The Professional Artefact - an explanation

During the planning of my artecaft, I needed to take into consideration my audience. I had established that I was going to create a newspaper article due to the nature of my workplace. As a member of staff in a secondary school, there are often  newspapers found in the staff room. I grew up in a household of teachers and from my own experinece, I believe this to be an adequate means of communication to an academic body of workers.

My Critical Review contains the findings of my inquiry and I have been conscious to refrain from adding my own views, as best as possible. According to the WBS 3760 handbook, the Professional Artefact is the opportunity for you to 'defend your point of view'. With this in mind, I decided to create a newspaper secifically aimed at those who would choose to read a newspaper about Dance and Drama in education and named the paper ' The Creative Education'. All newspapers have a target audience in mind and one can expect to be 'swayed' towards the points of view of that paper, and mine is no different.

I found this process very enjoyable. As any newspaper reader would expect, I included headlines, images, text and graphs/tables. The text was much academic than the Critical Review and I included quotes from celebrities, which would entice the audience. (Even teachers read up on celebrity gossip!)

I took this opportunity to elaborate on an area that I could only touch on in the Critical Review due to the limitations of the word count. This was about lack of teacher training placements on the Schools Direct (Salaried) programme in Dance. This topic has had a direct effect on me and with the increased tuition fees, it is impossible for me to obtain a non-salaried placement. I was troubled to discover that there aren't any places in Britain on the Schools Direct (Salaried) programme in Dance. I created an article on this topic in my artefact, about  'Andrew Parsons', a made up character, who represented me. So as to keep all of my interviewees anonymous, I gave them all fake names, which was also fun.


I'm looking forward to being able to post my Professional Artefact once I have completed the course and been given permission.

In spite of the challenges ahead of me in terms of obtaining a placement for teacher training, I hope to be able to show my artefact to future employers to demonstrate my passion in Dance and Drama as subjects in their own right and be able to advise schools on the benefits they can give children to their overall education.

Artefact has arrived!

My Professional Artefact arrived this morning, printed and ready to hand in! It was very exciting seeing my work in a professional form.
Today is all about cleaning up my second draft of work. I've just completed my introduction so only the evaluation, analysis of findings and critical reflection to go...a few late nights ahead of me I think.

Artefact fun

I have thoroughly enjoyed piecing my artefact together today. It has definitely re-established in me how much I enjoy anything creative!
I'm hoping that once the degree and my wedding are over, I will be able to dedicate more time to being creative once more. I really should as my whole inquiry is based on the importance of creativity!

Process = journey

Oh my goodness, what a whirlwind the last few weeks have been!!!
To say I felt stressed is an understatement. Two full time jobs, my wedding in two weeks and my final module of uni!
I have been piecing everything together and my first draft of the Critcial Review is, at last done! This has not been easy. I have had such alot of trouble simply understanding the term 'inquiry'. I have my workin title, my questions, interviews etc, but something was not 'clicking' in my head.
I called upon Corinda Hall, who had originally been in the same module as myself, however after my deferral at Christmas, Corinda had finished before me. Like me, Corinda had had to take a step back and really analyse some very 'normal' words. For example, we discussed the word 'process'. This is mentioned in the criteria in the module 3 handbook.

'Evaluation of the Inquiry Process'

I had skimmed past this very important word, as had Corinda, but she highlighted to me its importance. Corinda explained that the word 'process' is asking us to explain the journey of our inquiry and not give the answers. This is where I had been going wrong. And slightly insane...trying to come up with all the answers was proving impossible! I simply didn't have them. Suddenly, things seemed so much clearer. Corinda went on to explain that:

 'you're not proving a theory. Its the journey of what you have learnt...the mechanics, not the answer'.

These few words have been invaluable to me and have lead me to understand what has been asked of me Using your SIGs is essential throughout Module 3, as I have discovered.

Is it adequate to teach drama, through English?

Today I had a conversation with an ex colleague (and friend), who is a dramatist and Teaching Assistant. She also begins her teacher training this year, in order to become a Drama teacher.
I recently conducted one of my interviews for my inquiry and spoke to the Vice Principle of a secondary school in London. I explained to my friend that the vice principle had justified the school not providing Drama to Year 7 and 8s, as they 'do drama in English'.
This comment interested me and I wanted her (expert) knowledge as to whether this was adequate. Her response was

            " An English teacher is not a Drama teacher. They do not possess the same skills or subject              knowledge. Knowing Shakespeare plays doesn't make you a Drama teacher. Pupils need specific time dedicated to each subject and drama is being degraded by putting it into the same category as English. An English teacher has chosen to teach English and therefore does not have the passion needed to teach Drama. How can they inspire pupils when it is not even the subject they have been inspired to teach?"

She continued to explain that Drama lessons start with the basics, such as teaching pupils not to perform with their backs to the audience and  what 'centre stage' means. These are not areas that are covered in 'English' drama classes, which in turn does not give pupils the background knowledge they need, should they choose to continue pursuing drama training. Drama teachers are then faced with a group of Year 9s and 10s who have no concept of the basics. My favourite comment that she made was

                      " It's like teaching trigonometry to pupils who can't do adding or taking away"

I would be interested in finding out what your thoughts on this matter are. Is it adequate to teach drama as part of the English curriculum?

Loose Women!

Loose women are having a conversation about 'bounderies in educatoin' and I was excited to watch them mention the TED conversation I will be using as part of my literature! I was pleased to see that they noticed that league tables have a negative knock on affect.



League         Exam/grade                                    Lack of interest in
 Tables  =  obsessed schools  = SEN pupils / non compulsorary subjects
                                                                         (inc. Drama/dance)


I would be very interested to receive comments and your thoughts on this topic

Artefact

At last I am on Easter holidays which means I have a full two weeks to dedicate to uni work. I find it very difficult to do uni work during term time as I work full time in a secondary school, with GCSE exams taking place this term and I also have a second job in the evenings. Holidays are really the only time I can properly dedicate myself to uni.
I will be starting off with my artefact. I will be creating my own Newspaper article which targets the world of education. Teachers tend to be academics and regularly enjoy picking up a newspaper.
I have discovered a website www.makemyownnewspaper.com, where I can create four of my own newspaper articles. I intend to include one of my interviews, images and text, all centred around my topic which looks into the importance of dance and drama in secondary education.