If life is what happens to our plans, then dance is what happens to our steps.
ideas sometimes when you wait they come to you.

Preparation for starting with BAPP

Friday 18 March 2016

Module One and Module Three group discussions

Today we had two campus sessions. Because we realise again and again the course is not about boxes, sections, tasks, modules it is a learning journey I am going to write one post for us all the read. The first group skype was for Module One’s: we asked the question
What is your Professional Practice? No, really what is it? Can you say?

It is fine if you can’t but what ever it is it is a ‘thing’ not just what you are doing at the moment.
Have a look at Victoria’s blog post http://victoriamayvickers.blogspot.com

To ask what is your Professional Practice was important in the Module Three group skype we had later because if you are starting to think about your Artefact (note: it is a bit to early to do at the moment) but when you start to think about your professional artefact you need to have a sense of what your Profession is to pin point and artefact from your profession. Think about it… Have a look at Lara’s blog post http://larafbapp.blogspot.com

In the Module One chat we them thought about who you admire in your Professional Practice – who are the people that lead the way for you in terms of where you see your practice developing? Why do those people inspire you?

Thinking about our Professional Practice, what the field is and where good practice,and inspiration lay in that field for you helps you see your professional Practice as a thing. Something you are working at and developing even when you are not getting paid for it.

The inquiry you do in Module Three is about that development – inquiring into something that you feel extends your knowledge or to bring things together or to back fill as you develop your profession.

Then I asked “if you were trying to get someone else to think about their Professional Practice what would you ask them to do to try to stimulate this?”
  • People said ask them to journal and write down ideas about their practice.
  • Someone else suggested asking if you got an injury what would you do – how would you cope – what do you need to know.
  • Someone else said get someone to do observations and give feedback to them.

Great those are the ways we chose too. We wrote Modules to try to get you to think about your professional practice: In Module One particularly we introduce those same three tools. Tools we hope you will continue to develop and use across the whole course.
  1. Journal – we ask you to look into reflection and reflective practice to think about your Practice.
  2. Ask some one what would you do – What are your resources – we talk about this as networks. What networks support you. Can you think about your Practice through thinking about the resources you draw on to Practice.
  3. Observations – well we can’t come and observe you so we ask you to observe yourself by looking at your on-line profile. How do you come a cross what do you notice about your-self and your values. Can you think about your Practice through looking at and observing yourself and how you present yourself.

So big – point now: the tasks in every module are just there to stimulate your thinking about your Professional Practice (that’s what your BA is in PP = Professional Practice. You need to have thought about Professional Practice! At some point!).
Have a look at Lauren’s blog post http://laurenhoskins92.blogspot.co.uk/

The tasks are there to help you. If one is more helpful than another spend more time on it.
Have a look at Lois-Mays Blog post http://lois-mayhunt.blogspot.co.uk

The tasks are not hoops to jump through – they are not graded. The tasks in all modules should integrate with each other and with your Professional practice.
Have a look at Caoimhe’s blog post http://norakathleenmccabe.blogspot.cpm

People who attended the chats have written blog posts. Please click on them and see what they thought and wanted to share too.

We are not looking for answers – we are looking for a deeper understanding of the questions.

What do you think? What do you feel?
Hope to talk to you during the Coffee-shop group skype chat/ First Tuesday skype chat on April 5th.
Adesola




Wednesday 16 March 2016

Module three on-line session Friday 18th March

We have a Module Three on-line session on Friday at 8:00pm (in London)

Please comment below if you would like to attend.

(Please make sure you have sent be a sky contact request if we have not skipped before.)

Speak to you Friday

Adesola

Module One on-line session Friday 18th

We have a Module One on-line session on Friday at 6:30pm (in London)

Please comment below if you would like to attend.

(Please make sure you have sent be a sky contact request if we have not skipped before.)
Speak to you Friday

Adesola

Friday 4 March 2016

The journey is your learning

Question? I’m just making my way through the tasks for Part 4, I think that 4C- Developing your questions within your professional community would be a big advantage in my research. However at the moment everyone is preparing for school inspections in two weeks time. I was going to complete this task after two weeks time, so I can get a fully thought out conversation about my topic. To replace the lack of this task I was going to keep up with my own individual research, literature and other research methods. I know that the timeline says that we should be moving onto Part 5 next week, will postponing task 4c be an issue? I have also found two other students who have a similar path in their inquiry to mine, its nice to know that we are sharing similar challenges within our inquiries.

Adesola’s thoughts: I am happy with you doing whatever order you want whenever you want. Everyone’s practice is different and has busy points. That is the point of the course, you are at work. The important thing is that you don’t disconnect work from study: be thinking about your practice/work as a site of learning not something that gets in its way.

As long as you know where you going with what you will hand in it is fine to make your own pathway there. The course is about your Professionalism, so we trust you to plan your time too.

It sounds like you are doing 4c because you are thinking about inquiry and you are in your professional community doing it.

Have a look at blog posts from people who have done Module Two for insight about how different people approach their time and Module Two – How they got there…


Thursday 3 March 2016

Communication- Our group SKYPEs...

On Tuesday we had out First Tuesday of the Month SKYPE chats. We did a lot of sharing of ideas and practice. People said it was really helpful to just talk to each other about where they are at and what they are doing. As you are all starting a Module (1 or 2 or 3) it is great to hear other people are also in that “oh my goodness I’ve got to start place!!!”.
Remember the blogs are sharing and listening too. They are not a place to post perfect task responses. We don’t have to see all that all the time. The blogs are for you to communicate and participate in the community of learning that is BAPP (Arts).


People talked about ideas like:
Improvisation visit Cathy Hayward’s blog if you have experiences and ideas about improvisation. It was so useful to talk to people who looked at improvisation from lots of focuses: improvisation in dance, music, teaching…. That the beauty of the Learning Community people from many different aspects of the field. Cathy: http://catherinehayward.blogspot.com

We also talked about the importance of the Literature in all the modules. It opens new doors up to you. The Literature shared ideas with you, you might not have thought of.

We talked about the practicalities of starting a SIG. this could be getting a group together on Facebook or Google hang-out or physically in a coffee shop. Some people are in the same place as each other you can meet up and skype someone in. Its just about sharing ideas with other interested people. SIG stands for Special Interest Group – it’s a group who all have a special interest in something – that is all.

We talked a bit about privacy on-line and how you don’t have to post anything on your blog you do not want someone at work to read. You can start to use the principles of ethics we look at in Module Two maybe not use the real names of people or places  and still make your learning point or idea.

Have a look at the following blog’s of people who said they would share further info and ideas that were sparked from the conversations:

Most important GET ON WITH THE MODULE!!!!!! And don’t worry so much ‘about getting it right’. Getting it right IS getting on with it….

What do you think?  – My new moto is ‘don’t be a stalker, be a talker’ = Don’t just look at peoples blogs, comment.

Adesola