Industry Week - Day 3

Today was the first day of returning to my old high school, Priestnall to shadow Mrs Morrison in the dance department and Mr Dever in the drama department.

*Due to spending my time in an educational institution with minors, I was unable to take photos and videos for this part of my professional development.*

Email confirmation to observe the dance and drama department

At the start of the day I felt very apprehensive for multiple reasons. I found it daunting to be back at Priestnall where I was once a student but now in a different position. I also didn't know what to expect from the day which added to my nerves. However, as the day and the week went on I became more and more confident and I didn't let any apprehension I had deter my professional development of gaining a variety of teaching skills.

I spent the first part of my day observing the Year 9 and 10 dance lessons. At first, I was shocked at the lack of discipline the students had in comparison to the discipline and studio behaviour that is installed into musical theatre students. When they weren't being used during the lesson they would climb, sat and then chat on the mats at the side of the room and they would sometimes mess around whilst performing a full run through of the dance. As this is something that wouldn't be tolerated at college I was surprised that Mrs Morrison didn't say anything to the students.Then I remembered that these pupils are not training to be professionals, they are GCSE students who may not go on to do dance at further education therefore you must adapt you teaching style accordingly. One skill I have learnt from observing these lessons is to be lenient at times. In this classroom scenario it would have been a waste of energy to shout at the students for sitting on the mats as they weren't disrupting the lesson and the consequence of telling them off may have been students arguing back and becoming difficult to work with. This has also developed my understanding of changing your teaching style depending on who is in the classroom.

My skill of accommodating your teaching style to fit the students was developed further when I observed a Year 7 drama class which was also taught by Mrs Morrison. The students in this particular class could get very hyper and energetic so it is important to guide the students into directing this energy into their work as it is important to have a lot of energy when performing dramatic scenes.As a teacher I have learnt that you should praise when this has been done well, but scold when this hyper activity is being used for the wrong reasons such as messing about. With a younger class it is important to establish a sense of authority and to be more strict than you would be with older classes in order to teach the class as effectively as you can.

Next I shadowed a Year 10 GCSE and a Year 9 Drama class taught by Mr Dever. With the Year 10 class I was asked to watch one groups GCSE drama piece and give them feedback. Doing this developed my skills of watching a piece of work from an analytical point of view and then communicating both positive feedback and constructive criticism in order to keep the morale of the group high but give them ways to improve their work and potentially improve their grade. The Year 9 class was a quite a tough lesson as many of the students didn't want to be there and they made this clear through bad behaviour and taking a while to get started on their work. With this lesson, I noticed that it was individuals who disrupted the lesson so they were first given a warning in front of the whole class and if their behaviour didn't improve they had a one on one conversation with Mr Dever. Here I developed the skill of learning how to deal with students who may not co-operate in lesson. It is important to show respect to the student whilst still maintaining authority and establishing the teacher-student dynamic. I know that every time I come across this behaviour it will be on a case by case basis so I believe that the best way to learn how to deal with disruptive students is to watch first hand.

Timetable of the Dancehouse's drop in classes

I did intend to go to either Dance Fitness or Intermediate Ballet after the school day but I was fairly tired and whilst this may have been a good use of my time, I believe it would have affected my professional development tomorrow when I return to Priestnall.for my second day of shadowing dance and drama lessons. Therefore, I decided that I will do a 30 minute stretch every night for the rest of the week instead in order to work on my 3 month target of being flat in my left and right splits. This was the best way of managing my workload as I came home and I was still productive whilst ensuring I would have enough energy for the next couple of days.