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Ever since I was young, I’ve loved being on stage. I have performed in many dance concerts and as of a few years ago, a couple of musicals as well. I have always enjoyed going to watch plays and musicals, as it’s my dream to perform at a professional level.

In primary school we focused on music and dance. I remember sitting in a circle, playing percussion instruments, attempting to stay in time with one another. We may not have been executing the task well, but it was always a lot of fun. I also remember the social dance. Every week we would have a dance lesson with a professional dance teacher, we learned small dance numbers, and even classical forms like the tango. We would learn how to dance with partners and then show our parents when the big dance night came along.

When it comes to the arts, I feel most comfortable in teaching dance and drama as I have had 16 years of dance training and 5 years of drama training, so I can share the knowledge that I have received in the past. I feel the least confident in teaching media, this is due to having no prior experience with media and I struggle to understand complex programs that some media arts use. I do believe that with enough practice on these programs I will be able to understand how to use them and teach the younger generations as well.

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Creative dance and creative movement are two different things. (Dinham, 2022) explains that in a classroom setting, creative dance focuses on a child’s imagination, personal exploration, and creative things. Children do not have to follow specific rules like in classical dance. Creative movement is often taught through open ended activities where the children can further develop their spatial and body awareness through finding their own solutions and responses.

When teaching dance in a primary classroom the vocabulary used will be simple and easy to grasp. Words such as; walk, run, jump, turn, roll, bend, and spin may often be used. An easy way to use these words in a lesson is to play “dance freeze,” students will be given one of the words and must portray it to their best ability until the teacher yells freeze.

The teacher from the classroom snapshot used simple movements and space to create an effective dance experience. The children had to stay in time with each other to ensure that the ocean waves didn’t become too unsteady, and followed their movements along to the words of a poem. This created a strong connection between the students and would help improve their teamwork as a class. Some other things to use for this kind of activity would be nursery rhymes as they have clear words to create movement to. Chairs could also be used to create up/down movements.

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Week two of drama covered how teachers need to ensure that their arts lessons are authentic. They can do this through including traditional art forms in the lesson, providing the students with artistic freedom during their learning, and displaying famous artwork around the classroom for the students to refer to. Lessons can display authentic arts education through ensuring that they correspond with everyday contexts and artistic practices. (Dinham, 2022)

During this week's lesson, we began by using our creativity and self-expression through laying down on the floor and imagining ourselves on a beach. This created an authentic arts learning experience through the creativity of us choosing any beach we would like but still staying within guided practice. We had to think and visualise all the small details on our beach, including the fauna and flora, what the beach looked like, and any other people on the beach. Once the visualisation process was completed, everyone created small groups where we explained everything we pictured in our minds.This activity is a great example of authentic arts education, as it ensures that the students will get to use their creativity and self-expression through explaining the concepts of their beach to their peers.

When I was in primary school our arts experiences were not as authentic. A lot of the time we would use a dance website called ‘GoNoodle’. The website had full dances for students to copy and get their bodies moving. This i authentic as it was solely based on copying and did not allow any creative freedom for the students.

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Dinham, J. (2022). Delivering authentic arts education. Cengage Learning Australia

Dunn, J. (2016). Demystifying process drama: exploring the why, what, and how. Drama Australia Journal. 40(2). 127-140. https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14452294.2016.1276738

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Bian, T. (2025). On the artistic characteristics and practice of musical theatre in music education in colleges and universities. International Journal of Education and Humanities. 18(2). 132-136. https://doi.org/10.54097/c5f0tk83

Dinham, J. (2022). Delivering authentic arts education. Cengage Learning Australia

NSW public schools Aboriginal dance company, The Arts Unit. https://artsunit.nsw.edu.au/program/aboriginal-dance-company

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During week 3 we looked at story telling and process drama. Process drama is a way of enacting the expressions in a story whilst providing a framework for how the students may explore the ideas or feeling within a story. (Dunn, 2016). When I am qualified to be a teacher, process drama will be apart of my story telling experiences as it helps to engage the students through theatrical symbolism, such as actions or voices.

After watching the children’s reading theatre, I found that this could make some students uncomfortable as a lot of students find public speaking to be scary or difficult. Through drama I believe allowing the students to come out of their comfort zones would be beneficial for their public speaking as through drama you can be silly and have fun with speaking in front of others.

During this weeks lesson we created small groups and together came up with a storyline through the use of a framework provided by the teacher. We were given complete freedom when it came to our story except for the storyline. Going in a circle each member would add parts to the story, creating a great use of collaboration.

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The focus for module 5 was the elements of dance, and how they can be taught in a dance class. The four dance elements include time, energy, and space. Time can be defined as the way that movement uses the dimensions of tempo, momentum, and duration. Energy is how much force you put into a movement, and space can refer to physically moving to spaces around you or through elongating movements, such as extending your arms.

In Today’s lesson we used the elements to spell out our names, for example I stretched both of my arms out to the side to create the letter “T.” Trough using a dance lesson like this it would allow the students to explore different ways to form the letters, and for younger students, allow them to practice spelling their names. You could also use the dance elements in a science classroom; by slowly widening your arms above your head, you can simulate the eruption of a volcano, then bringing your arm down to your side to simulate the lava flowing down the side of a volcano.

Dance can be linked to other arts forms such as drama and media arts through the art form of musical theatre. Musical theatre integrates music, dance, and drama to create a story, sometimes using media to enhance to background and set of the stage. Dance is used in musical theatre to emphasise the expression of the dancers and help to create tension on the stage. (Bian, 2025)

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In module 3 of dance, we were tasked to research an indigenous dance company in Australia. I researched The Aboriginal Dance Company; the company creates opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders to learn about contemporary indigenous dance. The company is in collaboration with Bangarra Dance Theatre, which is another widely known indigenous company.

The company has performed at events such as the State Dance Festival and the Nanga Mai awards. A ceremony in NSW that celebrates the achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, teachers, community members and schools. Students from the company have also performed in a professionally recorded acknowledgment of country, that would be played at festivals, meetings and professional learning forums.

Students have to audition to secure a place in this dance company and are allowed to stay there within their high school years (7-12). To audition, students will need to learn a dance sequence set by the teachers and film themselves performing it. They also need to provide the company with an introduction video stating who they are and why they believe they would be a good fit for the company.

I believe that through teaching primary school students about indigenous dance, it will increase their understanding in cultural diversity, as the indigenous dance style is different to what they would learn in a regular dance class.

https://artsunit.nsw.edu.au/program/aboriginal-dance-company

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In module 1 of media arts, we watched a video titled “Voices from the Cape”. During the video David Vadiveloo worked with the older students on a mind-mapping project, he began by allowing the students to work individually and put down their main ideas, then he would help them to evaluate and extend their answers. He used simple questions such as “what were some of the things you were feeling?” This allowed the students to create reasoning and meaningfulness behind their answers. It is important for teachers to make sure that their students feel comfortable to share their ideas and feelings as it allows the students to express when they believe something is not right and allows all the students to participate and cooperate with each other.

Three ways in which I believe would support the development of students feeling safe in my classroom, would be to use open communication, acknowledging any ideas that the students have, and ensuring that every child gets to express an idea. These three methods will support the students development in feeling safe in my classroom as every student will be acknowledged and accepted through the beginning process of planning.

I believe that using media arts in a remote/regional education setting is a profound way for the students to find appreciation for their home. In the video one of the older students talked about leaving for New York. Through using media arts, the students got to make a movie about their home and will be able to see just how beautiful it is.

https://www.cultureunplugged.com/play/12865/Voices-from-the-CapeLinks%20to%20an%20external%20site.

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Module 2’s focus was on claymation. Claymation is a type of stop-motion that uses background and 3D characters instead of drawings. Claymation is a fun and engaging way to have the students create a story as they can create any character they like. Characters are often made with clay or plasticine, but actions figures work just as well. (Dinham, 2022)

In today’s lesson we got to create our own claymation videos, using aluminium foil instead of clay for our characters. We partnered up and were given full creative freedom to create any story we liked. Everyone was provided with a large group of props we could use in our videos. The videos were created through an app called “Stop Motion Studio,” through simply taking photos over an over again the app would play them at a faster speed to make it look like the pictures were moving.

Using claymation and stop-motion for primary school children is an easy way to introduce them to film making and story structuring. Claymation is both simple enough for the students to understand, but through giving them full creative freedom they are more likely to engaged as they can incorporate their own interests into the story. If I were to use claymation in my classroom I would ensure that there were a few desks set up so that the students can stabilise their devices and give them room to create their movies.

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To support the students learning of the electoral process leading up to election day, we can use media platform they are already aware of. For example many YouTube videos will help to explain the electoral process, the students will be more engaged through watching a YouTube video then listening to the teacher explain, due to the use of technology at home. There is also ‘Behind the news’ (BTN) which is produced through ABC, a commonly watched tv channel for primary school children. When implementing these into a classroom the students will need to be reflective consumers of what they watch (Dinham, 2022) and be able to restate the information gained.

Another topic you could combine with media arts is English. The students could use their story telling skills to write up a book and then use media to turn it into a movie, much like how most of the books they read in English have been turned into movies. For example, when I was in primary school my class got to read the book “Wonder” and once we finished it we got to watch the movie. It was a great way to keep up engaged and motivated us to finish the book.

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Dinham, J. (2022). Delivering authentic arts education. Cengage Learning Australia

Vadiveloo, D. (2008). Voices from the cape. Culture unplugged. https://www.cultureunplugged.com/play/12865/Voices-from-the-CapeLinks%20to%20an%20external%20site.