Book of Inspiration

I have recently purchased a few books from Amazon, one of them being the following: Pedagogy and Practice - Culture and Identities edited by Kathy Hall, Patricia Murphy and Janet Soler.  Although a little hard going at times, I am finding it extremely helpful in my understanding of pedagogy and incredibly inspirational.  I particularly like the following extracts and find them to be immensely encouraging:

Pedagogy is by its nature a shaping process, and freedom, say, in choice of task may be offset by control through differentiation and assessment.  Above all, we have seen the power of talk to define not just communicative competence, rights and responsibilities, but what it is to know, to understand, to learn and to be a child.

It does matter whether children encounter information technology, the arts, science or citizenship alongside the universal 'basics' of literacy and numeracy, for these can enable them to gain access to and participate in different cultural domains.  Equally, a badly skewed curriculum will deny access to, and ultimately belittle and weaken, the aspects of the culture which are underrepresented.

It will take me a while to process the information that I'm learning from the book, but I have already found myself talking about it and questioning not only my understanding but also my journey as a teacher, and how that journey may continue as my experiences grow.  Although there is no crystal ball enabling a glimpse into the future, the prospect of enrichment looks to be an exciting one!

Perfection

The majority of my thoughts, reflections, reviews and mental proposals happen in either my sleep or driving to and from somewhere in the car.  It's always so fluent, in detail and makes perfect sense.  If only I had a device in my brain that could record it all for later, in chunk size pieces - I'm sure that would be a great advancement on my contributions to my journal and AOL's.  In actual fact, life in general would surely have more clarity, if this were the case?

One of my subconscious thoughts in the early hours was about perfection. I had magnificently written an entire passage on the reasons why we as individuals seek perfection and why it will never be.  In my waking hours when I tried to bring the perfection self-debate to the fore I couldn't quite remember the exact details.  I think the point that I was making to myself in my slumber, was that to strive for perfection was a positive, aspiring to do one's best, but to let the need for perfection rule me, was only to be one of disappointment and one seldom achieved.

My module 1 journey, is a little like my subconscious perfection; desperately seeking to do well, achieve at every task, immense self pressure. In reality, I realise that in order to achieve my best and take control with an element of calm, the journey has to be faced with an understanding of 'up's and down's, clear thoughts and muddy thoughts'!  Sometimes, the thoughts and work just flows and other times I still spend hours and hours desperately searching for something in my brain to make sense.  It's often thought that dreams have a meaning, it's possible that my one about perfection was provoking me to think more closely to the task in hand and take each day and thought as it comes.  I hope so anyway!  

I have recently bought another book which I highly recommend 'The Study Skills Handbook' by Stella Cottrell.  As I work my way through the book I think I might be able to research a little further into my dream about 'perfection'.

'Click'

As I sit in my dining room (like Amber) attempting to write this 2nd blog, having made another cup of coffee (like Mary) I'm comforted by the thought;  'I'm not alone', thanks to my fellow MAPPers and their wonderful blogs!
Struggling to 'fit' everything in with work and home life I knew would be an issue, and one that I was aware of before embarking on the MA course.  What I didn't expect was MYSELF to be the issue. I have spent the past week thinking, reflecting, re-thinking, reflecting some more, jotting notes, writing journals, reading books, moving from one room to another, making more cups of tea and coffee in the hope that something very soon would click and fall into place............ - nothing!  That is, until the latter part of this week and in the early hours of this morning. 
The first part of my 'click' adventure was an impromptu experiment I did with my students on reflection.  After cramming my brain with extensive reading, I was curious to see how my students would relate something they had learnt at school, reflect on it and convey it through movement.  The result was extraordinary and one that filled me with great joy as I watched them move through the music with their own reflective thought. This impromptu performance was quite magnificent and surprisingly helpful in securing my own value and purpose of reflection.    The second 'click' event was within my reading material.  I've been dipping in and out of the core text books and not really grasping all of the material.  This I have found frustrating and once again found MYSELF to be the issue - not the books.  However, last night I finished reading from cover to cover 'The Work-Based Learning Student Handbook' by Ruth Helyer.  The light was back on "I Get It" was the cry in my head- I felt connected, motivated and able to relate my findings more easily than a couple of days before.

Following an array of reflective dreams I woke up early this morning, raring to go and have been on the laptop since 7.30am.  Reading the latest blogs from my fellow students provided the final 'click' - identification and reality - "They're feeling the same as me". 

In a strange macabre way, and most definitely upon reflection, I'm enjoying all these strange emotions.  Whatever it is, for the time being, it's 'Clicked' and I am now more able to look at the piles of books and notes all over the dining room and push self doubt and issues of MYSELF further into the distance.

Helen promised this would be an eventful journey - did she really mean in the first two weeks?!

Hi to everyone who is reading this first blog!

My name is Amanda TOOMS-PEEL and I have just enrolled on the MAPP course as a 2013/14 'newbie'!  I think it's fair to assume I am somewhat nervous (extremely actually), but hugely excited at the prospect of what I'm hoping will be an enriching and life changing experience.

So, who am I? Well, I definitely fall into the mature student bracket as I celebrated my 50th birthday last July.  I am happily married (coming up to 25 years next year) and I have a daughter who will be 18 in December and is currently in her 2nd year of training at Bird College.  I started my working life as a professional dancer, back in the days when you had to work for so many weeks in graded theatres to complete your 'provisional equity' before being the proud owner of the 'full equity card'!  Whilst dancing professionally I also enjoyed choreography and spent many a contract either choreographing my own numbers or assisting.  This experience has been extremely beneficial to my career and I have received awards and commendations for my work.

My working life falls into two categories - I am Principal and co-owner of +Footsies Dance Centre; Footsies is an evening and Saturday dance school where I teach RAD and ISTD syllabi Primary through to Advanced 2, as well as non-syllabus classes every evening and all day Saturday. The school has been running for 21 years now and my co-owner/business partner is my mum Tracy. Students of the school have been successful in securing places with The Royal Ballet School, Stage schools, Vocational colleges and performing in the West End.  We are a school that enjoys taking part in Dance festivals and local community fetes, charity events and pantomimes.  In my other job (during the day) I am Director of Vocational and Artistic Studies at +Reynolds Performing Arts.  Reynolds Performing Arts is a vocational college in Dartford Kent.  I am deputy to the Principal and have worked for the college for 8 years.  My day to day routine is extremely varied ranging from teaching, employment of staff, student liaison, management meetings etc the list is long - in short my working week is 'exhausting' but I love it!

Until last Friday when I met +Helen Kindred, Debbie, Mary and Aggie (all 'newbies' like me), I had never set foot onto a University campus before and didn't really know what was expected of me.  I found the entire site quite invigorating and strangely peaceful.  Although I had spent the arrival journey feeling extremely nervous and apprehensive, once I had met with Helen and the other girls my nerves were calmed and I genuinely am looking forward to the next 'long' months of study.  Aside from the study, I'm also trying to get my head round a new laptop and all the IT that is required for the MA, this blog being one of them.  I'm not sure at this stage which is more daunting, Skyping, blogging or studying. However, one thing I am sure of, I'm ready for the journey, looking forward to the challenge and excited at the prospect of meeting new people. Plus the bonus of being a VERY PROUD owner of the Middlesex University student card - that has to be worth it!

I hope you enjoy my blog, I wish myself and all other MAPPers 'Good Luck' and I look forward to reading yours!