Sunday’s group discussion really touched on a lot of areas that sparked off our thoughts and standings. It elated and inspired me to feel more connected with the group to be discussing topics that we have to consider every day in some way or another and it was so interesting to hear everyone's views. I feel it is important to stand by what we believe works best in our practices but at the same time, remain open minded to new possibilities and approach circumstances/situations with deeper thought and maybe even try out a new different direction. I personally believe that observing recordings of myself helps me to strive for an improved performance, I don't really like watching myself but I feel it is an essential action.  I like to feel my artistic expressions and I think this is why in class a mixture of mirror and non-mirror teaching adds value and also helps to direct the students towards expressing their feelings and emotions without a visualization of them.  Videoing stude...

It was really great to feel reconnected to the MAPP community following the 'welcome' skype, an opportunity to refresh and re-ignite the passion of exploring further into our professional practices. As I now begin module two of the MAPP, I wanted to add a few of my thoughts to help those who are starting module one: I enrolled into the programme quite late and so I didn't fully engage into the expectations of the first module early enough to feel that I fully understood what I needed to do and I panicked!  This is were I found the blogs so helpful and they gave me a great insight and a much deeper understanding of the direction that I needed to be going in.  Reading the blogs also made me appreciate the wealth of knowledge that we have as a community, the value in us sharing it and also to act as a trigger to reflect on our own practices and experiences. Give yourself plenty of time to read and write, it took me much longer than I anticipated I also found it helpful to ask ...

So, this post is not directly related to my MA but I felt that it was time to express my thoughts on this new and very different teaching method via Zoom. I say it is not related but as I complete my first module and start to think about the next stage, of course only if all goes well, I feel that this new era may play a poignant part in my module 2 & 3! I am the tap teacher at a dance studio and this has been an interesting period learning how to teach my students via Zoom. Most definitely not the perfect way to teach but I have drawn on the positives and tried not to worry too much about the negatives. At the moment, the students need as much encouragement as possible to help them to stay in great shape both physically and mentally so meeting via Zoom has been a wonderful connection for us all. The positives of teaching this way is that I have actually seen improvement in a lot of the students, their techniques have been strengthened and they seem to have a clearer unders...

At this time of adaptation in our lives, I have used the opportunity of having more time to search and reflect to gain a deeper understanding of this learning journey and think about the reasons why I decided to take in on and push myself into a different and new experience.  I have to say that it has taken me quite some time to really reflect and truly understand how my experience has been the key to open my mind and see fully how much I have learnt from the circumstances that my career has given to me.   I have always felt that there is always another level to reach but I haven’t quite got there yet!  However, during my reflection and searching for my learnings, I now see that I have actually learnt  a great deal not just from my practice but during this process of the MAPP , I just haven't put a stamp on it. I have gathered a lot of knowledge, which I am truly grateful for, I can certainly see that wherever my career has taken me, my learnings have been so imp...

In the past two weeks, I have been reading, researching and writing a lot! I feel that I am finally on the right page but with still a long way to go in my learning journey.  I am now, which in contrast to two weeks ago, when I was feeling somewhat out of my depth, excited to be doing this and where it will lead me in the future.  I can now see more clearly how my knowledge and teaching experiences have developed from theories that I honestly wasn't aware of before my research, I have found it fascinating to learn that a lot of the things that I do and see in my classes have been investigated by theorists and practitioners which has helped to make sense of my practice reflections. In particular, looking at the theories of Professor Howard Gardner  and what  I have learnt from his extensive research on how each student learns differently and by which of his recognized methods that may be. I have considered  his theories and looked at how I include them into...

As part of one of my areas of learning, feedback was a topic that I wanted to incorporate.  Through it’s power, it stimulates  and inspires to continue our journey of development, if we respond to it positively. To start my research in this area I asked some poignant questions to some senior students who had experienced my tap teaching structure and that of others. I wanted them to evaluate their progress from my teaching along with what areas they felt they had learnt in and their suggestions for any change or development. This made me feel quite vulnerable whilst waiting for their responses, even though I have been teaching them for some time now, this was the first time we had discussed my teaching  methods and structure on a personal level. I feel that this exercise was invaluable to gain an understanding of how my teaching is perceived in this new circumstance of my practice along with gaining knowledge as to how the dancers like to learn and progress whic...

Yesterday, I had my first one to one discussion with Adesola on my AOL's.  I needed to understand how to basically make sense off it all and what I needed to do to get started and make some progress.  Within in the first few minutes of our discussion, Adesola probed me to analyse how I needed to dissect my experiences of learning and then put them back together again through a new set of eyes. I have discovered that my pathways of learning have ultimately lead me into a natural progression  throughout my career, stepping stones made up of circumstances. I can now see, that when we reflect on our professional experiences, no matter how much that is, we realize that we have so many attributes and offerings within our everyday situations.  The difficulty then, is narrowing them down to which ones are the most influential to you. I am certainly clearer on my next steps of module one. I need to have belief in myself and work on now putting the Lego pi...