Task 5A - Professional Ethics

Even though I have been a dance teacher for a little over 2 years now, I still find areas that I need to work on and improve in regards to some of my teaching methods, but I feel this is a good thing, because I want to be the best that I can be as a dance teacher, and also as I want to go into mainstream schools as a teacher of GCSE/A LEVEL dance, I need to be ready for anything.

When I looked up the meaning of 'ethics' - this is the answer that came up:

'moral principles that govern a person's behaviour or the conducting of an activity.'

In my workplaces, there are set principals and guidelines that not only I have to adhere to, but also the parents/students have to as well for a safe, encouraging environment for children to learn.
While they are in my care, the children should feel safe and valued with respect while also giving the teacher respect. The ways I do this are:

• To do a visual risk assessment of the area I am working in, making sure there is nothing for the children to fall over or cause an injury to themselves.
• Also doing a good warm up/cool down for the children to prevent risk of injury to their bodies.
• Talking to the children (dependant on age) in a respectful but also authoritative way so the children will learn.
• Also treating the children the way that they would like to be treated, as they learn this at mainstream school so the principle should carry on throughout.

For my enquiry, I am looking at the ways teachers act around children with autism, and seeing if dance is a good way for children with autism to grow up and prepare themselves as they grow older. The ethics here are quite a sticky subject, as on the one hand you have to treat these children the same as the other children in fear of risk of favouritism, but on the other hand there will be a sense of favouritism as you need to nurture and encourage these children probably more so than others. In my enquiry I will not name any schools, teachers, or students. And any information I get will be kept by me and disposed of after the end of my enquiry. The research I do will remain professional and anything I need approval for I will seek. Any photos/videos I record I will gain permission from the dance school used, but also the parent/guardians of the children for security reasons.

By doing this, I feel I will achieve my enquiry by doing the correct things to ensure a safe environment.

xxx

Only the start of Task 4D

I know this will start blossoming into me posting so many videos/articles etc, but this subject I am thinking of doing is really letting me get my teeth stuck into something that I am enjoying as I am learning something new every time I research something, but also things I can put into my everyday practise as a dance teacher.

The first piece of literature is from this link and it did take me some time to find, as it wasn't on the first page of Google :) I really enjoyed reading this piece, and one comment struck a chord with me

'The practice of dance is highly structured and very ritualized, a selling point for children with autism.'

Which I totally agree with. On the saturday class I covered in my previous blog, the helper of the child in question actually praised me after the class for the way I taught and said that she liked the fact that I was 'structured, and also was strict and clear with the children on what I wanted' which is beneficial for the child. 

Also on this post it mentioned James Hobley - a child who competed on 'Britains got Talent' back in 2011. He had battled with autism and was homeschooled by his mum, and it was only a leaflet on a dance school that inspired him to dance and his confidence grew also. Here is the youtube video on this.

This actually sent shivers down my spine... his passion and also enthusiasm for dance is an inspiration to not only other children with autism, but also any dancer in general, that anybody can do anything if they believe in themselves.

Another thing I found online was a link with an article on which a mother who has two children (one with autism, one with Aspergers Syndrome) has released a dvd with the help of Pineapple Studios to help children with certain aspects such as co ordination, confidence, communication skills etc. Here is the link.

I liked this as she was really passionate about doing this for not only her children, but children everywhere with this condition. Debbie Moore - founder of Pineapple Studios said this in the article:

'Every child is different but experts agree that early intervention helps with development and dance aids children with autism.'

Which is great as that is how I feel about this subject, if the child does it early on then their confidence and communication skills especially will flourish and for a teacher, that is the best part of the job seeing children flourish :)

xxx

 

Task 4C

So, as I was thinking about my questions, I was told I had to cover some other lessons on saturday as the teacher was sick. And as I was about to start baby tap, I had forgotten that there was a child who came who has severe autism. 

She also has noise sensitivity, so has to wear headphones so it doesn't hurt her ears. But her tap was incredible. For a child her age (7) her concentration skills were second to none, compared to some other children in the class who were not concentrating at all. 

In the class she has a helper who takes her to and from lessons, and also supports her in the class incase she doesn't understand fully what I am saying. And to my surprise, the lady who turned up was my friends mother!

I spoke to her for about 15 mins after the class, and asked some of the questions that were mentioned in my previous blog, and also asked her if there was anything I could improve on. I was really grateful for all the answers she gave me, and she said if I needed any other help/advice etc then I could contact her :)

Which has given me a massive boost - and it also got me thinking. Could I set some of the questions based from the teachers point of view? And also maybe the child/parent point of view? So have a case study (which could be the child in question) and see how far she comes in a 12 week basis (which is the length of a term)? 

One of the good points is that I don't teach her on a regular basis, so I have a teacher I can ask at the end of the class how she got on, also can ask the helper how they felt they got on too!!


Decisions decisions!!

xxx

Task 4B - SIG Group

I personally thought creating a SIG group would be really difficult to start, but to my surprise it was easier than I thought!

I am included in a Facebook group for all Module 2 students, which is great because as I found out in Module 1, most people (especially dance/drama performers/teachers) have Facebook as a point of contact.

I am also included in a number of communities on Google+

Teachers of Performing Arts

Dance Teachers Community

Notifications on

Performing Arts Teacher & Coach Community

Teaching professionals within the Arts

Which is great as it is like minded people, and we can share our feelings, questions, opinions from all different areas. 

And I am looking forward to really getting involved and starting to share ideas with everyone :)

Steph xxx

Task 4A

Oh my goodness time has flown! In all honestly I have found this module a struggle, due to having to pick a certain topic to ask questions about and also finding the time to write things down! But I'm not going to be beaten by this!


As some of you may know, I have been a dance teacher now for a while, and have taught so many students. But very recently, I have joined a school that a lot of the students have various forms of autism, some very subtle, some more noticeable. And it got me thinking...

- Have you taught children or adults who have a form of autism?

- Do you think that dance/drama/singing is a good outlet for them? If so why?

- What difficulties have you faced when dealing with problem situations regarding children with autism?

- What is the best thing about teaching children/adults with autism?

- Should mainstream schools be promoting activities like dance to help the children who do have some form of autism?


I have done a bit of research on autism recently, as my partners child has suspected Aspergers syndrome, and just reading the article on symptoms it all made sense. This link shows probably just some of the symptoms of autism but this link shows some treatments the NHS recommend. And one really rang true for me. 

'cognitive skills – such as encouraging imaginative play'

I immediately thought back to some of my kids that I do teach and do have autism and how they were when I first started to how they are now, and I do believe that dance and also drama and singing really does help the children learn new skills and also helps them with everyday life (eg. interacting with other children, being in a large group etc)

I want to see how far I can go with this enquiry, as it is something that I feel I can really get my teeth stuck into and also see what other teachers, and maybe also the children's feedback on certain topics. Obviously these questions are only draft for the moment, but with the help of various contacts, I'm sure I will get some good solid questions to help me progress into module 3.