UNIT X - EDUCATOR: TOPIC: LINES OF ENQUIRY

Collaboration. In simple terms it’s very easy to use the word collaboration as if you have actually done the thing – you can say you have collaborated with someone by just asking them a question or just turning up on the day. Collaboration for me is in depth- it’s getting to know your ‘collaboration’ it’s getting to discuss the pros and cons involved, it’s about helping when things go wrong as well as helping when things go right, it’s about being involved constantly. That collaboration thought is exactly how it worked out for me and the group I’m placed in.

I tried to googling the word COLLABORATION. I agree its when two or more people come together to share the same experience but it was how the research on this word picked out sorts of learning experiences as bad collaboration and how bad collaboration is more memorable to others than the good in collaboration- which is true in sense's as you always remember the bad instead of the good as it marks you. which in this case and so far in this Unit I have not had a bad case of collaboration just experienced hiccups along the way.

The practice I’m in its rare you collaborate with someone whilst working on your designs, only way you collaborate is when you’re wanting to try a new skill, which reading that now sounds lonely. But I’m not lonely in this Unit, I have loved the collaborating experience. I’ll be sad when this unit ends of being back to just me but I feel that the skills I have gained will make me work much differently now. Plus the experience i have gained through collaboration will now give me the confidence to be able to either assist or guide other students in the near future.

EXAMPLES OF Z ARTS COLLABORATION

EXAMPLE OF Z ARTS COLLABORATION

Z arts being our first collaborating assignment, Having planned that workshop ourselves putting ourselves into even smaller groups on who would be better in that area, working with each other, communicating with each other in group messages and meeting each other then reflecting what we had done so far ready for the workshop, buying all the equipment.. I felt our groups collaborative response was committed from day one because of how amazingly well that workshop went for us all. 

 Reflecting back on that now I have seen all of us grow together and come out confidently through this of us talking and getting to know each other’s strengths and weaknesses in areas.. We know who the best talkers are in the group and the quieter ones, academic, organised, creative ones,But there is always down sides to the collaboration of you being that much involved and dedicated to getting all these lesson plans out, all the samples prepped, that it can lead to being very ‘Aggy’ and grumpy people which leads to motivation going downhill and ideas leading different ways BUT if you are in the right group you can always come out of that 'dark side' as you go away and sleep and the next day the group is picking you up again! and BAM your motivation levels kick back in, but if your not co operating with the group or don't really have a connection to the others it leads on to people releasing they do not like working collaboratively and prefer to work alone – (which is understandable, its not everyone's cup of tea) but it puts a strain in the group, of the group trying to not give them jobs they want to do as they don’t want to do anything which is more work for the people who want to be there but obviously easy work for them who don’t want to be there. Yes, collaborative work has its pro’s and con’s but what doesn't?!

The group I have been placed in has come out of 4 main people (5 including me) of being determined and willing to collaborate with each other. As a group we have come together, talk to each other constantly about the upcoming workshops happening, planning our lessons plans together, working on ideas together, asking about each others blogs together. We have come together collaboratively and have come out of the end of it as friends.

I feel for further development for me would to be more at ease of collaboration in my own practice, open minded of ideas of how different and extravagant they may be is to allow myself to be open and willing with others, problem may occur but talking and getting feedback about it will always overcome them- I feel that working collaboratively has really helped me develop my people skills. to which the skills im wanting to take forward with me in my own practice will come to use in the next workshops, and me working with my group and to keep on communicating and working together im sure we will come out successful in both workshops.

All from different backgrounds but that ties it together whilst working collaboratively.

UNIT X - EDUCATOR: DRY RUN THROUGH

So the unit X workshop is taking place on the 12/05/16, for our input into unit x we are delivering a workshop. We have been briefed and been given a lesson plan of the night of how Anna has planned it like, the location we know, as well as we only have that one day to install and DE install and by 5pm everything will be needed to be all done and ready for the VIPs who have a secret viewing before anyone else. The workshop is split into 2 groups. The original plan was to have 1 hr slot per group but all the educator students wanted more than an hour for the workshop so we are all coming together in the same room, all doing our workshops whilst running along each other’s. (It’s going to be busy!) So now we have from 6-9pm.

The next task was to actually come up with a workshop being in our groups.

Unit X Brief 

This image is our group’s brain storm of ideas.

IDEAS.

FINAL IDEA - POP UP POM POM'S

The second image is the idea we all agreed on finally and pitched our workshop to the other group. Our group’s idea was to capturing fun into the night of having Pop up Pom Pom’s. We sourced the idea from the placement we have been visiting on a Tuesday as well as Pom Pom’s being a popular item to have now, especially being on key rings which are sold on the high street, my input into that brain storm was for the pom pom's to made into something I.e a badge or keyring- at first we liked the badge idea but i was just adamant on the key ring as i have always wanted a Pom Pom key ring.. also the pop up would be more beneficial of coming out of there with an actually product to show, We had the idea again of using recycled materials to which we had recycled from another workshop (placement workshop) but instead we thought of using plastic bags instead of other recycled materials to keep this workshop different to the other. What is going to happen in this pop up is having people come and sit down and creating their own Pom Pom which they can take home as a key ring, we will have visual aids presented on the table for them to go off if people are unsure on how to make a Pom Pom as well as member of the group will be involved in sitting down and helping them create their Pom Pom. We are having Pom Pom templates already cut out as well as different coloured yarns and different thickness of yarns on the table as well as scissors. We took in that maybe people would struggle so we do have Pom Pom makers and already made Pom Pom’s, where we have asked each member of our group to make a Pom Pom as I have never made one before. So for the rest of the week we have got a plan together of what is needed to buy and for us to actually produce a Pom Pom so we can feedback to each other on how we learnt to it, then decide on the visual aid which is best to go off.

I feel our groups workshop will be creative and fun as we are bringing back a “old school” craft back, a Do it yourself type of workshop. It’s very contemporary and will be an enjoyable and relaxed vibe for our final workshop. 

UNIT X - EDUCATOR: DACA BRIEF

The workshop will be all day and Louise wants 2 workshops.

-          1 workshop – Yr7

-          1 workshop – Yr9 

The pupils taking part are academic pupils, there gifted and talented programme. There will be 15 students in each session

Can have any idea to base the workshop on but the outcome is for it to be a collaborative piece of work but Louise informed us that at the moment the kids have been learning/working about recycling and recycling materials and Pom Pom’s.

Pintrest - Recycled Materials.

The next task was to create a workshop from the brief Louise generated, we split into the groups we chosen ourselves by splitting the table in half.

Group 1 – Annabel, Ellie, Kitty, Vic and me.

Group 2 – Ellie S, Mary Lou, Sam and Toni

Group 2 had chosen to work with the Yr7s in their workshop so we had Yr9s, from that we had 30 minutes to get idea together.

Pinterest was our main source of ideas getting generated, we created an idea board on Pinterest and was pinning all our idea together...

From our little brain storm session, as a group we had the same theme throughout which was being recycled materials.

After the 30 minutes we pitched our ideas to Louise, from our talk we had the ideas of using a weave technique using recycled materials like clothes as majority of the group being textile based. Having piles of clothes cut into long stripes to be weaved onto a loom?

Ideas of dying fabric also, for how they can create a weave we saw images of bike wheels so the outcome would be an installation piece of sorts.

What we had brought to the table so far Louise was happy with and said it was very collaborative of how the outcome would be an installation, and that we could discuss more as a group of how this would work... Louise said she will ask the students to bring old/unused clothes as well as herself contacting charity shops for clothes that they cannot sell.

Pintrest - recycled materials.

Pintrest - Recycled Materials.

To look @ our groups boards: 

https://uk.pinterest.com/jones3140/educator/

https://uk.pinterest.com/jones3140/weaving-workshop/ 

What we need to have for the workshop is a PowerPoint so the students have visuals and step by step plan of what’s happening throughout the day – research involved in the PowerPoint also and artist research if an artist does similar work.

So for this Group (1) need more of a talk and explore our ideas and create a workshop.

UNIT X - EDUCATOR: MICRO TEACH: BLIND WALLPAPER FEEDBACK.

The micro teach session I delivered was called blind wallpaper – I'm wanting to reflect on the feedback given in the session as this being the first time of written feedback.

Learning Outcome: For all peers to interact & work as a team in a fun and creative way whilst learning the simple steps into a repeat pattern. Communication skills are key part into this workshop.

How will you know that this has happened? When all peers have completed pattern on paper.

In this 10 minute session the students would work together and cooperate with each other to make a basic wallpaper repeat... sounds easy enough? But as it was that easy, I decided to twist things and have one student blind folded so that there partner would have to communicate with them very clearly to create a pattern using a sponge and some paint. The prep work beforehand I made simple enough for myself to refer back to let alone the students, my lesson plan is very clear and explained enough ready for me to refer back to if needed. (Which I didn't need anyway) the plan is always a gamble as things can go wrong or things could go smoothly which luckily in my case went smoothly. Also I placed visual aids on the table as well as a sheet for myself to refer to whilst I explained the 2 pattern repeats.

Visual Aids - Basic Repeat Patterns.

I felt really calm and at ease. Talking to others and explaining to others does not bother me, after my micro teach was over it was nice and constructive feedback from the group. Reading through the feedback sheets from the group it looked like they enjoyed the session and were very constructive and clear- the group learnt the two patterns that is needed in repeat as well as communication skills. I’m happy with that being what they all agreed on as that was the learning outcome throughout.

Planning & delivery, again they all had similar feedback of agreeing that my planning was good by having the visual aids (Handouts)  ready for them, as well as my pep time of laying out everything and having all equipment ready to hand. The delivery side it was a mutual feeling that they found my workshop well-structured of having an intro, main body and conclusion and it being a generally nice intro in the world of textile printers, they found I was clear and confident with good body language and motivation involved.  The feedback from Planning and delivery I'm over the moon about and I’m happy the group picked up on my time management being good as well as being well structured.

Areas of good practice & areas of future attention/development, Again very similar feedback for the examples of good practice of the group agreeing that I prepped the workshop very well and being organised with materials and handouts as well as clear instructions into the session, I liked how two of the students picked up on the task being made into a fun workshop and how positive I was being with the learners and how I wrapped up the session by using praise.

The attention area was more directed to me of if I had longer than 10 minutes then I could expand on different shapes, or even using stamps as well as different colours. Somebody on the feedback gave me a good room for thought of building a changeover time into the workshop and have the pair pass on their pattern to the group next to them and the other pair pass there paper onto the next pair and then they all have each other paper and for them in a different colour try and carry on a repeat pattern and let them do that until they get there original paper back.

I love that idea! I wish I thought of that! Overall as like I said above I felt confident and calm because of the lesson planning and prep work I out into the micro teach. It was a very quick and enjoyable experience and would be a good skill to bare in mind of producing quick workshops to get the ball rolling.

Groups wallpaper samples.

UNIT X - EDUCATOR: PLACEMENT PREP & TUTORIAL

Placement prep in full swing getting ready for our first placement tomorrow @ Daca.
forms need to be signed by us and the school once visited, a workshop proposal form we had to fill out, where health and safety forms are involved and have to be signed and dated etc...
The crib sheet from Daca was given, full of information on where the school is, who to contact and generally the structure of the day of times to start and finish, we compared Daca crib sheet to St.James crib sheet and you can see the relaxation in daca's. As Anna produced the crib sheet for us it was information picked up over the years and past experience and herself comparing St.James and dacas.
I liked how Daca's information was more relaxed approach as it made me feel more at ease of walking into my first placement.
Whilst at the placement we were asked to look at teaching observations and whilst there to look at different styles of teaching:
Teaching styles- the way the teachers work with students
Types of activity- what kinds of activities are the teachers using?
Levels of ability- what is the range in a class, how is the same task tackled?
Classroom management- what happens when someone is naughty? good? upset?
School set up- how is the day structured, what are the classrooms like?
Your hit list: what are you most concerned about and how best can you observe it?
For my hit list I wanted to look at levels of ability on how well do they handle students who learn differently- a student who was like me in school, on how they could control the situation that they are in with them if they turn around and say "I don't get it" and " I cant do it, its to hard and confusing me" I want to know how they control that divide they have in classrooms of the smart ones and the not so smart ones.
During this session it was to get us ready for the placement to organise amongst ourselves on how were going to commute there and back, where to meet each other etc.
We all planned our times and looked at prices, so we was well organised and ready for the placement.
The session after the placement prep was the group tutorials for the micro teach.
I had thought of a idea finally!!
My 1o minute micro teach LO is to have the students working as a team by being instructed from there partner whilst  creating a simple repeat pattern for a wallpaper design- it sounds simple enough when written but i put a spanner in the works by wanting to partner up the students and have one of them blind folded and the other not - so it basically brought it all down to there communication and team work skills.
When explained this idea in the tutorial everyone seemed to like the idea and liked how fun it sounds, as they were learning a new skill but in  fun way!
I explained how I will explain to the students what a basic repeat design is in wallpaper and have visual aids on the table for them to absorb in..

Visual Aids- Block & Half Drop

Hannah thought that the patterns were  to complex.. but as explained, that's how you do a repeat pattern whilst designing and once drawn on piece of paper to show how simple it really is, she seemed to understand it more then, Also she felt from this complex area that I needed to try it out at home and see for myself..  Whereas I feel that the visual aid is set in stone, its clear that's the only two patterns needed to know which again I will explain so its not that complex?
I have planned my session out as well with the session plan which will be printed out x6 for everyone to look at.
Hopefully the micro teach will go smoothly on wednesday!!

UNIT X - EDUCATOR: MICRO TEACHING BRIEF

The brief given was talked through whilst handed out and the key things I picked upon were:

* LINK to my PRACTICE  * NEED to know LO 

   OR                                    * PRINTED HANDOUTS (Easier than digital)

* A INTEREST of mine      * My group + 2 

* 10 MINUTES or under

* DEAD SIMPLE  

From them key points I have been trying to generate some ideas. (mind blank) I had produced a mind map during the session near the end and I was just struggling! Really struggling. How do you deliver a workshop in 10 minutes? Around my practice? HELP.

Mind map of ideas for the workshop

During the session we had a group discussion on feedback. 

what is feedback? 

feedback should be a 2 way conversation with them.. 2 way process that needs to be ongoing. 

Can ask for targeted feedback

ASK = what you want feedback on

TELL = Give them the feedback they want

ACTION = what I will do differently


Here is a example of what a session plan looks like and what mine should look like for my micro teach session.
This guide line is very helpful especially as im struggling at the moment to generate a concept.. this plan is insightful and lets me see how you would really plan a session and how structured and precise you would be. So the next step is to generate my idea to hopefully create a work shop.
(Wish me luck!!)

Session Plan Example

Session Plan Example

UNIT X - EDUCATOR: THE IDEAS FOUNDATION

The ideas foundation talk was a great insight and very detailed information given to this charity run organisation. It was very constructive into how you could apply the programme called creative collab.
http://ideasfoundation.org.uk/

creative collab

creative collab is for a teacher in a school and a under grad in year 3 to collaborate with each other, the programme is wanting to get an eco network of supportive in future relationships. the point in creative colab is to bring digital awareness into schools, look at it like this. as the younger generation "we" (using we loosely) kind of know how to work technology and certainly the younger generation know how to work it perfectly! so they are wanting a digital designer in residence to bring more digital awareness into the schools with the help of teacher. you will learn off the teacher (obviously) but the teacher will learn these new fresh skills off you, especially if your bringing your own practice into the school. On creative collab you do get paid which is a bursary and they were saying its properly the £450 mark. the creative collab wouldn't just be a great experience for you but also you can include it on your CV to which will make your CV really stand out from the crowd.. with creative collab you can do it for unit X as well,so for me it sounds like a brilliant opportunity to do, but depending on my course im needing to know if i will be taking part in unit x when in year 3. But Deborah told us how to apply for next year a step by step and key date guide.

Digital designer information

Tom is the digital designer in residence at the moment, he is in his final year and doing the creative collab programme, It was really good insight for us to hear Tom talk about his experience and his advice for us if we was wanting to apply for the creative collab. Tom mentioned about volunteering and the places where to volunteer for as it looks good on your CV as well as volunteering will help you more for this kind of practice.
* out reach team      * the shed       * mentoring scheme      * local schools
During the talk Deborah pointed out the importance of this organisation due to schools trying to AXE art as a curriculum completely.. (just let that sentence sink in..) they feel like art takes kids away from the "REAL" world, so the school just wants to focus on Maths, English and Science, you know the key things you use every day in life? like algebra or stem cell of a flower.
Anyway the creative collab is wanting this collab more and more and wanting more and more art based student, teachers, artists to push the word of art out! With the collab they are always wanting you to have a legacy, so what you and your teacher are doing will be your legacy for yourself and the school.
After the talk we had Q&A time. what was very interesting to hear is that you can apply with someone in your practice or in another practice already.. a joint application. as the collab is about digital some students here do not have much digital skills like some others. for example im a textile student who uses Photoshop and illustrator on a daily basis, that's how I do my designs by drawing by hand and then getting them onto the software. whereas someone else in textiles does not use Photoshop or illustrator they would use a sewing machine to do designs or screen printing again by hand but dont use the software. so we could come together and do a joint application for creative collab and work together with the teacher and the school, which I feel is a great idea because some people would rather do that as they feel they can work better with someone from there own practice plus even in our own practice we dont really work together anyway so it would be good for two people to come together for it.
I F will be a organisation im going to keep an eye on, especially for next year for my final year as it really would be a great learning curve for me.

UNIT X - EDUCATOR: GROUP TUTORIAL

This group tutorial was a little different to how I've experienced a tutorial.. properly because we had to do work in a tutorial. Anyway we read through a blog post for this unit (wasn't a student from last year, think a few years ago) we read that students key blog post 1, the key post we just did before half term.

we had to read through this blog and see if it was good or not. red, amber , green. the group agreed it was a amber, from that we had to mark down that blogs areas of strengths, areas for improvement, opportunities for future development. before starting that we got given the matrix that staff use to mark our blogs to give the student a mark basically. 

this was to show us a insight into how staff would mark us for real and using them guides is how they give us marks.

Sheets given for the task.

Assessment sheet- strengths etc.

it came to the conclusion that we were very harsh markers.. whereas Hannah explained that the student would of got graded around 50.. whereas the group were saying more 40-47 and two of us thought it was a straight fail. if you can see on the picture there is "X" where I graded the student which was the low 40's - maybe I am a harsh marker in this case as im very straight to the point with things and i felt like that students blog was everywhere, they could of got a good mark if they did what was meant to be done and is a KEY word to the brief which was research. just didn't have it, they had everything else of key engagement to the workshops but just missed what the key blog was meant to be about getting the research in there as they had really good points and information but just didn't take it further..

Matrix sheet

In between all that we had brief feedback about our key post. I'm guessing mine was good.. Hannah said it was really good that I had primary research and it was detailed of how I went and contacted someone in the profession i was researching about, likes how i have my own voice but that was mainly about the other blog posts etc... just thought as we was marking that blog post we would of been given a mark to go off and how to improve but it seemed to not be like that, felt like I don't really know exactly how well it was for a KEY post.
so for my own plan im going to keep on blogging how im blogging, get my blogs up ASAP and just keep going with it.

UNIT X - EDUCATOR: HOW TO PLAN A WORKSHOP 2

·       *  Looking @ body language

·       *  How to give Feedback

              Amy Cuddy – Ted Talks 

·                                   *  Non Verbal’s – Judgements

·                                   *  Complimenting each other non-verbal’s

·                                   *    Power dominants

·                                   * Expressing power

·                                   * POWER POSES – just go and try a power pose (wonder women pose) and you will believe                that you can make it.

·                                   *  Powerless – small

·                                    *When someone is powerful you become powerless when talking to them

·                                    * Genders is a huge part with power

**** FAKE IT TILL YOU MAKE IT ****

·                                     *  Powers take risks whereas powerless tend to stay away from risk taking

·                                     * Hormones – stress & testosterone  

**** FAKE IT TILL YOU BECOME IT ****

I have not heard of Amy Cuddy before but from that video am hoping to look into more of her. This talk we watched of hers was so trigging for me and so influential. 

Power Poses. There is Powerful people in this world and there is powerless people in this world, some people can be both at times and others may not realise they could be seen as powerless.  

My example to help me explain power poses is reflecting it through a working environment. Working in/for a business is like a food chain really, you have your alpha (top dog) – predators (top dogs to prey but still take commands from the alpha) – prey (not top dogs). So from that when your predator speaks to you they stand strong and powerful as they know what they are talking about as that’s why they are your manager so they will talk to you and have their body language at you like a power pose, whilst the “prey” will be powerless there body language could be shrugged abit hands in pockets no eye contact not standing like a power would be. But you only think about that now once you have seen these power poses, you start to think more and more of how your body language is to others. To which Amy cuddys words start to play into things of FAKE IT TILL YOU BECOME IT. You don’t need to be powerless towards your manager as your role in that company is bigger than theirs, I’m not saying be cocky and ignorant like they are sometimes but don’t feel like your powerless try the power pose and you will realise you have become what you never thought you could be!

Exercise task

The task was to role play the power poses that Amy cuddy was talking about and to us to reflect them through teaching. We could go as extreme as we wanted using chairs, tables etc.

1^st role being the teacher powerful and the students powerless.

On the image we positioned the teacher stood on the chair doing the wonder women pose looking down on the students- the teacher is higher than the students so is automatically more powerful than them and the students crouched down looking powerless.

Teacher powerful - student powerless

2^nd role students powerful and teacher powerless.

With this role we decided to have the students on the floor still but them with the backs turned on the phone, legs stretched out like they are just chilling and not caring what the teacher has to say and we positioned the teacher behind them on the chair still but kind of stuck on the chair as they feel powerless as they are not interested.

students powerful - teacher powerless

3^rd role play was again the teacher being powerless but more realistic (some groups had chairs stacked up etc. to show powerless) so we needed a real teaching enviro.

We brought a table over so the students could use that as a barrier, we had one student asleep on the desk not listening at all and the other was so cocky and confident with their feet on the desk and on the phone or talking and again the teacher trying to talk on the other end of table putting that barrier in front of them of being powerless.

students powerful - teacher powerless more realistic

4^th role play was again more realistic of the teaching being powerful BUT not as aggressive as the 1^st role play all our poses were quite aggressive...

We used the table again and had the students sat down, looking interested in the work and the teacher in-between the students stood up getting involved, again the teacher is being powerful as stood up and in a power stance and the students not very powerless but in comparison to the teacher they are but in a good learning environment.

teacher powerful - students powerless but in a good environment

From the role playing exercises, I would take forward the 4 the role play of teacher being powerful but more friendly and defiantly NOT aggressive, teacher can still be in control with the students but more of a relaxed approach as you’re not wanting students to be crouching down feel small so from the exercise and Cuddy’s talk you can see how to be powerful and how to tell if someone is being powerless from there body language.

From that the second half of the session was based on feedback and the different types of feedback you can give students and how to deal with feedbacks. We watched Austin’s Butterfly – Ron Berger. The video showed a butterfly and a boy wanting to draw this butterfly and the progress and development the boy went through to complete his butterfly drawing through the process of feedback.

The boy was given advice through each stage, but it was very specific advice on his observational drawings, the advice was never mean and was letting the boy know its okay to make mistakes but this is how to get away from your mistake so you don’t make it again. The feedback each time was more and more constructive and specific, as it was not just a teacher the boy as getting feedback from peers. Sometimes in them kind of feedbacks it’s nice to have constructive feedback from peers as they are the same level as you and they are more honest and encouraging, I’m not saying a teacher isn’t but sometimes it’s nice to have feedback sessions with peers and a tutors.

The key words for that video were specific advice and constructive feedback.

From this workshop I’m taking on board body language, now I can kind of know about Power poses I’m going to try and see if I can spot Power poses just so I know how to deal with that kind of situation, I defiantly will take this forward in the classroom when on placement as I don’t want the students to feel powerless and then I don’t want to feel powerless to them so I’m taking on Cuddy’s advice of fake it till you become it. The how to give feedback was quite normal for me of how others got involved, as I study textiles we have a lot of tutorials with our peers where they see our development each time we present and give specific and constructive feedback, again taking how to give feedback will be good to learn of me not being that peer giving the advice directly.