Lifetime Goals

Hey guys,

Just wanted to share with you all that I am about to take on one of my biggest challenges this sunday - running the London Marathon! Yes I know what your thinking.... i'm mad, and yes you would be correct!! 

I have always wanted to do this at some point in my life and having managed to get in this year i had no excuse! There is more method to my madness as I am running for a fantastic charity which lays very close to my heart, this also will hopefully give me that extra push and drive on sunday to get through that pain barrier.

As the weeks have drawn closer, I have continued with my journalling and noticed how proud I have become of myself without even realising it - if you told me last year that I would be able to run 20 miles in training for the London Marathon I would have laughed in your face! But there I am writing it down with a huge grin on my face.

No matter what time I finish on sunday I know I will feel a great sense of achievement. This got me thinking, have any of you had similar experiences where you thought something would be impossible but you made it possible?  Would love to hear about it!

If anyone is around London on Sunday, look out for me!!!!

www.justgiving.com/stephanie-swann

Task 2c Reflective Theory

What is reflective practice? ‘Reflective practice is the capacity to reflect on action so as to engage in a process of continuous learning.’ Description which I found when typed into Wikipedia. 
This was a term that I was not very familiar with previous to these studies, however after my research into the subject through the extended reading lists, I have found my own relationship with reflective practice in my personal working and volunteering life.

Making a connection with the term is somewhat the most challenging part with many conflicting and also complementary studies allowing you to change opinions almost instantly. However after taking to my journal to compare my own experiences with these suggested theories, i came up with what i think is a simple sentence to describe Reflective Practise;
Reflective Practise is defined as a contemplation of actions with a view and enthusiasm to improve it.

Teaching Pilates classes, I always use reflection as a way to improve on my classes. I cannot go in to the same group of people week after week and teach exactly the same exercises without them getting bored and not improving. Reflection allows me to see how the group reacted to different ideas that I may have tried, and I always write what worked and what didn't work down in my note book to look back on for the future. So as Dewey (1933) was the first educationalist to highlight the importance and value of incorporating reflective thinking into your own personal practice, I was already doing this without even realising the study even existed. To explore this idea more, I want to point out that most professionals no matter what the area of expertise may be will use Reflective Practise for their own good without even realising it. Having said this, most of the theories that I have discovered and am about to evaluate are just that — theories, and do not necessarily research the based enquiries, which can make the subject area a very broad one to say the least.

I read an interesting quote from Graham McFee who focused his research into finding out our understanding of dance rather than illuminate dance itself. I wanted to share this you have not yet come across it; ‘One must understand what is being defined in order for one to judge oneself the accuracy — definition must be understood.’ (McFee 1992;18) In terms of Dance I can understand why some people just turn up, complete a performance and then go home. There is so much more to that in every aspect of the dance repertoire, and as a performer myself I know that for any piece that I was performing it was important for me to understand if there was any particular character that I needed to be portraying and tell a story though the use of dance rather than speech which I think some find difficult to grasp. As a professional I certainly agree with McFee in that you must understand what you are defining in order to have accuracy. Taking it from another view, teaching something that I do not understand to a classroom full of students would be unacceptable and most would agree with this, but do we believe that every profession needs to have this take on it? Dance is an expressive art and some would argue that they turn up to a class not knowing what they are going to be doing but just want to find that sense of release from their own personal life, and taking this along with other situations into consideration can possibly help you be versatile as a professional.

Linking experiences and feeling full engagement in what you are doing can arguably make someone fit in, and become part of society. John Dewey (1934 art as experience) research focuses on exactly that, and has highlighted this importance to use reflective thinking into your own professional practice. Experiences happen through life, as you grow older you do naturally feel more experienced and knowledgeable. This can of course depend on how you as a person react and if you are willing to take on new experiences and feel full engagement. Individuals with a higher education may adapt to this more than those without this type of upbringing. In terms of dance, having gone to my local dance school since the age of 3, it became second nature that 3 evenings after school I would be taken to dancing for a couple of hours. This helped me gain new skills, new friends and most importantly it was something I began to fall in love with. If you have a passion for something at a young age it does begin to shine through and you learn that the subject with always draw your full attention in which in turn can lead to success in the future. As I reflect back now I can see how Dewey’s theory became important to me only now when reflecting back. Having used dance as a continuum in my life would play a major part in this as I can now understand how taking those dance classes seriously and feeling the will to learn and progress, has played importance now in my reflective practise on others that I now teach.

Many scientists that I have come across during my research have originally studied in one subject but have found themselves exploring other areas. For example, Kurt Lewin studied medicine but became famous for his analysis on social change. I found this interesting as the diagram is very self explanatory and shows how it became a building foundation for the Environmental Learning Theory (ELT).
The diagram shows 3 different stages that occur when change happens, Change is a very dangerous subject because many people hate change and other thrive off it, but in todays world and society change is happening all the time. My favourite understanding of this theory was something I found online from a website called mindtools.com. It explained the theory as so;

If you have a large cube of ice, but realise that what you want is a cone of ice, what do you do? First you must melt the ice to make it amenable to change (unfreeze). Then you must mold the iced water into the shape you want (change). Finally, you must solidify the new shape (refreeze).

By looking at change as process with distinct stages, you can prepare yourself for what is coming and make a plan to manage the transition – looking before you leap, so to speak. All too often, people go into change blindly, causing much unnecessary turmoil and chaos.
To begin any successful change process, you must first start by understanding why the change must take place. As Lewin put it, "Motivation for change must be generated before change can occur. One must be helped to re-examine many cherished assumptions about oneself and one's relations to others." This is the unfreezing stage from which change begins.

My experiences of dancing aboard the cruise ships feels very familiar to this theory. Nearly every week we would have a dancer go down sick or with an injury due to the intensity of the work and shows. Having to re-block a whole show in a matter of 30 minutes sometimes became a regular occurrence and the sheer panic would just add to the adrenaline when it was curtain up! The 1st freeze stage would be to realise what you have to do to make the dance number work -if it was a group number for example re shuffle the staging so that it wouldn’t look odd. 2nd change stage would be executing the intended change so making sure you understand where you new place may be on the stage during that number, and the 3rd stage being refreeze would be making sure this change becomes permanent in everyones minds and ensure that no-one can go wrong!

Using Kolbs leaning cycle has made me realise what areas of my life have allowed me to enter the cycle at different stages. Dancing aboard the cruise ships started off with a very gruelling month of rehearsals whereby we had to learn 4 shows that were 1 hour long each. Every night we had to attend the shows to watch the old cast perform and this was a tool for us to use for learning, therefore the Observation/Reflection stage would be where I entered. Training professionally to teach Pilates I had to learn many more skills which involved a more personal approach to individuals, correction and finding out so much about different postures which I didn't know existed and more importantly finding out that I can help them would allow me to plan and try out what I had learnt on other people so I would enter the cycle at the Active/Experimental stage for this area of my profession.
Concluding what I have found out personally is that I have had to adapt what I a learning to how I am going to be portraying it — wether it be as a teacher or as a performer as both can show similar qualities but using Klobs cycle opened my eyes into how the point at whereby you start to learn and find meaning to your subject is the point of your entry. This is a fantastic tool for reflection as Klob stated ‘“Learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience” (Kolb, 1984, p. 38).

References;

www.mindtools.com

Reader 2 Middlesex university (2004)

Dewey John 1934 Art as experience

Mc Fee (1992:18)

Klob (1984, p.38)

Thoughts on British Dance Training

Saw this on my friends Facebook page and wanted to share this with you all!

http://new-adventures.net/news/our-thoughts-on-british-dance-training

Matthew Bourne

Just a quick one to say that i recently went to see Matthew Bourne's production of Edward Scissor Hands, and it was phenomenal. From the set, costumes, lighting to the amazing cast and of course exquisite choreography I went away dancing into my dreams....!

It was a touring show and I saw it in southampton so if you see it in your local theatre I highly highly recommend it!

Task 2b; Reflective writing

So after a few weeks of writing in my journal I have tried out a few of the different ways of writing out my experiences which were listed in our handbook and wanted to share with you all what I felt worked best for me.
This task I enjoyed as it was a way of finding out how just a way of writing something can differ with the same content. 

Description;
I found this way of writing came quite naturally to me and I didn't have to think about it very much. Stating the events of my day, the time, the place is what I had already used when starting out on the journal writing task. This way works well as it is straight forward and to the point. I do however tend to go off on a tangent as I write, its amazing how much happens in a day! As I took each of these styles of writing on during one week I thought that description would be my favourite and most easy to come to terms with, however I think my mind will be swayed now!

Initial Reflection;
This type of writing I found initially quite hard. As I put my pen to my paper I felt I was thinking more about what to write, rather than just writing about my day. Reflection on my day or week began to feel very therapeutic and made me realise that I had either achieved something that day/week or there were challenging moments which I know I have learnt from. Not having the chance to write experiences down is something that most people are victims of, however from this type of writing I felt I began to learn more about me as a person in my everyday life whether it be as a wife, teacher, or a friend. When writing just a normal journal - like a description style of writing I didn't actually focus on how I was feeling when issues may had arisen. It most definitely brought a more emotional side to my writing and when you compare the styles, the initial reflection shows more strength and power than the other which I found interesting. 

List;
This style stood out for me in a big way because I LOVE LIST's! I can't love without them! However, when it came to writing about my day it was certainly different to when write about what I need to put in my suitcase for my sunny holiday! So surprisingly I didn't really enjoy this style of writing, it was like I hadn't written enough and it was a rushed way of thinking. I can see why some people would love this as it is a quicker way of making a journal about your day, thoughts, whats bothered you etc - but just wasn't for me. I took a look at the website www.listography.com and I was amazed! Such an insight and this showed me how people love this list format and obviously works well for them. Definitely worth checking it out before or even after writing in this style.

Evaluation;
I found that when I was writing an evaluation of my day it almost felt quite similar to the initial reflection, however when reading it back and comparing the two, it was apparent how different my way of writing was. I did find it difficult to evaluate in detail about my day, I was writing about a typical day for me and unfortunately it didn't really pull out any interesting feelings as I wanted to focus more on what had worked well in the day and what maybe hadn't worked so well. I didn't really talk much about my feelings which I know isn't what journal writing it about but this is what I think i found the hardest part about this style of writing.

Graphs, charts and diagrams;
I am usually better with visuals as I have mentioned in my previous blogs so experimenting with this style was exciting. I personally wouldn't choose to use this way every day as it was quite time consuming, however I did choose the graph option out of the 3 and used my computer to devise this. I was more worried about making it pretty than the actual content! I did find it interesting to look at as I used a yearly plan and divided into sections of my work life and social life. It did show significant differences within my years and as I have got older how much more my work life increased and social slightly decreased! I think this style is something worth doing at the end of every year and a great way of comparing the previous years. Looking at if you set yourself a goal to go on more holidays that the previous year you can visually see this etc. I enjoyed this but like I said not something I would probably use on a regular occasion.

What if?;
Unfortunately I am a big 'What if' person, and I say unfortunately as I think this is sometimes a bad attribute to have. When something happens I will normally 10/10 ask ' oh but what if i did this, or that instead maybe that wouldn't have happened' etc. But I do get reminded daily by my husband and parents that I have to just get on with it and deal with the situation that may have come up. However, when reading the description of this style in the handbook I saw a completely different approach to it. Dream big? What would you LOVE to happen? Imagination is an amazing thing and when you get going you almost can't stop! I actually loved this style as I started to think about dreams that I may have had and that may never happen but it was fun to think about them again. In relation to a journal I used this style in a sense of realistic and non realistic - what could happen and what may happen in a few weeks, years! This way when l come to looking back at my journal in years to come, some of my thoughts may have even come true! I found it fun and engaging to write this way.

Another view;
This style of writing was interesting but not something I would maybe do again. I chose to become my mobile phone for the day. It was very active but didn't really give me a chance to  write much about my day as it didn't see much of it. I liked the different approach to this writing and found it artist in many ways as I most definitely had to think about it more than the other types of writing. 


As an overview of all of them, I enjoyed the initial reflection and what if the most enjoyable styles of writing. I found out a lot about how just the different ways of writing can explore so much and how I learnt more about myself within that.
I look forward to hearing your thoughts on my blog on this subject,

S x