Mary’s Thoughts …

Reflection on Preparation for Practice: An Evaluation Statement for Bernadette Meechan

At the start of our co-mentoring dialogue, which began at the end of August 2010, I referred to the issue discussed by Perkins:  “education always has to ask what can be done to make challenging knowledge and practices accessible…” (Perkins, D. [2009] Making Learning Whole, p.3) I also offered my own reflective question “how can I work with students to enhance their capacity as co-creators of knowledge through shared reflective practice and collaborative documentation of work, enabling them to illuminate the power of music to enrich community groups through their creative practice?” as a question to underpin and to guide the ongoing initiative to reform the community music curriculum and to develop the Music Matters wiki as a shared learning resource.

Bernadette, in response to your request for an evaluation of your contribution as a stakeholder in the CM1 Unit, Preparation for Practice, I am writing with these statements in mind to guide my reflections. I have also tried to identify issues emerging from your reflective journal entries and from our dialogue to highlight the challenges of your learning journey in PGCHE4. 

Role as a stakeholder: In inviting you to become a stakeholder in Preparation for Practice, I thought you had particular knowledge, skills and strengths to offer within the redesign process to make the music technology (Sibelius, use of mobile recording devices, Audacity) that is essential both for preparation of materials and for the documentation of practice more accessible to the CM1 students.

 In becoming a stakeholder as a temporary member of the Community Music staff team, you faced particular issues which you identified in our dialogue and in your journal:

• §  feeling unsure of your role in relation to the students and accepting your role as a tutor in a Higher Education setting, while still feeling like a student yourself;
• §  feeling overwhelmed by the task in hand and so possible not allowing yourself to enter fully into the joy, inspiration and stimulation arising from the teaching experience;
• struggling with the timing concepts of materials completion and deadlines… and the sheer fact that everything is packed into such small time frames.
• when coming to reflection, only seeing the negative points that went wrong

 

You demonstrated courage and tenacity in accepting the team-teaching opportunity within the CM1 Preparation for Practice Unit to deliver a piece of work within a very constricted timeframe. You had to familiarise yourself with the RSAMD Community Music curriculum and define your work with students in Higher Education, taking you beyond your comfort zone as a teacher whilst coping with the pressures and demands imposed by PGCHE4. While you may have been unsure of your role and overwhelmed – particularly at the beginning of your project, you did not let this prevent you from persisting in tackling the tasks in hand and supporting the CM1 students to gain a greater proficiency in their use of music technology. This is greatly to your credit.

Time Management Issues and Students’ Achievement: As you noted in your journal, teaching in Community Music at RSAMD is inevitably packed into small time frames. This is always both a frustration and a challenge. As teachers, we have to strive to make materials available to students timeously, and to empower them to use these materials to direct their own learning. You needed at times to be more organised in your preparation of explanatory materials and handouts to assist the students in tasks set.

However, this did not prevent the students from achieving success in learning how to use the technologies in question. Although there may have been varying degrees of resistance and frustration, the students have shown resourcefulness in working to support one another and in the sharing of the workload to prepare their materials and to document their practice. This demonstrates that you were able to motivate them to learn effectively and to pinpoint areas where their learning experience could be improved.

 Research questions:

• To what extent has the project enabled students to develop the technological and e-learning skills needed to use selected software programmes and mobile applications to prepare for their community practice and documentation of their work? 

 

• What is the overall effect of the project on the way participants apply their technological and e-learning skills both in their reflective analysis and collaborative documentation of learning and work experience within the RSAMD Community Music Community of Practice? 

With reference to your research questions, and taking account of the students’ assessment and evaluation of their learning combined with evidence on the Music Matters wiki (which is still work in progress), you have achieved very positive results. I hope you will be able to summarise these results effectively in your evaluation report and in any final reflections in your journal.

Satisfaction in Learning and Teaching: In your journal entry, Placement Commencement Friday 22^nd October 2010 – Woodside Nursery Class, posted on 26^th October 2010, you highlight the importance of enjoying learning for what it is. I hope once the pressure of fulfilling the requirements of PGCHE4 has passed, that you will derive joy and satisfaction from your learning journey and from witnessing the students’ growth as learners and practitioners.

Reflection and Co-Mentoring Dialogue: I had hoped for more consistent reflection on your work, both in your journal and in our co-mentoring dialogue. And I hoped as well that you might have contributed some materials to the Music Matters wiki. As I indicated in my entry to our dialogue on 24^th October 2010, your slideshow prepared for the initial placement session at Woodside Nursery School was particularly effective and I asked if this could be posted on the wiki with a soundtrack. So far you have not followed up on this. While this is disappointing, I hope you may still make the time to do this once your portfolio of materials has been submitted.

In your final contribution to the Co-Mentoring Dialogue, you have raised many interesting issues. I have tried, but so far failed, to post a response to this on Mahara. So I include it as a postscript to this evaluative statement, to encourage you to explore these ideas further. If you take up the challenge, on completion of your PG Cert, to explore and research issues which interest you in this way, you will be able to continue your learning journey along whichever path you choose.

Thank you for the time and effort you have given to Community Music at RSAMD, and for your contribution to the redesign of CM1.

I wish you very well in the future

 Mary Troup

RSAMD Community Music Co-ordinator

 

16^th January 2011

 

I am in awe of Mary … I did not think that I contributed so much to so many people during my time at RSAMD. I was wrong. I feel that I have contributed in a way which has been beneficial for both the CM1 cohort and myself in a way that has not touched my life in some time. A pesonal reflection I know, but Cowan stated that reflection for, in and ofaction is necessary and I feel that I must reflect on this apraisal by a major stakeholder in my PGCert life.

Mary is my friend and will slways be an inspiration to keep me moving through life now in a positive flow structure, She has ignited in me a passion again for teaching that left in an abrupt manner. I feel inspired by her writing, her thoughts, her support and most iportantly her guidance in my life during and most likely through my continued teaching practice for many years now to come.

Mary wrote a little song for the Diwali Festival of Lights for WoodsideNursery class for Friday 1st November 2010 which can be accessed through the Mahara Pgc4 Woodisde File site. In this song she says:

Light a Little Candle

Let it Shine

Light up your life and light up mine

Light a little candle 

Shining bright

Fill the world with shining lights 

 Mary has certainly lit a little candle in me and I will carry it always with great pride, focus, energy and most of all love from a community of practice which I feel I belong to with open arms within this world.