Tasks 4b & 4c: SIG's and Developing Questions Within My Professional Community

I have recently been looking through some blogs to try and identify some useful sources for my research. I am having a bit of difficult doing so as I haven't seemed to come across many people with such a specific interest as mine. However I HAVE managed to discuss some of my questions and ideas with my private pupils, their parents and also some old peers who are now teaching themselves.

I have mainly been focussing on the questions I have regarding teaching and whether it is deemed necessary to have teaching qualifications or whether experience is more preferable. After collating my notes I have come up with the following answers...

Are a teachers qualifications more important to a student than a teachers experience or credits?
No. Most students find it more interesting when their teacher has some experience of working themselves say in the West End or in a Recording Studio. The fact that their teacher has done such things gives the pupils a sort of 'wow' factor. The evidence of this is that when trying to engage a class some teachers find it helps to give an example of a job or experience they have had as this prompts the students to ask questions and spark their interest to keep them engaged. Often if you have worked in a well-renowned show or with a famous company/person a student will take on the task in hand as though if they achieve this then it may be them one day working for/with a famous company/person. It gives them something to aspire to be or achieve.

Further from this question a topic and further question that arose was..

Does having qualifications make a teacher a 'good' teacher?
The general consensus was no it doesn't. Not because qualifications don't stand for anything where teaching is concerned but because you could have a teacher with all of the qualifications in the world yet they may have no industry experience or previous teaching experience which may in fact hinder their ability to teach as effectively as is possible. You can't learn experience in a classroom.

I will continue to ask my other questions within my professional community as and when I see the members and once I have do so I will continue to blog the answers!

Task 4a: Developing Questions for Professional Enquiry

After reading Reader 4 I have been developing some questions relevant to my practice. These are topics and ideas I would like to develop further to enable me to enhance my level of practice. 

In practice I am a 'Voice Coach'. I chose to trade under that title as I believe 'singing teacher' to be misleading. Personally, I do not believe singing is something that can be 'taught'.  In my opinion, for something to be taught it requires universal understanding - something like maths and science -something that is the same no matter who you are and where you're from, whether you're old or young or whether you're male or female. Maths will always have equations that will always take the same format and produce the same answers. Science will always follow the same rules, with the same equations always producing the same reactions. However each and every voice is different and therefore I don't believe that singing is something that can be taught.

'The sound of each individual's voice is entirely unique not only because of the actual shape and size of an individual's vocal cords but also due to the size and shape of the rest of that person's body, especially the vocal tract, and the manner in which the speech sounds are habitually formed and articulated.' - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_voice

It is for this reason I believe that the term and practice of voice coaching is more appropriate than singing teaching.

I am a singer with vast experience in many different performance areas such as; live musical theatre performances; live solo performances; original cast recordings; solo vocal recordings; live choir performances and recorded choir sessions. I base a lot of what I coach vocally on experience and technical knowledge. I do not have any teaching qualifications. I am aware that some mothers of students and older pupils alike would be dubious about paying for coaching from a voice coach with no 'teaching qualifications'. But that is exactly the point. I will not be teaching a student to sing. I will be coaching them on how to develop, protect and maintain their own completely individual voice. I will be technically manipulating all areas of the voice to create new sounds, a lower/higher range and a healthier singing experience by using various exercises and vocal techniques to do so. With my experience in performance I will also focus greatly on the performance from within the voice as well as external performance.  I do not need any qualifications to do these things. What I need is a clear understanding of the voice, how it works and vocal health. I also need the ability to recognise strengths and weaknesses in ANY individual voice and I need the experience in which to fully utilise each voice by using specific exercises and techniques tailored to suit.

There are many 'singing teachers' out there who will have some form of teaching qualification and will sit at a piano next to a student using old hand scales and arpeggio exercises to briefly cover the full range of notes he/she may have and then sing the same song over and over whilst giving direction such as 'sing from the diaphragm'. They are not shaping the voice, nor are they focused on breathing, stance or performance. I mean, how can they be if they are forever staring at sheet music and a keyboard? 

Another thing that has always bothered me about 'singing lessons' is that in the early stages these are often offered in groups as a choir/classroom format. I have no problem with this being the case in Primary education as it can definitely help to encourage children to be comfortable with using their voice to sing but once the student reaches Secondary education age I believe that singing lessons in a group can serve to be a hinderance. The nature of the voice is that it is more adaptable when it is younger than when it grows older. Therefore I believe that honing in on the voice of an individual at a young age is paramount for technical development and vocal understanding. In a group of students it is not possible when they are all singing at the same time to asses a voice and discover any issues that may be present in the voice. Nor is it feasible to donate enough time to focus solely on particular voices in order to really make a difference to the voice. 

These are a few main reasons for why my belief is that of the above.

Based on the above points the questions I have decided to explore are:

•    Are singing lessons in groups/classes beneficial to pupils further than a means of simply becoming comfortable with singing?

•    Can an individual voice be developed and/or adapted when having lessons in a group/class?

•    Does teaching in groups/classes allow individual pupils/voices to develop properly and to their full potential?

•    Are a teachers qualifications more important to a student than a teachers experience or credits?

If anyone reading this feels as though they have any comments or points for or against any of the questions I am intending to explore then please do comment! Any opinion is appreciated!

Many thanks x

Task 3a: Current Networks

Networking is a fantastic way of meeting and interacting with new people in both your personal and professional life. Sometimes is is appropriate to link the two (e.g having your colleagues on your personal profile and at your birthday) and other times it is not (e.g having your friends on your professional profile or at a work-related event).

For me personally I have to take three types of person in to account when I am using social networking sites and networking in general - my friends, my colleagues & my students.

Facebook: I use facebook on a daily basis to communicate with my friends and family and also my colleagues who cross over as my friends.  I only have one profile on facebook and that is my personal one. My facebook is set to private & so people have to send me a friend request before that can see any more information that just my name and profile photo. The reason I have done this is 1. because I am quite a private person but mainly because a lot of my students use facebook. When I was at college it was a rule that my teachers could not accept or add us on Facebook - until we had left the institution in which case it was our ex-teachers own decision. I totally agree with this because there are some things that are maybe written by me or written on my profile by my friends that would be inappropriate for my 10 & 11 year old students to see. However the Theatre School I work at does have its own Facebook page which allows me to comment and my students to comment back on so I can interact with them without causing any harm. The only other concern I have with Facebook is that it uses something called 'location services' which basically means that automatically your posts or private messages will be 'stamped' with your location. Should somebody not have their account on private it would mean that anyone in the world would be able to see exactly where you are at any given time of you being active on Facebook. However there is an option for you to 'disable location services' which means that if you are tech-savvy and aware of this then you can feel free to have a non-private account but just turn of your location services.

Twitter: Again I only have one Twitter account which is a personal profile. My Twitter account is also set to private which means that people have to send me what is called a 'follower request' before they can see more than just my name and profile photo. The main reason for this is because, without a private setting, people can follow you and see EVERYTHING you write and send you messages without you even agreeing that it is okay for them to do so. I find without this setting Twitter is far less secure than Facebook as, even without a Facebook profile being set to private you would still have to accept the other persons friend request before they can directly contact you. Obviously I have taken into account that I have students that are likely to use Twitter and so I would have set it to private for this reason if the first reason wasn't there.

Blogger: Okay so I use Blogger only for my University studies and it enables me to communicate and most importantly learn from others on the same course as me without ever meeting them face-to-face. I don't have to worry about security issues with Blogger as there is hardly anything about my personal life on here. It is all educational.

Google+ (1): Firstly I used Google+ only as a means of setting up my Blogger account. I had NEVER heard of Google+ before and it took me a while to get my head around how to use it - especially since it was linked with my Blogger account. Google+ is similar to Facebook and Twitter but it has different options of how much information and interaction you can give people as you can add them to different 'circles' and 'communities'. Firstly, I only used my Google+ account as a means of communicating my University work to others on my course. However.....

Google+ (2): I now use Google+ at work! It has been introduced as a way of making communication across the Partnership more efficient. This has enabled Partners from all different branches and all different strains of the company to communicate ideas & topics to one another. In our branch we have set up different communities for different sections so that each section can see what is going on and what is up and coming. We have many members of staff who only work mornings or only work evenings and so some of them have never met!! And so Google+ gives them a chance to 'meet' and communicate and discuss different 'topics' such as section issues or good news/achievements etc. It is also useful for creating events - our branch's 5 year party is coming up soon and so our 'Google Guide' (one of our managers) has created an event and invited everyone as guests to RSVP either 'Going' or 'Not Going'. We keep calanders, events, news, rotas and all sorts on our Google drive and it has made communication across our company much more effective so far.

Meetings: Last week I attended a meeting with other Partners from other branches across the company to discuss certain topics. I met people who I have never met before who do the exact same job as me but in a different location 1 hour away from me. It was a great opportunity to get their take on things and find out their ways of working which i could take away and learn from. I have already managed to put some of these ideas into practice and so having one simple meeting has enabled me to achieve more in my current role at work!

Parties/Events: Now this is the fun one.. Even at social events it is a great place to meet people and expand your current networks. Wether it be personal or professional. In some cases it is appropriate to mix the two and in others it may not be. However even in a 'social setting' such as a party there can be great business opportunities to be discovered. Sometimes social settings can be more beneficial as people are often more relaxed and free-spirited (and drunk lol) and so conversation flows more freely and there is more opportunity for networking successfully in these circumstances. As long as one is sensible in these circumstances it can often be a great way of starting new business ventures or simply just meeting people you can gain knowledge from and possibly call on to assist you professionally in the future.

To summarise, there are plenty or reasons why networking and social networking can be beneficial but they must be used ethically and in the correct way. As I have mentioned previously, social and professional networking can be linked and can go hand in hand but in the right setting. I think social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter etc are what one needs to use with care as there are so many ethical considerations to be taken into account.

Inquiry - re-worked in 10 seconds

How about..

'As a leader/teacher, how does your mood affect the development of your colleagues/students?'

Better?

Task 2d: Inquiry

Since keeping a journal and using reflection as a tool to evaluate my actions one question I keep asking myself is - 'How did I affect that situation?'.

I am a MASSIVE mood carrier. In the sense that I carry my mood around with me EVERYWHERE I go. And the mood I am in is written all over my face. People tell me this all the time. People at work and sometimes even the kids I teach ask me.. 'Miss, whats up?'. And when I look back at that I think to myself.. 'thats really bad!?'. I should walk into my class and look warm and approachable and happy. Not like I've got a thorn in my backside. What sort of child wants a moody teacher? NONE. I remember being a kid in class and I hated it when my teacher was in a mood. It made being in class a scary experience. And thats not a good learning environment.

So I have made a conscious effort to 'leave my problems at the door' when arriving and work and at class and it seems to be making a difference. People are more friendly towards me where as previously they may have given me a wide birth on particular days. And my classes are more fun and the children are happy to see me each week.

So at the moment the main theme I am interested in investigating is something along the lines of:

'As a leader/teacher, how does your mood affect the ability of your colleagues/students to develop?'

Although I'm not sure that sounds too powerful so maybe I will look at re-wording it.

Any thoughts/suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated.

Many thanks :)

Task 2c: Reflective Theory

Reflection

noun

1. [MASS NOUN] Serious thought or consideration

   1.1 [COUNT NOUN] An idea about something, especially one that is written down or  expressed

Reflection is an every day process. Without even realising, we as humans reflect on a number of everyday situations in a number of different ways. This reflection may happen in-action (whilst a situation is occurring) or on-action (after the event has happened). 

We don't follow a formula for this it just happens as feelings, thoughts and emotions about something gradually ‘surface’. We might choose to do something differently, or not, as a result of reflecting, but reflection is essentially a kind of loose processing of thoughts and feelings about an incident, a meeting, a day – any event or experience at all.

Reflection is a type of thinking associated with deep thought, aimed at achieving better understanding. It contains a mixture of elements:

1. Making sense of experience

We don’t always learn from experiences. Reflection is where we analyse experience, actively attempting to ‘make sense’ or find the meaning in it.

2. ‘Standing back’

It can be hard to reflect when we are caught up in an activity. ‘Standing back’ gives a better view or perspective on an experience, issue or action.

3. Repetition

Reflection involves ‘going over’ something, often several times, in order to get a broad view and check nothing is missed.

4. Deeper honesty

Reflection is associated with ‘striving after truth’. Through reflection, we can acknowledge things that we find difficult to admit in the normal course of events.

5. ‘Weighing up’

Reflection involves being even-handed, or balanced in judgement. This means taking everything into account, not just the most obvious.

6. Clarity

Reflection can bring greater clarity, like seeing events reflected in a mirror. This can help at any stage of planning, carrying out and reviewing activities.

7. Understanding

Reflection is about learning and understanding on a deeper level. This includes gaining valuable insights that cannot be just ‘taught’.

8. Making judgements

Reflection involves an element of drawing conclusions in order to move on, change or develop an approach, strategy or activity.

Reflection can be a great way of creating better self-understanding and becoming aware of your strengths/weaknesses both in your personal and professional life.

For me, reflection is about learning from my experiences and also from any mistakes I have made. In my full time job I am a manager of an immediate team of 30 and a further wider team of 100. It is important for me that I use reflection effectively to ensure I am being the most efficient manager and leader I can possibly be. As a manager not only do I have to ensure I am effectively coaching a team but I also have to coach myself to continually grow as an inspiring and influential manager and reflection is the most productive way of me doing this. I often have to draw on my own experiences to help lead one of my team and give them the best possible advice on dealing with a situation or task and so it is important that I have reflected on my experience of such task so that I can offer the best and most beneficial direction.

I read an incredible piece of writing titled:

'Self-reflection: The key to effective leadership'

This can be found at: http://works.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1132&context=peter_miller

Is is WELL worth a read. I found it incredibly inspiring and it really stood out to me as I felt I could really relate the theories used to my job role.

To summarise, I think reflection is a great tool for self-discovery and growth in both personal and professional life. Reflecting effectively on my daily experiences has enabled me to develop my personal and professional understanding which has in turn seen me receive 3 promotions and 3 pay rises in 9 short months. Now if THAT isn't a good enough incentive for using reflection as part of your daily routine then I don't know what is?! 

GET REFLECTING.

Sources:

http://www.qmu.ac.uk/els/docs/Reflection.PDF

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/

Task 2b: Reflective Writing

Okay so having written about 1 day in 5 different styles I have established 1 thing: I do almost EVERYTHING on impulse.

I used Description, Initial Reflection, Evaluation, What If? & Another View.

Of all 5 methods I chose to try out I found using Initial Reflection and then later using Evaluation worked really well. The two methods went hand in hand to show what emotions I was feeling at the time of the event that happened at work and then later after the event once I had had time to reflect on and evaluate the situation. When looking at these two pieces side by side I was able to see how extremely different my views on the event were at the time of the event and after the event. During the event I was absolutely seething and threw my toys out of the pram and then looking back at the way I reacted to the event I thought 'What an idiot. If I had only had time to evaluate the situation and take a couple of deep breaths then I may not have made myself look such a tit!'. This was when I came to the realisation that I am an impulsive person.

I then started to look back at other things that have happened recently...

 I bought a new car last week for example. Something I had wanted to do for a while but it wasn't high on my list of priorities and I had put it to the back of my mind. However on one particular day myself and some colleagues had begun talking about it and from that moment on I became obsessed with the fact that I 'needed' to buy a new car. So I did?! Just like that.

In August last year I decided (again on impulse) to book flights to Texas to visit somebody I had met on a Cruise just 2 weeks before. I spent £600 and then when it came to the date of travel I didn't actually go as myself and the person I was due to visit had virtually stopped talking. But obviously this was bound to happen. One good reason for it was the time difference of course! And again, if I had just waited to evaluate the situation and tried to look into the future as to what might happen then I could've avoided such a waste of money!

But yes, to conclude, I have found that by reflecting on one single day in a couple of different ways it has led me to thinking about many different situations I maybe hadn't reflected on before. This in turn has shown me that with a little more time and a few deep breaths I could improve my impulsive actions in many different parts of my life and in turn become a more calm and collected person with the ability to deal with situations in a more productive way!

Lesson well learned.