Task 3a: Current Netoworks

Definition of 'Networking'

“A process that fosters the exchange of information and ideas among individuals or groups that share a common interest. Networking may fall into one of two categories - social or business. In the latter category, one of the implicit objectives is to form professional relationships that may boost one's future business and employment prospects.” [1] (investopedia)

I currently use websites such as Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin, but I recognise that my current networks are fairly limited and that this is something I need to work on. I have a couple of contacts who I can call on for jobs or tools or general help, but I have not built up a vast network of contacts or industry friends. This may be partly to do with moving into teaching where keeping up with the current fashionable networks is less important and certainly the networks you need change, but as a choreographer I have definitely dropped the ball. I could definitely engage more in the choreographing world, find more new connections and inspiration, even do some free work to get noticed. Many of the people I trained with and my theatre friends have vast networks of contacts and websites that keep them in the loop. Having good connections can get you into secret auditions, score you some free tickets or even drinks with some famous people in the industry, all of these can help you further your career. I believe that the further you progress with your career the more important and useful these networks are, it becomes more important to be in the know and up to date, more important to know the right people and say the right things. It is interesting that we can now network via social media, you can tweet your favourite performer or share your work with an inspiration in your field, this is a while new method of creating a career network.

But why is networking important, how does it benefit us? Having a network can benefit us is many ways from job opportunities to fame to just having someone to talk who understands our networking can provide us with many opportunities. This gives many people motives build strong networks. Most will build networks as way of advancing in their career, the theatre industry can be being in the right place at the right time, so networking can get to that place at the right time. Networking can also be of use even if you’re already at the top of your field, so many celebrities and theatre industry leaders have social media accounts, this both aids their ability to achieve more fame and success but conversely is also a way for the less revered to learn from their idols. Networking is also a two way connection, you may be as useful to your network as your network is to you, this provides a nice group environment to networking as everyone can help each other.

My ideal network would consist of many leading industry professionals, theatre companies and leading performing arts schools. As a choreographer and teacher I want to be connected to emerging young talent, the best performing spaces, inspirational performers and helpful supporters. Many people use social media and online networking to raise their profile or to raise money such as Kickstarter, this is a great way to reach a wider network and a wider range of supporters. It is also important to think of the way you present your online presence, if you are going to network via Facebook, it is important to remember to remain professional and not post anything that might lose you a contact or even a job. You no longer even need an agent as most auditions are now posted on a variety of theatre websites such as casting call pro and spotlight, networks created for you, though they are also used by everyone else so it is not a very exclusive network.

I definitely believe that networking is both important and useful and that I certainly could get better at it (and probably need to). As modern technology pushes ever forwards I struggle to imagine the ways in which we may begin to network in the future.

  

[1] Investopedia “Networking” online. Available from: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/n/networking.asp#ixzz3uEaM8fNt 

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?

As a choreographer, choreographing is part of my daily practice and that makes me enthusiastic, being creative and putting what I think or feel into movement. Sometimes I’m more limited when working with younger children, but that merely presents more of a brain challenge to convey my message with fewer steps to choose from. Using movement to share an idea or an opinion or even just to make the audience feel a certain way is great fun, sometimes hard work but a great achievement when it works. One of my favourite choreographers is Mia Michaels, every piece she choreographs has a different message or feeling, she has a distinct style but that doesn’t get in the way of the story. Her choreography gives a dancer room to interpret the emotions and messages for themselves, which gives the piece a greater depth and more realistic.

What gets you angry or makes you sad? Who do you admire who shares your feelings or has found away to work around the sadness or anger? 

I get angry or sad as a teacher, when I see students who are being pushed by their parents, either to be the best or even into classes they don’t want to do. Pushy parents can be found in many competitive environments from sport to theatre to academia, but “Dance Mums” are by far some of the worst. There has even been a television show in America based around the lives of several pushy theatre mums and their children and whilst it may be amusing to watch on tv, it is not so amusing to witness it first hand. I used to teach a contemporary class on a Saturday morning, a specialist class of only a few specific students capable of the work required. All but one of the children present had earned the right to attend that class, the other had been allowed to attend due to the persistence of her mother. This is inefficient for everyone involved! The capable children are stalled in their learning because they are being dragged back by one struggling student, the struggling student is learning nothing because everything being taught is out of their capabilities, this can also demoralise the less capable student and finally it makes planning and structuring a class difficult as a teacher as you have to compensate for the other student. The only person winning in this situation is the pushy parent who can feel good and brag about their child’s success. Sadly this is often the case for many classes, it is not easy to hear your child hasn’t reached the required standard and therefore many children are pushed into classes they are not read for. Learning more, earlier will not improve a dancer, it will give them too much to learn at once and thus everything will be a little bit worse due to the load. I admire the many teachers that I see who struggle with this daily, though I do wish it was a little more acceptable to tell a parent that their child is not great at something, surely this is saving them less pain in the long run, if they invest many years and money into their dreams for their child only to find out later that they were never capable?

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 teaching, the sense of achievement and pride when a child finally gets a step they struggle with or gets a brilliant exam result, it is a very rewarding profession. You get to engage with young people, to learn about what they like and what sort of people they are, you even get to have an impact on their growth as a person which is an important role. You have the opportunity to pass on morals or passions or quirks and even friendship. And as a dancer who worked all of their lives to get into the theatre, although I later realised I wanted to teach, there is no greater job satisfaction than sharing your love for the theatre. I see many teacher particularly in the theatre world who really strive to get everything out of their kids whilst keeping their classes fun and inspiring, which is not easy I can tell you, because of this I wouldn’t say there is anyone who stands out as someone I admire. I admire anyone who goes into the teaching profession, it is not easy, there is a lot of responsibility on your shoulders and a hell of a lot of pressure to achieve great results, it can often be a thankless job, rife with criticism and yet we teachers continue to push through all that because when that one child who really struggles finally achieves what they thought they never could, it is worth it!

What do you feel you don’t understand? Who do you admire who does seem to understand it or who has found a way of making not understanding it interesting or beautiful, or has asked the same questions as you?

I don’t understand people who don’t see the importance of education. I find more and more nowadays, especially when teaching in academic schools rather than performing arts schools, that very few people have a real enthusiasm for learning. I loved going to school, I loved learning and taking part and it saddens me to see so many young people throw away such an opportunity. I fear however that it stems from our view on education as a whole nation, in Japan teachers are revered and held up with doctors and lawyers, they are respected and heralded, and this does not happen in the UK. Teachers are given grief and impossible tasks, asked for more than they can give and given no respect in return. It is not quite the same for dance teachers as most of our students have chosen to come to our classes and as such the standard of behaviour and enthusiasm is higher, but it is not without its challenges. I admire the students who still care and battle everyday to get the education they want in deprived situations. I have vivid memories of one particular class I taught, whilst working as a supply teacher. It was a year 8 English class first thing on a Monday morning, there was one boy who finished all his work on time and with great aplomb, he was also a member of the student council. He was constantly subject to jokes, jeers and general bullying, all because he worked hard and wanted to achieve, he had aspirations to study at Oxford University which I thought was wonderful and all he received from his peers was distain. I cannot understand how we have fallen into a society where wanting academic success is laughable or shameful, I will forever admire that young boy, for not being afraid to strive for what he wanted no matter what anyone said or did. I think a lot of us could apply that to our professional lives and probably don’t think about it often enough, imagine how much we could all achieve if we didn’t care what people thought?

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? For example, what level of physical contact would you deem appropriate (and not) from another professional that you would find unacceptable more generally? Why?

Deciding on an appropriate response to a given situation requires experience and a little “reflection-in-action” it is interesting that we use this method without even thinking about it. Unfortunately there are no black and whites with ethics so the correct response is dependent on many different factors such as environment, age, sex an so on. If someone punches you in the face the correct response is different if the person in question is a child than if they were an adult. The same for physical contact in teaching, as a dance teacher it is considered acceptable to move a child’s arm or foot to aid their learning as it is a physical subject and sometimes just saying or showing isn’t enough, feeling is the only way to improve, however, this is far less appropriate in an academic class such as English or maths, in this case the environment changes the ethical code. As a teacher I am regularly required to make tough decisions and discipline children, finding the correct response and most appropriate course of action can be challenging, it also difficult to keep the balance between friend and teacher. You want to have the right amount of fun and enjoyment as this is key to learning but enough discipline that you are still in charge and respected, this is a hard balance to strike especially with the added complication of ethic responses. 

Task 2c: Reflective Theory

When approaching this task, I was reminded of various experiences at school, when we were told about different learning styles and techniques. I spent a long time thinking I was a kinaesthetic learner, and I do still believe that to be true, but through experience I have learnt that I learn in multiple ways and they often depend on the type of learning I’m doing. I think reflective practice is closely linked to this, by reflecting I have noted other ways of learning and decided that the one technique is not always the best approach.

Firstly I asked myself, what is reflection?

I would categorise it as a key tool in understanding your experiences, enabling you to learn from those experiences. According to Dewey a reflective thought is an “active, persistent, and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it and the further conclusions to which it tends” [1] (Dewey, 1933). This is an academic way of saying that reflection allows us to look back at an experience and use this experience to change our opinions, our learning and our response to future experiences.

However as noted by Donald Schön (1987) reflection doesn’t always have to be after the event or experience. Reflection as I have discussed it so far would be considered ‘reflection-on-action’, reflecting on something after the event has occurred. I agree with Schön that there is another form of reflection, which he called ‘reflection-in-action’, which refers to reflection on an experience during the experience, responding to the event as it is happening. This particular type of reflection is more commonly used by artists and theatre practitioners in particular. Dancers regularly ‘reflect-in-action’ when correcting themselves during a move or a rehearsal, as a teacher I am always giving pointers and notes, for my students to take these on board and apply them during the lesson requires ‘reflection-in-action. I consider ‘reflection-on-action’ to be a much more intellectual and analytical way of reflecting, it requires deeper thought on the experience and how this can affect your future experiences, ‘reflection-in-action’ could lead to a quick decision which later on may prove to be the wrong choice.

Graham Gibbs (1988) came up with the “Reflective Cycle” based on previous uses of the cycle such as Kolb’s learning cycle (1975) [2]

Gibbs presents 6 stages of reflection and how we process our experiences.

Description – What happened?

Feelings – What did you think and feel about it?

Evaluation – What were the positives and negatives?

Analysis – What do you make of it?

Conclusion – What could have been done differently?

Action Plan – What will you do next time?

It is a cycle because the action you take will feed back to the beginning starting the cycle again.

This neatly breaks down the reflective process into 6 separate thought processes, although they may happen differently for each person, everyone can view the cycle and see how the process experiences. Each of the processes links to a different tool for reflection, describing was discussed in keeping a journal, whereas for me feelings links to making lists. We may not always process for a long time, these 6 six steps can happen extremely quickly especially when taking into account Schön’s ‘reflection-in-action’ when correcting a dance mistake you immediately describe the faults in the step, feel that it needs changing, evaluate what was wrong with the technique, analyse your process, conclude how to proceed and improve and then create an action plan on how to do it right next time. All this happens in a matter of moments, but it is still there in some form or other.

I can relate to this way of processing experiences and information, it is a useful learning tool and I regularly use this in my classes. Dance is such a practical subject that reflecting after the class is not always useful, because you no longer have opportunity to try out the changes or feel the body learn from the evaluation. It is however useful to process feelings and struggles with the career and environment of performing, getting turned down from a string of auditions can be a difficult mental process and reflection can really put your feelings into perspective and is very important if you wish to keep up your confidence and drive. It helps you to persevere by reflecting on how you feel about rejection and what you can do at the next audition to improve your results but also just to come to terms with the face the industry is a tough place to work in and that you may not have done anything wrong and that what you need to learn is to be strong.

Samantha Davies (2005) discussed the benefits and limitations of reflective practice. [3]

Benefits to reflective practice include:

·                    Increased learning from an experience or situation

·                    Promotion of deep learning

·                    Identification of personal and professional strengths and areas for improvement

·                    Identification of educational needs

·                    Acquisition of new knowledge and skills

·                    Further understanding of own beliefs, attitudes and values

·                    Encouragement of self-motivation and self-directed learning

·                    Could act as a source of feedback

·                    Possible improvements of personal and clinical confidence

Limitations to reflective practice include:

·                    Not all practitioners may understand the reflective process

·                    May feel uncomfortable challenging and evaluating own practice

·                    Could be time consuming

·                    May have confusion as to which situations/experiences to reflect upon

·                    May not be adequate to resolve clinical problems

I can identify with several of these benefits and can see the improvement in my students by asking them to tell me one good thing about their class and one bad thing about their class, I can see that this simple evaluation not only gives a sense of achievement but helps them to self-motivate and learn from their experiences. I can also see that some students find it more difficult than others to come up with evaluation that quickly which leads me to assume they prefer to use ‘reflection-on-action’ and take time and distance to process their experience.

I believe we all use a mixture of all these theories depending on what we are experiencing and what said experience demands from us from a growth perspective. I have however changed my opinion on reflection, I have never kept a diary before or gone out of my way to fully set out my reflection and having tested it both on myself and my students I can really see the benefits of just a small amount thought out reflection rather than just what we do automatically, I can see it change their thought processes when dancing in class and I can attest to how it has helped me change my emotions towards certain difficult experiences.

Bibliography

[1] Dewey, John (1933) How we Think, 2007 reprint, Champaign: Standard Publications, Inc. 

[2] Gibbs, Graham (1988) “Reflective Cycle” online. Image available from: http://www.cumbria.ac.uk/public/liss/documents/skillsatcumbria/reflectivecyclegibbs.pdf

[3] Davies, Samantha (January 2012). "Embracing reflective practice". Education for Primary Care: 9–12

Other reading sources used but not quoted

Kolb, D. A. (1984) Experiential Learning, Englewood NJ: Prentice Hall

Task 2b: My Journal Writing Experience

Apparently keeping a journal can have an effect on your health.....

"Writing seems to help the brain regulate emotion unintentionally. Whether it's writing things down in a diary, writing bad poetry, or making up song lyrics that should never be played on the radio, it seems to help people emotionally," [1] (Dr Lieberman 2009)

There are many ways in which keeping some form of diary can help you;

• Clarify your thoughts and feelings
• Know yourself better
• Reduce stress
• Solve problems more effectively
• Resolve disagreements with others

This brings me onto how to keep a journal, turns out there are literally loads of different ways to process your thoughts into a diary. Mediums include pen and paper, blogging on the internet and even apps! Then there are many choice as to how you write those thoughts lists, reflection, diagrams, describing your day. So how to choose which suits you best? I decided to try a few out to see which felt most comfortable.

Simple old fashioned writing in a book about my day:
Really not for me, I found this way of evaluating and describing rather tedious and it didn't provide me with much closure on my day. It is hard to focus on specific moments or events if you are writing about your whole day.

Lists:
This I found much easier, it is a much simpler way of finding out how you felt about the day. I tried listing good things about my day or bad things about my day, listing the people i'd spoken to or the places I'd been. This gave me a much quicker idea of how I felt about my day and what had stood out.

Reflection:
I tried reflection in many different ways, whether it be picking out a specific event of the day and reflecting on how I felt about, what I could have improved or what I did well. I also tested several diagram methods such as using a pie diagram to divide up my emotions for the day.

In conclusion the journal writing experience was nowhere near as bad as I expected, i'm not sure that I would keep it up as a daily habit, but it could definitely be useful when working through difficult decisions or tough times. I can also see the benefits on our emotional health that diary keeping can have and how it could be used in a professional environment.



[1] Dr Leiberman 2009, as quoted in "keeping a Diary Makes You Happier" by Ian Sample, online. Available from: http://www.theguardian.com/science/2009/feb/15/psychology-usa

Task 2a: Reflective Writing

I must admit that reflective writing is not my forte. I, as everyone does, process my experiences and thoughts, but i do not generally commit them to paper. This task is somewhat daunting to me, it doesn't feel like a natural process, I would normally listen to some music or process my thoughts and feelings just in my head. I am more than willing to give it a go, who knows it may be a revelation as there are supposed to be many benefits to keeping a Journal. 

Having looked at different ways to keep a diary, I have decided on the good old fashioned written approach, audio diaries is a step too far for me, though I may explore the use of mind maps or bullet points as well. I have purhased a new note book expressly for the purpose of keeping my written journal, I'm hoping this will encourage me to do so more regularly!

Here goes nothing........!

Task 1d: 2d Images

In task d we were asked to create a Flickr account and post a set of images to said account.
I have never been big on posting photos to anything other than facebook, and normally if I want to store things I will use google photos, but the website itself was very nice and creating the profile was relatively simple.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/138244248@N06/

The use of audio and visual attachments has become ever present in our communication, particularly on social media. It can sometimes be a more creative and often more encompassing way of putting across your point. There are even websites devoted to posting images or videos such as Flickr, Imgur, Instagram, Vimeo, Youtube and Vine (to name but a few). This is a huge leap forwards in communication as it passes language and race barriers and can be used to put forward an opinion or idea in a more accepted way. Many charities have taken full advantage of this such as the "no make-up selfie" and the water bucket challenge, raising thousands of pounds for charity, though I'm not sure how much awareness as I couldn't tell which charities they were! Facebook is also now full of videos and photos displaying the current news and political opinions, many feminist videos, refugee appeals and anti terrorist explanations, information can be conveyed simply and interestingly through image and video. There are down sides to this form of communication however, once your image or video is out on the internet, who does it now belong to? Many teachers across the world have been highlighting this in their internet safety classes by posting photos and seeing how far they travel through shares and posts on Facebook, I have seen several spanning Australia, America and England. We also gain access to images and videos that we might not want to be privy to, such as the horrific images of the regugee child on the beach, this image was plastered on Facebook and I had scrolled down my feed to see this image before i got the chance to decide if I wanted to see it or not. Is there an easy way to sensor the images we see? I doubt it, especially as I fully believe in free speech.

I have enclosed a link to my Flickr account, photos all uploaded with my consent :)

Task 1c: Audio Visual

Task 1c: Audio Visual

In task c we were asked to create a Youtube channel and to upload a video entitled "Starting out on BAPP Arts", I decided as I have no disernable drawing skills and no space to video me dancing that I would take head from our previous task on Web 2.0 and join the social media convention of posting a video of writing! It is short and sweet enjoy. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLZxWNWsA7w

Task 1b: Professional Communication Technologies

Task 1b: Professional Communication Technologies

WEB 2.0

Working in a phone shop (naming no names) communication via technology is not only part of my daily life but also pays my bills! It has become a necessity for most people to be in constant communication or at least with that option available to them at all times. 99 out of 100 people I speak to at work have Facebook and almost all of those use it on their phones, most people use this form of "social media" to post banal statuses about their daily activities or share cat videos but as discussed in Reader 1 there is a possibility and a use for this type of communication in the professional world. 

Firstly, what is web 2.0? In simple terms...there are no simple terms, many people have different views on what exactly defines web 2.0, if you google the question "what is web 2.0" not only do you create a paradox by asking a web 2.0 website what web 2.0 is but also google replies with: 'the second stage of development of the internet, characterised especially by the change from static web pages to dynamic or user-generated content and the growth of social media'. This essentially means that the internet moved from straight web pages that the users could read but not interact with to websites created, edited and commented on by the users, famous examples would include Facebook, Wikipedia and Flickr.

If asked I would normally argue that I do not use that many social media apps or websites, but web 2.0 is not limited to purely social media and if I think about it, it plays a bigger part in my life than I ever realised. I am a big fan of Pinterest partially for the many photos of cats but also as a place for a general life wishlist. This a website where people pin their interests (hence Pinterest) to their own personal page and lists, they can take the form of photos, links and form of media. These lists are available to view and share and comment on, you can pin anything you find on the internet and if you are looking for ideas on pretty much anything it's the place to go! This is a perfect example of 2.0, of how users can upload, download, share and experience content. www.pinterest.com

Many people use Web 2.0 in different ways, but can it be used for more than finding old school friends and asking the internet who Katy Price has married this time? My personal opinion is that yes, it can! We have been having various google training sessions at my job over recent weeks, these sessions constantly prove to me that technology is forever making our lives easier and more connected, google can help you do or know pretty much anything! You can now google a flight number and it can tell you when that flight laves, from which airport and even which gate, it can fully intergrate int our lives. I have google linked on my android phone, currently it can tell me:

1. how long it will take me to get to work from my current location
2. the weather at my current location
3. That my amazon order has been dispatched!
4. That there are traffic delays near my house and finally..
5. a list of news stories it thinks will interest me based on my internet habits

How does google do it?
This is above and beyond web 2.0 and is a fantastic example of how a 'to and fro' of information can improve technology. This is invaluable to our professional lives also, could google tell me when the next tube train is to get to that Pineapple class? Could google flag up an interesting audition on starnow or dancerspro? 

Our professional lives can also be improved via "social media" sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. These sites provide access to people who could influence your career, no other form of communication gives you direct opportunity to contact your biggest heroes and ambitions.You could in theory post a Youtube video of a piece of your own choreography to a west end choreographer and end up with a job, unlikely, but the possibilities are endless. 

Finally I have considered the potential for Web 2.0 from a younger generation and education perspective. On one hand it is useful, as a teacher I can now instantly show my students a video of the Sugar Plum Fairy from the Nutcracker or how to perfectly execute the latest move they are learning, I could even tweet a video of their performances to big dance stars, this provides a much more interactive learning experience, nothing that our generation is used to. But it is also a dangerous form of communication, many chat rooms and even Facebook can have hidden traps. The government has been investing heavily into web safety over the last few years and for good reason, it is so easy to find any information we want on the internet now, but how do we shield children from the bad or inappropriate information?

Luckily many Web 2.0 site have age limits and bars on inappropriate content and they are constantly working on improving their safety. But the dangers are not just to children, many adults have been victims of identity theft through posting private information on Web 2.0 sites. The Met police say "The more information you make available online, the greater the risk of identity theft. It can be very tempting to reply to an email or open an attachment or post information about yourself on social networking sites, but you should never do it. The consequences of fraud can be huge, so you should be aware of the very serious risks. If someone steals you or your parent's identity they can steal a lot of money and commit crimes that could put you or your parents in danger" [1] (The metropolitan Police 2015).

Despite the dangers of Web 2.0 I do believe it to be a pioneering way to communicate and progress in ever connected lives. As the father of social media, Mark Zuckerberg astutely puts it, "The internet not only connects us to our friends, families and communities, but it is also the foundation of the global knowledge economy"[2] (Mark Zuckerberg 2015). Future generations to come are going to have access to so much information and knowledge, lets hope that the human race can use this knowledge to it's advantage to become a more connected and more caring world.




[1]The Met Police (2015) "Internet Safety", online. Available from: http://safe.met.police.uk/internet_safety/get_the_facts.html
[2]Zuckerburg, Mark (2013), “Is Connectivity A Human Right?’, online. Available from: https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/t39.2365-6/12057105_1001874746531417_622371037_n.pdf