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To best illustrate my learnings from this first tutorial/seminar, I have included a famous self-portrait from M.C. Escher, entitled Hand with a Reflective Sphere. In relation to Arts education, this self-portrait shows that the arts allow you to express yourself and also get you to look inwards at your own beliefs, motives and personal context when interpreting and expressing yourself artistically, such as Escher looks inwards at his own life and personality with this self-portrait.

In our first seminar for the Arts unit, and my first class of any kind at University overall, I learned a lot about the arts as a discipline and also the benefits of teaching arts to primary school students. The main thing that resonated with me in this first seminar for the unit was that teachers can use a variety of different games or activities which present various modes of communication to educate students on the arts. This came either through non-verbal communication through the portrayal of drama elements, or even something as simple as saying the names of fellow students to encourage repetition and active listening.  I was mostly uncomfortable with displaying my artistic skills in front of the other students as although I had proper arts education in high school, I didn't feel comfortable with expressing myself in front of the other students. Through the mini-lecture though, I was able to learn about the value of arts education, such as that it encourages students to problem solve and reflect, and also that it provides cooperation. I discovered that the arts and arts education can be very stimulating to students and very beneficial as it gets them to think, communicate, and express themselves in ways they wouldn't have before. In Primary School we did hardly any drama or dance, but were taught about the visual arts, music and media arts. However, my drama experience and learning was later honed in high school.

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To best illustrate my learnings in the Week 3 seminar surrounding drama, I have included an image of a performer alone on stage under a spotlight, to convey the message I learned that using the arts, both for education or performance purposes, you can create something out of nothing and keep the class/audience engaged. This image also shows freedom of expression which is allowed through the arts, as you get the chance to tell your own story using the space and environment around you, as well as your own creativity.

In our seminar for Week 3, I learned about the differing ways of implementing the artistic discipline of drama into the classroom. In the seminar, we studied drama through using mime, tableau and puppetry. The main thing that resonated with me in this seminar was that drama can be implemented in many different ways within a classroom environment, using a variety of games or activities such as using balloons to make puppets, or doing a whole class tableau to portray a certain scene. The one main idea within the seminar that I enjoyed expressing was the ability to make something out of nothing, through the activity 'Mime The Room' where one by one, students would enter the space at the front of the class and use mime to create a scene. I was mostly uncomfortable with getting up in front of the class and being able to mime out scenes or act in different ways. Through this seminar, I was able to learn that the arts is an evolving cultural concept that can be conveyed in a classroom environment in a number of ways, and that through engagement, you can get children to really connect with the arts. Students learn in the AED1260 unit to symbolically represent their world through drama, this means that students can use their own personal experiences, stories and opinions to tell stories on stage when acting. Drama allows students to act out their own real world experiences and to bring their own visions to life. Drama allows collaboration and cooperation by getting students to work together to create their own artistic expressions. Even students who don't know each other well enough get to know each other better by sharing their own visions on what their drama production should look like, through sharing their own opinions and experiences. Cooperation is very important in drama as all members of the group must work together to get across the story they want to tell.

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To best illustrate my learnings from the Week 6 dance tutorial, I have included a quote from author Pearl Zhu, which stresses the importance of being able to adapt when using creativity within dance and other forms of artistic expression.

The practical activities within the course inform my personal understanding of dance as an expressive learning process. The dance activities we learned in the Week 6 tutorial allowed me to learn how to express myself and be creative using body movement. These practical activities within our tutorial taught me about the elements of dance, which are space, time, action and dynamics. These elements have taught me about adaptability during creativity, and having to adjust and expand on your own ideas within dance or drama. Educators can facilitate creativity through dance using activities such as dance games or group performances. The most important personal realisation for me in the past few weeks of this unit, is that the arts are all about escaping your comfort zone and expressing yourself in ways where you never would have thought of it before. To me it is most important as creative freedom is important in primary education. Children need to feel comfortable in expressing themselves and also they need to feel comfortable within their own skin.

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To best illustrate my learnings up to the Week 8 tutorial I have included a wheel diagram showing the various social impacts of the Arts in our wider society. This is important to Arts learning experiences as students must develop their artistic creativity through their own personal context and experiences, which involves what they see happening around them in society because of the Arts.

When planning for authentic arts learning experiences, you must make sure the activities provided are motivating and engaging whilst still putting forward the importance of artistic concepts. It is important when you plan authentic arts learning experiences to also cater to student needs, especially the students who either aren't that artistic or aren't that confident in their abilities. I would encourage the use of creative thinking and imagination in the arts learning experiences you facilitate with primary students through drama and dance activities. These activities would encourage improvisation and creativity, which would foster collaborative learning. I would make these activities and learning experiences to be engaging and motivating, and to get students genuinely excited in the Arts.  When assessing the students in their arts work, you need to consider whether they have adhered to the guidelines surrounding the performance or assignment. You also need to consider the students' confidence in participating in arts activities, whether this be drama, dance or media arts.

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To best illustrate my learnings within the AED1260 unit, I have included a cartoon image of various people participating in artistic forms of expression, to show the power of The Arts in encouraging people to express themselves whilst feeling comfortable and confident in your own skin.

For me, my favourite activity in the unit was all of the drama improvisation activities. For me personally, I was not the most artistic person or the most confident person, but these improvisation activities allowed me to become more confident performing in front of people and more comfortable in expressing myself. One thing that has surprised me about teaching both drama and dance is how the use of games can keep students motivated and engaged whilst teaching them concepts surrounding performing drama or dance, which at times can seem confronting to primary students.

I am mainly keen to try out drama activities with students, mainly improvisation, either through larger whole class drama activities, or smaller group work. I would also be keen to implement some dance activities in there too, to teach students about creativity and expression through movement. To do this, I will use dance games to get students more motivated and engaged.   Devising a dance, drama and media arts performance as a group has been a rewarding experience personally. All four members of our group have contributed a lot to the performance we are crafting so far, and it has been very intriguing to hear everyone else's opinions and creative ideas to craft our performance. Our performance is about bullying, being presented on the sporting field. This is a major area of life for boys and men who are subject to bullying, so as a group of four boys in this unit, it is great that we are able to make a performance that is relatable to all four of us.