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Assessments. Whats the point? are we getting it right?

Assessments in professional dance training within the UK are a necessity. We are constantly assessing students and ensuring they are on track. But are we effective? This is a constant question that I keep returning to. How can we make this better? can we make the system better? are the students gaining a positive experience, or do they find the experience stressful? Do the staff value these assessments or do they see it as an unwelcome interference into the training regime? So many questions… I feel if managed correctly assessments both formative and summative can be a positive experience for both staff and students. Using assessments, we can plan schemes of work more clearly and by embedding audition-like procedures into the assessments we can ensure that our students are industry ready. What are your experiences of assessments? Are you the person standing there in front of a panel about to sing your solos or start a classical ballet class.? What’s going through your he
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Dance assessments .... Whats the value?

Now I'm heading into Module 2 of my MA an area that really interests me is assessments. Assessing a dance genre can be subjective, as what I enjoy watching you may not. However there still needs to be an appreciation of the technical content as well as the artistic content of what is being performed, whether it be contemporary, classical, hip hop, krump, African etc. the list can go on. How we assess students, how we feed back this information to them and the time span in which it done is extremely relevant to the young people that we are training. I hope to examine the effectiveness, currency, relevance and validity of dance assessments within the professional performance training sector of students aged 16 years plus. Do you think assessments have a place in the current training system? Are we forced to assess to ensure our awarding bodies are satisfied? Is too much emphasis placed on assessments? for both staff and students. Is there unnecessary pressure on young people
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Visit to Middlesex University

Well we’re doing this MA for real now. Anthea and I left Cheshire early this morning for a visit to what we can now call ‘Our University’. So, we might have taken a few pictures and I’m sure to seasoned academics we appeared like tourists, but we ARE part of this community and we ARE on an amazingly exciting trip of self-discovery. Many thanks to Helen who answered a barrage of questions and has left us questioning everything and unpicking and rebuilding our teaching. The incredible thing is we chatted non-stop on the journey to Middlesex and then realised we were so quiet on the way back. Simultaneously we burst out laughing and appreciated that we were just processing and reprocessing the day. Can we say this MA makes more sense? Well possibly yes, but what we do know is we have a fantastic support system to challenge our every thought and idea. We probably appreciate that this MA is about us as individuals and that rather than just ‘doing’ we should question and most im
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Learning and then developing change

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/11/141106131853.htm Really interesting article I found. Just been reflecting  more on my training and how I teach. I have a year 7 group of students for ballet 5 times a week and i measure the  height of each student every half term. They know now about growth spurts and how to manage their training through these periods they're a great group of talented young people and I want to empower them as young learners. We talk about alignment, posture and placement all the time.  So when it comes to the arabesque line for example they face the mirror find the correct placement and then I tell them to use their brain like a document on the computer and click 'save as.......  ' . Whenever they take an arabesque line they 'open the file' and create the position. The big HOWEVER is growth spurts. So I've been talking to them about relearning the line and then opening their file to 're save as....' I've likened  it
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Reading and notes

So this morning has been reading the module handbook over and over. I've highlighted some points and ordered a couple of books. I have taken the advice of carrying a notebook with me and now I find myself having good full blown conversations with myself and then taking notes.....!!! "What do I know?" and "what have I learnt?" are questions spinning round and round. Does anyone have any advice on actually getting  started in trying to form these ramblings into an essay? All help gratefully received 
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MAPP

 Well the MA is underway, I can't believe it. I must admit I'm quite excited to actually get going. Its been a long time since I embarked on such an adventure, this is really going to challenge me. Now I sort of think I should have done this when I was younger and not wait for my 50's but as they say the 50's are the new 40's so here we go!! I've been reading up on my daughters notes on critical reflection (its quite handy having 2 kids doing a degree)  hopefully she'll be about to proof read my work which will be really helpful. All those years of helping with homework will pay off. 😄 😄 This first module will be really interesting as I pour my way through my teaching and performing life and discover the effects and impacts on my own work. What made me the way I am? Teaching is what really floats my boat. I love engaging with young people and discovering different ways to rely the message and love of dance and its technique. Each day is new and each ye
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