I started this task by looking at the way other people on this course (past and present) gather information, I was not surprised to realise that most people use many of the same or similar sources, Web 2.0, social networking. The difference came in how people use their sources to gather this information which in turn led me to question my own sources and the effectiveness in my use of them.
Pip Spalton talks in her blog about the importance of organisation, she states "The wide variety of ways to source the vast amounts of information means that professionals including myself need to be able to find ways of organising the results of their research." I think this is the most important part of gathering information, the source is important but how we use the information we gather is key. If we organise our sources and information well we are at a better advantage to recall and reuse that information. I recently found a great website for organising and storing information related to Web research. Delicious allows you to store links to websites and to tag and categorise them for easy finding, I have found it helpful as there is so many articles on the web it is sometimes hard to keep track and this allows me to file them for easy finding all my web sources are in one place. (I did try to upload a link to delicious but it kept linking to my account) This did get me thinking are there other websites or apps like this that people use to help organise the information, it would be nice to know anyone's ideas.
Well enough of that onto my Information Sources
1. People
Conversation is something that happens to us all, are need to affiliate drives us to make connections with people. Through these connections we can lean so much. "Since we cannot experience everything, other people's experiences, and hence other people, become the surrogate for knowledge." Karen Stephenson.
This comes in many forms thought parents, colleagues, students and close friends and family. I find that each group has its own advantages and I can gather information and learn from each of them.
• Parents - In discussions with parents I can learn so much about their child. Initially their strengths and weaknesses their likes and dislikes but also any development issues or concerns including medical history. This can help me to better tailor my teaching of that student. Parents can also be a sore of information regarding the student’s ongoing or current development. They will let you know if their child has been feeling unwell if they are tired or have been injured outside of dance class. All this information is invaluable for how you approach you students and conduct you class. Worryingly I have noticed a decrease in the frequency of discussions with parents. I find many parents for some reason are not coming into the school to drop their children off but choosing instead to waiting the car and watch their children until they are inside the building. I am unsure as to whether this is due to bad parking facilities on the road outside or a lack of interest in their child's chosen activity. I recall discussions in the past with colleagues regarding student and parents and our thoughts that some parents see are work as a babysitting service. They can drop their children off for a full day and busy themselves with other things that need to be attended to. I wonder if anyone else has come across this or something similar in their work.
• Students - As students grow I find the conversations I have divert from the parents and transfer to the student. Although contact is still maintained with parents, when the students are mature enough they become the primary person to converse with regarding their development and well-being. I also find myself learning much from my student. Keeping up to date with students can help you to connect and relate better to them, there is no better source for this than the student themselves. I also find myself learning about Web technologies from them as well as tips on how to better use these technologies.
• Colleagues - Whenever I have an uncooperative student or I finding a situation particularly hard, my first call is always to visit the staffroom. I am lucky to have many colleagues with expertise in different areas. For example if it is regarding a student’s injury or alignment etc. I will talk to the college physiotherapist. If it is a behaviour or attention/application issue I will discuss it with others who also take the student to see if the behaviour is repeated in their classes and whether they have effective ways of dealing with that particular student. I welcome their knowledge and opinions even if it is to just confirm my initial thoughts. I also find their knowledge of syllabus a great help if there is an exercise I do not know or details I need to check I can always find someone to help me.
• Family and Friends - This is not a major group for my professional work but I find that their insight can sometime be helpful when I am in the initial phases of an idea. As they have no connection to the dance profession their thoughts are not prohibited by understanding and knowledge of how the business works.
2. Syllabus and notes
'The bible' as we like to nickname it is extremely important source of information. Produced by the ISTD is a guide to be used for recalling details of syllabus exercises. I never enter a syllabus class without it. Although I may not use it every lesson it is there if I ever need to check counts or sequences. The syllabus is a base of my knowledge and it is covered in notes, my teacher once told me one mark of a good teacher is how many scribbles they have on their syllabus. These notes relate to changes that are made, ideas on the execution of steps and other information I have picked up from colleagues and via courses I have attended. I also have notes written from my days as a student which I reorganise, develop and type up often. These are manly for use in my teacher training classes where we discuss the build-up and analysis of steps as well as approach to teaching, I find my notes allow me to recall with greater detail what point I am making and help me to pass that knowledge onto my students.
3. College
I mentioned in my blog about My Current Networks how lucky I am to work where I do. The college is a great source of information, from the people that work there to the companies that contact it. I regularly get passed emails regarding upcoming performances and performance opportunities. The college also receives notices about available Job opportunities in the area. If I am entering students for exams I can find all the relevant cost and time sheets I need as well as the paperwork I need to fill in. The walls are filled with useful information and contacts, as I was writing I remembered a notice regarding professional practice that a colleague had put on the wall in reception, the piece was aimed to the students but I think we can all learn from other people’s thoughts and opinions.
4. Internet
An obvious one and one of the largest. There is so much to be learned from research that can be done via the internet, just in regards to this course I have expanded on theories brought to me by the course module and also found new theory relating to them. Here is a list of just some of the things I use the internet for
Inspiration for ideas regarding classwork and choreography
buy books, syllabus and dance equipment
Read articles related to my work
Gather sources
Send and receive emails
keep contact with other people in my profession
Search for jobs
5. Courses
Being a member of the ISTD attending as many of their courses as I am able is very important. It allows me to keep up to date with new work and developments of the old syllabus, it is a great networking tool and I am saddened and a little frustrated by the amount of teachers that do not take advantage of this brilliant information source. Some of the most valuable information I encounter while at these courses is the expertise of the Lectures, not in relation to the syllabus but in regards to developing dance outside of the ISTD and their theory's behind the technique and application of steps.
I recently attended a course with Nick French an ISTD examiner and developer of the tap syllabus, he lead a discussion based on how he was a "firm believer in using your 'hammies' to assist with elevated work". of course I was already aware of this but during the discussion I started to think about whether I was passing this information onto my students effectively. His knowledge was passed to me which in turn will be passed to my students.
So which source is the most valuable? This task has made me think more about how I gather information and a thought occurred to me as so many of us write about similar sources, would everyone pick be the same for their number one? It’s a tough one and as I am writing I am swinging back and forth between them, perhaps that is the point one source of information is not enough. So is it better to have as many as possible or is it quality over quantity?
Pip Spalton talks in her blog about the importance of organisation, she states "The wide variety of ways to source the vast amounts of information means that professionals including myself need to be able to find ways of organising the results of their research." I think this is the most important part of gathering information, the source is important but how we use the information we gather is key. If we organise our sources and information well we are at a better advantage to recall and reuse that information. I recently found a great website for organising and storing information related to Web research. Delicious allows you to store links to websites and to tag and categorise them for easy finding, I have found it helpful as there is so many articles on the web it is sometimes hard to keep track and this allows me to file them for easy finding all my web sources are in one place. (I did try to upload a link to delicious but it kept linking to my account) This did get me thinking are there other websites or apps like this that people use to help organise the information, it would be nice to know anyone's ideas.
Well enough of that onto my Information Sources
1. People
Conversation is something that happens to us all, are need to affiliate drives us to make connections with people. Through these connections we can lean so much. "Since we cannot experience everything, other people's experiences, and hence other people, become the surrogate for knowledge." Karen Stephenson.
This comes in many forms thought parents, colleagues, students and close friends and family. I find that each group has its own advantages and I can gather information and learn from each of them.
• Parents - In discussions with parents I can learn so much about their child. Initially their strengths and weaknesses their likes and dislikes but also any development issues or concerns including medical history. This can help me to better tailor my teaching of that student. Parents can also be a sore of information regarding the student’s ongoing or current development. They will let you know if their child has been feeling unwell if they are tired or have been injured outside of dance class. All this information is invaluable for how you approach you students and conduct you class. Worryingly I have noticed a decrease in the frequency of discussions with parents. I find many parents for some reason are not coming into the school to drop their children off but choosing instead to waiting the car and watch their children until they are inside the building. I am unsure as to whether this is due to bad parking facilities on the road outside or a lack of interest in their child's chosen activity. I recall discussions in the past with colleagues regarding student and parents and our thoughts that some parents see are work as a babysitting service. They can drop their children off for a full day and busy themselves with other things that need to be attended to. I wonder if anyone else has come across this or something similar in their work.
• Students - As students grow I find the conversations I have divert from the parents and transfer to the student. Although contact is still maintained with parents, when the students are mature enough they become the primary person to converse with regarding their development and well-being. I also find myself learning much from my student. Keeping up to date with students can help you to connect and relate better to them, there is no better source for this than the student themselves. I also find myself learning about Web technologies from them as well as tips on how to better use these technologies.
• Colleagues - Whenever I have an uncooperative student or I finding a situation particularly hard, my first call is always to visit the staffroom. I am lucky to have many colleagues with expertise in different areas. For example if it is regarding a student’s injury or alignment etc. I will talk to the college physiotherapist. If it is a behaviour or attention/application issue I will discuss it with others who also take the student to see if the behaviour is repeated in their classes and whether they have effective ways of dealing with that particular student. I welcome their knowledge and opinions even if it is to just confirm my initial thoughts. I also find their knowledge of syllabus a great help if there is an exercise I do not know or details I need to check I can always find someone to help me.
• Family and Friends - This is not a major group for my professional work but I find that their insight can sometime be helpful when I am in the initial phases of an idea. As they have no connection to the dance profession their thoughts are not prohibited by understanding and knowledge of how the business works.
2. Syllabus and notes
'The bible' as we like to nickname it is extremely important source of information. Produced by the ISTD is a guide to be used for recalling details of syllabus exercises. I never enter a syllabus class without it. Although I may not use it every lesson it is there if I ever need to check counts or sequences. The syllabus is a base of my knowledge and it is covered in notes, my teacher once told me one mark of a good teacher is how many scribbles they have on their syllabus. These notes relate to changes that are made, ideas on the execution of steps and other information I have picked up from colleagues and via courses I have attended. I also have notes written from my days as a student which I reorganise, develop and type up often. These are manly for use in my teacher training classes where we discuss the build-up and analysis of steps as well as approach to teaching, I find my notes allow me to recall with greater detail what point I am making and help me to pass that knowledge onto my students.
3. College
I mentioned in my blog about My Current Networks how lucky I am to work where I do. The college is a great source of information, from the people that work there to the companies that contact it. I regularly get passed emails regarding upcoming performances and performance opportunities. The college also receives notices about available Job opportunities in the area. If I am entering students for exams I can find all the relevant cost and time sheets I need as well as the paperwork I need to fill in. The walls are filled with useful information and contacts, as I was writing I remembered a notice regarding professional practice that a colleague had put on the wall in reception, the piece was aimed to the students but I think we can all learn from other people’s thoughts and opinions.
4. Internet
An obvious one and one of the largest. There is so much to be learned from research that can be done via the internet, just in regards to this course I have expanded on theories brought to me by the course module and also found new theory relating to them. Here is a list of just some of the things I use the internet for
Inspiration for ideas regarding classwork and choreography
buy books, syllabus and dance equipment
Read articles related to my work
Gather sources
Send and receive emails
keep contact with other people in my profession
Search for jobs
5. Courses
Being a member of the ISTD attending as many of their courses as I am able is very important. It allows me to keep up to date with new work and developments of the old syllabus, it is a great networking tool and I am saddened and a little frustrated by the amount of teachers that do not take advantage of this brilliant information source. Some of the most valuable information I encounter while at these courses is the expertise of the Lectures, not in relation to the syllabus but in regards to developing dance outside of the ISTD and their theory's behind the technique and application of steps.
I recently attended a course with Nick French an ISTD examiner and developer of the tap syllabus, he lead a discussion based on how he was a "firm believer in using your 'hammies' to assist with elevated work". of course I was already aware of this but during the discussion I started to think about whether I was passing this information onto my students effectively. His knowledge was passed to me which in turn will be passed to my students.
So which source is the most valuable? This task has made me think more about how I gather information and a thought occurred to me as so many of us write about similar sources, would everyone pick be the same for their number one? It’s a tough one and as I am writing I am swinging back and forth between them, perhaps that is the point one source of information is not enough. So is it better to have as many as possible or is it quality over quantity?
No comments:
Post a Comment