debate in my head which in turn creates another blog for myself. Communication with others is so important as highlighted in Reader 3 - Community of practice and Connectivism - and it is this interaction with others that creates an extended learning base. Commenting on others blogs also allows me to share my ideas and perhaps change or influence their ideas of practice.
Does critical reflection help you decide what really matters and the actions to take?
If i didnt take a critical approach to why things work and why things don't then there would be no improvement for future success, by analysing deeply I can work out the correct approach so I think before thinking about critical reflection I was definitely a lot more comfortable with failure than I am now. Everything I do now I seem to refect on, this is something that has become more apparent by writing my personal journal, I have had a reason to write a journal and this in turn has made me approach things I wouldn't normally look into.
To what extent do concepts and theories assist you in thinking about your professional networking in different ways?
Before undertaking this BAPP course I had very little understanding of the concepts of professional networking, I felt I knew what it was but the theories behind it were completely new to me, now that I have an understanding of the theories I can already advance from the ideas I already subconciously use to the more advanced theories of professional networking thus in turn increasing my knowledge on the networks I have yet to discover.
Are you left thinking differently prior to this part of the module? How?
This is the question I feel most confident to answer, as already mentioned above the new concepts of professional networking introduced to me have facinated me on how important professional networking is for a the basis of a sucessful career. By actually framing in on what networks I use and the sources I have I feel I have the correct actions in place now by using tools of reflection to develop the networking process in my current and future practices. The tasks have allowed me to give myself time to focus more in depth on my skills through the networking process, without the sessions that Paula and Adesola delivers to us I wouldn't have the same thinking as I have now. I already feel a great sense of learning achievement throughout the module and especially the new networking concepts. Looking back through my private journal reflects these feelings of knowing nothing to feeling confident enough to make blogs on the subjects.
The next part of this task is to make comments on others blogs, I thought the best way to do this would be to wait for people to upload blogs on this part of the module and then collabaroate all these comments into one large blog. Whilst waiting for this I am going to research into other forums and blogs relating to the concepts the tasks have covered and try and share my thoughts through comments on these new blogs that I have not come across before.
Tuesday 22 November 2016
Task 3b - Reader theories on networking
Reader 3 touches on five theories all related to professional networking, before this module I knew the basics of professional networking whilst studying at college and how important it was to create a large network to gain a sucessful career. It is becoming more apparent to me how true this actually is. The theories the reader focuses on are Cooperation, Affiliation, Social Constructionism, Connectivism and Communities of Practice. These words and phrases at first made no sense to me so it took me a lot of bravery and courage to set focus on this task and how to understand it, especially in the sense of what can they offer me? Using a few concepts of these theories should create 'The Networked Professional'. The session with the other BAPP arts students and Paula did make my thinking a lot clearer on some of this.
Communities of Practice
This is a concept that was first used by Lave and Wenger. Definted to us as:
https://www.learning-theories.com/communities-of-practice-lave-and-wenger.html
A neighbourhood to you and I would be considered a Community but by community of practice we mean people who share the same learning and knowledge as you do and come together as a community. The three charcteristics seemed vital for something to be a Community of practice are as follows....
A DOMAIN- A SHARED DOMAIN OF INTEREST
A COMMUNITY- MEMBERS ENGAGE WITH EACH OTHER (SHARED INTERESTS OF DOMAIN)
THE PRACTICE- MEMBERS OF THE COMMUNITY ARE PRACTITIONERS
During the session I mapped my communities of Practice with the help of Paula.
Affiliation
This is a concept I know I already am fairly familiar with, the creation of relationships, some people inspire me and like I mentioned in the session blog with people seperating their social and professional lives I find this quite hard to do, the line between a relationship on a professional basis and those of a social basis are hard to define and the line can waver. Especially in the arts industry Affiliation can be pretty dangerous, whereas co-operation is a little less tying. Affiliation is a friendly concept and one that in the right sense can build some great networks.
Co-operation
This is a concept I had heard of but never looked into deeply, the reader 3 suggests; ‘cooperate till maximum benefit then defect’, thus my understanding being once something has been achieved the group no longer has to cooperate, quite a selfish act but nevertheless a networking process.
Game Theory strongly links to this, an article that really helped my understanding at the level we cooperate was https://www.quantamagazine.org/20150212-game-theory-calls-cooperation-into-question/. In it is a great example of a 'tit for tat' strategy.
I find this whole theory fascinating and reading into Robert Axelrod and 'The Prisoners Dilemma' has also helped with the understanding of this concept. I think I would struggle to use Co-operation as an only way to network due to the fact I pride myself over not being a selfish person, but with Affiliation and Cooperation together in the right balance I can see how I would make a strong 'Networked Professional'.
Connectivism
In a way Connectivism takes me back to task 1b where I looked into Web 2.0 and how it has given us the opportunity for a viewer to be a creator, in order to share knowledge etc. Experience has long been considered the best teacher of knowledge and by people sharing this knowledge through online forums and blogs we then in turn learn more, previous to Web 2.0 we couldnt use the concepts of Connectivism. BAPP is a great example of just how Connectivism has an influence on our learning and networking skills.
George Siemens was the biggest originator on this theory and I watched him speaking in this youtube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqL_lsogeNU&feature=player_embedded. He phrases that 'structured learning is irrelevant these days'. It's an interesting watch if you get chance!
Stepehen downes also has some great slide shares on the subject http://www.slideshare.net/Downes/connectivism-and-personal-learning
http://www.slideshare.net/Downes/elements-of-connectivism
Social Constructionism
Now this for me was the hardest theory to understand and I still feel I need some extra research into what this really is. A great simple video I came across through a google search that made Social Contructionism more understandable for me was the one below.
I'm not sure whether I'm right in the theory but to me it means that because people are making something seem real through social interaction etc then it becomes real...
For example someone could have badly reviewed a product they had bought and because someone wanting to buy the product read it, it made them think badly of the product too, to me social contructionism shows that we put a lot of trust in what others say, and their experience can affect someone else who hasnt necessarily had the experience.
Because of my confusion on this theory I am going to take up some more reading on this one, any sites you have that you guys could recommend to help me understand this better would be great!
After looking into all these concepts and ideas about networking I feel already a much better understanding of the processes networking involves. Before taking this module I would have never reflected over the way I did a task, but on reflection in my private journal of how I dealt with this certain task I feel I've already set the appropriate actions in place to make myself understand in much more detail.
Communities of Practice
This is a concept that was first used by Lave and Wenger. Definted to us as:
'Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.'
A neighbourhood to you and I would be considered a Community but by community of practice we mean people who share the same learning and knowledge as you do and come together as a community. The three charcteristics seemed vital for something to be a Community of practice are as follows....
A DOMAIN- A SHARED DOMAIN OF INTEREST
A COMMUNITY- MEMBERS ENGAGE WITH EACH OTHER (SHARED INTERESTS OF DOMAIN)
THE PRACTICE- MEMBERS OF THE COMMUNITY ARE PRACTITIONERS
During the session I mapped my communities of Practice with the help of Paula.
Affiliation
This is a concept I know I already am fairly familiar with, the creation of relationships, some people inspire me and like I mentioned in the session blog with people seperating their social and professional lives I find this quite hard to do, the line between a relationship on a professional basis and those of a social basis are hard to define and the line can waver. Especially in the arts industry Affiliation can be pretty dangerous, whereas co-operation is a little less tying. Affiliation is a friendly concept and one that in the right sense can build some great networks.
Co-operation
This is a concept I had heard of but never looked into deeply, the reader 3 suggests; ‘cooperate till maximum benefit then defect’, thus my understanding being once something has been achieved the group no longer has to cooperate, quite a selfish act but nevertheless a networking process.
Game Theory strongly links to this, an article that really helped my understanding at the level we cooperate was https://www.quantamagazine.org/20150212-game-theory-calls-cooperation-into-question/. In it is a great example of a 'tit for tat' strategy.
Connectivism
In a way Connectivism takes me back to task 1b where I looked into Web 2.0 and how it has given us the opportunity for a viewer to be a creator, in order to share knowledge etc. Experience has long been considered the best teacher of knowledge and by people sharing this knowledge through online forums and blogs we then in turn learn more, previous to Web 2.0 we couldnt use the concepts of Connectivism. BAPP is a great example of just how Connectivism has an influence on our learning and networking skills.
George Siemens was the biggest originator on this theory and I watched him speaking in this youtube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqL_lsogeNU&feature=player_embedded. He phrases that 'structured learning is irrelevant these days'. It's an interesting watch if you get chance!
Stepehen downes also has some great slide shares on the subject http://www.slideshare.net/Downes/connectivism-and-personal-learning
http://www.slideshare.net/Downes/elements-of-connectivism
Social Constructionism
Now this for me was the hardest theory to understand and I still feel I need some extra research into what this really is. A great simple video I came across through a google search that made Social Contructionism more understandable for me was the one below.
I'm not sure whether I'm right in the theory but to me it means that because people are making something seem real through social interaction etc then it becomes real...
For example someone could have badly reviewed a product they had bought and because someone wanting to buy the product read it, it made them think badly of the product too, to me social contructionism shows that we put a lot of trust in what others say, and their experience can affect someone else who hasnt necessarily had the experience.
Because of my confusion on this theory I am going to take up some more reading on this one, any sites you have that you guys could recommend to help me understand this better would be great!
After looking into all these concepts and ideas about networking I feel already a much better understanding of the processes networking involves. Before taking this module I would have never reflected over the way I did a task, but on reflection in my private journal of how I dealt with this certain task I feel I've already set the appropriate actions in place to make myself understand in much more detail.
Session 3 Chat 21/11/16
The Adobe connect session with Paula and some of the other BAPP course students covered so much of the pondering questions I had...
Firstly we covered the questions we may have about Part 3 of the module - professional networking. It was interesting to hear different peoples perspectives of what they thought the difference was between a network and a professional one. For some they keep it very seperate, two different pages for the private and personal and the professional and public. For me it is quite hard to do this as most of the professional networks I have are mainly my friends too. This was something I had never really picked up on, a professional network can be a friend too. This all linked into Lave and Wenger theories - 'Community of Practice'.
Paula asked us what Community of Practice's we had... no one answered so lucky me got picked on! Fortunately by Paula asking me directly it made me understand the concept a lot more once she had explained and she used me as an example mapping the communities I have... once she had started the process for me it became clear to me that I had many more I had never even considered before today. Me and Amelia had a little chat at the end of the session and actually found that both of us are a community of practice for each other, as we both have sources of information and both know each other from before undertaking this course. By the end of mapping my own communities I ended up with an additional 3 circles than Paula had created for me.
Unfortunately I had to leave the session early due to work commitments but I have taken a look at the slides I missed. It looks like a strong topic of conversation after me leaving was the Critical Reflection Essay, the slide with what we can contain was very useful to me, especially the use of appendices that I have never really come accross before, I was used to referencing but not adding appendices so I think this will be quite a challenge for me when it comes to it!
Overall the session has shot my confidence and belief in myself up, before the session I was feeling behind and not on track, but now I know where I am going forward I have a better sense of what to do next. Looking at the picture below I was on the 2nd step, throughout the session I moved up to the 'I'll try to do it' step and today I'm feeling the 'I can do it' step. Something as simple as this picture is a great way to reflect on your feelings about an upcoming task.
Comments or questions you have about the session post below, or anything I vitally missed when I left would be interesting to hear about! where do you feel you are at the moment on the step ladder? With not long to go let's all try and reach the top :)
Firstly we covered the questions we may have about Part 3 of the module - professional networking. It was interesting to hear different peoples perspectives of what they thought the difference was between a network and a professional one. For some they keep it very seperate, two different pages for the private and personal and the professional and public. For me it is quite hard to do this as most of the professional networks I have are mainly my friends too. This was something I had never really picked up on, a professional network can be a friend too. This all linked into Lave and Wenger theories - 'Community of Practice'.
Paula asked us what Community of Practice's we had... no one answered so lucky me got picked on! Fortunately by Paula asking me directly it made me understand the concept a lot more once she had explained and she used me as an example mapping the communities I have... once she had started the process for me it became clear to me that I had many more I had never even considered before today. Me and Amelia had a little chat at the end of the session and actually found that both of us are a community of practice for each other, as we both have sources of information and both know each other from before undertaking this course. By the end of mapping my own communities I ended up with an additional 3 circles than Paula had created for me.
Cabaret artists
– allow me to expand my networks outside of the hotel and allow me to network
with people higher up in the industry than myself, having these contacts means
they know more people who are at the top and capable of giving out jobs
Tutors/Lecturers-
Paula and Adesola are a massive network to me because they are my only contacts
who know the course and can give me feedback on my work
Team in my current hotel – this practice means we all know how the ‘Nidd Hall’
framework should be, without this community we couldn’t have social lives nor
run the hotel without each other.
Other Bapp students-
past and present these students can share their problems that they maybe had in
the past and give me tips or share their problems where I can help out,
blogging allows me to network with this community of practice easily
Bourne Leisure employees- this network is the largest of all the networks for me
in terms of my current practice, the email service we use here allows us to
network with every single employee within the large company to share
knowledge/advice/news
Other hotels in the same
branch- again similar to the bourne leisure employees, this community share the
brand ensuring that marketing etc are all the same and in terms of my practice
– shows and entertainment activities are done properly.
Overall the session has shot my confidence and belief in myself up, before the session I was feeling behind and not on track, but now I know where I am going forward I have a better sense of what to do next. Looking at the picture below I was on the 2nd step, throughout the session I moved up to the 'I'll try to do it' step and today I'm feeling the 'I can do it' step. Something as simple as this picture is a great way to reflect on your feelings about an upcoming task.
Comments or questions you have about the session post below, or anything I vitally missed when I left would be interesting to hear about! where do you feel you are at the moment on the step ladder? With not long to go let's all try and reach the top :)
Monday 21 November 2016
It's essay time = STRESS
Today in terms of copying up the work 'blog style' it has been productive, however the time I have been using could of been used to add more to the dreaded essay I know that is hiding at the back of everyone's mind. I have decided to take a new approach for the remaining two tasks! BRIEF plan only in the notepad and blog the main bulk.
I dont know about anyone else but I'm still feeling behind... It's that feeling nobody wants but everybody somehow gets when it comes to written work.
I basically just wanted to blog my feelings and see if I was the only one and if I'm not how are you all coping with the final aspects of module 1?
Just a little motivational picture for you all if you are all feeling a bit down with the deadlines coming around so fast......
Task 3c - Sources of Information
When looking at sources overall, the biggest source we can all relate to again is Web 2.0- On a daily basis I go onto social media sites like facebook and twitter for my social side of life and also my professional career. The dangers of these sites I already spoke about earlier in task 1b on my blog, however before beginning module one I never realised how many online facilities and sources were available to me. I also use search engines on a regular basis, and it is search engines like google and things where we have to be careful of where the original source of certain materials come from. How much can we trust these sources online? Now that the online world allows a viewer to be a creator, anything could be published... wikipedia is a great example of how Web 2.0 has affected the online resources we have and the trust people put into them, a common mistake from senior school was that I used wikipedia as a trustworthy resource. For a comedy read this link can just truly show how wikipedia can be edited by absolutely anyone....http://www.bestcollegesonline.com/blog/25-biggest-blunders-in-wikipedia-history/
We also now rely on Web 2.0 to promote ourselves as performers, sites such as spotlight and casting call pro where a simple upload of a show reel can gain you a job shows just how much the world is moving forward from the audition process, it makes you wonder will auditioning becoming a thing of the past? It is harder by the minute to promote yourselves on sites like this, with the industry growing with more and more people adding more and more competition but it is how we professionally network ourselves via these sites that is most important.
Blogs and forums are also a good source to be able to discuss with people your practice, the same goes for a meeting environment, with BAPP the module sessions are great sources of information for myself, whatever you yourself are thinking you can add another 10 ideas from others within the session that you may never have thought of before.
Work colleague's are a vital source of information for myself, not only can they share in an experience or feeling you may have but they can offer support for if you are feeling down, offer that encouragement we need when facing a difficult situation. When analysing shows and making vital notes and changes for the shows they are a vital part of my reflection process, feedback is huge to me. This is the same for a guest perspective, as a source of information the guests who come to my workplace are a source of feedback and by socialising with them you never know who they may have as networks to them.
The sharepoint network within my workplace is a large resource for me when it comes to briefing for activities and breaks. Whenever i am feeling in a place of insecurity there is always somewhere I can look on the Sharepoint network to make those feelings feel more relaxed.
Privacy within these sources of information is also important to understand, for example with Sharepoint the Warner company is a brand and by sharing this brand with others the brand doesnt remain unique, the brand standards should be kept but not so much shared with anyone else. More for my future career I have to also think about confidentiality, as a primary school teacher it would be best to have accounts with different names so a social life can be seperate from that of a professional teacher.
For BAPP arts students we put a lot of trust in the literture provided to us, I for one can certainly relate to quoting bits from the reader's given to us, it is what we do with these sources of information that develop our practice. By using the readers as a basis for knowledge I can develop and put more trust into the resource the more I research into it. By having the evidence and research that we put in ourselves behind the readers we should find that trusting them as a source is not very hard to do at all.
Focusing in on the types of sources there are?
A primary source is an original document containing firsthand information about a topic
A secondary source contains commentary on or discussion about a primary source.
A tertiary source presents summaries or condensed versions of materials, usually with references back to the primary and/or secondary sources
http://www.lib.vt.edu/help/research/primary-secondary-tertiary.html
Earlier I talked about trusting sources... and it is very much dependent on the type of source it is from the above. The site above shows some great examples of how the sources are divided.
It would be interesting to see if any of you have any other sources you feel are vital to their own practice and whether I can use these as well. Please feel free to comment!
We also now rely on Web 2.0 to promote ourselves as performers, sites such as spotlight and casting call pro where a simple upload of a show reel can gain you a job shows just how much the world is moving forward from the audition process, it makes you wonder will auditioning becoming a thing of the past? It is harder by the minute to promote yourselves on sites like this, with the industry growing with more and more people adding more and more competition but it is how we professionally network ourselves via these sites that is most important.
Blogs and forums are also a good source to be able to discuss with people your practice, the same goes for a meeting environment, with BAPP the module sessions are great sources of information for myself, whatever you yourself are thinking you can add another 10 ideas from others within the session that you may never have thought of before.
Work colleague's are a vital source of information for myself, not only can they share in an experience or feeling you may have but they can offer support for if you are feeling down, offer that encouragement we need when facing a difficult situation. When analysing shows and making vital notes and changes for the shows they are a vital part of my reflection process, feedback is huge to me. This is the same for a guest perspective, as a source of information the guests who come to my workplace are a source of feedback and by socialising with them you never know who they may have as networks to them.
The sharepoint network within my workplace is a large resource for me when it comes to briefing for activities and breaks. Whenever i am feeling in a place of insecurity there is always somewhere I can look on the Sharepoint network to make those feelings feel more relaxed.
Privacy within these sources of information is also important to understand, for example with Sharepoint the Warner company is a brand and by sharing this brand with others the brand doesnt remain unique, the brand standards should be kept but not so much shared with anyone else. More for my future career I have to also think about confidentiality, as a primary school teacher it would be best to have accounts with different names so a social life can be seperate from that of a professional teacher.
For BAPP arts students we put a lot of trust in the literture provided to us, I for one can certainly relate to quoting bits from the reader's given to us, it is what we do with these sources of information that develop our practice. By using the readers as a basis for knowledge I can develop and put more trust into the resource the more I research into it. By having the evidence and research that we put in ourselves behind the readers we should find that trusting them as a source is not very hard to do at all.
Focusing in on the types of sources there are?
A primary source is an original document containing firsthand information about a topic
A secondary source contains commentary on or discussion about a primary source.
A tertiary source presents summaries or condensed versions of materials, usually with references back to the primary and/or secondary sources
http://www.lib.vt.edu/help/research/primary-secondary-tertiary.html
Earlier I talked about trusting sources... and it is very much dependent on the type of source it is from the above. The site above shows some great examples of how the sources are divided.
It would be interesting to see if any of you have any other sources you feel are vital to their own practice and whether I can use these as well. Please feel free to comment!
Task 3a- Current Networks
In the industry I am working, networking is so essential, especially with the cabaret artists we receive and also for future employment keeping these close networks at hand. Also the professional networks we use within Warner/Bourne Leisure are vital. Some vital information I remember receiving at college by a teacher was keep a little diary of everyone you meet, where you met them, their contact details and the contacts they have (eg- cruise contacts). The common phrase most performers use these days are 'It's not what you know, it's who you know'. As awful a phrase that can be it's incredibly true.. it's not entirely about talent these days.
College is something I am trying to cling onto, the networks there are MASSIVE! Guest teachers and the experience even the permanent teachers have is so important, it was so vital I gave them a good impression for if a choreographer was ever to to go them and ask what I was like... In this task I am looking at the networks I currently use...
For Warner's the sharepoint network is probably the biggest, for readers of my blog, sharepoint is a site where all warner information is stored and shared... from the diary of entertainment and what artists we are getting to all the guests we are dealing with for different break this network is like a warner's thesaurus. In terms of professional networks this site works more like a dropbox site where one user can get some information another user has uploaded.
Another useful network here at Warner's especially for management is the outlook service we use, from the outlook programme we can access all the Warner's email addresses for every hotel and all head offices. Without this network we wouldn't be able to contact everyone as a whole so easily. For me the head of entertainments are the most important to keep in the know with, however as part of outlook we can also share with the whole of bourne leisure companies, so haven holidays and butlins etc.... In terms of job prospects for entertainers, this can be huge.
Other obvious networks close to me are of course going back to what Web 2.0 delivers - the social media aspects of the online world - Facebook/twitter etc. These social media sites are few of those the professionals out there use... nowadays we have Linkedin and other professional business networks.
As well as being in groups on facebook like 'The Hustle' a page where people post about current performing jobs and groups that share things like sheet music, I am an administrator of the Nidd Hall Warner Entertainment team page.. this is essential for promoting ourselves to people especially of a younger generation who may come to us after seeing a video on our facebook page.
Other sites I currently use in order to professionally network myself are Casting call pro, spotlight, equity, all that are full of professionals in the industry.
Last but not least one of the biggest networks we always seem to forget about are friends and the live communication we have everyday. Especially here in my job we all like to share song choices for cabaret but it can be quite frustrating when someone decides to 'copy' your song. The competition that we have in this industry is massive! But without it how would we be strong enough to get through.
College is something I am trying to cling onto, the networks there are MASSIVE! Guest teachers and the experience even the permanent teachers have is so important, it was so vital I gave them a good impression for if a choreographer was ever to to go them and ask what I was like... In this task I am looking at the networks I currently use...
For Warner's the sharepoint network is probably the biggest, for readers of my blog, sharepoint is a site where all warner information is stored and shared... from the diary of entertainment and what artists we are getting to all the guests we are dealing with for different break this network is like a warner's thesaurus. In terms of professional networks this site works more like a dropbox site where one user can get some information another user has uploaded.
Another useful network here at Warner's especially for management is the outlook service we use, from the outlook programme we can access all the Warner's email addresses for every hotel and all head offices. Without this network we wouldn't be able to contact everyone as a whole so easily. For me the head of entertainments are the most important to keep in the know with, however as part of outlook we can also share with the whole of bourne leisure companies, so haven holidays and butlins etc.... In terms of job prospects for entertainers, this can be huge.
Other obvious networks close to me are of course going back to what Web 2.0 delivers - the social media aspects of the online world - Facebook/twitter etc. These social media sites are few of those the professionals out there use... nowadays we have Linkedin and other professional business networks.
As well as being in groups on facebook like 'The Hustle' a page where people post about current performing jobs and groups that share things like sheet music, I am an administrator of the Nidd Hall Warner Entertainment team page.. this is essential for promoting ourselves to people especially of a younger generation who may come to us after seeing a video on our facebook page.Other sites I currently use in order to professionally network myself are Casting call pro, spotlight, equity, all that are full of professionals in the industry.
Last but not least one of the biggest networks we always seem to forget about are friends and the live communication we have everyday. Especially here in my job we all like to share song choices for cabaret but it can be quite frustrating when someone decides to 'copy' your song. The competition that we have in this industry is massive! But without it how would we be strong enough to get through.
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?
My passion has always being in the performing arts industry, whether thats performing in shows, teaching dance/musical theatre or working backstage for theatre companies. Working for warner you receive all aspects of an entertainment industry... The teaching as a dance captain, the entertainment for the guests including the performance in shows. Working as a dance captain I find it fascinating how different people learn choreography or lyrics... before taking an interest in the theories of reflection I didn't understand why someone couldn't pick something up that I was teaching, or why something was more difficult for others, I really admire the way the team approach rehersals and aren't afraid to speak their mind about how they are feeling, the team as a whole are alwasy motivated and enthusiastic to learn and without them I couldn't do my job. It has been their efforts that has helped me understand the way each of them like to be told feedback and learn things.
What gets you angry or makes you sad? Who do you admire who shares your feelings or has found a way to work around the sadness or anger?
It can make me angry at times when people bring in their negativity to work, the last thing I want after a bad day is negative thoughts or the opposing, if I'd had a good day I dont want people coming in and ruining that for me, sometimes when I share my thoughts about the negativity more negativity is created, a lot of this is explained in recent journal entries because of my late mood at work with the stress we have. It also makes me angry that when I try to share this anger or feelings with other friends who aren't in the industry they look down on me and think I am being dramatic over what they call 'a drop out subject'. The arts has sometimes always been perceived as a very easy job, it is only until you are in that position you realise it isn't.
In all aspects I respect everyone who goes against peoples thoughts about the arts and keeps that positive attitude that is much needed in this industry... for example movie stars that were probably all through school told to be academic and have now become the most succesful.
What do you love about what you do? Who do you admire who also seems to love this or is an example of what you love?
I love seeing guest satisfaction after an activity or performance and love receiving that feedback, without the guests we couldn't do what we do, who would we have to tell us how good we had been? Who would be the motivation for what we do? All of what I do has the guests interest at heart, on my days off I even love to socialise with the guests round the hotel because I love them to see the passion I have for them and what I do. Here at Warner's it's very easy to create close relationships with regular guests and it is these close connections that make me love what I do.
What do you feel you don’t understand? Who do you admire who does not seem to understand it or who has found a way of making not understanding beautiful or has asked the same question as you?
Currently I am in the situation of not understanding where I am heading with my career, at college we were always told to have the motivation to keep going but if I don't know where I am going it is hard to understand this.... I am wanting to progress in the teaching route of primary schools but am I any use to them having only a performing background? Also currently at work I am feeling in the place of not understanding where I belong in the team, where do I have the right to speak up and say I'm not happy with something? Is this down to my manager? I feel this was something never explained to me and my understanding of the role is still not completely there with it being fairly new. As a team we always talk and it crops up about future employment and everyone seems to have a very open attitude about it, luckily here we are giving the opportunity of permanent contracts and I think I am pushing myself to fast with what am I doing next when I haven't even finished here yet with what I want to achieve.
How do you decide the appropriate ethical response in a given situation? To what extent are disciplinary responses different to that you might expect more generally in society?
Working as a dance captain it is really hard to decipher the line between your team being your friends and your team being your product, especially as we all live on site away from families and friends it is apparent that team obviously have to have a social life or we couldn't survive, however when it comes down to work it is hard to hide the love you have for your friends and the responsibilities I have for making a good show (product). Discipline is huge in rehersals but at the same time being careful of the response from those you consider close friends. Done the right way friendships can be kept, done the wrong way it can end you being the 'bad guy'. Generally in a job you would have seperate friendships to those you have at work... here we dont have that. In one way Warner's is its own society.
The main questions I took from this task that I want to look more into is How an individual like myself with a performance background can do well in a primary school? How will children learn in an academic environment with the influence of my background? Where are the differences from teaching adults choreography as a dance captain to teaching children academics... the transition of the jobs I am going from and to is massive!
My passion has always being in the performing arts industry, whether thats performing in shows, teaching dance/musical theatre or working backstage for theatre companies. Working for warner you receive all aspects of an entertainment industry... The teaching as a dance captain, the entertainment for the guests including the performance in shows. Working as a dance captain I find it fascinating how different people learn choreography or lyrics... before taking an interest in the theories of reflection I didn't understand why someone couldn't pick something up that I was teaching, or why something was more difficult for others, I really admire the way the team approach rehersals and aren't afraid to speak their mind about how they are feeling, the team as a whole are alwasy motivated and enthusiastic to learn and without them I couldn't do my job. It has been their efforts that has helped me understand the way each of them like to be told feedback and learn things.
What gets you angry or makes you sad? Who do you admire who shares your feelings or has found a way to work around the sadness or anger?
It can make me angry at times when people bring in their negativity to work, the last thing I want after a bad day is negative thoughts or the opposing, if I'd had a good day I dont want people coming in and ruining that for me, sometimes when I share my thoughts about the negativity more negativity is created, a lot of this is explained in recent journal entries because of my late mood at work with the stress we have. It also makes me angry that when I try to share this anger or feelings with other friends who aren't in the industry they look down on me and think I am being dramatic over what they call 'a drop out subject'. The arts has sometimes always been perceived as a very easy job, it is only until you are in that position you realise it isn't.
In all aspects I respect everyone who goes against peoples thoughts about the arts and keeps that positive attitude that is much needed in this industry... for example movie stars that were probably all through school told to be academic and have now become the most succesful.
What do you love about what you do? Who do you admire who also seems to love this or is an example of what you love?
I love seeing guest satisfaction after an activity or performance and love receiving that feedback, without the guests we couldn't do what we do, who would we have to tell us how good we had been? Who would be the motivation for what we do? All of what I do has the guests interest at heart, on my days off I even love to socialise with the guests round the hotel because I love them to see the passion I have for them and what I do. Here at Warner's it's very easy to create close relationships with regular guests and it is these close connections that make me love what I do.
What do you feel you don’t understand? Who do you admire who does not seem to understand it or who has found a way of making not understanding beautiful or has asked the same question as you?
Currently I am in the situation of not understanding where I am heading with my career, at college we were always told to have the motivation to keep going but if I don't know where I am going it is hard to understand this.... I am wanting to progress in the teaching route of primary schools but am I any use to them having only a performing background? Also currently at work I am feeling in the place of not understanding where I belong in the team, where do I have the right to speak up and say I'm not happy with something? Is this down to my manager? I feel this was something never explained to me and my understanding of the role is still not completely there with it being fairly new. As a team we always talk and it crops up about future employment and everyone seems to have a very open attitude about it, luckily here we are giving the opportunity of permanent contracts and I think I am pushing myself to fast with what am I doing next when I haven't even finished here yet with what I want to achieve.
How do you decide the appropriate ethical response in a given situation? To what extent are disciplinary responses different to that you might expect more generally in society?
Working as a dance captain it is really hard to decipher the line between your team being your friends and your team being your product, especially as we all live on site away from families and friends it is apparent that team obviously have to have a social life or we couldn't survive, however when it comes down to work it is hard to hide the love you have for your friends and the responsibilities I have for making a good show (product). Discipline is huge in rehersals but at the same time being careful of the response from those you consider close friends. Done the right way friendships can be kept, done the wrong way it can end you being the 'bad guy'. Generally in a job you would have seperate friendships to those you have at work... here we dont have that. In one way Warner's is its own society.
The main questions I took from this task that I want to look more into is How an individual like myself with a performance background can do well in a primary school? How will children learn in an academic environment with the influence of my background? Where are the differences from teaching adults choreography as a dance captain to teaching children academics... the transition of the jobs I am going from and to is massive!
Wednesday 16 November 2016
Task 2c- Reflective Theories
The dictonary definition of reflection is as follows...
'a fixing of the thoughts on something; careful consideration.'http://www.dictionary.com/browse/reflection
In reader two it states ' the process of learning form experience is a process of turning information inot knowledge'. This is exactly what this module focuses on, using what we know and processing it into what we have learnt.
The aim of this task is looking into the different practioners and seeing if I can relate to any of their theories in the way I already write or whether I can give their theories a try. I had already look at Kolbs cycle on one of the first tasks and found that it was an easy way to decipher what ways we enter the learning process. He said:
So in this blog I'm going to now focus on some of the practioners I had never heard of before beginning this task.
John Dewey
John Dewey saw reflection as a further dimension of thought, he saw it as a purposeful act:
1: Reflection moves a learner from one experience into the next with deeper understanding
2:Reflection is a disciplined way of thinking
3: Reflection needs to happen, in interaction with others
4:Reflection requires a certain attitude to value intellectual growth of oneself and others
To Dewey an experience is more than just taking part in something, and an experience is not an experience without interaction. Knowing now what I know about Dewey it makes sense that David Kolb used Dewey to inform his work on the cycle of learning experience.
Howard Gardner
This is one practictioner after researching I found particularly interesting. Gardner focuses on Multiple intelligences show ways that different people engage with learning.
Online you can access a multiple intelligence free skills test http://www.businessballs.com/freepdfmaterials/free_multiple_intelligences_test_manual_version.pdf I recommended anyone researching into Gardner to go and give it a go, it is a fantastic way to find your strongest intelligences based on Howard Gardners theories....
My results showed I am mostly Logical-Mathmatical closely followed by interpersonal, meaning i like numbers and logic and I am aware of others feelings, the rest were fairly even except spacial visual scoring low.
The multiple intelligences are not limited to the seven he bases his theory on and he has since considered other intelligences in his latter work.
Howard Gardners theory brings to life that if I make it as a sucessful primary teacher then every child I teach will favour towards some of these intelligences in the way they learn, and recognising these will only make me into a good teacher.
Donald Schon
Schon defies reflective practice as two things-
Reflection in action is to reflect on behavior as it happens, whereas, Reflection on action reflecting after the event, to review, analyze, and evaluate the situationhttps://graysreadinggroup.wordpress.com/2012/12/18/the-reflective-practitioner-by-donald-schon/
From personal experience it is definitely harder to reflect on things as they are happening and most of us prefer the analysis after an event, but Schon brings to life that using both of these could show some differences in thoughts or feelings and using both the in action and on action ideas you can develop an all rounded reflective piece of writing.
Graham Gibbs and Honey and Mumford
These are all practictioners that developed off Kolb.s original ideas.
Graham Gibbs reflective cycle has 6 stages, most of which I already use during a reflection of an event or day... https://www.kcl.ac.uk/campuslife/services/disability/onlineresources/StudyGuides/Using-Gibbs-Reflective-Cycle-in-Coursework.pdf
Whereas Honey and Munford identify 4 distinct styles of learning which I looked at after Module 1 session 2 with Paula, their theory found I was more of an activist.
All these theories above in one way overlap, and a use of all practioners when thinking about reflective practice will only make me a better learner.
Any comments on any of your thoughts on which practioners you can relate to best I would be really interested to hear your thoughts.
'a fixing of the thoughts on something; careful consideration.'http://www.dictionary.com/browse/reflection
In reader two it states ' the process of learning form experience is a process of turning information inot knowledge'. This is exactly what this module focuses on, using what we know and processing it into what we have learnt.
The aim of this task is looking into the different practioners and seeing if I can relate to any of their theories in the way I already write or whether I can give their theories a try. I had already look at Kolbs cycle on one of the first tasks and found that it was an easy way to decipher what ways we enter the learning process. He said:
”Knowledge is continuously derived from and tested out in the experiences of the learner.”
So in this blog I'm going to now focus on some of the practioners I had never heard of before beginning this task.
John Dewey
John Dewey saw reflection as a further dimension of thought, he saw it as a purposeful act:
...it includes a conscious and voluntary effort to establish belief upon a firm basis of evidence and rationality” (Dewey, 1933)Carol Rodgers wrote about Dewey and brough to life some of the most important concepts Dewey believed in... these are as follows. I recommed reading the article as she really makes Dewey's theories understandable http://www.bsp.msu.edu/uploads/files/Reading_Resources/Defining_Reflection.pdf
1: Reflection moves a learner from one experience into the next with deeper understanding
2:Reflection is a disciplined way of thinking
3: Reflection needs to happen, in interaction with others
4:Reflection requires a certain attitude to value intellectual growth of oneself and others
To Dewey an experience is more than just taking part in something, and an experience is not an experience without interaction. Knowing now what I know about Dewey it makes sense that David Kolb used Dewey to inform his work on the cycle of learning experience.
Howard Gardner
This is one practictioner after researching I found particularly interesting. Gardner focuses on Multiple intelligences show ways that different people engage with learning.
Online you can access a multiple intelligence free skills test http://www.businessballs.com/freepdfmaterials/free_multiple_intelligences_test_manual_version.pdf I recommended anyone researching into Gardner to go and give it a go, it is a fantastic way to find your strongest intelligences based on Howard Gardners theories....
My results showed I am mostly Logical-Mathmatical closely followed by interpersonal, meaning i like numbers and logic and I am aware of others feelings, the rest were fairly even except spacial visual scoring low.
The multiple intelligences are not limited to the seven he bases his theory on and he has since considered other intelligences in his latter work.
Howard Gardners theory brings to life that if I make it as a sucessful primary teacher then every child I teach will favour towards some of these intelligences in the way they learn, and recognising these will only make me into a good teacher.
Donald Schon
Schon defies reflective practice as two things-
Reflection in action is to reflect on behavior as it happens, whereas, Reflection on action reflecting after the event, to review, analyze, and evaluate the situationhttps://graysreadinggroup.wordpress.com/2012/12/18/the-reflective-practitioner-by-donald-schon/
From personal experience it is definitely harder to reflect on things as they are happening and most of us prefer the analysis after an event, but Schon brings to life that using both of these could show some differences in thoughts or feelings and using both the in action and on action ideas you can develop an all rounded reflective piece of writing.
Graham Gibbs and Honey and Mumford
These are all practictioners that developed off Kolb.s original ideas.
Graham Gibbs reflective cycle has 6 stages, most of which I already use during a reflection of an event or day... https://www.kcl.ac.uk/campuslife/services/disability/onlineresources/StudyGuides/Using-Gibbs-Reflective-Cycle-in-Coursework.pdf
All these theories above in one way overlap, and a use of all practioners when thinking about reflective practice will only make me a better learner.
Any comments on any of your thoughts on which practioners you can relate to best I would be really interested to hear your thoughts.
Task 2b- Reflective Writing
It has been a huge important week here at Warner Leisure Hotels Nidd Hall! Our first turkey and tinsel break! Now for those of you who dont know what this is, it is basically having an xmas eve, christmas day and a new years day when its not really xmas at all! I thought the premier of the week and eveyrthing I do during that whole week would be a great experience to look at the different ways of writing a journal. Going from the ideas in the handbook I decided to pick an activity I held or took part in this week and focus on that specific task in a different style of writing each time.....I initially used my filofax to jot everything down at the time and now I am collaborating them all together for this blog article.
Description- What/where and when?- description would be the way I usually go about writing a journal, I find this the simplest method.
Tonight was the premier of our brand new christmas show 'Warner Wonderland'. 5 minutes before we were due to go on stage, the mechanical stage that manouvers out onto the dance floor wasn't working. After a full day of rehersals on this show with the pullout working, it couldn't of happened at a worse time! I decided to take the decision to go ahead and trust that the team could work with each other to make this work. On we went and after the first dance number everyone seemed to have pulled it off! There was absolutely nothing to worry about. At the end of the show many guests congratulated us on the situation and said they didn't even know it wasn't supposed to be like that.
Initial Reflection- Feelings/mood/thoughts
After the show mentioned above, an immediate feeling of relief spread over me, As a dance captain on the premier of a new show and a broken stage, panic initially struck me! What do I do?! Do I call off the show? Do we change and do a different show we are more confident with?Im glad I went ahead with it as the a great sense of pride was felt after it was all over. Working with such a friendly team that can make something like that work is rare to find. The night made me really appreciate working here. Thoughts were in the back of my mind about what is going to happen for the rest of the week, will any more surprises crop up that we don't want, but at that very time all I felt was gratitude for everyone I work with making my job a lot easier.
Evaluation- what went well/bad? what did I learn?
Today was the first time Nidd Hall hosted an activity called Piano Feet. Basically where the guests play christmas melodies on a huge floor piano. For the first ever time doing it, it worked really well to have a couple of the team hosting it rather than just one person, the guests appreciated the motivation from all of us rather than just one person. Placing the pianos in a semi circle also ensured there was no-one that felt outcast. It also worked really well having an audience watching, this made the activity not only fun but quite hilarious from an audience's point of view when the guests went wrong and when I was looking an idiot waving around a conductor baton shouting loads of numbers. Its important in an activity like this to avoid being bossy as this takes the fun out of it. We recorded the experience on a smartphone to look back on and keep hold of the things that worked well. When teaching the older generation of guests that we mainly receive at Warner's it is also important to bear in mind they are not the same as a young mind. So when trying to get them to remember sequences of numbers you have to put yourself in their shoes - this can link to the style of writing } another view.
Another View- perspective of another person/object
As a dance captain one of my main responsibilities is teaching the new team members the shows that we perform. This week I was teaching a singer her last show as she has already learnt the other ones. When reflecting on the activity I put my focus on how she would of been feeling and wrote an extract as if I was her.....
'Today I had rehersals with Alice, having already learnt 3 out of the 4 shows here at Warner's as well as performing cabarets and learning song lyrics there was still more to learn. It's never ending. I struggle with dance much more as a vocalist and I was worried Alice may speed through it because she is a dancer. For the first hour nothing was going in, I just couldn't remember it at all, speaking up I told her she was going too fast and could she slow down, you could tell her patience was running low but she carried on encouraging me and by the end of the two hours together I felt so much more comfortable. '
After reflecting on how the singer felt at the end of rehersals it made me think How can I approach this better for next time? At the time I never really considered how much she actually had to learn adn that maybe I was going a little too fast. This particular style of journal writing I had never really considered but now I have I feel I will use it a lot more as it makes you consider others feelings and how this can help with your own reflections.
Graphs- diagrams and charts
I decided to use the whole turkey and tinsel break to use this style of refective writing, I am going to compare it to a usual normal midweek break. Using this website to create a free chart helped me visualise the comparisons. https://www.meta-chart.com/multi-bar
Evaluating from this helps show me that I enjoy the turkey and tinsel breaks more however they give me a lot more stress and I am certainly a lot busier during these breaks and there is less freedom to play around with the activities as they must be brand standard. A normal midweek break is still fun just not as much as the turkey and tinsel and this may be because its the same thing every time whereas turkey and tinsel is a lot different! Perhaps by the end of the T&T period I will do another graph and see if I find the fun and stress as high.
List- making lists of things you did/felt/saw
For me this was the hardest style of reflective writing.... The only time I feel I use lists is when I'm creating a shopping list or a list of things to do! I had never thought about writing a list of my day...
Things i did?- pretended it was new years eve, danced with a widowed guest, performed a show, made a rota...
By even starting this list I feel it doesn't help me reflect on the day enough in detail, only helps me remember things.
What if?- what would you love/hate to happen- use imagination.
For this style of writing I am going to use the Pantomime premier we performed on the last day of turkey and tinsel.
After the bad start to the week with Warner Wonderland not going to plan we all hoped Jack and the Beanstalk would be fine. The panto involves putting together a very large heavy wooden set and the what if questions are never ending for the panto....
The what ifs: The set collapsed during the show, people forgot their lines, no audience turned up, no audience laughs at the jokes, audience walked out, bad feedback, the music or lighting failed to work, someone is poorly, we get a huge stand innovation, I get the biggest clap for being the smallest part, we get good feedback.
Again I dont particuarly find this style of writing helpful to me after an event has taken place because it makes me not focus on what did happen, however I can see how you could use it as a reflective took for before an event takes place and then look back and compare.
As a whole task I found this very informative and learnt so much from just using 8 different ways of writing, some of which I had never come across before.
Any comments of other questions you ask yourself during reflective writing le me know and I am more than happy to give it a go for my future journal entries!
Thankyou for reading and apologies for the HUGE blog entry.
Description- What/where and when?- description would be the way I usually go about writing a journal, I find this the simplest method.
Tonight was the premier of our brand new christmas show 'Warner Wonderland'. 5 minutes before we were due to go on stage, the mechanical stage that manouvers out onto the dance floor wasn't working. After a full day of rehersals on this show with the pullout working, it couldn't of happened at a worse time! I decided to take the decision to go ahead and trust that the team could work with each other to make this work. On we went and after the first dance number everyone seemed to have pulled it off! There was absolutely nothing to worry about. At the end of the show many guests congratulated us on the situation and said they didn't even know it wasn't supposed to be like that.
Initial Reflection- Feelings/mood/thoughts
After the show mentioned above, an immediate feeling of relief spread over me, As a dance captain on the premier of a new show and a broken stage, panic initially struck me! What do I do?! Do I call off the show? Do we change and do a different show we are more confident with?Im glad I went ahead with it as the a great sense of pride was felt after it was all over. Working with such a friendly team that can make something like that work is rare to find. The night made me really appreciate working here. Thoughts were in the back of my mind about what is going to happen for the rest of the week, will any more surprises crop up that we don't want, but at that very time all I felt was gratitude for everyone I work with making my job a lot easier.
Evaluation- what went well/bad? what did I learn?
Today was the first time Nidd Hall hosted an activity called Piano Feet. Basically where the guests play christmas melodies on a huge floor piano. For the first ever time doing it, it worked really well to have a couple of the team hosting it rather than just one person, the guests appreciated the motivation from all of us rather than just one person. Placing the pianos in a semi circle also ensured there was no-one that felt outcast. It also worked really well having an audience watching, this made the activity not only fun but quite hilarious from an audience's point of view when the guests went wrong and when I was looking an idiot waving around a conductor baton shouting loads of numbers. Its important in an activity like this to avoid being bossy as this takes the fun out of it. We recorded the experience on a smartphone to look back on and keep hold of the things that worked well. When teaching the older generation of guests that we mainly receive at Warner's it is also important to bear in mind they are not the same as a young mind. So when trying to get them to remember sequences of numbers you have to put yourself in their shoes - this can link to the style of writing } another view.
Another View- perspective of another person/object
As a dance captain one of my main responsibilities is teaching the new team members the shows that we perform. This week I was teaching a singer her last show as she has already learnt the other ones. When reflecting on the activity I put my focus on how she would of been feeling and wrote an extract as if I was her.....
'Today I had rehersals with Alice, having already learnt 3 out of the 4 shows here at Warner's as well as performing cabarets and learning song lyrics there was still more to learn. It's never ending. I struggle with dance much more as a vocalist and I was worried Alice may speed through it because she is a dancer. For the first hour nothing was going in, I just couldn't remember it at all, speaking up I told her she was going too fast and could she slow down, you could tell her patience was running low but she carried on encouraging me and by the end of the two hours together I felt so much more comfortable. '
After reflecting on how the singer felt at the end of rehersals it made me think How can I approach this better for next time? At the time I never really considered how much she actually had to learn adn that maybe I was going a little too fast. This particular style of journal writing I had never really considered but now I have I feel I will use it a lot more as it makes you consider others feelings and how this can help with your own reflections.
Graphs- diagrams and charts
I decided to use the whole turkey and tinsel break to use this style of refective writing, I am going to compare it to a usual normal midweek break. Using this website to create a free chart helped me visualise the comparisons. https://www.meta-chart.com/multi-bar
List- making lists of things you did/felt/saw
For me this was the hardest style of reflective writing.... The only time I feel I use lists is when I'm creating a shopping list or a list of things to do! I had never thought about writing a list of my day...
Things i did?- pretended it was new years eve, danced with a widowed guest, performed a show, made a rota...
By even starting this list I feel it doesn't help me reflect on the day enough in detail, only helps me remember things.
What if?- what would you love/hate to happen- use imagination.
For this style of writing I am going to use the Pantomime premier we performed on the last day of turkey and tinsel.
After the bad start to the week with Warner Wonderland not going to plan we all hoped Jack and the Beanstalk would be fine. The panto involves putting together a very large heavy wooden set and the what if questions are never ending for the panto....
The what ifs: The set collapsed during the show, people forgot their lines, no audience turned up, no audience laughs at the jokes, audience walked out, bad feedback, the music or lighting failed to work, someone is poorly, we get a huge stand innovation, I get the biggest clap for being the smallest part, we get good feedback.
Again I dont particuarly find this style of writing helpful to me after an event has taken place because it makes me not focus on what did happen, however I can see how you could use it as a reflective took for before an event takes place and then look back and compare.
As a whole task I found this very informative and learnt so much from just using 8 different ways of writing, some of which I had never come across before.
Any comments of other questions you ask yourself during reflective writing le me know and I am more than happy to give it a go for my future journal entries!
Thankyou for reading and apologies for the HUGE blog entry.
Thursday 10 November 2016
Task 2a Reflective Practice
Task 2a consists of writing a journal everyday, when initally looking at this I thought SIMPLE, during college we were asked to critique our days and write regular journals. However in a college learning environment I realise now this is completely different to an employment environment. I find it easy to write a journal when constantly learning things however on a day to day basis I have found it harder to work out what I have learnt behind the hidden day activities.
My usual process for writing a journal is the usual standard questions, after reading David Boud's article I feel I already use the concept of how he feels reflective writing should be approached:
What happened? (returning to experience)
What did I feel? (attending to feelings)
What went well? (revealuation of experience)
What could have gone better?
What will I change for next time?
The journal process for myself will develop as I progress through tasks 2 of the module. Although it may make no sense to another reader, a personal log is something only I have to understand and this way only I can be offended if I am the only reader.
In the article by David Boud there is a section about the reader and I found this very interesting.... A reader of the journal will change the way we write one. For example if one of my team members were to read my journal I would want there to be as much posotives as negatives, if I was writing a journal of my day if I was a teacher I would want to appear a strong minded person rather than a weak as for this career it would look better when management staff read it.
When we had the session with Paula we tried to think of one experience we could evaluate and this is the one I am going to use to show the usual process of how I would go about writing a journal.
I am going to write the experience below as a public log, meaning I have to evaluate if I am offending anyone by writing it and ensuring no names are mentioned other than my own. I think when writing a log it is better to do it in the first person (I, Me, We)
At Nidd Hall (my workplace) we give out feedback forms to guests so they can write their comments about a break...
What Happened?- This morning I received a feedback form with some negative comments about the show we performed last night. The guest stated that they thought it was a poor standard of show and they didn't enjoy the collection of songs included.
What did I feel?- As a dance captain this hit me hard as I am mostly responsible for the standards of the shows we perform, however I am not responsible for the content. As a team we felt we had lack of performance and I have to ask why? I question did I hold enough rehearsals? the answer to that being no, I feel responsible that the team felt they didnt have enough practice time.
Why did it Happen?- This is definitely because christmas break is coming up and we are focusing more on that when we should be focusing on all shows not just the new upcoming one.
What can we do better?- Everybody has a video of the show of how it should be and I feel this hadnt been watched enough in everyones own time.
What can not be helped?- Despite all this the content of the show is a comment we cannot change and this is very much a personal opinion of the guest. A show is set and we are taught it all one way, the songs and content cannot be changed and is something that is loved or hated.
What went well?- Costumes for the show and props for the show were immaculate and I believe if this wasn't the case we would have received a lot more negative feedback. Also the team stayed motivated throughout the whole process and we weren't put off by people walking out. This is something to hold onto- a posotive spirit when performing! Worry was not shown in our faces and we smiled our way through even though we know it wasn't going to well. I think this is a professional approach from everyone and I respect the way the team dealt with the bad situation.
What will we do for next time?- I will personally make sure shows are well rehearsed and focus does not slip from older shows, I also will make sure everyone knows the importance of practicing in their own time. I will also try to schedule the show more often so we can receive posotive feedback form guests and the word is spread of our fantastic shows! .
Writing one of these for a negative event is a big learning experience on my behalf but also if something posotive it is important to write about this so I can hold onto the good parts of my job that go reallt well aswell as the bad parts. I already feel much better having evaluated this bad experience and feel it will only help me for the future breaks coming up when we are to perform this show again.
My usual process for writing a journal is the usual standard questions, after reading David Boud's article I feel I already use the concept of how he feels reflective writing should be approached:
What happened? (returning to experience)
What did I feel? (attending to feelings)
What went well? (revealuation of experience)
What could have gone better?
What will I change for next time?
The journal process for myself will develop as I progress through tasks 2 of the module. Although it may make no sense to another reader, a personal log is something only I have to understand and this way only I can be offended if I am the only reader.
In the article by David Boud there is a section about the reader and I found this very interesting.... A reader of the journal will change the way we write one. For example if one of my team members were to read my journal I would want there to be as much posotives as negatives, if I was writing a journal of my day if I was a teacher I would want to appear a strong minded person rather than a weak as for this career it would look better when management staff read it.
When we had the session with Paula we tried to think of one experience we could evaluate and this is the one I am going to use to show the usual process of how I would go about writing a journal.
I am going to write the experience below as a public log, meaning I have to evaluate if I am offending anyone by writing it and ensuring no names are mentioned other than my own. I think when writing a log it is better to do it in the first person (I, Me, We)
At Nidd Hall (my workplace) we give out feedback forms to guests so they can write their comments about a break...
What Happened?- This morning I received a feedback form with some negative comments about the show we performed last night. The guest stated that they thought it was a poor standard of show and they didn't enjoy the collection of songs included.
What did I feel?- As a dance captain this hit me hard as I am mostly responsible for the standards of the shows we perform, however I am not responsible for the content. As a team we felt we had lack of performance and I have to ask why? I question did I hold enough rehearsals? the answer to that being no, I feel responsible that the team felt they didnt have enough practice time.
Why did it Happen?- This is definitely because christmas break is coming up and we are focusing more on that when we should be focusing on all shows not just the new upcoming one.
What can we do better?- Everybody has a video of the show of how it should be and I feel this hadnt been watched enough in everyones own time.
What can not be helped?- Despite all this the content of the show is a comment we cannot change and this is very much a personal opinion of the guest. A show is set and we are taught it all one way, the songs and content cannot be changed and is something that is loved or hated.
What went well?- Costumes for the show and props for the show were immaculate and I believe if this wasn't the case we would have received a lot more negative feedback. Also the team stayed motivated throughout the whole process and we weren't put off by people walking out. This is something to hold onto- a posotive spirit when performing! Worry was not shown in our faces and we smiled our way through even though we know it wasn't going to well. I think this is a professional approach from everyone and I respect the way the team dealt with the bad situation.
What will we do for next time?- I will personally make sure shows are well rehearsed and focus does not slip from older shows, I also will make sure everyone knows the importance of practicing in their own time. I will also try to schedule the show more often so we can receive posotive feedback form guests and the word is spread of our fantastic shows! .
Writing one of these for a negative event is a big learning experience on my behalf but also if something posotive it is important to write about this so I can hold onto the good parts of my job that go reallt well aswell as the bad parts. I already feel much better having evaluated this bad experience and feel it will only help me for the future breaks coming up when we are to perform this show again.
Wednesday 2 November 2016
Module 1 Session 2 31/10/16
On Monday I attended the skype session with paula and a few others on the course. It focused on the next few tasks of module one and I feel a lot more comfortable with the tasks ahead of me now.
One important question I had never really thought about that came up in the session was 'What Kind of Learner am I?'
Activist ways of learning include brain-storming, practical experimentation, role plays, group discussion and problem-solving.
Pragmatist study styles include case studies and time to think about the practical applications of what you are learning.
Reflector-style learning includes spending time reading around a subject, and watching others try things out.
Theorist learning involves models and theories, with plenty of background information.
http://www.skillsyouneed.com/learn/learning-styles.html#ixzz4OrgNsqbW
I found out that I was a mix between an activist and a theorist:
Kolb proposed a cycle based on the way we learn and then it was Peter Honey and Alan Mumford who developed on this and created the four titles for the different types of learners above.
When looking at the cycle it is clear to me that each segment of the cycle is relevant to me but when I am trying to learn something new I find it much easier to do and try out, whether that means making mistakes or not.
Task 2a of the module is creating a journal. When thinking about ways to do this I was stuck, the only time I have ever had to write a journal was at college and had to evaluate my classes and what i could improve on etc. The thought of doing it in every day life for everyday events is very different and I struggled to think of the best way to do this.
In the session we talked about that a journal could be anything from sitting down for 15 minutes a day and relecting or just having a random thought on a bus journey home and using your iphone to note it down and then collaborate these thoughts into a journal.
I think certainly for myself with where I work it is only really the end of an evening where i relax and think what went well today?
We also each shared an experience of something that we could reflect on recently, for Hannah it was an audition, for myself working as a Dance Captain it was a show that went terrible and we received terrible feedback on it. The big question for me was Why? Paula suggested we write a reflection on these experiences and focus on the main questions....
Why did it happen?
What Happened?
How do I feel?
What can be improved on for future?
My next blog will be focusing on this experience and using the reflection process to help me.
Paula also suggested we look at David Boud's article to help us with the reflective journal.
I enjoyed the session on Monday and learnt a lot. Please feel free to make any comments about how you have worked on your journal :)
One important question I had never really thought about that came up in the session was 'What Kind of Learner am I?'
http://www.skillsyouneed.com/learn/learning-styles.html#ixzz4OrgNsqbW
I found out that I was a mix between an activist and a theorist:
Kolb proposed a cycle based on the way we learn and then it was Peter Honey and Alan Mumford who developed on this and created the four titles for the different types of learners above.
Task 2a of the module is creating a journal. When thinking about ways to do this I was stuck, the only time I have ever had to write a journal was at college and had to evaluate my classes and what i could improve on etc. The thought of doing it in every day life for everyday events is very different and I struggled to think of the best way to do this.
In the session we talked about that a journal could be anything from sitting down for 15 minutes a day and relecting or just having a random thought on a bus journey home and using your iphone to note it down and then collaborate these thoughts into a journal.
I think certainly for myself with where I work it is only really the end of an evening where i relax and think what went well today?
We also each shared an experience of something that we could reflect on recently, for Hannah it was an audition, for myself working as a Dance Captain it was a show that went terrible and we received terrible feedback on it. The big question for me was Why? Paula suggested we write a reflection on these experiences and focus on the main questions....
Why did it happen?
What Happened?
How do I feel?
What can be improved on for future?
My next blog will be focusing on this experience and using the reflection process to help me.
Paula also suggested we look at David Boud's article to help us with the reflective journal.
I enjoyed the session on Monday and learnt a lot. Please feel free to make any comments about how you have worked on your journal :)
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