MA Dance Pedagogy

If I am to reflect on who I am now in relevance to my professional practice and who I was when I started the course, I feel I have made massive leaps and bounds towards understanding more about my professional practice. When I first started the course and wrote my first blog, one student picked it apart so much I had to delete it. I felt vulnerable, on display and under qualified to be taking on this work. I was hesitant to write any blogs after this and kept my learning to myself. Even in my critical reflection in Module 1 I tried to point out all the advantages of learning alone to justify my actions. I then took a break from studying for personal reasons and I truly believed I didn't want to complete the degree anymore. I put off talking to my tutor and again tried to work everything out by myself. I eventually did talk to my tutor, and I explained I no longer wanted to study. She asked me if this was really the case and if perhaps I just needed a bit more time out before cont...

A professional network is not an idea I've really thought about in depth before, but it's amazing to realise that you actually already have several you didn't even know about! I acquired my first professional network many years ago when I first started training at my dance school and local college. Even though I've moved away from home and don't see many of those in the network anymore, I still contact my tutors about decisions I make in my professional life (even about completing this course!) and they are still there for me. As are the people who were on my course - on social media they are the people most likely to post something about a dance related  inquiry , and just as I can help them they can then help me.  I also think its useful to have people in your professional network who do live in a different part of the country, or indeed another country, because it helps me as a dance teacher explore different markets for classes and what appeals in different ...

I was just reading reader 2 and the section on Kottcamp's idea of on-line and off-line engagement. I like the idea of reflection in action. I use it during my workout classes; if my class are over exerting themselves I will perform a speech test (usually means I get them to whoop) and if they can't, I immediately know I have to make the next song a lot slower to give them a chance to get their breath back. Also it's the same for if I noticed they were finding the class too easy and weren't sweating I would make the next few songs killer! But essentially it's about recognising the needs of my class and acting on that and adapting immediately, rather than going home and thinking 'maybe that class was too easy/hard? ' because ultimately by then I may have lost a client due to them not enjoying my class. After this section the reader asks for a few ideas I like and to do a bit of critical thinking on them. I may not be at my most critical at this time but I...