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During todays tutorial we explored our own primary schooling arts experiences and the types of exposure we had in the arts. We engaged in small group discussions on our experiences in the arts and whether it was a positive or negative experience that we encountered. I personally had experience both positive and negative experiences. I thoroughly enjoyed Music and Art due to the upbringing I have had around music and art; I continued Music and Art through High School playing Violin in String Ensemble, and Choir. However, I do not recall being exposed to the Drama, Dance and Media Arts in a classroom setting, obviously I would have been exposed to these but I may not have enjoyed it as much as art and music class. I was involved in Dance Troupe as an extra-curricula activity and did Scottish Highland Dancing prior to Primary School from age 4-19. These 5 art subjects influenced my learning due to understanding that it surrounds us in our everyday lives in billboards, TV commercials, technology, clothing, sounds, music and more. They come in many forms too and are expressed differently due to the cultural differences, in some cultures the instruments are themselves, the way they create the beat in a piece of music, using clap sticks, and sounds formed from their voices.

I do feel anxious about teaching students about The Arts however I really do enjoy the Arts and am passionate about these aspects of the Arts. I am more worried about the mess involved and the chaos that will come when introducing students to The Arts in my classroom. The questions that I feel need to be answered are how can I make sure that all students are engaged in The Arts and if there are some students who do not enjoy The Arts then how can I change their views on The Arts in my classroom? I feel as though as the teacher, I am required to get all students to embrace the fact that art is all around us and for the students its very valuable to be exposed to it and understand the learning of the Arts.

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Today’s Arts lesson we were asked to form small groups and collect a variety of natural materials e.g. bark, rocks, plants, leaves etc. We then were asked to place and organise the materials we had collected to then trace around each piece we have placed down. From there we were to communicate with each other to make the art creation work and the colours we used to the placement of the materials. I learnt that you really do need to communicate with your group to plan how you plan to have the art piece look like at the end of the task. Our art piece looked thrown together, we didn’t communicate the way we wanted it to look like at the end and so our piece looked chaotic.

The activity involved us comparing artworks from other people, interpreting what the artists may have been feeling or seeing when they were creating the artwork. We experimented with a range of natural materials and tried different techniques and processes, which is linked to using a variety of materials and techniques to explore when making artworks (ACARA, 2018, ACAVAM111, ACAVAM115). The activity could be implemented to identify intended purposes and meanings of artworks using appropriate terminology to compare artworks including visual artworks of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples (ACARA, 2017, ACAVAR113).

I envision that Visual Arts will be implemented in my future classroom practice, through trying new ways of learning as students learn in multiple ways and as a teacher will need to embrace the use of visual art as a way of learning new information. Students could use visual art in a variety of ways throughout their education, having students work in small groups to complete tasks like this activity implemented in our tutorial will ensure students use communication skills and teamwork to complete tasks.

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During today’s tutorial, we explored the Media Arts and how it can be implemented in multiple ways in the classroom. We were exposed to creating our own small group Advertisement on being Water Wise/Recycling. We had to create the scenario on paper first then act it out and edit our 30-second advertisement before presenting to the class. After reading Education in the Arts: Chapter 10, I was able to get a clear understanding of the need of Media Arts in the classroom setting such as The activities that were implemented in our tutorial link to Year 3 & 4 content descriptions plan, create and present media artworks for specific purposes with awareness of responsible media practice (ACARA, 2018, ACAMAM060) and investigate and devise representations of people in their community, including themselves, through settings, ideas and story structure in images, sounds and text (ACARA, 2018, ACAMAM058).

Due to the growing use of technology being used in our classrooms today, it benefits teachers in using the media arts to our advantage to allow students to access multiple ways of learning in the classroom. According to Sinclair, media arts must be conceptualised for all students to access. Using Media Arts in my classroom will allow students to develop knowledge and skills to participate in digital cultures (Sinclair, 2017). Media arts provide opportunities for students to be in dialogue with their media experiences especially when students are able to create their own media content (Sinclair, 2017). Students will interact with media arts throughout a variety of learning areas of the Australian Curriculum as it can be embedded in many ways. So with this knowledge, I could utilize Media Arts through my teaching practices through multiple learning areas and it will also help to engage learners who do struggle in the classroom.

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During today’s tutorial we experienced how we can implement Dance into our classroom practice. I learnt that dance is dynamic and requires you to use your whole body as an instrument of expression and movement as the medium (Sinclair, 2017).  Using the alphabet we were asked to create a sequence of movements for each letter of the alphabet from A to G to then join each movement together to form a dance to perform in front of peers. This was an interesting task to complete and I actually enjoyed the activity. I could see how I could implement this type of activity in my future teaching to benefit students in their learning. Dance allows students to use kinaesthetic exploration, cognitive processing, aesthetic experimentation, and social engagement with peers (Sinclair, 2017). Dance links to various learning areas however is most notably used in Music, Drama and Physical Education as dance explores coordination, interpretation, rhythm, balance, strength and expression (ACARA, 2018).

The activities we were exposed to in today’s tutorial linked mainly to two content descriptors from the Australian Curriculum including to identify how the elements of dance and production elements express ideas in dance they make, perform and experience as audience, including exploration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander dance (ACARA, 2018, ACADAR008). Improvise and structure movement ideas for dance sequences using the elements of dance and choreographic devices (ACARA, 2018, ACADAM005).

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During today’s tutorial we explored the elements of Drama such as body, space, dynamics, time, and relationships in the activities that we participated in. We created a Drama playground-bullying scene to create awareness of what it is like for students who experience bullying in schools. We used this real-life connection as many students have either experienced being the victim of bullying or were the bullies. We had to write a scritp as a group to then act out in front of the class. It brought in the real life situations of bullying, which linked to the content descriptors explore dramatic action, empathy and space in improvisations, play-building and scripted drama to develop characters and situations (ACARA, 2018, ACADRM035). This workshop also linked to students developing skills and techniques of voice and movement to create character, mood and atmosphere and focus dramatic action (ACARA, 2018, ACADRM036). Drama can be used in a variety of learning areas such as, maths, physical education, history, English and more. I feel as though I could implement Drama in my classroom teaching practice through using the perspectives of other people’s backgrounds, historical, racial, cultural excreta in History lesson. Drama could also be used in Mathematics through many aspects of maths learning.  I feel pretty confident in being able to implement Drama learning in my future classroom.

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During today’s tutorial, we were provided with cups that we have to create beats, and rhythm from. The tutor provided us with a tutorial video clip from YouTube to then follow as a class and learn from scratch each section of the cup song and slowly we got faster and joined the two sections we learnt from it. I enjoyed this activity as it reminded me of Pitch Perfect – The Cup Song and how it used to be a craze they we went through from the movie. This activity linked to Band 5 and 6, content descriptor explores dynamics and expression, using aural skills to identify and perform rhythm and pitch patterns (ACARA, 2018, ACAMUM088). Our second activity required us to sing Che Che Kule where each group had separate sections of the song to sing.  This activity linked to developing technical and expressive skills in singing and playing instruments with understanding of rhythm, pitch and form in a range of pieces, including in music from the community (ACARA, 2018, ACAMUM089). I thoroughly enjoy learning music and as a result I do believe that Music will be implemented in my future classroom teaching in a variety of ways. Some of these including calming music that will be on when students walk into the room at the beginning of each day as well as after lunch breaks as it will calm students down to get ready to learn effectively in the classroom.

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Week 7:

I feel as though The Arts is crucial in our society due to the way students learn and are surrounded by art forms in their daily lives. Students learn to different ways and The Arts are able to be implemented in the classroom to better encourage effective learning practices for students to achieve their learning goals. I will definitely be implementing The Arts in my future classroom in all the 5 forms of The Arts to help all students’ in their learning. During this university subject, I had a general view of The Arts from my own experiences however they have drastically changed after being exposed to them at a deeper level.

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Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). (2018). Australian Curriculum: The Arts. Retrieved 20 April 2018, https://australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/the-arts/

Sinclair, C. (2017). Education in the Arts (3rd Edition). South Melbourne, VIC: Oxford University Press.